Thursday Morning

 

Night shifts have come around awfully quickly this week. 
Back tonight.
I finish Saturday morning which will mean I can watch Eurovision in the Hall Saturday night.
Bluebell needs more work this morning, but that’s the only big job of the day to sort.
I’ve already given the dogs their big walk and mown the lawn. 
My sister is due to do the garden but is snowed under by bookings
The garden will be transformed in a week or so when the alliums bloom. At the moment the aquilegia and forget me nots are. Filling the borders with their gentle colour
And the cheerful Welsh poppies are poking their yellow heads in the few gaps left







Sushi

 I am consistently amazed that such in innocuous blog such as Going Gently can rile some readers into such apoplexy and anger. 
It baffles me, as does a comment from last night which admitted that my blog is bad for a certain reader’s mental health. 
Gawd help us, if that’s the case, I hope that reader contacts MIND immediately before never reading Going Gently again.
There’s a lot to be said for self help.



Anyhow I went shopping today.
I’m not a big shopper, but I heard that a new sushi bar had opened up in the town of Mold which is located around 17 miles east of Trelawnyd, so I thought I’d treat myself.
Mold’s Welsh name is Yr Wyddgrug ( Mound in English) and it is a pretty market town overlooked by Theatre Clwyd which situated a mile or so out of town.
I was impressed with the bespoke shops as well as the sushi and as well as buying myself some Japanese tea, I bought some French bacon twists from a bone fide French baker, some books at in independent bookshop and some bespoke birthday cards from an art shop



Looking At Yourself

 


It’s not a pretty sight. 
I’m writing my last assignment for Uni and I am in the process of analysing my own counselling skills on film. 
I’m finding it all rather harrowing .
Seeing yourself on the screen , warts and all isn’t nice.
No wonder I’m single.
I look a mess
So I have been trying to concentrate more on my non verbals, my ability to paraphrase, recap and challenge. My use of Egan’s three stage model, my use of  advanced empathy, my voice,  my phrasing and my abilities to make the interaction flow. 
Now that feels a bit better. 
I see past looking at a fat old man and now , at least,  I see a friendly fat old man
With crinkling eyes and a gentle voice

Hey ho


Mary

B

She rolled in the body of a dead badger on our last walk of the day 
After nights I am in despair 
It’s ok I have gin in 

 

Tea and Cake


I was in bed for most of the day yesterday. We’d had an incredibly hard and busy shift Saturday night and so I slept heavily and long, despite being woken by the dogs baying at someone at the door in the afternoon. My visitor was Nick from the TCA who dropped off some of the Coronation cake made by bouncy Bridget . I missed his knock but soon spied a parcel of cake wrapped in silver paper plonked on top of my wall basket.
It was bloody lovely too with a hot cup of tea.
But I was soon snoring away the rest of the afternoon so missed any post-mortem from the Coronation afternoon tea which looked impressive on line and which probably  tasted even better in the flesh



The Eurovision night next Saturday will be a much bawdier affair me thinks.
Me hopes so.
So, Trelawnyd life plods along at its own pace. King Charles has his crown and I suspect he shouts and  laughs with Camilla loudly and long.
Eurovision is the next altar to pray at. Then it’s summer 

 

Goats At Work


These two were sat by our back door when I got to work yesterday evening. 
It’s strange to think that a small seaside town in Wales has a thriving and popular population of Kashmir Goats but here they still are, the descendants  of a few individuals who were a coronation gift from the Shah of Persia to the young Queen Victoria in 1837
During lockdown they received much worldwide publicity after running amok around town like hoards of StTrinian schoolgirls  and here on West Shore at the base of The Great Orme , they often visit the hospice daily with their benign faces and exotic hornes….

 

The C Word

 

I won’t bang on about it
I’m not a huge fan of Charles
But I was rather moved by his expression when he walked into the Abby
Finally centre stage 
A hint of a smile on his face.

