" I Shall Say This Only Once"

Friend John is on the right

My visit of sheffield proved to be a short and ever-so-slightly surreal experience as I plunged from meeting old friend, Jane for tea at a nice but over priced wine bar in the centre of the city to sitting in the centre of a memorial hall sized audience of an am-dram performance of "allo-allo" in the " village" of Grenoside one of the many villagers which overlook Sheffield from the North West.

My old camp -as-Christmas friend John H ( who comments here as Bel Ami from time to time) was in his element. With a Nazi uniform complete with gold braid, Jack boots that Shirley Bassey would die for and a rather unfortunate scene with knockwurst sausage to contend with, he looked as though he was really enjoying himself on stage.

So I could forgive the atrocious acting by the leading lady, the interval raffle where you could win a small anaemic looking pot plant and the running commentary belted out by two old ladies behind me as it was all good natured fun in the tradition of Alan Bennett or Alan Akbourne.

As one of the old dears piped up during the interval

" there's nowt better than a bit of harmless old fashioned smut"

And I guess she was right.

After the show I shared a few pints at the local pub with the cast, who delighted at a semi serious post mortem of their performances and couldn't help thinking with some affection, that although I had wanted to leave the confines of a village for the much anticipated experience of a Northern City break

I suddenly did feel as though I had never really left Trelawnyd

Allo allo

Chris returns from Istanbul this evening, a day later than he thought at first. I had arranged to go to Sheffield today, so I have had to depend on the kindness of my sister and the neighbours to complete dog walking and chicken care.
I am popping over to Yorkshire to support a friend who is a bit of a frustrated actor/ performer.
He is appearing ( like you do) as a camp Nazi in the low brow comedy " Allo allo"
So there will much chewing of scenery and " listen very carefully, I vill tell you only once"
Harold Pinter it is not.....
But I am glad to be going over.....it'll be fun.
I'll catch up with Chris tomorrow.......if your reading this me old son......there is a cassarole in the slow cooker ( with dumplings!) and a strawberry angel delight in the fridge for your supper!
Hey ho

Sixth Sense

Over the last two shifts two patients have told me they were going to die.
They experienced a strange cold foreboding sense of doom from out of the blue.
And sadly, despite the best efforts of the nhs, both patients did indeed die
Now nurses and doctors out there will recognise  this phenomenon
It leaves the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.
For invariably when a patient experiences this often sudden overwhelming emotion, it's time to get the defibrillator ready. It's as though their psychi has just been pricked by something unexplainable but something very honest....a premonition of extraordinary power.
Like I said, it's very eerie when it does happen.
And happen it does.
When the trappings of the 21st century have been stripped away, and people are able to listen to their inner voice the ability to " hear " those complex messages from that " sixth sense" centre can be so strong  and extraordinary.
It happens on a much small scale every day to all of us.......we just don't pick up on how amazing thus gift is..

I always think of Chris often seconds before he calls me. This morning as I was falling asleep in the chair I turned to my iPad and thought " he'll call soon"
And he did!.....all the way from Istanbul .......this little gift, call it what you will, happens daily

We are clever and complex little machines are we not?

Bollocks

I bumped the Berlingo in Tescos car park this morning.
I was reversing out of a space holding scotch egg in my mouth, just as a chap was doing the same from the opposite parking space. Now he was just driving, he didn't have a scotch egg in his mouth ( that would be just too wierd) but our bumpers just about touched as both of us hit the breaks.
I bit down hard on the egg which bounced down into the foot well and got out out of the car with a groan
There wasn't a mark on the chap's car.
We couldn't tell if there was one on the berlingo......it's covered in bumps... so we left on good terms.
It's going to be just one of those days today.
When I was outside looking at bumpers
Meg had scoffed the egg on the floor.
It was the first one I had bought in two weeks!.....and they were on special offer!

Zombie Pumpkin

There was nothing on at the cinema this evening

Even the usually interesting Theatre Clwyd Cinema Is showing some depressing

documentary on the Conflict in the  Middle East 

So what am I doing when the gales gust over 70 miles an hour around the cottage?

Yes

I carved my first Walking Dead Halloween pumpkin

I thought the bloody guts in the mouth a particularly artistic touch

I am such a sad sack

Rough as a bear's arse

The tail end of Gonzalo is Lashing the Welsh Hills

and things are pretty rough here. 

Chris is off to Turkey on a conference and won't be back until midnight on Friday

So it's me and the animals against the storm

The videos show just how grey and brown the land is looking

With Chris away...I may treat myself to a cinema trip this evening

It's the weather for it

Walking Dead Eps 2

Oh dear...at the end of episode 1 " team Rick" had just been more or less reunited in a heart warming scene reminiscent of the finale of "The Incredible Journey" and BANG by the end of episode 2, Daryl and a morose Carol were off chasing a black hearse to somewhere unknown, a suspect vicar joined the clan and Bob got his leg eaten by some articulate cannibals
A regular 24 hours in zombie land
Hey ho

Dirty Monday

Monday is a " dirty day"
It's the day I clean out the duck and the goose house.
A foul job if ever there was one.
I am bathing the dogs today too which is another grotty job.
Waterfowl and terriers.......mucky little buggers.
Well I can't beat yesterday's blog entry so I will leave you with a photo of Camilla Parker Bowles and Jo ( both of whom have a habit of following me when I clean ) and a brief snippet of " news" which amused me this morning.

When I walked around Bron Haul with the dogs I spied a British Teliccom engineer leaving one of the pensioner bungalows. Apparantly he was fixing problems caused by the recent electrical storm we had recently . Olwen Dilworth came out of her bungalow and called
" I'm not paying 120 Pounds!" she sang out sweetly
" There's nothing wrong with my box!"
Well it amused me

Camilla P.B and Jo

And I'll leave you with this little thought

Off for a bath