QI? What do you think?

I have just re read my latest ( and now deleted ) post detailing a tea bag incident in the Jacob's Ladder cafe this morning.
Apart from the phase "I like my coffee as strong as Montserrat Cabelle's knicker elastic" which I thought was a particulary delightful line,
The whole thing was as interesting as thrush.
Gawd, I need to stop writing shit

Life Of Pi

I was not a fan of 3D ( i generally find that it confuses the senses )but I must admit that I am now

I doubt I will ever experience such a pure cinematic event as LIFE OF PI again, for it is truly an innovative,wonderfully crafted and intensely beautiful Work of art rather than just a mere movie. A movie which depicts the amazing physical and spiritual survival journey of a young ship wrecked Indian student.

I went with an open mind and I was totally and utterly moved by the sheer overwhelming nature of it all

Eric the "lucky"

Blogger seems to be playing up at the moment
My blog template has gone to shit
Here is a video I took today of Eric the tiny bantam cockerel who had just been attacked by what I suspect was a sparrow hawk
It took off his tail feathers....
Forgive my babbling narration

Home Alone

Now with Chris being away so often, I guess a couple of you may be wondering just what I get up to when home alone

well here are a few examples of today's treats :-

x 2 !!!!!!

then

Miranda (The Dinner Party episode)

Chris detests her

This episode was hilarious

Then the Anglo-Irish

Monster/comedy/horror film

Grabbers

Which was a cracking watch

Just stopped for a dog wee stop, blog moment and a cuppa

Then I intend to day dream to some epic music

(I mentally play scenes from the movie which I have planned in my head)

Chris hates this kind of thing too

Then I think I will have another

 a phonecall to friends

as I sit in front of the fire in my underpants and

t shirt

Yes a border line mentally ill/geek

and why not?

Oh I will watch the new first episode of Borgen
(a cracking Danish Political drama)

Beach Morning

Chris is away for most of the week, so again it's me and the animals and a bout of prolonged rain.
Before the bad weather closed in, I took the opportunity for a beach walk this morning

It never fails to surprise me that the Beach at Prestatyn is always so deserted
Although the town is really only a stones throw from the promenade, very few of the recorded 18 thousand population seem to make the effort to enjoy the miles of sand and sea .

Very odd.

Anyhow, the dogs enjoyed the gallop. Their obvious joy always makes me smile

Prestatyn Beach. just 2.5 miles away from Trelawnyd

Bright button eyed George

William

Meg in need of a haircut

George off the Ground

Shame

The other night I had an interesting conversation with a friend about the notion of shame.
It was on the back of a situation when one of his neighbours, high on drink or/and drugs had a fist fight with another woman in the street, and even though police were called, and all of the other neighbours had been involved, the self limiting emotion of public shame was not enough to limit this antisocial behaviour to something more "manageable"
Shame is only an effective boundary marker , when you feel you are a part of a community that you effectively care about. That community may be family and peer based (the "new" mini communities of the new age) or it could mean the community in which you live.
Unfortunately, the wider definition of the word "community" no longer exists for many of us, and without having a respected audience for bad behaviour, shame and the feelings of being ashamed are rapidly disappearing.
There is perhaps still something to be said for that knowing, tight-lipped shake of the head by the local battle axe senior, when your front room net curtains had been left to go grey.

The other day I found bottles of beer that had been left on the church wall. I knew who had left them, I had seen the culprits downing them in the street the night before, so like an over-the-hill, self proclaimed super hero, I picked them up and lobbed them over a nearby privet hedge back into the garden where the "drinkers" hailed from.
Would the owners of the bottles be shamed by my passive aggressive antics?
Of course they wouldn't
but it did give me a brief moment of satisfaction

Answer This

Gary the Gardner over at 

http://gary-greenfingers.blogspot.co.uk/

asked me to complete the following

and as I am waiting for Chris to return from Church here goes

1. What would you do if you won £10,000 tomorrow?

That's easy, pay a few bills, fix the back door,and buy a bulldog and a cow

2. Best lifetime moment?

This is nearly impossible to answer as lifetime moments are often fleeting and intensely personal in nature

but I will brain storm a few that are not just Chris, family and friend based

1.Lying on a couch with Chris and a blanket of dogs (and cats) one Christmas Morning

2. Seeing The New York Skyline at night for the first time

3. Watching an old man waltz with his wife who was suffering from Alzheimer's on a drab psychiatric ward one morning

4 Dancing on the top of a cancer hospital's roof, drunk in the dark

5.Being given my own ward to manage

6. getting my first dog

7.Experiencing a full orchestra concert for the first time at the age of 25

8. Buying my first house

3. Are you happy?

Relatively.yes

4. Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter?

I do neither. I cannot see the point...my blog perhaps gives me enough "feedback"

5. If you could change something in your life, what would it be?

I would like to be 2 inches taller

I would like a few more acres and an American Barn

I would like to have the confidence to join the Male Voice Choir

6. What is your biggest vice/habit in life?

Food/alcohol/food/food, scotch eggs

7. What is a good point about you? And a negative point?

I have a big heart but I can be incredibly bossy

8. What is your most embarrassing lifetime moment?

They are cataloged consistently on the blog....too many to mention, though I am always partial to the story when I broke wind loudly in an Aldi supermarket a year or so ago when I was trying to retrieve a pie from a chest freezer. Much to the enjoyment of several elderly shoppers and a woman in a wheelchair

9. What is your favourite flower?

Freesia

10. What is your biggest love in life?

Well, Chris,family,friends and animals would be an obvious answer...so I will have to add

food (especially scotch eggs)

The Walking Dead,

New York,

Sheffield

Watching a good film and daydreaming in a deserted cinema

Being  home

and

being loved,

being amused

Rosemary & Bernard

Ignore the slightly blurred figure of Albert. He just muscled into the photo I was taking.
The real object of desire so to speak is the collection of jams,savoury marmalades and jelly which has been amassed on the kitchen table.
No, I haven't had a Mary Berry epiphany and gone all "preserve like".
I have been sort of adopted as an unofficial produce "tester" by village jam champions Rosemary and Bernard.
Now Rosemary and Bernard always make me chuckle for they are constantly "on the go".Keen cooks with a penchant for German cuisine ( Bernard is German and has an accent that could cut a knockwurst sausage in two) the two introduced themselves to me a year or two ago when they realised I sold duck eggs. I conscripted the two of them immediately for a spot of cake baking for my open day ( by using a great deal of genuine flattery over a particularly tasty muffin)and ever since then a consistent dribble of goodies have arrived at Bwthyn-y-llan for us to trial and taste.
yesterday it was a savoury lamb marinade and several clementine jam recipes, a day before some sloe jelly was left by the kitchen door"...........it's just like having a pair of jam fairies living down the lane.