The Night Before The Show



 The Hall is prepared , the Trelawnyd Productions committee are shit hot when preparation is concerned. The lighting is up and running thanks to Velvet Voiced Linda’s son in law and Village Leader Ian . Pa Manley is on the lights . Affable Despot Jason and Will are manning the stage with Dave and director Kira.

We have a compare, sorted. All the acts have been sound checked, and powerhouse brummie local counsellor Gina is on raffle sales with Sandra C. The ice creams have been delivered. The health and safety stewards nominated, I’m on the door and local actor and singer Philip Hughes is playing the piano before we start . 

Filipina Nina, who is new to the village and who is reading her own little reading A Filipina in Trelawnyd hugged us in excitement “ I feel welcomed” she said sweetly

And ten year old Imogen is singing this lovely song in the second half




Statue Of My Liberty

 I have a family here in my village.
And just like a blood family , I don’t always see some of them that often ,
But our lives are intertwined by a commonality of history, and sociability and events and community ..
And I love that 
Monday many of the villagers went to the Trelawnyd Community Association’s quiz held in the pub .
I met up with  Affable Despot Jason , his wife Clare and daughter Liv 
Liv was the wisecracking 8 year old I used to babysit who used to back comb William into a Tina Turner lookalike and who would make zombie cookies with me before smashing windfall apples with me for the pigs to eat in her new school shoes.
I haven’t seen her for an age, 
Now she’s talking about university planning 
At the quiz I told her that last year I bought a Lego Statue of Liberty and shared that I hadn’t made time to construct it 
I could make it in a day “ she boasted
“I bet you 10£ that you couldn’t “ I challenged 
I lost 10£


Quirks

The living Room Cards years ago

 We all have personal little quirks 
I know I do.
And mine , at this time of year, do centre about posted Christmas Cards 
Since 1989 I have the slightly irrational wish to have enough Christmas cards to hang around my living room. In Providence Road in Walkley, Wynyard Road in Hillsborough and in Bwthyn y llan in Trelawnyd , I have always surrounded the living room with Christmas Cards. And I’ve always been pleased that it has happened…every year…….every year for 36 years….
Is it all about ego? ….perhaps?……is it about validation ? Could be …..Neediness?  …….you never know 
Habit? …too right ….
Last night I posted my Trelawnyd Productions! Christmas Cards…thirty cards all told  …..26£ 
A reduced number than I usually send ….
A statement which is sad ….that posted Christmas cards seem to be a bit of a dinosaur nowadays 
I have to accept that because of financial constraints people just don’t send Christmas cards anymore

Hey ho😩

Gifts


 I’ve been on a study day for half the day and shopped the rest. I bought bits and pieces for the Show’s raffle prize - a Christmas hamper and then purchased a light up Father Christmas for a second prize. The cardboard cottages which house my family gifts  needed a clean and a dry after Weaver had weed on the table which featured them. Each one of my family will get a selection of small tiny gifts then a certificate of donation to a charity which I hope is close to their heart. 

It’s stormy today ,,wild and stormy.

Pub Quiz

Tonight was fun. 
Affable Despot Jason , wife Claire and wisecracking daughter Liv and I formed two teams in the newly resurrected pub quiz at The Crown. 
What fun
The place was busy and Liv & Claire were third placed and me and Jason were second 
( Beaten by villager leader’s Ian and Helen et al) 
Nice to see that it’s going to be a regular night out….
Liv was a joy to catch up with too, after much discussion she’s agreed to complete my Lego Statue of Liberty set in one day 
We bet 5£ on the outcome 


Liv and Mary in 2017


Respect


 This video made me pause today. A simple testament to faith in a Spanish Cathedral where parishioners pay their respects to a blood stained Madonna .

I found it incredibly moving and rather profound. 

Just about to take Trendy Carol’s husband to the hospital for a check up, then it’s supervision then the pub quiz at The Crown 

Heyho

Food Out


 The food at The Crown ( Our village Pub) is bloody lovely. I finished nights, getting home around 9 am, slept three hours then met my friend Ruth for a traditional Sunday roast dinner . 
Nice to see the new landlords so busy. 
The pub is manning the bar at the show night which is kind of them .
Tonight I went to my sister Ann’s for supper
Another real treat…..

Goosed In The Knackers

The Bastards

This post was written exactly eleven years ago…how things change but a nice one remembered

Meet " The Bastards"These two young and badly behaved lodgers have arrived just before Christmas and will be guests on the field until sometime in February. They are the property of the owner of a local bed & breakfast, who is off to Malaysia for a month. I didn't know him from Adam when he turned up with the sob story of not having a goose sitter, but true to form, I accepted the challenge, even though the new bees are two of the most narky, bad tempered birds that I have ever had the misfortune to meet.
Ever since they arrived the resident flock of geese, the sheep and a few of the older, slower hens have been pecked,intimidated and bullied , so much so That I have had to employ a daily regime of behavior modification in order to assert my dominance over the pair, who think nothing of slipping an orange beak down the crack of your underpants in order to grab a pound of flesh when you are bending over a feed bucket!

