GP visit

The weather has changed again! and although the wind and rain continues with a vengeance, it has become icy, icy cold! Old Mrs Jones has subsequently donned her hated slacks when she walked down today for eggs (she prefers wearing her usual woollen skirt), and I have finally found my warm winter hat lurking inside the sock drawer, and gratefully used it during the afternoon jobs.
This morning I went to the doctors with my week long assessment of blood pressure readings. As I walked into the consulting room, I noticed a grinning teenager sitting stiffly in the corner. The doctor didn't explain why his associate was there nor did he introduce him, so after I sat down I got the proceedings off to a bad start by saying to the teen "I presume you are a shadowing medical student, my name is John Gray...nice to meet you!"
Both medics looked suitably embarrassed and did apologise.....which was something.

Anyhow, all of my blood results (thyroid, renal status,liver function,glucose and electrolytes), turned out to be normal, which was a relief.....and in actual fact readings such as my cholesterol was down to 4....according to the doc, I was uber healthy, albeit on paper!
After reviewing my blood pressure reading the doctor stated there was no case to answer for and told me not to drink my usual extra strong filter coffee when working nights! it is all a bit of a relief really but it has been a wake up call for me and Chris to start to watch the weight again and cut down on the usual excesses of life.....

The rest of the day has been filled with jobs, the Christmas gifts I wrapped up last night have been sent (accompanied with the usual cheerful conversation with Jenny the postmistress) and I repaired the broken roof of the duckhouse. (Above photo my two buff girls Shula and Ruth, the chicks from my first set of eggs in the spring, taking some respite from the cold wind)

Chris is still away today, so it's another night in with the fire and the new Star Trek dvd

All Cosy

The wind had been gusting all day, but at least the rain has kept away. Chris has just woken me up with a "nite, nite" phone call, and all the animals have joined me on the couch as the gales whistle around the gable end.
This is my favourite part of winter, being warm and quiet in the dark living room illuminated by the fire.....
I have finally wrapped Christmas decorations I have bought as gifts for my mum in law and friends in Australia, Derbyshire and Sheffield, and will post them tomorrow
I am tired but the draw of the fire is just too attractive to leave just yet (above Meg in the gloom)

Why be a nurse?

made me smile

"You're my touchstone Emma!"

Now every middle aged Gay man worth his salt will recognise the above quote!....

Uttered by a slightly fey Patsy (Lisa Hart Carroll) to her dying best friend Emma (Debra Winger) in the sob fest Terms of Endearment...........the term "touchstone" has become synonymous with slightly angst conversations between gay men and their ( largely female) best friends.....

I always wondered where the term "touchstone" actually comes from in this, "you were always there for me" kind of meaning, and I was interested to find that it may actually derive from a character called Touchstone from Shakespeare's As You Like It. Apparently this character acted as a guide and a point of comic reference throughout the play, very much like the character of Emma did with Patsy throughout the aforementioned film.......which I thought very interesting...

My main touchstone ( and I have several of both sexes) is Nuala, and I can't wait to catch up with her in London on Friday! It has been too long since we last caught up.....she is definately my Debra Winger.........

Off to bed early tonight...Chris is away in London and I am shattered after a day without sleep after night shift.....

A Public display of Emotion

I am getting bored of the torrential rain showers. The kitchen is awash with muddy dog paw prints,Albert has tastefully dotted his wet feet over the table,windowsills and work tops and everywhere feels damp and dirty. I am so frustrated with it all I could spit!
I have emptied the wet straw from the pig hut and have filled it completely with fresh warm bedding, then filled each coop in turn with warm dry sawdust ( a gift from the red faced welsh farmer!), so at least most of the animals remain warm and dry.
The beach was so windswept that I was the only person in sight, so the dogs had a huge, cold gallop for miles along the sodden sand.
By the car park I noticed these floral tributes attached to one of the slipway signs. Apparently last year an elderly fisherman had gone into the water in an effort to recapture his small dingy and had gotten into difficulties and had died in the cold water.
Public displays of grief, such as these flowers are still not thought to be the "done thing" in Britain, I always think. There seems to be an innate snobbery by some that regard tributes as a "little bit common"....Reactions to disasters such as 9/11, Hillsborough and even with Princess Diana's death, where carpets of flowers, poems and cards literally covered everything in sight seemed to have opened the floodgates for public shows of emotion, and everywhere I go, little shrines of sadness can be found at kerbside or half hidden away on fences and road signs.
I have no problem with tributes like these. I just find them all rather sad, and certainly on days like today, rather forlorn.
If the relatives and friends of the departed find solace in leaving a few flowers and card, what is the harm of it?....hummm? Mind you, I suspect the jobsworth brigade in the local council department will be enforcing bylaws outlawing them at some stage, quoting the dreaded health and safety legislation......
hummm, the bad weather has soured my mood me thinks..........on nights tonight too!!! hey ho!

