So Glad They Won

 I got up early to check the Oscar winners with a coffee. 

My predictions were correct in all the acting categories and even though I’ve not seen Everything Everywhere all at once and The Whale , it was fitting that the actors won their plaudits .

I was shedding a tear over Jamie Lee Curtis’ speech when Albert walked through the kitchen without a hint of a limp followed by Roger who was skipping.

Albert gave me a look then popped through the cat flap into the garden for a wee and a poo. He watched as I marshalled the dogs into the car and when we returned he had returned to the back bedroom before eating the chicken I had left for him.

Animals , they always prove you out to be liars. 

Cinema afternoon

22.07 Bedtime

 I’ve just checked on Albert and he’s hidden himself away under the spare bed again.

Roger crawled underneath the flotsam when I climbed the stairs and has decided to stay with him which is odd 

Or perhaps it’s not .

I’ve left them both there lying close to each other.

Funny animal humanity on show 

Mary and Dorothy just can’t be arsed .

Hey ho

Catch Up

 

As a student nurse , I knew this view very well. 

It’s the view of the west side of Sheffield from the multi story Royal Hallamshire Hospital and I love this photo in particular as in the recent snow storms a few schoolboys had written this greeting to all of the patients whose wards look out over the city.

How sweet is that?

Thank you for all your best wishes for Albert, who is brighter today , although certainly not out of the woods health wise .

In the middle of the night, tired of the cramped conditions , I retired to my own bed followed by Mary and Dorothy. Roger remained on guard and was fast asleep on the floor when I got up at 8 am for their walk. 

Albert stirred from under the bed when I moved it aside and looked at me angrily

He hissed when I tried to examine him 

He doesn’t look well and has lost weight but, still there he was, so I left him be and took the dogs out.

He was sat on my bed when I returned. 

I crushed some cat food in my fingers and put it in front of him.

And he ate it. 

But not all. 

I’ve left him with towels on the floorboards and the fan heater on.

I have a plan.

I will take him to the vets tomorrow if he gets worse or remains off his food. But I’m not wanting heroics. 

He’s a cat who hates being touched, abhors strangers and loathes vets and the thoughts of investigations and blood tests and let’s see what we can do ? is not kind for the type of cat he is. 

I’m in two minds  to take him up to the surgery but its 17 miles away and well out of the vets visiting district.

But we wait and see.

Albert

Thank you all for your comments and concern

It was Roger who found Albert under the bed, in the a spare room as soon as I brought him and the girls back from Trendy Carol’s.  Albert had curled himself  up inside a firm Sainsbury’s carrier bag and looked poorly. 

I can’t believe I missed him

Roger ran up and down the stairs five or six times before I realised he’d found him. 

By the look of him, I think Albert has had a cerebral event , probably a stroke.

But he looks comfortable and is not distressed 

I’ve given him some painkillers and water via a syringe and all of the dogs and I are lying on the bed with Albert quiet underneath us.

I’ll see what the night brings

Animals….they break your friggin heart don’t they?

Albert’s Gone

 He was it of sorts yesterday afternoon and took himself upstairs to lie on my bed with a swishing of his tail. He ate only one small meal first thing and his gait was hesitant when he went to sit in the window seat as I made the bed.

His head was hunched and his tail remained thrashing.

He then pawed the soft cushion underneath him like a kitten pawing for milk.

This was not like him.

When I came up to bed last night, he wasn’t there , nor was he in the spare room .

I searched the cottage and I couldn’t find him.

The churned up snow on the patio had already frozen so there were no paw prints to see and there is no sign of him this morning. 

He’s not at the neighbours, the garden or the sheds and I’m somewhat worried given his hatred of the cold and snow.

He’s an old boy with only a broken leg in his long life that ever needed treatment and he hates the vets so much.

I’m working the late shift today 

Snowed In

Snow bored already

It was supposed to have cleared overnight but this morning it was over a foot deep in places.

Roger and Dorothy played in the snow until Dorothy’s nipples went blue 

Mary like the sensible matriarch she has retired to bed for the duration .

Albert  just pissed on the bathroom floor. 

Just checked on provisions …fully stocked with dog and cat food, half a loaf of bread, three eggs, one haggis and two cans of gin 

I’m fine

Bloody Hell

I managed to get Bluebell up as far as the Church gates this morning , thanks to Peter Morgan who lives further down Cwm Road.

The snow is heavy and unexpected 
 

Joyland

 

I know nothing about the Pakistani film industry, absolutely nothing at all, so I was interested to see Siam Sadiq’s gentle and dignified exploration of a family whose lives don’t quite measure up to the ones they wanted for themselves

Wheelchair patriarch Abba ( Palman Peerzada) shares his ramshackle crowded Lahore flat with his two married sons. The elder son ( Sohail Someer) has four daughters and the household is run by his wife (Salwat Gilani) and the gentle younger unemployed brother Haider ( Ali Junejo) whose wife Mumtaz ( Rasti Farooq) has a successful job as a makeup artist. 

This complicated family dynamic is put under strain when Haider eventually finds an unlikely job as a backing dancer to a transgender singer Biba ( Alina Khan) and as the pair embark on an affair each member of Hadier’s family have to reevaluate their lot as life for each one changes from the path of their expectations .

This is a sad, gentle film where tradition and honour are awkward bedfellows with modernity, personal autonomy and fluid sexuality.

It’s beautiful film to look at too, with most of the filmed shot in rich , earthy colours within crowded tenements and theatres ,

But, it’s sadness makes you realise that overly rigid social constraints still feature in some societies much  more than they do in our own