Getting My Hands On Trevor's Bloomers

Well, I think it's time to change the subject. Homophobia is all a bit much on a Saturday. I've got too much to do.
Old Trevor (94 and still marching 2 miles a day) has conscripted me to do his bedding plants today. Usually it's a job for Animal helper Pat but selfish cow that she is, she has just enjoyed a Mediterranean cruise just at the time when flowers needed buying.
I don't mind at all, as there is something rather relaxing and vacuous in sitting on a wet lawn with your trowel in your hand.
Winnie followed me up to Trevor's bungalow and carefully witnessed every plant being removed from it's container before planting with all of the solemnity of Crown court Judge.
Bulldogs are incredibly curious dogs and take every new job and experience incredibly seriously, especially if they are out in a public place where passers by can be scrutinized and playfully intimidated by an over serious facial expression.

The Followers of Going Gently join forces!

Thank you all for your comments

Mr Pruitt is a better man for them all 

An Open Email to Jeff Pruitt

Dear Jeff Pruitt,

Thank you for your detailed email dated the 8th June.
I shall endeavour to reply to each of your points in the order you gave them.

1. Going Gently is not just a blog which promotes as you term "a homosexual lifestyle". True is chronicles the day-to-day life of two middle aged old gay men, in what I would term a fairly positive and realistic light, but I will have to admit that it does not bang on about anything more "in -your-face gay" than chatting about the merits of dino man Chris Pratt's bum cheeks .
(and they are quite wonderful btw)
Your suggestion of adding an "adult" Gateway to the blog address would not be realistic as many of my followers are women of a certain age, who would find the extra work accessing Going Gently somewhat trying

2. I refer to The Prof as "The Prof" in Going Gently because he is a  bone fide Professor! plain and simple. He is also a PhD with a brain the size of a pumpkin... I may also add that Professors in the UK are much higher on the academic ladder than the ones found in the US!

3. My "recent" tirade against your National  Constitution's "Right to bare arms" was a discussion blog entry from last year. In Wales, as in the United States, we do support the right to Free Speech.

4. I am sorry that you feel that I am not quite the best choice of person to be allowed to supervise two small girls in what your describe as "after school club". I think I do quite well given the two hour window of activities I have to organise.
I feel I may need to warn you that the Prof and I are thinking of officially adopting two gay Filipino orphans who we shall rename Daryl and Carol (From the hit show The Walking Dead)
I am hoping that they will be useful in helping me clean out the smaller hen houses in the Ukrainian Village

5. Thank you for your Christian prayers, but Christ's salvation leaves me just a little bit cold, so I think I shall pass on that request.
However if I was ever going to "get religion" I shall pluhmp for being a Quaker... for they quite like gays and I've always enjoyed the film Friendly Persuasion

I am sorry that you found my "Chutzpah" comment relating to Audrey Hepburn and The Nun's Story inappropriate....did you know that Audrey Was and IS a gay icon?

I suggest that you try something new in your life. The experience perhaps would be an eye opening event.
Try a scotch egg! They are delightful.
If you don't like the taste,
then you could always shove one up yer arse!
hey ho and fuck off!

Regards
John Gray

Mr Pratt........

Belly Laugh

What made you laugh last?
Now, I'm not talking about a furtive titter at a joke, or a polite ha-ha in a casual small talk conversation here.
I am talking about an unrestrained, let rip chuckle or belly laugh that underlines a moment of pure mirth.
Yesterday I took the girls through the churchyard to see if the wedding flowers had been left around the Church door. Liv, who is Margo Channing in a 6  year old's body , skipped around the graves like an Marta from The Sound Of Music before asking about the large 13th Century Cross which stands on the South lawn.
" It's a prayer Cross" I explained, " it's where services were taken before the church was built"
Liv rolled her eyes theatrically then rather dramatically clasped her hands in prayer and knelt at the foot of the cross with all of the grace and chutzpah of a drag Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story.

Now this tickled me. I am not quite sure just why...I think it was all just too camp for one Wednesday afternoon to cope with , but I laughed a big belly laugh laugh all over the churchyard

When did you laugh last?
And why? 

After School

On the back of the previous post.....is this a somewhat happier one.
I was on school pick up today and the girls' job today was to design the Flower Show posters and hang them in the noticeboards by the school and memorial hall.
I almost had a tear in my eye when the girls chatted with Auntie Gladys, who lives near the hall
She complemented  them on their pretty school dresses, even though, I am sure she couldn't quite see the colour of them.

What's Made You cry last?

On my way to the cinema last night, I listened to The Archers on radio 4.
Now, after a two year storyline of the threat of a new bypass being built through the centre of this picturesque and impossibly close knit Midlands Village, we learnt last night, that " route c" is now suddenly being built and Ambridge is saved !
The villagers ( ok Fallon, Ruth, David and Jill) all got pissed at the Bull when the news broke and David made a bravura speech about home, Ambridge and all that is good in this world as the pub regulars ( or the programmes junior researchers)  cheered in the background.

I know it was cheesy.
I know it was as real as Donald Trump's next wig
But It made me blub like a baby!

When did you last cry? And  What was the cause? ........I 'd love to hear! 

Dheepan

Jesuthasan Antonythasen

With the Prof away, I used some of my birthday " Theatre Clwyd" voucher from my sister, to go and see the much lauded French movie Dheepan 
It was worth the visit.
Dheepan,(Jesuthasan Antonythasan)  is a Tamil warrior in Sri Lanka, hunted and persecuted in the country's civil war. He escapes to France with two strangers, Yalini ( Kalieaswari Srinivasen) and Illianya (Claudine Vinasithamby) ( the trio masquerading as a dead father, mother and child family unit) and the " family" end up as caretakers in a crime ridden housing estate ruled by drug gangs.

Not only do the trio need to adapt in this hostile new world ( which is obviously not as hostile as the history the three left behind ) but they have to develop tentative relationships with each other, relationships which are over shadowed by post traumatic Stress and ghosts of families lost.

Antonythasan, is not a professional actor , but he is highly impressive as the quiet and troubled warrior at odds with the undisciplined and chaotic French underworld but it is the initially unsympathetic and equally damaged Srinivasen who steals the limelight, for it is through her eyes that we glimpse a woman who has done anything to survive a homeland war but who still tentatively dares to hope for a better  life.

Dheepan is an impressively confident film and I dare anyone who  has ever sneered at the asylum seekers lot ,  to watch it unmoved
9/10

Kalieaswari Srinivasan

Chores!

In Britain, we say that We have jobs to do when we refer to do it yourself or housework.
I prefer the more Americanised word of chores.
Chores sounds more friendly.
Today I have fixed up a knackered old vintage cooler cupboard. The dog bites on the legs couldn't be disguised too well, but the door now closes and the fabric panels now fill the old ripped wire screens and the whole thing looks a tiny bit tidier.

I'm thinking of buying myself a tool belt!