Going Home

 

Sheffield will always be my second home.

It’s a flying visit this time, with only time to catch up with my friend Mike , watch Miss Saigon at the Crucible before driving back over the Pennines to Manchester airport and Barcelona 

I love that Snake Pass is open and this afternoon stopped to catch up with this view which means that I’m almost home.

The Boy On The Bike

 Best laid plans 

This story is worth sharing. 

I wasn’t expecting anything too

But It made me laugh 

So hopefully it will make a few of you readers titter.

I was packing my small suitcase during a real downpour when I heard a sort of bang and some distant shouting and crying. I waited for a while but the sounds continued so I pushed through the wet honeysuckle over the front door and looked into the lane. 

A sports bike was resting on its side by the field gate and a young man in Lycra and helmet stood in the street holding his side . 

He looked dreadfully upset and was bleeding from his fingers. His bike had lost it’s grip on the corner

“I’ve scraped my side !” he cried and he looked around 18 going on ten with all his face screwed up

I showed him into the cottage and he limped into the bathroom to check his wounds . 

I went through the first aid kit and dug out plasters for his hands

“I need a big dressing “ he wailed from the bathroom, all regressed and panicked 

I went upstairs with a bottle of TCP to see a large five inch square scrape on his thigh and fashioned a square of clean cotton from an old pillowcase. 

It looked like a scene from a cheap porno .

Him crying will it hurt? 

Before me saying “ Im a nurse” as I cleaned  the grit out of a nasty scrape with  my pillowcase dipped in antiseptic.

He was a brave little soldier and we dressed his cuts with plasters before he sat down on the couch and sipped some sweet orange juice before getting back on his bike 

“Me mum should be home when I get back” he said hopefully

Enough

My Chinese lanterns a gift from myself

A break from Going Gently

I’ll post when I’m home

Jacob and the Stone · Emile Mosseri

Jet lagged this morning

I only finished nights yesterday

Needed coffee and Mosseri at the kitchen table

Coffee

 Last week I took part in a zoom lecture/discussion on creative writing.

I remember the breakout group was lively and animated 

One chap, older than I lived up the coast and was nearer than most of the others who were dotted around the British Isles. 

He turned up at the hospice today and dropped an envelope off for me.

It was an invitation for coffee and his telephone number

Ive accepted

I remembered him from class

He was quiet though asked some interesting questions ,was very smiley,

And he was wearing an old arran jumper in blue 

A Flower Show Moment

 

My Last Official Flower Show ( as top bottle washer and dogsbody) was back in 2017.

I didnt realise then it was going to be my last show as organizer but it was the last one Auntie Gladys went to and indeed, some of you may recall that she opened the show with a speech worthy of anyone more used to public speaking.

Now if you look at the photo, you can see me hugging the winner of the cookery section.

I'm not usually that tactile with strangers but she was a special case that year.

The mum of a friend I used to work with on Intensive Care, she had suffered a devastating stroke that left her physically compromised, terribly fatigued and emotionally very low indeed and at a bit of a loss my friend had suggested she enter the show in several categories as way as some therapy.

what everyone didn't expect was that the lady in question worked so hard at her entries that she swept the board at judging time and it was amazing to see just how shocked and overjoyed she was at winning several classes outright.

There wasn't a dry eye in the house as the the word got around

and I think it was one of my favourite moments in running the show for a decade

The Ties That Bind

 

We all have our own trajectories in life.  

Some like the ones I have with my friends of long standing are running more or less parallel 

Others occasionally Veer away or in the case of one , Jane, intersect on a surreptitious  level.

Many many moons ago Jane and I were an item. She is a free spirit and has an empathic and generous soul 

And I came out shortly after we had split up. 

I hurt her badly and I regret that hurt to this day.

But she , forgave me ( after planting a fully iced birthday cake in the centre of my new lawn) and eventually we became good friends again. 

That seemed a lifetime ago. 

Jane has a husband and two beautiful grown up daughters and lives in Sheffield

We speak regularly. 

Last week she went on holiday to a tiny mountain house in the middle of the Andalusian mountains.

She went alone which took some balls, but she did it and FaceTimed me several times sharing the triumphs of that bucket list adventure.

We are both feeling our ages. 

Next week the both of us are off to Barcelona another first since we were together a lifetime ago and I know it will be lovely. 

Lockdown allowed us to share our worries and our dreams and thoughts about getting older, both have embarked on changes in work snd study late on in life. 

Both feel we have lots of things undone, rather than unsaid

And now it’s the time to do them

Water Gardens

This afternoon I met an old friend for savoury pancakes at the Dutch Pancake House up in the sticks at The Water Gardens, Rowen Conwy. It’s a pretty place with lakes and ponds filled with ducks and an Enclosure of otters which was fun.

I got there early and explored a dilapidated church nearby.

Out for lunch in the country makes you feel as though you’ve been out for the full day .

When I got home I found  my newest ( and poshest) Walking Dead T shirt had been delivered,a kind gift from Georgian Jackie D. 

Thank you deArheart 

Off to meet Hannah Blythyn who is a Welsh Politician and member of the Welsh Senedd ( The Welsh Government ) at  the Memorial Hall with the other TCA members. 

Getting her interest in the future of the hall  could prove useful