The Audience

Finally we got to see the NT production of  The Audience
It was the cinematic re run in a small Art Deco refurbished cinema in Colwyn Bay...and I must admit, I loved the much lauded production featuring Dame Helen Mirren .
Once you get passed a slight left wing bias from playwright Peter Morgan, The Audience is a wry and witty "look" at the Queen's weekly "audiences" with a selection of her Prime Ministers over a 60 year period.
As you may expect from the writer of The Queen, Helen Mirren's monarch is a sympathetic, multilayered and gloriously difficult character, who is always a match for her PMs who all come to her with a host of circular and recurrent problems of self doubt, failure  and political shenanigans.

A wonderful Richard McCabe

The Ministers with the possible exception of a " Royal acting" Thatcher ( a wonderful Hayden Gwynne) are given an interesting and original  slant . Gordon Brown ( Nathaniel Parker) is vulnerable and obviously depressed. John Major ( Paul Ritter) tearful and out of his depth and Harold Wilson ( Richard McCabe) is more Huddersfield than "ecky thump" it is his Northern Straight talking chauvinistic character that gives the play its heart, as we find out in the last few moments that out of her leaders, it is his old fashioned chutzpah that the Queen favours most above all of the others.

I enjoyed the play. Mirren's Queen is just how most of us would like to envisage her. Dedicated, steely, naturally funny and able to kick ass when the need arises.

8/10

In Your Own Skin

Sigh

Ben Cohen is a man who seems overly comfortable in his own skin. A former rugby player come anti homophobic and bullying advocate, he seems just as comfortable fighting for the the rights of the downtrodden as he does getting his kit off for the cameraman of some gay friendly magazine..
He is an inclusive man's man. is married, has children, probably has a cute dog and a gay best mate .
He also is clinically deaf and is not adverse in making a tit of himself. He is also one of the contestants in this year's Strictly Come Dancing
Much is written about the absence of good male role models in the lives of the disenchanted youth of the Uk. Often clean living sports heroes , such as our Olympic medal winners have been hiked up onto the role model pedestal as examples to the young, but in actual fact it is the likes of Ben Cohen, with his easy going acceptance of " all" who provides young and old with a template of how best to live your life alongside others.

http://www.standupfoundation.com/

Memory Lane

I went to the the vets this morning . The dogs have caught a bout of field mites. When I was waiting, I fell into conversation with a woman who was grateful for the fact that her kids aged 9 and 10 had finally gone back to school. Everyday she had organised something for them to do. Days out, activity afternoons, picnics, trips to museums, sports afternoons, summer school days.
Every minute she said had been organised .
It's a far trip from my ten year old childhood, where my mother opened the back door in July and let us run riot ( and unsupervised) until September!
Ok we didn't spent every moment skipping in fields..... Every morning was spent watching television in our pyjamas ....but when the summer programmes had finished ( was it around 11am?) out we went to play..... Out on the fields, the beach, the local rubbish tip..... Anywhere and everywhere....
When I was waiting to see the vet
I brainstormed some of those 1970 TV series I loved..
How many can you name?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Bogs

I was standing in the queue in Dyserth's Post Office this morning

When I spied one of the Trelawnyd village grey hairs

" I hear you are giving the friendship group a talk about BOGS in October"

 She trilled

" That sounds interesting" she added without a hint of sarcasm

But I could tell that she thought the subject matter

was as boring as dust

I didn't have the heart to say that the talk was actually 

About blogs

Meg

It was the Flower Show Committee meeting tonight, a meeting which always goes on a bit, as it is the first after the Show in August. It was dark when I got home ( a sign that autumn is officially here) and so after feeding the dogs and taking them out for a walk, we all settled down under the living room standard lamps to snooze.
Over the past nine months or so, Meg has been suffering from " absences' or petit mal fits. On average she experiences them once every two weeks or so, and her symptoms generally consist of vagueness, aimless repetitive behaviour and disorientation which lasts no longer than two minutes or so. Other than that , she remains a fit and health elderly Welsh terrier.

Tonight she suffered one of these " mini fits" as she sat on my knee, and after the usual bout of confusion, I laid her down on the floor to sleep it off for a few moments.

