Telepathy

One of Nu's traveling photos

At least once a week, perhaps twice, it is normal for me to touch base with my best friend Nuala. Our phones calls sometimes send Chris slightly bananas , because we often talk in shorthand.
Shorthand is a normal mode of communication between best friends is it not ?
I have really missed our chats over the last month, for Nuala and her husband Jim are in the progress of a " round the world" trip of a lifetime, and so  today,  as I was trying to scrub a load of " Juniper Blush" emulsion from the side of Winnie's face, I found myself thinking of her with just a hint of melancholy.
Then the phone went.
I just knew it was her, I just knew it
And sitting by her hotel pool in deepest Cambodia , it was indeed Nuala on the other end of the phone
Sounding as bright and as clear as she normally flies when ringing from West London.
I am of an age that international phone calls still hold a bit of thrill, and I still find it slightly bizarre that Nu and I had a lovely phone call catch up as I was in a freezing Welsh kitchen splashed with Juniper Bush paint and she was knee deep in Cambodian hospitality sipping cocktails

The Juniper bush kitchen

Ps thanks to Libby for your pressie

Bagels and Rubber Chickens

William tucking into his bagel as Winnie looks forward "innocently" after eating hers

With Chris working away all week again

I've have an exciting day or so painting the kitchen walls a seductive tint of 

what B&Q proudly calls " Juniper Blush"

I called down to the store for some more supplies this morning and called into 

the pet superstore next door in order to let Winifred look at their selection of rubber chickens.

( it's a small thing but she does love it)

I bought coffee and bagels , walked the dogs on the beach

and when I stopped at the garage to buy petrol
George broke into the bagel bag and rather thoughtfully shared its contents around the car
before I returned.
I then backtracked to the bakery, bought more bagels ( which I locked in the boot)
Then have driven home, to continue painting
Half the day gone on bleeding nothing!

The Walking Dead Episode 9 ( spoilers)

Time for a laugh? 

 It's back, and true to Walking Dead form, the tv series is still playing with the audience like a zombie cat with a mouse. Right on the heels of the two groups joining up again just after Beth's death, we see "team Rick" splitting yet again ( nice to see Carol in charge of group  B) and after that happens we are suddenly witnessed to another of the long term characters ending up as the Dead's breakfast.
This time it's the bumbling nice bear Tyreece who gets the chop, which is hardly a real surprise given that this character has never really been developed since he arrived in series 3.
Siblings never seem to do well on TWD do they? Andrea lost Amy, Daryl lost Merle, Maggie lost Beth and now Sasha lost Tyreece.....
If I was Judith, I'd watch myself very closely indeed..either that or invest in a zombie proof baby grow !
Episode 9 was a cracking, dreamlike and visceral start to the final 8 set pieces of season 5...it was wonderfully evocative of Danny Boyles' "28 Days Later" and finally it's great to see thatThe Walking Dead has really reclaimed it's mojo
Hey ho

Chad Coleman as the unfortunate Tyreese

Oooouch

I couldn't get the Marks' Cummerbund around my guts .
Chris had opened the box, expecting us to buy the bloody thing straight off
But it didn't fit.
The bloody thing didn't fit.
It was too small.
Even " extended" to it's fullest extension.
It was too small
This was in the centre of the shop, with men in pork pie hats giving me pitying looks as they walked past with their easy crease pants in their hands.
I felt like Julia Roberts down Rodeo Drive in Pretty Woman
( but without the teeth and the big hair)

I don't deal with embarrassment well.
I tend to experience it as its big sister ..the slightly more powerful emotion of humiliation .
And no one does humiliation well.

We can all remember humiliating experiences as if they occurred only yesterday. A fall in public, toilet paper down the leg of your pants, a drunken wrong word, a Mega fart over a vegetable freezer in Aldi ( one of my best btw) all of them take me back to childhood, when I was picked last for games, embarrassed by unenlightened teachers or shown up by parents who should have known better.
Embarrassment can be coped with by having a good sense of humour ( which I have)
Humiliation just has to be endured .

..... Well I survived the cummerbund experience...just..........
And by the way...the suit fits mighty fine

" Is She Dead?"

