The Walking Dead goes Disney
Thanks to Kate.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Today is my father-in-law's 70th Birthday
He is celebrating in Kent with the family today and next weekend
On his next visit up to Wales my family will hold a Birthday meal in his honour
Have a grand day Richard
X
Sister Gray of The nine hens
People may recall the lady from the village who has been suffering from short term memory loss...she is the lady we had planned to visit on Christmas Day, that was until she received a better offer of a cooked lunch.
Anyhow,ever since then, around three times a week, I have got into the habit of plating her up a portion of lunch or dinner if I have made a little too much for the two of us. It's not much of a job to do, and it gives me an excuse to 'pop in' so to speak, but I had to chuckle to myself on Friday afternoon when I called in all virtuous and worthy with my foil covered plate only to realise that others had already beaten me to it.
A freshly baked cake had pride of place on the kitchen top, a gift from one of the Church ladies and in the fridge was a couple of shop bought puddings.
I was informed that a male neighbour had just left after sorting out a few problems with this and that and as I was just about to leave another villager was arriving with some items requested only that morning from the garage shop.
Such is the uncoordinated good will of the middle aged....
I think there is a fine line to be walked here between being 'helpful' and being an f@€king pious and saintly old fart who is full of their own importance.
I would like to think that most of us hail from the first category but I do in fact possess the self awareness to realise that being a good neighbour makes me feel just that tiniest bit happy and self congratulationary with myself put,more simply...being 'good' makes you feel good....
It's not rocket science.......and yobbos of the this world please take note......
Show an old lady across a road and you manufacture more back slapping endorphins within your brain than ever could be let free by downing two cans of red bull and a few n-cat tablets.
Anyhow,ever since then, around three times a week, I have got into the habit of plating her up a portion of lunch or dinner if I have made a little too much for the two of us. It's not much of a job to do, and it gives me an excuse to 'pop in' so to speak, but I had to chuckle to myself on Friday afternoon when I called in all virtuous and worthy with my foil covered plate only to realise that others had already beaten me to it.
A freshly baked cake had pride of place on the kitchen top, a gift from one of the Church ladies and in the fridge was a couple of shop bought puddings.
I was informed that a male neighbour had just left after sorting out a few problems with this and that and as I was just about to leave another villager was arriving with some items requested only that morning from the garage shop.
Such is the uncoordinated good will of the middle aged....
I think there is a fine line to be walked here between being 'helpful' and being an f@€king pious and saintly old fart who is full of their own importance.
I would like to think that most of us hail from the first category but I do in fact possess the self awareness to realise that being a good neighbour makes me feel just that tiniest bit happy and self congratulationary with myself put,more simply...being 'good' makes you feel good....
It's not rocket science.......and yobbos of the this world please take note......
Show an old lady across a road and you manufacture more back slapping endorphins within your brain than ever could be let free by downing two cans of red bull and a few n-cat tablets.
so here ends the sermon for today
Get out there
And hug a hoodie
Moel Hiraddug
Our friend Nigel has just made a flying trip to Trelawnyd which has been lovely.
I always enjoy his visits because being a history geek, he does drag us around local points of ancient interest by the scruff of our necks; jaunts that I must say that we ultimately rather enjoy even though I remember one rather unfortunate and painful expedition up the slope of an Iron Age hill fort near Conway dressed in a rather flimsy pair of flip flops.
Today he took us up Moel Hiraddug, a hill fort that more or less over looks Trelawnyd a little way to the South West.
It was fascinating, muddy, very skippy and all a bit of a laugh. especially as Nige and Chris had just a little trouble climbing to the top of the Hill Fort due to the conditions ( fortunately I was pulled up to the summit by the dogs) -
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| Nigel and Chris ( in his Australian hat---he told me it was Australia day!) |
I am lucky knowing Nigel for he is blessed with the same somewhat tasteless sense of humour as I.
This afternoon was a case in point
On our return from Ancient hill fort explorations, Nigel decided to make some tea and as the dogs crowded around to watch he searched through his bags and gave each one a small treat.
" What did you give them?" I asked in passing
" warfarin tablets" Nige replied sardonically.
BitchWars
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| Jess and Meg in happier times |
Jess and our Meg have hated each other ever since they met some five years ago and all it needs is a look in the wrong direction and the two of them can be found noisily locked together biting the f@*k out of any anatomy part that manages to come to hand.
Bitches are like the females of most species, for they never forget a slight and they NEVER forget a nasty bite up the arse.