We Walk the Same Line

I had a text today from an old friend who is having a pretty hard time....I thought this cover of an EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL song......may help just a little.......
we have all been there in those dark night time depressive moments
xxx
ps love the cat running down the stairs at the end

Christmas plans

It is only four weeks away and Christmas day has been organised by matriarchal sister Ann.....Apart from my affable Nephew Pete and his family ( who are all off to European snow slopes) the whole family will be together for lunch ( 14 of us)
Forgive this video....Chris designed it last year
x

Wet,wet,wet

In true British style, I remain totally obsessed with the dreadful weather. Downpour after downpour has saturated and re saturated the livestock, which is alright as long as there is a brief lull between each shower, so that the animals can have the opportunity to dry off in the cold wind.

The pigs have suffered the most (apart from Hughie who is constantly "outside") and their enclosure is now knee deep in liquid mud.....thank goodness for their shed which remains high and dry of the deluge, they're sleeping inside it, nearly all day now...I am feeding them extra to help fortify them against the cold and wet and will buy them extra straw tomorrow!

There is some flooding locally (above is the village of Llanfair Talhaiarn) but no where near the problems Cumbria have suffered. It is dreadful to realise the long term consequences that these out flung communities will have to experience in the months and years to come.......and always out of sight and out of mind of the Government in London.

Anyhow enough already, today has been a washout.....fire is lit and I have a good book to read later......Blood pressure is down (again) and I have started Chris and I on a weightwatchers regime, which worked so well for me a year or so ago. Bringing down blood pressure can be a simple lifestyle choice (and change) so its off with the weight and up with the exercise! (Meg and William are pleased as they now go on two power walks with me daily)
I have an appointment with my cold fish GP on Wednesday to discuss my "hypertension" and the results of my blood work

Life's a bitch

It has been a real shit of a day. The weather is getting worse, and torrential rain and gale force winds have lashed the North Wales coast time and time again.

We drove the 43 miles up to Llanberis in atrocious conditions and the usual scenic views of slate and countryside looked dreadfully depressing, We had a coffee with Chris' friends then when to pick up Wellington from her run.

All there was to be found was a small pile of feathers, poor wellington had been taken from her unsecured run overnight, probably by a fox. To say I was saddened if not somewhat miffed would have been an understatement, All 5 of the ducks I had sold had been killed, and after weeks of nurturing and care......the disappointment was awful.

It has been a dreadful waste of the day

Dorian Gray & Wellington returns

Hummm......Dorian Gray? Well Oscar Wilde's scary painting story which is no longer a shocking metaphor for closet homosexuality, has been produced into a rather glossy but ultimately empty horror film with all the depth and feeling of a 1980's pop video.

I can't be bothered discussing it at length as I only gave the whole thing 5/10, the film was a loud, soft porn-ish romp with an awfully vapid Dorian
(Ben Barnes) in the lead role...if you like your men pale,thin, with cheekbones to die for (eh Bel Ami?) well then you will be a happy camper.......for me, Barnes looked like a maggot coloured petulant teenager.....give me someone like Ben Chaplin (right) who turned up as Dorian Gray's portrait artist....he is such a sweetie.

The only other piece of news is that Wellington is returning to us!!!

