Food and Choir

 At dawn Ruth went foraging in the relative cool ( 32 degrees), she found The San Miguel Market, where we ventured out for breakfast at 10 am. The food was glorious

The lisping choir Talia Grupo were in fine voice. Their selection of hits from Eurovision were inspired and sometimes incredibly moving. I will post a few pieces when they arrive on line but will leave you with this rehearsal piece of Fairytale a Eurovision winner for Norway in 2009.

The auditorium gave the orchestra and choir a standing ovation which held three encores

One of which I videoed ( you can video an encore btw)

After the concert we had garlic prawns at the market followed by beers in the square as the rain pelted down as it has down every evening at ten pm

Lovely

Culture and Heat

 The Reina Sofia Museum was a cool haven , as was our 2 hour breakfast at a little cafe just beyond Plaza Major. Ruth and I  are lucky as we love people watching, cafe sitting and not overdoing things in bloody hot weather. Guernica by Picasso was bigger than I thought, and was suitably drab compared with his contempories’ works.

Dali’s Girl at the Window ( an early work and rather haunting)

The Adorable Joseph de Togores’ Paraja en la playa

Guernica

Tonight we ate seafood paella, croquetas de jamón Serrano and drank beer on the square and watched diners in the next outdoor restaurant get soaked as a wonderful thunderstorm overwhelmed their rickety  umbrellas

I’ve had a lovely time so far…I’ve really needed to be away ….ive needed to feel more than a mere student or an old nurse or a 63 year old singleton …travel lightens you, it nurtures you….and tomorrow we go for a mooch around the food market nearby then the highlight lisping choir concert in the evening

How lucky am I ?

A Fat Spider-Man in The Sun

 

It’s been a nice day so far.

The apartment is very dynasty chic circa 1989 with Queen sized beds and door knocker Charles Dickens would be proud of. 

The plaza Major is a 16th Century Plaza, filled to the gunnels with the cries of nesting house martins

We sat outside last night and the umbrellas of the cafes misted their patrons with a cooling water mist which was as blissful as you could ever think possible and this morning we watched the birds for an age before going out for a long breakfast

Even the Spaniards are saying it too hot so we shopped for essentials ( gin, Diet Coke , aeoli, ) and are cooling in the air co before the Regina Sofia and a walk at dusk around the great Pond in Retiro before dinner.

I’ve seen it all when we ambled back in the heat

A tubby Spider-Man braving the soaring temps just outside the apartment 

Hey ho

A Glorious Fuck Up

 

We are here

But only after a traumatic saga with non forthcoming boarding passes, wrong information , a stressful time with security which allowed me to leave my passport with a staff member who later denied having it, we missed our flight but the passport was eventually found by a German hero called Kathryn who got Iberia to get us on a later flight for nothing

Our driver didn’t turn up at Madrid airport too, but we were beyond caring at that junction

But here we are laughing hysterically as we chugged beers at midnight

The apartment is luxurious with three balconies overlooking a lovely square

Madrid Tomorrow

 

Delhy Tejero self portrait at the Regina Sofia

I adore this painting

It’s Monday and I’ve washed my best smalls for Madrid tomorrow( the ones without holes)

Two pairs of linen trousers two nice shirts and my best walking Dead T Shirt all packed.

It’s bloody 39 degrees

Don’t worry I’ve just paid my travel insurance 

My brother in law is convalescing after his illness in Portugal and is doing well, so I’m well covered if disaster happens.

I’ve bought tickets to the Regina Sofia Museum of Art and have the tickets to the lisping Choir concert on Thursday all printed out.

The museum is opened till 9 pm so we can go when it’s cooler.

Yesterday I started my exercises the physio prescribed for my weakened arm, he states it should recover

I needed a small dumbbell but didn’t want to buy one (I am somewhat skint due to my recent sick time)  so I put a post on the village what’s app group asking to loan one 

Not four hours later this appeared on the kitchen wall…..

I love my village 

My Madrid fantasy is when I sit down for Talia Grupo’s concert I find myself next to the King Filipe VI

Who is out for a night on his own  

If only!

