Exhaustion hysteria.

Intensive care was extremely busy today. It was the usual story....too many critically ill patients and just enough staff to cope with them!
By mid afternoon the constant pressure got to us all... and we, the nurses indulged in a bout of stupid behaviour (joking around with a somewhat perplexed and overly serious radiographer) and a short burst of hysterical giggling at absolutely nothing!
In eleven and a half hours I have looked after one high dependency patient and two intensive care patients.
Give me humping a ton of stones around in my field anytime!

Wall Bore

I have got bored with the mess around the wall repairs, and in a fit of queeny control freak(ery) I have moved 42 wheelbarrows of boulders and stone from one side of the field to the other. Islwyn will be able to use this surplus to line the stream bank in the graveyard.
By 4pm, my legs and arms had turned to jelly but as you can see from the following before and after photographs, it was worth the effort to get things ship shape.

(Above) The original breach in the wall, where the hens happily climbed up into the old Churchyard

The new and improved Church wall, complete with a secluded dining area!!! (and wheelbarrow)

Anyhow, enough already with wall news....even I am getting slightly bored with it all now! Tonight is a treat night for us as we have Fish and Chips for tea! (American readers may have to google fish and chips!) We also throw caution to the wind and indulge ourselves with a large side order of mushy peas ( more googling required here !!!), after which I aim to climb into a very VERY hot bath with Homes and Antiques magazine, to soak away the soreness of today's work.

I am working all day tomorrow, so Chris is on animal watch (which should be fun) He and Boris have not seen each other for a while, and the turkey, I think, is ready to kick some Dr Chris Burton ass!!!

Precious

I was more than dubious about watching Precious as I was not at all sure that I wanted to face the story of an poor,illiterate black, pregnant teenager from Harlem and her efforts to escape a terrible abusive home life in the ghetto. After all, The Lovely Bones, depressed me far too much on Tuesday night!
I was surprised by Precious; for, as a film that chronicles the systematic abuse of a morbidly obese and emotionally stunted girl it is strangely uplifting and at times daringly hopeful. It also has flashes of laugh-out-loud humour amid the frightening set pieces of vile behaviour and violence which gives the audience some respite from the depressing subject matter.
Precious is played by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe (top photo),, and her giant bulk hides her emotions wonderfully giving the character the flatness of effect which is perfect for the role. She looks like an inscrutable giant, so any sympathy the audience has for her ( and you can almost feel the sympathy roll from the audience in waves) is wonderfully deserved.
The acting honours however must go to Mo'nique (the actress and comic-above) who is simply stunning as Mary, Precious' contradicting, violent and mentally ill mother. Her performance is reigned in , just the right side of evil monster and is a revelation.

Mariah Carey (right) is also quite impressive as a social worker involved in the family's case. She gives an intelligent, wry and rather subtle performance which really,really surprised me.

Mind you, not everything in the movie works as well as the acting. Some of the school scenes do feel a little like something from " the Ghetto kids from fame" but director Lee Daniels , to be fair, keeps these to an absolute minimum, relying on the gritty, painfully ponderous and desperate need from Precious to find happiness to move the emotions.

With some great acting, Precious is one of the most upbeat "abuse" stories that I have ever seen.
9/10
Go and see it.

One foot in the Grave (yard)

The wall is all but finished! This morning I got into my stride with dry stone walling and with Islwyn taking the lead again we cracked on through till the afternoon quite nicely.
Ok I need to wrap up the work with small filling stones and flat "topping" stones to give the top of the wall a good appearance, but I am pleased as punch with the result.

The weather is lovely but will be cold later as the skies are so clear. so I have taken advantage of the warm afternoon by completing some gardening and mucking out the pig run.

Chris is working late tonight in Cardiff, so I am off to see Precious with Hazel....Oh joy, another film about Child abuse.......sometimes don't you just wish you could sit through a Walt Disney movie....?

