Richard and Nu

My Father-in-law arrives later today for a visit. Unfortunately I am working nights tonight so won't catch up with him until tomorrow morning,.....after his sterling work looking after the animals when we were in San Fransisco, I will endeavour to make Richard's stay as animal free as possible....it will be nice to see him again.
I have also booked my train journey to London, so I can catch up with Nuala before Christmas...I was reminded of her the other day when I read this anonymous quote on another blog...

"Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don't say."
I can't wait to see her

L'ennemi public n°1 (2008)

The French thriller that we went to see was in fact the second of the two "Mesrine" movies entitled L'ennemi public n°1 (2008). This biopic covered the latter day life (and death) of the charismatic French gangster Jacques Mesrine (played with va va voom by a sexy and dangerous Vincent Cassel)....and I enjoyed two thirds of it!
The first third of the film concentrated on Mesrine's rise to infamy when he stole (in true Robin Hood style) from the major banks, then with typical Gallic swagger, we see his verbal banter with the authorities after his capture and subsequent escape from prison.
All this is breathtakingly exciting and it was a shame that before the terribly tense final scenes the film lost its way with an overlong and meandering centre section
Worth seeing for Cassel's superb acting though
7/10

Power of the pen

This morning we received an official acknowledgement from Assembly Member Sandy Mewies and MP David Hanson of our signatures on a recent petition against the proposed planning for the erection of 10 affordable housing units outside of the village envelope.
The recent proposal for this housing project seems to have galvanised the village into action, especially as the Community Council has very publicly let the village down somewhat by not passing on the villagers concerns and objections voiced from a very lively public meeting.

Initially, the lefty in me, supported the idea of affordable housing for needy local people; God knows rural house prices especially in the more scenic villages, are so out of the range of first time buyers, it is not too hard to imagine that in 50 years time, many communities have been priced out of existence. However, the deeper I looked into this initiative, the more I have been left with a rather bad taste in my mouth.

The omission by the community council to pass on the local people's concerns was worrying enough, even though the actual power of the council is accepted to be low; but it is the mistakes made by other local villages such as Lixum, that underlines that this sort of affordable housing initiative is not perhaps as "altruistic" or as well thought through as it was initially presented.

Apparently there were local authority assurances that there was an overwhelming need for local people to take on affordable properties in Lixum; and sadly that just did not happen.
Families with their own problems and agendas were "bused" into the village community from "all over" and the resulting conflict seems to have caused innumerable and potentially long standing problems.

The council cannot ensure that local people may utilize these houses and the definitions of the word "local" on the county council website remains interestingly vague.....there seems to be much manoeuvring behind the scenes to get this project off the ground, and luckily, only recently has the village population found out what is afoot!

I hope the petition will stave off the planning. Personally I feel that the village does not have the facilities and amenities to sustain more homes, and the worry of a more antisocial element entering the village from outside is, in my experience perfectly justifiable, especially as there is a consensus that 10 houses would be only the tip of the iceberg!

I, as well as a score of others, will be watching all aspects of this proposal in the future and the whole affair has sparked interest in making sure that other local "projects" do not slip under the villagers' radar from now on

Off to the cinema later to see the French thriller L'instinct de mort (2008) "mini" review later

Pig Sex, Catching up with Scarpetta and Turkey baby updates

Nora escaped again this afternoon. The torrential rain has turned the pig enclosure into a mud filled swamp, and no doubt encouraged by the sight of a full poultry feed hopper in the chicken enclosure, she literally slid under her fencing as the liquid mud shifted!
Now Nora is still in season, which means when she is "pushed" or "prodded", especially from behind (ahem!!!) her brain tells her that she is having sex, so she enters a kind of stupor, a typical event in mature sows!
When the stupor occurs, Nora will stand stock still, with little piggy eyes all glazed over with some sort of piggy expectation!, and there is nothing anyone can do to shift her not for up to half an hour or so!...so, foolishly when I caught her with her snout deep in the chicken food I slapped her hard on the rump!
She immediately raised her head in mild surprise then reacted to the bottom whack by entering her sex state! and I was left with a very still, very heavy and very useless pig.
It was getting dark, and in her state I couldn't move her at all, not even a millimetre,so out of devilment I took both of our photos,as I waited for her to come "round!"----well I found it funny
I could have done without any chores today, let alone the drama of pig movement! I still have (hummm how shall I put this?)......erratic bowels, and a low grade temperature...so I suspect I may have the dreaded swine flu.....who knows.....all I really wanted to do was to curl up in front of the fire with the latest Patricia Cornwell

But of course I couldn't do that and spent over an hour instead lying in the cold shed encouraging one of the baby turkeys to eat! The little runt (you can just see him bowed and unhappy in the centre of the photo below) is lighter and thinner than the rest of the brood and despite antibiotics and tonics remains rather ill. He will peck at food however if I hold chick crumbs out in my hand (this is how I taught the chicks to eat soon after they were hatched) In this labour intensive kind of way, at least I got him to eat an adequate amount.

