Such Fun

Catch Me If You Can is an ok potboiler of a whodunnit, that is mildly amusing, smart mouthed and clever enough to keep the audience clapping.

Starring Patrick Duffy ( Dallas) and the pert Linda Purl ( a darling of 1970s TV movies )

It felt like the middle aged, middle class choice tonight 

No real shakes, but ok. 

For my sister Janet, it was her first foray back into a packed theatre for two years and I hope she enjoyed it enough to go again soon. 

I suggested that we book a London show next time and make a special time of it with a posh hotel, meal, champers, excursions  and such fun

all for our joint 60th….

It’s hard to think that on this planet I have known just two people, my sisters, the longest in my life …. for nearly 60 years.

How special is that ?

 

Conwy

 I parked outside Conwy and Mary and I walked into the town across the suspension bridge which sits in the shadow of the ancient castle.

It's getting brighter but We are not aiming to sit out.im off to the pub to meet with work friends.

At the art deco Albion Pub which welcomes dogs.

My sister Janet and I are going to Theatre Clwyd later, so itsa day of two halves

Silence

 

Bliss

Silence

Barcarolle

Yesterday I found myself changing two syringe drivers at a patient’s beside.

For those that don’t know a syringe driver is a device that gives a specifically measured amount of drug to a patient via an abacath placed subcutaneously under a patient’s skin. 

Large amounts of analgesia, anti sickness meds and medication  that combats terminal agitation can be given safely and incrementally and the drivers are the staple in a palliative care nurse’s weapons to maximise symptom control

Checking the drugs for these drivers has to be done with with another trained nurse and this is time consuming, but I always take my time when changing the drug syringes as it gives you a change to assess your patient, often in the quietness of a side room without distraction or fuss.

My patient was unconscious and alone when I started work changing his meds yesterday morning.

Classic fm was tuned on the tv by his relatives .

And the Barcarolle from Tales Of Hoffman was playing 

It was a beautiful moment of peace on a busy day 

Sublime

It’s cold again this morning……

And Away

 

The dawn chorus was loud this morning

I was awake well before five and it was cold enough for the dogs to caterpillar their way under the duvet in order to keep warm.

Before getting up for work, I read a little more of Bob Mortimer’s And Away…. Autobiography , which is a cracking read.

The snow that fell last night had gone from the lane but it remains cold  

I’ve chugged my bucket of coffee this morning which I lace with agave nectar, whilst listening to Steve Allen on LBC radio. He’s an old waspish Queen and his complaining wakes me up nicely.

On Line

It was snowing here this evening 

Not a great deal, but enough to be noticed 

I spent most of the day on line , a fact that gave me some admiration for people who spend their working day glued to a screen 

I found the day generally productive 

Lots of boxes ticked

Lots of positives felt.

I sorted out a nice hotel for gorgeous Dave and I on our mini trip to Rome in June and before that , just after my 60th birthday, I’ve arranged to travel to the Catalonian coast south of Barcelona for a few days on holiday alone and booked a private tour of la Sangrada Famalia as well as a three hour tapas & Wine walking tour .

I found a dog carer who will pamper Dorothy in their own home then organised to meet my friend Alex from Poland in London in three weeks time.

We have got tickets for the Emlyn Williams play The Corn Is Green, with Nicola Walker at the National which will be a real treat. 

I’ve booked the nice hotel z in Covent Garden again.

I picked my bathroom suite , tiles , and accessories and let my little bathroom man know messenger then sorted bills and banking out before booking myself on an online Course exploring Pre war German History 

I can thank seeing Cabaret for that one.

I’ve been in a very bad place until yesterday 

Normal Programming Has Been Resumed

 

Back to normal today. The weather has turned colder and wetter and on our walk this morning, I regretted my decision to wear shorts only a minute into the amble.

I finished my film studies course yesterday and in the late afternoon met a friend to see The Phantom Of The Open. A comic version of the later life of the Walter Mitty character Maurice Flitcroft a working class crane driver who fraudulently entered the British Open Golf Tournament in the search of fame and fortune. With the delightful Mark Rylance in the lead role, Phantom is a frothy, light film about nice people being nice to each other. Wrapped up as almost a fantasy film, with splashes of Amelie and Forest Gump it gives Flitcroft a wry, gentle and somewhat warm persona, a man who adores his slightly dim wife and family, but who wants and needs some sort of fame ( this motivation is not explained in the movie at all by the way)

I enjoyed the humour of the piece but was left feeling somewhat uneasy at the end of the film when clips of the real Maurice Flitcroft were shown. This character seemed much darker and more serious than the one portrayed by Rylance and his presence hinted at darker motivations and even mental illness behind the eyes.

It’s interesting, but my friend thought the same 

After a couple of days in work from tomorrow, I have quite a few jaunts booked from Saturday 

An afternoon concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, a real ale pub visit with a couple of work mates, two plays at Theatre Clwyd and a cabaret cult night out celebrating Kate Bush.

