Your Last Kindness

Yesterday I was on the receiving end of a little kindness
Gayle, a blogger from the Sunny desert of the far west of the United States, sent me a walking dead package of goodies.
It was a generous gift where even the package was decorated with a hand drawn sketch of my menagerie .
The postman commented on the sketch with some enthusiasm

This morning I was called to the house of a neighbour to check on them after a fall. All I could do was to reassure them before they were visited by the health services, but I was thanked for my kindness.
I wasn't being kind...I was being neighbourly
Gayle was being kind. Her gift was designed to give some pleasure and some support  and I was greatly touched by it.

When was the last time someone was kind to you..?  And what did they do?
I think we would all benefit from reading a few heartwarming tales....
Over to you

Make You Feel My Love

In Choir last night we nailed this, the Bob Dylan version of the classic Make You Feel My Love and I sang better and stronger because, like the school arse licker, I asked to stand next to the lead bass who has the voice of chocolate. Before that I was sat on the end next to the female tenors and I got myself all confused. Now in the position where my good ear can tune into what needs to be done , I can belt out something a bit more masculine ....
On the other side of me was a new boy...well I say new boy, Albert looked more like Private Godfrey from Dad's Army than the real Arnold Ridley did and he told me he was a practised chorister in his home county of North Yorkshire.
" I'm not used to singing without a piano !" He confided to me just after Jamie ,the twelve year old choirmaster had got us up singing another Swahili hymn " and I can't do the footwork either I've just had me bunions done..!" he added as the more energetic choir members clapped and stamped their feet in time to the music
This morning I almost missed a hospital clinic appointment as I was listening to my iPad in order to get my "dum-de-dums"  right for the African/ American Soul Wind, so much so the support worker told me off for not paying attention
Never let it be said I don't try.

I'll leave you with a quick video , just shot. It's a blustery day and Mary and I have just been out above the village to blow away the cobwebs

Thank goodness the zipwire run wasn't booked for today ! Thank you all again for your "last minute" donations on line and via the post directly to our centre in Rhyl. The treasurer has been somewhat overwhelmed with the response and has been greatly moved by the accompanying cards and letters

And finally I must also say a big thank you to my sister who I know left an large anonymous donation on line this morning, she and my other sister may be there next Wednesday when We finally do the deed

Last minute donations can be left on line at

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/johngray1

Pay pal at jgsheffield@hotmail.com

Or by post directly to Samaritans Rhyl and NE Wales, 23 Bedford Street, Rhyl LL181SY

With postal donations , gift aid etc we would have raised going on 4, 500 € thank you!

Bingo Waits For No Man

Last night was warm and fresh and towards dusk Mary and I went and sat on the village green.
I had my best Walking  Dead T shirt on.
I was listening to Just a Minute and then The Archers on my headphones. Mary was watching the village schoolchildren ride their bikes up and down Chapel Street.
Seven year old Liv Randa trundled by with her thirty six year old attitude very much on show.
" We are off to bingo in a minute" she told me seriously pointing at the village hall " We won a tray of biscuits last time"
Apparently Cameron the not-so-teenage boffin now calls out the numbers and so has injected some boy band sex appeal into the usually dry proceedings .
Mrs Trellis walked past with Blue and she waved, she had her winter bobble hat on. The man with the husky type dog who attacked William and Mary a while ago passed too. He didn't wave .
We ignore each other.
Jo from the old police house stopped her car just as the Archers' bladebladebladebla and told me that she was glad that I was now staying in the village and Sandra, the village caretaker hurried past with the hall keys in order to open up " Bingo waits for no man!" 
As Pip showed her new baby to a somewhat fraught Elizabeth at Lower Loxley, dusk started to fall with more gusto. The Living room lights started to appear in the windows of Hattie's little cottage, Carys's long cottage on London Road and in various of the pensioner bungalow windows, and as the bingo players started to walk slowly out of the lengthening shadows like zombies towards the hall and the temperature started to fall  Mary and I made our way back home in order to light the wood burner .

!

