She died yesterday ….🙀
On The Sea
Set along the coast at Menai Straights, On The Sea is the very first gay Welsh film, I can remember seeing ever! It’s a serious, slightly bleak but surprisingly tender film, by writer/ director Helen Walsh who tells the story of middle aged Jack ( Barry Ward) who is a mussel fisherman feeling his age in a family business dominated by his boorish brother (Celyn Jones)
Jack is a kind man, who worries about his slightly wayward teenage son ( Henry Lawfell) he has been with his wife (Liz White) since they were 16 and has never left Wales, but it is clear that he is quietly attracted to the Scottish deckhand Dan ( Lorne MacFadyen) the single crewman of his friend fisherman Bernie ( Danny Webb) and they embark on a secret affair which is complicated by Jack’s health issues, and the tight knit Welsh community’s reaction to gossip.
There is little humour in this story and the cinematography by Sam Goldie is muted, and strangely devoid of colour save for one memorable scene where the two men are happy together on a sunlit trawler trip in the sea east of Anglesey .
Barry Ward is impressive in the lead role. And while Closeted and conflicted gay characters are not rare in cinema ,he makes Jack a complicated and sympathetic soul with his scenes with MacFadyen passionate and movingly tender.
The Finlay Memorial Cup
Today is the first day of my holiday from the hospice.
I’ve kind of wasted the day making mental to do lists, but on the positive side, I’ve also made a chicken and leek stew which I ate with some relish. Roger had a haircut and the stew leftovers
Mary has a gippy tum , so had chicken and rice.
I’ve had to shampoo the bedroom carpet 💩💨..poor old gal
The First of the flower Show trophies was delivered home today.
It’s the Finlay Memorial Cup a solid silver cup of good style and value
Seeing the cup again, prompted me to clean his headstone, tucked away by the agapanthus in the front garden
And I will share this blog entry and memory of Finlay from 24 years ago
“
A Happy Dog
I was reading Yorkshire Pud's blog last night and was reminded of an area in Sheffield I used to know very well. YP rented an allotment off Hagg Hill, which was the back road between the surburbs of Crooks and Walkley and Rivlin Valley which led into Hillsborough.
At rush hour these essentially country roads were often gridlocked with commuters so the usual five minute journey across the valley could take a frustrating half hour or so.
Back in 2002, we had only one dog, a bouncy, lively Welsh Terrier called Finlay.
Finlay loved Traffic jams , for it was the only time he was " allowed" to drive the car.
Ok when I say drive the car, he used to sit on my knee with his paws on the steering wheel and his head sometimes out of an open window, a position of power where he could watch the world move slowly by as we edged our way through the traffic home.
His happiness of this simple little treat always made my day.
On one of these treat days, We were spotted by the traffic police. I never saw the policecar behind me, so the sharp knock on the window threw me slightly
I wound down the window fully and Finlay stuck his head out to say hello to a slightly amused policeman
" What are you doing? " the policeman asked as Finlay smiled broadly at him with big goo goo eyes.
" He likes to drive" I said lamely
" Has he past his test?" The policeman asked
" well no but , I do the peddles for him " I tried to be funny
" In the back" the policeman ordered with a smile, and before he walked back to his car he kissed a very happy Finlay very gently on the head.”
At rush hour these essentially country roads were often gridlocked with commuters so the usual five minute journey across the valley could take a frustrating half hour or so.
Back in 2002, we had only one dog, a bouncy, lively Welsh Terrier called Finlay.
Finlay loved Traffic jams , for it was the only time he was " allowed" to drive the car.
Ok when I say drive the car, he used to sit on my knee with his paws on the steering wheel and his head sometimes out of an open window, a position of power where he could watch the world move slowly by as we edged our way through the traffic home.
His happiness of this simple little treat always made my day.
On one of these treat days, We were spotted by the traffic police. I never saw the policecar behind me, so the sharp knock on the window threw me slightly
I wound down the window fully and Finlay stuck his head out to say hello to a slightly amused policeman
" What are you doing? " the policeman asked as Finlay smiled broadly at him with big goo goo eyes.
" He likes to drive" I said lamely
" Has he past his test?" The policeman asked
" well no but , I do the peddles for him " I tried to be funny
" In the back" the policeman ordered with a smile, and before he walked back to his car he kissed a very happy Finlay very gently on the head.”
Finlay leading the charge with Meg and George
The End Of Oak Street
Set in an American Small town Suburb in 1982, this dino thriller is clearly a homage to Spielberg’s ET and Poltergeist as well as the obvious nod to Jurassic Park. The Platt family ( Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor) have a troubled marriage. Daughter Audrey (Maisie Stella) is finding her way before college and son Brian ( Christian Convery) worries about his parents and is bullied by local boys .
The family dog Starbuck makes up the family.
Suddenly a large circle of the neighbourhood is inexplicably transported into prehistoric times, and the family has to band together in order to survive the resulting dinosaur threats.
It’s a daft film, which entertains but doesn’t quite thrill.
David Robert Mitchell wisely makes the family fallible. Closet lesbian Audrey hides in the garage to gain solace from the Steve Winwood song Valerie, Brian’s only injury comes from an encounter with the bully and father Greg wears some unforgivably nasty shorts and boring white y fronts
The dinosaurs too are not quite Spielberg. We have slightly unbelievable. giant snakes, copulating herbivores being photographed by Hathaway( the most amusing moment in the entire film) , and quick moving crocodile lizards who know how to break into houses
Does the dog survive ?
I can’t possibly say
Help
On the way to work last night, my phone screamed out the emergency text message .
It’s a creepy sound.
Foreboding,
I was driving so couldn’t look at the screen
Nuclear war ? The zombie apocalypse ?
Trump ?
When I pulled up at the hospice
The emergency screen said this
My Welsh isn’t that good
But even I could tell it’s a fire warning
Ecipse
Jenny from the village , is celebrating the eclipse in her own inimitable way.
I sat myself by the kitchen wall as the skies dimmed and The Archer’s theme bounced away
Dum de dum de dum de Dee
Things That Go Bump In The Night
Just after four thirty this morning I found myself suddenly wide awake.
Had there been a crash ?
Or had I been dreaming?
I lay in bed for a while.
Mary was asleep , curled up on my right side. Bun next to her.
Bun was awake and her head was up listening.
I gathered my urology piping and went to investigate
Weaver was sat on my desk, with her eyes to the ceiling.
I could swear that she was whistling
Lying smashed in the inglenook fireplace was my gargoyle
His decapitated head in the centre of the hearth rug.
When Weaver was a kitten , she would often hiss at the gargoyle’s angry face as he sat quietly watching the room. She wasn’t keen on my dinosaur pottery figure either and even the stuffed dog toy I bought in Kenmare when I visited Nu had been spat at and cuffed as he sat in his box behind the sofa
I flicked two fingers up at Weaver who was pretending to ignore me and placed the gargoyle’s head on the mantlepiece
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