Connery

 

Today’s film treat was a largely unknown but rather entertaining Space Western called OUTLAND.

Made in 1980 it was a kind of remake of the classic High Noon with a mining space station on  Jupiter a Moon standing in for the town of Hadleyville.

The film has Sean Connery in the famous Gary Cooper role with Frances Sternhagen playing his surprising ally in the altered Katy Jurado role, and the whole film is a refreshing twist on the “ sheriff with no friends storyline.  

I liked the late Connery in this homage. He underplayed the quiet hero type very well and his scenes with Sternhagen as the foul mouthed over-the-hill station doctor in need of redemption have a rather moving power about them 

Skid Marks on The Duvet

 

Five days to go

And I’ve morphed into a cross between Bridget Jones and a sweaty wombat 

A wombat with a five day old T shirt on.

It’s not a pretty sight.

I FaceTimed a friend yesterday who asked me when I had eaten avocados

That was 2 days previously.

If I put the t shirt in hot water, I’d make soup! 

It’s time to get a grip

I need a bath, a shave and a change of clothes 

I did wash the pots this morning, only because I had run out of spoons

But the only person I’ve seen today is the postman 

He’s the cheerful one that either calls  me “ Bud “ or “ John” depending on his mood

Today he asked me if I was ill

“Track and Trace “ I told him in way of explanation

He looked at my odd socks, grey tracksuit bottoms ( the ones with the paint stains) and nodded Sympathetically 

“I ve seen a few of you the last few weeks” he said

“ Some people never get out of their pyjamas “

I’m didn’t tell him I don’t own pyjamas

I had a pot noodle for breakfast, I found it at the back of the cupboard next to my emergency flour reserves.

The jigsaw still lies half finished on the kitchen table and I’ve only just finished the Julie Walters autobiography 

My friend David told me that I had let myself go yesterday when we talked on zoom.

You look like Joan Crawford in Baby Jane” he confided and when I admitted at not brushing my teeth for two days concluded that I was a very poor example of a homosexual male and that I should be ashamed of myself 

I flipped him the finger and had another coconut macaroon, the last of the ones Hattie Delivered the other day...

I decided to get a “ruddy grip Ruby” and thought to myself what Thora Hird would have done at this moment of personal crisis 

Yes, she would have had a strip wash at the sink, spat and cleaned her glasses and put on a fresh pair of pants, there was no space for slatterns in Thora’s world.

So....I ve ran a bath and filled it with some Imperial leather Polynesian Moonlight bubble bath 

The T shirt has been discarded into a very large pile of To do washing 

And Dorothy’s skid mark has been buffed from the corner of the duvet

Well I hope it was Dorothy’s 

Poo

 

Lockdown has brought the worst out of the anxiety ridden Dorothy 

as the neurotic bulldog hates change and now follows me everywhere I go 

This is her when I went to the loo

At least she Is looking in the opposite direction. 

She’s a brittle girl

Candle Overload

Last night I put a request on the village what’s app group

I didn’t  need food or pet stuff or logs

No

I needed what all good homosexual middle aged men need when they are isolating with flatulent bulldogs

in a very small cottage

Yes,I put a request out for.......

Scented candles!!!!!

The great and the good of Trelawnyd (Nick&Linda, Bunty,Tracey Manchester, Heulwen,Mrs Trellis etc) jumped to the challenge and now I have a whole shopsworth of candles to play with over the next few days

“ The place will look like a friggin Church,” one wag told me when I showed him the collection and was suitable moved when I showed him the other kind donations ...namely homemade soup, sweets, biscuits, a jigsaw, baguettes and butter, flowers all left on the kitchen wall

I will leave you with wonderfully light video....it will bring a smile to any face

She’s having a blast!

 

Anger....let’s explore it

 Anonymous5:03 pm

“Asyou've said yourself in the comments NO you aren't allowed to walk the dogs you are ISOLATING

I had thought better of you but it seems like you're just like all the other rule breaking Covid idiots who think the rules don't apply to them.

Obviously the community knows you're isolating as they're bringing you stuff but I wonder what they think of you acting like an arsehole and disregarding the rules.  

You deserve to be reported and fined.”

So said one of my commentators a little earlier today....you can feel the bile and vitriol from ten yards can you not? and that bile is ugly and without much real thought or insight.

