"I'll admit I may have seen better days, but I'm still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, "(Margo Channing)
Eleanor
Birthday Garden
The removal and subject of masks in Wales has ruffled a few feathers since yesterday and last night I received a few messages ( mainly from nurse friends who are totally opposed to the legislation) I’ve reflected on it and feel ok with the decision , especially from a hospice’s perspective.
If I was a nurse in the acute sector, I would keep my mask on
Throughout the pandemic our hospice was the only healthcare facility I know, that remained open to visitors. We had to maintain a strict policy, regarding numbers and track and trace and PPE but every patient who was at the end of their life, could have their loved ones with them to say their goodbyes.
I visited many family homes when working on the community , where a house was packed with grieving relatives and I had to balance my own safety with the fact that syringe drivers needed changing and patients needed turning.
The taking off of our masks yesterday was almost symbolic.
The nurses, the doctors, our physio, social worker, community nurses and support workers as well as the admin staff and housekeeper all looked at each other….properly ….and collectively we saw each other smile with our whole faces again…..
Anyhow today is dull…weather wise ….I’m meeting Chic Eleanor for lunch which will brighten the proceedings then I need to catch up with Gorgeous Dave in order to discuss Italy .
It’s choir tonight too.
While I was at work my sister has been beavering away planting the garden borders out, as a birthday gift.
It seems that hundreds of shrubs and flowers have suddenly appeared, including a lovely Japanese acer in a pot. My cousin Karen left me a beautiful yellow rose to incorporate into the design ,
Thank you to people who have sent me cards and unlabelled gifts . I will open them tomorrow before I go to work . My friend Ruth who is in Scotland and Ben in South Korea will be zooming together at 6.30 am over breakfast.
Sunday
Dusk
Catch Up
Like the meaning of the song Send In The Clowns, I’ve always been baffled of just how untidy my cottage becomes when I am on a run of long shifts.
60 Some Thoughts
Tidy Up
In health care masks are still to be worn and it’s playing havoc with my beard which has morphed from being a trimmed goatee to something like Father Christmas would be proud of,
Perhaps I will leave it and wear purple, and shout in the street…..I’m 60 on Wednesday
Herbivore & Benediction
I went to see the rather sad drama Benediction which is the story of the wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon from his invalided exit from the army, his subsequent unhappy relationships with Stephen Tennent and Ivor Novello, through an unhappy marriage ending with his conversion to Catholicism as an older man .
The narrative, especially the ones of the wartime years, is told in a series of cinematic tableaux where music and poetry, photographs and live action build a picture of a man haunted and angered by the horrors of war but as the story moves towards Sassoon’s search for love the plot becomes a little more traditional.
Jack Lowdon is impressive as the angry and eventual rather lost Sassoon. Mathew Tennyson is heartbreaking in his short but pivotal role as the gentle Wilfred Owen who Sassoon meets in the Scottish “neurological/ psychiatric” hospital and Ben Daniels gives the bleak first half some warmth as his role of Dr Rivers, a gay psychiatrist who sees the world with some welcomed benign pragmatism
Terence Davies has produced an impressive but overwhelmingly sad film about failure, survivor guilt and sexual shame.
Tender Heart
The Ladies
Borders Of White
Chairs and Carpets
Andra Day - Rise Up
'Still I Rise' by Maya Angelou
First Kiss
Downton ( Spoilers)
Sewing
Gawd it was a busy shift, somewhat fraught and rather stressful
I’m now drinking a huge gin with a wonderful long slice of cucumber
Watching Sewing Bee
I’d love to meet the three presenters over dinner