Fortitude

Irish actor Richard Dormer as chief Andersen

I was intrigued by the storyline of the new  25 million pound SkyAtlantic thriller series " Fortitude"
For a mystery thriller set is an isolated Norwegian mining community where " every one has a job, everyone is comfortably off so there is no risk of crime" sounds like the start to one of those in vogue Scandinavia noir series we have all come to enjoy and love over the past couple of years
Fortitude  it would seem, is quite, quite different.
Set in a strangely multicultural Arctic town where only four of the cast of around fifteen are supposed to be Scandinavian , the first episode boasts political shenanigans over a proposed " ice Hotel" which will save the town from financial ruin, a killer polar bear, adultery, a mysterious brunette with a gun, a drunk with a secret, a strange research facility , a fair bit of full frontal male nudity and a murder amid a whole lot of ice and snow.
I didn't know just what to make of episode one. It was brooding and ever so slightly confusing, with the majority of  characters , being somewhat unsympathetic if not a little " odd" in nature.
We have the somewhat driven  town Governer (Sophie Grabel) and her odd untrusting relationship with her hospitalized husband. A mysterious police chief ( Richard Dormer) who looks as though he's covered up a crime, an unhappily and bickering married couple (Nicholas Pinnick & Jessica Raine)  with a son with a mystery sickness, and a brusque British doctor ( Phoebe Nicolls) who is something to do with animal testing.
oh and let's not forget a British drunk( Michael Gambon) who cries a lot and Stanley Tucci who has flown in by the Met Police to help solve the murder
Have you got all that mother?
I have a strange feeling the whole series will take a few odd turns away from the tried and tested usual Scandinavian Noir it purports to be........
Watch this space.........

A Scotch Egg on the wall

Well, I am glad to say , I survived the night
sometimes it's not good working on intensive care.
For nearly every critically ill patient who is sedated and ventilated starts their illness journey with a temperature and flu like symptoms
So be aware dear readers.
Flu isn't alway just....well.......flu.
Before I started to court Chris , I lived on my own in a nice large Victorian terraced house in Hillsborogh. At the start of a weeks holiday , I started to become unwell with the aforementioned " flu like" symptoms. In a few hours I found myself weak as a kitten and pretty much helpless in bed.
I had rigors, didn't eat and spent two days lying in bed which I can honestly say was an incredibly frightening experience, for I was unable to even make a cup of tea for myself.
I thought I was dying but
then all I was suffering from was a late and severe bout of chicken pox.

The cottage lane this morning

I still have a low grade temperature this morning, but I do feel a whole lot better than I did last night even though it's snowing and very cold at the moment ...thank you all for asking!
I had to smile after I took the dogs out for their walk, for left on the back wall was a plastic carrier bag
In it was the following
A scotch egg wrapped in silver foil, a tin of tomato soup and a newspaper
I have no idea which kind soul left it.

Whitehall 1212

I've been painting all day

So when I was full of aches and pains at teatime

I put it down to balancing on a kitchen chair in mrs Hopkins slippers

However I have a temperature 

So I'm off to bed and

With chris away

If you don't hear from me tomorrow

Call the authorities 

Wild Geese That Fly With The Moon On Their Wings ( updated)

With Chris away I went to bed early last night,, subsequently I was up around 6.30 walking the dogs. The nice part of this is the subsequent " lie in" with coffee which was spoilt somewhat by the arrival of a somewhat blustery and violent storm just before 8 am

I knew it was a rough one for across the valley the house lights of Pen y Cefn isa and the light from Gentleman farmer Ralph's Yard disappeared in the rain, and as the cottage was buffeted by gale lashed rain the dogs and Albert all raced up to join me in bed just like the children did to Maria in " The Sound Of Music" 

Now before you ask No, I have not started to sing

Cream coloured ponies and Chrisp apple strudels
Door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

For I was, in fact, thinking of inserting my own lyrics into the song.

But I got stuck tying to rhyme something with " scotch egg" and " zombie apocalypse "
Hey ho...wherever you are keep dry and warm!

Ok ok put these lyrics to the song......

