Hinterland

Hostages Sharon Morgan and Brochan Evans

I often post about movies from all around the world on Going Gently, but it is rare for me to big up a Welsh film or tv series of any note as generally most Welsh offerings are pretty dire.
Hinterland is an exception.
Filmed twice ( once in English and again in Welsh ) it is a crime show set in the unlikely university town of  Aberystwyth which is headed by a flawed detective, Richard Harrington ( aint they all?) and his team of supportive cops. Moody tense and thoroughly entertaining, this drama benefits from its subtitles, detailed characterisations and mean and bleak country backdrop.
Tonight's siege storyline was a cracker!
Watch it on youtube if you get the chance

Boys

Four ten year old boys running amok in the street is a somewhat rare sight nowadays given the fact that modern parenting seems to be micromanaging childhood but there they were this morning sprinting up and down the lane, shouting about a den made over in the fields beyond Trendy Carol's house.
They didn't see me, as I was busy planting a peony in the back garden, but I heard them, and so did Albert who was sat on the cottage wall, swishing his tail in temper.
It's amazing just how much noise four small boys can make at full pelt.

For a second or two there was a worrying silence, and I was surprised to glimpse what looked like a banana skin flying past Albert's head to land with a plop on the path.
The boys galloped away before I could even stand up and Albert bolted for the safety of the kitchen.

I've been crouched behind the wall waiting for them all to return for the past half hour
I'm going to lob the banana skin right back at em !

What larks Pip! 

Ps I'm 54

I was still lurking in the garden, banana skin in hand when a rather natty woman poked her head over the wall, bearing gifts!
She brought me these Teacups, Gifts that once were sold in the village shop sometime in the 1940-50s ( Newmarket was the village's former name and it was changed to Trelawnyd in 1957)

Update

I 've just had an email from Phil ( one of the Male Voice Choir's bigwigs) to tell me that Auntie Glad is doing ok in her new home. ( He and many of the choir members have been so supportive to her over the years)
It is her birthday today....... she is 98.
I plan to visit on Thursday

Early Doors

Thats the Prof's ' happy face'

Here, in Britain, there is a pub phenomenon which is known as " Early Doors".
Early Doors refers to a time when people pop in to the pub, namely in the afternoon to very early evening to sink a pint or two and chat.
It is sometimes a favourite time for the elderly to middle aged drinkers who don't like the " crowds"  of an evening bartime, the after work brigade, the newspaper readers and of course the hopeless. alcoholic.
The Prof is still on holiday today so I took him to The Albion in Conwy for an afternoon drink. I was driving so had a few large coffees, he had a few of the guest ales and a pork pie.
Mary had a bag of crisps!
The mid afternoon clientele was a quiet bunch. Mainly old men with sticks perked up by a middle aged drunk woman who slurred her words from the get-go. I reminded the Prof not to catch her eye. There is nothing worse than a latched on drunk when you are sober.
I don't do early doors, anymore.
One of the last times, I did,  was over  a decade ago when I got so pissed in All Bar One with my fey sidekick John 'Bel-Ami', I eventually fell down two flights of basement steps into a firedoor, broke my spectacles and gave myself a black eye.....and never felt a thing!

Hey ho.

When were you most scared?

For the whole of the Easter Weekend I have been either sleeping or working, and the night shifts have been busy ones.
The Prof has been pleasantly sanguine about the ruination of his one of all-too-few holidays, a fact that I put down to chocolate and some downtime with the children.
Mrs Trellis dropped off a couple of Easter bunnies too, which was nice of her, she asked if the Flower Show had indeed been cancelled this year as per village gossip.
I assured her that it had not, and promptly conscripted her in the boiled fruit cake class.

Over the weekend one of my patients likened his admission to intensive care to one of the "most frightening experiences of his life". The " most" as it turned out, was a time when he was attacked by a lioness in Africa, a story that unfortunately we were unable to catch up with throughout the shift.

But it got me thinking.....what WAS the most frightening experience I have ever suffered? 
HUMMMMM.....

Well, my answer must, thankfully,  be very few indeed, !
Anything to do with heights really freak me out,so the time I found myself alone on the observation deck of the Seattle's Space needle in a rainstorm would figure high on this list.
The time I was attacked by a Russian terrier ( the leader and most aggressive member of a pack of nine housedogs) still brings shivers to my soul when I think about it, as does the time I was first attacked my a psychiatric patient whilst on duty.
But these are just minor scare times compared with a man facing down a lioness in the African bush!

So tell me!
What was your most frightening experience EVER.
I'd be interested to know.

sleeping in the bath

I've just fallen asleep in the bath
My fingers and toes look like miniature crinkly testicles
God knows what my actual testicles look like
Night shifts all over Easter
They are trying to killme before I retire!

Happy Easter

New York

How lucky we are, in May we are off to London again, June we go to Spain, August a seaside break in Kent and in  November we have booked our trip to New York.
It's been a few years since we went, my goodness for many years we visited the city annually, so I am so excited to be returning .
I am reminded of a quote from Woody Allen from the movie Manhattan

" He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion........no make that: he romanticized it all out of proportion. Yes, to him, no matter what the season was, this is still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of Gershwin"