I just don't do mornings

I don't do mornings well...I do them, we all do, but I am not happy until I have a period of silence, a good cup of coffee and time and space in which to wake up.

Chris knows this, after most of a decade, he bloody well should do, but time and time and time again he insists to challenge my early day blues!

This morning is a case in point. He gets up at 5.30am, smile on face,skip in step acting like a wimple wearing Connie Fisher from the Sound of Music. Cupboards are banged as clothes are searched for,drawers are dragged open and finally I managed to silently crawl back under the duvet and get back to sleep. Then we had a whisper in the ear to tell me that he had a nightmare overnight! a few minutes later we had another whisper to tell me that he had been shortlisted for some funding for a research study.............I managed to grumble a weak "leave me alone" before falling again back to sleep. Minutes later after Chris had dragged the dogs out for their early morning walk, I was woken again with the hysterical clatter of feet on the stairs, as Meg,William and George raced to get into bed with me. Meg is obsessed with getting as close as is humanly possible to me at every given moment, so groggy and getting ever-so-irritated,I woke again with a small hairy arse poking into my face. William not to be out done promptly sat on the top of us, whilst George proceeded to tap dance noisily on the hard boards of the bedroom floor, waiting to be lifted onto the bed.

7am! I gave up with any hope of dozing, so I got up to sort the cackling hens out before taking Chris to the station in Prestatyn (he was still chattering away about something as I drove away)

Now it is 9.30. First coffee is being downed, the house is silent and I can charge up for the day ahead. Bliss..........

angels?

The comments by Lord Manscroft recently on the "morals" of the nurses that cared for him in Bath's general Hospital was an interesting comment on modern nursing today. He didn't pull his punches by saying:-

The nurses that looked after me were mostly grubby. We're talking about dirty fingernails, slipshod, lazy."
The hospital said it had received no complaint but would be contacting Lord Mancroft to discuss the matter.
During the debate on NHS patient care Lord Mancroft went on to say: "It's a miracle I'm still alive. But worst of all my Lords they were drunken and promiscuous."
"How do I know that? Because if you're a patient and you're lying in a bed, and you're being nursed from either side, they talk across you as if you're not there.
"So I know exactly what they got up to the night before, and how much they drank, and I know exactly what they were planning to do the next night, and I can tell you, it's pretty horrifying."

I know these comments are subjective and emotive, but as an example how "unprofessional" many nurses can be nowadays, it is, I am afraid rather accurate. I won't bang on for the possible reasons for all this: the lack of leadership perhaps , the lowering of admission criteria to nurse training maybe? a change of ward discipline, it is possible.The whole thing saddens me greatly.

Conversely, I have been working today, and have done so with a tight knit, professional group of staff that have made a particularly stressful shift a lot easier than it might have been. "My" spinal patient suddenly deteriorated today and sadly died this afternoon .As usual ( as it has been for the past 7 weeks or so) I have been allocated to care for him and although it was incredibly sad, to be able to "finish" his care and support his family through his death was a privilege and very satisfying.

When nurses work well together, professionally and with skill, the nurses themselves do not always celebrate the fact. I made a point of thanking each member of the team for their individual contribution, not only for my patient, but for me personally and this personal and professional "pats-on-the-back" are vital, I think, to develop staff awareness and pride.

Perhaps the nurses caring for Lord Manscroft have lost a little of the "pride" in their own profession?, and instead of arguing that these nurses don't exist, or shouting for these staff to be expelled from the register, perhaps the senior nurses supervising these nurses should look to themselves on how to professionalise nursing as a whole- a tighter rein on things is perhaps a start,.........

Saint David's day

The Empire state is bathed in the Welsh National colours this evening in honour of St David's Day

The Orphanage

I so want to see this film.

Candling eggs

Though not quite like the above egg, three of my duck eggs in the incubator look as though something is growing inside them which is incredibly exciting! mind you some of the shadowing seen could be rings of bacteria, so after four weeks all I could have is four stinking eggs!!!

Sheffield catch ups & gale disasters

Sheffield didn't suffer the gale force winds that hit Trelawnyd last night, but it was a blustery night to go out in with Mike,John and Jane.
Mike's mum is poorly in hospital,so it was good to catch up with him,offer expensive beer and sympathy, and have a bit of a well needed laugh but laugh is something I always do with the three of them every time we meet up.
John as usual was on great form and regaled us with stories of a recent trip to Kathmandu.When on full flow his is more like Bette Bavis than Bette Davis actually was, and can "hold court" wonderfully for hours.
All Bar One as per.......service has gone off slightly which is a pity.


Came back to Wales early, and stopped at Ladybower at 8am to photograph the view which was dull but still incredibly pretty.and got back to Trelawnyd at 10am . The allotment had been "trashed" by the winds last night, and I was pissed off to see that my new feed shed had been ripped literally apart and scattered all over the graveyard with my feed buckets and smashed cloche's for company.Much of the electric fencing had been pulled around and several of the hens had escaped only to be rounded up by an irate Chris this morning.Even my warning sign up on the telephone pole had been ripped away!
The whole disaster was very upsetting! but the damage was nothing compared to the wood On Gop Hill, where several large trees had been uprooted and flung around like matchwood.
I took the dogs through the woods and it was lovely to lie down out of the wind and enjoy cloud watching, (even though Maddie insisted in sitting on my chest)

Rhythm of Life

Off to Sheffield this afternoon for my "city" fix, which will be lovely. When I was letting the birds out at 7.30 am I got to thinking of rhythms in you life( hence the great song from Sweet Charity)- I am very lucky as my life away from work has in fact a "work-like" routine and rhythm to it. Get up early,hens,ducks,coffee,housework,dogs,walk on beach,shop,(Daily post)hens,allotment,dog walk,cook,bake,walk,blog and bed.........yeap lovely but Sheffield DOES look quite exciting on occassion.........

Northern Ballet,garlic and shallots

Venue Cymru in Llandudno, generally caters for an older rather blue collar audience, so I was excited to see that the Leeds based Northern Ballet is coming to town in June with their new production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Chris is hopefully getting me tickets for my birthday , and we hope to get a whole family group together to enjoy what I hope will be a cracking production.
I became a fan of Northern Ballet when we lived in Sheffield, and friend John and I saw some stunning ballets at the Lyceum. I loved Dracula ( with a first act that had to be seen to be believed) and the very,very sexy (and sexually ambiguous) Car Man ( with Alan Vincent- he of the hairy chest in Mathew Bourne's Nutcracker pic below) Even some of the productions that didn't really work that well ( like A streetcar named desire) were well worth going to see, as certain parts were visually stunning to watch.
The reviews seem very good for Nights Dream....I do hope he can get tickets!

The weather has been quite bright and warm today so I gave up trying to have a sleep after nights and got out into the allotment to plant my shallots and garlic.

ps. he just bought the tickets!

pps. just had an email re Carman:-apparantly
"Car Man wasn't Northern Ballet Theatre, it was a company that was then called Adventures in Motion Pictures, the Matthew Bourne Company that for legal reasons is now called New Adventures".