Mud,Dickens and pets

I am waiting for the window replacement man to come and sell us something, so am writing about this morning's cock up. The mistake of the day was to go out in deck shoes.! Usually we (dogs and I ) have a run on the beach around 11.00 am-(well they do the running). There are several reasons why I choose the beach rather than up Gop Hill or down Gypsy Lane:-

• Cleaner on the paws



• allows the dogs to run free, safe from sheep



• cleaner on the paws

However as in most best laid plans I forgot that the tides change with the clock and as last week there were big expanses of sand on which to gallop, today the surf was right in! So slightly disappointed we all trouped to Bishop's Wood for a country walk. Now you have to remember It has been raining for three weeks, and we have to cross a large 1 in 4 slope field! (in Deck shoes!) Yes disaster was in the making! Maddie as usual galloped free of the leads, mud splattered and drooling, she shot past the others in a "chase me chase me" type way, and true to form Fin and Meg did just that! Holding on the leads like an out-of-condition Charlton Heston in Ben Hur, my legs went from under me and I was dragged down the muddy hill on my back. To say that I was mud splattered was an understatement ! I had mud in my woolly hat, mud up the inside of my coat!, mud down my jeans! As I lay there praying for death, Fin and Meg, thinking this was all part of the game hurled themselves on top of me! so then I had mud all down my front and face.

I have been falling over rather a lot recently........which is worrying.

Postscript!

Been to fat club today (less embarrassing than my mud fall ( just about) then, later we went to an excellent one man show of A Christmas Carol at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. The actor ,Robert Perkins (pic) who also adapted the material, was very personable .

Theatre clwyd also had an amusing exhibition of photographs by Sue Packer, intitled pets.

http://www.theherbert.org/whatsOn/exhibitionDetail.asp?eventID=312

This is one of my favourites, ( I wonder why?) One photo of an ancient woman with her "laughing" elderly dog, broke my heart!

Ps. also heard some good news from Sheffield that two of my former staff nurses Mick and Emma (Both I like to think I groomed just a little) have just got sister's posts...lovely ( Can't believe I actually just said my !!)

Oh and spoke to Nu tonight about weddings!..........can't wait/x

A welcome letter & Real Rhyl

Received a letter today from Sr Judy Jones who is a senior nurse in a remote mission hospital in Zimbabwe. The die hard readers of this blog may remember that I met this interesting woman on a study day in the summer:-

http://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/2006_08_23_archive.html

Judy was desperate for some equipment for her wards, basic stuff such as thermometers and patient movement "slides", which could be used without fear of parts needing repairs that could not be done in the country. I scraped together a score of thermometers and several easyslides (DON'T ask me how I got hold of those) and sent off the package, not knowing that the isolated mission would receive it. It was a simple enough thing to do, and I was thrilled today to receive a detailed letter from Zimbabwe thanking me for the items. Things in Bonda Hospital still seem dire at times , as Judy chronicled that the nurses had to actually collect water from the river to boil as all water and electricity had been cut off for 24 hours at a time, but in her own words, "...you might ask how we function?, but with good humour and luck and God's help we do!"

I was touched by her words and was also saddened to hear that out of all her requests for help when she was over in Wales, my meagre package was the only help that Judy's hospital received. Judy has now asked for more help This time she would like any discarded mobile phones, as they can be reused and sold easily to generate money towards a defibrillator and a set of commodes

Sorted out a load of Christmas cards and went into Rhyl to collect a package from Royal Mail. Now I don't go into Rhyl, as is is just one big run down Chav reservation but I must give the old Odeon Cinema in the centre of town its due as being one of my favourite art deco building ( even if it is now a Bingo hall ) . At least they didn't knock it down.

Mozart by Light Bulb

The Mozart concert was lovely even though the "candlelight" was electric in nature. Chris was slightly miffed that the advertised Soprano's "Queen of the Night" from The Magic Flute, was not forthcoming, but you can't have everything!

Waiting for the big storm to hit tonight , Chicken all battened down, working all tomorrow too.

Storm

Not the best photo of the beach, The sky seemed much blacker than you can see here. Liverpool Bay looked quite spectacular

Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie a man after midnight...

