Tap Factory

Went to see this French tap/ percussion group this Evening in the unlikely venue of Theatre Cymru in Llandudno. The energy of the four tap dancers, and supporting acrobats was absolutely amazing.
If you get a chance to see them...do so........

Make Mine A Large One

Chris is working away and won't be back until tomorrow night, so I was just a tad  indulgent last night and treated myself to a bottle of wine in front of Sports Relief.
I don't know why I do it.
The story of the elderly chap losing his wife, or the African girl quietly explaining her tragic life to camera and that's me blabbing for the next hour or two.
A glass of wine and a sob story
Not a good mix.
This got me to thinking just how alcohol can  punctuate our lives.
Advocaat always reminds me of my grandmother, who seldom drank anything at all. My mother would always have a small bottle of the yellow mud in at Christmas so that granny could have tipple before lunch.
I don't think I have seen the drink for years.
Whiskey reminds me of my brother and father.
Gin reminds me of my mother, though the memory is a bittersweet one.
And Pernod & lemonade reminds me of my teenage years when I thought it was sophisticated to drink it when I was out at the disco!
The very smell of Tequila makes me heave. it reminds me of a party I went to many moons ago now, where an ex spinal injury patient introduced me to tequila slammers
The next morning I thought my insides would explode!.....
Never again!........
Oh.....And a properly made vodka martini brings back memories of my first trip to New York with Chris,
When I drank two large ones in Doc's bar on second avenue when I was jet lagged, and couldn't climb down off my bar stool.
Guinness reminds me of happy days at the Dog & Partridge pub in Sheffield , where everyone would  sing The Fields Of Athenry in the back room.
Jim Beam reminds me of family parties in the 1980s
Nowadays my tipple of choice is probably a Crisp white wine.
I like a gin and tonic ( especially on holiday) but wine is generally more preferable though I don't recommend too many glasses whilst watching charity fundraisers on tele.
You cry like a baby!

Cloud Watching

Today I managed to indulge myself in the first of this year's cloud watching moments.

It's been far too wet and cold all winter to be rolling about on the grass

But today, although it remains a little chilly,

It was sunny enough for me to lie down for a few minutes and stare up to the sky.

The neighbours are well used to see me prostrate on the ground in fine weather

They no longer worry about it.

However Camilla did find my corpse like body rather intriguing 

She wandered gently over, chunnering quietly to herself

And stood with her head turned quizzically  like this for a good while......

regarding me carefully as I watched the clouds blow merrily by

After Work

When I work nights , the dogs and Albert join me for a quick snooze after work
It's the best video EVER

" Ohhhhh errrrrr a blog....fancy!"

The doors were locked....I had a captive audience 

The village friendship group is going from strength to strength with around 80 members. When I told them that the subject of my talk was blogging, a small muttering of " ohhhh blogging!" echoed  around the Memorial Hall in a slightly perplexed way.
After half an hour of banging on , I think they got the gist of it all and to make sure they didn't move I took a bucketful of spare eggs to the hall as a bribe

92 year old Islwyn Thomas ( left) discussing some point or other from
the data projector . He has a photographic memory of all things Trelawnyd

Favourite Person Thursday

I have chosen two winners

For this week's favourite person Thursday 

Both characters have been well known for their

" take me as you find me" personalities

Both look like they can handle themselves very well indeed in a pub fight

And both, as far as I can judge would have been very good friends if 

they had only met in real life.

Sour puss himself, sex on legs Mr Russell Crowe

A bit of rough

And the recently deceased Clarissa Dickson Wright

Barrister, cook, writer, tv personality, and "shoot EM, kill EM, eat EM "supporter

Honest and no shit!

Off to bed now for an hour after night shift...I am giving a lecture in the memorial Hall this pm

Wish me luck

Coincidence

I just love the power of the internet.
A few days ago I received an email from a Mrs Grenough, a stranger.
By chance she had come across my village history blog and shared with me the following information

........"my Nain and Taid [ Grandparents] were Norman and Maggie Jones of Plas yn Dre in Trelawnyd. My father (their son) was Cledwyn Foulkes Jones ( he died 1989) but was brought up in Plas yn Dre.

Trelawnyd is (or was) full of relatives; I had 2 great Aunts; Lizzie and Mary Foulkes who lived in a cottage opposite the Church, another great Aunt and Uncle, Harry and Rene Lewis lived on London Rd....one of the houses next to the hall and is now derelict....I think their son Colin is still in the area.....

Anyway, the point of all this is that many years ago my father was involved in some way with the Village Eisteddfod and at the time someone gave him a beautifully bound copy of; 

"A list of place names in the Parish of Newmarket 1920" by 

Helena Banning Roberts of The Laurels Newmarket

It was the winning entry for the Eisteddfod that year (it went under the title of "An Essay and History on the place names of Newmarket" by Rustic)"

The Greenoughs yesterday

She also went on to kindly offer me the book, and told me she could drop it off herself when she came to visit with her elderly mother who lives down the coast.

Yesterday she and her husband found me collecting eggs.it had been over forty years since she had come down the lane to Bwthyn Y Llan, for the spinster aunts , she had mentioned in her email as living in the village had actually resided in our cottage!

Apparently the sisters had both been sent away into service in Liverpool when young and had returned to live in the village where they grew up. Mrs Greenough remembers their ( our)  cottage very well, always having the fantasy that she would live in it when she grew up.

Mary & Lizzie's grave in the churchyard
I will put some flowers on it today

I find it fascinating that our paths crossed in such an arbitrary way, but it does feel that the book has " come home" in a strange sort of way

The book, as it turns out is a fantastic chronicle of the old village. Every house and cottage has a mention. Historic place names, fields, farms and house names are all referenced with brief histories, information and anecdotes , it is a comprehensive snapshot of the village past....I couldn't have asked for a better gift.

The book..

Funny too, that I am giving a talk on my history blog, to the village friendship group tomorrow afternoon. I shall take Helena Banning Robert's book with me.

Funny how things work out eh?

For Sol- The Walking Dead

Happy Days

The Walking Dead is now heading towards the end of its fourth series, and one of its most popular characters has been finally allowed to act in between zombie head stabbing and " it's behind you" horror shocks. Carol ( Melissa McBride) has been an unlikely survivor from the very first episode. Her psychological journey from battered and helpless housewife to a flawed but much stronger member of " team prison" has had fans rooting for her, so it was with interest that I watched Carol's stand alone episode entitled " The Grove"  last night.
In it Carol had to finally deal with the psychological damage inflicted on the child survivors of the apocalypse and her realization that 12 year old  Lizzie had to be " put down" because she has been transformed into a troubled and mentally ill killer was heartbreaking to watch
McBride is a rare creature in the horror genre for  she is an actress of some depth and range. Destined to be killed off in an earlier series, she has developed a huge fanbase through brief but telling time on screen and I am glad that the producers have developed her character rather than kill her off in favour of a younger and bustier Buffy-the- zombie killer .