Well , I was going to start today's post with a shot of the troupe of  some thirty sparrows that live in the Honeysuckle which covers our front door. In this cold snap, the morning feeding of the hens allows them, a few aggressive robins, four collared doves, and a whole plethora of blackbirds, starlings and crows to fill their fat beaks with as much corn as they can shovel in.
Like I said , I thought I would snap a quick photo, but Bingley seemed to be in a playful mood and kept wanting to get into the action.
He's a bit of an old actor if the truth be known.

Kevin Kline in My Old Lady

Anyhow speaking of actors,last night, we went to see Maggie Smith, Kirsten Scott Thomas and Kevin Kline in the " charming" filmed play of " My Old Lady" .I won't review it properly , suffice to say that it was beautifully acted and sweet, but not really a cracking watch given the fact it was a story of how parents can fuck up their kids.
The little cinema at theatre Clwyd was full with grey hairs when we arrived, and next to me was an ancient woman with bleached blond hair dressed in a leopard skin coat, who kept falling asleep and  snoring during the film. Every ten minutes or so, I found myself nudging her awake and by the time Kirsten Scott Thomas got into a clinch with Kevin Kline , ( who could have been her half brother!)
The woman had slumped in her chair with her mouth open, prompting Chris to remark very loudly
" is that woman DEAD.?"... A comment that still didn't wake the old bag up.....
Really, old people can be very badly behaved ...........
Anyhow off to Chester now to buy my wedding suit
Wish me luck

Blowing Your Final Raspberry

I think I've had a bit of a wobble this morning
One of the hens gave a loud fart when she burst out of the hen house this morning and dropped dead at my feet.
I suspect it's got me to thinking how insignificant we all are.
In a hen, fart, drop dead, sort of way that is.

Perhaps it's the wedding?
Perhaps it's a middle aged thing
Or perhaps it's the fact that the gossip from the WALKING DEAD spoiler site is that Tyreese gets zombiefied in the latter part of series 5...... it all feels a bit easy come easy go kind of day.

Perhaps it's easier being that "fart- until- I -die" hen!
When you blow your final raspberry THATS IT!
It's OVER!
Your fellow hens walk over you without a second glance and the only thing you are missed for is the fact there is one less egg to be collected.

Like I said to Tom Stephenson a bit earlier,
I think I've walked around the graveyard one too many times today
Hey ho

Me, me me me........Me

To some I am just a shambling pile of stuffy clothes on the other end of four dog leads.
Occasionally, these people may note, that I wear a grey and black Woolley hat.
To Chris I am a partner, a homemaker, a confidant, and a flatulent bed warmer.
I am a brother, slightly distant uncle, an affable brother in law and a popular nephew.
I am also an orphan.
I am best friend to a few and a good friend to a few more
I am a cheerful acquaintance to many.
I am a supportive work collegue, and an average intensive care nurse
However I am an excellent rehab nurse and once was a popular boss who is, I would like to think, still missed by my staff
I am secretary to a sweet small village flower Show.and I am obsessed by film, and zombie tv shows
I am pack leader to four dogs, and Pride leader to one small wide eyed cat.
I am associated with food and water by a varied flock of pea sized brained fowl.
I am an egg seller, good neighbour and a sucker for a good sob story.
I am an average academic, a bad gardener and a plain cook.
I am a good Samaritan
I am also opinionated, stubborn and incredibly bad tempered first thing in the morning.
I am......I am..........I could go on!

A Conversation

Last night I was working alongside a guy I had never met before and in between jobs we got chatting about our respective lives .
Job histories, places we have lived , grand kids, Bulldogs, the city of New York, getting married, we covered a few topics over the course of a few hours, and before I left for home, he turned to me and said
" Isn't it wonderful that we live in the here and now"
I asked him what he meant by that remark and he explained thus
" a few years ago, I never would have believed I would ever have had a conversation with a bloke about getting married to another bloke!"
" and now you have!" I said
" and it's  about bloody time" he said with a smile.

*the video, I have posted before, is an award winning tv advert from Australia