Home

It has been a horrid night shift.....thanks primarily to some destructive sniping from a certain member of staff to another......by 2am I was just about to soundly smack some bottoms, but by good fortune (?) I received a ventilated patient from theatre, so subsequently was hidden away in a busy corner for the remainder of the shift.
It was lovely to get home early this morning, where the first proper freezing fog and frost of the winter wiped away the constant alarming, bleeps and chimes of intensive care

This morning, as usual, Hughie stood sentry on Rogo's ark, waiting for the cockerel to be let out (below pic- you can just make him out beyond the red feeder!) His loyalty to another breed of bird constantly touches me, and strangely the "partnership" seems to be a mutual thing, as when Rogo bounced out followed by his small knot of hens, he galloped over to the guinea fowl, and immediately fell into step with him........

Lots of catch up jobs to do today, all the coops need clearing out and warm sawdust needs laying down.....I need to get some bales of straw for the pigs too.....they hate to be cold

Rememberence Sunday

The village War Memorial in the centre of the village,does sport a rather sad looking wreath of poppies today on this remembrance Sunday.
I have never really read the inscription on the Celtic cross, and what I did make out was a little indistinct, but it looked like 5 local men had lost their lives in the Great War.
The grey drab stone and design looks dreadfully depressing in today's damp dark day.

I am working nights tonight and have been suffering from what I deduce as a rogue prawn from Friday's stir fry!...what with my bronchitic cough, residual runny nose, painful knee joint and somersaulting bowels.....I remain a bit or a wreck!....Mind you at least I have read the whole of my Empire magazine when sat albeit intermittently, as it where on the throne!!!
Caught up with some phone calls as Chris cooked one of his famous "roasts", I had to titter to myself when I ambled an hour away with Nigel discussing of all things clothes sense!
"I couldn't be like you" (and I am paraphrasing Nige here) " you just get up and wear whatever you find on the floor!"
hey ho!

Turandot

Actually we really enjoyed the opening performance of Franco Zeffirelli's production of Turandot. The satellite link held up, the New York Met looked lovely and the opera was not at all bad !
As usual everything on stage at the Met was BIG,BOLD AND IMPRESSIVE! and I must include the leading lady in this description, for Princess Turandot (Maria Guleghina) had the faint look of Pam Ferris crossed with a lumpy Jane McDonald.
The only down size of filming a huge stage event such as the Met Operas, is that you get a good view of the cast....and like everyone knows, leading ladies are not all size 10 twenty four year olds....but I think it is fairly churlish to labour this point, she really did sing like an angel!

The sets were absolutely fabulous, our tiny audience very appreciative and during both intervals, we were treated to a behind the scenes view of scenery and prop set ups, which was fascinating.
8.5 out of 10

Withdrawl symptoms

I am having withdrawl symptoms for New York! It is exactly two years since we last visited the big apple, at least a year longer than we are used to, and I am feeling quite depressed at the thought of it all. Of course way back in the spring we had a lovely break in San Fransisco and last year's holiday was a relaxing Spanish chill out break in Sitges, but almost a decade ago it became a sort of tradition for us to go to New York annually!
We always stay somewhere in Midtown....a stone's throw from the perfect eggs Benedict at Pershing Square and Clam chowder at Grand Central's Oyster Bar!
Days are filled with museums, shopping, central park and trips up the Rockefeller centre
Even in the rain the city always has the ability to impress.... and on our last visit we had a lovely time at the New York Met where we experienced Chris' favourite Opera The Magic Flute!
Tomorrow, we are going to have a New York (ish) kind of evening! which will go some of the way to quench my withdrawls.....we are going to the Prestatyn Scala to watch a live satellite performance of Turandot from the Met .
Ok, we will miss sitting underneath those fantastic starburst swarovski chandeliers after sipping cocktails at Harry's Bar and we know we can't buy a great coffee and bagel at the bottom of the high street......but hey, watching it all on the big screen is the next best thing!

ps..We took Albert's sutures out of his leg tonight! typically he lay there boxing our hands playfully when they were removed...