Happy Birthday Linzi

Chris' neice was 16 last Sunday! apologies for the belated wishes but Chris only told me today!
Hope you had a good one!

Poor Training & Autumn up the Gop

Busy (nice busy) day! It's 5pm and just sat down for the first time since I got up, with coffee and blog! Got the weekly shop done at 8am as Salisbury's at Rhyl is quieter and more user friendly (don't get me started on the width of the aisles!) Well blow me, but just as I finished filling my trolley the bloody fire alarm goes off! Out of no where several puffing red faced middle aged check out staff/middle managers galloped up and down first calling the few shoppers to evacuate, then to remain where they were then to evacuate again! Despite the potential seriousness of the situation, I had to stifle a giggle as one particularly agitated clerk manhandled a frail elderly couple this way and that! Dragging them away from their trolley, one way and then another! I carried on shopping! until then now hyperventilating staff member dragged the couple back into the store

Meg looks suitably windswept up the Gop when I
got home and it was lovely to see the rich yellows of the trees (much deeper and more pronounced due to the wet warm summer). We walk past Sue's ( an old school friend) four horses every day and the dogs love going nose to nose with them. William particularly seems to love this contact and practically shoves his nose up the eldest horse's nostrils whist breathing deeply. it is the oddest thing to watch, as both William and the pony seem rather quiet and interested in each other!

Bought a ton of sawdust to cover the hen house floor this afternoon in Abergele and stocked up with feed for while we are away in New York. Got weighed at weightwaters ( no weight gain!!!) then home again to bake a desperate Dan meat pie and an apple pie for Richard who is arriving later.

As I was cooking a neighbour and his wife introduced themselves from down the lane, they bought some eggs and the husband seemed surprised and interested that I was actually baking! They were very friendly though!

The sawdust has caused much consternation in the large coop this dusk! as all 12 roosting birds refused to enter with this new white stuff all over the floor! I was getting a little exasperated with them all as they resembled the Sainsbury staff this morning ! ( running ineffectively around in circles). Finally I picked Mildred Pierce up and threw her in, and the others (all heaving big sighs of relief) galloped after her!

Edith Piaf-Life in Pink

La Vie En Rose. (Translation in the title) was strangely sold out at Theatre Clwyd this evening! I was a bit naughty, as I did secure the last ticket ( I needed to go out after working since Saturday Morning) Hazel had to take a rain check! not to worry too much, as we are both off to see Jenny Eclair on Sunday. Anyhow back to Miss Piaf! Director Olivier Dahan obviously has a great deal of affection for the tragic French singer as the biopic shrieks of admiration, sympathy and warmth. Marion Cotillard as one would expect, is perfectly stunning in her brittle,meticulous portrayal of Piaf, and she literally breaks your heart when she appears as the life- ravaged older Edith.
I especially loved the scene where a younger Cotillard mourns the loss of the love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins), who died in a plane crash en route to the United States. She races hysterically around her apartment then suddenly appears performing on stage ,"living" her tragic love songs in front of a rapt audience. It is a wonderfully camp and effective sequence.
I really enjoyed it

Richard (Chris' Dad) comes tomorrow for a long weekend, so I will be slipping into cook,host and bottle washer for a few days which I am more than happy to do! Chris wants us all to go and see Elizabeth: The Golden Age , which I am happy about but I wonder if Richard would enjoy it? Think we are also going to The Bistro for a meal on Sunday.

Last Night

Due to animal care needs I don't usually do two 12 hour shifts together! Tonight is my fourth! and I am buggered! Last night I had a change of a patient and looked after two high dependency chaps! Both brain injured through different traumas!

Got home at 8am, walked all the dogs and sorted the birds out! and thank god for Carole round the corner, who took Meg, William and Maddie for the day! George came with me! Got under our patchwork quilt at 11.30 am and I knew nothing until 6pm!

Luckily Chris came home at three, picked the dogs up, made my tea (risotto in Bed! bliss), locked the birds up and brought me a cuppa in bed!. Last night tonight

Good Luck to Mike

I have just had an Awful 12 hour shift! this time with an elderly burns and smoke inhalation victim. The unit had 2 assaults and one RTA! admitted and the seven staff never stopped for a minute! At least I have most of the tomorrow daytime off to do "outdoor" things before night shift tomorrow night.
Richard, the father in law comes on Thursday until next Tuesday, so at least I have some time away from work to look after him. Having said that I aim to get him working on the parsnips and new veg patch, so there will be little r and r! Bless!

Friend Mike starts work tomorrow after a long break! good luck matey! Forgot to say on the phone tonight that we need to organise a meet before Christmas!

10 days to New York!

Needy Meg.A good death? Janeaway,Piccard or Sisko?