" Scotch Eggs from Tesco's and zombies on tv

             Lost hens, and fat hens and KFC for me

             Large gin and tonics poured over ice

             These things are what make my life feel so nice"

Cecil: The Big Girl's Blouse

Stick with me on this one

Last week a woman from Llanasa asked me if I had a cockerel for sale

she was looking for a "friend" of hers

I told her that I didnt 

Two days later a woman from Gwaenysgor called in wanting to rehome one

I told her that strangely enough that I knew of someone who wanted a cockerel

I rang Llanasa woman who asked me to take in the cockerel until she could see it

That I did

Gwaenysgor woman dropped off cockerel

Llanasa woman came to pick it up

But then decided to photograph cockerel for her "friend" to see

Friend has now decided he didn't want the cockerel

and now the bloody cockerel has been left with me.......

Hello?

So meet Cecil

Who is the biggest fucking big girls blouse this side of the Welsh Borders

Cecil ( centre) 

Only the size of a very small teapot, he has spent his first day

hysterically running around the field screaming at the top of his lungs when any new hen 

looked at him in the wrong way.

I have honestly never seen anything quite like it!

Especially as he has big feathered feet which give him the look of a small clockwork toy on amphetamines

The neighbours thinking that something awful was afoot, started to venture into their front  gardens after  a couple of hours of 

this verbal hysteria , and so I had to march over to he field to take charge of the situation

After ten minutes of screaming, I finally caught a hyperventilating Cecil in the graveyard

and put him into a run with Phyllis Diller and the mild mannered Bodica.

As I type this, he is lying inside their hen house with all of the drama 

of Scarlett O 'Hara before the ball.

An anxiety filled cockerel who is terrified of hens is not a character fit for purpose

I'm such a sucker

We Miss

Things We kind of miss ( after discussion with the patient I was looking after last night)

Paper library cards ( the ones the little book card was slipped into)
Milkmen
Yellow ice cream sandwiched between two wafers
Squares of Cheese and pineapple  on cocktail sticks at parties
Exploring on the local rubbish tip ( as a kid)
C B radio
Shelling peas
Cinematic first features
Smoke from everyone's chimneys
Women wearing aprons
Standing for the National Anthem
Pint glasses with handles
Valerie Singleton on Blue Peter
Ironmongers
Loose Tea in teapots
Crissy Evert ! ( before she was Lloyd)
Chester zoo in 1975
My grandmother telling stories whilst ironing
Shopping every day rather one  big shop once a week
Those tin Math sets from school ( protractors, compass, ruler etc)
Balaclavas
Land line phone calls on New Year's Eve
Robust walnut whips
Radio top twenty on Sunday evenings

We only stopped when his night sedation kicked in

Bubble & Fart

Chris is working in London all week

I worked last night

Before he left we ate huge plates of bubble & squeak at the kitchen table

And so I was farting like a baby hippo at work all night 

It got so bad that around 3 am I had to  make up a reason to collect some patient belongings from the wards in order 

to have a crafty flurry of farts in the hospital lifts!

I am off to bed covered in dogs and a cat now....

So I will leave you all with the above video 

A delightfully clever IKEA  commercial

Xxx

Bad Service

We went to collect our wedding rings yesterday afternoon.
Picking them out was a delightful experience thanks primarily to the sterling efforts of the saleswoman who, quite rightly made a big fuss of us.
Expecting a similar experience, we stood in front of a tired looking frump at the counter, who emptied the plastic bagged rings with a plop .
It didn't bode well.
The woman then launched into a rather depressing and monotone list of dos and donts before suggesting that my ring was not perhaps the best choice for a nurse to pick given the amount hand gel I may use . She also criticized the fact that we chose less robust rings ( we both hate chunky rings ) Which was the icing on the cake.
She made the whole thing feel rather lacklustre and I immediately wondered if her sales pitch would have been any different if a straight couple was standing before her.

I took a step back, knowing fully what was about to happen and let Chris give her both barrels.Which he did with all the killer instinct of a shark eating a tuna
Now Chris seldom looses his cool. But bad service is something that will get both of his Roger Moore eyebrows lifting at the same time.
In a cool voice he smartly told the woman that her attitude stank , and all she had done was to take the shine out of a potentially joyful experience.
The woman then made another mistake
She started to argue back
I tried to give her a look of " you silly bitch, say nothing more"- you don't know who you are dealing with
But it was too late
The  full , just fury of an articulate PhD was unleashed in its entirety
Heads turned, and the shop went incredibly quiet as the woman silently wrapped the rings up with a big bow.
" It was a pleasure to meet you" she said finally handing me the rings in a desperate ploy to regain some control of the situation.
I let Chris have the last word
" well it wasn't a pleasure meeting you"  he replied loudly before we swished out of the shop......

Hey ho