The Good

The image of the Muslim bride placing her wedding bouquet on the Sydney memorial for the two Australians killed in the Martin Place seige was, I guess, pure gold to the newsmakers from across the globe.
But it remains something more than that.

For It underlines the good

Almost 2am

I've just done a 10 pm to 1am shift at Samaritans 

It's an odd shift cos it's busy and I never have the ability to go to bed as soon as I get home
as I always have a need to unwind for an hour or so before retiring!

In the end, I started to judge the best Christmas card we have received
this year!

Marks were given for originality , humour and style

And after 26 minutes of deliberation 

( I know get a life)

This is the winner!

A homemade card from blog reader Judith

My " oldest follower"

When I was on duty I did share with my fellow SAM my upset at

My secret Santa debacle 

He asked me what I would have liked to have been given and

I suggested 6 scotch eggs

Or 

The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon action figure

My colleague nodded very slowly

Very 

Very slowly

Hey ho

No one understands me

Nite nite

X

Fucking Secret Santa!

I worked a night shift last night and took in my secret Santa pressie to add to the pile in the unit office.
I had to buy for a nurse I don't really know, so I played safe and bought him, two expensive looking hand painted coffee mugs and some tasteful designer coffee. Ok not the most exciting of secret Santa gifts but you can't go wrong with Marks and Spencer's best, especially as you well exceed the 10 quid target price.
In between jobs I picked my secret Santa gift out of the pile ( regular readers may remember that last year I was given a bloody cheap and disgusting looking superman onesie ) and in a fit of expectant excitement I opened it!
This is what I found

A set of plastic deer antlers

Complete with " realistic" plastic " wood effect" plinth

Which was made in China

Even my patient , who was seriously ill , had the wherefore all to

say " that's a shit gift" when he saw them.

Hey ho

Off to bed

Our Christmas Card To You

Thank you for your cards and Yuletide greetings

This is our Christmas card to all out there in Internet land

So 

We wish that you all will have a very

Merry

Christmas

Xxx

Big Dog!

Everyday for a week, we have had a visitor.  He's small, short legged, bright as a button and more importantly very hungry., and he has learnt very quickly just how to squeeze his stocky little frame through the hawthorn hedge from the over grazed pasture of the livery stables in order to fill his fat face with  the Ukranian Village pasture.

If his visits continue, I will have to say something as I have already had all of the bigger horses over for a whole day, where they churned up the grass and muddied the stream. Quite simply the horses need more haylage. When horses are stripping bark from the hedge trees, they are hungry

Yesterday Winnie met up with the visitor and her reaction proved to be interesting, as it was her very first up close meeting with a horse.

Snorting like a bull, she trotted up to the pony with a very worried expression on her face., she then St opped short around ten feet from it, then woofed half heartedly in a " what the fuck is this?" Kind of way!

She then looked at me

Then back at the horse

Then back at me

Then back at the horse, who then took a few assertive steps towards her.

Finally she gave me a long and incredibly worried look, then bolted for the gate like a baby hippo being chased by a crocodile

I could almost hear her muttering the words

" bigdogbigdogbigdogbigdogbigdogbigdog" 

As she thundered past!

I Never Thought.........

I never thought I would ever get married.
It just wasn't on my radar, so to speak.
Writing 40 Christmas cards to old friends I never really get to see, has meant that 40 times I have written the words
" oh by the way, we are getting married in March !". time and time again
and the reaction to the news has been an interesting one.
One old friend, a psychiatric nurse from Cambridge wrote in her card " typical of you...always a late starter!" Whereas another just penned the words " fucking Hell!"
Suffice to say the reactions have all been positive ones.
Auntie Gladys mentioned my " husband to be" during her cooking demonstration yesterday
and the words suddenly sounded all so real
I am going to be a husband!
I am going to have a husband of my own!
In the history of my life... Through my nursing days in Chester, York and Sheffield , my former relationships, my urban city family days, my growing up in a small Welsh town and my time in Trelawnyd....
I never would have believed that I'd be someone's husband
And now it's almost there!
Bloody hell!

A Masterclass In Stuffing

Finally the Christmas Cards have been written and will be posted today. My local cards are half done and will be delivered today too and I am slightly annoyed at myself for leaving it so late. We are hoping to go down to Broadstairs over part of the Christmas period and so I am in the process of organising care for the animals when we are away.
I think it's an easier job organising the London Olympics!
Winnie has landed on her feet.
She is off to a cheerful household in Prestatyn to a lady who takes in dogs into her own home.
George is going to my sister's house and the Welsh terriers are coming with us.
Albert will be fine with a neighbour popping in...so that leaves the birds on the field and I am hoping to pay one of the village elders a good wage to keep them safe.

The first job of the morning was to deliver Auntie Glad's Christmas card and gift. With her failing eyesight , I thought a bowl of hyacinth bulbs more apt as they are so fragrant when they are in bloom.
But the quick visit turned out to be an interesting masterclass in cookery as she was right in the middle of making her Christmas stuffing from scratch.

" Always use stale bread"

" are you getting all this?"

I was sat down at the kitchen table with a mug of tea ( male visitors are always offered a mug,
whereas all female visitors will receive a cup and saucer ) and was taken through the whole process from start to finish. Gladys completed the demonstration with all the professionalism of Mary Berry.
So much so, that I wished I had videod the whole thing......it would have made her a star on YouTube!

Apparantly the whole stuffing thing has to be kept simple...." non of this fancy rubbish"
Stale breadcrumbs, dried sage ( rubbed through your fingers) finely chopped onion, lots of salt and pepper, water and a large blob of marge!)
I promised I'd make my own this year
" your husband to be will love it" Gladys quipped her eyes twinkling!

Fascinating Aida

 I've posted this before

 But I think it's apt on the run up to the 25th

We are going to see them in Sheffield in March

What larks