Hopefully Choir will return on Tuesday too after being cancelled for three weeks due to increasing covid numbers .

Like I said

Normal Programming Has Been Resumed  

It’s 20.50 pm and it’s snowing

 

Onwards

 Up early today to beautiful sunshine again, even though the forecasts were gloomy. 

In Dyserth on the walkway there was a cool sea mist which was invigorating in short sleeves.

I met Chic Eleanor not long after nine, well before the sun burnt off the haze.

There are few people that you can have an authentic conversation with, I always think.

A honest and sincere interaction that is both supportive but challenging at the same time

I had one of those conversations this morning

Chic Eleanor knows me well. 

We have similar coping mechanisms, similar places we go when we are hurting.

Similar behaviours we revert to.

She knows how I tick and today we talked about forgiveness  and letting go of things.

It was a necessary and serious conversation 

And when we parted, we hugged long and hard like friends sometimes do

Her warmth reminded me of being worthy

And I can still smell her gentle perfume and feel the softness of her hair on my cheek.

Fuck Sad

I expected to feel somewhat low today

I’m not.

I don’t want to be.

The valiant muscari Armeniacum  which had been potted up on the front garden table could not look any more cheerful and after a winter of lying dormant the delicate Sea Pinks in the French Basket by the front door have just started to flower again after I rehydrated them back to normality.

After nights,

I’ve let my little bathroom man have the details of my bathroom choices and have opened the cottage windows wide as I play loud cheerful radio 2.

Fuck the incessant yappy Yorkshire terrier in the new build 

Bra straps pulled up with a massive hike

I’ve washed clothes, changed bedding, put all of the houseplants out into the spring sun and watered them with rainwater

All before the weather changes tomorrow,

Sourdough bread is in the oven 

I have just enough butter left to enjoy it 

Hey ho

(Finlandia by Jean Sibelius)

Sublime moments happen rarely 

Last night in the wee small hours at work, it was nice to have a brief break outside and take in the air as it breezes in from the Irish Sea.

In the hospice garden, you can’t see the sea but you can taste and smell it and that feels cold and wonderful after a few hours clinical work especially when listening to this version of This My Song to Finlandia, a song we sing in choir

Listening to Sibelius in the dark.

And feeling a bit ….well….weird 

Hattie & Mary

 Animals have friendships just as humans do

Mary and Hattie are a perfect example of this 

Hattie, as you may remember is the young nurse who used to live in the village by the old post office.

She energetically threw herself into every social activity going. Singing in the community choir, supporting the Women’s Institute and being one of the street wardens during covid as well as being my Church bell co ringer when people used to clap for nurses and every week she used to take Mary out for a long walk and a cuddle.

Hattie and I at the Folk Weekend in the Hall

During lockdown she and her boyfriend moved to the next village in a new build where they’ve had Baby Freya and her absence and cheerfulness has been greatly missed .

Mary hasn’t seen her friend for a year now and went absolutely mental when Hattie leant over the kitchen wall yesterday afternoon to say hello.

Very gently she sniffed at Freya and joyfully joined the family for a long walk, her tale whirling like a helicopter as they made their way down the lanes to the West.

What was that Scarlett ?

After All Tomorrow is another day…..

 It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Trelawnyd .I’ve moved my little blue table into the front garden to get away from the yapping dogs in the new build and am enjoying Almond Coffee eggs, and hot hot buttered toast -  with my own butter.

I’m ok . 

Yesterday I bought a new lamp for the living room and in a fit of middle aged gay frenzy bought a whole set of plain black accessories for  the new bathroom which will be mostly white with black trim.

I also bought a couple of zombie movies, one of which Infection wasn’t a half bad version even though it had been banned for showing in its native Venezuela.

I binged the movies , ate sushi from the sushi shop outside chester and drank too much gin last night.

Like I said, I’m ok . 

I emailed my ex husband too and wished him and his fiancé well.

The village is busy this morning. There is a coffee morning in the Hall and the shenanigans between the Community Council and the Community Association over the future of the hall seems to be quietening somewhat so I hope the recent discourse is approaching its end. 

There was some talk of it at the shop which now seems to the hub of informal meetings .

On the way back I spied The Velvet Voiced Linda , crossing the road by the hall, bunches of flowers in hand to decorate the tables.

She waved and beamed her big smile.

Affable Despot Jason has just stopped , he’s out walking with Liv and his dogs and took  the piss out of my Italian coffee pot and obvious pretensions 

No brexit here , I told him.

It was nice to see him

Hattie and her new baby are calling up later to pick Mary up for a walk,

My friend Nigel is calling for a chat at 2pm

I’m on nights later 

It’s a nice day x

Friday

 

Dear Diary, 

Nu has just rung. Her fractured wrist is worse than it originally looked which is a pisser..

We talked and laughed as we always do but I could tell she had something else to talk about.

She told me that she had heard that the Prof was getting married again.

