Leaving (Partir) and Ducklings



Lopez-sigh



Hazel and I went to Theatre Clwyd tonight to see a kind of French/Spanish version of Lady Chatterley's Lover starring the wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas  as the posh totty and the very sexy Sergi López as the Spanish hired help.   Catherine Corsini's movie, entitled Leaving (Partir) not only tells the story of the florid love affair between bored housewife and sweaty builder but adds to the mix a husband's (

Yvan Attal ) obsession with getting his wife to return and chronicles the lengths he goes to, to financially cripple the new couple.( An interesting angle in revenge)

Scott Thomas, with her big bambi eyes is cracking in the role of Suzanne,  you can literally feel, her passion and pain for a man , she has suddenly realises that she is in love with and as an actress she is wonderfully magnetic and brave in her role (  and at 50 she gets her kit off better than Helen Mirren any day)

Lopez (remember him as the psychopathic soldier in Pans Labyrinth?) has the smaller and less satisfying role of Ivan, but has a winning smile and warmth that counteracts Thomas' glacial beauty, and I found him rather a dish ( not as much as my x factor muse Matt Cardle though!!)

7/10

Anyhow, earlier today I briefly videoed the new runners for Dan to witness their progress.

Below is the briefest of videos showing them free of their run for the first time.

Winnie and Jo, found them fascinating , and chased them half heartedly around the field ( but didn't hurt them)

If the weather is nice tomorrow I will let them out for a few hours

Don't Mess With This Teacher!

Don't Mess With This Teacher!

she is my hero( click on the above link)
It reminds me of my Chris when he was lecturing years ago. One student let their phone ring and answered it and Chris slowly folded up his books and papers and walked  quietly out of the lecture theatre

Just when you thought..........

......that you could not possibly think of something to blog about on this dark and dismal autumn day, you experience the surreal kind of of conversation that kind of lingers in the mind.

Beryl an elderly neighbour of ours, braved the blustery rain at teatime to pay me for some eggs that I had left for her yesterday. She is a little unsteady on her feet, so I offered her my arm and guided her back up the lane to her car and as we walked she said brightly
"  I had an xray the other day and the doctor told me I had a foreign body lodged inside my pelvis!"
"Really!" I said.... ever slightly at a loss of what to say
"I know what it is",she continued laughing to herself " I rolled onto a needle during the war"

classic

A lesson Learned

After agreeing with Tom Stephenson on the irritating nature of the character of the simpering Kathy Perks in  
The Archers....I got to thinking about things that really ( and I mean REALLY) irritate me.
Now despite my occasional grumpy demeanor, the list "of the hated" is not as extensive as I perhaps once realised. 
This morning as I was filling the animal water feeders I started to make a mental list to myself of all the things I don't like, and was busy chatting to myself as I was doing so ( a girl walking up the lane to catch the school bus obviously thought I was a bit of a lala)........

This was the start my original post for today, but on reflection I think it would be a little inappropriate to be bitching about the small things in life that piss me off. Yesterday when he was at Church, Chris volunteered me to help take the donated foodstuff from the Harvest Festival service to the homeless shelter down in Rhyl.
Although I am not in fact a Church goer, I am always more than happy to help out if the Church requires a hand with this or that, so I turned up promptly at 9.45 to help clear the Church windows of the scores of tinned goods,packets and fresh fruit and vegetables.
It's funny that as soon as we entered the Church , several pairs of helping hands suddenly turned up out of nowhere to help load up the cars and I was amazed that the small congregation in Trelawnyd had donated so much produce for charity .
People, especially in Britain can be rather sniffy towards "do gooding Church work".....I think I can understand this, as we all seem to have a  slightly "Dad's Army" view of old fashioned drafty village Hall Jumble sales and old lady arguments over who is doing the Church flowers, but the reality of something like today's car loads of food, to me, seemed rather valiant and rather nice.
The staff at the homeless shelter were genuinely touched and surprised with the amount of produce we delivered this morning.It was obvious that such gifts were not the norm, and it surprised me that I was indeed humbled by  the the whole brief experience   

This afternoon I took the dogs up the Gop were we sat  and watched the rabbits gambolling through the dark woods. Tonight I am working an extra shift on ITU, so will grab an hours sleep covered in dogs before I go

harvest festival

It was harvest Festival service in St Michael's , so the village was a little busier than on a "normal" Sunday Morning. Before Desmond rang the Church Bell calling the faithful to Church I walked back home through the village after taking the dogs up the Gop.
Right in the centre of the village Peter Vincent had found a large dog fox dead in his garden, which I was pleased about..he suggested that it was something it ate out of his bin that had caused its death, which is not a good advertisement for his wife's cooking I would have thought!- but we both agreed that for my chickens' sake ( and for the small but rapidly growing village population of garden hens)- it was a good thing.
I walked past the Church as Gwyneth sped towards us in her electric wheelchair.Before she went in for the service she stopped to pet the dogs and didn't notice William sneakily peeing on her tyres. (Hope it didn't leave any urine stained tracks on the Church flagstones!)
Chris dashed out with his sainsbury's bag full of tinned goods, pasta and tea (the Church is collecting  the food for the homeless shelter) and I went into the field to video the runners as the Church Bell rang out.
Sorry you can't see the ducks too clearly....they remain terribly nervous and have not acclimatized to the stresses of the outdoors as yet.. but you may get the gist

On to some more good news

This morning , I read with some interest about the forthcoming canonisation of the Australian Nun Mary MacKillop Melbourne Born MacKillop, a nun who had a lifelong love of caring for needy children, was excommunicated from the church in 1871 for her role in exposing a sex abusing priest  but was later exonerated before  being beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
This recognition of a "modern day" good, and God fearing woman will, I hope do the Church some good. It's about time it had a bit of good press for a change...I wonder if Mary will become the patron Saint of Abused Children........? That would be a good decision me thinks

Matt Cardle sings Just The Way You Are - The X Factor Live show 2 - itv....

I had to re post this video again! and he is still as cute as one of my geese!

Welsh Reality

Wales is not known for quality television. The welsh language station S4C reminds me a little of the 70's scheduling I was used to as a child ( all cheap and rather clunky). But just occasionally something interesting looms out of the mist. On Monday BBC Wales starts its SNOWDONIA 1890 "reality/historical/experiment" where two families, the Braddocks (from South Wales) and a local North Wales family (the Jones' from Denbigh where my brother lives) take up the responsibility mountain small holding for a month, but do so within  strict Victorian parameters.
OK, OK, it is a tried, tested and totally artificial scenario.....we have seen it all before, but this production, from what I can see, has the benefit of some detailed and meticulous research, a particularly tame white Sussex hen and some feisty actors who have been conscripted into playing the "local characters" such as the local Minister and butcher.
I'd love to give this sort of thing ago...the costumes pander to my slight enjoyment of the theatrical ( I can see myself in that very fetching hat the guy on the right has on!) and the "pulling together in adversity" is all very disaster movie-ish!
Alas, I don't think that welsh reality tv is ready for a middle aged camp old queen with a love of poultry, dogs and Bette Davis movies...just yet!...............hummmmm perhaps next year eh?