Hell And Tinsel

I hate shopping with a vengence

and I hate shopping in garden centre Christmas display areas even more

To me they are as pointless as a spare dick at a wedding.

But every year I subject myself to the annual "collection of the decorations"

in order to send some dear friends and my mother-in-law a load of 

old tat that they can hang on their trees and loop in front of the windows.

It's become a bit of a tradition.

Today, I subected myself to a half hour amble around the vast winter wonderland

at the local garden centre and I wasn't the only one.

The place was heaving with mostly middle aged and elderly women, most of whom 

looked as though they were enjoying themselves immensely.

The largest group were clustered around a dancing father Christmas who was bouncing around 

to the strains of " Jingle bell , jingle bell, jingle bell Rock"  

They were laughing like loons , and as I mused over whether to buy an obese smiling woollen turkey who was waving a sign which said " I love Christmas Pudding"

I caught the gaze of the only man in the group who looked painfully bored with

the whole sorry spectacle.

He mouthed the words " God help me" at me as the women continued to cackle  

And I gave him one of my most sympathetic smiles

Walking Dead Episode 4 .....Hope!

Sometimes The Walking Dead is sort of short on hope...this is especially true recently as we still don't know what happened to poor old Glen and the herd drovers are still out on the road...... Ok Maggie is still flying the flag for blind positivism and even Daryl may be leaning towards the philosophy of gay nice guy Aaron, but with the massacre of the Alexandrians last week....everything is still feeling rather bleak.
This week we follow Morgan's back story and It's an interesting, quieter take on redemption, as when mental illness really takes hold, he is shown compassion, and hope by a gentle stranger who sees this strange new world with a bite of intelligent psychology.
Its a clever and gentle episode
Rick remains all spiky toughness......in his leadership followed by Abe and Second lieutenant Carol
But it is Morgan who holds all the humanitarian cards me thinks....and it is him and his followers that hold the hope
Mind you.. The wolf in Alexandria .......will kill someone special...mark my words x

Humm and for the first time in the Walking Dead ..post traumatic sress disorder has been addressed

First Timers

" How fantastic is that?" I shared with a wonderfully smiley nurse called Rachel yesterday when I performed a routine pregnancy test at work.
" I've never done one before" I told her, a fact that couldn't have come as much of a surprise to anyone who may of known me.
I love the fact that " first times" no matter how inconsequential that they may seem at that moment, can be viewed as a cracking new experience.
" Cracking " can mean good or bad

What other " firsts" can I remember?

•   My first foreign holiday  ( at the age of around 8- with my mother to Lorett de Mar) a 1970 package holiday has never been so exciting ( the tiny & cigarette filled holiday jet filled) and so banal .( cheap Spanish tat)
• Being left at home alone at the age of 12 for the first time without a babysitter!
• Having my own cheque book ( a nat west one with pictures of animals on it) back in 1980
• Losing my virginity ( to a girl) in 1979 ( wot just happened?)
• Seeing the New York skyline for the first time at night on a snowy evening 
• Passing my driving test at 18
• Seeing the body of my grandmother after she had died in our family home
• Buying my first 45 record from The Prestatyn Record Shop ...Beg Steal and Borrow by the New Seekers
• My first West End musical - I went down to London alone around 1980 to see Evita
• Kissing a man for the first time ( Roxy night club in York ) he had a beard!
• Watching a baby being born ( Jessop's Hospial Sheffield 1989) a baby girl called Harley Davidson
• Walking into my first mortgaged home 52 Providence Road Sheffield in September 1989
•  Signing the marriage register, thinking "how amazing is this" 
• Flying over the Sydney Opera House in a miniature helicopter
• Watching the amazing emergency treatment of a drive by shooting victim in a Pittsburgh E R 
• Being given my first dog ( Finlay) for my 40 th birthday
• The Walking Dead episode 1 - Rick getting swamped by the herd whilst on his horse
• Climbing out under the wing of a small plane during my one and only parachute jump
• Seeing ECT administered for the first time
• Realising that people die ( crying in bed when I was around 7)
• My first Christmas with the Prof ( when he bought me a sugar bowl
  
  

No posts tomorrow

Long day in the hospital then Sams shift until 1 am

The Prof is on puppy watch/training

God help him

Hipsters

This photo selfie amused me no end yesterday.
It's a photo of two strangers who met on a flight to Scotland when they found themselves booked in adjoining seats.
Two ginger haired,  bearded hipsters that could have passed for twins.
What are the chances of that?
I like the " hipster" look
I'm far too old for it...and anyway skinny pants would be a fashion faux pax in our house..what with my Beyonce arse and fat thighs.
The other morning, I mused that if I had ever followed a trend in my youth, then in hindsight I would have followed the hipster route rather than the monstrosities that I found myself wearing in the 1980s.
From 1983  I once wore a blue mottled round necked jumper continuously until 1985....and I only stopped when the bloody thing literally fell apart.
I was never blessed with any fashion sense.....my sister inherited my share.
When I ambled around Byron Street, daydreaming what it would be like having a neat, perfectly combed haircut, a sculptured beard and trendy duds, a fantasy that was broken when I spied Bethan Jones who was decorating her hallway.
We chatted about wallpaper for a bit and it was only when I walked off, did I realise that my pyjamas were sticking out from under my combat trousers and there was a load of dried egg crusting up my goatee.

My Little Girl

I know the previous blog is all about ghosts and goolies

But the photo was too cute not to blog

Ghosts

The final dogwalk of the evening is a short one.
We amble down the lane and away from the last street light in the village to the gate of Graham's field. The field is always dark, but you can clearly see the far boundary field hedges and trees  set against the sky perhaps four hundred metres away.
It always reminds me of the country set of the film " Night Of The Hunter"

Last night, my teeth were set on edge , by the eerie sound of badgers fighting somewhere over in the riding stables. Their bickering upset the dogs who pulled at their leads, so I hurried them down to the field gate so they could do what they do so we could get back to the comfort of the log burner.

As the dogs sniffed and spun, I looked over the black field at the outlines of the hedges and trees set against the sky and immediately saw the silhouette of a man, standing very still .

I don't know if it was the badgers, or the fact it is almost Halloween or the fact that man was standing very still in the middle of a black field in the middle of the night but I almost crapped myself and seconds later we galloped home like a herd of schoolgirls.

The start of this clip of Night of the Hunter is one of 

the most terrifying ever made......

its Mitchum's scream that makes it

So what " supernatural " ghostly experience have happened to you my readers?

I love ghost stories....especially as it is almost Halloween !

THERE WILL BE A PRIZE FOR THE BEST ONE!

( ps this morning I realise that the ghostly silhouette was probably the figure of the guy who lives part time in an old caravan on the other side of the field...he was probably out having a wee or a
Cigarette........I had forgotten about him last night.....in all the hysteria of the dark.

Pps another village ghost story can be seen on my history blog
At
http://trelawnydhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/ghost-of-john-wynne.html

Fickle

I know I am fickle but it would lovely if my follower tally finally reaches 900
Hey ho......
How OCD is that?