Fridge Therapy and LBC

Now perhaps the only person that will understand this first part of the "Fridge therapy" blog will be my twin sister Janet- today our new fridge was delivered (nothing too exciting in that you may think) but to me,( a border line obsessional compulsive with control issues) a new fridge means THERAPY! Firstly having a new piece of furniture is wonderful, whether it be antique or straight out of the shop The piece has to be sorted out, played around with and organised into it's place with much gusto and deliberation!....then of course the room in which it has been positioned has to have a makeover,clean and tweak. This ritual then moves to the rest of the house (thank god we have a cottage!) which has got to be tidied and cleaned to compliment the newness of the piece of furniture that had just arrived.
Yeap mad as cheese....but the whole ritual does give me a lot of satisfaction!

During my afternoon organising and cleaning I had the chance to listen to a particularly moving phone in session on LBC 97.3 . Stand in host Petrie Hosken facilitated a conversation about the physical and psychological abuse that can occur within relationships and did so with skill and maturity.

She emotionally disclosed that she had suffered some psychological abuse from a previous partner and I found her descriptions of the subtlety and manipulation that occurred over a long period of time fascinating and incredibly moving. It also pricked memories of my experiences of a previous relationship which was abusive in nature, but was one that I did not recognise as such until just before I ended it.

It was quite difficult remembering it

Solace,geeks,building works,Wyandottes and a deformed" Bunny"

Quantum of Solace (2008) is the darkest of the Bond tales and therefore doesn't give the audience the easiest of rides in relation to pure smash 'em up and wring 'em out spy capers in the Roger Moore and Brosnan vein. Daniel Craig's Bond is a pure killing machine yet there remains in him the tiniest spark of humanity. The audience therefore can identify with his damaged character, but clearly he is what he is, and that is an assassin, plain and simple.
I enjoyed this film and there are three main reasons for this. The first is Craig himself. The Chester-born actor gives Bond the dangerous edge that is not pretty but which is honest, The second is one key scene which is not full of pyrotechnics and clever stedicam shots.Bond escapes the British secret service men by deftly tip toeing out of danger by skirting a narrow hotel balcony. This clever and understated scene underlines Bond's physical abilities more clearly than any fight or chase could possibly do, to me it the one of the key scenes in the film. My third reason
is Olga Kurylenko a Ukrainian actress gives the film the only little piece of heart and provides this Bond film with a heroine with class and ingenuity, (and not just a pair of tits!)....I thought she was great.I gave the film 8/10


The film I am strangely looking forward to is the new Star Trek film (due out next year)...now this IS strange for me as I am not a science fiction geek.........but I am a Simon Pegg fan, and the cute UK comic is playing the young "Captain, I canny hold her..... she's gonna blow!!!" Scotty...........how sad is that?

Anyhow back to village news............I had a sneak view of inside the Village Memorial hall this afternoon, and I must admit all the work looks lovely. They have actually put in a small disabled lift behind the stage, so that every meeting room can be easily reached by the elderly population of the village and every corner of the Hall looks clean, tidy and re buffed. I think it would be a good idea to hold our post civil ceremony party there.....

Apologies to Jayne but I will have to make a brief, final referral to the poultry! A very friendly lady called into the field today wanting to buy a couple of buffs. I said that she could have two of the new juvenile birds when they are a little older, and we got to talking about hens and bantams.She then offered me some fertile Wyandotte bantam eggs free of charge, and true to her word a box of tiny cream eggs was left on the wall later in the day which I thought was incredibly kind. I have just bought some buff eggs from ebay, so the incubator will be up and running yet again very soon.

I have also provisionally sold two of the four survivors from last month's dog attack but will be keeping the runt of the group who I have christened Bunny.(middle of above pic- flanked by Nonnie and Belle)

Bunny is somewhat of an underdog. She has what seems like a malformed hip, so cannot walk with a normal gait. Instead she hops like a kangaroo, with both feet hitting the floor at the same time . She is also very small and is dwarfed by her sisters, yet has not been bullied by the others which is rare for hens as they tend to pick on birds with illness or deformity.I can hear Chris tutting loudly at my sentimental attitude but I don't really care

Pratt fall

I was going to post this blog last week but forgot give the high dudgeon with the stable owner.

Chris is away for a few days in London, which is not a bad thing as he is having crabby withdrawals from a few sneaky fags last Friday!

Anyhow back to today's blog.

I think it was Thursday morning when I took Chris to the station at 7am. As he got out of the car, I gave him a kiss as usual, before driving off. As I did so, I noticed a business man-type walking up the high street. He was gazing at me with an open mouth and as he was not looking where he was going , he promptly walked into a flower planter......Now his obvious surprise at seeing two middle aged men giving each other a small peck, I thought quite amusing, and I gave him a beaming smile as he staggered to his feet..........Bless........ he had the good grace to smile back and to laugh at his pratt fall reaction to something that I forget, some people find all a bit shocking....hey ho

Pre-Christmas Pig Out

Sister in Law Jayne will be happy with the blog tonight as there is not a chicken,turkey or duck in sight. We all trouped up to see her and Andrew in Groes for a pre Christmas mega nosh up, and she did us proud. The table was groaning under the weight of succulent Welsh lamb, steak pie, creamed leaks, crisp roasters and a greenhouse full of accompanying veg.
No soon had we finished the main course then , she presented a ton of plum crumble, home made rice pudding and hot custard with coffee and cheese to follow...........it's a long time since I have needed a post dinner sleep with a stomach stretched like Albert's fat belly.