Ps this block print of the village Church was designed by Ma Manley and has circulated yesterday

It’s beautiful 

Témen Oblåk (“Dark Clouds”) - And Manuel Garcia Rulfo

A stunning bit of music

 Now why can’t we have a Manuel Rulfo lookalike in Trelawnyd

Middle Finger To Trump

Well done Broadway 

 

The Ukrainian Village Revisited -The Ghost Hens

Today’s post is a revisit, I’m working tomorrow so haven’t the energy or inclination to say something new

I miss the animals on the field sometimes and remembered this post of nearly fifteen years ago as Bun and Weaver galloped in and out of the living room window at dusk, in order to try and catch one of the chattering sparrows late nesting in the honeysuckle  

The Ghost Hens 2010

This afternoon I caught a young woman dropping a container of cooked pasta over the field gate.I didn't recognise her, as she is new to the village.she's divorced, lonely and perhaps somewhat depressed I thought
The hens love spaghetti she told me rather guiltily....I warned her that Irene the sheep loves pasta too!
I love that people " adopt " the animals on the field from time to time...they all do rather secretively , as if what they are doing is wrong which is rather sweet......i think
The bachelors seems to have endeared themselves to many of the locals, which is a common thing for tiny birds to do. They bring the underdog support nature of people.
It's a British Thing, I always think
I was reminded of my old broiler birds The Ghost Hens because of it all
Now, for those that don't know, the Ghost Hens were five genetically fucked up broiler hens that arrived at the Ukrainian Village as brainwashed , psychologically damaged little pullets. Designed to eat themselves fat in a matter of weeks, these sad little hens had been brought up in a massive barn of a building under artificial lights with thousands of other little fuck ups .
They had never seen the sun, never ate a blade of grass and had never had the room to scratch their own arse without getting battered by another goggle eyed clone.

Faced with their very own warm hen house and a miniature run, these sad little characters continued to eat themselves fat in silent desperation, but they did eventually react to their brave new world, and calmly and very slowly they started to turn their faces into the sun to live a little.
Surrounded by animal drama and chaos, The Ghost Hens always looked unflappable but their inactivity was just a useful way of coping. They were too big and too comical to run around in silly chicken circles.
They just couldn't do it.

Anyhow,
I remember taking the below photo very well.
It was approaching dusk on a June evening and the rest of the field was in constant motion.
The other hens were mooching slowly homewards to roost, the geese were bickering over a patch of grass like they do and the hysterical runner ducks were being , well, just bloody hysterical.

In groups of two the guinea fowl chatted noisily on the field wall, before flying up into their Ash tree and even from the gate I could hear one of the pigs snoring in their hay beds, as the ewes pulled their heads up as one to listen..

Only the gentle Ghost hens remained still. Sitting sweetly and serenely in the fading evening sun with their eyes interested but unmoving and their beaks slightly open……they sat until their white plumage tinged pink..........in the warm evening light, only then did they heave up their heavy bottoms and painfully waddled to bed like old ladies do after a busy day pottering.

Devipravaha -

Just on the beach with this song playing

The Welsh are a bit windswept and are sitting either side of me

Both leaning in like the Welsh do

Thank You

 This video is a thank you to you my followers 

It’s sweet natured and emotional and good

Just like most of your comments of support over the past three years

My qualification is so much more than just a potential change of career

It signifies a challenge and a personal growth which has challenged my low self esteem and grief after divorce.

I have grown as a professional and as a person through my study and supervision and personal therapy and

I have seen and accepted holes in my own psychi and have finally learned to be kinder to myself.

  

I have worth and I like myself so much more than I did when I felt alone, and unloved and a failure.

Thank you , readers for your loyalty 

It means a great deal and has gone a long way

The choir above is a force for good

It’s kindness mirrors yours here

Thank u again

The Windmills of your mind.

