The workmen are ripping out the kitchen window which is proving to be a harder job than they anticipated. There is much noise, the smashing of glass and some colourful swearing.
The terriers are safely away in the back of the car. Winnie is watching everything from the garden and
Albert is sat with me, nervous that there are strangers around.
He is ruffling my hair and jumps after one of the workmen shouts " Bastard!"
The kitchen fitter comes tomorrow to check the new kitchen dimensions . A plumber is coming too in order to replace a radiator and to add to the mayhem the window chap is replacing the old kitchen window in the lane. Three workmen in one day! Winnie will be knocking out the orgasms like confetti.
Della from up the lane called in to tell me that she could hear me having a conversation on the phone when she rang her mother ..BT are investigating
Farmer Basil has a new sheepdog puppy. He's a bit bouncy
Daphne and Meirion are off to Australia on holiday, we talked for ages about nice places to go in Sydney
Polish Monika is working in the Crown !
The Flower Show review meeting has been booked for next Tuesday, we need to figure out what village initiatives we can financially support this year.
Teenage Boffin Cameron is taking a gap year off after school!
The old farm house Bryn Teg, which is hidden away in the centre of the village has been sold, the new owner is doing it up nicely
Auntie Glad's house has not been sold as yet
The Prof is working away again.....I'm listening to Tom waits Fawn in the dark...it's strangely hypnotic
When the Harvey Weinstein furore first broke in the news, I was initially dreadfully confused as the thought of him sexually molesting any A list actress seemed awfully far fetched to me.
It was only then that I realised that I thought the press was talking about Harvey Fierstein the gay actor and not the slug like movie producer Weinstein . Hey ho!
The abuse of power for sexual gratification, once again has been given centre stage by the media and although I suspect 90% of women at one time or another have been subjected to varying degrees of unwanted " attention" , either in the workplace or in education , the phenomenon is not purely confined to female victims and male protagonists.
When I was a student nurse I once was subjected to some low level sexual " horseplay" by two female enrolled nurses. It lasted for twelve weeks ( the length of a placement on the ward I had been allocated to) and it was an unpleasant, and upsetting time to live through.
The two women in question were just a little older than I and they thought the whole thing was great fun, especially as I was a real shy blusher and they egged each other on.
The horseplay started with hair roughing and unwanted hugging, but as they saw that I was quietly flummoxed by it all, their actions graduated to unexpected groping, the dreadfully embarrassing " grabbing of the back of the underpants and pulling" moments and kisses on the back of the neck.
The thought it was in anyway abuse, never crossed my mind or the minds of the other staff who witnessed it but It was a truly awful time, and it made me miserable, even though way back then then it was chalked up to commonplace workplace " banter" which had to endured by the grunts.
Thank goodness, things have moved on from then
Worryingly in Hollywood that doesn't quite seem the case.
I shall leave you with this video which has nothing to do with sexual abuse but which has everything to do with the general abuse of animals.
Chimpanzees that have been laboratory raised, see " freedom" for the first time
Watch this video without bawling
Yan, the big hearted, wise cracking Londoner was voted off Bake Off tonight, which was a real shame .I noticed that throughout the series she was the one that helped her fellow bakers the most, which underlined her innate good nature and humour!
Her family, friends and wife should be very proud of her!
In comprehensive school in the 1970s the worst name one boy could call another was the word " poof!"
As I recall the name was more concerned more with effeminacy rather than with overt homosexuality, but the definition, I guess was fluid and totally negative as poof was synonymous with weakness, an inability in sports ability and cowardice.
When I was a bit older I rather liked to reclaim the name!
I refused to let the word make me feel in any way negative or second best
In Sheffield I had neighbours on one side that kept themselves to themselves. They were a bit common, and the mother of the household would constantly yell at her brood of useless teenage sons.
One Sunday morning the boys were all sat in their garden ( on an old sofa- how lovely) hidden from my view by a tall brick wall. Presumably they were all suffering from hangovers as the mother prepared lunch and as I gardened around my neat little garden I heard the mother as she berated them
" you treat this place like a bleeding hotel!" She bellowed "Why can't you be like that old poof next door and keep the place tidy!!!"
"LESS OF THE OLD!" I shouted back at her as the family dissolved into silence
When I joined the village community council I remarked to fellow councillor- the Red Faced Welsh Farmer- that it was about time that there was a poof on the committee. Of course I said it out of devilment and of course the red faced Welsh Farmer never so much twitched an eyebrow at the remark.
I bought a pouffe yesterday. I've always wanted one and as the Prof climbed into the car he spied it on the back seat
I deleted today's post by mistake as I was waiting for the car to pass it's MOT
IT's my fat fingers on my iPhone .
It is a bit like threading a needle with a raw sausage !
Yesterday's post cost me three followers! I should have known better!
I thought it was measured and fair.
At least Ursula got all moist over it.
She loves conflict.
I fell over this morning as I was trying to take a picture of a kingfisher.
The kingfisher in question was a seven foot wooden sculpture on the banks of the river Elwy and not the actual bird, although I managed to witness the real thing as it looped over the water quite, quite beautifully.
It was a wonderful thing to see on a sunny morning.
Two elderly ladies on sticks saw me slide down the long grassy bank on my arse.
I think it provided them with quite a spectacle given the fact that Mary's lead was wrapped around my wrist and she followed me quite gleefully a second after I had disappeared from view!
It must have looked all rather Wile E Coyote
They stopped and asked if I was alright which was sweet of them .
Yesterday I was asked by a villager to be a referee for them.
The reference was for a shotgun licence.
When I was asked, I must admit I did hesitate for a moment, but as the shotgun was an antique, had been dismantled and was kept by the most responsible of owners I was happy to oblige.
Now I've blogged about gun laws before and the ensuing debate it caused opened my eyes to a few things, namely the near fanatical way many Americans view their right to bear arms.
Owning an antique family heirloom is one thing which is acceptable to me. If the owner was a farmer and wanted to use the gun at work, then I would have signed the forms too. But if the gun owner just wanted the gun " as protection" then I would have refused the request.
One of the biggest reasons for gun ownership in the US seems to be for protection. It's a kill them before they kill me mentality and although I do disagree with it, I do understand it to a degree.
What I cannot get my head around at all is the need for some seemingly ordinary people to keep automatic weapons. Automatic weapons that can kill 58 people and wound nearly 500 in just under an hour.
He works too hard.
He can't knock a nail into a piece of wood.
He's crap at badminton.
He wakes far too early in the morning and switches on his bloody iPad
He's loud when I want to be quiet.
He moans constantly about the fact I leave my clothes on the floor of the bathroom.
My husband is finally home today after a week away
And I am very glad!