From left to right.Tim, Andrew, Ann, Janet, Chris, Pat (Jayne's mum) and a brief glimpse of Jayne.

Faith

I read this on the BBC website

The owner of an Indian food store in Bristol has received an apology letter and £100 from a former drug addict who stole cigarettes from the shop in 2001.
Imran Ahmed, 27, who runs Raja Foods in St Marks Road, Easton, said he was stunned to open the remorseful letter.
It begins: "Dear Sirs, I am writing this letter to make amends to you for something I have done in the past."
Mr Ahmed said the thief's change of heart was "really good" and he intends to give the money to a drugs' charity.
The thief's letter continues: "About seven years ago I was walking past your shop late one night when I noticed that someone had broken into it.
Make amends
"I used this opportunity to enter your shop where I stole 400 cigarettes. The money enclosed (£100) is to pay for those cigarettes which I stole from you.
"At that time I was heavily using drugs and my life was in a mess, now I no longer use drugs and I strive to lead a decent and honest life.
"As part of my ongoing recovery I try to put right all of the wrongs I have done in the past, at least where I can, and this is why I am giving you back the money which I stole from you.
"I regret the harm I caused you in the past and I sincerely apologise to you for it.
"I was very wrong to do this and I hope that returning the money will make up for this harm, at least in some small way."

.....a nice story on the BBC....makes a bloody nice change

Testosterone

Up to now, the menagerie has been dominated by females. The majority of the ducks are female, all but one of the hens are too- we were even out numbered in the cottage with Joan Meg and Maddie ruling the roost.However, recently the young males have started to assert themselves. Stanley the cockerel in the main run is a real damp squib, he crows intermittently to be sure but it is all a bit of a half hearted affair indeed.

Rogo, the handsome young red rooster with his 8 teenage hens (above) has started to answer Stanley and only just manages to sound like a child's kazoo in the crowing stakes and in the buff enclosure Clover now is expanding his lungs and is letting rip with his adolescent cock-a doodle doo-ing. Today I watched Clover sparring with his second in command, the sweet natured Poppy. I saw no pecking or overt physical aggression from either cockerel, which is typical of the buffs' good nature. They just seemed to jostle each other, like two fat old men. Bugger knows what the neighbours will be thinking when they all get going in tandem as it were.

In the male stakes, Albert too seems to stretching his tom cat muscles and spends many excited hours running the terriers ragged. No longer can he be intimidated by a wet tongue and a cold nose.

The weather is closing in tonight, so it is fire on, Strictly Come dancing is about to start and I aim to vote for the delightful Jodie Kidd.

Laughing at yourself

Today I was reminded of the importance of having (and using) a sense of humour. The owner of Alsatian called round for further "discussions" relating to last month's dog attack. He made it very clear that he now didn't believe that his dog was responsible for any damage and although he stood there with a cheque to pay for the hens lost, his whole manner underlined his scepticism of my version of what had in fact happened.
I had the impression that he was a busy businessman, so my "small poultry life" didn't seem to rate highly in his concerns which I can (in the cold light of day) now appreciate, but it was the lack of an apology that really got my goat,
True to form I got angry, which in some ways I regret......... being a little pompous (and just a tad Queenie), I told him to take his cheque and to get lost and to be honest I did find myself disappointed by his lack of concern and poor manners. I told him that If my dogs had caused a problem to his animals then I would have called round the very next day with an apology and perhaps a gift(and not leave the whole thing to drag on for several weeks)..... but that's the problem I always seem to have with people; I always expect them to act as I would..................
Rather dramatically (my parting shot) I repeated several times that I thought that his behaviour was "a very poor show" before I flounced off back into the house, I was ,however, glad that I refused his money.

Paris

I so wanted to really love the film Paris (2008) Director Cedric Klapisch characteristically approaches this comedy with a over abundance of ideas, characters, scenes, dialogue, all of them dissociated and dislocated, and he clearly hopes that one ingredient will bind them together. This ingredient is the magical city of Paris itself. The city indeed does appear quite beautiful as we look at it through the eyes of a dying young man Romain Duris . He portrays an ex dancer who is dying of a severe heart condition, trapped by fatigue and depression his life revolves around the voyeuristic pleasures of watching his neighbours' lives and the contact he has with his carer sister (Juliette Binoche)
Weaved in and around all this klapisch adds the romantic complications of a host of market traders, an academic's mid life crisis and troubled relationship with his brother, a racist Bakery owner's effort to find an assistant and a harrowing tale of an illegal African immigrant who has a misconceived crush on a beautiful Parisian model.
The idea of all these people struggling with the trials and tribulations of life under one shared French piece of sky, sounds wonderful, and for the most part the film does deliver a sort of grittier Amelie-esque fairytale.However to be honest there are just too many strands and stories to cope with, and the audience is occasionally left slightly overwhelmed with it all.

Having said that, the real heart of the film remains intact, and that is the portrayal of the understated and moving relationship between sister and brother. Duris, gaunt, sickly and stubbly French almost steals every scene he is in, but in the end it is a slightly shopworn but luminous Binoche, that nabs the real honours.