The Object Of My Affection

Me, using  meg as a book rest 

Now I don't "do"new year resolutions but if I did, I would make a resolution to read more books.
I used to be an avid reader, especially when I was a boy and a teenager.
I read every animal based " autobiography" type piece going . (Gerald Durrell, James Herriot, Willard Price.) I loved Steinbeck, Gallico,  light Capote, Harper Lee's Mockingbird and the Epic Watership Down and devoured " real life"  accounts of disaster and Mayhem with some gusto before I was obsessed with the zombie apocalypse and Daryl Dixon's biceps.
As an older man, I enjoyed true crime non fiction, Patricia Cornwell before she went all weird  and the odd autobiography  when I can get hold of it ( I am reading the hilarious life story of comedienne Jennifer Saunders at the moment) .but I am generally ashamed to say that my reading habits have waned to a sudden spurt of almost 24 hour a day marathon of solid reading when I am sat on a beach in the sun on holiday.
Of course the internet has something to blame with all this.
Facts, Wikipedia , film reviews, disaster tales.....everything is available at the click of a button....everything that is but the discipline and anticipation of sitting down with some words and a story that moves you.

In the late 1980s I read a book called The Object of My Affection by Stephen McCauley . The story of the trails and tribulations of two friends George & Nina ( one gay one not) had a resonance with me and to this day I remember a quote from the story which is as clear to me now as Shakespeare is to Judi Dench

"Often, what's most attractive about a person is that part they're trying hardest to conceal, that part they think is least likable. You find out about it and it becomes a secret bond between you, something you never talk about but hold close to your heart and are continually touched by"

Yes I should read more books.

My Stalker

I am full of cold today. 

So much so , that I have had to ring in sick for work ( it doesn't look good when an intensive care nurse has an over abundance of snot flying about) ...

It's been a flat sort of day, with the highlight being a nice long, hot steamy bath which was an effort to " clear the old tubes"........

Like the mother of a toddler 

I am never left alone, even when I am soaking in the bath

I am always followed

Stalked by a worried looking Bulldog

Be Afraid...be very afraid

Ok always leave your readers wanting more eh.?

I did a shift last night at Samaritans and didn't get home until 11.30

By the time I had fed and walked the dogs it was midnight

So I was in bed a few minutes after the witching hour

I had almost fallen asleep 

When I heard it

coming out of the dark.....

The hesitant plink plonk of a musical box coming from Chris' office

The music started, stopped, started again  and stopped again

And William, who was lying next to me started to growl.

I put my head under the duvet and all was quiet again

But

A few seconds later it started again

Plink......plonk......plink

This went on for a few minutes more

Then it stopped

Chris rang this morning

Apparently it happens occasionally

since he tinkered with the mechanism 

NOW HE TELLS ME

00.45am

I have just been scared shitless
Need a cup of sweet tea and the cottage lights full on
Will explain later today
Watch this space

" The Bastards"

The Bastards

Meet " The Bastards"
These two young and badly behaved lodgers arrived just after Christmas and will be guests on the field until sometime in February. They are the property of the owner of a local bed & breakfast, who is off to Malaysia for a month. I didn't know him from Adam when he turned up with the sob story of not having a goose sitter, but true to form, I accepted the challenge, even though the new bees are two of the most narky, bad tempered birds that I have ever had the misfortune to meet.
Ever since they arrived the resident flock of geese, the sheep and a few of the older, slower hens have been pecked,intimidated and bullied , so much so That I have had to employ a daily regime of behavior modification in order to  assert my dominance over the pair, who think nothing of slipping an orange beak down the crack of your underpants in order to grab a pound of flesh when you are bending over a feed bucket!

So, every morning I will drag each bird out of their house. Take a firm hold of their neck and wings, then will take a walk around the field with the bird tightly tucked underneath my armpit.
It's an old trick that can tame an aggressive cockerel, for after a while, you can actually feel the bird " relax" a sign that it has accepted you are the boss.
It's labour intensive...but effective.
And so, every morning I look like a strange Scot playing a set of white bagpipes around the field, as " The Bastards" are hopefully transformed from evil devil birds to a pair of twittering canaries .
Having said this, I was goosed in the knackers rather violently only this morning, when I dropped my guard opening up the goose house......

Slowly slowly catchy monkey.

The gentle and well behaved resident  flock
Winnie, the graceful and rather beautiful Camilla , Russell and Jo

Magnifica Presenza

Now stay with me on this one..
Struggling gay actor Pietro-Elo Germano ( who has OCD and who may be seriously depressed ) rents a rundown apartment in a seedy part of Rome. His life is complicated by a pregnant best friend ( Margharita Buy) a bullied transvestite ( Daniele Luchetti) a dishy gay neighbour ( Alessandro Roja) oh and the ghosts of eight Turkish/ Italian actors who take over his apartment and who have no clue that they are in fact  dead.

Simples!
A Magnificent Haunting ( at Theatre Clwyd this evening)is a meandering little film that doesn't really go anywhere. Characters pop up with very little resolution in their story lines, and at one point a mysterious drag queen " godfather" looms threateningly into the fray....then disappears without trace, but in the great scheme of things, that doesn't really matter as the whole thing is rather a sweet natured and charming ghost story/ study about loneliness
7/10
Enjoy

Dishy gay neighbours only exist in movie land

Happy ( a postscript to the previous post)

Now sometimes you see something which in genuinely uplifting
On the back of Pharrell William's video " Happy" below
Take a look at this version ( apparently a 24 hour video was shot)
Start the video at the 44 minute mark and watch the two women dancing along the street
And I dare you not to smile

Audiomachine

Chris is away working until Sunday. I shall miss him but I won't be bored, as each evening I have something planned, whether it be work, cinema, Samaritans  or a pint in the local with affable despot Jason.....sometimes you can indulge yourself when alone......watch what you like on tv, slob around in your pants or listen to music at full blast without the obligatory " get this shit off" comment.
I have a guilty secret when it comes to music.
I adore " epic music"....full blast......arms waving,eyes shut, emotional romping....... the works.......
I know it's a bit geeky
But great fun

And this is another one of my guilty pleasures