Notes to My 24 Year Old Self

I found this page from an old diary of sorts when I was sorting through a pile of photographs the other day.
It was a list, albeit a brief one , from a somewhat perfunctory interview preparation note to self.
The note was written on a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1986, when I was travelling up to York
The interview was in the first slot on the Monday morning at Bootham Park Hospital, which is still a beautiful Georgian , albeit empty, building just outside the city walls.
I didn't have much to say did I?
I had experience of nursing drug and alcohol patients.
I had a sense of humour!
I was calm.......
And I was arrrhhhhhhhh about everything.
And that was it!
How I would have loved to have sat alongside my 24 yar old self on that train
I would have loved to have told that young man a few truths and pointers.
This is what I would have said

1) Don't sweat the small stuff.
2) Buy a house as soon as you can afford to do so. ( Buying a small terrace house in York would set you up very nicely indeed for the rest of your life!)
3) Take on board that being gay will be  more accepted after the aids hysteria has died away, so much so that in only a half generation or so, gay people will be able to marry in the eyes of the law and with the acceptance of the majority of the population! ...how wonderful is that?
4) Travel more , experience more.......the world will soon become a very small place where everyone will have a phone that can give you immediate access to everything and everyone!
5) try to sort out your family shit , you are on borrowed time with loved ones and not so loved ones
6) dont waste time worrying about things you cannot change
7) When you are angry at something or someone say something
8) Buy a dog....don't leave it until you are 40
9) be loyal to friends , loyalty rebounds .
10) Have confidence and hold your head up.

Big Titted Tomatoes & Other Stories

32 degrees here in Wales ! 

Early this afternoon I went over to the Ukrainian village with extra water feeders. As I filled  the lurid purple paddling pool for the geese, I was suddenly confronted by three small white bantams who tip-toed out of the long grass from the direction of the graveyard, to drink

All three are very young. Well cared for and tiny and it was with some difficulty that I managed to corral them in Rooster Cogburn's old run. 

I have no idea where all three have come from. 

Irene and Sylvia are feeling the heat today and Have spent most of their time lying in the shade. I managed to grab Irene after offering her a tomato ( she goes wild over a juicy tomato! ) and I managed to relieve her of some wool by hand stripping her front quarters. Unfortunately Soay sheep are terribly temperamental and wild so I only managed a few handfuls before she was off like shit off a shovel.

Irene and Sylvia

And finally , thanks to Joyce for her big titted creation
( we need ten more please to beat last year's entries)

Oiling The Cogs

Islwyn the village elder is a bit of an odd job man of some note, and so it's not unusual for people to ring him up regularly in order to get something done about their house. Sailor John was an electrician before he retired and is, I am sure, well used to people asking for advice about wiring problems and the like and Animal helper Pat, an excellent seamstress, has been asked many a time to run up the hem on old Trevor's curtains
It's not as though people want things for nothing.
But brains and skills  are there to be picked sometimes.

Over the past few weeks , my nursing qualification has proved to be useful.
I have been asked to give my opinion on a patch of healing  skin. I have been requested to check if I thought someone had suffered a stroke ( they hadn't but I was correct in my diagnosis of an urinary tract infection) and only yesterday I was asked to call up to see the visitor of one of the Flower Show exhibitors who had cut her leg on the Gop, to see if she needed a stitch or two.
She did.

All simple stuff to be  sure but small favours do  " oil the cogs" in a community I always think.
The wife of the chap with the skin problems thanked me the other day for my advice...I laughed and told her she would be providing the blooms for the tea tables at the Flower show from her garden.
Seeing the girl with the grazed knee cemented good relations with her hosts and doing a few observations on the chap with a bad bladder led to a small bunch of summer flowers being left by the back door.

Oiling the cogs.........makes life a whole lot easier.

Update

Two international novelty " strawberries" from Claire

Meme

I've only just learned what a meme is .
On facebook you are often bombarded with these little snippets of nothing .
They seem to be always sent by people who don't generally write down their own thoughts.
I'm always writing down my own thoughts.
Too much too often some people say.
I saw this meme last night and over morning coffee I mused over who I would pick.

My beloved grandparents? My father , my mother ?
Someone famous from cinema or the arts ? Someone fantastic person from history?
A life saving scientist perhaps
Every person I mused about, I found a reason not to choose.

Then I had it. Who would I want to sit on a bench with. For one hour?
An hour of companionship .
An hour of peace.....
An hour of no explainations, no catch up sharing, no complications caused by the passing of time
I knew exactly who I would pick

I would pick my first dog Finlay

Hannah

The youngest member of the The Trelawnyd Flower Show Committee is now living in Spain with her family .
How wonderful she and son Milo have sent this entry in the International Novelty Veg class.
Our 2nd Spanish entry!
Thank you Hannah x

When WereYou last Badly Behaved ?

Have I got that right? I never know if it is When were you badly behaved last or when were you last badly behaved'? 
Anyhow I think you get the gist of my question.
Today's blog was sparked in part by the terrible Absolutely Fabulous  and in part by my best friend Nuala who blacked her eye recetly  falling off a pair of high heels after a somewhat lively night out with her family.
Badly behaved Edina and Patsy from Adfab are said to be inbetween 60 and 70.
My friend Nu is galm 50.
So the  question remains when were you badly behaved last?

It's around a decade since I was truly naughty.
I had quoffed too many white wines in All Bar One with my chic friend Bel Ami. He ended up flirting with the psychopath barman and swishing around the tables in a floaty zara outfit.
I fell down two flights of stairs like a sack of custard, and was only stopped from breaking my neck by the intervention of  a sturdy fire door.
Happy days.

I don't drink much now, but I was always a happy/ sleepy drunk when out on the lash. This was all a bit out of odds with my parents' behaviour for my mother always started a cambative arguement after too many gins whereas my father became somewhat amorous with any passing matron after a whisky or three
I'm happy I am always sleepily benign when pissed

I love watching silly and good humoured bad behaviour , and am reminded of a time when the Prof and I with some friends went to a classical concert in the grounds of Chatsworth House.
Everyone had bought picnics and wine and champagne, and in front of us were a rather refined group of 50 year old ladies all a little worse for wear.
Suddenly the orchestra started to play Mozart's A Musical Joke (  the fourth movement )  which to those,  not from the UK will not know, is the music used to front Showjumping programmes on tv!
Suddenly several of these very well dressed matrons got up and started to pretend to be " riding" horses , just like little girls do when they are six or seven. For the duration of entire piece they cantered around the circles of concert goers, their massive bosoms bouncing around beneath strings of pearls , and their faces puce with the exertion.
It was a lovely moment of pure idiocy

So dear readers, I know reactions will be many and varied
But when was your last alcohol fuelled naughty moment?
I can't wait to read them.....