Right Now

Everything is so immediate nowadays  .....don't you think?
Back in the day, I always thought it was rude to call someone on the phone after say 9 pm .
I think I still think like that for if the housephone rings after that time...I immediately think that there has been a death in the family.
How we have messenger  and whatsApp
24 hours a day you can see who is on line and who is listening
Is that a good thing...hummm probably...... yes
Last night heading towards midnight my sister messaged me about her dying cat.
I could support and advise and agree with her course of action, support in the wee small hours can only be a good thing, especially as houses sound and feel so quiet in the dark.

Toni confirmed she is delivering my logs moments after Bunty left  her barnstorming message of butch lesbian support. Both would have not rung me at ten pm, but they messaged me.
That can only be a good thing.

I am reminded here of my mother who spent many many hours on her own at night. She got drunk a lot and talked to herself . Sad moments where she would act out conversations and thoughts and worries without the benefit of an audience. How messenger  , or snapchat or Facebook or FaceTime would have made her life so less painful than it was.

I write a post and waiting just  a few seconds I know it's been read...or at least acknowledged .
I contacted Raymondo within a few seconds after being reminded of his disappearance from blog land and I know Nu will read my one word review of a movie I have just seen within a second of me posting .....

How lucky are we to live at such a time of communication plenty

So why are there lonely people in the world 

Blast From The Past

I've just got this message
Remember BUNTY the bulldyke Lesbian who bought my geese a few years ago?
She contacted me out of the blue this evening

"Just read your fucking  depressed blog! 

Jesus Jonno🤧

Get your fat arse into gear and meet me after work one night in Chester.- I've been transferred 👍🏼

We will do - a 👊gay bar and K'bab afterwards ---- I am such a classy dyke-----my treat you retired 🍒

Try to wear something fucking decent...not your usual shit wardrobe.I 'll bring Katy ( ngf)

She loves a bear with manners and she always drives :-)

Bxxxxxx" 

Breakfast

Emotionally it's been somewhat of a difficult week, saved really by keeping busy, a night out with Jason the affable despot and a few phone calls and messages from friends.

Just when I feel on top of things, a ball seems to hurtle out of left field and I'm back to feeling irritatingly insecure and somewhat  deflated.

I'll perk back up, I always do.

Mary and I went out for breakfast on the beach today

She shared a bacon buttie

I also had two coffees

And we people watched until she was bored of the game
Hey ho

Crazy Rich Asians

Years ago, for my 40th birthday, my husband booked me and all of my friends. a special showing of the romantic comedy My Best Friends Wedding.
If you haven't seen it....it's a lovely film 
I've just seen the 2018 equivalent, namely the recent American hit, Crazy Rich Asians.

Henry Golding swoon

Set amongst the super rich Chinese of Singapore we follow proud self made American Chinese academic Rachel Chu ( Constance Wu) as she visits her boyfriend's family during a friend's wedding. Her boyfriend ( The impossibly handsome Henry Golding) is part of the most elite and traditional of Chinese families and as the various over-the-top Chinese characters assemble for the celebrations Rachel is faced with impressing a disapproving family matriarch in the graceful ice cold shape of Michelle Yeoh.

Nothing new here, except that the cast is exclusively Asian ( or in Golding's case part Asian) a fact which seems to have taken the states strangely by storm even though at least 5 cast members speak with pure English accents). Crazy Rich Asians is not particularly original, it's a rom com directly taken from all of those flicks we remember from thirty years ago  and although at times quite sweet and amusing , it certainly doesn't challenge Julia Robert's " Best Friend's  doe eyed Julianne.

Michelle Yeoh excels in the Meryl Streep role, Constance Wu is adequate in the lead but for me the film is almost stolen by serene Brit Gemma Chan who crops up in a lumpy sub plot about a Rich relative dealing with her husband's infidelity.

Gemma Chan

I'm sure the movie has something to say about Chinese tradition versus the American Way....but for me, it is just an old fashioned comedy that has been given a twist that isn't quite as funny as it wants to be
7/10

I was the only person in the cinema