Tea

 It’s my last night shift tonight until next Thursday 

I’ve technically run out of food except a few tomatoes and apples

I woke at three thirty and couldn’t  be arsed going to the shops

So I dig out a small cake out of the freezer ( one that the velvet voiced Linda dropped off) and microwaved it until it was steaming

I ate it with leftovers of ice cream 

And watched Antique Roadtrip in my boxers

Madge and Bisket

My great niece Evie using the video technology

 It was my brother in law’s birthday yesterday

He is 73.

He and my sister organised a family meal in a rustic garden 1940’s tent strung with fairy lights and even though it was raining heavily a good time was had by all. 

All my immediate family was there my sisters and their husbands, my sister in law, my two nephews, niece in law and great niece. 

Being on night shift I turned up , briefly at 6pm and I was slightly jealous as since 4 pm a bit of wine had been quaffed and everyone was good natured and relaxed despite the weather.

The talk see sawed on to old memories and my nephews joked that when they were little , it was normal for them, as small kids, to be sat in the car at some pub car park with a bottle of coke and a bag of crisps while mum and dad were “ socialising “ inside. 

Of course their memories were exaggerated for comic effect and the conversations grew wilder with everyone outdoing each other with tales of “when I was a child!”

My totally sober memory out trumped the others when I remember that my sister Janet and I being “babysat” by a family friend Uncle Cliff, a man who had marked learning and physical difficulties after he was kicked on the head by a mule in Egypt when he was four! 

What were my parents thinking, even in those more relaxed days of 1970s parenting ? 

Gawd knows.

My sister Janet then reminded everyone that in the 1980s the same group, that was sat under the canvas yesterday used to meet up for boozy Sunday afternoon meets where, towards Christmas we would make home made videos with a huge, shoulder carried vhs video recorder, loaned from my father’s electrical shop.

The videos would be silly affairs.

My nephew dressed as superman hanging off the back of the sofa with various family members holding pot plants running behind giving the impression he was flying.

The family dressed up in dresses and tinsel miming to ABBA’s Supertrouper 

Silliness and nostalgic memories warmed by time.

I couldn’t stay long. so I left my brother in law’s gift under the table as the cake was being cut and managed  to get to work seconds before I was due to start shift.

I was glad I had picked the gift that I did, one that was sparked by those silly videos of Christmases past without really knowing what the conversation would lead to

I had bought my brother in law a kit for making his own on line tiktok video! 

Happy days

I shall leave you with these two maniacs

My fav tiktok video players

Madge and Bisket

Show Entry

 

Jisas Yu Holem Hand Blong Mi

This hymn, sung in Solomon Island Pijin, is hypnotic as it is strange. 

For some strange reason it’s been going around my head today.

Translated it’s title means Jesus hold my hand 

I can’t think of the last time I held someone’s hand….

Probably at work, but I can’t remember any specifics.

This scene has flashed through my mind too 

And this one too

This one too

It's Glasgow, March,
And we walk hand-in-hand
In the park

Now it's 3:13
And I'm late,
And it's time
I make a choice
We're both boys,
You see.

If you were to go
Back and look,
You'd see a hundred eyes
Hurry to objectify
This hand-in-hand stance
It's a flurried
Dance
Of reaction.
Some smile, they're proud
And they want me to know
But there's a darker
Shade of brow
That balances the books
The kind of look that challenges
Like this is some chess game
And I'm in check
And I'm second-guessing
What they might do next
Point me out to all the
Pawns in the crowd
Spawn
A following
Whose glowers linger on
So that our hands
Are no longer holding
But dragging
Glare after
Glare
Snowballin' stares
Stretching
Elastic social disgrace
Through this forbidden space
And the scales
Are well and truly tipped.


Time For Love
Sean Lionadh

I miss it, a little x

My Last Flower Show

 This stunning photo, is the best illustration of the presence of goats of Llandudno . Recently the council has rounded up some of the younger goats and the Billy’s of the splinter heard and have transported them to new sites in Bristol and Bournemouth, but the majority of the herd remains intact here with contraceptives administered to the females wild now on the Orme

This photo was sent to me by Facebook yesterday. It was dated 4 years ago “today” and was taken at the very last Flower Show  when I was Show Chair and general dogsbody 

The lady in the photo was a new exhibitor to the show. She was the mother of an ex colleague of mine who had suffered severe depression following an extensive stroke. It was her first trip out in public.

