2018

A Happy 2018?  me and my neice Rebecca at my sister Ann's Birthday..happy time

We are heading towards the end of the year.
A year of note, as they say.
One of my best friends survived cancer this year and things are on hold
He's been a star
Another friend has also battled a sickness, unseen and unheard.....they have been a star too.
William is Gently deteriorating and I am being nudged by the vet into making the right decision
He's been a star of a dog.
December may be his swan song
This year I have known who my many friends are.
This year some people have disappointed
Yin and yang I guess.....
And as usual the good almost outweigh the bad....
Even if I hate this year with a vengeance at least the choir has salved my soul somewhat as have my family, friends ,animals and my blog friends

I saw Auntie Glad  , it wasn't for long , I had misjudged the  lunch time routine
Her eyes were a milky blue and she didn't know me at first but she did remember the Flower Show when I mentioned it..... mentioned it for a second time
" We worked hard " she said " Mr Roberts and Irene and Mrs Lewis and I  "
All Flower Show people a decade or two before I arrived
I wanted her to remember me and finally after I talked on and on about the cottage and the dogs and allotment and Chris,  she did.....albeit tentatively
" we always put on a good show " she said holding my hand tightly  " didn't we?"
" oh we did " I replied   " oh we so did!"

Coconut

Crowded Bluebell

Bluebell is crowded
Winnie, William and George are all on the back seat licking their chops
Mary on the passenger seat still in her cone of shame.
Someone is smelly farting...I suspect it's George as he stole Albert's dinner last night.
We are at Colwyn Bay beach and it's late morning.
They all have shared a pack of wafer thin ham
I haven't had breakfast yet.
We are all going to the open air cafe in a minute where I'm going to have a bacon butty
Fuck fuck...FUCK fat club.
We've come out  as my husband is collecting his remaining belongings from the cottage this morning and I couldn't face being there.
He's been working away in Canada so I boxed everything up for him
Years of married life.
....a hard...hard.....hard job to do.
This morning I filled a carrier bag with food, fresh bread and milk and left it out with the other boxes
I thought it the right thing to do....still the carer!
I've had no sleep yet....I was working last night and I'm working tonight
I'm tired......
That's probably the reason I've just had a good long cry

Non Friday

Miserable day here....a day to pull  up the drawbridge

Davis

Gale Sondergaard

Thanksgiving

Last week I had to get the heating engineer out to fix a leak behind the back boiler on the wood burner . It wasn't a big job which thankfully was covered by warranty, and the visit was only of note because the workman found one of my " family " photos hilariously funny
The photo, I had placed on the mantle was this one
" That's the oddest thing I have ever seen!" He said with a laugh

For recent visitors to Going Gently that may not know, the photo was of Boris and me.
Now Boris was a Norfolk Bronze turkey, who came to me as a tiny poult,  a present from a grateful ITU patient.
From a solemn, black eyed baby, Boris grew into a massive solemn turkey stag who spent most of his day gliding after me with a benign affection bordering on obsession.
Good natured turkey stags make delightfully loyal pets and for many years Boris became a sort of minor celebrity in the village who always seemed to sail gracefully into view when people stopped at the field gate to watch the animals.
Boris often brought a Sense of the surreal to any funeral in the new graveyard as when he spied mourners in their dark coats his testosterone levels would soar and he would gallop heavily towards the cemetery fence gobbling madly at the interlopers, many of whom would burst into inappropriate smiles at the whole situation.
It got so bad that I would have to lock him away every time when the funeral bell rang.

On this thanksgiving day I remember an old friend

Fur Lined

I had arranged an evening date with a friend tonight but they mugged me off at the last minute
So, I've climbed into my long johns and have toasted thick white bread on the wood burner with my antique toasting fork.
Last night I walked the dogs in my long johns and my new ( libs!) fur lived crocs!
I couldn't be arsed if anyone saw me ( which they did) as from a distance I would have looked as though I was wearing skinny leggings !
Ok but ones with a fly?

What's your slobbing outfit?

Ise Oluwa

I often write about those beautiful little moments in life that catch you unawares.

I guess it's the drama queen in me 

My recent encounter with a kindness inside St. Asaph Cathedral was one I shall remember for quite some time but tonight's experience will rank a close second in that memory bank of moving moments.

In choir tonight we learned the Nigerian song Ise Oluwa -sing for water

And after a bit of a struggle we nailed it!!!!

Before we finished practice Jamie our eleven year old choir master asked us to sing it again, but this time very Gently and as we did he disappeared and turned off the lights of the little Welsh village hall.

In almost absolute darkness over fifty people sang without the chains of sight and competition and self consciousness and the noise we produced was simply magical.

And the silence after we had finished proved that we all had been moved in the same lovely way

This choir has nourished me 

Culture

The atrium at the Storyhouse with a stuffed peacock sitting on the Art Deco features

I'm sat in the Storyhouse in Chester with my laptop and flat white. On my fashionably raised metal table are a collection of bright young things all tapping away on their computers . An old man with a Corfu hat is reading the papers opposite to me . He has already complained that the scrabble players in the corner are too loud. I shut him up by offering him my complementary shortbread biscuits .

I'm in Chester because I've just enrolled in a nursing agency. I'm not sure how useful it will be as the agency is rather pushy, and I am not a lady to be pushed into work I don't want, but we will see.....I left the clerk somewhat exasperated by my lack of commitment and in my best Walking Dead T shirt I've come to the Storyhouse to see what's going on. In half an hour I've booked myself into a talk with the tv presenter, historian and writer Dan Snow. Haven't a clue what he's on about but what the hell.
I may learn something

The talk is only an hour, and I've got my choir CD to practice to on the way home. I have to nail the bass bit of old Lang Syne without crying. The choir sings it so beautifully.