Have A Good One .... I'm Off To London

Through Others' Eyes We See Ourselves

The title of today's post is a bastardising of Lev Vygotsky's famous
Through others we become Ourselves quote.
I was thinking about him on Tuesday on the way home from Sheffield.
He was a hot looking Russian psychologist who was photographed with a wonky shirt collar
I like to think he was my kind of guy.

Last night I bathed Mary.
I didn't really have time to do it.
Night shifts mean that there is a quick turn around of eat, shit, sleep and brush teeth before you do the same again, but her skin has been playing up of late and she needed some pamper time without the more ebullient Dorothy bouncing around in the foreground like a loon.

Mary watched me with somber brown eyes as I washed her
Welsh terriers watch you.
They sit and watch everything and all of mine have loved a hot bath where all they have to do is to stand and be pampered.

They watch you slightly worried that the stroking and the warmth and suds and happiness is going to stop and their eyes never leave yours.

It's the nearest moment I will ever to have to having a baby of my own

I met my friend John on Tuesday morning. He has been ill and now really doesn't " do" the more old fashioned Wine glasses into the wee small hours thing that we used to do.
But he looks well, and fit and as always, was dressed to impress
We have evolved as friends and now often meet for a long breakfast , with sausages and eggs and toast and tea ( coffee in my case) 
He hasn't the look of a Welsh terrier but like Joan Crawford's wisecracking best friend Ida in Mildred Pierce,
he misses nothing

I saw myself through his eyes on Tuesday.
It wasn't a rebuke, it was a reminder.
I was reminded just how nice my life is now.
My friends and family, my "new " career and new friends and colleagues . My home, my village, my theatre going, my choir......my life.........and... my health

Vygotsky's main work was in child development but his Through others we become ourselves quote rings true on so many levels
When John and I got up to go from the wine bar which now does fancy breakfasts for business folk, and as the snow fell on a grey but welcoming Sheffield City centre,
John turned to me with some exasperated affection and said
" You have tomato sauce down your front!" 

Hallelujah

This is the first recording of our choir last week when we tried this version of the Leonard Cohen song and It's not a bad first stab at it despite a few wobbly key changes.
I missed choir last tonight as I was rostered to work night shift

Best Of Days

Monday night....sheffield...
Brilliant musical ( I cried buckets)
Drinks with a couple of old friends ( Mike and Jane)
Then.....a few more drinks and dancing in a salsa club until just after midnight
How good was that!!
I danced IN PUBLIC!!!!

Up at 9 am and just managed to fit in a two hour breakfast with the ever arch John H ( Eve Arden in nice shoes!!)

Then caught the 11.11 for home xx

Hey ho

I had sex the other day
No big deal, but I thought I'd share the fact with you.
It involved someone I have known a while and been friends with for a time now
We made each over laugh and although neither of us are looking for a relationship with the other
It was fun to giggle and laugh and feel nice that someone actually finds you attractive and likes you for who you are
( and visa versa of course)
We are friends so we will meet up again

I'm now on the train to Sheffield .
It s a quick night out in between shifts when I will meet up with an old friend, have supper , see a musical ( Theres something about Jamie) and relax.
And no it's not the same friend before you ask.

Hey ho xx

Separate Tables

Separate Tables is a 1950s movie version of two of Terrence Rattigan one act plays of the same title.
It is essentially a study of nine different types of loneliness and centres its story among the singletons that frequent a small genteel English hotel following the war.
It's a powerful film of a powerful play and the cast Rita Hayworth, Burt Lancaster, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Wendy Hiller all play at the very top of their game
The main storyline has a retired and lonely major ( Niven) outed as a fraud and a fairly unsuccessful dirty old man. The other guests are reluctantly organised into agreeing with a bitter old widow (an odious  Gladys Cooper) that the major should be asked to leave the hotel but before he is about to go, the Major has to run the gauntlet of the breakfast dining room where the residents are gathered at their own, particular isolated separate Tables.
After one of the party breaks ranks and greets the shamed Major, gradually the others , including Cooper's neurotic daughter Sybil ( Deborah Kerr) join in, and film is left with the gentle optimism  of the kindness of ordinary people.
It's a lovely ending to a rather sad film

A Scotch Egg .......lost

The expected storm has hit Trelawnyd hard in the night.
So hard that the graveyard cockerels haven't crowed this morning,
They are struggling to keep their feet in the Church yew
I have slept badly
It's 5.45 am and I'm going to work soon
I went to see my aunt Judy yesterday
She gets discharged next week
She remains slightly dysphasic after her stroke
But laughed a little in between the more serious conversations .
The lady in the next bed was from Trelawnyd
And Judy pointed the fact out before I sat down
I have a lot of time for this lady, my aunt's neighbour, as she once made one huge glorious scotch egg which she entered and won in the one and only scotch egg class in the cookery section.
It looked like a magnificent grenade of a scotch egg
It was so big that it had to be lifted with two hands!
The cookery judge said she had NEVER seen anything quite like it EVER
IT WAS HEAVEN IN BREADCRUMBS!!! It was a monster....it was fantastic!!!
And I never got over the fact that the lady involved took her scotch egg home with her!!!!
And I never got to taste it!!!!!

An Italian In His Undercrackers

Look closely at the diners 

I was worried about the food.
After all Chic Eleanor is a fine diner and sara and her Italian Professor have lived their former lives in France and Italy where good food is as normal as breathing
I kept things simple with homemade soup and sourdough bread I baked yesterday morning, I then chose an all in one chicken,chorizo and veg dish smothered in garlic and herbs which impressed everyone and things were going swimingly until Eleanor jumped at the touch of hot dish of buttered beans and unexpectedly  flung them into the Italian Professor's lap
Things then got all a bit blurry with guests leaping and swearing in foreign tongues and with much
 shouting and trousers being pulled off!
Chic Eleanor maintained her composure throughout and sipping her wine said quietly
" I have appeared to have caused a calamity" as my other guests ran up to the bathroom to tend to a groin of third degree butter burns.
But things soon calmed down as everyone returned to finish their main courses. The Italian Professor sitting quite unconcerned in his underpants for the rest of the night.
I laughed until I cried.
A lovely night