So, every morning I will drag each bird out of their house. Take a firm hold of their neck and wings, then will take a walk around the field with the bird tightly tucked underneath my armpit.
It's an old trick that can tame an aggressive cockerel, for after a while, you can actually feel the bird " relax" a sign that it has accepted you are the boss.
It's labour intensive...but effective.
And so, every morning I look like a strange Scot playing a set of white bagpipes around the field, as " The Bastards" are hopefully transformed from evil devil birds to a pair of twittering canaries .
Having said this, I was goosed in the knackers rather violently only this morning, when I dropped my guard opening up the goose house......

The resident goose flock
Russell, Camilla Parker Bowles, Winnie, and Jo

Ps. The Bastards stayed for over a year, before a lesbian Policewoman from Llanfair TH called Bunty finally took them over. 

A week to go

 

The Manley's came up trumps tonight and erected their old folk backcloth to the huge area of white behind the village hall's stage.
It looks fab. 


They are a powerful force   the Manleys ...a bit like The Tracey's out of THUNDERBIRDS.
Director Kira sorted out the sound checks for Chelsea ( our solo female singer) and she sounded fantastic as did the folk trio brought by Alun ( who won many a bread catagory in the Flower Show)
Affable Despot Jason slapped me on the shoulder and quipped " Bloody hell John I think we may have a fab show!" 
And I think he maybe right..
One choir has suddenly backed out but ive thrown myself at the feet of my choir and i think they will fill the gap nicely.

The show,isnt just a silly village show in my opinion
( which in some daft way of course it is)
Its a suture which binds people and community together. 
Something to be vaguely proud of 
Something to be shared
And celebrated  
And enjoyed
" I'll need a massive drink on Friday night" Kira shared before we left the hall
And we all agreed rather 
vociferously , like teenagers at their first party
 

Christmas 1998

 


I wrote this post in my head a few days ago.
Reminded by an old photo of a group of smiling nurses grouped around a man in a wheelchair.

When I was a charge nurse, through necessity and like many singletons ,I often worked the late shift on Christmas Day. There was often an unwritten rule that nurses on that shift came in slightly early in order for the morning staff to get home to their families but the interview room was filled with goodies to eat and visitors catered for the patients for much of the day so the shift was as pleasant as it could be,and on Christmas Day 1998 the five nurses working with me were a grand bunch indeed.

Our patients were the spinally injured who were newly paralysed usually through some trauma and most were nursed on flat bedrest in order for fractures of neck or  back to be strong enough to start to allow the patients to mobilise in wheelchairs.
One young patient had proved to be a nursing challenge for several weeks prior to that Christmas Day.
I shall call him Darren.
Now Darren, a man in his early twenties, was paralysed from the waist down after crashing his stolen car during a long police pursuit. A skinny terrier of a man, Darren lived his short life ducking and diving in the extremes of poverty, institutional care and crime and after his injury had become sullen and combative with the Spinal Injury staff overseeing his care.
We all knew that Christmas that year was bringing Darren to some sort of emotional crisis;  the experienced staff had seen this sort of thing time and time again, and so when visitors arrived from all over North Eastern Britain to support the three other patients in Darren's Ward leaving him feeling angry and resentful and foul mouthed, we were almost prepared for how things unfurled .

Nursing care is intensive on an acute spinal Ward, with each patient being specially turned every two hours by a group of three carers and all it took was a gesture of kindness for the floodgates to be opened on Darren's pain. Pain and grief at being disabled and alone at twenty five years old.
I remember Darren being tight lipped with his arms crossed as he was turned and I remember the nurse nearest to him pausing before we left for the next patient.
The nurse was  Edith Marimbirie and I remember her clearly. A heavy set, gentle faced Senior midwife in her native Zimbabwe Edith had come to our Ward late in her career and like most African nurses I have had the pleasure to work with she carried out her work in a graceful unhurried pace all of its own.
With a motherly hand and a gentle word she gently cupped Darren's teeth clenched cheek for a long moment and that's all it took.
The tears flowed.
Without fanfare another nurse pulled the curtains around the bed and all but Edith left the bed space quietly as Darren sobbed and sobbed and sobbed his pain away, and for the next few hours Edith never left his side.
A mother soothing a child of a man.