 I’m working at the hospice all day today

Later I will get my overall grade for my Counselling Cert

And already I’ve had messages of support from my supervisor, my personal counsellor and my peers…

Today the University Board pass our portfolios

And After Three long years 

I am suddenly, at 63, a trained counsellor!🩷

 👨🏼‍🎓and I can own the feeling that I’m incredibly proud of my achievement 

Hey fucking ho!

Cap n gown 

Go figure

Wild Flowers

 The Trelawnyd Community Association planted a strip of land by the community orchard with wild flowers a while back.

I took a look at it today in the drab weather

It looks lovely

And if you have a novelty veg or fruit photo please send it to jgsheffield@icloud.com

Polly and Zombies

 The panacea to a bad day is friends, food and cinema

I ticked every box today.

I met my friend Polly for brunch at Bryn Williams (she chased me yesterday and seemed to just know I needed her company today)

Proper coffee, eggs Benedict and a good chatter and boy did I feel better. 

Balance in an unbalanced week.

I came home, hung washing on the garden bushes then took Trendy Carol’s hubby to his hospital appointment 

This afternoon I went to the Picturehouse to see Jimmy Boyle’s Twenty Eight Years Later which I enjoyed in part.  

The infected have now evolved into odd moving naked cavemen types led by alpha males with huge penises

Not exactly The Walking Dead but an interesting and impressive twist 

This story is a coming of age story of twelve year old survivor Spike ( an impressive Alfie Williams) and is full of Boyle’s cinematic tricks and signature overbearing soundtrack 

Not a bag of laughs but my touchstone ( a dark comfortable afternoon cinema visit ) has calmed my day

On the way home I noticed that the flower meadow that was planted by the TCA has bloomed underneath the community orchard.

I will photograph it tomorrow 

Thought

 I’ve seen too many sad things today

Hard Hearted Bastard

 I was buggered yesterday. 

The acuity rating of our patients is high, which essentially means they are complex and need a great deal of nurse intervention 

The upside of this is that you are busy and stimulated 

The downside is that your feet ache when you get home.

I so needed Dorothy’s foot massage tongue last night

I soaked my feet in a washing up bowl of hot soapy water instead.

Gin and tonic in hand.

I woke late today, it was nearly eleven 

I walked the Welsh and treated them with some cooked ham 

And enjoyed the face Mary always pulls when she’s eating something delicious

I had a Facebook message from a guy I didn’t recognise this morning too.

It was the son of one of my old spinal Injury patients I’d nursed back in 1998 or so

Her name was Julia and I remember her once wheeling herself into my office to inform me that I was 

A hard hearted bastard! 

“ I’ve been called worse “ I shot back 

“I bet you fucking have “ she replied over her shoulder

Julia was a patient we would now describe as challenging

Then I would have described her as a pain in the arse

But I sort of liked her, despite her ability to be able to exasperate even the most pious of nuns.

Julia’s son messaged me with the news that his mother had died at the age of 77

She was herself to the end, he wrote, and even called her Intensive Care Consultant a Cu*t before she succumbed to her illness.

That sounded like the julia I remembered, the middle aged Rotherham woman who would give the young male paraplegics a run for their money any day, with a potty mouth and with a respect for no one she hadn’t tested herself.

She was a terrier of a woman, spiky, earthy some would say common. A product of a hard upbringing and a life of tragedy.  

But when Julia left the Spinal Injury Unit she left me a signed paperback book she had read whilst on bedrest

It was Going Gently by David Nobbs. 

I still have it somewhere

On the front page she had written with love from Julia, you gave me my life back

And I replied to her son’s message with this very story

For Good - Wicked -

I’m working all day today 🤪

Trendy Carol’s hubby has the Welsh yet again 🩷

And with the  Wicked sequel due out very soon ,

I thought I’d play you this song.

I saw Wicked The Musical in San Francisco and it was truly forgettable , 

But I did remember this one duet from the second half with some affection.

In the hospice this song features in many pre death organised funerals . 

It’s often there to celebrate a certain relationship , invariably a friendship 

That is treasured

And I remember one patient sharing with me that the phrase “ handprint on my heart” was so painfully appropriate to them that it brought tears to my eyes.