Avid Blog readers may remember that in the spring I hatched 6 runner ducks. Albert and William unfortunately killed one baby, and another duckling had a very narrow escape from them by hiding herself into my wellington boot. I christened this lucky duckling, Wellington (below) and all 5 remaining ducklings were sold to one of Chris' colleagues.

Tonight we received a phone call from Chris' friend stating that she had lost four of the ducks (to a fox presumably) and Wellington was the only survivor! She wanted to know if she could return to the safety and company of the field..........so what could I say? She gets picked up tomorrow morning!

Albert, George and the rat

Now, for most of the day I have been shampooing carpets ( a must with 4 dogs and a cat in a small cottage), so I had resigned myself to an averagely boring day.....It was half past two when I finally got out into the field to collect eggs and check on the stock, and was accompanied as usual by Maddie and George (who can be left to their own devices) and by a slightly limping but wide eyed Albert.
As I was emptying the nest boxes, I heard some high pitched angry squeaking coming from beneath Rogo's ark and as I marched up to see what was going on both cockerels (Bill and Rogo- with a slightly bemused Hughie in tow) galloped there to stand awkwardly at the entrance watching the fun inside!
As I got there I could see Albert struggling manfully with a large rat, who was bouncing around in the dirt. It was the rat that was making all the noise. Now Albert is a wonderful mouser, but he is a slightly built cat with three useful legs so in a one to one with a cornered and very belligerent rat I was worried he would be injured!, so brandishing my egg bucket (?) and forgetting my blood pressure, I dived in to separate them.

I need not have worried, as before I could do anything in shot George, and with lightening speed he jumped forward, grabbed the rat and gave it an innate death shake!
Scattering the watching cockerels, he then lifted it up, bit it several times in quick succession and then flung the rat into the air. Almost before it hit the floor he was on it again with a growl and as Albert looked on, he ran off with Bill in hot pursuit!.
I caught up with them at the Church wall, where George excitedly dropped him ( with a great deal of reluctance!)...it was the first thing I ever saw the little chap kill, and he was pleased as punch with himself........I took the above pic a little later on after George had been led away for a lie down in a darkened room......he looks kind of cute....for a rat


Blood pressure is 131 over 85 this afternoon (ie normal)..we are off to see Dorian Gray tonight at Theatre Clwyd's cinema...not something I would have picked but hey ho I can't get everything my way.....mini review later!

Police Woman

Now I was having a rather strange conversation about tv police women the other night with good old Nigel. Being a slightly retro old queen he preferred the more English (but ever-so-boring) Juliet Bravo.....give me the leather armed yank Angie Dickenson as the exotic sounding Pepper Anderson from the 70's Police Woman ANYDAY.......cracking!

is it me but does she look every slightly like a trailer trash boozy mom?

Stormy days

There are nine flood warnings in force in Wales this morning and nineteen flood watches in place....and the still the weather remains dreadfully wet and stormy. 2000 homes have had their electricity cut off and scores of roads up the Conwy Valley have been closed by the flooding.
Today I have been out and about in the awful weather for most of the day
Took a few photos in between taking my blood pressure! (which is down today!- must be the fresh air)

William and I braving the rain on Prestatyn beach

Maddie and George trotting into the wind on the sand dune defences

A wet Prestatyn taken from the beach

The River Elwy bursting its banks at St Asaph

Grey skies at the Beach

On the way back to Trelawnyd (a mile South)- Prestatyn from the Hillside

Storm clouds at dusk over Trelawnyd Church

Health day

Another funny old day! Torrential rain and gale force winds have meant that poor Hughie has spent another stressful night hanging onto the upper branches of the Churchyard Elm for grim death. I do so wish that he would follow Rogo into the safety of the ark but alas he has again decided to brave the terrible elements.
I have just nipped out to check on him in the awful weather and there he was hanging on like Steve Mc Queen in the climax of the Towering Inferno!..Bless..

