Bake Off ( spoilers)

I love the fact that the front runners in " Bake Off" are the former underdogs
With Paul fucking up his French cakes
Nadiya ( she of the strange expressions) and Tamal ( seriously cute medic) are now set up for the final with the rather bland Ian and sweet but ( yawn) Flora as back up....
I'm loving this series

Tits or was it Boobs?

I think I said " tits" instead of boobs
OMG
I can't be sure.......but I think I did
" Tits" is something that shouldn't be uttered in genteel company...it's rather common
" Boobs" is much more wholesome

I've just given my talk on blogging to twenty five members of the " Clwyd NHS Retirement Fellowship" and when reading my blog entry about nursing a spinal injury patient with input of a collegue's phenomenal bosom
http://disasterfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/leaps-of-faith.html
I am sure I forgot to substitute tits for boobs....
No wonder one stony faced audience member gave me the dead eye!
I think she was expecting a Jane Asher-esque chat about a city nurse making jam in a small welsh village
Oh Dear.....
I read out several nursing based blog entries from years gone by and discussed blogging in general
And of course I suggested that the blog virgins in the audience give Weaver, Yorkshire Pudding, Rachel, etc etc a try...........I even mentioned to the tougher members around the table that they give Tom Stephenson a go, but suggested that they have a small sherry first...

For a three quarters of an hour talk, they presented me with 25£ which I blew on the way home
What did I treat myself to, I hear you ask?
I went to Sainsbury's and bought The Prof a set of new headphones, a warm throw which was reduced in the sale and a pedestal toilet mat!
How exciting!

Three Weeks To Go

George & Irene

Irene and the slightly more shy Sylvia

I wish, sometimes, that I had an iphone.
Its much easier to take photos with an iphone.
This morning was a case in point.
I had taken the dogs over to the field with a bucket of soapy hot water for a bottom washing.
After years of experience, it's the cleanest place to do it.
I gave George his scrub first, because William and Winnie enjoy theirs much more than he does, and had just let go of him when , in an uncharacteristic bout of excitement , he galloped off through the grass towards the sheep.
Now, Irene and Sylvia have nothing to do with the dogs in general . They will occasionally stamp their hooves in bad temper if approached too closely, but that's as far as their contact goes, so I was slightly gob smacked when George ran right up to Irene, barked loudly in her face then dashed off squeaking with the ewe in close pursuit.
It wasn't an angry chase...but a sudden, unexpected and rather joyful one, with the old Scottie scooting through the grass in large circles and the serious faced ewe prancing stiff legged just behind
I stood there, with a soapy cloth in one hand and with William's tail lifted up all ready in the other and watched as the pair galloped up and down like two schoolboys on a football pitch

It was the sweetest, most celebratory thing I have seen in an age

I Can Be Happy

What things Makes Me Happy? - to balance out my negative list of a few days ago
( not including husband, family, friends and animals)

Sainsbury's Scotch Eggs ( 1£ for 2)
Making Lists
Duck billed platypuses
Lisa Tarbuck
Very cold gin and tonic with ice and lemon ( in a glass)
Lemon Curd in cold rice pudding
Cloud watching
Thinking that The Walking Dead is real
Singing badly
1970 disaster movies
Russell Crowe's Buttocks
Tidy worktops
Watching Movies in an empty cinema
Being kissed by bulldogs
Fresh Flowers in vases at home
Kay Scarpetta novels
Chatsworth House
Clean sheets
Mary Berry
The smell of silver polish
Getting my head and/or feet massaged
Baking
My American coffee cup
Occassional rumpy pumpy
Northern humour
Blog mate banter
Art Deco Interiors
Genuiningly nice people with big hearts

Mad sue bates....a work colleague with a big heart

Great photos ( see above)
A day without any minor trauma
Dogs licking  my toes
Wood burner and low lighting
Working with sweet natured people
The Archers
Kirsty Young
Audrey Hepburn & Bette Davis movies
Popping bubble wrap
Thunder storms
Sheffield reunions
New York City
Reading the news on the toilet
Being married

Old Nurses Never Die, They Just Lose Their Patients -

It always amused me that at the same time that The Prof was liaising with high powered meetings about national initiatives and research about strokes  I was running a " How to Look After Your Chickens " course for beginners at the memorial hall.
Each one of us inhabiting a very different bubble eh?
This week it's a bit of the same. As deputy of the heathcare school he will be welcoming a whole plethora of academic hopefuls into the University at this busy start to the learning year....
This week I have been asked to give a " lecture" to a group of retired nurses at the old " Alex" hospital about blogging.
Hey ho
I cannot remember how the request for the talk came about but I suspect Mrs Trellis was involved in someway, she being an old midwife. Suffice to say that today I am now wracking my brains to work out just what I am going to say and how I am going to pitch it.
I bet a group of knackered old RGNs are a tough crowd!

   

My Head!

I don't feel well......
I only had a banana for my tea at work last night
So I wasn't quite physically prepared for the many bottles of wine that were consumed at the neat little house of the affable despots last night.
I feel as though I have got a first grade subdural haematoma going on this morning!
Now, I think it is evident to all that affable despot Jason is a naturally humorous old bean  but perhaps I have not paid lip service to the fact that affable despot spouse claire is more naturally funny than two Victoria Woods trapped together in a lift....
Her humour is typically northern with it's bite of observational warmth.
I am still tittering to myself about her stories of being a slightly harassed teacher in a primary school
I think the crate of white wine helped too.......especially as we ended the evening with the promise of organising a village pantomime shortly after The Prof tap danced on the dining room floor

......... Back to bed.....

Start as we mean to go on

6am

I am up getting ready for a day on ITU

:-(

The bright thing is that we are off to affable despots Jason and Claire's house later tonight

for dinner....

Unfortunately William has already brought the whole day down again

He had had the runs all over the front of the washing machine

How does he do that?

Hey ho

I'm off to work