The Power Of Laughter

I have never watched a whole episode of I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!
That kind of screaming reality show leaves me all rather cold.
But last night, all wrapped up with a lem sip , a menstruating bulldog and a roaring fire, I turned on the TV to watch a couple of celebs face the "  hilarious " Bush Tucker Trial .
The trial consists of the celebs being faced with consuming various " disgusting " small meals. to the delight of the baying audience. If the celebs retch or God forbid vomit up their cow anus or kangaroo bollocks the screaming front men Ant & Dec curl themselves up with horrific delight.
It's a depressing spectacle for sure.
Last night the two celebs kind of turned the tables on the whole thing by realising just how ridiculous the contest was.
They literally laughed their way through it!
Carol Vorderman and the wonderfully named Scarlett Moffat exuded warmth and good humour in their scenes together and within minutes I was enjoying their interactions and natural mischievousness much more than the fact they were faced with eating some poor animals arsehole!

The programme underlines that we don't need all this " throwing Christians to the lions"  in order to entertain ourselves.
Watching two friends laughing loud and strong is much more attractive a spectacle in my eyes

Anthropoid and Bulldog knickers

With the Prof away I took myself away to Theatre Clwyd for a " senior citizen" showing of the wartime movie Anthropoid this afternoon.
Things didn't get off to a grand start as the woman in the box office only charged me senior rates rather than regular ( do I look 60?)
Then around an hour into the movie, I had the mother of all coughing fits and had to leave the cinema amid a chorus of tutting from the greyhairs.
I didn't mind too much as the film was rather too dull, to return, so I went to have a look at the gallery instead.

Returning home, it was clear by the state of the floor that Winnie is now back in season. She is presently wearing a pair of the Prof's underpants with the gusset reinforced with toilet paper

See comments about just why she has not been spayed 

Christmas Adverts!

I am thinking of going to my solicitor 

The new Waitrose Christmas tv advert is a direct rip off from this blog entry

http://disasterfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/a-robin-in-cake-tin.html

But I kinda like this version of the John Lewis bouncy boxer Christmas ad

Clever

For Janice

Janice has just emailed me from Somewhere in Berkshire
Apparantly she enjoyed my recent baby photo and asked in a rather " strange" way to see another photo of me " from my salad days!"
So Janice.....enjoy

ILL

It's a lazy blog today.
I've got some sort of bug which hit home in the middle of the night and I feel like shit.
I'm sure it will pass by tomorrow but today, I feel as though I've been hit by a bus.
I'm coughing so hard that I'm farting like a machine gun!
When I am ill, I look like this......

But feel like this...

I vont to be left alone

How do you cope with illness?
What sort of patient are you?

The Walking Dead Episode 4

This is a slow burn of an episode.
With Negan ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan) wisecracking his way into Alexandria ( his jokes and easy manner already getting on everyone's tits including the audience's) we see "team Rick"reacting to the threat in a somewhat interesting and varied way.
As Carl, Michonne and Rosita bubble away with quiet fury. Father Gabriel cleverly covers Maggie's tracks by showing  Negan a fake grave  ( Negan has already proved himself a talented psychoanalyst by understanding the danger of women scorned)
Rick ( threatened by Daryl and Oliva's deaths) gives away all of Alexandria's weapons and faces the backlash for it even though it is obvious it will buy him and the others some time ....time for perhaps Kingdom and Hilltop to join forces.
I could do without Judith's step dad Andrew Lincoln's goggle eyed overacting but as a stand alone episode this one was an interesting study in psychological warfare, especially as it's the Walking Dead's women who are now stepping up to the plate.

When The Chips Are Down

Over the weekend I watched a normal family unit cope with a devastating series of events. Whilst some members "crumbled" under the weight of the situation, others remained stoic, each person dealing with the news in their own way.
You see this a lot on ICU

I have learnt that you can never ever second guess just how people will react in these situations, because often enough, non have ever been through something similar before.

The other morning I received an email from the wife of an old patient of mine.
I had been instrumental in helping the woman becoming  pregnant, ( something I am sure that you would never have believed ) but you have to remember that the patient involved had a severe traumatic paralysis and that I was the nurse working with the couple  in the fertility clinic at that time.
The patient, who I will call James, was only in his twenties at the time. He had dived into the sea on his first holiday in Spain and had struck his head on the sand at a shallow spot.
This had resulted in a fracture of his fifth vertebrae,and an immediate and devastating paralysis  from his chest down.
He never recovered.
I remembered James well. I remember him being nursed flat for twelve weeks with his neck in traction. I remembered his wife, a pragmatic Nolfolk countrywoman who could only visit on weekends and I remember him never complaining about his lot, even when faced with the overwhelming sadness of loosing every physical thing you ever held dear.
James just dealt with the brickbats.
His mantra was "let's get on with it!" 

The generic email from James' wife remained typically simple.

It said " we are sorry to report that following a short illness James died peacefully at home surrounded by his friends and family and  with his loyal dog Judy at his side.
He was a much loved son, brother, cousin, uncle, husband and father and was an inspiration to everyone who met him" 

I last saw James at that fertility clinic appointment twenty years ago. He remained resolutely upbeat about his life with disability, that is  until I was involved with the intimate and very private moment that fertility patients have to endure, only then did he break down and cried silent tears in the worried hope that all would be well.
I remember wiping away those tears for him, for he was not even able to do that for himself, and he cried long and hard for much of the consultation as the fooodgates opened after years and years of coping without complaint.

James' son was born healthy and happy the following spring. I believe he is now a student at The  University of Suffolk.

Good Fortune

I got home this morning exhausted and rather run down after a busy night at work only to be faced with a somewhat fraught Prof and a pile washing.
Some animal, yet unnamed had run amok on our new bed spread so I was banished to the spare bed room in order to catch with some sleep, which proved to a rather futile job as the washing machine lies directly beneath the bedroom in the west wing!
I got up, stupidly insulted the Prof's rather tasteless parsnip soup, then, while he was sulking, took the dogs out for a walk, dragging my feet as I did so.
On a more positive note, as we crossed a deserted village green,
Winnie stopped to sniff at something lying in the grass!

A lone 20£ !
The Prof told me I should donate the money to a charity of his choice
" fuck off ," I told him
" I'm spending it on beer and Crisps!"