" Bring On The Baby Jesus"

Christmas Eve has a pace all of its own

Jobs to be finished so to speak.

I've bought last minute gifts 

and have caught up with Islwyn and animal helper Pat who will be animal sitting when we are away.

I've made a sherry trifle minutes before Mrs Trellis informed us that she will be bringing one down

to us this afternoon.

The lady from the Still House 

sent around a card with crochet snowflakes in it

and Chris has prepared the Church for the Evening service

when Christine D ceremoniously " brings in the baby Jesus"

There's ham and picalilly for tea
and the only sound from inside the warm cozy cottage is the sound
of William carefully licking the wax from inside the ears of a near comatose Winnie.

HAVE A PEACEFUL AND HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Cheers!

Sometimes I say I have had a shitty shift at work
Today I really did have a shitty shift at work....
I was working alongside an affable despot of a nurse and the two of us had responsibility for three acutely ill patients
we skipped breaks  because we had to, coped with bereaved families, hospital red tape and laughed loud and hard ( but with an edge) when I split my pants transferring a lady from one bed to another
After  I got home, and after eating a load to shit from McDonalds
I received this Message

Fuck it if alcoholic pancreatitis doesn't kill me , something will !

Thanks for making today bearable x x 

Merry Christmas x

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Happy christmas Greta 

X

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!