Albert is back to normal
He’s joined us all on the couch with a headbutt as I’m watching the dated but highly emotional New Challenge Anneka
Which is based on the revamp of an animal rescue centre in Kent
Emotional , cheap tv
Sobfest
Memorial Windows
Saturday is always a slow blog day.
It when I have my lowest readership and seems to coincide with when I’m working .
I’ve finished night shift this morning.
It’s dull today with a fine grey Misty rain that soaks you to the skin.
I slept in and subsequently missed the TCA coffee morning.
Bridget texted me with two more orders for the Sponsored Window appeal
We now have just shy of 1000£ of orders!
Boffin Cameron has designed a lovely certificate of “sponsorship “ detailing which window has been chosen and in whose name.
I have already printed out the bumf for next Saturday ‘s open day .
My goal is to get firm orders for 50 windows in total next week thats £1500 on the launch .
Apart from that, it will be a slow day
I have copies of The Banshees of Inidherin and Wakanda Forever to watch later and tomorrow when I’ve got a clear hear I’m writing my assignment .
So I’ve found a clean Walking Dead t shirt , have washed my face and will go out to buy some sushi .
It’s funny that when I was just brushing my teeth I remembered the mirror that I was looking into.
It was my grandmother’s , an Art Deco heavy set mirror that always hung next to the bathroom door.
It’s the only item I have that used to belong to her
And it’s sacred to me.
My own memorial Window of sorts
Mary Helena Fry
1900- 1983
The Animal and The Snake
Winter 1983
It was cold in February.
I was allocated to a long stay psychiatric ward called Irby,
Irby was and is a fairly nondescript village on the Wirral.
The ward was a bland place too
The male patients had been in hospital most of their lives and most were institutionalised as well as mentally scarred and ill.
At dinner times they were segregated in order of table manners.
“The Animal”shared his table with no one for his table manners had to be seen to be believed.
His food would fly in all directions in a frenzy of eating no basic behavioural programmes could control, so he was left to his own devices without cutlery or crockery.
He was given his own plastic plate and a large red plastic mug.
Now, even as a man just out of his teens , I knew nicknames such as The Animal were unacceptable and I always referred to his as George and at first by Mr Urmston* , running the risk of alienating some of the more institutionalised staff.
But I played dumb and sweet and young and got away with it.
You can get away with a lot if you smile and look very young.
Now George wasn’t a hard patient to look after. He followed requests and slept for much of the day , so the dinner time eating frenzy and his penchant for eating flowers out of vases was his only vice as I remember.
The only patient I didn’t like was younger man called Henry. He retained a mean streak in his personality and liked to oil his hair like a spiv. He was a bully and loved frightening student nurses like myself by stalking us around the dayroom furniture. He only did this when the trained staff were busy.
But they knew what went on as his nickname they gave him was The Snake.
The Snake cornered me several times and slapped the back of my head just once before I stepped up to him, but one day he made the mistake of goosing a domestic member of staff as she brought in the dinner trolley.
Lunchtime was halted
Before anyone could react George had stood up inserted his hand into his red plastic mug and made a fist .
With his arm raised above his head he ran over to the snake and whipped his hand down, knocking the Snake hard on the head with a loud pop.
The snake collapsed onto the floor and George sat down at his table as though nothing had happened .
I don’t remember what happened to the snake. I think he just lay down in one of the two locked dormitories that were full of beds, neatly made up for the night, to recover.
But I do remember what happened to George as the charge nurse maintained order and
Pointing to George , he said to me
“ Give him Extra potatoes and gravy “
And with a tiny smile, I did just that.
* a pseudonym
Self Care
My sister and I at Bryn Williams for lunch last week
“Darling , you are very good at self care” so mused Chic Eleanor during the interval of Home I’m Darling. The invitation to the theatre had come out of the blue for her and I sensed had brightened her day considerably.
“ I’m getting better at it” I replied and I meant it.
I am better at being kind to myself .
It’s something my counselling course has helped me with I guess.
I’m a character who often wants to be saved.
I don’t want to use the word victim here, but playing the victim is a legitimate if generally unsuccessful mechanism in coping and learning to be kind and positive with yourself is another.