Today I have been reviewed by a rather poe faced GP, who organised a few blood tests before sending me up to the Eye hospital for a full eye scan and workout! ( to double check if my blurred vision was not just a product of high blood pressure)
Now I have never experienced ocular pressure studies before, and I must say the whole experience was rather stomach churning to say the least. Having probes actually touching my eye, despite anaesthetic eye drops is perhaps the worst thing I have ever experienced ( with the exception of accidentally splashing pig poo into my mouth!!!-don't ask!) and I bounced around the examination chair like one of my guinea fowl chicks at the feeling of it all......
A wonderfully jolly nurse put some atropine drops into my eyes to dilate them before the scan, which gave me a bit of a look of Mr Magoo, and I had all the tests which turned out to be ok......Thank God for my friends and neighbours, that's all I can say as Geoff did all the driving as my eyeballs had effective stopped working and Carol took the dogs for their afternoon exercise.

As for my blood pressure.....I now have a week to monitor it three times a day......lets hope that Boris doesn't attack me again or that the guinea fowl chicks continue to bombard me in the shed!.....that would make any one's blood pressure soar through the roof.

Tonight I have taken a rain check from the cinema with Hazel, and am sat in front of a nice warming fire with the dogs. Chris is in London at a posh reception at Kensington Palace (no less) so it's an early night.......blood pressure just re checked (I have to check it myself 4 times daily for 1 week)...and it's down a little this evening
Hey ho

165/107

Well I didn't finish my shift tonight! As, when I was sitting comfortably at the computer terminal collecting blood results, I experienced a sudden mild headache and some blurred vision. I thought it strange and worrying enough to check my blood pressure and found it to be suddenly and dramatically elevated to 165/107.
One of the staff nurses came in my cubicle when I was taking off the blood pressure cuff and immediately took me down to A&E where I spent an interesting time waiting for the somewhat harassed senior house officer to review me.
Being on the receiving end of the heath service is an interesting experience for one who is usually the heath giver, and in the two and a half hours I was in the emergency department, I became just one of the many patients that turn up at this Godforsaken hour. On one side of me was the obligatory psychiatric self harming patient who wailed like a banshee, and on the other a sweet old lady with a fractured humerus. The usual collection of belligerent drunks burped and farted in opposite trolleys.
Over the waiting time, my blood pressure reduced a bit, and a polite young staff nurse performed an ECG.....which looked ok. The medics gave me a general examination, prodded and poked my nether regions (I had on my worst pair of underpants on!) then informed me that they will be writing to my own GP to initiate further investigations, but I was to return to the hospital immediately if I have the sight problems again!
Hey ho........yes a little sobering, but perhaps another product of being 47.....time to eat and drink healthier me thinks and lose some weight.......

Neurosis & animals

Can animals be neurotic?....humm it is an interesting question, especially given the fact that I try (albeit unsuccessfully not to attribute human traits to the animals under my care).....on reflection I think the answer is a definite yes!......The rapidly growing half dozen guinea fowl chicks spend their very young lives in a state of potential hysteria. Standing in frozen awareness, they watch every tiny thing that you do for them before one bird explodes into a fit of screaming panic which causes a chain reaction with the rest of them. My nerves are shot to pieces, with the constant upheaval of feathers and shrill bird calls.....after ten minutes in the shed, I could quite happily strangle the lot of them
Maddie, has a definite neurotic fear of staircases, which can be traced back to when she was two when she fell down our previous cottage staircase dragging a dyson vacuum cleaner on top of her. Ever since then she can quite happily walk up a staircase, but cannot face the downward journey on her own!.. Both Chris and I , now think it is perfectly normal to respond to her frantic barks for help on the upstairs landing by trudging up the stairs to carry her down.....

Albert on the other hand is perhaps the most perfectly balanced animal we own. In actual fact following his second accident and subsequent operation, I think it is me and not him, that overly worries about his condition and lifestyle dangers on the lane outside the cottage.

Today I thought it prudent to actually let him out again, despite still having a limp, and within 10 minutes he had caught and killed his first mouse which he paraded in front of the dogs with that snarling pride cats exhibit when they have a mouthful of rodent....

The Church wall is a good six feet high, and with his poorly leg, he still managed to scale it like a kitten on speed.With my heart in my mouth I watched his antics....until I could not watch anymore......I have said this before...these animals will be the bloody death of me...

on night shift tonight.....

