Easter Shit!

Easter Shit from Sainsbury's

We've gone all American at Easter all of a sudden.
When I was a boy, British Easters,used to mean cheap Easter eggs from the supermarket, shit tv and sombre church services
Now it's all friggin Easter Bunny, egg hunts , pastel colours and a big leg of lamb with the family.
My mother- in- law arrives next week, and on Easter Sunday, I will arrange for her an Easter chick and bunny hunt ..........
I bought the above monstrosities for her this afternoon!
I'm 53!, she's 70 .....hey ho

Maintaining Friendships

You can learn a great deal about the trails and tribulations of being a good human when you examine  animal behaviour.
Being a good friend to someone is a case in point.
Yesterday, after a rather disasterous morning, I took myself off to bed in a sunny warm bedroom with only Winnie for company.
I was just in that comfortable twilight world of doze when I heard the gentle " thud, thud thud" of cat paws on floorboards. Moments later Albert landed onto of the duvet and sidelining me, he moved directly infront of his " best friend" where her flopped playfully onto his back.
This happens everyday.
Albert's affection for the old bulldog is clearly evident. There is not a scrap of anthropomorphism in the observation. He rubs his face over hers, grasps her cheeks with sheathed paws and purrs a deep rumbling purr when she eventually opens her eyes and acknowledges his presence
This slightly one sided physicality,  reinforces the two animals' relationship. It's a concrete "hello" between pride members where both parties obtain  a certain warmth and happiness.
I wish I could bottle the sweetness of it all.

This lurve fest carried on for say twenty minutes or so, and only finished when Winnie fell asleep with Albert's paw resting gently on the fat folds of her face. And before I fell asleep I reminded myself to organise a trip to Sheffield to see my friends Mike, Jane, Kathryn and John.
I am long overdue to rub heads with some old friends,
thanks to Albert , I am reminded that pack ties need to be reinforced by a little bit of effort and just not good intentions ...
Hey ho

Best Laid Plans

• Last night The Prof was working away.....I was rostered to work nights.....best laid plans
• I planned to take some holiday time owed to me and leave work around 6 am so that I could get home a little earlier to walk the bladder busted dogs......best laid plans.
• My emergency patient was admitted at 5.00 am which necessitated in me staying........best laid plans
• I didn't leavework until well after 8.30 and remember that I had left three goose eggs on the kitchen table last night.....best laid plans
• The kitchen floor looked like a cross between a badly kept farmyard and an explosion in a goose egg factory when I got home...............best laid plans
• I had a small weep then took the dogs out for a walk, I then took them into the field where I tied them to the gate and went to let the animals out. ........best laid plans
• Suddenly the ewes thundered past me with a determined and very excited Mary galloping right at their heels.........FUCKING BEST LAID PLANS EH?
• Eventually with  help from the neighbours , goo goo eyed Welsh terrier bitch was caught and hyperventilating ewes left to calm down.......fed dogs, fed cat,.....burnt toast when making mushrooms on toast.....BLP!
• Went to bed at 9.30 
• Phone woke me up 11.30........I was told I wasn't needed on  a Samaritan publicity meeting on a local railway station at 13.00 ( many suicides occur on local railway stations) ...best laid plans!!!!!!! Whooooohoooooo!
• I could really do with a scotch egg.......but of course I forgot to buy one.......yes....you've guessed it
• Best.......... laid ...........plans
• 
  Sylvia and Irene.......post attack.....
  
  
  
  

Unsung Hero

The street lights in our lane are not working...I kind of like the pitch black nature of it all.
Tonight I got home around 10.15 pm and as I shuffled my way down our path a very shadowy figure walked almost silently past the cottage.
It was Islwyn , the village elder and even in the darkness, I could make he was exhausted.
We chatted for a while.
In his mid sixties, Islwyn is presently looking after a very aged, sick and frail mother, and is doing so with all of the dedication of Mother Theresa .
Mother Theresa with a Welsh accent and beanie hat!
He's on call 24/7 and works without much sleep and for very little praise.
This has been going on for months
I asked him if he was ok and if he was coping, and typically he didn't complain about his lot.
" I was a thug when I was young," he said without any edge to his voice " She[ his mother] had alot to deal with years ago....." He left the rest of his sentence unfinished before bidding me goodnight

.....he is paying back a mother's love I thought......

