People Watching

I am working all day tomorrow and as we are off to Kent on Sunday, after work , I will be taking Winnie and George to their babysitters in Prestatyn. Winnie is off to a friend who adores bulldogs ( I have told her to hide her own  slippers of sex) and George is off to my sister...hence my Saturday blog will be run tonight!

An award winning Novelty Veg( love the flat cap)

From the Prestatyn Flower Show

I did a stint of four hours on the gate of the Prestatyn Flower Show today... and the great British public didn't fail to make me smile somewhat wryly when they were asked for the £ 1.50 entry fee.

Crabby Old Lady : " HOW MUCH?"
Me : " Just £ 1.50"
She slammed 50p on the table " I only want to go in for 20 minutes"
Me: " It's still £1.50"

Another Crabby Old Lady " Do pensioners get in cheaper?"
Me :" No "
Crabby Old Lady " I've been coming for years, we have attended every show since 2000?"
Me: " So you've been entertained by us for 15 years then  !"
Crabby Old Lady " errr yes!"

Middle Aged Soak : " Do you have a beer tent?"
Me : " No but you could win a bottle of wine in the raffle"

Boy of seven " Have You a bouncy Castle?"
Me : " fraid not...but we do have a pirate party"
Boy " that's for babies"
Me: " Pirate babies!"

Woman: " where is the flower tent?"
Me: " It's the first tent to your left"
Woman : " do they sell cactus plants?"
Me : " no "

Man from Manchester " i've lost my wife"
Me " Where did you leave her?"
Man from Manchester " Poundland!"
Me :............speechless

Yes great fun! If you are local and want anice  day out tomorrow...go and have a look! And note
I got a first in the basket of vegetables and third place in the herbs !
Hey ho

A Physical Grief

I don't find physical contact with loved ones that easy. It is the product of growing up in a household that didn't hug or show affection unless several large gins were involved.
That may surprise some who imagine me to be a big huggy type of guy.
Now, strangely enough, I AM tactile at work and can give physical comfort without any difficulty, but it is a skill I have had to learn and become good at.
I guess we are all products of our childhoods.
For almost every night for the past ten years, a small Welsh terrier forced physical contact from me with all the tenacity of a limpet. While the other animals slept in their own corners of the cottage and as The Prof sat in his own arm chair with a book or with some work, with a need bordering on obsession Meg would have to lie in the crook of my arm, or on my legs or even on my head and only then, would she settle and sleep, with the peace of a baby in her mother's arms.
Like I said..this happened every day for a decade.
Without her my body's muscle memory feels bereft and strangely unsettled.....and last night I found myself holding a cushion under my arm, as if Meg was still around, still and asleep in her usual spot.
Grief is an odd experience.....and the physical grief for a needy little dog in a person who doesn't find touch that easy is odder still.....

The Ladies of Trelawnyd Come Up Trumps!

 It's the Prestatyn Flower Show tomorrow and because of the odd weather they seem to be short in the " vase of flowers" class. My sister and the show secretary, Ann Williams B.E.M. (!) asked if I could boost the entries with one of my own..but as my garden is lacking a bit of colour....I rang around the village and this is the result

Ladies always step up to a mini crisis

Seduced In Sainsbury's

Della, who reads Going Gently , works on the deli counter in Sainsbury's .
She caught sight of me this morning pushing my trolley, gave me one of those " yoooohoooo" lady calls and waved a premium scotch egg in my direction.
Not fair!
It was like a snake hypnotising a rabbit

I had one wrapped immediately.
How's that for will power......?
and  ate the bloody thing between the toilet rolls and washing powder aisles ( don't worry I paid for it)
and must admit that I was disappointed ......it was dry as a nun's chuff
That will teach me.

I'll leave you with some more International veg entres.....

Oh My Love

Thanks to Asda! I love this song

Their local store in Kinmel Bay may be filled with the great unwashed

But the video is 

a bit of brightness after the last blog post!

Hey ho

Suicide Isn't Painless

Has anyone out there seen or know the significance of this tattoo? The chances are that you may not have, but I suspect that you may well do in the short term future, for the semi colon tattoo is a statement of life  over suicide .
Where as an author may use the semi colon when they do not want to end a sentence when they could have, the semi colon tattoo represents a life which could have been ended because of depression, heart ache, mental illness or grief but hasn't. 
It's a very visual sign of hope and solidarity. 

I have very strong feelings about suicide. 
I believe that, the majority of people that suffer from suicidal intentions can be helped in some way, whether that be with talking interventions, medical care, warmth, support, appropriate problem solving or just time, but I also believe that for some the autonomy of suicide is a course of action which may be right for them. 

Years ago now , I was responsible for the overall care of an actively suicidal patient who had been partially paralysed in a failed suicide attempt. She was a bright,professional woman with a history of depression and unhappiness as long as your arm and from day one on my ward she tried to seriously self harm herself on a daily if not hourly basis. 

We nursed her on a mattress on the floor because she tried to throw herself out of bed face first. We supervised her 24/7 under inadequate support from the psychiatric services and we fought for weeks to get her the mental health care that she needed after she was sectioned under the mental health act.

Weeks passed into months and our care kept the woman safe. She was treated medically for her depression. She was supported by a multi disciplinary team that cared for her and she was taught to look after herself in a wheelchair.
The only thing we couldn't do was to cure her innate unhappiness.
A year after her admission to our unit , the psychiatrist involved in her care, finally took the decision to reduce the level of her supervision. This decision was not taken lightly , and I am now sure that it was a response to the fact that everything that could have been done had been done for her. Her family, her nurses, her physio and occupational therapy staff all agreed with her request to be given  a little more space.

A few hours after the supervision had been reduced, the woman took herself into the car park. She lay down between two cars and put a plastic bag over her head. 
It was what she wanted to do.

****************************************************************************

Ok I feel a need to change the subject., so I shall leave you with the latest entry in the International Novelty Veg competition.....

Zzzzzzzz Nation

Well I am surprised it's taken so long for another Zombie based tv show to surface 

given the success of The Walking Dead

But tonight Z Nation started on Sky ( thanks catlover for the heads up)

Dont worry, I won't be banging on about it with the excitement and loyalty I have for the likes of Daryl Dixon and Carol the housewife badass

It's a load of crap!

I was so disappointed I had to go up to the spar garage 

Where I bought a pork pie

( they don't sell scotch eggs)

Fat Club

Tuesday lunchtimes are earmarked for fat club.
The meeting takes place in a church Hall in a nearby town and although the " weigh in " isn't until 12.30 there is always a queue of fairly miserable looking individuals , lined up in front of the scales.
For the past month I always seem to find myself behind a middle aged lady who had obviously seen better days health-wise.
For over four weeks she had not lost any weight , and seemed rather disillusioned with the whole attempt at slimming.
I steadied her with an arm as she heaved her slippers off before the scales thing and in a loud stage whisper she gasped " Here's hoping ....I haven't had a sausage sandwich all week!"
I mimed crossfingers as she heaved herself on
And I couldn't help over hearing the leader say " Half a pound on I'm afraid"
The woman looked at me crestfallen
" AND I had a large poo before I left the house  " she said with a sigh......

I will leave you with a couple more blogger entries for the flower show.. The first is a wonderful photo for the photography class "relaxation"  ( yes bloggers can enter everything and all entries will be posted back to them) and the second is another entry in the International Novelty Veg/ fruit class...enjoy