Answers

In 1994 I was lucky enough to visit Pittsburgh's spinal injury rehab facilities

Whilst working on a six month course. I loved the city which strangely enough is twinned with 

Sheffield

Kew Gardens always remind me of my friend Nu

We have spent many happy hours ambling past the glasshouses

Just chatting.

I adore New York. I love Art Deco and I like Christmas

So one of my favourite places had to be the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan

Chris and I used to visit Chatsworth most Sunday afternoons when we lived in Sheffield

It's a sublime place

So sad to hear that the Duchess of Devonshire , the last of the Mitford sisters died this week

All Bar One is an average to good wine bar in Sheffield City Centre

It was ( and is) a place that I have met friends for many many years

I had my first date with Chris there.

I have fallen down the basement steps there

And I have spent many a drunken night of fun there

Good memories

Sitges just south of Barcelona has been one our favourite holiday places

Relaxed and classy it has non of the excesses of other Spanish resorts

It's also very gay friendly although Chris and I don't bother with the gay haunts

( what with my dress sense...you can't blame me?)

From Above

Last night i went to see the Argentinian movie Wakolda which was shit. I left after three quarters of the film and went to have a look at the exhibition in the Oriel Gallery which was a glass instillation called The Colour Of India . 
As I walked around I fell into conversation with one of the staff from the theatre who shared with me some of her ideas for an exhibition I was intrigued, with some of her ideas, one of which was a collection of aerial photographs of her favourite places in the world
Now some of her choices were exotic to say the least...... The Great Barrier Reef, Parts of the African gold coast.......the ice fields of Chile but i kind of liked the idea
so here are a few of my favourite places..... not as showy admittedly, but kind of fun....can anyone guess where they are?

No1 A Favourite City..I worked in in 1994

 

No 2 A Place me and a best friend often visit

No 3 a building complex 

No 4: A second Home Lady Mary

No 5  The Purple Pin site of many a good night out

no 6: A holiday destination

Answers on the pastcard

bet no one can quess them all

Making A Silk Purse Out Of A Sow's Ear?

Please forgive the "local" nature of today's post. I understand that it will have little interest to anyone not living in the village, but I wanted to chronicle a bit of Trelawnyd news.
I was making dumplings this morning when animal helper Pat called a hello over the garden wall.
she told me that she had just walked through the village and had noticed that workmen had been hard at work clearing the jungle of trees and bushes around two derelict houses in the centre of the village.
The houses have been an eyesore for decades, and their presence has given that part of Trelawnyd an unfortunte air of decay which has coloured what visitors to the area think of us,so the news of the renovation was very welcome indeed.
I mixed my dumplings, made a banana loaf (remember the Great British Bake Off was on last night) then took the dogs up to London Road to see the changes for myself.
We joined a small crowd.
Well , when I say " small Crowd" I actually joined Gay Gordon who was pearched on his invalid trolley and Mrs Trellis who were watching a mini digger ripping away tons of undergrowth with some interest

before the work you couldnt see the village hall at all from the road

" Hello Flower!" Gordon Bellowed when I arrived " what do you think of all this? "
" Good news eh?"
I nodded... it was VERY good news for the village, I agreed
Two renovated family sized houses for Trelawnyd,
and a clearing of delerect properties and opressive overgrown gardens
Rural regeneration? lets hope so

The old photo  below shows clearly how the original houses looked

 

 

Terror At The Mall

I have seldom  seen a documentary that has reduced me to tears, but tonight's showing on BBC2 of Dan Reed's film Terror At The Mall had me bawling.
The film, through some horrific CCTV and harrowing personal testimonies told the first hand story of the Shabab militant attack on the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi just a year ago.
With Muzak  echoing around the burger bars and upmarket supermarkets the audience watches in horror the security camera footage of ordinary people fighting to survive the idiocy of four killer gunman who have chosen to kill women and children for a fucking cause.

I hope that any surviving Somali fanatic somehow gets the  chance to see this documentary in some airless jail cell...for overwhelmingly it celebrates the strength and the dignity of the human spirit regardless of race, class, belief and community.
It's not just a horror story.

The fate of one group of survivors linger long in the mind. Behind a small display table a group of black African, white African and Asian women had taken refuge with a handful of children. Together, after several hours, the women fled the crossfire, each one carrying the child of another. And together they reached safety after being saved not by the incompetent security services but by a handful of off duty police and civilian men with their own weapons.