Bryn Terfels Kyrie Eleison sung in Welsh was incredibly beautiful 



Loved this bit too, see Kate beaming at them at the end 


The king sighed with a smile as his army, navy and airforce personnel cheered him from the gardens of Buckingham palace.
I’ve been incredibly moved by today’s coverage.
Seeing the king kneeling in the Abby in just a simple shirt reenforced his sense of duty, and the professionalism of the armed forces pitched things just right

Well done
Well done

Worth

 Tonight Gorgeous Dave and I went to see the darkly comic play Worth at the Storyhouse in Chester .
It turned out to be a rather brutal and harsh essay on a Uk/ Chinese family dynamic at a matriarch’s funeral and although not faultless it sparked a robust conversation about grief and families  on our way home 




Neighbours

I have a set of neighbours who are not particularly neighbourly
They are noisy and in my mind inconsiderate of others , so we don’t speak anymore….well ever since I complained to them by note that their five dogs had yapped continuously for a couple of hours in the garden one afternoon without supervision or let up

Today is blissful. 
There is no noise from next door. No constant sawing of wood. No barking. No yelling at the darling CHARLIE!!!  for barking so much. 
It’s silent and my back door is open wide , sucking in the peace and quiet into the cottage.

And it’s bliss

Am I turning into one of those strange neighbours that yell at people in the street? 
You know the ones you used to poke fun of when you were a kid. 
The old fart who lives alone and who spoils your fun on sunny afternoons when kicking a ball in the street feels like the ideal pastime?
Perhaps I am.I know my aforementioned neighbours think I’m unreasonable but I have been a neighbour to many over the years and even if I do say so myself , I’ve been a good one. 
Ok I once frightened my old lady neighbour half to death in Walkley Sheffield after I caught a black cat in my kitchen and threw it into her pond after it had terrorised my two kittens for weeks.
It wasn’t the fact that I three the cat into her pond that was the problem I think, it was more that I was just wearing a pair a rather shabby boxer shorts at the time that upset her.
I made it up to her years later when I found her in the garden unconscious after a fall and I went to hospital with her in the ambulance.
I sold that tiny terraced house to a very small postman person who wasn’t a patch on me….I was told after he had moved in.
My neighbour John in Hillsborough Sheffield, is still one of my best friends now and I still miss sitting in my neat tidy garden sharing a bottle of wine with him on a summers’ evening. 
Funny that the builder who has just bought that house for his son, has recently left me a comment on Going Gently .saying it is now in safe hands. 
Funny how small the world feels sometimes.

Back to today, it’s the blackbird calls that fill the air as they challenge each other over a mate. Then it’s the sound of rain on leaves, the faraway roar of a plane heading for Liverpool airport and the sound of Dorothy snoring 

And Im happy at that


Bluebells & John Kahu

 


It’s a Bluebell day today.This morning I took the famous Vauxhall in for her tyre changes and waited for her to be ready in the fabulous Jacob’s Ladder cafe in St Asaph where I had a bacon sandwich and too much lovely coffee.
There is something therapeutic when you have to wait for something like a car service, just to be forced to wait allows your mind to wander and to think properly and without other activity or interruption. 

This afternoon I went to Bodnant to see the great swathes of real bluebells and it was lovely to revisit them even though the gardens always remind me of being married as it was a regular haunt of ours.
I wish I had taken one or all of the dogs with me as you never feel alone with a dog beside you. 
I won’t make that mistake again.
For the first time in a long while,  I felt quite  lonely today.
It’s that time of year I guess

I bought sushi for tea and treated myself to new chopsticks from the kitchen shop in Llandudno and when I got finally got home there were some on line flowers waiting for me in the letter box
They were sent from a blog follower Jon D who referred to himself as a “proud Hawaiian” 
He referred to me as John Kahu 
Apparently  Kahu is Hawaiian for an animal guardian or nurse

Timely flowers Jon
Thank you



Tonight’s old film on show




Union Flag

 



It wasn’t as busy at work as expected so I came home early and went to the TCA Hall meeting instead.
nice to see Bunty joining on the committee, she will be an asset.
Came home and put my coronation decorations up

I’m one big fat Royalist Bitch

Moving Forward


I watched bees entering and leaving an old badger sett this morning down Gypsy Lane
They looked like miniature spaceships visiting their mothership.
I sat for an age watching them until Dorothy started her I’m bored antics forcing us to move on.
She cannot abide standing still
It’s a lovely day today and a reflective one again….
Dorothy has the right idea…..it’s always good to move on.

I listened to Devipravaha again as I straightened the cottage
And opened up the windows to spring

A few more jobs after my bucket of coffee then I will drop the dogs off at Trendy Carol’s before going to work on overtime. The money from my extra shifts will be banked in my savings account in order to pay my college fees.

