You need bigger balls!

I'm  now sat at the kitchen table with a large coffee. According to radio 2 research has " proven" that drinking three cups of coffee in a 24 hour period is good for you. I drink one massive cup of coffee in the morning, so I'm doing something right!
One of cockerel bachelors has been attacking a couple of the more timid  neighbours. Nothing serious given his size but it was slightly upsetting for the slightly built Mandy who was actually sharing a few crusts of bread with them at the time.
"Stand you ground, stamp your foot at him, face him and flap your arms like wings" I told her as she gave me a rather dubious look. " He has to know you are a tough bitch with balls bigger than his" 
It seems to have worked as Mandy has been " flapping her arms" like a good un everytime she passes the group as they sunbathe by the field gate.
Back to my coffee.
The sun is shining today too which is lovely. I can catch up with jobs after the torrential rain of yesterday.
My job list is growing as my 500 ml coffee cup empties

Bath dogs,
Order coal and logs, book car service, more phone calls....Flower Show jobs
Paint old Trevor's side fence ( he's paying me!)
Finalise garden entries for Flower Show
Deliver remaining schedules, and sell raffle tickets to the East side of village,
Make turkey meatballs and a tomato sauce from scratch for supper
Write a letter to the village conservation group
But for now......before I start.......I shall sit quietly at the kitchen table with the sun streaming through the window.
And I will drink my coffee

Beetroot rat

The latest novelty veg photos

Zombie celeriac  

Tired & Emotional

I finished SAMS shift at 1am and was happily driving through the village of Dyserth home when a figure in black staggered into the road in front of me , tottered in front of the Spar shop and bounced over the litter bin which looked like R2D2 before landing legs akimbo outside Morgan's Pharmacy.
I stopped and half got out of the car before the figure waved me away
" I'm alright I'm just PISHED !" He called out and in way of an explanation he added " It's my birthday!"
" How old are you? " I asked as he rolled on the floor
" 66! " He slurred
There's no fool like an old fool! 

Catch Ups

I have known this woman for thirty six years!
She looks great...I look like the wreck of the Hesperus
Hey ho

Where does the time go?

Visitors

Wet dog

The cottage smells of wet dog.
I have old friends from Sunny, fragrant Australia popping in and the place reeks of animal!
I've ran around with the fabreeze and in a moment of madness squirted each dog with a few blasts of my clinque Happy...so now the cottage smells of fabreeze, clinique Happy AND wet dog...it's not a nice combination!
It's an awfully wet and dismal day to be visiting Wales a fact made worse by Albert who has utilized the time it took me to drag the dogs around a very wet Trelawnyd in order to remove the prawn filling from some newly made sandwiches left out on the sideboard. ( I say handmade.....handmade by marks and Spencer!!!!)

When we visited our friends in their mansion just outside Sydney the sun was shining and the Kookaburras laughed in the shade of the trees!
Here a bedraggled cockerel is crowing into the rain as damp Mrs Trellis runs past in her kagool

Being Nice

People are suddenly being nicer to me,
At work someone brought me a cake and two scotch eggs were put in the nurses' fridge for my break!
and I received hugs from members of staff that won't see me next weekend when I finally complete my last shift.
"I won't see you again!!!!" one menopausal colleague wailed
" I am retiring NOT dying of cancer!" I reminded her.
It just so happens that four of my favourite nurses are leaving roughly when I do. One is going into nurse education, one into Student support and the other is moving to an ophthalmic ward where the hours and the physicality of nursing is better for her back.
We shall have a joint leaving do, which means more people there but increases the chances that someone who does not like you but likes someone else turns up......
What larks Pip!
Even Ursula or Petra might say something nice to me this week! 

So my question to you all this sunny Sunday afternoon is this?

What was the best compliment someone has ever given you?

 I am reminded  of my grandmother here, who was the Queen of the backhanded compliment.....on seeing that I had made an effort to get my unruly hair neat and tidy for a family do, she commented " oh your hair looks lovely.....from the back!" 

Answers on postcards please!

Queen Lumley

The other night I watched a documentary that was so warm and fuzzy and sweet that I totally forgot the ills of the world for an hour or so
Joanna Lumley's India saw the actress revisit the country of her birth and with a whispering, schoolgirl charm we saw her flit through the Calcutta slums, the Himalaya mountains and Elephant jungles like a smiling and very gracious cocktail party host.
Lumley is a delighterful woman for everything she experiences is either " extraordinary" or " magnificent" and with this slightly naive 1950s way of looking at the world she draws in people of all cultures to delight in her charm and politeness.
At one point as she was driving in an open topped sports car, she greeted a passing street woman standing by the side of the road with a beeming smile and a breathless " hello sweetie"
I was totally beguiled by her

Copybook Blot

well after today's once in a lifetime comment by The Prof
I well a truly blotted my copybook by leaving on the car lights and radio when I went to pick him up after his very hard and long day in Cardiff
The car battery failed and we had to wait for an hour and a quarter for a jump!
Earlier I was the best husband since Prince Albert
Now I am a useless burke.......that has a brain the size of an average peanut!

Nursing-Some Final Thoughts

I was twenty when I started to nurse. It was 1983 and I was a gauche unassertive, shy character who looked awkward even in his nursing group photo where he should have felt comfortable amongst his friends and his mentor.

Psychiatric nursing taught me to act as an advocate and to care for the distressed and weak.
Spinal Injury Nursing taught me to nurse holistically and to trust my gut in how to handle people.
Nurse management taught me to believe in myself , voice my own opinions and helped me to develop the skill of taking a deep breath before speaking.
Oh, ...and Intensive care nursing has taught me the power of good team work.
Each area has shaped and sculptured me over the years.

Nurses have not really changed in my thirty five year experience. Most want to care the best way they can. It is the system that has changed and it is this system change that has complicated the issues and practicalities of care giving.
The "forces" discipline has disappeared from the workplace and a more academic/ assertive based training has replaced the old " learning by watching Nellie" approach to development.
Student Nurses are brighter than those of old which only can be a good thing, but boy don't they look sloppy in their badly fitting uniforms and lack of "starch"
That's an age thing!

Policy, protocol, HR, a computer full of e- fucking learning needs and the fear of missing something now replace common sense management and firefighting is par for the course for harassed middle managers who need to sell the corporate message to their peers without ever believing in the message.

Have I any advice for those bright eyed, energetic bods who are just starting out on their careers?
Well yes I have.
Grab every opportunity to see the best!
Move away from home, go to a good teaching hospital trust, soak up the special and learn to recognise good , innovative practice and management, there is plenty of it to see
Don't be afraid to question and to challenge
Be warm and thoughtful
And please PLEASE PLEASE develop a ROBUST sense of humour