Village News

The day has gone.

And just like that ……

I went to bed for an hour not long after midday and woke at 5 pm.

Everything was dark save for my sister’s fairy lights above the patio which twinkle away quite merrily, the back of the cottage now feels warm and loved.

I’m on nights again 

Until Sunday 

The dogs and I have walked around the village and all is quiet.

The Community Association is organising a post lockdown meal at the Crown in March and I received the email today inviting me to go. 

Dorothy H ‘s old bungalow has sold on London Road.

The huge trees surrounding The Rectory have been pruned by a tree surgeon and their silhouettes are stumpy against the night sky.

Oh and someone out of Trelawnyd placed a rare set of plates with prints of the village houses on them on the village Facebook page for sale which I endeavoured to buy for the Hall to display but they had already sold which was a bummer.

I messaged Affable Despot Jason asking him if he wants to go to the comedy club night at Theatre Clwyd and have arranged to meet up with Chic Eleanor and friends for a dinner party in between shifts.

Albert has had his wormer and will be soon killing baby rabbits to eat from the Churchyard Warren and Dorothy fell asleep, sitting up by my side earlier, happy that her bottom was touching my thigh

The Ballad of Mulan

 

I went to see the one woman show The Ballad Of Mulan at the Storyhouse tonight which I really enjoyed even though there was only 4 other audience members .

The story of Mulan’s ten year service in the Chinese Army , proved to be more harrowing and tense than anything portrayed in the Disney musical and the performance by Michelle Yin was top notch .

With so few people in the audience she kept looking at me during her monologues and I felt the whole production was just for me.

How lovely was that ?

A Mixed Bag

I’ll start off with a video of the Llandudno goats, who, after the recent storms have popped back into town for shelter and a bit of change of scene 

I had a nice nice last night, three mini gins, a packet of hula hoops and the Korean disaster movie Exit 

Bliss

The Korean movie business is indeed BIG business in the Far East and their take on my beloved 1970 disaster movies is an interesting one.

They are big budget, big stars and big effects just like their predecessors were but they have definite cultural differences which, in my mind, make them so very interesting.

Exit is an odd ball

Set largely in a large Korean Hotel we meet a loud extended family celebrating the patriarchs 70 birthday.

Only son Yongnam ( Jo Jung Suk) is a bit of a loser , but just so happens to love mountain climbing . He meets up with his mountain climbing crush Eiu Ju ( I’m Yun Ah) who just so happens to be the deputy manager of the hotel just as a mad terrorist unleashes poison gas in the city .

With his family trapped in the hotel, unable to reach the roof, Yongnam uses his climbing skills to get himself , his family and his potential and resourceful beau to safety .

Think  of a Korean Die Hard, Cliffhanger mixed with Towering Inferno and you will get only a flavour of this sort of comedy drama. Korean movies always seem to have a traditional versus modern divide. They are not adverse to have the hero and heroine cry like babies when the chips are down and most of the characters scream incessantly when under stress.  

I loved it even though it was rubbish.

One thing I love about South Korea is the traditional Hanbok dresses that many of the female characters wear in the movie. The juxtaposition between old and new in the new shiny Korea is a common theme in Korean films 

Anyhow today the village is brighter and Lots of people are about. Groups of men with shotguns unlocked have met West of the village on the grass verges for a shoot. 

I’ve been putting together a plant shelf on the patio. 

I used to pride myself at being able to look after a ventilated patient with 6 infusions and 10 syringe pumps running together without batting an eyelid.

The plant shelf took me 2 hours to construct and I still have pieces left over

“ I am A Pig From Hell”

There is a famous scene in Steel Magnolias where Clariee (Olympia Dukakis) offers up Ouisa ( Shirley McClaine) to be slapped by a grieving M’lynn ( Sally Field). 

It’s an important scene as it not only lightens the mood of a very difficult time in the narrative but it also underlines the importance of humour, when used for good at otherwise dreadful times.

I met a friend for brunch today.

She is literally dizzy with grief, so over coffee and a cooked breakfast she sort of vomited out her thoughts and feelings until she had almost run out of steam , like a clock.

I then felt it time for a bit of frivolity, I’m pretty good at judging when frivolity is appropriate.

I had recently received a message from a mutual friend which mentioned the world CLUNGE I had never heard the word before , even though I could hesitate a guess at its meaning  

I asked my friend what she knew and without thinking and in her best and very loud Miss Jean Brodie voice she picked up her phone, logged into Google and enunciated very clearly 

“ CLUNGE…….C. L. U. N. G. E …….CLUNGE !” 