It feels nice that out of our group the three of us more mature students that have gravitated together are the three that are moving on for further training. 
We even get a cap and gown when we finish Donna whispered as we left our classroom

And that does mean a great deal when I think of it




The vets



 The vet detected a slight heart murmur in Roger but told me not to be concerned with it
I’m not….
He was also so captivated with him, he brought two of the vet nurses into the consultation room to meet him 
“ This is a delightful dog “ the vet said lifting Roger’s chin with a finger and Roger wagged his tail and stood on hind legs to sniff faces and lick noses.
“ He’s a superb  boy you should show him “ he added 
The nurses crowded round cooing and I beamed like a proud dad at the nativity play as they tickled and hugged him. 
Roger lapped it up and trotted on tip toe 

Tonight, at college  I’ve passed my main final practical assessment in my counselling course alongside my three besties…the feedback from my tutor was lovely and very gratefully received 
Even at 61, I still need positive feedback 

The Drop That Contained The Sea


Special little moments just happen.
They often catch you unawares.
That sneak under your radar, 
When you are least expecting them.
And they can brighten you heart, when you so need it.

This morning had such a moment.
The sun shining, Roger acting as co pilot his nose in the wind, we drove the seventeen miles up to the vets for his pre op assessment along wide country roads of bright spring green. 
I had bought the CD of Christopher Tin’s piece The Drop That Contained The Sea which is a collection of commissioned works for chorus and orchestra centred about water in all of its forms.
I have enjoyed one of its pieces Waloyo Yamoni before, but have never listened to the entire piece before.

Each of the ten pieces is sung in a different language, and they explore different vocal traditions so diverse it’s breathtaking. African languages Xhosa and Lango are featured alongside Bulgarian, old Norse, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Mongolian and Portuguese.
And this morning we listened to it for the first time




Beautiful .
It’s good to be alive today.


May

 

The seasons seem to be hurrying along this year after a bloody awful winter. 
It’s May already and the start of the month means that my Montana Clematis is in flower again.
It covers the garden gate arch with pretty pink flowers and suddenly the back garden is transported back in to a secret garden again. Private and enclosed as it was always designed to be.

We’ve had too many bank holidays , I’m sick of them



A Turd On The Picnic Rug



Bulldogs have no inhibitions.
It’s one of their less charming of traits
They are not self conscious about anything, unlike Welsh Terriers who will back into a bush in order to have a poo whilst on a walk and who will hesitate politely when offered a morsel of food from a stranger.

Years ago you may remember that Winnie held up the traffic on the  village zebra crossing at school pick up time in order to have her bowels well and truly opened and was well known for stealing food out of people’s hands if allowed.
She once stole a Farley’s rusk from the bottom shelf of a baby pram in the churchyard and even forced her entire head into an old lady’s handbag in order to retrieve a discarded polo mint.   
One time she even went missing when I had a British telecom workman in and I found her sitting in the passenger seat of his van eating a packet of cheese and onion crisps.

Anyhow, back to this morning and on our morning walk Dorothy spied a group of people preparing a picnic breakfast at the Dyserth Walkway and before I could stop her , had ambled over.  
Now before I get berated for not controlling my bulldog here, in my defence, the woman who had just laid one of those tartan, plastic backed picnic rugs on the ground,  did welcome Dorothy over with a “Well hello beautiful , are you coming to say hi ?”and being a sociable sort Dorothy nonchalantly  walked across the rug to say hello.
I could already see that there was no food on the rug, only a selection of crockery mugs and a Basket so I walked on giving the group a proud smile as they crooned and patted over a smiling Dorothy.

The ooohhhs and arrhhhhs of welcome suddenly changed however to embarrassed laughter, a shriek !! and a panicked no no no no !!!! and I turned quickly to see Dorothy squatting manfully in the the centre of the rug where she was in the final process of laying  a very large industrial sized Steaming turd.
She smiled encouragingly to all as it plopped onto the rug like a bucketful of wet cement 
 
The shame

Mamma Mia film Night

 


The TCA film night kicked off tonight and I’m glad I pushed past no sleep to help out well….until Pierce Brosnan started to sing him dreadful set piece SOS and I sneaked home, well before half time, after a couple of large white wines and gossip with the velvet voiced Linda and Lorraine from the Garden Centre

We had twenty five people turn up, mostly the women and children of the village , so it was more a practice night to sort logistics and technical issues out ( Thanks to Andrew And Dave who sorted out the speaker problems)

I think the event will grow with some lateral thinking 

The aubretia is bright purple on the Walls of Chapel Street and the blossom vibrant on the village green.

