We Must Be jaded.....

.....Albert has just dragged in another juvenile rat

we must be tired

I was watching the excellent The Bourne Legacy with Meg all crammed into the window armchair, so we couldn't give a ****

William was asleep on the couch,

Chris is in Harrogate on a conference

and George was happily farting peacefully in his place by the front door.

Albert looked quite disappointed

as non of us moved an inch!

Me thinks he loves an audience
The Rat el Morto

Tok Tok Place

http://toktokplace.blogspot.co.uk/

Yesterday I read one of the last entries from a blog I have been dipping in and out of for some years now.

It was a chilling, upsetting and in some ways a beautiful read.

Johnno has written an honest stark and heartfelt "goodbye" . He is a pragmatic, educated elderly Aussie who lives in a small town a million miles away from the cold, wet green of Trelawnyd.His no nonsense blog is not one of those "emotional romp" affairs you get when you log into Going Gently. Nor is it one of those "lifestyle magazines" or ranting forums or clever word show offs. 

No

"Tok Tok Place" is merely one of those chatty blogs that make up the majority of blogs with a demographic that is predominately middle aged and a little ordinary.

It is a series of well researched |"chats" about this, that and the other

Johnno's latest  blog entry is the upshot of a short devastating illness

I have cut and pasted it below

It proves just how powerful these Internet diaries can be.

It also proves that , the snippets of our lives, albeit the pieces we choose to share on this odd forum, can be very real.

My thoughts are with John D and his family at this time

Take Care Johnno

"End of days .....

Hi All! Finally feeling well enough to put up a post even if it is not a pleasant one.
I am definitely unwell - Sarcoidosis effecting both lungs has resulted in complete respiratory collapse, congestive cardiac failure, pneumonia and advanced asthma. Just had 3 weeks in Calvary Hospital, Canberra, and now back home on "Home Oxygen" 24/7. Specialist says to sort out my affairs and make an appt. to see him in 3 months (nice way of giving you a 'time-line'!)

Cannot eat - have lost 15kg (over 2 stone) in 3 weeks - Rhonda and I are making 'Life adjustments with a spirit of inevitable denial - we know what is coming. Grandsons coming down Saturday to see "Pa!" - guess that'll be their last Christmas with "Pa"!

Guess you won't see many more posts on here from me but when up to it I'll try to manage a few words. When the day arrives I'll have my daughter, Kat, put up a final message.

I really don't know what else to say this afternoon - we are going to fight this 'thing' for every hour and day we can claw back from it.

Must go for now, too tired to write more today but will post again. Have arranged for our daughter, Kat, to put up the eventual final post! Pain hurting, must go!"

A sausage for The Barber

I have left a couple of sausages on the draining board to defrost

For I am off to the barbers today!

It may sound strange but it has become a little bit of a tradition to slip the barber a furtive sausage after he has saved my usual "wreck of the Hesperus" hairstyle and has wrestled it into some semblance of normality.

I blame Auntie Glad for this odd and secret food giving practise, for after every Flower Show Meeting, she will gesture quite madly  that "The package"  has been left  by the door for me to pick up without fuss and without the other Flower Show Committee Members noticing! 

(The package, of course, is a neatly wrapped bag of fresh  homebaked scones)

The secret nature of the gift has become a joyous tradition between the two of us.... a tradition I am now visiting with the barber, albeit with a bit of home made pork!

It all started when the barber noticed that I had mud all over my arse after I had sat down in his old fashioned leather chair. .

I think it had been a day I had been wrestling with animal helper Pat over  a buff Orpington's impacted crop, a fight that resulted in me falling over on the field ....anyhow the barber had noticed the muck on my pants and had commented on them ( he was probably worried about the state of his leatherette!!!)

We got to talking about the birds and then the pigs... and the barber mentioned that he adored home cured bacon, a warm memory from his youth

On my next visit I brought him a couple of number 21s sausages ,a pressie he was genuinely touched by

and the tradition of "sausages for the barber" was started!

Bless

ah bless, he doesn't know what to do with his arms

More Gays In The Village?

Yesterday was such a bloody awful shift that I couldn't quite wait getting out with the dogs into a blustery , damp and cold morning to blow the cobwebs away.

I walked up trough the village and up over the side of the Gop, then returned down High Street.

Many of the houses at the top of the hill have similar Welsh names. Pen-y-Bryn, Tan-y Bryn..they all mean roughly the same thing...ie. "Top of the Hill!", so it was with some minor interest that I spied two "ambling" types who had stopped halfway up the hill to point at the side of one of the bungalows perched on the incline.

As I passed I heard one of the women saying to the other

 "Perhaps....... it's a gay household!"

intrigued, I had to stop (pretending that the dogs were having a quick pee) to see what they were referring to...and after a minute or so scratching my head., I worked it all out with a smile

The non Welsh speaking woman had read the plaque on the side of the house

It said

Tan

Y

Craig

In an impressive Gothic script

So the Woman could almost be forgiven for mistaking the sign as reading

IAN

&

CRAIG

Tan-y-Craig more or less means "On the Rock" in Welsh ( another version of Top of the Hill!)

I kind of prefer, Ian & Craig...whoever they are!

yawn

Long, shift today

My feet are aching and I just can't be arsed to do anything but

Watch Episode 7 TWD

and gently stink my day shift stink in the armchair near the fire

Balloons Over The Moon

58 red and Black balloons crossed the night sky over Denbigh this evening, most were illuminated briefly by the full moon
Not too much fuss.....not too much drama
A few glasses of champagne were raised
Andrew would have liked it!

Christmas Trees, Lemon Meringue Pies and another "goodbye"

We sorted out a Christmas Tree today. 

I know it's terribly early....too early for us really (we don't usually embark on the annual pine tree bunfight until the 14th of December or so) BUT  as we have a friend visiting next weekend, we thought we would get the whole shebang over with and make the place look all festive for when our guest arrives.....

Last night we called down to Dyserth for a return meal with the Rector.

It was an impressive meal that was finished off with a cracking homemade Lemon Meringue Pie.

If the Rector does not sweep the board at next year's Cookery Classes of the Trelawnyd Flower Show, well then Mary Berry is a kitchen dunce transvestite!

I think vicar's must always make good pastry cooks..... it's all that time dipping their hands in that cold font water me thinks.

Tonight we are off  to my sister-in-laws home up in the hills. The family is gathering to mark the anniversary of my brother's death. We will raise a glass of champagne to him, let off a whole load of balloons and will share a hotpot supper.

I cannot believe it has been a year since he died.

It's a truism

The older you get,

the quicker time goes.

Scary That!

Sister in law Jayne and My brother......(don't ask!)

am working the 7.30 am to 8.15 pm shift tomorrow!