Iced Primulas & Being productive

The frost has totally iced up all my primulas and they resemble tiny ice sculptures all over the garden! which is so sad as I spent hours dotting them all over. The field opposite has totally frosted over and the weather this morning is bright and cold, just as I like it.

We have decieded to buy the
Citroën Berlingo ! had a good look at it yeasterday and it's huge inside even though it looks like a van which should have a wheelchair parked in the back of it! Chris would love a small jeep, but the cheap running berlingo ( which sounds like a 1970 black porn character), has won the day.We will be investing in a dog gate also so car journeys will be safer but certainly less friendly!

Had to laugh! the berlingo's last owner WAS in a wheelchair! Just returned from part x ing the Polo! Oh the shame, as the garage owner was walking around our car with lips pursed! Finlay and Meg were busily ripping the back off the driver's seat!

I have arranged to Pick up Belingo (as the car is being named) on Friday (Janet calles it the spazmobile which is a little uncharitable) , so spent a productive few hours on line organising insurance and the like. Then after a glorious walk on the beach went to Halfords in Colwyn Bay to get the dog grill for the new car! (no more bitten seats)! When I was there popped into a junk/antique shop that Janet had recommended, and saw a lovely if not slightly worn arts and crafts desk. It was tiny and just right for the cottage so I was amazed when the shop owner said it was 85£! I pushed the fact the lock does not close properly and got it for 65£

A bargin!

Registered with a dental practice in Prestatyn and could not believe the practice still has vacancies! I suspect the reason is that all the dentists in the practice are Polish and new to the country which is all very Welsh. Called in to see Janet to arrange what she is bringing for dinner on Saturday, she and Ned are providing the starters, Andrew and Jayne the pudding and Ann and Tim the drinks. This "sharing" of the food makes socializing so much easier and stress free! Anyhow as she was talking to me ( I was in the car with the dogs) Finlay became hysterical, as he wanted her undivided attention and as she poked her finger in the window, desperately he grabbed on to it like a drowning man would do to a lifebelt!. Hopefully she wont need a tetanus and the scars will fade eventually! whoops!

Pegasus

Sculpture at Hillbark Hotel

"Swings and Roundabouts"

I use this phrase a lot and when on the phone to a friend tonight I used it again to underline how things will get better in his life! He asked me to look at where the phrase actually comes from, and I came up with the following:-

The full saying is usually given nowadays as: "What you lose on the roundabouts you gain on the swings" or vice versa. This was a reference, in an old poem, to a showground-owner's claim. In other words, on some days the kids would pay to pile onto the swings and provide his income, though the roundabouts were neglected. Obviously, it would be vice versa on other days. Today, of course, it applies to any such 50/50 or up/down situation. The poem ‘Roundabouts and Swings' is by Patrick Chalmers and here are the appropriate lines, after the poet asks the fairground-man what his work is like: "Said he 'the job's the very spit of what it always were, 'It's bread and bacon mostly when the dog don't catch a hare, 'But looking at it broad, and while it ain't no merchant kings, 'What's lost upon the roundabouts, we pulls up on the swings."

Talking to old acquaintances and friends from years ago at Nu's wedding, I realised how my life over the past few years would resemble "swings and roundabouts". A few, that knew me when I was a driven ward Manager, have found the fact that I now am a part time d grade living in a tiny Welsh village " intriguing","surprising", "worrying" and in one case downright "amazing! " Their reactions , especially some of the shocked ones amused me, and the fact that I was amused rather than worried about it speaks volumes.

To me swings and roundabouts, mean just simply that the negatives of life always pass! ie This too will pass, phrase already discussed in a previous blog http://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/2006_10_03_archive.html

The wedding

Weddings can go one way or another in so much as enjoyment is concerned, sometimes the pressure to have a perfect day just does not work, and you are left with a fixed smile and an empty feeling. Nuala and Jim's wedding everyone knew would be different, it was just a joyous occasion, and we had a lovely time being a part of it all. The setting was amazing! (Hilbark Hotel on the wirral), the venue was personal to Nu (Luxurious, scarlet decoration all very sumptuous) and the guests urbane, friendly and sociable! The wedding planner had the whole thing working like clockwork and the guests were all seated in the great hall when she briefed me as I waited for Nu to arrive. Typically Nu made an entrance! Her outfit was stunning! Long fishtail skirt in a deep red, black feathered top (AND I mean feathered) and a red and black feathered head piece! She looked magnificent! and I was proud as punch as I walked her down the aisle! Nancy (Nu's mum) was well enough for me to hand her over to her for the last few feet, and there was many teary eyes when she gave her away! When they were making their vows ( and loving every minute of it ! no nerves on show only smiles!) Nancy and I held hands! ( it was a little emotional!) Nu's friend Jen ( she of the Miss Jean Brodie accent) and Jim's affable friend Richard read out prepared poems and after signing the registers the happy

couple did a lap of honour around the guests to cheering and applause!

