Bake Off Week 4

Howard...a nice guy even when  Deborah stole his custard

Its a bit of a non news day today.... am working night shift tonight....so apologies for those non Uk readers for a bit of a Uk TV based blog entry. The Great British Bake Off continued last night and I must admit the BBC has done it again , as a simple cookery programme is transformed into a soap in which you start to root for your favourite characters.
Top of my list must be Howard, a wry, sensitive Yorkshireman who cried when the cute and rather innovative Ali was voted off last night. He may not be as talented as the luminous Kimberly or student Ruby, but there is a niceness about him which is rather appealing.
" Nice" is perhaps a byword for Bake Off
Christine, the oldest member of the group is a sweetie, so is the rotund wisecracking teacher Glen who endeared himself to the audience by covering his eyes so dramatically when Mel and  Sue tried to help Howard save his filo pastry ring from its container. and it makes a nice change to be able to sit down with a cuppa to watch nice people, doing nice things in a nice programme.
Sometimes nice is just right.

Qws myyn t’ak’s

Sometimes it just needs to be said

Gay Gordon

I have spent a rather dirty morning trying to rescue the pond from the damage done by the torrential downpours of the last few days.
It's a blustery, chilly day here in North Wales, and the skies remain grey and somewhat dour, so when I took the dogs around the village to deliver eggs, typically there was little human activity to be seen.
I did bump into one character on my travels though as I spied "Gay Gordon"cheerfully standing bravely at the bus stop as I ambled by.
Now " Gay Gordon" is the nickname I have given to an elderly chap who is one of the relatively new residents of the village. The Gay prefix has nothing to do with sexuality ( Gordon, I know is a bit of a ladies man) but it has everything to do with his flamboyant  nature , for he is a chap with an ENORMOUSLY  cheerful personality....picture a balding Brian Blessed with grey hair and a stick...and you will get where I am coming from.
Meeting him is a bit like having a debate on the acting merits of Maggie Smith with Kenneth Williams, Miriam Margolyes, and Graham Norton over a bottle of pink gin.
It's always a rambunctious event.

" Hello DOGS!" He bellowed as we approached and as he bent down to cuddle the dogs who strangely are quite  attracted to this old chap who shouts a lot , they crowd  round him like wasps around a sticky bun.
They seem to understand his friendly intentions

I want to be like Gordon if I ever reach a ripe old age. He a  happy male equivalent of Jenny Joseph's  old lady who wears purple ......larger than life, brighter than the proverbial button....and someone who makes a grey autumn day seem just that little bit sunnier.
......and, dare I say.....a little more .theatrical!

Thick As Mince

How do you occupy a slightly thick but lovable dog for an entire afternoon?
Well, you introduce him to the home of a slightly disabled female rabbit called Mary
And you leave him to it
William stood like this for over two hours
And still had a goo-goo smile on his face when I eventually took  him inside

There are some compensations for being thick

You can be so easily pleased

A favourite Book and Painting

Recently my blog has been likened to Gerald Durrell's very first novel My Family And Other Animals.
If I could write with half the talent and affection that Durrell did about his mad family, Greek friends and eclectic collection of pets, I would be a happy bunny as this book above all others was a bible to me when I was a small boy.
The book has everything but the kitchen sink thrown into it. a harassed mother, a collection of witty, bohemian teenagers, larger than life Greek peasants a strawberry loving tortoise and a family boat which was christened with the unlikely name of Bootlebumtrinket
If you have not read it...please do so....it's a hilarious and affectionate read of a childhood we all wished we had experienced.

Apparantly Lilian Cheviot was a popular painter of dogs in the early part of the 20th Century.She is not an artist that I have ever heard of, but I found it rather fascinating that she painted this painting entitled " Come Over Here"
In it , she depicts a bulldog, a welsh terrier and a Scottish terrier all standing together on the French Coastline in 1915. And it is a painting I would adore to own, especially given the fact that these have been the three breeds of dogs we have kept over the years.
I couldn't afford the frame the original has been placed in

A Dog With Sharp Corners

George watching the sheep from bed this morning

We have our square faced boy back.
Gone is the mop of " Dennis the Menace" hair and thanks to the ever cheerful groomer Jacky , George now looks slick and smart and all Art Deco again.
Scottish terriers only look their best when they have sharp corners.

On a Sunday ( if I am not working) it is customary for Chris to have breakfast in bed.
I walk the dogs beforehand, feed and let out the animals and with boiled egg firmly ensconced in flowery egg cup I lead the dogs back up to bed for their usual lie in.

There is a sharpness in the air this morning.
and the dogs become wonderful organic hot water bottles come autumn.

The Audience

Finally we got to see the NT production of  The Audience
It was the cinematic re run in a small Art Deco refurbished cinema in Colwyn Bay...and I must admit, I loved the much lauded production featuring Dame Helen Mirren .
Once you get passed a slight left wing bias from playwright Peter Morgan, The Audience is a wry and witty "look" at the Queen's weekly "audiences" with a selection of her Prime Ministers over a 60 year period.
As you may expect from the writer of The Queen, Helen Mirren's monarch is a sympathetic, multilayered and gloriously difficult character, who is always a match for her PMs who all come to her with a host of circular and recurrent problems of self doubt, failure  and political shenanigans.

A wonderful Richard McCabe

The Ministers with the possible exception of a " Royal acting" Thatcher ( a wonderful Hayden Gwynne) are given an interesting and original  slant . Gordon Brown ( Nathaniel Parker) is vulnerable and obviously depressed. John Major ( Paul Ritter) tearful and out of his depth and Harold Wilson ( Richard McCabe) is more Huddersfield than "ecky thump" it is his Northern Straight talking chauvinistic character that gives the play its heart, as we find out in the last few moments that out of her leaders, it is his old fashioned chutzpah that the Queen favours most above all of the others.

I enjoyed the play. Mirren's Queen is just how most of us would like to envisage her. Dedicated, steely, naturally funny and able to kick ass when the need arises.

8/10

In Your Own Skin

Sigh

Ben Cohen is a man who seems overly comfortable in his own skin. A former rugby player come anti homophobic and bullying advocate, he seems just as comfortable fighting for the the rights of the downtrodden as he does getting his kit off for the cameraman of some gay friendly magazine..
He is an inclusive man's man. is married, has children, probably has a cute dog and a gay best mate .
He also is clinically deaf and is not adverse in making a tit of himself. He is also one of the contestants in this year's Strictly Come Dancing
Much is written about the absence of good male role models in the lives of the disenchanted youth of the Uk. Often clean living sports heroes , such as our Olympic medal winners have been hiked up onto the role model pedestal as examples to the young, but in actual fact it is the likes of Ben Cohen, with his easy going acceptance of " all" who provides young and old with a template of how best to live your life alongside others.

http://www.standupfoundation.com/