A Poo In Sainsburys

 I'm in Sainsburys 

Feeling a bit shell-shocked. 

I set the alarm for 8.15 and slept the deep jet lagged sleep of the night nurse until there was a merry bang on the door just before 8am. 

Cheerful Bathroom man (CBM) was ripping the bath out minutes later.

I gathered the girls up and took them to Trendy Carol's. Booked a skip then made CBM a coffee before I realised I needed to "go" 

My routine is often down to the minute! 

That's what I like

A nice long "sit" and a read of the news.

Bliss.

Anyhow the bathroom already looked like Coventry during the Blitz so

I came to sainsburys for an anonymous poo.

I've only just "come round" and that was after a rather robust cooked breakfast and two large Americanos.

My head is still on nights.

YooHoo

 

Mary was in-fact asleep sat up in the photo

There is something really satisfying when big jobs are completed at home.

After a sleep , I’ve  prepared the cottage for the workman tomorrow.jobs which included clearing the bathroom and filling the log store so that the workman can park his van in the cleared driveway. 

It’s overcast but warm so the lane has been busy which has been nice as it’s refreshing to see non hospice people .

Affable Despot Jason and his girls stopped to chat and Eve ( above) grabbed the opportunity to cuddle Mary.

And as I watered the flower beds I caught Pippa from the Rectory having a long conversation with Sailor John from next door. 

Mrs Trellis walked past too and waved calling “ You hooo” like old ladies often do

She was eating an ice cream bought from the ice cream van that still visits the village in an afternoon and which plays just one cornetto on its speakers 

Bluebells

 

I’ve always loved Bluebells.

This is the best time of year for them.

That and wild garlic which now fills the senses with smells of France and Italy as it carpets the woodlands around Trelawnyd in white

Those woodlands now fly the colours of Greece and Argentina or even Finland depending on the intensity of the bluebell’s blue.

My garden bluebells are robust and dark. I stole a few bulbs from Bodnant Gardens over a decade ago and the tiny plants have repaid me by filling the cottage borders in early May 

I have a day off before the bathroom man arrives. 

So after a sleep , I will clear the decks ready

But will also cut a few bluebells for the front room. 

In a tiny Art Deco vase and against the gentle yellow paintwork , the flowers seem, at their best

Spam

 Blogger has been playing up. 

Thanks to Rachel, who put out the word, it’s been diverting many of your comments into my spam folder without any justification. It seems to be a regular problem with many bloggs

So apologies for that . I will endeavour to check my folders more regularly in future 

Thank You Covid

 

We are almost out of it !

The pandemic I mean.

Ok I can’t book any Airbnb’s in Rome in the middle of the night because the owners have to physically assess you covid wise and The Archers still hasn’t returned to it’s Friday night spot, but things have almost gotten back to normal.

Almost

How quickly have we forgotten the lockdown eh ? Quite quickly is my response , but having said that I’ve noticed that many of us are now wanting happy endings in our films and tv and social media….just look at the burst of popularity of the sweet Heartstopper and the fact ( note spoiler) that Miss Baxter and Mr Mosley finally get it together in Downton.

They say air travel will be more difficult given the numbers flying versus the airport staff in place. For me this is yet to be seen. 

I’ve booked a ferry over to Ireland in Bluebell later in the year and will meet up for a family party at Nu’s cottage in the far west of Ireland . This seemed simple enough to book  and cheaper than I expected. 

I’ve got an apartment of my own in a farmhouse in Kenmare . 

Theresa, the farmer’s wife has already told me that she’ll have some homemade scones ready for me on my arrival.

There was no talk of swabs or covid passports .

Again, it will be seen if things are as straightforward as I hope.

I’ve bought a sat nav too…..one who copes with Irish roads.

Like I said, for some the pandemic will be forgotten quickly. 

For me…less so.

Now, I think,  I’m taking from it a more proactive stance on things because of covid

I am grateful for the lessons it’s taught me.

It was a lonely and sad time to have been living in a single person household and I don’t want to venture back there again. 

And so I’ve stopped saying no to things, when no was the easy go to.

I’m pushing myself  out of my comfort zone with travel and events and with people and new experiences.