The wedding photos, which are sometimes such a trial, were just fun as both Nu and Jim seemed to love the attention and spectacle, I must admit it was rather like watching a HELLO photo shoot!

( Left Jen, me and Richard laughing at Nu and Jim who were being photographed )

Dinner and speeches were excellent. Chris was a little upset that we were seperated for the dinner ( I was on the top table talking turkeys with Jim's farmer dad), but he soon teamed up with Shiv -dog owner and horse rider! Pearce ( Nu's brother) made a moving speech celebrating how Nuala brightens up every room in which she walks, and the best man Mush (I havent asked why everyone calls him that) was spot on with his comedy turn.

Nuala and Jim are well loved, both by family and friends.... and it showed. A happy day!

I have never looked so smart!! (honest I left my slip on wellies at home)

Wedding part 2

The food was amazing! and again it was typically Nu in design! Loved the Wedding cake(s) the tower of which remained intact for most of the evening! At 10pm out came the best bacon butties and cups of chips I have tasted in a long time!

The afternoon "do", moved effortlessly into the evening "do", and managed to catch up with some familiar faces from other tables. Lovely to catch up with three former Sheffield Physios Gráinne, Dybnah and Hillary are powerhouses of energy, and they exhaust you in a totally over-the-top Irish way! (see pic!)

Mike and Bev came over from Sheffield and Maisie was beautifully behaved, ans as you can see she actually got Chris to be animated when his picture was taken!

The Irish contingent (Brian and Hils) and the Nu's Liverpool mates (Dave and Liz) true to form were totally friendly and welcoming. We recieved several invites

forIreland's west coast seaside trips and fishing trips off the

Southport coast! by the end of the evening and you just knew that is wasn't just gin talk ! Exhaused we got to bed at midnight leaving the crack still going on full blast.

A nice day!

We left early this moring after eggs benedict (We relived our New York Holidays as we had that most mornings at Pershing square outside Grand Central Station !

( http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/pershing_square01/)

A masterclass in obsession

I enjoyed Notes on a Scandal (2006)! an intelligent and complex story of obsession,repression and class envy , Cate Blanchett as reckless teacher Sheba, not coping with marriage and herself and knobbley old Judi Dench as bunny boiler friend Barbara are fine in the lead roles. Dench is especially impressive and brings a touch of humanity to a potentially vile and damaged individual. Bill Nighy was excellent also as Blanchetts older and bemused husband. Well worth a visit!

Went with Hazel and got the times of the showings wrong, so with an hour or so to kill we went to Osborn's grill in Llandudno. The grill and wine bar was campy over the top, yet quiet and very comfortable. Had a nice chat and glass of Chardonney! Perhaps when Chris' dad comes up we can go there for a meal. I was very impresed

.

mexican stand off

a rare photo, neither Joan or Meg look happy but both have decieded NOT to move!

memory

Strange thing happened to me today! I had a sudden rollercoaster ride down memory lane to the 1960s! Rushing around work after my first acute spinally injured patient for ages, I just noticed a striking elderly Jewish lady watching all the ICU goings on from the side ward( she looked like a dark version of Nancy Walker you may remember that she played Valerie Harper's wisecracking mother in Rhoda). Something made me stop and as I know I have an excellent memory for a face I entered her room to say hello.

She surprised me, as before I could say anything she said in a thick European accent "Hello it's John isn't it? I havent seen you since your were a little boy!" This was Betty, a friend of my mother's from the conservative club days of the 1960's and early 1970's. I remembered a score of Fanny Craddock-esque ladies with Thatcher hairstyles and leathery cleavages, that all sat together in their fur stoles with large martinis. Betty was perhaps the most memorable as she had a thick smokers voice that growled like Eartha Kitt, and seeing her brought back all those long forgotten memories of a lonely suburban childhood. I was very touched as she remembered me! And even knew I was in Sheffield (But still thought I was a psychiatric nurse). we chatted for a while, and I only returned to thinking about her only after I left work to walk the dogs on the beach. I found it strange that ancient memories surface so easily when provoked You think that they are gone, done and dusted as it were, but no,they are all lurking there always! just waiting to catch you unawares!