Ravi

It was with great sadness that I heard,last night, about the death of a former work colleague from my Spinal Injury Unit days. Consultant Mr Ravichandran (or just plain "Ravi" as he was universally better known as ) was the dynamic,sometimes infuriating but always vital heart of "spines". For years I had the privilege to experience his sharp, holistic and invariably client based perspectives of rehabilitation, and even though I often disagreed with the way he viewed some aspects of the world, I always felt respected in my own professional judgements and ideas.

Ravi enjoyed being the "daddy" of the unit. He had his favourite nurses and therapists, which he would always seek out for the odd lively and sometimes heated debate and seemed to delight in throwing in a grenade of a provocative statement and watching the effect it had on an individual or group. He often polarised opinions but always commanded a very real affection and respect from his staff and I think the reason for this was the fact that he would always go that extra mile to show his support for people.

When I left Sheffield I did miss his dapper slightly awkward figure popping in and out, in a slightly harassed and seemingly arbitrary way. He was as much a part of the place as the bricks and mortar

Austin and Erin - Strictly Come Dancing

Austin is not one of my favourites, but this tango was quite brilliant

A case of transference

Not the best of photo shots, but the frenetic tug of war between William and George ( with a pair of my underpants!!!!!!!!!!!!!) does sum up the level of excitement present in the cottage since Albert's arrival.
Today Chris has gone to Manchester to meet up with an old Sheffield friend (he is very bad at keeping in touch with people) so I have the day free to potter before we both go to Osborn's this evening for a meal with all the egg heads from his works department.
The dogs have been chasing Albert like idiots throughout the day, and as they now lie in untidy,panting heaps, the object of their affection is sitting victoriously in the kitchen window. I aim to let Albert out into the garden within the next two weeks, after he has gotten over his upcoming castration.....poor little chap but at least the dogs may get a bit of a respite.
My friend, Geoff, the affable scouser will be coming round this afternoon with a shed for the allotment (his mother in law wants rid of it)- so I have had to fit in a visit to the first "unofficial" opening of the village hall this morning.
In an effort to make more funds, the memorial hall committee organised a coffee morning and table top sale and it was wonderful to see a large crowd of locals supporting it. I suspect many of the villagers had actually turned up to give the refurbishment the once over, and everyone seemed to be impressed with the posh "National Trust" colour scheme, the new flooring and the fully fitted kitchen! I had a quick chat with Sylvia from the flower show and bought a ton of chutney from Merion (the chap that always wins all the veg awards at the show) before getting collared by Ann from the church who wants (wait for this village stereotype!!!) me to make a few cakes for their fund raiser!
I didn't have a cup of tea and a cake........our Flower show refreashments are always just that bit better quality!!!

Autumn walk

The Autumn colour in Bishop's Wood is lovely and it made a welcome change for the weather to remain clear, dry and slightly warm. The puddles all along the path remain deep and dirty after the recent rain, and they were just right for Maddie, who loves to slowly lower her bottom into them and relieve herself with long sighs of appreciation!. Yes, quite a revolting habit!
I dropped in a home made apple pie to the ladies in the veg shop as a thank you for all the fruit and veg they bag up for me every week for the ducks, then donned my plastic pants for two hours of chicken coop cleaning.

Yesterday I took one of the little runner duck drakes to the vets as he had trouble walking. The vet thought he had been attacked by something, but as all the other birds seemed ok, I doubted that a fox or even the dreaded Alsatian had attacked that morning.The vet gave the little chap the once over and an injection of antibiotics with instructions for me to give him another injection today, which I did this morning. I love the way that health and safety and rules and regulations have seemed to have missed this country practice, and the place is all the better for it.
Anyhow the drake still looked a little shaky but miles better this morning so I put him back with the other 17 ducks to sunbathe in the sun in peace.
Off to have a bath now as the dreaded and nauseating Children in need is on the tv..........time to read a book me thinks

Thanks Sorrel

sent to me by my mother in law

John Highfield PR......helping good news travel faster

Well I have to congratulate my good friend John on his new venture into the world of Public Relations. http://www.johnhighfieldpr.co.uk/ I have a feeling that he will be very successful in this kind of role, as, after years of accompanying him to showbiz evenings, all kinds of arts bashes and a score of first nights, I have always been impressed by his networking abilities, his professionalism and his sharp eye for the "bigger picture".
I look forward to our next Sheffield catch up

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