It’s a work in progress…like we all are.

But thank you covid 

You’ve taught me a lesson 

Now BBC  Please bring back The Archers on a Friday.

Do I shit In The Woods?

I’m pricing up skips ( dumpsters to you Americans) 

The smallest is 75£ which I think is an Ok price.

I need to ask Trefor if I can park it in his drive for when the Bathroom guy comes on Tuesday but that may not be a wise move . Unattended skips tend to be filled by all and sundry especially when they are located somewhere you can’t keep an eye on them.

I do enough for charity me thinks.

The one question I’ve not asked Bathroom Man yet, is how long am I going to be without a toilet.

Now unlike most dwellings nowadays I have only one functioning toilet. Now if this was the 1970s this would be a perfectly reasonable state of affairs but in the glorious 2020s , there is an expectation on many levels which expects that one will have at least one en suite in your property.

I haven’t ……

So I threw the quandary  out to my fellow night workers

“Shit in a bucket” Steve suggested

“ And how does someone my size even sit on a bucket let alone shit in one ?” I said 

“You could hover ?” Diane offered

I looked sceptical 

“ With my hips?”

“True” she agreed without laughing.

“ Borrow a commode from work? “ she added

“ I couldn’t get the legs in the car” I told her ( I had already measured them)

We bandied around various ideas from knocking on neighbours’ doors to squatting in my old field.

Suffice to say, I am very much a product of my time and the thought of not having a good sit down poo fills me with dread. 

I’ve even priced up a “ robust” camping toilet on Amazon. Which is a doable 28£ ! ( with toilet paper hanger) or the cheaper kamper Khazi which surprisingly doesn’t seem to have a weight limit

And one of the things on my bucket list is to go camping 

I must be mad 

Blognaling

Some people don’t get that Going Gently is a journal as well as being a blog.  

A Jourog or Blognal 

Call it what you wish.

As a journal I often share personal feelings and thoughts predominantly ( but not always) about my own life. Something that often elicits comments of support and sympathy but also of advice and criticism. 

This, is perhaps to be expected I guess, even if questions are seldom put out for the audience to give their thruppenny bits at.

What most people don’t get is that Blognals are cathartic  pieces really. They are there purely to process feelings and thoughts and events and are not really there to illicit comments

This is certainly true when it comes to sympathy

As it may seem to some that blogging is really about.

Attention seeking.

Now I’m going to shoot myself in the foot here , as of course blognaling is all about attention seeking. But it really is about attention seeking in the right way. 

I don’t want to hear that I’m a lovely person, or a saint or fucking Mother Theresa without the tea towel but I do like to hear that I’ve written something interesting , or well , or which has moved someone or made them laugh. 

I want one without the other 

And that isn’t how the internet works.

I get that.

I know of bloggers who are more economical with self disclosure for the very reasons I’ve outlined above.

Others have always been careful with what they post.

I am not. If I feel it, or I need to process it, I write it and obviously do from one perspective

Who knows if there is a right or wrong way of doing things.

The internet allows for people to react to the written word in a way that they would never do to anyone’s spoken ones face to face.

It also allows people to withhold sympathy (when it is perhaps needed) in the perception that you’ve had too much on line…..this is intriguing, as it would never happen in real life 

…..but that, as they say, is another story

Froth On Your Hot Chocolate

Velvet voiced Linda had told me there was a woodpecker present in the trees around the village pond last week but I only got to hear him hammer today. 

I think my early morning dawn chorus sojourn has turned me into everything birds 

I’m on nights until Monday morning. 

And so we all went to bed for an hour at 1pm and wasted the afternoon by sleeping in until 5.30. 

I cooked a prawn stir fry and walked the girls 

And I’m writing this , in my uniform , coffee in hand.

The nice bit of the day has been a trio of communications .

A friend’s carefully written and honest email; a message from a faraway friend suggesting lunch and a kind mega early birthday card with a gift of a crisp ten pound note in it.

Contacts from friends are always nice but when you are single they can be the real froth on your hot chocolate so to speak.

Flintshire county council sent me a 150 £ rebate too, to help with my fuel bills 

That was a nice gesture too

I can hear the woodpecker again, as I get ready to leave.