Going Gently

Poorly Prof

The Prof never made it to Denmark.

He came down with a temperature on the train to the airport and I ordered him home.

I put him to bed just after I picked up the Berlingo ( which passed it's MOT with some financial help)

and in bed he's stayed.

I've been up and down those stairs 100 times so far

Who needs friggin weightwatchers?

Things Change

The election whips old Trelawnyd-ites into a frenzy

I'm on catch up today. After taking Chris to the train ( he's off to Denmark for a conference) I collected coal, visited the supermarket then took the Berlingo in for it's MOT . I was running late but managed to get a lift back to the village just in time to have a meeting with my friend Bob's family and the vicar.....
Given the absolutely awful state the Berlingo is in , I was in two minds in asking the Vicar for a bucket of Holy water to drench the poor thing in, fingers crossed it limps through..........I shall find out later.

I have been asked by Bob's wife to deliver an Eulogy at his funeral on Tuesday. His two sons told me today that they would be too emotional to speak themselves , so I am happy to " stand in" so to speak, but it is a big responsibility to pitch the reading just right.
I hope I can do the family proud.

It was after midday when I finally got home and had just taken the dogs out for a late walk when I spied one of the farm workers passing through high street listening to his car radio
" what's the latest about the election ?" I asked and he laughed long and hard
" Cameron's in ...and every other fucker has resigned" he called out
" Miliband, Clegg and that twat Farage have all gone" he added when I shrugged my shoulders
" who would have thought it?"
Yes indeed..who would have thought it.

As I ambled around the village with Winnie merrily breaking wind rather loudly as we turned into Chapel Street, I found myself thinking one thought

Things change........things stay the same

Far From The Madding Crowd

Carey Mulligan

I've never read any Thomas Hardy, so I know little about Bathsheba Everdene and " Far From The Madding Crowd" I think I saw the 1967 film version once, the one with the beautiful Terrence Stamp in, but I can't remember it very much save for the fact everyone in it looked very 1960s rather than 1870s
Today, I went to see an 11.40 am ( YES AM SHOWING!!!!!!how daring is that in North Wales) of the recent remake and I can honestly say it was one of the best films I have seen this year. Staring the perky and very likable Carey Mulligan as the independent Bathsheba, the film is an absolutely beautiful looking journey into rural Dorset life of 150 years ago, where rosy faced ,bonnet wearing villagers toil away in the fields of wheat and flocks of sheep plummet from the coastal cliff fields onto the beach chased by stupid sheepdogs

Schoenaerts can look after my sheep anyday

Mulligan's Bathsheba is overly Earnest and pragmatic and so when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome soldier ( Tom Sturridge) it takes the audience a little by surprise when she says she had never been kissed in her life. A necessary piece of information required for a modern day audience to understand the whirlwind nature of the romance given the fact that the rugged and softly spoken Shepherd Gabriel Oak ( Matthais Schoenaerts) and the quietly despairing bachelor Mr Boldwood ( Michael Sheen) are standing in the wings wanting marriage and a settled down life.
Mulligan is cracking in the lead role but for me it is Schoenaerts who carries the entire film with a quietly assertive and understated performance that makes it's mark in every scene he appears in.
Sheen too is very impressive as the vulnerable and mentally more fragile Boldwood, so much so is that, I am sure he'll get a best supporting actor nod by the Academy Award board.

If you like a proper old fashioned romance...then go and see Madding Crowd...you won't be disappointed
9/10

A Prof In The Abbey

My husband is the prof on the far right

Westminster Abbey

How good is that?

Everything But The Girl

Tonight I went to work at Sams

But another volunteer with a new listener came in by mistake so I

said that I would cover tomorrow instead.

As I was starting the old Berlingo,

The CD that I had been listening to on my way in blasted into life
( I'm a bit deaf so usually have it on loud)

It blarred so much that two passing rough looking teen girls

turned and gave me a rather disgusted look

One girl with big hoop earrings gestured and shouted something to me

and I turned the CD off and let down the window and called out " what did you say?"

" I said, you're a sad fuck" she mouthed as her friend cackled

Then explained with a flick of her wrist

" too old for the music"

She was having fun

Kitchen Window

I'm looking out of the back kitchen window, over the washing up, thinking that the cottage sounds all rather quiet.
All I can hear is the rain.
Chris will be shortly walking down the aisle of Westminster Abbey with his floppy Prof hat on and Sorrel will be approaching Broadstairs by train, complete with several new outfits, and a bagful of plants for her garden.
Funny how quiet a place becomes after guests have left.

Ps I found the " slippers of seduction" in the rubbish bin after Sorrel left!
Tee hee

Light & Shade

When you have visiting family, there is often very little time to do anything else.
Chris is not much of an organiser when things that are not work involved. He prefers to let me fine tune things. It's the way we work.
And so on Friday he mentioned that Mrs Trellis had phoned to ask us all round for a quick drink but had deferred the " sorting out " to me.
I called round at dusk to say we would come.
" I've just been writing an eulogy for sweep" she said and although I was busy, I asked to hear it.
I was glad that I did
There were no lights on in Mrs Trellis' house, and in the gloom of dusk in her kitchen she read out her thoughts about her cherished old dog without embarrassment. Her voice quiet .
I found the whole thing rather moving.

A companion warm and true, whenever I was sad, you came with enquiring eye

Bright with love.

Many many miles we walked.

In early morning mists, past sunlit meadows,

enjoyed warm summer days.

In Autumn the changing leaves matched the colours of your lovely coat.

We saw squirrels chase, we heard the woodpecker drill his tree,

the buzzard mew, teaching her young to hunt.

We stood aside as horses passed.

Head held high, you sniffed the air of the new mown hay, honeysuckle and pine.

You travelled on with proud step in wind, rain and winter snows when even the rooks

were silent.

We walked in the pink glow of fabulous sunsets.

To see the light go from your beautiful eyes.

No more, the lick on my hand , or the paw to hold,

No more the clown to play your favourite ball games.

The garden is quiet, your blackbird does not come to welcome the eventide

I miss him too.

So until we can be together once more

Goodbye and god bless

The depth of affection humans possess for animals baffle some people, but I think anyone " non dog" would have been moved by Mrs Trellis' sincerity and her reading of a poem at a gloomy kitchen table on a bank holiday weekend.

If Mrs Trellis had lost a relative then, as a regular Churchgoer, I would have thought she would have received support and comfort from the whole congregation. But because she had lost her dog, I don't think that she had received one card of sympathy.

Funny that.