I was calculating this morning of how many work Christmas nights out I have been to over the years? Well at least 28 of them I think, and they have all been pretty dire affairs; bad food, noisy, drunken and expensive- yep last night's Abba night (complete with tribute band- and I use the word band rather loosely), was no exception. Half of the ITU lot dressed up in an assortment of pseudo-original Abba garb,and got very drunk very quickly. The other half, just got drunk very quickly! Thank god I found Hazel, who is a tall willowy snob; she stated loudly from the start that she "didn't do fancy dress", and certainly "didn't do party hats." So we sat together and watched the fun. To be fair the lamb was lovely (even if the camp aged and grossly harassed
waiter was lisping at the top of his voice "LAMB!!!, who else has ordered the LAMB!? Darlins? LAMB!!!LAMB?..." The service was crap, the drinks were flat but the music was OK (you can't go far wrong with Abba, even if the lead singer had a welsh accent!)

My favourite Christmas night out memory was the Spinal Injury Night out in an awfull Chinese bar down the Moor in Sheffield. During the "disco" after the meal tempers frayed between British Steel and British telicom on the dance floor, and several fists were flying. The spinal nurses were caught in the crossfire, and I will always remember my friend Ruth yelling "Save Lewis!! Save Lewis", as our weedy Social worker got sandwiched between two battling thugs crying out like Charles Hawtrey "stop it! stop it this is all rather silly!!"

This morning, true to form very slightly muzzy, even though Chris picked me up at 11.30pm. Now off to the beach for a blow, and later we are off to LLandudno to a Mozart by candlelight concert....what a difference 24 hours makes?

How many points in a magnum?

The time has come..... Yes next week I start weight watchers! Long walks on the beach and lots of gardening has not helped my bulging waistline and middle aged spread and I am now 15 stone 6! with a BMI of 30! Yes Shelley Winters eat your heart out. I miss years of Badminton with Mike Kilner ( and so does my size 34 pants!) and I do miss being able to tie my own shoelaces without puffing!, so I have bitten the bullet and sorted my first meeting. I hope to feel the benefit, especially as my creaking back still occasionally gives me gyp! Nu has given me some insentive as she goes to "fat club" regulary.and looks fab!......off now to have a diet coke.

gud news

Nu rang this evening from South Africa....! good news she is engaged! Jim Proposed after absailing down table mountain (pic)..made up for her! but it did make me smile as our holidays centre around New York shops and the beach at Sitges rather than hurtling down an Africa mountain.

Hopefully I can catch up with her next weekend and celebrate, when she is up in Liverpool.

December nights out organised as we build up for Christmas. Off on an Abba nite at work this Friday which will be awful but fun no doubt. Saturday we are off to a Candlelit Mozart concert at Llandudno, ( I am sorry that Nige can't make his visit this weekend to join in! ) A friend at work has got me a ticket to the "Vagina Monologues" next week , Janet and I are going to a reading of a "Christmas Carol" at Theatre Clwyd, Chris and I are off to see a carol service on the 18th at St Asaph Cathedral ! And I hope to get over to see Micky in Sheffield on the 14th, so socially December looks very good. We have even booked the dogs into Ewloe kennels so we can catch up with Mike and Bev on the 28th for our usual Christmas meal!

Ding dong merrily on high.....

Little Britain lives......

Janet and Ann have taken part in the Christmas Tree festival (and I use the term loosely),in Prestatyn's parish church. Basically you pay £2.50 to look at an array of decorated trees and then vote for your favourite. The winning entry gets 250 quid! which is a pretty fair prize, so dutifully I went today to cast my vote. I was glad to have bumped into Judy who I dragged along with me, as I would have felt like a pervert wandering around by myself. An odd group of little Britain greyhairs showed us around while 10 little Bonnie Langfords " performed folk songs, to their showbiz moms and 20 drooling OAPs. The whole thing was surreal beyond anything Matt Lucas could dream up. By tree 20 we were giggling like school girls and made a sudden exit before we were kicked out.




Glorious morning on the beach. The dogs ran for miles, with 2 red setters they met. Poor Maddie with her 3 inch legs was always last, but I gave her 9/10 for effort.

Baked bread and mince pies this morning ( enjoyed that too!) and was reminded of that 1970's Yorkshire tv series Farmhouse Kitchen! ( with Anne Sugden look-a-like Dorothy Sleightholme).Does anyone else remember that?