As she peacefully slept off her neurological insult, I watched over this little scruffy dog who had become such an important part of our lives over the past decade or so.With her little baby milk teeth, sad needy expressions and nervous , battling personality, she is not the easiest of canine characters to deal with but I have always been moved by her stubborn loyalty to me, who she sees as her constant pack leader.

I watched her steady breathing and tiny little twitching feet for a long while and I thought

How funny it is that this,  a little scrap of a dog, has such a powerful grip on me.  Especially as  she gets older ........with hints of grey in her  muzzle hair and a cloudy look in her sad eyes.

"Put the cake down......walk away from the cake!"

It's time to go back to weightwatchers

I slipped out of my crocs when checking on the pond this morning

And rolled down the incline like a baby hippo with shorts on.

There is nothing more sobering to a fat person than rolling about in the dirt

A few years ago I lost over three stone ( 51 lbs) at weight watchers.

And it's time to return

I need the discipline of a weekly weigh in .

Come the zombie apocalypse

Fat people get caught and eaten  first!

So I have just got my weekly Weight Watchers pass

And I will be going to the local " meeting" on Friday morning.

Now....where are my lightest pants?

Bake Off Evenings

Judges and presenters
Sexy Paul Hollywood,  sue and Mel and sweet cheeks Mary Berry

Well I am hooked again

The Great British Bake Off 

Continues into it's third week and we had mousy little Deborah

Accidentally stealing my favourite contestant Howard the geek's trifle custard by mistake, while

Mark's macaroons failed to shine as Ruby's adlib petit fours were baked on a wing and a prayer

You can tell Autumn is here

Tuesday nights, watching a silly baking show

Is one of life's big delights!

Sheffield's Howard..... A man who never gets flustered, or laid?

" Take that you bitch" ( Ewe)

My mother in law has just given her tearful goodbyes to Trelawnyd, after enjoying her first taste of a village fete. I told her to stay a few days longer but she has jobs in Broadstairs to do. She's an easy guest to have, and I shall miss her.

Suddenly everything has gone very quiet.

Well for a moment it went quiet.

I had just put a bleached loo brush to the bog bowl

When I heard the unmistakable sounds of strenuous sex coming from the open window 

Doubting the neighbours had gone all rampant in the garden on a dull Tuesday  morning

I walked outside to see Irene and Sylvia indulging in a loud, huffing bout of head butting and fighting

 They do this from time to time, and their fights never last too long, but this spat was a right " handbags at 50 pace" affair in which neither ewe was going to back down. The grunting and groaning got to such a pitch that some riders on their horses, stopped to watch the scrap from the lane, so I waded in like bouncer on Jeremy Kyle and separated the gals.
I need to think about finding a ram for them both for later in the year. Lambs need a daddy me thinks
Having a " man" around should calm their hormones down......perhaps.

Watching the bitchfight from the " luxury" of her new spacious accommodation, wild rabbit Mary seems to be a much happier bunny.

I know very little about rabbit care, but have been given a crash course in " fly strike" " the need for hay in order to keep teeth short"  etc from local Bunny Expert Lesley, who kindly provided Mary with her new hutch.

Finally the  ewe spat calmed down....and peace reigned again

And I am about to return to bleaching the bog

The cottage again seems just a little too quiet

Run Fatboy Run

I bought this T shirt yesterday at the open day's bric-a-brac stall

And as I was pottering today

returning cake tins

And collecting rabbit hutches

Some local wag commented ( as they looked at my Pilsbury Doughboy Waistline)

" I take it , that's a very NEW t shirt"

Open Allotment Day 2013

This photo , out of all the ones that were taken, I think sums up the day
Here is Mrs Trellis Who organised the " Name The Turkey Competition"
The hat says it all

Well it's been a very tiring day

And the 14 or so volunteers 

Worked their butts off against-

gusting wind, a hoard of hungry wasps,

And grey skies.

As usual the village bakers ( and friends) baked their little,asses off

And we made a total of

£ 1001.68

Marie Curie Cancer care and St Michael's Church Trelawnyd will both

Get £ 500.84 

A big thank you to everyone who participated

Slightly chilled but cheerful, the volunteers and stall holders
Ps
All of the unopened and shop bought cakes that have been left over will be taken down to the Food  Bank in Rhyl
Tomorrow