Frost/Nixon

I have always enjoyed the films of Ron Howard. His direction is usually assured,pacy and intelligent (for mainstream cinema that is) and the likes of The Missing and Apollo 13 rate highly in my top 100 films.
Hazel had a bad day at work today, so perhaps Frost/Nixon was not the most uplifting of movies to go to, but as Chris was doing his ballroom dance practice with Janet and Hazel's daughters were off to their father's it seemed a good idea for us to support the scala cinema again!
Frost/Nixon is an interesting film. It does not paint a picture of the former disgraced President and the chat show host as real three dimensional characters but concentrates more on the battle of wills and ego present in their fateful tv interview of 1977.
Michael Sheen wisely portrays Frost as a slightly shallow, slightly fey character with a skill for gaining channel ratings and doesn't shy at making the presenter ever -so- slightly unlikable, it is a brave performance which is overshadowed by a masterclass of scene stealing by the wonderful Frank Langella as the old dog Nixon.
I don't know very much about Watergate, indeed I know very little of early 1970 American history (except for a genius level knowledge about The Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno from 1972 and 1974),but I did find the whole film fascinating!!!
8/10

A Steep, steep learning curve

Well finally Gladys and Nora made their somewhat tentative appearance this morning. Sat quietly in Helen's landrover (Helen is the owner of the animal feed shop in Lloc), both of them eyed me and the field with a stubborn anxiety when we opened the van door!
Helen,her husband and I (non of us with any experience of pigs) eyed the pigs......the pigs stood their ground and eyed us, and and the stalemate seemed to last an age. We tried shaking a bucket of pig nuts, we tried pushing and pulling and we tried waving a tempting carrot in their general direction.....we even tried pleading....but in the end it took an empty bucket over the head and two pairs of strong arms to get both ladies into their new pen.
Nora (left in above pic) Is the bigger and baldest pig, Gladys has the a more squashed facial look but both are quite charming in a food orientated piggy type of way.

The girls settled down almost immediately. Grunting happily to themselves they scoured every inch of their new home, eating everything they could find. Occasionally they would raise their heads to gaze with tiny eyes at the rest of the allotment , then satisfied with the view, off they would amble, noses pressed closely to the floor.

By four pm, they had totally exhausted themselves and both flopped into the duck house to sleep ( you could hear the farting from halfway up the field!) I got on with clearing the veg plots and let the Scotties out for a sniff around.

The dogs immediately knew that there was something interesting in the old duck house and they galloped for the pig pen barking loudly. Both pigs shot out, tails high up in the air and ran to meet the dogs. Maddie held her ground while George bolted for the safety of the hen house, but there was no further confrontation after their brief nose to snout sniff off. Maddie obviously worked out that the pigs were far too big to confront and the pigs obviously worked out that Maddie was inedible!
Our family now consists of:-

4 dogs,1 cat,2 pigs,2 turkeys,11 ducks,41 hens,6 bantams,4 buff chicks and 2 middle aged poofs

Three cocks in one day and a blue hen

I have a friend who is an academic and who over works terribly! Subsequently he suffers bouts of mental exhaustion which are hugely debilitating. I am lucky, today I am totally bushed, but it is a satisfying type of tiredness that comes from being physically active!

Early this morning I took Albert and William to the vets. Albert was having his post femur fracture check up, and I wanted William to be reviewed as he is showing hypersensitivity on his skin (a sure sign of some infection lurking) Albert got the A O K and William got another course of antibiotics and steroids! Both animals were beautifully behaved in the waiting room, which allowed me to have a chat with a bloke from the wild animal rescue centre at Greenfield who was in the queue with of all things a tawny owl with a broken wing. He has an empty hen house and has agreed to take a couple of the male buffs! which was a great result.

After the vets I took all the dogs to the beach for a run then put them in the pig enclosure while I dug over the last of the vegetable patches. William knackered himself out so much (nervous exhaustion at being so close to the hens) he actually fell asleep sat up when we got back to the cottage (below pic)

I called into Rhyl to organise a replacement birth certificate (I need one for some criminal checks for the hospice bank) then picked up a load of pig food for the girls tomorrow! On the way home I called into see Eirlys (my friend who has a big poultry farm on the other side of the village)....I took with me one of the buff cockerels and she couldn't resist him.....three down just one to go!

