Liverpool Ball

As I have been fading somewhat Chris donned his glad rags (as had my sisters and Brother in law) and has gone to St George's Hall in Liverpool for a night of ballroom dancing and merriment

I intend to slob with a diet coke

Home Number Two

Isn't there a song entitled "wherever I lay my hat that's my home?".....well it sounds bloody daft to me! Having said this when we left Sheffield in 2005 (two dogs, two cats, two of us and tons of luggage all crammed inside a Volkswagen Polo)..my life effectively was transported back to Wales and home was relocated in just that 2 hour drive.
I loved my old house in Sheffield, it was a large Victorian terrace with a sweet partly walled garden.We shared a ginnel (alley) with next door (Bel-Ami) and the sun always seemed to shine through the windows of the dining room which always looked as though it has been designed in the 1930s.
However when we left the house, "home" went with us in that Polo, and that was effectively and very simply....well....that!
Having said this I always consider myself as having two homes in some ways.....Our Welsh home at Bwthyn-y-llan and my affectionate "home" and that is the city of Sheffield.
Today, after a year (yes that long) I will drive over the Pennines and catch up with the city (John Lewis department store- oh be still my beating heart!;.....the art deco City Hall, the Peace Gardens (pic)etc.....but more importantly I will be catching up with the people that we left behind and I guess it is people and relationships that really make a home feel like home.
So...I will catch up with Joy (a friend and colleague from my Spinal Injury days) then have a long overdue catch up with Jane ( an ex girlfriend!) before meeting up with best mate Mike (yes he who is crap at keeping in touch) his wife Bev, Kathryn, Vince, Julie and of course Jonney H (who will be swishing into All Bar One, fashionably late, no doubt wearing something figure hugging and expensive from Zara!
Nuala will be meeting us there after catching the fast train up from London to complete the group (she left Sheffield in the early 1990's) and for one night only, I can look smart, not smell of chicken shit and catch up with old friends

Iranian films.......suck (well this one did)

Hazel and I hated No One Knows About Persian Cats. The semi documentary style cinematography, the slightly manic 1960 Richard Lester ish style narrative and some terrible performances didn't help this desperate story of the underground music culture in Tehran.
We left after an hour which was ok...we had a beer and a chat, and made up after me having "words" we her recently recently!
As we drove over Prestatyn hill, there was an amazing sunset (as predicted) over the sea....very hazy and pinky.....and not at all disasterfilm ish........

Volcanic Peace

As I was brushing the front path this morning a neighbour stopped by and asked if I noticed anything odd about the sky. Apart from being a deep azure blue, I couldn't figure anything out of the ordinary, that is, until he pointed out that there were no jet vapour trails zigzagging over the heavens! (pic from the front garden)
"It's the Iceland volcano" he explained excitedly " there is a toxic cloud coming our way and all planes have been grounded!" (yes, it did sound all very 2012 !!!) Now I did have visions of the villagers, with hankies tied around the faces battling a Pompeii type ash cloud, which I thank goodness will not materialise (after all, I had just washed the cottage windows!!!), but I have found the whole unfolding story quite fascinating.
I think that the only effects we will feel here in Trelawnyd, is reportedly a "lavender" sunset

Off to the pictures with Hazel this evening to see No One Knows About Persian Cats, review later

Sigh!

It has been too dry (yes dry!!!) for me to start planting out today, so I have fenced off the second vegetable bed in an effort to protect my delicate seedlings from chicken damage.Iceberg lettuce have already been planted under the cloches, and after the next bout of rain we experience I will plant out more potatoes, leeks and broadbeans.

As I was working this afternoon, I listened with interest to the radio news that the Pope's second in command Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has linked homosexuality with paedophilia in an attempt to defuse the sex scandals that have blighted the Catholic Church as of late.

While, I think that Cardinal Betone's words were perhaps just an unthinking and confusing conclusion to a recent Vatican research project on the subject of "Church abuse", by dangerously connecting being gay to child abuse, he has potentially put back the progression of gay rights and gay acceptance in some areas of the world, irreversibly.

In more "enlightened" countries, the remarks , I hope, will just backfire spectaculary on the beligered and blinkered Church itself, and some of me feels that the Cardinal's words should just be given the contempt that they deserve and should just be ignored....

sad, sad, sad............

Sheffield Plans

I am pretty excited!
Friday I am meeting up with Nu up in Sheffield and we are going to catch up with a load of old friends for a night of laughter and gossip!
I left Sheffield in 2005 and Nu left in 1995 , so it will be a real nostalgic "blast from the past" night out when we all get together in ALL BAR ONE.....! especially as Nu and I are sharing a hotel room! which is so...well teenage !
Been texting like mad over the last few days in order to liaise with old mates!
tee hee
photo:- the famous vintage police box located next to the Town Hall in sheffield city centre

Spring Photos

The Chicks in the shed are nearly a week old now and all seem robust and healthy little buggers. The smallest (above) is a part bantam mongrel and is an absolute sweetie!
With the pigs gone there is plenty of jobs to be getting on with. I cleaned their hut out, and cleared much of their enclosure of dirty straw and droppings before re seeding the ground.
The Bourbon red turkeys will be housed into the hut as soon as the chicks are old enough to go outside. The chicks will be housed in the present turkey house. All I have to do now is sort out a potential goose house! (if you remember, there are four giant goose eggs in the incubator!)

As I weeded the been and pea beds this afternoon, the sun has been blazing and the turkeys have been clumsily mating amid clouds of feathers and uncomfortable screaming. I have erected the runner, french bean and pea supports and was kept company by the dogs and the obligatory Albert who always refused to be left out of anything

The creeping buttercups have covered the Churchyard in a blanket of yellow, and the backdrop of colour and nature is, I am sure, some sort of comfort for the increased numbers of visitors to the graveyard.

There seems to have been a lot of burials recently, and the newly bereaved to and fro along the neat paths and green borders all day long....As I work, I wave to some that I recognise, and thank goodness for the nice weather, a country graveyard in the sun, must bring a great deal of peace and comfort to troubled minds.....I moved the turkeys down to the bottom of the field....so that their sexual antics didn't bother any of the visitors too much.

As I came in to wash up before collecting the Berlingo, I spied Auntie Gladys who was sat quietly in the sun on the far side of the Churchyard ("Auntie is her generic Village name!)!. She waved vaguely as I waved to her (at ninety I don't think she actually recognised me at that distance! and as she got up to slowly amble her way home I had a huge rush of affection for this old lady who always reminds me of a white haired and smiling Woody Allen, She is one of the nicest and most respected villagers I have met since our time here.

She has been a member of the Flower Show Committee ( and the village welfare committee before that) for 57 years!

I have only been Chairman for two!!!

On Line?

I couldn't get on line yesterday. Computer said an emphatic "NO!"
wasted an hour talking to a technical officer from the Indian subcontinent trying to solve the issue only to be told that the whole village had lost its connection to the world!
Feeling like a sad geek, I was rather bereft without my daily helping of blogdom.

I have been typing this diary without fail for four years now (internet crashes and the odd holiday apart)...and the ritual and discipline of sitting down with laptop and coffee is a daily joy

Having said this I am typing this entry at my sister's house before I take the trusty Berlingo in for it's second crack at an MOT....and Janet's A key does not work at all well......you try writing something without a soddin A in it......

Hopefully the diary of a man hurtling through a mid life country crisis will be back on line tomorrow!