Now we were sitting in the very busy and very select cafe in Llandudno at the time and my friend’s voice was rather too loud and very quickly the place went almost silent

Apparently  CLUNGE is not a very nice word .

Our subsequent fists-in -mouth muted hysteria was the ideal release my friend needed 

We laughed until we almost cried 

Integrity

An  ex prime minister with integrity 

Gives it to Boris 

 

A Funny Thing Happened…….

 When I was a ward manager I used to keep a notebook in my office. 

In it I used to record stories gathered by staff and indeed patients about embarrassing things that ever happened to them.   

Nurses excel at telling such stories and I had some crackers written down in that book, a book that was lost after several house moves and changes in employment.

One of the best stories was shared by a friend called Ruth who moved from Spinal Injuries into Prison nursing in order to have a break from the stressors of working in the acute sector. This move always baffled me given the environment , so I wasn’t surprised when Ruth returned to nhs work a year or so after leaving. She told me this story of one of her last days at Doncaster Prison.

As a nurse, it was expected for her to be able to frisk a prisoner if she thought the need was there and it a fit of bravado one day, and in front of several prison officers she frisked a prisoner who was acting suspiciously in one of her clinics. 

She located something bulky in one of his trouser pockets and speaking like some sort of extra from Eastenders she demanded to know what the prisoner was secreting.

Finally, after a tense stand off, where she continued to grab at the obvious shank, he answered her demand of knowing what he was hiding and said quietly 

“ It’s my erection” 

I love that story. And subsequently trolled though my , oh-so-many-stories of embarrassing derring do. over  the past half hour 

I found this one from several years ago now from the blog archive

Enjoy

Gravitas

A rough looking type and his missus parked their car behind the cottage in order to check over the plot of land which is up for sale just up the lane
He half blocked old Trevor's driveway and returning home Trevor beeped his horn for the bloke to move.
" You can get a fucking bus through there!" the man snapped angrily and taking an instant dislike to him I stopped the dogs as I passed
" He's an old man and he needs you to move your car!" I said carefully giving the man a very direct look and irritably he did as he was instructed, scowling at me as he did so
Only when I returned home did I realise what I was wearing this my plucked chicken hat…..

“ Who Am I ? Meg Ryan?”

So shrieked Miranda to Che when she made a romantic gesture with a box of cookies in hand in the last episode of And Just Like That! 

She was trying to be something they were not.

If you understand my meaning.

I’m not Meg Ryan . 

And to be brutally honest I’m not Tom Hanks either.

And life isn’t a Rom Com with linear lines of sight towards the final reel.

Life is a bit messy and it shouldn’t be left to serendipity and the action of others.

I’ve booked a short Airbnb holiday, and another film course on zoom. I’ve arranged to join another choir ( the LGBTQ Proud Mary’s in Chester and my Filofax with the birds on it is full of tickets for plays and films and comedy club nights and gigs all planned to be seen between now and the summer. 

I’ve saved and sorted money for the new bathroom and cottage repairs and have let go of the field and I’ve made a score of new firm friends over the past year and even made earthward spoons which look like a caveman has designed them. 

And life is still not a rom com and that’s ok.

The night shift has been long tonight. 

Perhaps too long.

It goes like that sometimes when the patients are settled and medicated appropriately and symptoms of cancer and of illness are soothed and minimised .

Normal sleep is the desired and necessary outcome.

A colleague placed a gift in front of me earlier 

Two expensive scotch eggs, bought with thought and care

And I thought that those Scotch eggs are the real life most of us are lucky to have.

A snippet of affection from someone 

A laugh at a play

Or a gossip with a friend over lunch.

A good film,

So so tickets at the Royal Ballet,

Singing and on line learning and being friends

I’m not Meg Ryan,

but I can be a passable Rosie O’Donnell

This isn’t a moan or a plea for positive affirmations…so,don’t leave any please

It’s just a collection of thoughts and observations 

About stuff……….

'Think of Me'

Maya Angelou once said “ I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you Made them feel”

I like this quote…..and I was reminded of it this week after learning of the death of Barry Cryer.

For those that don’t know Barry Cryer was a comedian, writer, celebrity panelist and performer. 

His career spanned 70 years and almost universally his peers have eulogised the same things about him as a person.

He was warm, and generous and funny and he made them feel good.

I saw Cryer perform live twice . Both times in the famous Radio 4 I’m sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

The first time was in Sheffield in the early 1990s. The second in Llandudno a couple of years ago.

Both times I was struck with just how joyous and generous and warm he was. 

Warm people are so attractive, they suck you towards them like lights do to moths and they seem to warm the soul somehow

Cryer seemed such a man

It would be nice to be remembered like Cryer has been remembered , just over this short few days since his death 

……..fondly.