Hypericum and the best laid plans of mice and men

My plans got rained out today! It has pissed down!...managed to get out to Jacksons and have bought several cottagey/old fashioned plants for the new garden. Bought honeysuckle, loosestrife, lavender, formosa,buddleia, and another rambling rose for the arch!. Pleased to get a hypericum (left) as it one of my favourite garden shrubs! its smell reminds me of vintage gardens in surburbian Prestatyn when I was a child.

Managed to put in some of the structural plants in between the showers, but couldn't dig the path out! However I did get to the builders' merchant and ordered the hardcore.

Last night we watched the romantic comedy One Fine Day, with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer. It is an excellent 1940 ish style old fashioned New York movie, and I must admit George Clooney is a talented comedian! and actor, and rather better than Cary Grant who dominated similar roles in the 1940's and 1950's.

Just lit the cottage fire tonight, so autumn is here ! and a lacklustre summer is over

Chris and his first horsey award!

Bank Holiday Monday and missed Chris on his big "Fun ride" over jumps at a local Country Park at Trefnant, as I have been on nights last night.

Very proud of himself he is sporting a large impressive rosette!!! The first of many I have no doubt! We are heading towards the Flint and Denbigh hunt on Boxing day, which is an impressive and historic local event.

The rosette is now on show above the fireplace.

Things are a bit fragmented this week as am on nights wednesday and Thursday and Sunday, and the weather has been too bad to get stuck in with the path, which needs completing as I am getting stressed with muddy paws and boots. Nigel visits from Sheffield on Friday so I am looking forward to that-- we are going be play teenagers and go and see Snakes on a Plane!

Sheffield

Made a flying visit to Sheffield last night to take Mike out for his 40th Birthday . It was lovely to see Maisie, who now looks like a proper little girl! and great to see Bev so happy. Mike and I went to All Bar One, and had a good old gossip, laugh and too many drinks. The hangover was worth it! Didn't have much time to see anyone else, but did manage to get to Cole Brothers (aka John Lewis) for a fix of window shopping. If I had to work in a department store then Coles would be the one I would choose. very classy!

Got home mid afternoon and after a particularly wet walk, I bathed all three dogs and flopped down on the couch in front of an old film (and I intend to stay here all the remainder of today!!)

Tesco....and the embarrassing incident of the moisturizing cream

At lunchtime during my time at Abergele Hospital, I popped down to Tesco for a bit of lunchtime shopping. The Tesco brand stuff is very cheap and as I am soon to be a poor student I decided to to stock up on a few items. Now, I m plagued with dry skin on my face at times, and treat myself to body shop Vitamin E moisturizing cream! (7 pounds!!!!), so seeing some baby moisturizer at 1.99 £ I bought it quick sticks!!!

In the car park I liberally scooped the cream out and plastered it all over my face, and started to rub it all in!!! Nothing happened!!! it just stuck to my face like white concrete!!!! I HAD BOUGHT NAPPY CREAM!!!!!!!! Now people started to stare and panic stricken I searched for something to wipe it all off with.The steering wheel, window handle and seat all by this time got covered in big globs of the cream!!!
Luckily I keep an emergency set of pants in my manbag(!?).don't ask why, they are just always in there..anyhow I grabbed them and spitting desperately to wet them a little I managed to scrape some of the mess off my face, just as two women pulled up in the next car parking space!! Looking as though I was swimming the channel I sped off ....................

We all need a good cry

was having a look at youtube.com this evening! an excellent site for videos (wonderfull time watching and listening to The Colour Purple,(the bit where Whoopie Goldbergs meets her sister after 40 years), Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River, and Lea Selonga auditioning for Miss Saigon. ! all my favourite sad tearjerkers

But the one that finished me off was a little home made video dedicated to a beloved pet- a Scottish Terrier called Gloria! Set to a power ballad ( I dont know who was singing ?) it pulled every heart string !
I blubbed buckets!!

I dare anyone not to!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdI952MYLrE

What's this all about?

Can a fat deer be called bariatric?

Had a mixed day today ! went to Abergele Hospital for the annual moving and handling training, and was immediately transported back to my Sheffield Lodge Moor days. Abergele is an old fashioned sanatorium set in lovely grounds, at coffee break I was amazed to be able to walk a mere 10 yards from the car park and actually saw a large deer walking calmly in the woods!

As study days go, the day was fairly uninteresting, but I was intrigued at a new politically correct term being coined by the moving and handling trainers. Apparently patients over 25 stone are now being termed bariatric!!

http://www.independentliving.co.uk/bariatric.html

The timing was interesting as Doris Karloff aka Ann Widdecombe was debating the government efforts to combat obesity on radio 4 this morning, but various statistics discussed by the trainers today was indeed frightening. They stated that GPs in our catchment areas have literally scores of patients over 35 stone!
They are expecting a bariatric "surge" in days to come.................hummmmmmm!

Met a very interesting lady today, a rather butch mission nursing sister from Zimbabwe. She was visiting her mother in Prestatyn and was doing some bank work over here to update her nursing practice. We had a nice chat about Hyenas eating her rubbish and ground pigs scoffing her potatoes! and she confided that she couldn't believe how rude people are over here! It made me think of the Zimbabwen nurses I worked with in Sheffield. They had a stillness about them, which made them appear calm and rather benign, yet had a formal courtesy in the way they interacted with everyone. I still miss working with Edith Marimbirie, a middle aged former midwife, who laughed at everything and who held your hand as she spoke to you. She provided my spinal ward staff with a certain balance.

Dug over the new garden when I got home! then we had bangers and mash for tea ( with onion gravy), which was lovely. Chris is curled up on one couch and me and the kids (Finlay, Maddie and Meg) are crammed onto the other ( thats nice!)

Am sort of watching my new dvd of Poseidon on my computer, as I am typing this ! and am surprised of just how potentially good it is! pity it was ruined by bad editing! Josh Lucas is lovely to look at too!!!

"Snakes on a plane....What's that all about?"

Sounds like an urban myth, but one of the sisters that I worked with last night actually asked "Snakes on a plane.....What IS that all about?".........Some of the younger staff replied collectively "duh!"..........And that got me thinking of the 1950 cleverness and marketing of this 2006 B movie.

The publicity machine at New Line Cinema productions will be hugging themselves! , as they astutely picked a cool black actor, a vintage cheesy title and wisely made sure that no previews were aired of this potentially routine but scary comedy thriller. Word of mouth, bouncing around the internet has made it the exciting cinema phenomenon of 2006, and has insured its box office success where blockbusters such as Poseidon have failed, even before the film is actually released.

Historically a movie's money making ability has often relied on its ability to catch the public's imagination. Word-of-mouth catapulted The Blair Witch Project, to fame , well before it was released. Video rentals made The Shawshank Redemption trendy, and the original Poseidon Adventure burst forth to fame as 1972 audiences were hungry for a glossy old fashioned epic rather than dour "real life" dramas.

Will I go and see it? you are darn right I will?...and I will probably enjoy 30% of it....hey but all that really matters is that I have paid £ 5.95 for the ticket!