I've spent the day gardening watched carefully by the two women in my life. 

The Same Boat - The Walking Dead

In six series The Walking Dead ,has never produced a wholly female dominated episode. The Grove in series 4 was centred around  Carol's relationship with the pre teen psychopath Lizzie but it was effectively a two hander between Carol and Tyreese. That's as far as it goes I think.
Like the female protagonists in 1970s disaster movies, women in The Walking Dead have often been sidelined to let the men shine , but since Melissa McBride was given her acting muscles a real flex  to let the mosey Carol shine into something far more interesting  , she and the other powerful women of the zombie Apocalypse ( Michonne, Andrea, and Maggie ) have proved to be some of the most popular characters in the show over the years.
In The Same Boat  we follow Carol and the pregnant Maggie as they are kept captive by the savvie Saviour women. The episode cleverly see saws in a " is Carol as frightened as she is making out? " way
And both Mc Bride as Carol and Lauren Cohen as Maggie really do shine in the more meatier and well rounded roles as they realise that they are not really any different to the women keeping them captive.

Maggie and Carol

The Same Boat had great pace and tension , and it keeps the audience on their toes right to thevery end...it also has quite a bit to say about the role of women in this brutal new world . That is until Our girls eventually turn the tables and rule the day. 

But...as usual.......they win at a cost.....

Nice to see Daryl giving Carol a hug too! 

Cups & Saucers

The Ward I worked on, prior to it's demolition 

Recently I was in a situation where someone in a position of authority gave a speech that sucked .
I disagreed with half of what was being said and for most of how it was being delivered and found myself saying as much.
My counter argument, as I expected, wasn't accepted , so I had to fall back on that statement  of someone who won't back down which is  " we will have to agree to differ".
We will agree to differ , to some may sound like a cope out, but I don't think it is......agree to differ in my view,  is a line in the sand.
The older I get, the easier, I find to make a stand. A stand for the big things as well as the little ones  and institutionalized apathy and low level bullying are things that really get on my tits.

I am reminded of a little war, I was involved  with a long time ago now. It was a war over saucers!
In 1983 I worked on a long stay psychiatric ward as a student nurse. The patients all had been in hospital most of their lives ( as had many of the staff) , there was little to non therepeutic care given and what was on offer was more prison orientated that hospital.
The patients were cared for in so much as they were clean and fed and kept warm and safe, but the atmosphere felt as grey as the neat suits , the male staff worked in.

One of my first duties was to make the patient's tea at suppertime. The tea was brewed in one very large teapot. First you put in the tea, then the boiling water. You stirred the mixture, then added milk and sugar! All in one pot. And each patient got the same drink,regardless of want.
All but one patient was offered their drinks in nhs cups. No saucers were used.
I was told that they were never used.

Now I was a shy 20 year old then and,I kept my eyes open and my mouth shut when in the clinical area, but the no saucer rule didn't sit well with me and from day one, I refused to play the game.
When I gave out the tea ,saucers  were always used.
This raised eyebrows for sure, and even one senior staff member openenly referred to me as a" being a poof" for insisting on the change, but through quiet consistancy, I got my way,
It was a small, line in the sand victory.

In any organisation , everyone should be encouraged to take little leads on things. To be able to say their piece , to question the status quo, and to agree to differ when debating a point.

That's good leadership .

Optimistic Comment Of The Week!

Mrs Trellis out with her whippet, blue bumped into Mary and I on a sunny spring morning.
Mary bounced about in her usual friendly manner.
Blue barked in a rather worried way and leaped into the road dragging the diminutive Mrs Trellis with him. She tensed up pulling manfully at his lead.
He eventually settled down as we chatted then reared up again like Flag in The Yearling when Mary edged forward, in the hopeful quest for a play.
Again Mrs Trellis was hurled into the road, her heels clacking on the ground, but this time she gave a hopeful little laugh and called out breathlessly
" He's doing rather well at his dog training classes!"
" That's good" I called after her as owner and Whippet careered madly down the lane....

God loves an optimist