Dorothy......You're not 28 anymore

In my mind I am 28 years old.
I think I have always been 28...even when I was around 12.
28 is a nice age ............you are generally past the silliness of youth (humm is that really true?) and you have not yet reached the potential cynicism  that early middle age possesses........it is, for the most part a happy carefree time.....
and so, in my mind, and when I am asked...I say I feel 28........

Today I feel like a man who has almost reached 50, no I am not depressed, nor am I swallow diving into a rather late mid life crisis..no......I have just been reminded that I have almost been on this planet now for five whole decades and am now experiencing the normal wear and tear of a man, "almost past his prime!" !

My doctor rang today with the results of my xray. He was thorough , professional and precise and suggested that I needed a few more tests including a referral to a cardiologist......of course it is all a "matter of routine" but as he explained his ideas, all I could really think of is the starting fact that I wasn't that invincible 28 year old anymore.

The skin on my hands now resemble what can be found on an average rhino's arse and the bald spot hidden away on my crown is just that little more noticable to those standing behind me in a queue. Reading small print involves much squinting and moaning nowadays.....and I am always in search of a bright light source in order to work out what is exactly written on the back of a cornfake packet.
Hey ho.......and I will stop right there before I start to venture down the "peeing in the middle of the night" story and/or waxing too lyrically about the start of that painful bunion on my right foot

Oh to be 28 again!

anyhow, like I said....... enough already.... will end with a couple of examples of modern day tapestry. In the Prestatyn Scala art gallery I noticed a small group of childrens' tapestries hung colourfully in the foyer.
two of them, I recognised as being interpertations of Trelawnyd landmarks

The Ebenezer Chapel

The Memorial Hall

fuck me.....I am getting old.....I am getting excited over needlework........

Kitty 5 - With Patricia Routledge

Some women ( and I will use the example of Victoria Wood's "Kitty" here)..are just naturally funny!
Of course they don't know it, they are always of a type....but funny they are....

Today I have been working day shift. I looked after a recovering 78 year old lady who instantly recognised me from when she "knew " me as a boy

Like Kitty, she was a natural Queen of the one liner when I asked her if an Orthopaedic registrar had seen the infection in a wound on her leg she said without smiling
"An somewhat untidy youth came to see me yesterday if that's what you mean;
he was wearing plimsolls and an ill fitting cardigan that gaped at the sleeves.......but I suppose all this informality is a populist University system for you!!"

Priceless

Giselle

The rather weedy looking Leonid Sarafanov as Albrecht and the stunning Natalia Osipova in the title role

Giselle is not a ballet that requires a gimmick, and certainly not if the gimmick is a filmed 3D performance of a notable Marlinksy Theatre production.
But after a shaky start  where the action seems all a little blurred (the first act is somewhat shaky anyway with it's slightly pantomime feel), the moonlit action where the Corps de ballet acting as the ghostly Wilis filter back and forth across the stage with the precision of a military exercise is quite stunning to watch under the spotlight of the extra dimension .
I wouldn't rush to do the whole glasses thing again..( at £15 a ticket, it is all a little excessive) but it was an interesting experience.

At least we got to keep the 3D glasses

I have been rostered to work tomorrow ( even though I have a work profile which states "no weekdays!")
Thank goodness for good neighbours who will be baby sitting the dogs for us.
I had a nice phone call from Thomas' owner too,who informed me that he had been returned twice before by different owners.....his athletic ability to scale great heights was obviously NOT a new skill...

hey ho

I Told You So

This morning and out of nowhere Thomas flexed his considerable thigh muscles and leapt ( without any run up) his enclosure and parimeter fence. Strangely enough it was the highest of all of the fencing that surrounds the entire field and Graveyard, and once nailed, his new facination and skill for the high jump knew no bounds and the sudden escapes continued throughout the morning.
With a heavy heart and with numerous "I told You so's" ringing in my head, I bundled him back into the berlingo and took him back to his owner ( and to her 7 foot garden fences)..I cannot take the chance that he gets out onto the road....perhaps I was naive that my heightened fencing would contain him.....

