Muffin before dawn

Another pre dawn post
This time in Llandudno just before work

Things are always better after a sausage and egg Mcmuffin and a strong coffee

Two Words

It's a good hour before dawn and I'm sipping strong sweet coffee at the kitchen table
It's a work day.
..and I've just re read some emails from yesterday...
The day out with my sister overshadowed real life...it was fun....
One email was from my solicitor who informed me that my decree nisi had been legally pronounced on the 3rd of October
The cottage was quiet save for bulldog snoring from bedroom and sofa
And in the quiet ,
You realise that there is nothing more lonely than an early morning before light

I've just had a good long cry. 

Amélie & Fucking Cat City

One of my all time favourite movies is Amélie 
I adore it.
It's my go to movie, when I need a sob and a smile.

Today my sister Janet and I went to Liverpool to see the new musical version of the Jean Pierre Juneau classic and surprisingly it was almost as charming and sweet as I remember the film was.
With all of Amélie's Montmartre friends on stage at any one time, the extraordinary talented cast play a selection of instruments to accompany the songs which more or less exactly follows the film's plot to the letter, and I must admit Audrey Brisson gave the Queen Audrey Tautou a run for her money in the title role.
The famous kissing scene where Amélie finally meets the geeky Nino ( Chris Jared) had the whole theatre audience holding its breath and was just as tear jerking as it was on film.
I cried buckets.
It was quite quirky, innovative and charming
It was also quite lovely

Audrey Brisson & Chris Jared

The original kiss

Twins in the theatre

Afterwards we did some shopping at John Lewis ( new cutlery for me) then went to the Cat Cafe for tea! Now the cat cafe is not quite my cup of tea, but It WAS an experience to be sure.
Set on three floors on Bold Street it is a cafe that is the home to 17 pedigree free roaming  cats.
A minute after a rather impressive caramel cake and flat white arrived, so did the cats, arseholes winking in my face nicely as they climbed quite merrily over every surface in search of a lick of cream

Everywhere I looked there was a fucking cat! 

I know ...duh.......

The cat cafe !

I'm lucky to have sisters I enjoy the company of !!

Downton & Roses

Finally Barrow Snogs the royal Butler

 Downtown Abbey has perhaps thirty characters of any note. Add to the mix four Royals, two far distant family members and a gaggle of half a dozen Royal aides and flunkies and you have forty people to juggle on screen.
A near impossible job to be done in just two tight hours I would have thought.....and my thoughts proved to be right as the story galloped away with itself as the likes of Mr Bates, Mrs Crawley, Mrs Hughes and Lord and Lady Grantham just stand around in the background and mutter a few hastily edited lines on screen.
Anna ( Joanne Froggatt) Branson ( Allen Leech) and Lady Violet ( A frail looking Maggie Smith still providing the best one liners) fare better with more screen time but it does feel all a bit of a rush as the movie throws a Royal Visit, pregnancy, an inheritance question, an assassination attempt! and  an Ealing Comedy-esque understairs mutiny into the mix before hinting at a gay romance for Thomas Barrow ( Robert James-Collier) after he gets caught in a Gay Nightclub in York ( more than I ever did when I lived there!)
As a piece of cinema , it's all a bit of a mess.....but having said this, the whole production is so infused with good humour and affection for its characters, I finally found myself enjoying it, especially the bits where Anna leads the Downton mutiny against the Royal servants and Smith's bravura handing-over-the-reins to the sullen Lady Mary in what turned out to be a rather moving finale as the whole upstairs cast waltz colourfully past the camera.

I got home later afternoon to a package delivered much earlier
Whoever sent me a lovely bunch of yellow roses

Thank you
Xx

Mouldy Old Pongos!!

