Village Concert

Yes the New York hat has been getting another airing! this time at the village Conservation Group Carol Concert! It was little sad that only 35 people turned up to hear the 14 strong choir belt out a comprehensive repertoire of carols and traditional country songs, but those that did make the effort seemed to enjoy the professional singing from Rhyl's Phoenix Singers
The conductor, Jefferson Thomas, has been suffering from Parkinson's for many years, yet he proved to be an physically erratic but passionate master of ceremonies, even when faced by such a meagre audience.
I was full of cold, but was sustained by a small flask of boiling water, lemsip and brandy! in equal measures! and we actually won a "Christmas hamper" in the raffle!!! (when are baked beans, tinned potatoes and cup-a-soup deemed Xmas fodder?)

Meg imitating Finlay

Funny but Meg is slowly turning into Finlay! and I have to wonder if I am the catalyst for this transformation. She is following me around constantly , she is spending great lengths of time sitting on my knee and is getting into the habit of throwing herself backwards when comfortable on the couch.
That's my girl

Great Pic

Thanks Nige for taking this great shot of Prestatyn beach during a sand storm!

Trelawnyd from the West, Christmas trinkets and Lady Chatterley

I drove from Dyserth to Trelawnyd along the back road today and took the above picture from the West. I think that the village looks rather delicately placed below Gop Hill.

Janet and I went up to Jackson's this afternoon to do some shopping and most of the Christmas decorations were tastefully done except for the 179£ deer head which sang Christmas songs in an American accent! (I photographed the bloody thing to prove it)

Why has Christmas become so Americanized nowadays? Everyone is decorating their houses with a plethora of coloured nights! "santa stops here" signs adorn every house path ( Note: santa rather than Father Christmas), I suspect we will be calling Christmas "The Holidays!" very soon.

Lady Chatterley (2006)

at Theatre Clwyd this ,evening was a sorry mess! Nearly three hours of watching a morose Marina Hands ambling around her Edwardian estates then finding her sexuality with the unlikely bear-like Jean-Louis Coullo'ch, was too much for anyone ( we left after 2 hours)! Back home at 10pm to finish the second of the Fat Rascals Chris had bought me back from Harrogate!

Amy MacDonald this is the life

Amy Winehouse one week and Amy MacDonald the other! Must be going a bit musical in my middle age!
I love this song!

Bollards

It is not clear on the photo on the right, but the Council workmen have laid a load of hardcore under and beyond the field gate so that I can use it as a car park without churning up the mud. Bollards are proudly in place, and although the weather "looks" lovely, it has literally pissed down for most of the day.
Chris is back tomorrow ( with at least one fat rascal!) so another early start for me.

Boys and their toys and a fat Bastard!

I have never quite understood the fact that men ( well straight men anyway) love to be involved with diggers/JCBs and all things mechanical. The small army of workmen were hard at work laying tarmac and cementing in "my" new bollards when I got home after a night shift, and amid the workmen were 2 local farmers, an old guy from the village and Steve, the village "elder", all with their noses in the cement, and all with friendly advice for the benign workers, who seemed to be enjoying the attention they were causing.

Now watching this sort of work leaves me rather cold, but they seemed endlessly fascinated by the nuances of cement formation and the benefits of rigid versus plastic bollards! I did pop over briefly to give the workers a load of eggs ( which they seemed rather pleased with), but I was more than happy to leave them all well alone.

Posted a load of Christmas gifts to various "far away friends" this morning and spent some time with the post mistress offering her a little support as I was nursing her uncle on ITU last night.
Chris is away for a couple of days in Harrogate for a stoke conference so I hope he brings me back one of the famous Betty's Tearoom Fat Rascals (see pic)
I use to live in York when I was a psychiatric Nurse and loved going into the famous Betty's for a fat rascal and a coffee!.............................Years later I went in to buy one and actually forgot the name of the famous "bun".....I still cannot believe that I asked the rather flummoxed sales girl for a "fat Bastard" by mistake.

http://www.bettys.co.uk/cafe.asp?storyid=%7BCE5F672F-E1B0-4E5C-8F57-14237779479D%7D

28 Weeks later

I am so looking forward in seeing the remake of Chuck Heston's brilliant post apocalyptic movie The Omega Man (1971).The Movie preview of I Am Legend (2007) (The original title of the novel by Richard Matheson was actually written in 1954), looks wonderful!

There seems to always be an audience for this end-of-the-world genre, and to support this theory I have just "enjoyed" 28 Weeks Later (2007) , the bloody sequel to Danny Boyle's excellent 28 Days Later... (2002)

The remake is taut and bloody and it was almost as frightening as the original, but as many sequels tend to be, not quite! Chuck Heston did it a whole lot better