One works occasionally the other most of the time if you remain resolute.
It’s not rocket science I guess.
I put myself down for an extra shift at the weekend .
Another night to cover sickness.
Then I reviewed how I felt.
How I really felt….and realised that I could do without the extra stress of it all.
I have a large counselling essay of 2500 words to get in for the 29th, the launch of the TCA information night is next week and I have to cook a chilli for bugger knows how many on the day.
So I’m not doing the extra shift and I will get my essay plan in order and in between the works stuff I’m
Going to so see a couple of movies I have earmarked.
Is that’s self care? Or selfishness?
Answers on a postcard please.
Home I’m Darling
Jonny ( Neil McDermott) and Judy (Jessica Ransom) are 1950s enthusiasts. They love the style and the decor and thought of Judy being a 24/7 housewife and so when the chance arises , Judy gives up her job to look after the home full time in a sort of freewheeling social experiment.
When money becomes tight , and when questioned by Judy’s somewhat bemused commune living mother ( Diane Keen) cracks in this idealised lifestyle begin to show.
Home I’m Darling is an interesting , crackingly paced play which has a great deal to say about almost everything. Unfortunately , despite a great and rather moving performance by Ransom , we don’t quite understand Judy’s desperate need to live a life her mother finally describes as being “ A Cartoon!” as from the get go, once the housework is done , she sits down at the kitchen table in her Princess Grace pleated skirt and gets out her laptop.
Of course Home I’m Darling’s humour comes modern day gender politics. It looks at the fantasy lives my parents could of and turns that on it’s head when Judy’s mother finally looses her temper with her daughter and lists all that was wrong with the 1950s.
This is a clever, witty and at times rather sad play. Fantastically staged and boldly acted.
An enjoyable night out.
Ps
Photos taken 2 minutes ago (11am)
Albert scoffing his dinner
Dating @ 60
I’ve dated the same guy four times now since the beginning of February
I won’t tell you any more about him because he’s not worth the effort
Suffice to say he has just admitted he has a partner that he’s living with and not one that was estranged from him but still sharing the house.
He was good company and laughed at my jokes
Sheesh
why do gay men lie so much?
Carrie Bradshaw, answer me that one?
Mind you I’m not bereft or even upset
I feel more resigned than anything else
What a surprise ? Not!
I had planned to meet him tonight as college was off….and he still wanted to meet even though I saw them both in Sainsbury’s on Sunday afternoon, discussing the possible toppings of what looked like Sainsbury’s home made pizzas.
I’ve arranged to see the acclaimed Home I’m Darling at Theatre Clwyd with Chic Eleanor tonight and have decided to concentrate on my ability to be the best spinster in the parish.
If I had a pashmina I would fling it.
Tár
From the get go Tár wrong foots you by having the majority of the credits in a long opening reel. The rest of film follows suit , by setting the scene by having the leading “Maestro” conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Lydia Tár ( Cate Blanchett) in a verbose, over long winded and verbose tvtype interview about the ins and outs of being a conductor.
Tár is passionate, obsessive, compulsive and full of her own self belief. She is an autocrat and a smiling bully who lives her life between wife and daughter in a concrete minimalist house and her old less ordered apartment where it is hinted she shares a double life.
She is also an insomniac, neurotic pill taker and potential predator lesbian , with multiple skeletons in her closet where junior conductors and orchestra members are concerned.
This is where the film becomes suddenly interesting
For as her past comes in to haunt her, she is plagued by paranoia, creepy encounters and visits to her child home.
It’s all becomes rather surreal and cleverly Blanchett keeps you watching, even though her character is intense, fascinating and totally unlikable .
An interesting, rather bleak movie
Ps I will leave you with lovely reply by Jamie Lee Curtis to a well intentioned Oscar question
Pps.
I must say a big thank you for your comments about Albert.
I’ve been incredibly moved by so many comments about a bad tempered , old Tom , who won’t even sit on my knee for a cuddle.
He has moved so many by being himself for fifteen years here on Going Gently
But let’s not be under any illusions here…he’s an old boy
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