The final series

 

Apart from theatre tickets, oh and a new carpet washer, my only real indulgence  is my subscription to Disney +.

This will come to an end in eight weeks or so with the final airing of the last season of The Walking Dead.

I will be sad to see it go, but it’s time it did.

The last season has now morphed into a war film, with our multicultural and predominantly female “ family” set up as the French Resistance in WW2 

The zombies are only a side threat. Revolting set decorations. 

Halloween miss en scene 

I’ve followed the series from Frank Darabont’s seminal first episodes and carried on watching this morning with my bucket of coffee and Roger cocking his head at all of the zombie grunting

Like all good friends, I will stay to the end

A Face Only A Mother Could Love

 I didn’t have time to reply to yesterday’s post comments . 

It was past ten when I finally sat down after working all day.

I’d been on my feet most of that time and before bed, Dorothy gleefully licked my rancid feet until they shone like my chilblains used to when I was eleven and walking home in the snow.

Does anyone suffer from chilblains any more? 

With global warming I doubt it.

I was never cut out to be a buff hero

As a child I had chilblains, a mild stutter and warts on my left hand 

Later on I suffered from prickly heat , late diagnosed dyspraxia and vikings finger

Now I have the bladder of woman that might of borne a dozen children and the kidneys of  an old cat who has licked antifreeze

Oh….And stress psoriasis worthy of an exploded cereal packet in a confined space 

I’m not a catch for sure, but I’m writing this with a bucket of coffee 

At 5.45 am 

Before work on a Sunday morning

Ps I’m colourblind too

The Heat Is On

 I’ve just sent in my electricity reading on line. Trelawnyd has no piped gas, so heating is generally oil fired or from gas cylinders. As you all know my central heating and thermal store is fuelled by kiln dried logs and prices for these haven’t risen drastically as yet. 

The Community Association has a fuel expert on its committee in the shape of Gwawr . I have a feeling her ear is going to be bent double in the months to come.

When did central heating become standard ? I suspect it was the early 1970s after the fuel strikes and power cuts ? Am I right? 

Only last week I had a conversation with a young nurse about the downsides of no central heating. She couldn’t quite get her head around how freezing it was behind the couch once the front had been heated by the coal fire 

Hot water bottles and eiderdowns so heavy you almost struggled to breathe underneath them were the norm, and thickly cut white bread with strawberry jam was a treat after it was toasted in the fire with a long fork. 

I wore a vest then 

With baggy bottoms 

And bathrooms were small then too, and filled with great clouds of immersion heated water and steam , overseen with a cosmic zeal by a father who paid the bills. 

Bwthyn y llan has 18 inch walls of limestone which finally keep the heat in once the place is eventually heated up ( which takes an age) and the new windows I had put in  are double glazed and draught proof . My only extravagance being my new electric shower…blissful and glorious on a cold winters morning

I’m ready for winter

Ps….last night just before bed the “unthinkable “ happened

Dorothy cuddled up to Roger in front of the fire

Thank fuck for that

The silent war is over

idiopathic vestibular disease

 

Albert looked drunk last night. He staggered and slipped on the back of the trendy blue sofa, so much so that the dogs jumped up in panicked attack mode. 

It’s a hard fact of life that when an animal acts outside it’s normal behaviour it is ganged up upon and often attacked by its peers. 

I have seen such behaviour in hens and ducks and turkeys and dogs .

I scooped Albert up and he sat quietly on my knee for a while, before I placed him in a dark corner of the living room where he settled and slept

Today he looks his normal self 

I cleaned the carpet in the living room this morning too

And before I could put away the cleaner Roger had chewed the plug off it. 

The weather is atrocious today

Wild 

Soup and Rom Coms

 

I didn’t need to be in work today

I didn’t want to be there. 

My manager is a good one and I took time owing and left early.

I was sat in the cinema in llandudno minutes later watching the mindless Ticket To Paradise which is a rom com of sorts. 

Cinema has always provided me with a safe place to go through my childhood and adult life. 

It’s a place to get lost in 

And it’s a place to mislay your feelings

I came home and made Italian bean and Ham soup thickened with gnocchi instead of potato 

And ate a hearty bowl of it whilst listening to The Archers

Am I shallow? 

GEORGE CLOONEY’s big OLD MAN EARLOBES HAVE REALLY PUT ME OFF HIM ? 

Discuss……

This Too Shall Pass

I slept until 6 pm  

I slept heavily still with my crocs and hoodie on.

I slept with Dorothy watching me carefully as she does before I eventually opened my eyes at dusk 

It’s a habit she got into not long after she arrived

It’s not been a particularly nice day, so I made it a bit better by having a shower, walking the dogs in twilight and by eating  a nostalgic supper of chicken and mushroom pot noodle straight from the pot

Comfort food from the Spar in Dyserth. 

As I walked to the till with my pot noodle and tin of whiskers a boy of around seven asked me if I knew where the cheese was. I showed him and there followed  a rather sweet conversation between us of where the mild cheddar was. He had obviously been sent out by his mother to get something for tea . 

I pointed out a large block which cost over three pounds and the boy told me he hadn’t got enough money 

We searched the shelves together until  I found a smaller non branded block which still he couldn’t afford so I gave him a pound which gave him the extra and smiled to myself when he told the cashier to keep the change when he was 9 pence in credit.

I watched The Repair Shop and had a good cry at the table renovation.

And we are all going to bed feeling just a little bit better.

I’m not going to bang on about the lows of being single.

We all know what they are, and we singletons live with the negatives by generally celebrating the positives when we can . 

The negatives can just creep up behind you when you are unawares , like rainy clouds do in Autumn.

And I hate it when those negatives slap your face hard when you really don’t want them to.

At least I have a nervous bulldog who watches over me carefully when I sleep

Who can ever say that ……? Eh ?

Getting Going

Some days I feel brave and positive and full of bounce.

Like one of those girls of roller skates you see on transatlantic tampon adverts

I can do this life thing and grab it by the balls.

I am that assertive twat that asked the neighbours to keep their yappy dogs quiet

And I almost brought in the cheap shoe gag when coping with a strangely irate woman in Jackson’s Nurseries who belittled the cashier over the price of cushion. 

Today I don’t really feel brave and positive and bouncy.

I feel lumpy and old and I can’t get my head around Google classroom as quick as I’d like.

I want someone to make me soup and rub my hair with cold fingers

And I want to be told it will be alright

Which of course , it will be.

I’m a bit tired, me thinks …and my bladder is playing up today

Dorothy and I are going to sneak under the eiderdown shortly and have 40 winks 

Hey ho

The Five Of Us

Tonight it is cool, almost cold with a brisk wind

The five of us settled in the living room together.

The fire is lit, and I have a blanket come homemade pashmina on

Chic Eleanor would be proud.

Mary is on the little grey arm chair in the corner

Roger is in front of the fire 

Dorothy is in her usual position next to me 

And Albert is perched on the back of the trendy blue Sofa next to my shoulder.

We sit in the dark , with only me watching Bake off.

The chubby Polish guy is sweet

Roger took himself to bed in his crate in the kitchen a few minutes ago 

Finally, he’s comfortable enough to make his own decisions 

 and he is truly home