As part of some rehab, her daughter had suggested that she enter several of the art classes of the show and because of the fact she had indeed entered most she managed to nab the most points in the art section, which meant that she won the Rowenna Wrigley Cup.

When I called her name out, amid the crowded hall she promptly burst into surprised and happy tears and joyously skipped forward for me to present her with her trophy, The photo captured that moment when she hugged me her thanks.

There is something incredibly moving and infectious in someone else’s genuine happiness 

Of course the lady’s stroke had made her more emotionally labile than she was normally but that didn’t detract from the sweetness of the event.

The audience sensed the importance of the moment and clapped enthusiastically 

Loud and long

Vicars and Shows

“Dear Friends,

Thank you for your support and offers of assistance at the public meeting held in St Michael’s Churchyard re the future of the church. The overwhelming feeling of the meeting from the forms filled in was that the community would support St Michael’s becoming a pilgrim church and would actively support it in its new role. That support means a great deal to us, so thank you.

Just a note to update you. On Thursday 29th, The Bryn a Mor Mission Area Conference voted to allow St Michael’s Church to become a Pilgrim Church. This decision has been forwarded to the Bishop and Diocese for them to discuss and to come to a decision. August tends to be a holiday month, so we probably not hear any more until the Autumn. But I will update you of any news.

Thank you once again.

Regards
David
Vicar”

The vicar phoned me yesterday.

He sounded as avuncular as ever and he showed no upset of my referral to him and his sexy young curate of being like Batman & Robin in my last ecclesiastical blog entry.

He informed me of the first official meeting which may lead to the Church being saved from closure and followed the call up with an email ( see above) 

It looks like we are in the hands of the Bishop and so me thinks it’s time to make some community noise and start a publicity campaign. 

I shall have a word with Village Leaders Ian and Helen about our move.

The Village Community Association is holding an alternative show on Saturday and are calling for entries in their “ What did you do in Lockdown? Exhibition” 

I’m on nights , but I will make a few Gyoza Dumplings as my entry

It’s much more positive that a photo of myself , chugging McDonalds, and weeping in front of the tv.

  

A Date

 Dorothy was ok this morning. I took her back to the dyserth Walkway and she trotted to heel as always, bright and excited and as bouncy as usual 

I had a date today

A bona fide date! 

Now the last time I dated anyone,  way back before the start of the first lockdown,  “the date”  became a very good friend and nothing more.

Which is a sort of lose/win situation .

Today was a bust

Three hours I’m never going to get back again.

The date in question was a guy I met several months ago in the weekly Big Gay Quiz .

He was in my small group one Friday and in the weeks that followed, he messaged me privately during subsequent quiz nights to say hi , and to swap chit chat.

He is a little younger than me, broad and built like a lumberjack

I was intrigued 

Eventually I gave him my telephone number and we swapped friendly texts.

Since the constraints of lockdown had been lifted, he has texted me a few times asking for a date

So today I met him for lunch in Chester

Gawd help me, the man never stopped talking about himself .

The first hour, I let it go because I thought he could have been nervous, but as we entered the second hour and he still hadn’t asked me one question about myself, I thought it could be  time to call things a day.

As hour three came, and when I was sipping my second cold coffee elbows on the table , he stopped telling me a story about one of his luxury holidays and suddenly asked me if he could as me a personal question.

I told him that he could and he pointed to a tiny patch of skin on my right elbow.

“Is that psoriasis ?” he asked 

“ Yes I’m covered in it “ I replied 

( I’m not btw)

A few minutes later he reminded himself and me that he had to get home for a work’s phone call.

I walked down to the River Dee and bought myself an ice cream 

I sat and ate it on a bench in the sun 

And enjoyed the silence

A Bad Patient

 After three hours sleep , several dog painkillers and two bowls of hand fed roast chicken Dorothy came out from under my duvet with all of the drama of Scarlet O’Hara after she gave birth to daughter Bonnie.

I swear she was limping , even though her only injury was the bite on her neck.

I had covered the wound with antibiotic purple spray after it had been vet inspected, and lucky for Dorothy there were only two puncture wounds rather than a rip to deal with. 

Having said this after the vet had examined her, she insisted on showing her injury to both vet nurses and the woman on reception, all of whom ohhhhed and arhhhhed appropriately 

At home she only stopped shaking when safely under the duvet , her neck wrapped in a clean tea towel .

My poor little lost girl

She’s such a baby.

She didn’t need this drama today.

And to be honest , neither  did I 

In the meantime mary has been overly aggressive with her yellow bone all night