We all have that special person that was a force for good in our lives. Wicked’s strength is the chemistry between Elphaba and Galinda.and thats why this song has untouchable power about it

We can all reach out mentally and recognise that love

It’s a love that keeps us all going

Lessons On The Playing Field

 It was 30 degrees here in North Wales

My counselling room was oppressive and humid I couldn’t open the windows wide on the sunny side of the building in case confidentiality was compromised.

My client was tired and hot and bothered

It wasn’t the ideal counselling environment for both of us

Suddenly I had an idea and asked my client

Do you remember those hot rare days in primary school when your favourite teacher took a class on the playing field ?

They smiled and nodded at the memory

Let’s go for a walk and a sit in the shade 

And that’s what we did . We walked to a knot of trees behind the counselling building and sat in the cool shade of some silver birch 

Disregarding marking our clothes on the cool earth

And there my client talked

Eva Braun

 I never tell anyone that I’m a nurse when I am a patient in the care system 

I almost did today when I attended day clinic for an injection into my right eye

The nurse doing the preliminary tests was cool and efficient

And after I had told her I was eye phobic 

She continued to be cool and efficient

I informed her that I had taken 2 Valium 

A fact she ignored 

And the rest of the consultation was completed in silence

I remembered Victoria Wood’s famous you’ve a look of Eva Braun comment

The consultant was gentle and reassuring which helped and when the injection came it was unpleasant but not horrendous 

When I left I mentioned to the staff nurse in charge that things would have been easier for me if that nurse had been friendlier 

I’m beyond keeping quiet about lacklustre care

THE BONEY M experience and a Father’s Day perspective.

I never liked Boney M when I was 18 but

Loved this interpretation 

It’s 6 am and I’m doing my first long day at the hospice today in two and a half months ! 

My arm weakness is no better….physio booked for Thursday 

😟

And changing the mood somewhat ……..

It was Father’s Day in the Uk two days ago.

I wasn’t really a good son

I was angry and petulant at my father for the most part when he was alive

He was distant, and often angry and not skilled in the art of parenthood 

We were not a good fit.

I reconciled much with him, in the year of his death  

But it was never quite enough.😞

Years later I know I compensated when I was a good son-in-law to my ex husband’s father

We talked often after my husband disappeared to bed on his father’s visits to wales 

Sat in the living room together, or on the back patio, with the dogs on our knees

We put the world to rights

And he shared family worries to someone who didn’t judge. 

A flawed man who knew he was flawed

As we all are….

I remember him telling me, after many gin and tonics how proud he was at me joining his family and we shook hands clumsily in the dark like conspirators. 

Me and my father in law in the early days of the Ukrainian village

I still, remain proud that I always made an effort with him.

That’s why I went to his funeral, an event I should never have put myself through

Hey ho

I wish I had known my father as well as I knew my father in law

I wish I had been a father too🙏🌈

Leaving On a Jet Plane

 Travelling still can be a bit of a palaver as in the olden days most of the leg work was done by your travel agent . But at least we don’t have to order travellers cheques any more. 

Oh the ease of debit card. 

International travel, for the most part is easy. 

I’ve just booked a car to pick me and Ruth up at Madrid airport for peanuts

30£ for peace of mind

I’ve worked out our metro journey to the Auditorio National, sorted tickets out for The Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia

Everything is organised. 

It will be hot so my hastily ordered linen pant Amazon purchases have arrived 

I will look cool and collected and floaty in cream and pale green

( trendy Carol eat your heart out) 

Gone has those gauche days when travel was terrifying

When me and my sister first went to Spain in the 1980s and she followed the toilet instructions printed in almost English All Solids To Be Placed In Bin TO THE LETTER 

And SHAT in the bin

Bidets were something you washed your feet in 

And the water from the taps was something to be feared like leprosy 

My ex husband and I went to Malta in those early days and it was only his second time on a plane

He was terrified which amused me greatly 

I felt a seasoned traveller back then having a few trips to New York already under my belt 

I still get nervous on take off

But I still see flying anywhere as a treat

And I think I always will

Hey ho