It was nice to get home 

I’m tired today



No sleep today…..I need a catch up too…..btw Roger goes in next week for his snip, and not a moment too soon,


And Just Like That Season 2 | Official Teaser | Max

20 things You Didn’t Know About me

A lazy Post

1. The first guy I had a relationship with, was a cheerful scouse medic called Roger...... he lived in Manchester and I lived in Sheffield, so we basically saw each other at weekends, high days and holidays......
After 9 months a friend of his, who decided that she liked me more than him, rang me up one day to inform me that he had a fiance ( A WOMAN!) ,(who he lived with) ...suffice to say I didn't get an invite to the day do!

2. In 1984 I did a parachute jump for charity even though I cannot abide heights.
Luckily I was connected to a static line, which thankfully opened my chute automatically as I totally forgot any of my pre jump training...........
I wore one of my Brother's old all in one silver rally suits ( I was showing off ) which totally got covered in shit when I crash landed into a ploughed field, subsequently broke my collar bone and got dragged around it for an age when the wind caught in my canvas!

3. I was once voted "best arse" in the Prestatyn High School 6th form awards ( no jokes please!)

4. I never owned a dog until I was 40

5. I was once attacked by an 80 year old hebephrenic schizophrenic when I was kneeling on the floor putting on her slippers..........she blacked both my eyes and knocked me unconscious .

6. As a child I nearly died twice...... I once choked on a mint imperial when I was around 8, and was saved by my quick thinking mother who upended me over a sink in my father's shop to dislodge the offending sweet .
I also very nearly drowned in a hotel swimming pool in Loret del Mar (Spain).....I went under for the third time.....silently ( I didn;t want to make a fuss) and was only saved when a man noticing my hand poking up through the water, lifted me onto the side of the pool.....
I have never liked water since! (and to be honest I have never been too keen on mint imperials either!)

7. I suffer from sleep apnoea.....once, at the Guttman's Paralympic village when I was sharing a dormitory with a score a paraplegics...... the lads got so sick of my snoring so much so, that in the middle of the night they got up in their wheelchairs and pushed my bed through the emergency exit!

8. I am colour blind........(take a look at my fashion sense if you find that a difficult one to believe)

9. Walking down 2nd Avenue in New York on one rainy Monday morning, I once literally bumped into Sigourney Weaver

10. I have never been arrested but I was once cautioned by two York policemen having a pee in the street dressed as a gorilla 

11. I can play chess moderately well

12. I have a deformity of my left index finger called dupuytren’s contracture 

13. I have traveled on the fastest zip wire in the world, velocity 2 in Snowdonia

14. I have written Going Gently almost every day since 29th December 2005

15. I have watched 5 babies born including twin girls. I have used a defibrillator  3 times and have been involved in one hospital fire and evacuation.

16. My favourite city to visit is New York which I have gone to eight times ( or is it 9?)

17. I have no middle name

18. I can dispatch a chicken if needed and have been trained to gut , pluck and prepare a carcass

19. I learned to Swim when I was 41

20.  My first job was at the Nat West Bank. On my reference for psychiatric nursing Mr Williams the sub manager wrote “ As a bank clerk John clearly shows the potential for psychiatric nursing” 

Marina Abramović & Ulay On Their Meeting at MoMA |



 It was around 1 pm when I realised I’d not spoken a word today. I was walking the dogs down the lane and Polish Monika stopped me to ask how Trefor was doing. 
I’m not complaining, I’m just observing .
Of course I’m in work later with a lovely support worker who will chat away to me merrily all night if I want her to but that’s not what I was talking about.
When you live alone that’s what happens.
This isn’t a mournful post today, but it is a thoughtful one. 

The cherry tree has blossomed in the corner of the Churchyard and I stopped to look at it’s vibrant pink blooms from the lane bottom. 
Now when. did the likes of a pink tree please me so much? 

It feels warmer outside than inside today…I will go to bed shortly for a nap.
I’ve been dreaming odd dreams of late
This morning it was opening of odd Christmas gifts aboard a train crashing down a mountainside.
and the moving of  my belongings from a fractured old house
Figure those out of Freud .

I make pea soup for lunch and stir fried noodles for supper and listen to Max Richter’s On The Nature of Daylight, watched by my morphed family stood on the kitchen radiator. 
They watch and never speak 


I remember my grandmother’s fingers stroking my hair when I was a little boy