Slimming World

I went to my first meeting of slimming world today.
I wasn't nervous. A female dominated situation doesn't faze me much and I knew everyone would be very welcoming.
The " usual " leader wasn't there today, so I had her friendly stand in called Rita.
I liked Rita, she said I would "feel fabulous in a few weeks"
The woman taking the weigh in cackled loudly at that and chirped up rather optimistically " he looks fabulous now!"
I preened.
So I had the pep talk and was given all in the information very professionally. We had a big laugh about " syns" and I rolled my eyes with genuine surprise when she told me that chicken legs ( without the  skin on) was a free food!
I filled out the forms, paid my fee and when I joined the weigh in queue I suddenly noticed that the woman behind me was eating a boiled egg!
" I haven't had any breakfast" she explained with a smile when I looked round.
" how many syns is that?" I asked, getting into the lingo
" Oh boiled eggs are free" she told me, a statement which prompted me to ask how many syns were in an average scotch egg! This led to a somewhat lively debate in the line involving four slimmers and the weigh in woman who kept calling me " Sweetie"
No one seemed to know, although one young woman at the back helpfully shared with me the fact that a standard onion bhaji was 5.5 syns!
Like I said everyone was very nice and friendly.....my first weigh in is next Saturday!
Hey ho!

Interbreed Affection

I had to cull the new hen Mrs Muir today. She was off her legs and could no longer walk, so it was a kindness. After I had " done the deed" I sat on the grass reading the news on my Ipad when Max the new cockerel trotted up.

There was method in his madness for the bad tempered  field cockerel Moriarty was around, but he surprised me by literally sitting in my lap and letting me rub his head gently.

After a few minutes , I recorded his tame and needy behaviour and if you look closely you can see him closing his eyes in happy bliss

It's a while since I have had a hen so naturally tame....
Funny how some animals cross the line isn't it?

Anyhow as for other  love ins between species
Here is a minute " lurve in " between Winnie & Albert this afternoon
This behaviour is a daily occurrence

Eurovision 2015

The Eurovision Song Contest over recent years, seems to have morphed into a wonderful hybrid of professional showbiz extravaganza with a light show and laser technology that would shame  Steven Spielberg movie and a political rally for the world's campest audience.
Some of it just needs to be seen to be believed .
I have watched the semi finals in Austria with some renewed interest in the whole shebang, mainly because the BBC fronted the show with a wonderful sarcastic and playful Mel Giecroyc who should, in my opinion host the final show tomorrow night,. Eurovision  has found a kindred spirit in her.

Anyhow I think Serbia should win the contest as it's song " Beauty Never Lies"  ticks EVERY one of Eurovision's boxes

It has an uplifting message sung by a sassy underdog with a weight issue

It has flags

It has masks

It has the ripping off of clothes,

It has the stereotypical key change towards the end,

It has a camp, dance break,

It has air punching galore 

It has lipstick, glitter make up

And  it has

an audience who nearly busts a collective bundle of blood vessels 

in their excitement

Yes Serbia to win......

Thin Lips On High Street

It's  lovely sunny day today and I'm wearing my best scotch egg T shirt!
I have tried to catch up with Flower Show paper work on the kitchen table but keep on getting interupted

Old Trevor next door wanted me to weed one of his flower beds, so I 've done that, then I had to scoot around the Flower Show Committeee to change the date of the next meeting from the 3rd of June to the 2nd because of a double booking.
Auntie Gladys was just serving up a pie and custard pudding to Audrey Jones when I called round to ask her if it was ok to change the meeting ( they were both off to the Friendship Group meeting at the Hall this afternoon)
" this year is my 43rd show" she reminded me as she soaked the pots.

I was walking back home when a very pinched Mz X caught up with me. She wanted to pay me for
some eggs, a payment I had overlooked ever since she had made it perfectly clear that she
was unable to celebrate our marriage back in March . Ever since then I had stopped delivering eggs to
her and like any good middle aged old Queen scourned , I had made it very clear that her dissaproval would not be tolerated by being all prissy and tight lipped.
The payment was made to me and our cool interaction  very much reminded me of two teenage  girls flicking hair at each other over a spat over a boy.........

I laughed at my behaviour all the way home! I can be such a silly sod

BTW (I'm off to slimming World tomorrow.....while I was digging Trevor's flower  bed I burst a seam in my combats!"
Hey ho

Happy Birthday

Today is my best friend's birthday

Happy Birthday Nu

I love you!

Hey Ho

Thanks to Karen M  for this

Only 5 months to go!

Hey ho

This Be The Verse

The statement was so matter of fact, it's significance didn't really register at first.
One minute we were chatting about rescue dogs and the next the old guy had dropped in his grenade without thinking that it was in no way strange.
But it was.
At the beach, I met up with a chatty old guy with a strong Lancashire accent who did the usual " you've got your hands full there" comment. We embarked on a meandering conversation about dogs after which he shared the fact that he had always wanted a dog as a boy. One day, he told me a friend of his found a stray small whippet  cross and the two boys took it home
" My Father was a hard man, when in drink" the old man said almost in passing " He strangled it in front of us " I stopped short , unsure if I had heard what the man had said , but I knew I had.
But the man had already moved on to make a fuss of Meg who was tap dancing on the concrete Promenade.
But he didn't hold my gaze for a moment.

As I walked back to the car, all I could think of was the Philip Larkin Poem " This Be The Verse"

This Be The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and Dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy stern

And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don't have any kids yourself!

A sunny day for such a sad confession

Waifs & Strays ( and something that blows your Tits off)

The Montana Clematis over the back gate

I was just photographing the clematis arch in the back garden when a man in a van turned up with a sob story

Ten minutes later two more waifs have found themselves a bed at Bwthyn- y-llan this morning and a rather pathetic pair they are too.
An immature, but perfectly tame light Sussex cockerel stood guard over a lame hen with a deformed leg when I first peered in at them and there was something rather powerful in how  frightened but how together the two were that although I have been strict with taking in new animals over the past few months I told their owner that yes, I would take them.

A strangely calm and very tame newbee

I have called him Max 

This afternoon, I am need of a lie down in a dark room. With The Prof working away again, I treated myself to an afternoon showing of "Mad Max- Fury Road" which I can simply describe as a sci-fi Chase Western on acid!
It's a film that BLOWS YOUR TITS OFF!

So much better than Mel, UK's own Tom Hardy

Based loosely on the original 1981 Mad Max - The Road Warrior , this updated and unrelenting actioneer has a mean and moody Tom Hardy in the mean and moody Mel Gibson role.
 Eclipsing him, rather surprisingly, is  a shaven headed,  Charlize Theron as the one armed, tough-as-fuck warrior Imperator Furiosa, who teams up with Max after she has saved the pregnant wives of an evil dictator
of a war ravaged, post apocalyptic Australian wasteland. The dictator, Immorten Joe, wants his girls back and during almost every minute of the two hour running tome we see a whole collection of weird and wonderful set pieces as the baddies chase and battle the goodies .

Team Max has a look of the Trelawnyd village ladies

Its exhausting rubbish of course, but it is remarkably entertaining rubbish...... thanks primarily to the special effects, a rather refreshing band of elderly lady bikers who help Max's group out and to Hardy and Theron who have some great chemistry on screen.
8/10