Of all the characters that are our pets, Meg always seems to me to be the "saddest". I know this anthropomorphic view of animal personality traits is rather misleading at best, but in her case, it does feel rather a truism. She is a a nervy little dog, who is most content sitting on my knee, being silent and cuddled. Whist the others are lying in untidy heaps on the kitchen floor, she has sneaked onto the couch with me, and is still and comfortable.

Today, I have been at work all day, and will be at the hospital all day tomorrow as well as Monday and Tuesday night shifts. I have missed being outdoors, but have had some consolation with working with a delightfully close family of a patient who sadly died today. As readers of this blog may have picked up already, I am not a fan of intensive care work. I prefer the slightly gung-ho nature, general rehabilitation has to offer. Mind you, ITU does have it's own positives to nurse and patients, and to me the most important is it often allows the patient to receive a death with as much dignity, an overburdened health system has to offer. This was the case today! I had the time, support and the opportunity to ensure that the family received good end of life care for a much loved husband and father. Hard work yes........but worth it.

On a lighter note! Yesterday I was thinking about STAR TREK! Now I am no treker by any means ( I may be slightly nerdy occasionally!); I will watch a film if it on the television, and have been amused with the story on the BBC of the new proposed Star Trek film starring Simon Pegg as a young Scottie!, but I don't know the Kingon for Traitor! and have no idea the difference between a foton Torpedo and a fazer burst!. Voyager ( the forth of the series), is being shown on Sky and I must admit I have actually ENJOYED it second time around!
Janaway (School marm with a hint of smoulder) is a great heroine, with Busty seven of nine and semi lesbian B'Elanna Torres heading a strong female cast! The men led by Red Indian Commander Chakotay and pretty boy "Tom" Paris are more supporting brotherly characters, and the "family" cast even has a funny set of Uncles in the shape of alien Neelix and the hologram doctor!
Yep we have see all these characters before, as all the crew are just reincarnations of each other from the very first Trek films and series! but in Voyager there is an odd sense of those cardboard characterisations I have always loved from those 1970 disaster films. A motley group of souls, facing the unknown and disaster! This time instead of pretty people in dinner jackets and party frocks, we have humans and humanish aliens with figure hugging uniforms, 1990 haircuts , all backed by a stirring score by Jerry Goldsmith! all great fun!..............ENGAGE!


ps. Chris is smoking again! hey ho

Barter,Blanche,Beatrice and Rose

Went up to a smallholding at Flint mountain to see what he has to offer (I bought the black hookers from there a few months ago). It was sad to find out that the owner was selling up due to ill health. We chatted for a long time as most of his stock had already gone, but at least I have provisionally agreed to buy his incubator equipment when it is repaired, which is a bonus for me and him(I did refuse his offer to take his old Turkey which was absolutely huge!!!!).
As I was leaving he asked me if I would like to take his last three hybrids for nothing which was a nice gesture, especially as I had already helped myself to a nice old wooden coal scuttle he wanted to get rid of as well.
The new girls are a little moth eaten at the moment, but will blossom into good looking birds. As a tribute to Tenko, I have named them Blanche (Cockney Louise Jameson), Beatrice (Stephanie Cole the Doctor) and Rose ( Stephanie Beecham).

Flushed with "getting a good deal" I took an old wooden chest and some other oddments down to a local craft shop this afternoon and swapped the smaller oddments for some lovely cushions made from old Welsh blankets. The owner will sell the chest for me, which will pay for a few Christmas gifts!

Emma Thompson and the Helen Bamber foundation........being careful

I listened with interest to an articulate, informed and passionate Emma Thompson, when she guested on Radio 4 today. She is the president of The Helen Bamber Foundation which works with survivors of genocide, torture, trafficking and rape who seek safety and refuge, and she highlighted with a quiet intensity, the plight of 4,000 or so women and children, who are trafficked into the UK each year and forced into prostitution.
The Body shop is leading the foundation's goal of ratifying the European Convention Against Trafficking which could give these women protection. Add your name, to their petition, and be sure and buy a postcard from The Body Shop, the proceeds of which will go directly to the foundations ! Even though the subject was shocking and rather sad, Thompson made the whole thing vital and important. A very charismatic lady.

New York is looming, (as is Christmas) so I have been watching my expenditure like a hawk! It is so easy to fritter it all away on, bollocks! so in a sort of a social experiment I am watching the pennies very carefully
Personal Expenditure so far this week:

I bag of Chicken wheat.............£6.99
Dog Collar...............................£4.95
Chicken tick powder................£6.99
Pigs Ears..................................£4.00
Sub total.................................£22.93

Egg sales (projected)...............£16.00+

Sub total.................................£6.93-

Cinema Ticket.........................£3.50
Petrol.....................................£21.50
2 bowls from junk shop...........£0.50
Antique Magazine...................£3.30
diet coke.................................£5.09
chardonney............................£4.95

Total £45.77

Not Bad eh?

Claire Wenger 's comments on Glan Clwyd Hospital didn't surprise me! This makes an uncomfortable but necessary read! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/7057733.stm