Miranda Episode 1

I caught this old fashioned sit com this evening, and although this tale of a thirty something Bridget Jones has been done to death...the lumpy Miranda Hart brings something new and rather funny to the genre.....Tom Ellis is lovely to look at as well.....
very funny

Maddie Lurve

My Father-in-law, Richard left for home in Kent this morning, and seemed to have enjoyed his visit with us (he even found 2012 entertaining!)

He is an easy visitor to "look after" and will be missed especially by his shadow Maddie, who completely bonded with him, when he looked after her in the spring.

For an non cuddly dog, it is amazing that she spends every available moment clambering up onto his knee for some "quality time"..........mind you I think she is the only "person" that can actually cope with Richard's god awful bad joke telling.......I can see where Chris gets it from....

It was nice to catch up with him

Titter

I recieved this email on Sunday night from my sister....which did make me laugh


Bro,
One of the reasons I called this afternoon was to ask for yours and Chris's Christmas List, but I was distracted.I know you need the usual batteries and coffee and poultry feeder, would you like a jumper like a normal man.

much love ann xx

what do you say???

2012

Grandmother Sonam (Lisa Lu) with all American survivor a typically bland Amanda Peet)

The problem with CGI, is that the more, you are faced with "unreal computer" imagery, the less your emotions engage with the narrative and 2012 is crammed to the gunnel's with the most exciting, impressive yet ultimately vacuous scenes of disaster ever seen on film since the awful The day after tomorrow!
Los Angeles is crumpled like tissue paper and slides into the ocean, St Peter's in Rome collapses on thousands of fleeing nuns and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio loses his outstretched arms in an earthquake that echoes around the world....add to the mix ,20 thousand feet tidal waves washing over the Himalayas, the White House being flattened by an American Navy aircraft carrier and Las Vegas being sucked literally into the ground and you will get the film's gist........namely MORE s definitely MORE!!!
Unfortunately Roland Emmerich who loves his disaster movies from the 1970s)....has thrown every effect known to computer Geekdom into this film, which is a shame, as the more you see the less you feel......He should have realised what the first rule of the disaster film is ....... and that is to make the audience care about the characters!!!!!!
Having said all that, I kind of enjoyed this three hour romp, (once I had disengaged my brain) and despite the rubbishy script, cardboard characters and end of the world platitudes...it actually worked as a piece of entertainment.
African American President (Danny Glover) his art lover daughter (Thandie Newton) and wonderfully righteous scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) make for likable passengers in the new high tech arks developed for the salvation of humankind (and are all black which makes a change for major disaster film characters!)....meanwhile the ordinary people- ( John Cusack) and his ex wife (with her boyfriend and two kids) travel from the US to China to join in the exodus with a motley group of survivors that comprises of a handsome Tibetan monk, his grandparents and a Russian bimbo with a small dog! -like you do!!!

2012 is pure rubbish.......but it does entertain in that typical disaster movie sort of way. Characters die, but they do sort of cleanly ( dont blink but passenger liner lounge singer George Segal drowns when in a homage to The Poseidon Adventure,( and a finger up to the movie Poseidon) his ship is capsized!)....but in the end most of your favourite characters make it to give it a go in the "brave new world"
I wanted to hate this movie but in the end I had to give it a begrudging and enjoyable 7.5 out of 10.....

Ps. I was thinking this morning about some of the not-so-subtle messages Roland Emmerich wanted to share in 2012, and I think that the single message seems to be centred around the concept of fatherhood! Historically Women have never really featured favourably in disaster films and this is especially true in all of Emmerich's movies. In 2012 the three women portrayed ( bland mom, bland president's daughter and bland Russian trophy wife) hardly get a look into the action and drama, and the main narrative drive is dominated by the father (and son) relationships of the piece...No less than 7 characters John Cusack,Thomas McCarthy,Danny Glover,Zlatko Buric,George Segal,Blu Mankuma and Jimi Mistry all have issues of resolution and love with their children (interestingly all but one sibling is male!)....I would love to be able to discuss this with the director himself to see where his motivations came from...Gawd I feel am back in my film degree assignment days.....where I could discuss the smallest motivation of a director for the whole assignment quota of 3,000 words!..... I am such a geek