A Musical Break

What does it make you think of?

Auntie Glad is 99

At yesterday's meeting we had a salute to Auntie Glad
She was 99 years old
This is the Facebook entry from the village choir's visit with her
The old broad will reach her 100!

"Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir added 3 new photos.

10 hrs · 

Penblwydd Hapus iawn Anti Glad!...Gladys Jones is 99 yrs young today and choir members gathered at the Prestatyn Care Home this morning to pay tribute and share this Special occasion with her. In the presence of members of her family, Gladys was presented with a framed certificate in recognition of her wonderful support & service to the choir and also a personalised wooden frame with a 1973 photo of senior members that included her late husband Bob 'Railway' Jones. With Ceinwen at the keyboard, the choir sang Happy Birthday and a few other songs which she said 'made her day'. It was great to see her happy and smiling, she is bright, charming and wonderful. Her lifestyle and clean living is the reason she has reached this wonderful age, our warmest wishes for a super day!...Côr Meibion Trelawnyd."

The Last Flower Show Meeting

Flower Show secretaries have to be multi skilled, thick skinned politicians who can sell sand to Arabs. I've inherited my sister's skills in that respect and like her, I ran a good show.

I worked alongside the powerhouse that was Sylvia Evans who ran The Trelawnyd Flower Show for more years than can be remembered and my easy manner and ability to get people to participate boosted entries considerably at a time when flower shows were not thought as sophisticated pastimes.

It was a valuable apprenticeship to be sure, and has been one I have enjoyed but as you all know with a move fairly imminent, it is now time to step down as Show secretary.

This morning I bought each of the committee a gift and a card . The ladies received a small posy of spring flowers. The gents silly gifts that echo their humour. Terry , for example received a new cake tin. ( he always battled and failed to beat my award winning boiled fruit cake.

My resignation has meant that the Flower Show committee will now fold. The commmittee has been a great one but all on it realise that the commitment in running such an event is a vast one. It's flattering , just a little, to realise that I am a hard act to follow, but it also very sad to think that the flower Show will end just shy of it's fiftieth anniversary.

So I gave my thanks to a wonderful set of despots

Matriarch Irene, animal helper Pat, Derek and Heulwen , the ever cheerful Ann and dry-as- toast Terry, oh and sailor John who never got flustered as committee treasurer.and soon I will chase up the members that were not able to make the meeting...namely Trendy Carol ( off having a trendy lunch with friends in a beige trouser suit and matching assessories ) and Meirion and Daphne who are away on holiday. I will drop their gifts off in due course.

I will also call to see Auntie Glad next week with her own bunch of flowers. She may not remember me too well but it was only two years ago when she opened the biggest and best show we had ever held in Trelawnyd, and she did so with an elegance and grace befitting the grand old dame that she is. 

I must  also pause here to thank the people who have supported the show over the years...The Evans' family, Eileen Jones' family and Christine Davis. The competitors past and present who have gone that extra mile to bring in their cakes , crafts ,flowers and vegetables and fruit for everyone to see and to enjoy. 

I will post a public thank you on the notice boards next week, and information of where the Show's savings will be spent will be shared with the village at a planned tea party in the village hall. The tea party will be an opportunity for the Show committee to say goodbye and will be open to all.. We 

intend to give almost all to it to village and local initiatives and charities

After all that's what the Show was designed for....to support the village and its people.

I'll leave you with a few photos of Shows past...

And Mary and I will now go for a nice long walk in the afternoon sunshine .

And again, I think I shall have a brief, but much needed weep.

My mother's embroidered tablecloths and flowers picked from the garden

The flower exhibits

Gladys preparing scones to be sold

She is 99 years old today x

Committee meetings around Auntie Glad's table

The trophies all polished on our mantelpiece 

The cookery classes

The novelty veg class proved popular

Naked

When I worked on spinal injuries I was one of two specialist nurses that dealt with erectile dysfunction issues of the male patients.
At that time one treatment was aprosadil, which is a drug that you can inject into the side of the penis.
When used correctly , the resulting " reaction" could be utilised for a good 45 minutes or so!- if you get my drift.
My job was to assess the need of various treatments, and to assess the right dosages when teaching the patients to administer the medication themselves. Subsequently I used to joke that I saw more penises in one day than an averagely busy prostitute !
The comment often broke the ice with certain bashful patients.

I tell you this as a bit of background colour. Only because I was literally caught with my pants down in the loo at fat club this morning. My fellow weightwatcher seemed nonplussed by the whole thing but I was mortified . I am not one that copes well with the thought of my own nudity even though I dealt with the nudity of others for years and years and years.

In the last twenty years only two people have ever seen me naked. the Prof , of course is one, my old friend and badminton partner Mike is the other.

I wish I was not so bashful......

