I love You

On Valentine’s Day, the mental health charity “ Calm” shared some important research. 

In it, they found that nearly half of men never say “ I love You” to a friend.

The research,co funded by a brewery company,  didn’t make it clear that they were talking about male/male relationships exclusively ( I suspect men find it easier to tell a female friend that they love them, and visa versa) but I liked the initiative championed in The Guardian last week, to tell a friend that you love them.❤️

I’ve been reflecting on my own ability to tell my own male friends that I love them, and tonight, as I was quietly sitting with a patient in the wee small hours, I listed my closest male friends and tried to remember if I had shared this simple but vital piece of information with them

Mike, Colin, John H, Nigel, Ben, Marcus, Jim,Mick

Four I had shared my feelings for, sometimes after a drink mind you and four I hadn’t. 

But this simple exercise got me to thinking of my female friends , and family, and people who I may not love per se, but whom I think of fondly and with affection.

How many people do we properly share our feelings with?

Answers on a postcard please

 

Cinema is Home

 My old friend deserved a visit today and yesterday

I’ve missed him of late.

I fell asleep in both visits but only for a moment as I enjoyed one version more than the other.

My old friend is the cinema .

He has been my friend for sixty years.

Yesterday a friend and I went to see the caper movie Crime 101

Slow to start it was a modern day mixture of  Steve Mc Queen’s Bullet with a moody Chris Hemsworth as a psychologically damaged but redeemable thief and The Thomas Crown Affair with Halle Berry in the Faye Dunaway/ Rene Russo role. 

Looking fabulous Berry at 59. ( playing 53) is back on form as an insurance broker for the rich and her storyline of being overlooked by her male boss because of her age and sex is a clear side swipe to the producers in Hollywood. 

I enjoyed this slick and polished drama more than Is This Switched On ? A muddled and uneven drama comedy that follows the unlikely story of unhappy forty something Will Arnett who suddenly finds stand up comedy as therapy to process his marriage break down with Laura Dern

This drama was ok…not great but ok, but I was glad to be back at theatre Clwyd’s newly refurbished cinema, an arthouse cinema who kept my head above water for many a year.

My sister Janet came with me tonight, and it was lovely to see the theatre so vibrant, what with the new restaurant run by Bryn Williams centre stage in the centre of it.

Wales has culture and I’m grateful it’s only 20 minutes from home 

Bryn Williams 

The cinema 

Dancing Queen

 I’m on the way out to meet a friend for a late lunch then the cinema 

So I will leave you today with the lisping choir on its best of forms.

The energy in this piece is wonderfully catching

Its made my day

History Talk

Ma Manley gave her animated history talk to the Trelawnyd Friendship Group this afternoon. We recruited a few people to add stories to my oral history blog and a few more seemed interested in the tapestry initiative. 

In her mid eighties animal Helper Pat showed a forensic memory of who lived where in the 1930s, we are going to have a Miss Marple afternoon with her with the tithe map.

It’s terribly cold today, the ponies are steaming as they eat their haylege and not one of the friendship Group removed their coats in the hall.

 

Not my first rodeo

 

Mary and her latest Trendy Carol’s Jumper

The plans for taking on another Bulldog have elicited some debate and trolling recently, most have concerns about Mary’s welfare, but a few have worried about Weaver and Bun. 

All have a point.

I have to underline , that I am a fair expert when it comes to introducing a new dog to an existing pack of animals. So far I have owned four bulldogs, five cats, 2 Scottie’s and five Welsh terriers and with no exception have I experienced a serious integration problem with any of them. 

That doesn’t mean you don’t have to be careful, obviously you do , but you have to manage the troops with a pragmatic, dog based hand.

You certainly don’t treat dogs like little people.

Old dogs like Mary will invariably give off their own leave me alone vibes, especially to puppies who often don’t and can’t read the room when it comes to manners. Olive is four years old and already comes from her own pack with its own rules and regulations. She is not an alpha female either and has the benefit of being a bulldog . 

Bulldogs are smart too. They understand concepts missed by other mutts. 

When a lesson is learned , it remains learnt, so to speak.

Constance, Mabel, Winifred and Dorothy have all exhibited this strength of character, I doubt Olive will be any different. 

Jealously and food envy can be the biggest of irritations and both can be dealt with by common sense and reading body language . Feeding must always be done individually.

Home must be a calm place too, where all members of the pack understand that you are the alpha and the chasing of small cats is a thing just not tolerated.

Like I said, I’ve never had a problem yet

But you never know……

Skating

 I’m not a sports fan but I did enjoy Riki Miura and Rycichi Kihara’s gold medal performance in the Olympic figure skating yesterday. 

Effortless.

I met a friend and we ate ice cream and gossiped in Fortes ice cream parlour in Llandudno, even though it was only 4 degrees and lit the fire early when I got home then watched Hitchcock’s Notorious 

Soft Noses

 I’ve done self care things today and took an annual leave day from work 

I walked over to the ponies and breathed up their soft noses for an age. 

They smell of straw and oats and earth and have trusting soft brown eyes.

I’ve video messaged my German friend over coffee 

And ate Marks & Spencer tomato soup with garlic bread in front of the fire. and watched documentaries on film directors

I walked the dogs and completed housework and soaked my feel in a washing up bowl filled with incredibly hot water and Epsom salts.

And it’s been a nice day

Tapestry Cottages

 I’m cooking a roast chicken dinner today. There’s enough for two so I will plate up a dinner for a friend in the village. 

The cottage smells wonderful. 

I’ve just spent a good hour with Ma Manley. We are planning a history afternoon in the village hall, in order to spring board a couple of initiatives dear to our hearts. 

The first is to promote the sharing of information and artefacts from Trelawnyd but to also whip up some interesting in the Community Tapestry where people from the village can design their own tapestry of say their home, or part of the village, or landmark and when finished, these personal views can be cobbled together into a community piece of art.

I love this idea, so Ma Manley is going to design me a template of my cottage, and by the time the open day is organised, I will have a work in progress to show everyone 

Ps the ponies are back in their field