Strangely, and from nowhere, I had already felt that this was on the cards 

But I suddenly couldn’t speak and felt as though I had been punched in the face.

I hung up and burst into tears.

It’s a lovely spring day again, and I’d planned to see a Danish Romantic comedy at the Storyhouse. 

I think I’ll take a miss on that one now.

The girls have found rabbit smells in the garden and are frantically following trails

I think I will do some shopping later, I need a new lamp for the living room

Hey ho

Exciting

 By the time my little bathroom man was talking about spot lights, I was almost beside myself with excitement. Looking at heated towel rails and I was ( as Miriam Margolyes said on the Graham Norton show) Creaming in my knickers.

The excitement was catching and Dorothy galloped upstairs and peed on the hall carpet.

I am so excited that at the grand old age of 59 , I’m getting my first bespoke and totally desirable bathroom.

Work starts in around 6 weeks.

He’s looking at sorting out the office too but was confused when I referred to it being in the west wing

It was dusk when the dogs and I walked my little man back to his car and ambling back down the lane I looked at my cottage with it’s interior all warm with the glow of lamplight and fire and I felt proud and happy.

The fairy lights , my sister hung above the patio , glinted cheerfully and the newly tidied garden looked ordered and charming as a newly washed and buffed Bluebell stood guard behind.

I am so happy

X

Butter

I’m waiting for my sister to arrive to sort the garden out.

It’s a beautiful spring day.

I’m also resting my forearm over a proper coffee .

I’ve just made my first pat of butter

Korean spiced, and salted and ………small…..but perky.

It tastes bloody lovely 

My little bathroom man comes later……

Guess Who

I’m home late today

I’ve noted that yesterday’s underpants being tractor bashed in the lane  led to much hilarity amongst some of you, readers. who probably enjoy rather filthy schoolboy humour 

I will leave you with a story which matches it .

Now my first male partner Philip was a man not known for his sense of humour , but once he did something that did indeed make me guffaw long and hard.

After playing badminton with my best friend , I once came to my Philip’s home for a shower.

Unfortunately( for me) I left my undergarments on the floor of his bathroom and also unfortunately ( for me) said garments had a rather robust sweat/ skid mark for all to see.

Unbeknownst to me, Philip photographed the underpants with a helpful finger pointing directly  to skid mark and on line made the photo into a rather impressive and colour enhanced postcard.  

The postcard was then posted first class post to the ward staff on the hospital ward I ran at the time

On it was the simple comment 

Guess Who ? 

Are They Your Underpants?

Covid numbers within the choir seems worryingly high and with only ten able to meet tonight ,  choir practice has been cancelled. 

I’m pondering my day, sat at the kitchen table.

This afternoon I’m at film studies, picking On The Waterfront to pieces 

The rest of the day is free.

The cottage smells of peas.

The slow cooker has been warming pea soup all night. I’ve made sourdough bread and have just bought a Kilner butter maker on line which means the guilty pleasure of homemade salted herb butter…..

“Are these your underpants ?”

That was Heulwen calling over the kitchen wall.

It’s breezy and a pair had caught the wind and had left the box hedge where it had been drying 

They lay in the lane, flattened by a tractor wheel

She’s sad that choir has been cancelled tonight too.

We chatted for a long time.

It’s sunny but a little too cold in the shade.

Obese Camel et al….

 While my sisters threw and painted their own creations at pottery , I got on with painting my old creations before glazing. 

The finished articles will look rather different but I’ve gone pastel for my hilly letter rack and desert coloured for my obese camel .

Janet, is a true talent , this is her beach hut 

Next week I start my chess set

I’m back on the diet and am trying just a veg Korean detox.

I’ll start again tomorrow 

Sister Ann brought me a lamb casserole tonight

So today’s T shirt is a lie

Tee hee

A Bobble Hat As Tall As A Bishop’s Mitre

 

It was just after four I think when the tolling Church bell woke me up

I felt disorientated for a while and lay there thinking of why it was doing so.

It took me a while to remember it was the Church’s last day as a functioning Church and that the last service was perhaps coinciding with the bell ringing of St Paul’s and other Churches across the country in support of Ukraine.

The congregation was small given that  the Bishop was officiating , but I wasn’t surprised given the fact that he had not supported that the Church be given Pilgrim Status as we had requested.

A lot of the those supporters had kept away.

I only know this because I checked St Michael’s page of Facebook

Mrs Trellis was there though , her bobble hat erect as always.

It was almost as tall as the Bishop’s Mitre

Bathroom

I am clear in my mind what I want out of my new bathroom

Plain, clean and white

White with subway tiles and a single black border.

My “ Little man” promised me that he’s popping over next week with some glossy brochures for me to peruse but I have what I want very much in mind 

My bathroom is tiny ( 6x5 ), so it’s Art Deco tiles , all in white with a single black line in trim

Not sure yet about the floor, so any ideas would be gratefully received 

On nights again, but just two this week.