This afternoon, I cleaned out the turkey and duck houses,walked the dogs again, then cleaned out the fire and prepared Chris' tea before the dusk chores of locking every animal up safely. Several neighbours have been calling in throughout the day (ostensibly to buy eggs but I know they all are eager to see the pigs!) All will be back tomorrow! It's amazing how many people love pigs!

My final job of the day was to "repaint" Mildred Pierce's wings. I have a unseen feather pecker bully amongst the hens and several of the "victims" have unsightly and painful looking bald patches on each wing. I have sprayed Mildred (who has been pecked the most) with antibacterial spray which she was most indignant at. I fed her with some saved worms from my digging in way of an apology.

Violin concerto

I have recently heard this violin concerto no 2 by Composer Philip Glass....and I think it is hauntingly simple and just a little chilling......

Too many cocks

Now I know I risk sounding like Charles Hawtrey but I do have too many cocks! The four "sexless" buff chicks have suddenly grown up alongside Clover and the rest of the band. In days they seem to have matured fully and shock horror......we now have three new testosterone filled cockerels to cope with. So in the buff enclosure we have five males and six females...not the best of ratios! ...drastic action is in order,
I have put advertisements up locally asked for homes but I think several of the new boys may have to be culled, which is a fact I do not relish at all Tomorrow I will separate four of the cockerels and will put them into the duck run, at least the hens will be "cock" free as it were.

I have chased up with some pre pig paperwork today (the amount of red tape before getting pigs is surprising) and have spoken to Rosemary tonight, who says she will bring them on Thursday morning. I will rename them.........their new names will reflect my liking for old fashioned names.......Nora and Gladys................

Meg asleep

Complaints

Health Minister Ann Keen said recently that some NHS bodies were not "handling complaints well enough", adding the regulation system was being changed to put more emphasis on the complaints procedure. She concluded by saying that:"Hospitals and other NHS organisations will be measured on how many complaints they receive and how they deal with them, including showing what lessons they have learned and changes implemented as a result."
This year I have worked 26 years in the NHS, and I have witnessed the public's attitude towards the health care system AND its workers change drastically over the years.
Ok, most of the changes I have seen are just a reflection of how society itself has changed; ie the slow erosion of respect and courtesy .
Tonight I have been reflecting on this as we are quiet on intensive care, and in discussion with my colleagues, I remembered an occasion when as ward manager I found a visitor lying on a made up bed in my ward. The visitor was a woman in her 20s. She was watching tv, shoes on the bedspread not a care in the world.
When I asked her to get off the bed she spat out "who the fu*k are you?" in front of other visitors,staff and patients. My reply, though not filled with expletives, was equally angry and direct......and I was happy to report that the creature slouched off the ward with a bit of a flea in her ear!
That woman did not as I recall make a complaint against me, but occasional complains do surface from time to time ....I am confident that my maturity and managerial experience can field most gripes...but there remains a growing underclass in this country that feel they can expect the impossible from an increasingly desperate and over stretched health service.
I still enjoy aspects of nursing. I am still good at what I do....but
I find it a little sad that people like that woman on the made up bed...now feel that the system (ie us) owe them everything......and show no awareness that they in turn should give something back to their community.

This underclass and their destructive and selfish behaviours makes me worry so very much for the future

Allotment open

I have been day dreaming today about the 2009 allotment open day. Last Year's event was a great success (even in the torrential rain), so this year I want the whole thing to be bigger, better and hopefully drier.
We are going to open it up to the entire village this time and I think that we will organise an all day "open" on Sunday July 5th.....thus preventing bottlenecks of old ladies at the tea tent..
Janet and Chris will be in charge of tea and cakes again, Ann and Polly (Hazel's daughter) will be on the gate and produce stall. Practical Geoff will be conscripted into a managerial position and the village ladies can be put to work providing cakes for the afternoon.I have yet to think of some activity for my brother-in laws and Hazel but leave it with me! I am starting on making the bunting next week...how gay is that?
This morning I have edged the vegetable plots but the rain has put paid to more activity.Below is a photo of Mildred Pierce and one of the black hookers, both have been watching me from the Church yard wall. Chris went to Church today and Canon Robert wasn't bothered about the girls' bad behaviour.....that's one in the eye for the jobsworth brigade!
Working tonight!