The Walking Dead Finale

It's all over
And as always , for me, the peripheral characters made the drama
Peace now is the way forward in the zombie world
Ok ok I know Maggie and Daryl want Negan Dead( and their turnaround against team Rick offered the necessary conflict) but the saviour storyline is thankfully now over...to continue. It would have been madness.
So .....what did I like
I liked Jerry being the comic foil saying "shit" to the king
I liked Jadis ( Pollyanna Macintosh ) gently saying her name is Ann ( she is such a good actress)
And I liked Carol finally being mom and returning to Kingdom
Oh......and noting the gay vote.. I liked Alden (Callan Mc Auliffe) being all New York sexy
I will miss my geek Mondays .......( something the Prof will never understand)

Jadis (nee Ann) 

Alden' bum fluff

Jerry is a delight x

Well That's A First !

Last night I was moved by an episode of Antiques Roadshow
It's not a phrase I think anyone hears often.
What moved me was the story behind a box of children's treasures, a box from the 1940s when a poorly/ housebound little girl called Catherine amused herself by hiding clues around her home which would lead the future homeowner to a hiding place which contained her box of goodies. The goodies as it transpired were simple things, an ink pen, a spoon, a purse containing pennies - a favourite book but to the present house owner ( who found the clues some seventy years later) the treasure was a delight snap shot into the past
It moved me greatly.

When I was out with Mary on our power walk this morning, I tried to recall situations that had really moved me. Times which stung at the soul and will remain with me always .
Even though this list will ebb and flow depending on memory and insight  this is what I came up with

• Walking silently around a near deserted Theresienstadt concentration camp on a bright sunny day and shadowing a distraught former inmate and his family on their first pilgrimage to the Czech Republic from Israel .
• Watching Five middle aged sisters hold hands and sing their dying father's favourite hymn as I reduced the support of his ventilator settings.
• The " ghost hens " ( six fat broiler hens I rescued from a factory farm) emerging fearfully into sunlight for the first time where they sunbathed with a breeze in their faces and grass under their feet.
• Dancing on the roof of a Sheffield hospital with friends in the dark and feeling more alive than I thought possible
• Visiting my first dog Finlay at the animal hospital he was admitted to for the first time ( and thinking he would survive a condition that eventually killed him soon after ) 
• Seeing The Prof uncharacteristically smiling too much on the day of our wedding.

Yours? I be interested to know

The ghost hens 

23 hours

I'm a cross between this 

And this 

The finale of The Walking Dead  is only a day away!
However my friends in the US are just about to watch it !
For god's sake someone tell me what happens!

Mentors

The Prof has gone to have his second sailing lesson today.
He has an experienced sailing mentor.
I am sat at the kitchen table completing some mentoring paperwork.
I am a mentor to two Samaritans in training.
If you are fortunate you will have a whole succession of mentors during your lifetime.
Parents and grandparents are obvious mentors if you are lucky.
Role models that teach you to "do as I do and not do as I say"
Sadly for many the credo is the other way around in many families.
My father didn't really mentor me in the way of manly things. It wasn't quite done in our family. I always thought that you father was there to teach you about sex, how to shave properly and how to change a tyre on the car.
Mine did non of those things, but he did teach me to drive.
" Always anticipate the other road users to do something wrong" I remember him saying and his words have stuck with me to this day
Funnily enough I'm a crap driver too!

Flashing

for Liz

My husband has worked away all week. he returned last night and has gone to work again this morning.

Such is the life of a senior academic.

I shall be driving over to the University later to join him and the other boffins for dinner.

I have just spent a frustrating 30 minutes trying to get William to have his medication.

The old boy is a clever old sausage when it comes to spitting out tablets, I wanted to weed the flower beds in readiness for house showing......

I caught two middle aged women peeping through the kitchen window on the lane at lunchtime.

They were part of a rambler group.

Other people's houses hold a fascination for some people and they were having a right old "neb" until I suddenly walked around the side of the fridge

For some strange reason I found myself pulling up my third best walking dead T shirt and exposing  my stomach to them, which made them jump back in shock ( or could it be disgust?)

I've never done such a bizarre thing before in my life

thank goodness I had my pants on

Passport Review

I've just applied for a new passport .
It's all on line now ...even your photograph can be downloaded digitally from an appropriate photo booth.! Mine was in Tescos!
I compared my new photo with my old one this morning.
Vanity has prevented me from comparing the two here ....
My hair is now a salt and pepper grey, ten years ago it was a lusty brown
My beard now looks like a badger's head and my eyes look tired.
Where does the time go? So sang the statuesque Julia Fordham 
She's bloody right too.
Where does the time go?

I'm typing this on the train to Chester.
I've got things to do there...
I may go into our favourite cafe, to have a flat white
It's always full of bright young things
Hey ho

Lifestyle Rabbit

The estate agents are photographing the cottage this afternoon. They will arrive in a moments time
The dogs have been put safely away in the car and I've done the lifestyle thing and put fresh Aldi flowers in each room.
The place is clean and tidy.
Surfaces are clear.
And Albert's decapitated lunch of baby rabbit has been removed from its bloody pool outside the back door.