I need to drum up some interest in the concert our choir is supporting on the 2nd Of November.
The Rivers are described as a Groove Driven contemporary Acapella choir of some note and they will be performing a one off concert at our village hall in Trelawnyd on the 2nd !
They will be supported ( briefly) by our Gwaenysgor Community Choir who can be described as an eclectic group of mouldy old pongos ! 
Tickets can be bought on the door  or at the following link
click here for link to buy tickets

We look forward in seeing you there

Henry

Unlike most Gay men
I've never really fancied young twinks
But Henry from The Great British Bake Off
Was an absolute sweetie!
I thought he is adorable
And sadly Voted off today...I shall miss him dreadfully

" Daddy ......my Daddy"

" Have you got kids?" my colleague asked .
We were talking about my divorce and subsequent  return to work
"No I had a husband" I said thinking she had originally misheard me
" I know , you said , I just wondered if you had children?" She replied
A silly presumption on my part, I realised all too late
" You look the type to have children " she added.

" What type is that?" I asked her curiously
" Jolly and warm " came the reply
In my book jolly and warm are euphemisms for large 
But I took it as a complement

Working in a hospice invariably leads one to think about family.
Family dynamics, family love, family ties.
But Family woes, family spats and family problems lie just under the surface
As we all know, death brings out the best and the worst in people

I bought a pumpkin today.
It's a tradition I've always done living here in Wales.
I remember one year when the Randa girls came around after school  to disembowel one ready for carving
It was such a joyous event , full of squeals and acting and false vomits over the drainage board.
And as they chatted, and included me in their day dreams and silly talk, I found myself fantasising about how cool it would have been to be a father

I talked to two grown up daughters at work the other day
Daughters who felt useless and helpless at their father's bedside
" You're here !" I told them....." You're here........that's all that matters!"
I think they understood

20 Years

Tv series I have followed

1960s- 1970s
Land Of The Giants
Thunderbirds
Peyton  Place
Coronation Street
Farmhouse kitchen
Space 1999
Survivors
The Tomorrow People
Starsky And Hutch
Charlie's Angels
Banana Splits


1980s-1990s
Tenko
Ally Mc Beal
Sex and the City
Tales of the city
Victoria Wood as seen on Tv
Paint Along With Nancy
Prime Suspect
It's a knockout
ER
Hill Street Blues
Call my Bluff
The last Train


2000-2019

Man In Orange Shirt
The Walking Dead
Miranda
Taskmaster
The Great British Bake Off
Hinterland ( Welsh cop show)

Sunday

I've got today off.
It's a drab, grey kind of Sunday and I'm cooking a Sunday lunch for a couple of village friends.
Roast chicken, roast potatoes, leeks, carrots, homemade stuffing and onion gravy.
It's nice to be preparing a proper meal again and the dogs have caught up with my activity and are all a bit excited by it
I bought cheap white cheerful chrysanthemums and dotted glass jugs of them around the cottage

I've lit the log burner too and aim to watch some long overdue unseen films throughout the afternoon.

I bought a new limited edition print the other day
A bright colourful Welsh woman by Ruth Jên
All is fine

Friends

My very own Bel Ami 

I've caught up with several friends by phone and FaceTime the last couple of days
And I've felt the benefit of that contact
I've felt the benefit of warmth , and affection and of good humour
I've felt the benefit of a waspish comment and a joke over a Welsh Love Spoon
I've felt loved and I've felt supported
And I am lucky to have them, standing in the wings of my life
They are Just like Thelma Ritter in All about Eve

One Crazy Bitch

It's official
I AM A SLUT 

Now  I am referring to the archaic meaning of the word which, as memory serves, defines slut as being an unkempt slovenly woman and not a tart whose knees are behind her ears!

I've had a lie in!
Ok I got up at 7am and walked the dogs, but shortly after we all crept back into bed for a smelly  PJ lie in!
A lie in! I have not had a proper , teenage , fuck-the -word lie in till 11 am since Noah was a boy!
I got up at 11am and made eggs on toast
Then WENT BACK TO BED AGAIN!!!!
I'm one crazy bitch !!

The dogs don't know quite what to make of this behaviour and are watching me carefully through narrowed eyes.....
I have one more hour to go before I go in to work for a half day late shift!
And so I'm going to drink a bucket of coffee in bed and watch YouTube videos of Chris Pratt with his top off!

Guilt pleasures anyone?