Unfortunately Meg and Jess are both terriers (and terriers for those that don\'t know never EVER back down)
Having said all this, things have seemed to have settled down somewhat over the last year , so when I called down to Prestatyn to walk Jess on Monday,I thought I would take the chance to give her a further break by allowing her to come on a bit of a drive in the car.
Things went well all week. Jess was tied into the back seat with the ever calm William and George and Meg was given alpha female status in the front seat next to me. Everyone looked happy..and everyone got along. We have been out together all week long now and have visited the beach, the animal wholesalers and even been on a jaunt to my friend Eirlys\' farm, everything has been fine... That was until I made the mistake of taking my eye off the ball by putting a scotch egg into my mouth as I started to drive out of Sainsbury\'s car park.
I think it was the delightful aroma of egg and sausage meat that finally did for me, for as I took my first heavenly chew, all hell let loose.
OUT OF NOWHERE Jess started to manfully drag a barking Meg into the back of the berlingo by her face fur.
I slammed to a halt ( blocking the road as I did so) and spattering scotch egg everywhere tried desperately to separate the two as a small crowd started to form to watch. William was happy enough to each the shrapnel as it fell and I could hardly yell at any of them as it is almost impossible to utter anything bit a faint squeak when you have a mouthful of boiled egg.
For god\'s sake I could have choked to death but after a minute or two I did manage to separate the bitches and re tie them to their respective seats after vacating the car and clambering manically into the back .
during all of this palava, I have to note that George being the opportunist that he is, clambered into the front seat and managed to steal my last remaining scotch egg from its resting place on the dashboard.
Handy Hints
I adore the handy hint section in all of those down-at-heel ladies magazines. Of course I only read them at work and in the doctor's waiting room...but as they give me so much unintended pleasure, I am contemplating subscribing to the likes of "take a break" to make sure I have my fix so to speak.
My very favourite handy hint comes from Viz which offers the following:-
Keep you loved ones alive...when you lose an elderly relative, always keep their false teeth.....when washed they make ideal pastry cutters!
I do have a useful handy hint of my own..and it's a little advice about keeping your animals ticking over when the elements are against you.
Always make sure that you give your girls some protein occasionally.The cheapest way is to buy some of those dreadful smelling bargain basement cans of dog food from the supermarkets that cater for the more budget clientele .
THEY GO ABSOLUTELY friggin nuts over it.
My very favourite handy hint comes from Viz which offers the following:-
Keep you loved ones alive...when you lose an elderly relative, always keep their false teeth.....when washed they make ideal pastry cutters!
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| Dog food ambrosia |
Always make sure that you give your girls some protein occasionally.The cheapest way is to buy some of those dreadful smelling bargain basement cans of dog food from the supermarkets that cater for the more budget clientele .
THEY GO ABSOLUTELY friggin nuts over it.
Tears Before Bedtime
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| Tom Holland as Lucas |
I have not read any other reviews of the film THE IMPOSSIBLE, but I have heard that the story of how one English family of five got caught up in the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 has been criticised for its portrayal of the disaster from the tiny perspective of just one foreign family.
This is an unfair criticism. The story is what it is, and although the movie captures perfectly the astonishing destructive force and sheer scale of the disaster, it wisely never really wavers from the physical and psychological journey of the Bennett family and particularly the experiences of the oldest son Lucas, who rises in statue as the whole emergency unfolds.
The whole film is a sob fest from start to finish thanks primarily to an amazingly mature performance by Tom holland as Lucas and a heartbreaking supportive turn by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as his distraught parents.
From the get-go the audience cares deeply and with passion for this family and their survival and so the roller coaster ride of their life after the wave is made even more exhausting.
Having said all this the Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, peppers the drama time and time again with tear jerking tiny moments of real humanity,where the chance interventions of strangers have an astonishing effect on the family after the tsunami has struck.
And so we see elderly native women gently and silently tending the severely injured Maria (Watts) after she is found..while an injured and bereaved German tourist ( Sönke Möhring) insists a distraught Henry (McGregor) uses his precious phone to contact home.
Elderly Brit (Geraldine Chapman) briefly teams up with middle son Thomas (Samuel Joslin) for a haunting moment of human contact and support made even more moving as she is reminded by the boy that she is seventy four and he is a mere seven and a half at the same time as Lucas makes it his mission to try and reunite the lost and separated in one of the overrun and crowded community hospitals.
It is these scenes that literally break your heart.
This is a powerful,intensely moving and visually stunning drama of an almost unfilmable event...I have not cried as much since Mabel died
9/10
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