May we Come In?…….Dune & Choir

 Dune was an unexpected gem yesterday.

Usually I’m not a syfy fan, but this incredibly authentic, almost medieval romp is a feast for the senses as everything about it impressive and incredibly entertaining.

Rebecca Ferguson

Jason Momoa

The lovely Oscar Isaac

The casting of sexy, hirsute  DILFs in the supporting roles was ( for me) a stroke of genius as I loved Oscar Isaac, jason Momoa, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem just to look at, but they and the likes of Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Rampling and Zendaya gave the whole film a gravitas already outlined by the quality cinematography and beautiful design.

Timothée Chalamet ( not an actor I’ve rated before ) has incredible presence and charisma in the lead

role and although, sometimes I didn’t quite know who was who, I loved this romp with its old fashioned adventure feel.

After the movie, I just had time to walk the dogs before I went out again 

This time to choir, which has returned to Tuesday nights in my world.

I last sang indoors just before the first lockdown and it was lovely to be back

We sang a new song called This Winter

I shed a small tear behind my mask as we “got” the harmonies

It was like coming home 

Juggling Act

 

“ You are always doing things” 

This is a common remark I have received on line and in person and it is a comment that is occasionally caveated with the borderline and vaguely unpleasant thought or question of…

“How can you afford it?”

I run a car and a home on a budget. 

True I have a pension , but I still have to work full time in a job which pays much less than rates in the NHS to keep my head above water.

Out of the blue, bills have to be carefully managed.

Nearly a year ago my affable chimney sweep declared my chimney unsafe. The liner had tarred up due to me burning dodgy wood which was originally advertised as being kiln dried and now needs replacing. 

The bill will be around a thousand pounds and it has taken me ten months of saving to get that amount put aside in readiness for winter. 

Today I booked the heating engineer to review it.

That was satisfying ! 

Thank goodness Bluebell passed her recent MOT without needing any expensive tinkering but I have put aside money for her service next month. Without her I am scuppered.

The dogs are insured and their healthcare is guaranteed, but I still have to pay a chunk of their treatment costs. It took me 9 months to pay off George’s vet bills that I incurred before his death. Sadly he was not insured as the others were.

But you are always going to the theatre and London ? 

I’ve been accused of being frivolous before. 

But I am careful. I book single named journeys by rail which are always off peak and always in advance which saves me money and generally I book the cheap seats at a theatre or a bargain room in a hotel, something covid has helped me with over the last year.

My two tickets to the Royal Ballet next year were 40 £…how good was that?

But I do put my hands up…guilty as charged, when it comes to nice things for home. I bought that bowl yesterday on a whim and the art wall in the kitchen wasn’t all cheap but I live with a grotty bathroom, watch a child sized television and only own one really nice pair of shoes and one natty jacket which is accessorised by one dark pair of pants and one light….covering me now for most occasions .

Weddings, Bar Mitzvah’s and funerals.

I still buy fresh flowers every week and I pay for my sister to do my garden and so I’m not pretending I’m Bob Cratchit just yet 

But I’ve very aware that when I’m let down by a broken cinema screen and have to pay petrol to drive all the way there and back, I get annoyed I have wasted money

it’s just like with everyone else in this expensive world …..paying to live, and not just to exist ,remains a bit of a juggling act.

Especially when you are single 

Pottery

 I had planned to go to the cinema today for a retry at watching The Last Duel 

I was pissed off because no where is now showing it.

I returned to the pottery studio instead.

It was my first time back and it will be nice to get to plan and construct my ceramic chess set again.

I bought this vase / bowl too.

I liked it’s robust proportions

Liverpool

I first met Nu way back in 1989 and for much of the early 1990s I socialised with her three physiotherapist friends in Sheffield and in Liverpool. 

Tonight I was reunited with all three, Dymphna, Gráinne and Hillary as well as Hillary’s husband Brian and Nu’s Hubby Jim. over in Liverpool and 27 years after we first met nothing very much had changed at all.

