Once you are on a roll, things have a tendency of moving on at their own pace.
I’m thinking of the Queen Mary’s stopping length, here but the same can be thought of holes in underpants.
Last night I found a hole in my underpants .
I was in the bathroom and this sort of thing happens , so irritated I threw the underpants out of the window onto the patio, to be retrieved later to put in the bin by the back door.
Now galvanised , as I warmed to my task, I had a quick check of my undercrackers drawer and found four more gusset challenged sets all with holes in and threw them on the patio too.
This seemed sensible to me as I often throw used bleach bottles, empty shampoo bottles etc out on the patio to be retrieved later for recycling.
At 9 am there was a knock at the back door and Trevor’s gardener stood there wanting to know how he was.
Nothing was mentioned about the five pairs of underpants lying on the patio
I’m making a huge chilli for the above night do. It’s our chance to publish the TCA’s work to the villagers that don’t know what’s happening.
It’s Auntie Glad’s funeral on Tuesday . I heard the male voice choir will be singing at the Church which will be an emotional moment for all , I’m sure. It’s sad that her own Church is closed but fitting the service will take place in the bigger Church of Llanasa, the village she lived in before she was married
Bucket of coffee time is curtailed today , I’m doing overtime at work later
Last night the tutor of the level 4 Counselling course FaceTimed our group to discuss if we wanted to move forward in our training come September.
She was pragmatic, cheerful and helpful
And She has given me quite a lot to think about today.
A day that I’m feeling rough after my fourth covid jab.
I’m 61 this year.
And I’m finding the rigours of nursing just a bit too much after forty years in the role.
I have a mortgage to pay for until I am 70 and bills and expenditure is on the rise.
And so I needed a plan.
And that plan, originally, was to retrain to be a qualified counsellor.
There is an outlay for this endeavour, which I may or not get help with,
There is the academic challenge too , as well, as I know I have to work hard to get on top of all things Uni.
But then you add to this all of the doubts of self belief
Can I cut the mustard as a counsellor?
Can I do it?
The “ new” tutor clearly outlined the “ checks” in the course that ensure you are fit for the role.
In all of the 100 hours skills practice I have to do with real clients I have to pay for intensive clinical supervision every month. More if I require it.
This supervision is not cheap and is an incredibly stringent safety check of my potential competence
Added to this in year one and two I will have to pay for my own counselling experience.
A journey which is necessary if you are to practice
But a journey which has its own worries and it’s own challenges.
There are two of us, in my present group that are older students.
Both of us on journeys we didn’t expect in our sixties.
We looked at each other at the end of last night’s tutorial and smiled gently together
Oh I did enjoy my night out with Georgous Dave last night.
We went to see Owen O Neil and Dave John’s adaptation of the film The Shawshank Redemption at Theatre Clwyd and from the get-go it was clear we were watching a quality piece of theatre.
I think most people know the film, so I won’t worry too much about spoilers , suffice to say we follow the prison life of Andy Dufresne (Jo Absolom) who is incarcerated in the notorious Shawshank Prison during the 1940s. Bright and optimistic and shouting his innocence in the double murder of his wife and her lover , Dufresne strives to change his lot and the lot of his fellow prisoners by making their existence a little more humane even though the Governor, officers and two predatory prisoners all connive to destroy him and his innate goodness.
Dufresne makes a lifetime friendship with Red Redding ( Ben Onwukwe) who like Morgan Freeman did in the film, narrates the piece with similar chocolate tones but with more of an impish take on the much loved character.
From the get go the play is brutal and compelling to watch. The sets full-fill the brief wonderfully as do the small but very able cast and I loved the ending where the two friends finally meet again against a stunning and unexpected tropical sky, an ending much better than the more talky film ending
Not a dry eye in the house.
So it’s Tuesday,
College day,
Covid jab no 4
I’m cleaning Bluebell later and am making spiced sweet potato soup
I’ve just got home and heard the sadness of the death of Betty Boothroyd
She was a bloody one off
For those that don’t know she was the speaker of the House of Commons, MP , a Yorkshire woman and former tiller girl. That one sentence sums her up nicely .
Kindness has a power all of its own when it is witnessed In an Istanbul football match yesterday the crowds donated thousands of teddy bears to lift the spirits of the babies and young children caught up in the recent earthquake .
