How VERY dare you!

Another beautiful day here in Trelawnyd. I have spent the day strimming and planting, stopping only to sell eggs to a few visitors. I was just boxing up half a dozen for ex trelawnyd man Peter, when a group of amblers walked past. Peter started to big up just how nice my eggs were and had a small crowd of them listening to his spiel when one old lady with the obligatory ski sticks and knapsack piped up loudly
" there are two goats over there chasing a pig!"
" I haven't got a pig" I told her shortly but turned around anyway to see what she was looking at
I snapped this bad photo after I went to investigate

Winifred being pursued by Irene & Sylvia 

Godzilla........

Yesterday I did what I always do when dealing with the fall out from a slightly pissed off "  black dog mood"........
I went to the cinema...you can't beat a bit of escapism when the chips are down

Well, firstly , can I say that it's nice to see another Welshperson doing well in Hollywood..ok apart from Katherine Zeta jones, Anthony Hopkins, christian Bale ( yes he's welsh) Michael Sheen and
Duffy, that is (.......and before you bleat away... Duffy did make a very passable film called Patagonia in 2010). 
Welsh director Gareth Edwards, has been given responsibility for the latest reincarnation of Godzilla and seems to have directed the biggest smash Hollywood has seen all year....wisely he has taken the movie back to its Japanese roots and has made a  monster movie which  is at times a wonderfully exciting and interesting take on those  1960 far eastern " man in a suit" flicks as well as being a little disappointing journey into old fashioned action movie sexism and American Flag waving.

I think Godzilla looks a little like a bull mastiff 

Edwards has obviously embraced Godzilla's original persona of an avenging hero ( the monster surfaces to challenge two giant praying mantis type creatures reawakened by the 1950s US nuclear tests in the Pacific) but stops short of having a Japanese hero.  Ok he has cast the delectable Ken Watanabe as the lead Boffin in charge of ridding the world of the giant reptile threat but was sure not to give him the major action role.  

The lovely Ken Waranabe with Welshman Gareth

That goes to an American hunk with a pretty blond wife.
The American men take the lead... The Japanese Prof looks angst and ( in my view) sexy but is  allowed  to do nothing as are the women in the movie (Elizabeth Olsen, Sally Hawkins and bizarrely Juliette Binoche) who say and do bugger all.....

Juliette...what are you doing?

But I know...I am being just a little picky.

Edwards also plays a great deal of games with the audience, as much of the monster action is "seen" through other mediums almost as an aside......we seen Godzilla battling with the MUTO  Through fictional tv coverage, through the windows of a school and a train and  through CCTV  coverage etc before cutting back to the actors.
It's an interesting if not slightly irritating ploy.

Ok, I have to say that there are some wonderfully inventive visual  set pieces amid the action.
A stunning panorama of chaos as seen through the massive windows of an airport lounge. The eerie view of a monster creeping underneath a railway bridge where our hero lies terrified on the rail tracks and the break neck escape attempt of nuclear reactor personnel from the basement of their crumbling plant , being stand outs in the roller coaster ride.

the airport scene...impressive!

By the end of it all, I was exhausted by all of the action. Irritated that it was all more " American" 
than Japanese and despite my enjoyment , slightly disappointed by its poor use of Watanabe and the female characters.........but I was impressed by the fact that generally it was a " what it says on the tin"
Movie...... Big, brassy, gob smacking........and fun
7/10

A Restorative Grape

Yesterday I had bit of a black dog day. Nothing major caused it. A few niggling irritations. An unthinking  comment. Too little sleep. Torrential rail and thunder storms, whatever it was, it's all gone now, washed away by an afternoon scrubbing muddy dog prints from the kitchen floor and a therapeutic ten minutes feeding black grapes to a dying hen.

There is something strangely wonderful when you see a little scrap of an animal closing it's eyes with obvious pleasure when it's eating something it desperately wants and needs
Chris has always commented that I am abit of a " feeder".
Anyhow I slept solidly for over nine hours  last night and I feel better for that too, though my head does feel a little like a massive  cotton wool ball
The dying hen is bright eyed and waiting for her grapes this morning, so I'll buy her and chris a punnet each when I go to town.
I'll get  him something nice  for supper too. He walked the dogs for me this  morning without being asked
I must have looked too buggered to be woken up.

Hey ho



Me me me me me!

Every day should have a little sunshine

A Good Nurse

In the Uk nurses have a governing body. It's called the NMC ( Nursing & Midwifery Council). All trained nurses have to be registered with the NMC and if they break it's code of conduct, then they are liable to disciplinary action  and potentially may be removed from the nursing register, in some cases for life.
Everything has to be transparent nowadays, and the NMC is no different. Every month, on it's website it publishes the names of 150 or so nurses who are being investigated for breaking the code of professional conduct. The reasons for these hearings are many and varied, and synopsis of these are also outlined succinctly on the site alongside any disciplinary action taken, but every month scores of names extend an already worrying long list, and every month scores of nurses are removed from the register http://www.nmc-uk.org/Hearings/Hearings-and-outcomes/
Have a look at  the list. It makes for a  sobering read.

