Going Gently

Treat

Lovely night

Big gay quiz tonight , which was a big laugh

We came 2nd

Bought Peony bouquet for kitchen window

Lovely

Whipping Boy

I never really got on with my father.

I’ve written about this fact before

He died in 1989

Before I was fully cooked, so,to speak

Just a few years ago I learned that my paternal grandfather was a bit of a bully.

He was a dour Scot and used the belt as corporal punishment.

He used it a lot.

Today his actions would be seen as bordering on child abuse.

My father was the eldest of three boys.

And he would always be the one who got a whipping

By stepping up, it would seem that he protected his two brothers, the youngest six years his junior

I never got on with my father,

But, now, I’m approaching my sixties

He’s a bit of a hero of mine.

Role Model

My commute to work varies from 30 to 40 minutes depending on traffic.

Usually I relax with the radio and last night I had the pleasure of listening to Radio4 ‘s Fromt Row interview with Ian Mckellen

A year or so ago, I saw McKellen in his one man show and the evening was pure magic as I remember with the old actor relaying old theatrical memories with warmth, humour and delight.

His radio interview was very much the same, with the actor showing his playful and naturally youthful side as he discussed playing Hamlet some 50 years after he first performed the role.

If I had a role model, it would be McKellen. I envy his playfulness and the way he engages people with effortless charm. He is an eternally optimistic and joyful man.

Who is your role model?

FUD

I’m not hungry

Overnight I’ve eaten a homemade chilli stir fry with chicken.

And that’s it

No snacks , no cake, no toast....no anything else except de caffeinated coffee and water.

It’s taken an age but I’m finally found my “ groove” so to speak with my diet .

I knew I would get there, but it has taken an absolute age

My relationship with food has, like it is with so many people , been rather complicated

I comfort eat, that much is a given, but I also really enjoy food, a passion transferred to me from my grandparents who had austere lives when it came to putting food on the table.

Food, to them , was basic , so anything out-of - the - norm was considered a luxury and something to be savoured and thankful for.

Eating with them was always a joy, as everything was finished , everything was enjoyed.

Today I will enjoy eggs on toast for breakfast , fruit at lunchtime ...if I wake up and another chicken stir fry for tea which I will half and finish sometime during the night.

I’m working alongside a woman who is dieting pre wedding, so we are fantasising about scotch eggs with some good humour.

I’ve always said that weight was my last hurdle to “normality” and peace of mind

And I guess ,it is

Sink Bath

Back on night shifts for three from tonight then almost three weeks holiday!

Just caught up with house jobs the best of which is bathing Mary in the sink

Blindness

Dave’s on the right

Gorgeous Dave and I went to the theatre tonight.

We went to see the “ immersive” piece straight from London’s Donmar Warehouse called Blindness.

Based on the novel by Josè Saramago, Simon Stephens has produced a truly unnerving and emotional piece of theatre, where the audience is sat in covid bubbles of two , scattered over the main Anthony Hopkins main stage in near darkness.

Each one of us were asked to wear headphones over which we heard Juliet Stevenson’s savage narration of a doctor’s wife experience of internment by the authorities after her husband and thousands of others are inexplicably turned blind by a mystery pandemic.

Stephens uses tricks of lighting , heavy darkness and the claustrophobia caused by wearing masks in the theatrical space to great advantage and at times when Juliet Stevenson is urgently whispering her fears and observations into your ear, it actually feels as though she is there!

Both David and I were quite unnerved by the whole experience, and rather moved by it.

The sign of a good theatre trip is how much the audience talks about the production afterwards.

And we talked about it all the way home .

Wisteria

My elder sister bought me a wisteria for my birthday with the strict instructions of keeping it well watered and fed with cold tea.

I planted it today and put in an arch over the front gate as Dorothy watched me carefully.

Mary lay on the lawn carefully watching her very own rubber chicken with an obsession previously attributed to Winnie

The arch needs securing to the wall but I rather like it’s height and position over the gate and while the wisteria grows, I added some sweet peas to its base which will fill in the gaps this summer.

Mary couldn’t sleep any closer to her rubber chicken

Middle Class & Homosexual

One of Wathen’s massive paintings

I treated myself to an art gallery day today.

Richard Wathen’s New Eyes Every Time at The Mostyn Gallery

Salad in the cafe, shopping in the atrium

I know the girl on the door and she asked me what I was doing today

“ I’m being all middle class and homosexual today!” I told her

“ Spend wisely “ she laughed

In the end I treated myself to two things . A driftwood bird with nail legs by Rachel Sumner and a fox platter by Jenny Murray. I have other bits by both artists.