One woman of that group, a serene and quiet spoken Valentine  Kadzo ( below), finally added  "We all come from different communities, but at that time we were one. I’ll always treasure that moment because everyone was caring about the other.”

It was those worlds and their delivery that made me cry even more

Groom and ...errrr Groom

We get married in the county of Conwy, but we live in the county of Flintshire. Therefore we have to register our intention to marry with the council registrar of Flintshire who will then let the registrar of Conwy know ( are you still with me?)
Yesterday I completed my side of the paperwork......the registrar was very sweet ( all very twin set and pearls) but kept referring to my girlfriend, " she" when she was completing the paperwork... I didn't correct her until she asked me for my girlfriend's name and I piped up with a wry " Christopher"
I wasn't annoyed just faintly amused, as she really should have known better and she did apologise very quickly...
Anyhow
My receipt for the whole thing ( after I had paid my 38 quid ) looked a bit scrappy and Chris was certainly not amused by it.....if you look closely he is referred  to as being the BRIDE
Whoops

Good news

I was pleased with yesterday's snapshot post

Farting through windows, egg throwing teens and Flower Show news

It's all go here in the village

Today's post is even better

" take aim........finger on the trigger....and FIRE!"

It's amazing just what some judicious antibiotics 

Half a can of kitikat

and a good night's sleep can do to an old turkey

Bingley's Back!

Village News

• Other things other than turkey traumas happen in Trelawnyd you know......here are a few little moments from today
• I stopped at the house of affable despot Jason this morning. Egg production is on hold for some obscure reason and I wanted to leave a message telling him so..seeing that Monday is egg delivery day. Claire ( Mrs Affable Despot) was home and a little bizarrely showed me their dining room window which had been heavily covered with dried on smashed egg two nights previously!  One of the culprits was a local teen from around the corner and Claire was waiting for the boy's parents to frog march the little sod to clean off his handiwork. So far there was a no show, despite Claire's insistence that the boy does his duty....a sad indictment of parent power!.....having said this Claire is not a lady to be crossed so, I expect the eggy window will be cleaned pretty soon.
• As I walked down Bron Haul Mrs D called a hello from her front garden. " I believe you are getting married fairly soon" she called out....then preceded to tell me all about her grandson's male partner...who is a " lovely Boy" .She told me that she is going to enter her outside tubs in next year's Flower Show!
• Auntie Glad was in the middle of hoovering her front room ( the living room that is only kept for best), when I called round. I wanted to check with her if it is still ok for the Flower Show Committee to meet in her kitchen  over the next year. I knew it would be, but I felt I needed to ask given the fact she is becoming increasingly frail over the last year ......she agreed that our next meeting would be on Tuesday the 7th of October  at 7pm. " I'll have some scones ready" she trilled as I left.
• At 5 pm our elderly neighbour came down to the field to see if I could lend him a step ladder..I asked him why he wanted one and he told me he had locked himself out and wanted to climb through his bedroom window........" You're 90! " I shouted ( is if he didn't know) and minutes later I found myself squeezing my fat arse through a tiny PVC bungalow window whilst farting  with the gusto of the Queen Mary's hooter with the strain of it all. 

The cottages of Bonc Terrace just down from Gladys' House 

This afternoon

A Face To The Wall

When animals refuse their favourite tidbit, you know that they are ill.
When turkeys refuse their favourite tidbit, they are seriously ill.
It's an " all or nothing " thing where these strange birds are concerned

Yesterday I noticed that Bingley looked somewhat " droopy" . I offered him some  corn from my hand, but he just slowly turned his head away and the appropriated bowl  of wet cat food from the kitchen window sill,  which normally would have sent him into a mini frenzy of excitement , seemed to illicit the same response.
It wasn't a good sign.

I checked around , but thankfully couldn't see the telltale yellow poo signs of blackhead infection, ( an infection which is invariable fatal to turkeys) so I dug some baytril antibiotic out and gave him a dose  to cover him generally for any other potential infection., and then left him to it.
The rest would be up to Mother Nature.

This morning, he's still not eating and I noticed that he's started to  turn his head to the wall.
Turning a head to the wall is a term I give to animals that are giving up.
I have him another dose of antibiotics and syringed some sugar water into him.
He didn't protest and just watched me carefully with his huge black eyes after I had let him go.

A minute later he turned his head back to the wall, and I reluctantly left him  to sink or swim as the sun warmed away the "nearly frost" of last night's cold snap on the field.