I remember that Christmas Day well as we were busy.
But with Edith effectively out of duties the remaining nurses on the Ward never complained that they had more to do, not once and finally, hours later , when Edith joined her colleagues in the interview room with its desks heavy with brought in party food , she was hugged and kissed in thanks for what she had done that afternoon.

Darren turned a rehab corner that Christmas Day. And he went on to be successfully discharged , self caring in his wheelchair.
And Edith used her motherly warmth a score more of times in a way the nursing curriculum never teaches you or even really acknowledges .

Playing to an Audience

 

Playing To An Audience


Click photo to enlarge

I shared some nursing stories from over 36 years with a friend recently the funny ones made them laugh...it was nice to giggle along

  • I've been assaulted several times over the years ranging from slaps and bites, one black eyed punch, one wet turd flung at the back of my head, being hit with a bag of urine which burst on impact and I've had at least 6 pairs of specs broken.
  • I was hospitalised just once following a particularly nasty attack .
  • I've crashed a drunken paraplegic into a ditch in his wheelchair during a panicked push back to the rehab unit from the pub during a snow storm
  • Ive employed a buxom nurse’s bust as a diversion to a male patient who had a particular painful dressing
  • As part of a course I was on I managed to organise a work experience placement at a series of Pittsburgh hospitals 
  • I've seen 5 babies born including one that was christened Harley Davison
  • I was taught to dance the veleta in 1983 in order to partner long term psychiatric patients at their Christmas do
  • I have witnessed open heart cardiac massage twice, held 4 severed fingers in a vomit bowl and witnessed someone bleed to death in a few seconds from ruptured oesophageal varice
  • I have sneaked a small dog into ITU  to visit her master
  • I was reported by a patient in the community for saying I was working for the gas board 
  • Visiting the same patient ( as above) I sat on  but didn’t injure her chihuahua
  • I have dated one patient ( only after I had nursed him and he had been discharged) 
  • I've dated 5 nurses ( 3women  2 men)
  • I 've shagged one doctor 
  • I've played myself on a tv medical documentary ( you only saw my arse)
  • I have helped at least 3 couples conceive babies
  • I have sat with dying patients too numerous to mention , laying them out with well practiced dignity afterwards
  • I have attended perhaps a dozen funerals in and without uniform
  • I have put a visitor with learning difficulties to bed ! After undressing him and putting him into pyjamas
  • I have helped scores of Spinally injured men achieve an erection!
  • I ( and my ward staff) have won two quality prizes for our work
  • I have sat a course for looking after the newborn baby and got told off for cleaning a baby's arse under a mixer tap
  • I have dropped a psychiatric patient down a fire escape
  • I have cried a hundred times in a sluice, in a clinical side room or at home over a bad day
  • I once kissed a policeman when I was on night duty ( 1988)
  • I once shared a bed briefly with a quadraplegic when I was hungover
  • I have danced on the roof of a main hospital in sheffield
  • I have mentored scores of junior nurses and still keep in touch with many of them
  • I once created a whole balcony garden , complete with trees in massive planters for my bedrest patients 
  • I once got my arse stuck in the window of the changing room at lodge moor hospital 
  • I have never fainted at work but I did vomit once after a patient threw up in my mouth during CPR ( in the old days) 
  • I have loved many many many special people and been loved by a few back
  • I have had the privilege to be present at more patient deaths than I could count
  • A previous workmate has just added" Miss you John Gray you did forget to mention your amazing neck massages and ability to hug me and/ or scape me off the ceiling xxxo and your very fit arse!" ..thank you Shelly

Another Christmas story tomorrow xxx

Cheer


 It’s been a pretty miserable set of night shifts. So I’ve bought a miniature Christmas Tree from Marks compensate, there’s something about fairy lights that make the whole world better.

Talia Grupo is at full lisp during this piece of English Eurovision 


You just can’t help smiling 

I’ve heard it said

 I’ve heard it said, that people come into your life…..for a reason 
Bringing something we must learn……..

I have lost two old friends recently. 
One hasn’t been a part of my present life the moment we left for Wales in 2005. 
The other stood next to me in choir and ballsed up many a song.
I had respect and affection for them both 

David was a charge nurse on the spinal injury unit in Sheffield. He was shy, intelligent, taciturn and patient focused. 
We were not friends, for I always thought that he didn’t know how to take my humour , but we were colleagues and I’d like to think that he respected me as much as I did him 

Peter was a local counsellor who enjoyed being on a committee. Elderly and carefully spoken , I always sought him out in choir where he was kind, and friendly and where he could always be trusted to get the more difficult bits wrong. 

