Spring Time in Gayland

I've got a friend who tends to spring clean the house when he has a spat with his wife.
A duster in his hand is synonymous with matrimonial sulk.
It's probably a sign of his good nature that I only ever saw him in his domestic role just the once.

I've spring cleaned the upstairs of the cottage today. Under the spare bed I found a mummified mouse and what looked suspiciously looked like a baby rabbit's  tail.
I also found £ 3.59 in assorted loose change in nooks and crannies in the master bedroom, four un matching socks, 3 ballpoint pens and a small bottle of perfume (?)

I've scrubbed my bedroom from top to bottom. It was the first time I've deep cleaned it in ( dare I say this) TWELVE YEARS...oh the shame.
Like any self respecting homosexual in his middle years , I have also rearranged the furniture  and the position of the bed. The room is  feels more like mine and less like my old bedroom.
The significance of the bed move was not lost on me.

I'm having a night in tonight. It's my only one this week,
I've just taken the dogs out into the dark lane and it seems almost springlike warm.
The bats are out in fair numbers tonight and they filled the lane airspace with their crazy zigzags.
Only Winnie noticed them tonight and she stood for an age under the streetlight next to Trendy Carol's house with her head held very high.
She watched them for an age, her piggy eyes glinting with benign interest

Hummmm I'm now looking at the living room chairs empty of dogs......they may need a bit of a reposition me thinks
Hey ho

Wise Children

My sister, janet and I waiting for it to start

I think we have never quite seen anything like this dreamlike fantasy comedy drama about a dysfunctional theatrical family told over a 75 year period.
Think Soap , The Far Side , and Amelie, crossed the occasional showtune and 1980 pop favourite played for laughs ( and cries) by a gender fluid cast
It was fucking and totally bonkers and wonderfully innovative, bawdy and sooo in-your-face.
We loved it

Bits

There are a few outstanding addresses from the winners of the Postcard competition to come in. Each winner will be presented (how grand a term is that?) with a genuine Welsh love spoon key ring! now I know I'm a completely mad bitch giving away such a wonderful prize but I do hope they will be enjoyed in the spirit that they are given. outstanding winners please email me jgsheffield@hotmail.com

I'm running late this morning, as I am meeting a friend for lunch at Porth Eirias https://portheirias.com/ . The dogs can come with me and have a walk before I meet her. She is a friend I catch up with once every couple of months or so.

She's mad as a badger., but in a nice way.

Some of you would have read my review of Nation's sweetheart Ian McKellen last night and today I wanted to share one little, just remembered moment which illustrated his pure mastering of his art.

He recalled his very first visit to a theatre as a child and described how he gazed with wonder at a backdrop studded with night sky stars. With a flick of a wrist and a half whisper that was pure whimsy, Mc  Kellen seemed to live that moment from seven decades ago and even though I knew it was a pure example of an old queeny thespian flexing his acting muscles, my eyes teared up by the very power of it.

…...a lovely moment of indulgence.

Tonight my sister and I are of to see the musical Wise Children

Culture Bitches!!!!

A National Treasure

I loved Ian McKellen 's one man show within the first five minute of it opening
Reading Tolkien with a voice like chocolate he bellowed out his famous Lord Of  The Rings shout of
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS " before encouraging the only child in the audience to come on stage to have a Polaroid selfie with Gandalf in his floppy grey hat.
Thus he set the scene for a tribute to his love of theatre,
His love of people
And his love of humour and whimsy
It was a lovely performance by the 80 year old actor who held centre stage for well over two hours with stories ranging from his childhood days in Wigan, his early experiences on the stage, hilarious side swipes at the Queen's dress sense as well as asides into poetry, Northern panto, Shakespeare, gay rights and film.

The audience loves him and it's obvious that he loves the audience just as much and when he described falling in love with an empty theatre's star filled backdrop for the very first time , there wasn't a squeak from the auditorium nor a dry eye in the stalls. 

