Today’s post was a partially successful effort to lift my spirits
But when I’m like this, I know what I do need
And that’s Sheffield
So next week I’m back off ‘ome
A couple of pints with Mike, theatre ( the acclaimed and almost sold out Sheffield based musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge ) with Jane, breakfast arch, and camp with Jonney H and lunch with Kathryn and Vince
When we were out for our morning walk great, untidy Vs of Canada Geese honked their way across the skies to their morning feeding grounds. So noisy they were, even Roger stopped to watch them fly over, a puzzled look upon his face.
Canada Geese always remind me of the orphan “ duckling” I took off an academic from Bangor university for she turned out to be a magnificent , doe eyed specimen, with a haughty look and regal lines. No wonder the village child announced precociously that she should be named after the then Prince of Wales old beau when I asked her jokingly to name her.
Occasionally Camilla would take to the skies when the mood took her, but she proved to be a terrible flyer all told and the following is an excerpt from a blog from seven years ago when Camilla crash landed on the local binmen’s lorry
Enjoy
“After sorting out the valve system on the radiators I was just getting all testosterone and full of myself when the council bin men lorry pulled up outside the cottage and one of the hairy arsed bin men knocked loudly on the front door . I was half expecting them to be in a pissy mood after all I had left half a ton of plumber's packaging and bin bags out for collection but the binman wasn't bothered about the rubbish, he was more upset than anything " One of your birds has smashed into our van" he told me Apparently they had just turned the corner at the bottom of the lane when " a soddin massive black bird" had appeared from nowhere and had bounced on the roof of their refuse lorry, just above the windscreen. The bird then " shat" down the windscreen ( probably in shock) then bounced into the hedge. " It's still alive" the binman told me " it was hissing at us" " It's probably Camilla Parker Bowles "I told him " She's a crap flyer" The binman looked confused.
I could have done without another little drama. I was still getting used to the heating system more complicated than the average ITU ventilator and had already fixed a leaking radiator single handed a few minutes before, so with slightly heavy and irritated heart I followed the binman down the lane to where his three colleagues were peering into the hedge. " It's in there" one man chirped up pointing to a goose sized hole in the hedge I looked in and sure enough Camilla looked back at me with her big black solemn eyes. As I reached in and picked her up, the binman who had knocked on the door turned to his friends and said" her name is Camilla Parker Bowles !" They all nodded with interest in a chorus of " ooos and arrhhhs"
Apart from a massive crap stain on her back end , Camilla looked shocked but unhurt. So I thanked the binmen and apologied for any damage caused. " It will have to be logged " , the senior binman said " she's dented the roof" but they were soon on their way and Camilla was soon sat in a dark calm goose house under observation"
I wonder what the binmen would log in their incident file? "Camilla Parker Bowles crash landed on our bin lorry today and she shat all over the windscreen " Dirty girl.......”
No matter how old we are, we all are works in progress.
I’ve been changing the pages in my filofax and I’m very aware of how yin and yang this last year has been.
Covid restrictions being lifted should have meant everything in the garden was rosy but travel chaos, flight cancellations and rail bollocks has put paid to my trips to Rome and Barcelona and London whilst the recession, fuel crisis and financial crash has sobered us all up from our post-covid frivolities
And so, let me get 2022 into some perspective
Let’s look at the positives
I’m on the tentative journey towards a new career.
Not bad at 61 I think.
My family met up for a delightful and oh so necessary reunion in Sitges where we sat together into the small wee hours talking and talking and talking about family shit.
Sadly my nephew divorced but we bonded more over something sad in common.
My love affair with London and with theatre blossomed again, not only, with my touchstone meets with Nu continuing but with catch ups with friends Alex and Jon and Janet of course, and visits to my “ second “ home of the Z hotel, which is tucked carefully behind Covent Garden.
To Kill a Mocking Bird, Cabaret, The Corn Is Green, Six, The Royal Ballet and the dearest of them all Come From Away it’s been a fabulous year for theatre in London and at home.
London eventually meant meeting nephew Leo too whose absence has broken my heart a little more than I ever realised it would .
Zoom meets have dissolved into real meets , Jane in Manchester, Ruth in the wonderfully bizarre and welcoming Findhorn , The Northern Belle with Nu and in Sheffield with Mike and John and Katherine very soon
Dim witted but sweet Roger arrived chasing autumn leaves like a loon and with the thanks of a cheerful and tone deaf builder my new bathroom arrived with a wall mounted heated towel rail to go weak at the knees for . ( I had 232 comments on that blog when I finally unveiled the splendour)
Blogging has provided a mini life line as it has always done and in 2022 I’ve had over 2.5 million hits on Going Gently alone….go figure that one….contrary to some, I must be doing something right.
On a personal note , I will ask for an armistice on troll comments .seriously they do nothing but poison the air that we breathe and after all of the hard few years we’ve had I really don’t need the bother……
Helping with the TCA Trelawnyd Community Association has given me some more direction and purpose and sense of community again and my part time status at work has given me more space for college and home. Both have been incredibly welcome .
It’s all still a work in progress, especially with some health problems lurking in the shadows. Shadows that can’t always be shaken with positivism and humour and which are always sadly there when you live alone.
In the new fanatical crisis we have all found ourselves in, I , like everyone else need to reevaluate things but I’m lucky I have a family that loves me, friends that do the same and I live in a village that cares for me.
Thank you to them and to Trendy Carol and Ewan,…..without them I could never have kept my dogs.
Their support will never be forgotten.
The news that my ex husband is getting married again slapped me across the face much harder than I expected it too but bra straps have to be hoisted and I have to get on with things.
It was one of the last hurdles to face , come to think…
I find life lonely at times and I will not apologise for saying so.
“We feel what we feel “so says Carl Rogers
But like all of us it’s one foot in front of another and don’t beat ourselves up when we get things a little Wrong.
Thank you dear readers , readers who keep coming again for snippets of everyday life of a sentimental gay bloke living in a Welsh Village. Your kindness, occasional sycophancy , good humour , and friendship means a great deal, especially when the shadows gather in an often unkind world
I’m rushing now, I’m covering a late shift at work and it’s already 1 pm
I’m working tomorrow too but have just been invited to the luscious Velvent voiced Linda ( and Nick’s) for drinks later tonight, so that will be a first in decades
I opened it today and hung it under the honeysuckle by the front door this morning.
I feel a bit flat today and after walking the dogs at 8 am I went back to bed in the spare room with Dorothy who licked my feet more out of duty than of want.
Roger had opened his bowels during his mad half hour runaround last night on my double bed
And the duvet cover is now drying on the field gate.
It’s blustery today.
Coldish
I’ve been sat on the sofa for over an hour, trying to get myself going
I had no idea it’s Friday.
I listened to the sporadic chimes, ringing gently through the letterbox and finally collected in the Christmas cards standing on the window ledge
In my friend’s card he had written carefully “Hear the wind and think of me “