How apt

I bleached the toilet yesterday and last night sat down on the basin with the lid up!!!
I am suffering for it today.......hence the video!!!

Wall update

Poor Gloria, with the purple antibacterial spray covering her damaged neck, she does look a sorry sight. I moved their house into the main compound this morning, far away from the bullying youngsters, which was great for them but bad news for Islwyn who had called around to potter away with the church wall.
Boris absolutely hates Islwyn, who he blames for an "attack" on one of his runner ducks a day or so ago (Islwyn in fact saved the distressed duck who was stuck in the poultry fencing), so until I turned up , Islwyn was fending off a persistently aggressive turkey stag with a couple of bamboo poles as he got on with sizing up the stones for the wall.
The dry stone wall is almost three quarters finished and I had the opportunity to place more of the key stones in position which is a pastime that has all the addictive qualities of a crossword or computer game. Sizing up the stones and positioning them, is wonderfully relaxing work, and takes me an absolute age to do properly whereas Islwyn bangs the stones into the right places with envious ease
I think the Church Council and the village should be grateful to him for all the hard work he has done. By repairing the wall, Islwyn has saved the Church hundreds of pounds.

No other news to report today. I have completed a load of paperwork for Chris ( all of his expenses) and have buried Elizabeth, the oldest of the buff orpingtons ,who died last night on her nest.

The Not-so-lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones has been marketed in its previews as a bit of murder whodunit (albeit one that is being partly solved by the murder victim herself-14 year old Susie Salmon who is caught between worlds as it were ) and after sitting through this somewhat overlong mismatch romp of heaven fantasy,serial killing, ghosts, grief and teenage longing. I can understand just why the publicity team pitched this movie the way they did.
The film, put quite simply, is a bit of a mess.
Putting aside the overlong surreal glimpses into the over coloured,imagery laden pre heaven world, the film's study of a family going through a life changing grief is fascinating yet all too brief.
Mark Walberg and Rachel Weisz give solidly moving performances as the parents; Rose McLver is quite spunky as Susie's younger sister and the fabulous Susan Sarandon looks as though she had great fun playing the booze ridden,big haired grandmother who single handedly keeps the family together.A film that concentrated upon the family and their journey after the murder would have , for me, made for a better movie, but I guess wouldn't have kept to the "spirit" of the novel, a novel, which I am sure I would have hated.
So we have overlong shots of Susie ( a great performance by Saoirse Ronan by the way) looking wistfully into the strange heaven skyline while fighting against the urge not to walk away into the light.
We have the serial Killer (Stanley Tucci) planning his next murder.
and we have the odd girl next to the rubbish dump who has "visions" of what may or may not be going on.....couple this with a rather uncomfortably long lead up to the murder, and a slasher movie,( he-knows-you-are-hiding-upstairs) teenage girl chase sequence and you have seen everything
It's all a bit much.
6/10

Hangover Hell, Gloria gets battered,and wall update

The final single malt was not a good idea at Geoff's last night.
I usually do not experience hangovers, mind you I usually stick to either white wine or gin and tonic when I have a tipple....!
Last night we had a beer, some wine and finished with whiskey (not a drink I like generally) and this morning I had a teenage hangover the size of Australia!
I sorted the animals out in a fugue state, walked the dogs ( well they walked me) and went back to bed with a pint of water, two aspirin and the wish to die peacefully!
At my age I should know better.
So I feel as though it has been a waste of a day.
The turkey poults took advantage of my absence this morning and attacked Gloria with a concentrated barrage of pecks to the back of her neck. This afternoon I confined her to barracks, cleaned her wound and sprayed it with some antiseptic wound spray. Tomorrow I will move her and Boris into the large hen run, well away from angry beaks
The Church wall is coming on great guns, thanks primarily to Islwyn's talent and good eye for placing the faced stones. It doesn't look as though a huge amount of work has been done, but you have to remember that the centre of the wall was pushed out around 3 feet.

Tonight I am off to see The Lovely Bones.