It does, however. smack of fear

So let me explain, without going down the jogger’s incident route

I am isolating at home yes, and have I put another human being at risk of catching Covid ? 

No I haven’t. 

Once a day, first thing in the morning , I take one sleepy Welsh terrier and one overactive almost hysterical bulldog for a walk. We walk down a lane away from any houses and across Graham the Shepherd’s fields. 

We see no one 

My sexy bearded dog walker and kind souls like Hattie and Trendy Carol pick up the slack during the afternoons 

Dorothy will not pee without Mary by her side so to pander to her psychological needs the pair are taken out last thing together....again no one sees us...the lane is empty....hopefully as empty as Dorothy’s capacious bladder.

So please dear reader, report me ....report me for daring to risk assess my home and life with a modicum of common sense and intelligence, but rest assured I would never put another person at risk of this dreadful disease

The anger in the above comment saddened me. It reminded me of the anger in my father’s face when he lost his temper when I was a child ..or the look my husband gave to me just before he left when I always cut the corner turning into Cwm Road

Anger like this always has another source 

A long time ago and far far away

 

Madge and Biskit lift the mood

•  Good news of the day - The Crown ( our village pub) will be reopening under new management  soon.....well as soon as things become more normal around here!  Hurrah
• Soup of the day- Sweet potato and chilli
• Film of the day-Woody Allen’s latest A Rainy Day in New York
• Jigsaw of the Day- A Christmas Coffee Shop continues
• Book of the day- I think I’ll start Julie Walters autobiography That’s Another Story
• Tiktok video of the day Madge and Biskit
• Job of the day- cleaning patio 
• Upset of the day- Mark L left Bake Off he was a real sweetie
• Treat of the day- I’m still in bed and Flowers from Claire

Thank you claire x

You Raise Me Up

 I didn’t turn up for choir yesterday

It was a conscious decision !

I felt a little too brittle 

We meet weekly on zoom ( and have done for months)and sing in the confines of our own houses unheard by our fellow choristers but We are always buoyed up by lots of boxed smiles, Jamie ( our RAF faced choirmaster’s bouncy nature) and visits of Lyndi’s dog Charlie 

“ We can see your Charlie Lyndi!” 

Is often the joint call as her hairy mutt comes into view

And the whole rather artificial ( but supportive) meet is dovetailed by a robust and always emotional joint rendition of You Raise Me Up 

You Raise me up 

Is a true emotional romp 

It is a song that can make you cry when things are mundane 

When things are sticky, the whole piece can reduce you to mush...mush more mushy than wallpaper paste

And on many Tuesdays several of the on line choir can be seen getting rather emotional at the lyrics 

Yesterday

I would have been rather glum

So I stayed away....

Hey ho 

Lockdown upon Lockdown

The supermarkets here in Wales are only selling “essential“ items at the moment.

Essential goods are not flowers and so Ive had to raid the last of the garden flowers in order to satisfy my need. 

I know its not a big gripe but I will find it hard without flowers

I had a phone call yesterday from TRACK & TRACE . 

A very nice and efficient lady informed me I had been tracked as a possible Covid at risk person and needed to isolate for the next ten days

I informed work immediately 

luckily I have no symptoms, and to be honest I feel that I have already had the virus but the rules are rules and I am locked down at home until the 6th of November.

An hour after I informed the village whats app group that I was isolating 

a bag of crisps, two scotch eggs, a packet of coconut macaroons and a large bunch of grapes had been left at the kitchen wall drop off point.

This morning another villager  left some dog food for me with no mention of being paid

But ten days locked down at home!

Lord!

I’ve dug out one of the jigsaws my sister gave me, and will start that today.

The pile of paperbacks at the foot of the new trendy couch await my reading too.

so what HAVE I done ?

cooked myself eggs on avocado on toast,

read the news-online,

gave Mary her anti fungal bath and cream,

cleaned dog splattered bathroom,

started my jigsaw ( titled quite tweely as The Christmas tea rooms)  

cleaned kitchen, bedroom and made a fire

fed dogs

walked Mary and Dorothy across fields away from the village population

made leak and potato soup.

wrote blog and a Haiku ( for a bet)

did two loads of washing

replied to 20 or so texts

looked at the clock

shit

its only 

12.55pm

*  *.  *.  *  *  *

At 5pm Monika from London Road brought me some homemade rogaliki 

beautifully delicate Polish pastries!