As a nurse manager, I have been involved in investigating and disciplining trained nurses and it is not a pleasant experience. A good ward manager should know their staff inside and out, so should preempt many problems before they become potentially catastrophic, but with pressures on senior nurses set to increase, could it be possible that more bad nurses seep into the system?
Who knows....

When I was a student nurse, our old tutor Mr Brint, used to hammer home his mantra for being  trained nurse
"Stick to the code of conduct......Be safe..........treat everyone as you would like to be treated and breath through your mouth when dealing with unpleasant body fluids"
It was very good advice.

I am on duty at the hospital again tonight, and I know on ITU I will be witness to some outstanding nursing care. Nursing Care  which so often will be dumbed down by the nurses themselves .
Oh I don't mean the technical stuff, like setting up the haemofiltration machine or sorting out a particularly troublesome procedure ...as impressive as these things are, it is those little  extra" basic" things that makes a good nurse...... A cool flannel on a flushed face. a right word at a difficult time, a small kindness to a relative.... I see these things everyday I am at work.....

The NMC hearing website will continue to worry. Nursing has taken an awful battering recently too......
I just wish that, we strive for some balance in the whole " bad nurse" debate ......that's all
If you read the Daily Mail, listen to the news and read the NMC website.....you would be forgiven to think that the entire nhs is staffed by drunken yob psychopaths

Angry Men

You can't " me" but I am second from the left...I effin know...there's only 11

It's my best friend Nu's birthday soon and I wanted to get her a pressie with a bit of a kick ( I am sick of sending her nice flowers)....so I got all stuck in with mr google and have just booked her ( and me) two tickets to the west end production of Twelve Angry Men just BEFORE IT CLOSES... It's a cracker of a movie if you remember

I will get down to London around 6 pm. Meet her for a cocktail the off to Angry men we'll go.......

If I was ever picked for a jury ...I am oh so wanting to be Henry Fonda............juror 8

However I am more likely to be the juror 6

Look him up if you can't remember

I can't wait 

Fat Feet In The Sunshine

The last time I actually sat down to read in the sunshine was in Sitges a few years ago now. We never seem to have the time, or the weather to do it here.
This afternoon, we bought bedding plants  for the front garden but it was far too hot to put them out, so we all ( Chris, dogs and Albert) arranged ourselves io the grass for some serious relaxation.
While Chris played with his iPad , I sipped homemade lime-ade and got tucked into Agnes Keith's Three Came Home, an  account of the writer's internment in a Japanese Prisoner of war camp during world war 2.  ( I didn't feel like anything too frothy)
I fell asleep seconds after taking this photo of my fat feet. It's the first time they have had an airing this year, so I was mildly excited to see them again.

I woke myself up just before four o'clock, snoring like a pig. I had been dribbling too, all over my second best  Walking Dead  T shirt. I am such a catch.
The eggs need collecting, and Chris wants a hand to light the new barbecue ( I won't get involved for fear of a domestic incident) but I just cannot be arsed moving.
I have that " just woken up on the beach" feeling you get when abroad.

Of course I did get up briefly, that was because Auntie Glad has just popped around with 12 scones in a bag.She didn't stop, she looked hot and bothered by the sun....it's a good walk from her house to ours, but she was as good natured as she always is.
" what do you think of the new colour of the flower Show Raffle Tickets?" She asked with a snort
" we've never had green ones before!"
I told her that I quite liked the green
" I don't' " she trilled away" but i can't see them anyway so it doesn't matter"
After she left, I sat there in the sun, contemplating my fat feet whilst munching on a scone
It feels as though I am on holiday

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers

hot hens

Its 18 degrees here in Trelawnyd but it feels hotter/The hens started to sunbathe against the church wall but now have all taken themselves off to the field borders to sleep in the shade. I have strimmed the long grass and nettles until the strimmer ran out of petrol. and now am just about to clear up. The dogs have been taken back inside the cottage to cool down and Winifred especially is in need of a lie down with a cold drink and a lace hankie
Bulldogs cannot cope with heat of any sort...they resemble Blanche DuBois when the sun's out
and go all limp and pathetic

Winnie this afternoon

Anyhow, as i have been working, I have been listening to the film composer John William's lesser well know pieces. This one is particularly good. Its a reprise of the hymn LOOK DOWN LORD which Williams used in the film ROSEWOOD (1997)
it has a wonderful power about it

I had no idea that whole towns were attacked in racially motivated mob riots in the deep South USA

Apparently Rosewood was a primarily black town in Florida that was abandoned in 1923 after several hundred whites attacked it burning most of the houses to the ground

The hymn takes on more poignancy given the reality of the story