Cheap Shoes

A bad workman blames his tools!

and of course I've been losing at badminton because my trainers are now splitting down their sides and not because Gorgeous Dave has the 31 year old legs of a Greek God compared to my 56 year old pair of pigs trotters.

and so yesterday I trolled the shelves on TK Max for a new pair

I found these for 22£

I was just looking at them, trying to figure out if they could be comfy enough when a young lad lifted a pair off the shelves near me
He nodded in that all knowing way, I had not idea that he worked there
"Those are sic trainers" he said with a big smile
"Are they?" I replied and he pointed to their original price tag of £94
"Sure!"
I preened.
I've never bought a pair of "sic" trainers before

I may wear them later when I go and see Mr McKellen
he likes his trainers

hey ho

Judith

Casting the right actor in a drama is often the unsung skill of filming a drama
And the casting of Eleven year old Cailey Fleming in The Walking Dead has been a godsend to season 9.
The preteen has matched stalwarts Norman Reedus and Danai Gurira scene for scene in her role of Judith Grimes giving the whole reboot of the franchise a greater depth and heart and she kind of reminds me of Margaret O' Brian because of her ability to cry on cue

Kinda lingers

Shabby, chic and now sweeter smelling

The other week I gave a polite diminuative Indian woman a lift home from work.
With some shame I noted that immediately after she sat down in Bluebell she opened the passenger window several inches.
" I am sorry about the dog smell!" I told her, oblivious to the eggy hair smell myself
And she nodded with grace
" I didn't know what the smell was "  she countered then changed the subject.
As soon as I got home I shampooed the back seat within an inch of it's life.

As a ward manager it was once left to me to challenge a member of staff who had a marked problem with body odour . It was probably one of the hardest managerial problems I ever had to deal with and despite thinking I had been compassionate and incredibly diplomatic over the event, there were many tears before bedtime on that shift.

Smell has so much more an effect on what we think of a person than we ever would admit to.
It's subtle yet not so subtle.
The smell of cold cream hurtles me back to memories of my grandmother's kisses.
The smell of stale tobacco still reminds me of my mother.
The wardrobe in my bedroom still smells of my husband
I work in a place that smells of jasmine and orchids....no stale urine pong there!

This morning members of the community association are coming round for me to hand over the flower show reins so to speak, and so remembering the Bluebell Incident I've embarked on operation dog snot removal. Spring cleaning that was once only the prerogative of pre Mother in law visits.
I'm not going to suffer the shame of that opening of the window again.

ps/ the Association members didn't turn up! but at least I have a clean smelling cottage to enjoy
hey ho

Chatty Cathy

The stormy weather we have experienced over the past few days is gradually subsiding.
On the village website Mr Lancelot put on a post asking if anyone had seen his recycling bins. He lives on the side of the Gop and I suspect they have been blown clear across the fields.
You can tell it's been cold and rough as apart from a quick glimpse of Animal helper Pat crossing the road and the scene of Trendy Carol ( sporting a new Northside jacket) with her head down against the gales , the village has been deserted.
Oh I still see old Trevor every day and we have gotten the administration of his daily enoxoparin injections down to a fine art. My best time from ringing doorbell, walking into lounge checking syringe, giving subcutaneous drug, disposable of sharps in yellow hazard bin to walking out has been a magnificent fifteen seconds. Mind you Trevor was quick sticks on the opening of the old pyjama bottoms!

I cleaned the church the other day and I felt I was in the set of one of those dark Grand Guignol moves of the 1940s, with the wind howling around the gable ends as loud a pack of wolves.
I had to switch the lights on to calm myself down.
There was a folk concert in the Hall last night but I couldn't get myself into gear to go as I had promised myself.
Next time I will, but not a day after three night shifts.

This morning I feel much brighter and chatty ( hence this tit perky blog entry). The first job of the day is to plan the week as I have another cluster of night shifts over next weekend.
If I don't plan, I tend not to do......
And so I've booked badminton with GD, theatre in Chester with my sister ( only cheap seats ) two Sam shifts where I am mentoring new starters, lunch out with a friend, a cinema trip, some " business" meetings, a morning to act out an Obi Ben Kanobi moment with the new Flower Show Padawan AND I managed to snaffle the very last return ticket to see An Evening With Ian McKellen at Theatre Clwyd on Tuesday.....I will have to miss choir but I have already emailed my apologies to Jamie the 1940s moustached choir master Andy asked for some homework to do in the guise of the bass parts of Dorme Dorme via email....I can practice it in the car in Tesco's car park.
Jamie won't mind, Ian McKellen is a gay god of some stature!
Oh and the prizes for the winners of the postcard competition will be here next week. I ordered them an age ago but customer care is not what it used to be. The gifts will be posted on , but please winners can you remind me of your addresses....jgsheffield@hotmail.com

The dogs and I are now off to Colwyn Bay Promenade for a blow . Albert is sleeping off his home caught and decapitated meal of baby rabbit. The body had been thoughtfully left on the bathroom floor this morning.
I'll leave you with a look at a linocut I got recently...it's an early birthday gift to myself ...they are all the rage at the moment.
The simplicity of it pleases me.
It's titled Nature Table