True , we all agreed , that most of us were now wearing non prescription reading glasses and all of us possessed more wrinkles  than we cared for having but the banter was as loud as it ever was.

And the laughter was as raucous as it was in the ledmill circa 1991 where the girls referred to me with the bizarre and unlikely  nickname of cheese n’ chives and I felt joyfully tearful when they yelled it at me again when I left them all, very squiffy in a lovely crowded Italian restaurant on Bold Street

Gráinne and Brian

Dymphna and The gloriously loud Hillary

I’m going to meet them all next year at Nuala and Jim’s cottage in Southern Ireland , I’ve decided to rent a small camper van and drive from Trelawnyd , over the ferry to Dún Laoghaire …it will be my second holiday in 2022….in September I will be going Seoul

Antigone

 The good thing about Gorgeous Dave is that he is up for most things socially and like me is keen to experience theatre which is out of his normal “ comfort box” .

Last night it was his turn to choose a venue and so he bought tickets to the Greek tragedy Antigone followed by an eclectic performance by a mixed group of deaf stand up artists described as A Night Of Sign.

All this was based at Chester’s Storyhouse theatre.

Initially I thought it was all going to be a bit of a slog, as the ancient Greeks were all a bit serious what with Oedipus shagging his mother Jocaster and the like but director Natasha Rickman with the writer Hollie McNish have forged a new telling of a story with deaf actors as the two leads and with British sign language and written captions enhancing the script and plot.

I didn’t know the story of Antigone and essentially it is a simple one. Antigone ‘s brothers, both kings of Thebes died fighting over their title . Their corrupt uncle Kreon becomes ruler and vilifies one brother over the other, refusing to let his body be buried and the story takes an interesting turn when the young princess Antigone stands up to the misogynistic king and defies him

The profoundly deaf actress Fatima Neimogha is stunning as Antigone .She not only acts through what is essentially a tough part but lives it with sign language and words complementing her words wonderfully.

   Unfortunately some aspects of the play didn’t work as well. The young, presumably student amateur actors in the supporting roles were wooden and awkward compared to the leads and the occasional use of 1980s pop songs intended to support and lighten the piece was a mistake.

But overall I enjoyed it.

The play was followed by an in house stand up performance by a selection of deaf performers which took place in the foyer barb of the Storyhouse. Deaf,comics, poetry performers, dancers and a rap artist took to the stage with the rapper Chris Fonseca(pictured) being a stand out (and I never thought I’d ever say that )

The whole evening sparked ( as it was intended to do) much discussion and debate on the car journey back, and it was almost midnight when I got home! 

This morning I’ve got off. I had rostered myself for an overtime shift to cover sickness but another nurse who lives a stones throw from the hospice volunteered  to cover saving me the long commute.

It’s breezy and colder today and I’m donning my pretentiously expensive  North Face jacket and woolly hat to take the dogs out.

It’s Liverpool later…..

It’s all go 

For Big Gay Rob

Home

 I want to be at home today

I am going to clean , and sort and wash and dust and tidy and control

Tonight I’m going to the theatre with Gorgeous Dave, then on to a comedy gig

But today I will regroup behind the thick cottage walls.

But not until I have a long read of Empire magazine, drink freshly brewed almond coffee and eat avocados drizzled with lemon and pepper on sourbread toast  with dry fried eggs……

Overtime

 

Covid cases seem on the rise in North Wales despite the face coverings

I’ve spent the last couple of hours at work firefighting staff shortages, most of them due to the virus

After much cajoling and some begging I managed to cover most of the gaps but still came home with a headache and very sore feet , which now smell of pedigree chum after Dorothy got let loose with them seconds after eating her supper.

I’m doing a half day overtime on Sunday morning  to help but I’m meeting bestie  Nu and some friends for dinner in Liverpool on Sunday afternoon and won’t miss that for anything.

I need a gin

Nu and I a decade ago x