No advice please!.........and no I told you so's.........I feel bad enough already

Sense & Sensibility

Now I have not seen this since 1995 ( Nuala and I blubbed through it in a Notting Hill picture house)
But tonight I caught it on tv and loved it all over again!
It is a clever film which shows the constraints and manipulations of an affluent female Georgian population .
The film really made Kate Winslett a star, but I much prefer Emma Thompson's beautifully subtle performance of the careful Elinor Dashwood...she breaks your heart!
A lovely Movie

Blogger down! Blogger down!

We are a sad bunch of blogging fu*kers aren't we?
Our On-line diary "ship of fools" was floored  presumably by a nasty little virus and there we all were, sitting at our kitchen tables or in our favourite arm chairs, cups of coffee in hand ( or something a little stronger if you're TS)....all mourning our inability to read the exciting thoughts and daily diaries of a valiant little band of bloggers across the globe.
Of course blogging attracts the control freaks of this world.
The attraction of getting your thoughts down on paper ( like my daily and oh so necessary lists) is in fact a simple pastime to control one's environment......we all recognise the need....and we all enjoy the habit........funny we are all creatures of habit are we not?

Right , I must dash........I have to think of a wry story to write...probably about a hen falling over or the something rather unsavory about the menstral cycle of a flatulent bulldog......

got to keep my followers happy eh?

Nice to have everyone back!

Flower Show Concerns

I'm  a little worried.
No.... the goat has not escaped (oh by the way, I am planning to extend his paddock already as the old pig enclosure is far too small and he is obviously not pleased )
and No...... I have not had a result from my recent chest xray as yet!


I am in fact worried about this year's flower show.
The population of the village does not come to more than a few hundred souls and yet every year we have around three hundred entries for the flower, produce , arts and crafts and cookery ....we are usually wonderfully supported, especially by the elders of the village, but there comes a time when ill health and fatigue lays low even the most robust of Welsh Septuagenarians oh and the odd group of octogenarians!


Through illness and trauma two of our biggest contributors may not be taking part this year and at last night's Flower Show meeting we were all racking our brains to come up with a new strategy of enrolling an increasingly apathetic general public.


Bribery was discussed......Human interest stories were bandied around (after all, the press loves a Sue-Bo character like auntie Glad who has been on the committee for a staggering 60 years) and in the end we decided that a saturation bombing strategy of flyers, posters,press releases and general low level bullying may be the order of the day.

Mrs Parry sweeping the board with her baking entries last year

Sometimes the community needs to be reminded just how easy it can be to lose an event like the Flower Show, once a few key players it in disappear from view...so I will say right now
"Listen here any Trelawnyd readers.......get off your arses and think long and hard about entering as many soddin' categories in the village show that is humanly possible
See the schedule at http://trelawnydflowershow.blogspot.com/


You'll be making a old fart like me very happy
Hey Ho!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Poor Tom Stephenson 60 years old today and still moaning that I get more comments than he will ever get!... Bless.....my only advice on this subject to him would be:
.......Buy a goat
.......Book himself a relaxing massage....
.......Be  a nicer person.........................
Tee hee......pop over to his blog, and leave him a happy message why don't you? after all when he isn't banging on about bloody candlesticks he's kind of interesting, albeit it in a sort of schizophrenic way.....

Anyhow I am totally buggered here....I have been up early converting the new goat paddock from a kind of open prison to something resembling Stalag 17! Miles of barbed wire has been nailed into place onto wooden fence posts and all that I am missing is at least two sentry boxes and a machine gun post.

Thomas has watched all the activity with benign interest. When I left his paddock he followed me like a lapdog, only pausing once to head butt Bingley the stag turkey. He's a real sweetie

A strange thing happened today too.
Blanche the broody hen, who has sat fast on her 7 eggs for the past 11 days hatched out her first chick!
City slickers will comment that there is nothing weird in that.......but will need to be reminded that it takes 21 days for a hen to hatch......
I suspect that one egg out of the score I picked up for Blanche to hatch out had been incubated for ten days or so before I found it.....but it's difficult to work out just how.

Her remaining eggs , I have placed safely into the kitchen incubator., if I didnt she would continue to sit and would potentially neglect the new baby

Flower Show Meeting tonight!...........