Two men , not my friends
But two men, I think fondly about.
Thinking fondly about someone is such an importance 

And we are led…to those who help us most to grow


Advent Sunday

 I’m in the middle of three nights ( hence) the radio silence 
Thank you for your concern, I see I’m a creature of habit who blogs daily out of the enjoyment of it.
I just have not had the time. 
I couldn’t sleep today and moved into the spare bedroom ( which is darker) to see if that would help.
It didn’t 
Dogs and cat on a single bed does not promote sound sleep.
I was up showering a rather smelly Mary at three pm 
Then had to wash by double bedroom duvet after Weaver shat on it. 
I’m beginning to hate nights 

The one good thing is that I’m catching up with paperwork. On my break and in between jobs I’m getting things ticked off. Christmas cards designed with  The Trelawnyd Productions Logo have been addressed and written. Bank Statements have been checked and the backlog of correspondence caught up with. 
I’ve even almost written a somewhat banal blog post, just to prove that I’m still alive 
In fact my new German friend message me yesterday with the same thought and request to which I answered with a somewhat cryptic not really….

I shouldn’t be so uncharitable. 



Bollywood


The Village Show is slowly coming together. 
Mother and daughter Bollywood dancers took to the stage tonight and Chelsea Cameron ( daughter of the lovely Sandra Cameron aka Champion Boiled Egg Winner in the Trelawnyd Flower Show) completed her sound check as did her wife Nina who has prepared her reading which centres about a Filipino woman’s take on a Welsh Christmas. 
We now have a running list of performers and director Kira is preparing her backing track, ready for the night. The lighting is organised, bar confirmed and I’ve bought the raffle prizes ( including an inflatable Father Christmas !!!!) 
Only one act has not confirmed as yet and that is another local choir ( not mine)  
We are chasing it up…

Xmas Tree

 
Roger’s haircut ( Weaver sitting pissed off in background)

Roger had a haircut today.
Mary is going bald so needs no trim as yet .
I’ve got group supervision this evening, where all of the sessional counsellors at the charity I work for get together. This meeting of minds is a rarity, and I’m beginning to realise that counselling can be a rather solitary vocation .
My sister gave the front garden a good seeing too and the cottage feels ready for its first proper Christmas tree in years. 
If I have time I may buy one on the way home 

Counselling Session 12 September 2023

 It went something like this…

Wily Old Irish Counsellor : “ when was the last time you bought something nice for yourself?” 
John: “I bought myself theatre tickets last week”
Wily Old Irish Counsellor: “ something to wear” she countered quickly
John: “ erm…….erm…I’m not sure” 
Wily Old Irish Counsellor “ Something that made you feel good” she fingered her bright red scarf as a kind of metaphor 
John: I can’t remember 
Silence 
More silence 
But voices in my head saying
You don’t deserve anything nice ! 
You’d only ruin it! 
Reading the room the Wily Old Irish Counsellor said “ Why wouldn’t you warrant nice clothes?”
And my silence spoke volumes.

Today I went to Mostyn Gallery and I bought an Elin Manon scarf

One of my clients noticed it today and said it was Very Me 
I laughed and agreed with her before we moved on 



Blue

 

She looked smaller than I’ve ever seen her. 
Dwarfed not only by a large woollen coat and her trademark erect arran bobble hat.
Grief had literally reduced her to a child’s size

Mrs Trellis had lost her greyhound Blue.

I heard through velvet voiced Linda that she had Blue put down after a short illness and had taken a plant around in way of sympathy. The old lady was bereft and shocked and upset that some in the village had made it clear that she should have done the deed earlier. 

Greyhounds look dreadful when they lose weight

She cried when she shared his last moments and was angry at the vet who came out, all emotions so normal but so unwanted. 

Her usually warm little bungalow was dark and cold and felt very empty when I turned to go

Christmas Challenge

 Most of the morning has been filled with show Admin. Chasing up acts, requesting music checking details , yes herding cats.
I’ve done all what I can do so my attention has been drawn to the knotty subject of Christmas . 
Now I’m working Christmas Day so practically I wanted to buy my family no fuss gifts, ones that I can get down to them easily .
And so the challenge this year is to buy gifts that will fit inside a 2x1 inch box🤪
Everyone will get the same box but each one will have something different inside.
My sister Janet, for example will get a miniature ballerina with tickets for the Royal Ballet ( Giselle) and a room booked at Z hotel in Covent Garden, I can tell you this as she already knows the contents but the further challenge is that I need to find some more things to accompany the gifts…



VOILÀ-Bárbara Pravi- Grupo Talía


Mercedes from the lisping Choir messaged me tonight that a new video was available…
13 year old Emma Kok belted the Eurovision ballad  out on Andre Rieu’s 2023- 2024 tour , most noticeably in Bahrain ( an interesting choice I thought) 
I will discuss this more tomorrow