Hazel

This is Hazel

She was my second cousin ( I think) and was a dear friend of my mother and a favourite aunt to my elder sister 

The photo has a sweetness about it

Especially as Hazel died tragically giving birth to a daughter only a few months before I was born

I just wanted to memorialise it

It’s also been a baking day today

I’m made two boiled fruit cakes for the show , one slightly bigger than the other

I may enter both

It’s singing In The Rain at the Village Cinema Club later

 

Flower Show

 

My flower show entry for the photograph class “ pet”

The Manley’s came to the kitchen wall this afternoon  with boxes of dog food for my pack.

It was a bittersweet visit as they’ve just had to put down their floppy setter Gilly but I managed to make them laugh a bit as Roger bounced madly in the background like a loon. 

I like the Manley’s, a no nonsense couple in their 50s who love their community and who can be relied upon to do what they say they will do. 

Ma Manley sported a great homemade pair of dungarees and Laurie Manley seemed enchanted by Roger’s welcome. They are entering the flower show and are looking forward to it . 

Minutes later Boffin Cameron’s mum popped around with her old flower show cup.

I have a soft spot for her, as Lorna loves to support the Flower Show and has exhibited for years.

“Is it ok that I enter 20 classes?’ She asked

“Is the Pope Catholic ?” I replied 

And she beamed and laughed sweetly

She’s a star.

Mrs Trellis waved at me at teatime too , when I was drinking a brew on the patio

“ I’m entering the vase of flowers “ she called energetically as she passed  and I suddenly felt like having a weep

The troops are starting to come up trumps 

Me thinks

Gaenor The Mad Organist

With the church now shut, I haven’t seen anything of Gaenor The Mad Organist for an age now.

Never one to hide her emotions behind a smile, she would liven up any village service with a Les Dawson face, usually pulled towards one of the Church wardens who she disliked immensely.

Sometimes I felt I was watching a panto rather than a church sermon.

I heard that she had very recently died 

In more recent times, I would bump into her in the supermarket, where I would infuriate her with the game of Fill The Basket.

Now fill the basket is a cracker of a sport.

You first pick a victim ,( ideally this is a person you already know) and you follow them around the supermarket unseen .Then you start to fill their trolley with arbitrary items from the shelves, gaining more kudos for adding the most bizarre bits and pieces.

For The Mad Organist , I once managed to add two packets of durex,a packet of tena lite incontinence pads, budgie seed and a pair of fluffy ear muffs into her trolley before she stopped dead at the checkout

Such fun

Revisited

Seventeen years ago 

I wrote this, on one of the very first blogs I shared publicly, I was reminded of it today by an odd comment, overheard 

It’s just one small reason I love my sister so much

little actions of kindness

Today I have been thinking of something that happened on a Christmas many years ago.
It was a little action of kindness that had a profound effect on me and made me believe in the humanity within man.

One sunday, I think it was around Christmas, we were having lunch at home, all of us "visiting" my parents. My twin sister and I would have been around 26, my elder sister and her husband in their forties. My mother was a not-so-secret drinker and was pretty smashed as I recall. She carried on preparing the lunch and serving it as though sober, but it was all too apparant to all how much she had indeed drunk. In typical English/family secret way we all tried ignore her slurring and clumsiness, but as she tottered off into the kitchen my father could not bare it anymore and burst into tears.
We were all mortified!, and concentrated on our lunches as though they were the only meals we had ever been presented with. Only My elder sister reacted. Immediately and gently, and withour undue fuss she lent over and cupped her hand on my father's cheek. It lasted but a moment, but in that one tiny act of kindness she gave him her support,affection and control, it quietened him and he carried on his meal as we all did.

That gesture strengthened us all, and I have never forgotton it, it was something unique and special andthese things are often surprisingly overlooked in our self absorbed lives.

Real Life

Its all been rather busy.

I was planning a blog entry yesterday and  ended up catching myself unawares from behind

Today, has been a similar day and I won be home until after 9 pm

tomorrow I'm working in the community in the Hospice @ Home team

Real Life gets in Blogging way just occasionally

I’ve seen it all before

 

Ok we had a fight at a glamorous party set in Venice at night

Lots of CGI face recognition shots at an airport

Facial masks that shouldn’t work as everyone knows they’re being used.

A vertical orient express coach reinacting the trailer-over- cliff sequence in Jurassic Park 2 

The obligatory car chase through the Rome back streets

An over complicated but slick plot

A feature stiff Cruise doing his own stunts 

A movie Nearly three hours long

It’s not a bad movie, it’s just a movie that we’ve all seen before and that fucking  bored me.

Ok the set pieces were fun ( Venice looked as lovely as I remembered it ) and the obligatory Asian villain turned good ( Pom Klementieff) was great fun but the film lacked drama as the tight knit family IMF was alluded to rather than really shown .

And it’s the people that matter.

Ilsa ( the impressive Rebecca Ferguson ) was underused and clearly killed off to make way for new love interest and Cruise foil character Grace ( Hayley Atwell ) which is a shame. 

Ferguson is a class act and has a warmth Mission Impossible so obviously needed.

I always liked what the franchise did with her….

Adding to this, Simon Pegg who used to show so much boyish charm and warmth in previous Missions  is now a haggard old guy who is just irritating to watch in this update.

The franchise has run its course.

Of course if you like big scenes, on a big screen, with big music, big sounds and big rollercoaster feel, you will love this movie……but that’s a rollercoaster ride and NOT a proper movie experience 

In the end

All this noise reminded me that apart from being good to look at, this movie is sadly rather vacuous 

Baddie Esai Morales was a real dish btw 

Moving On

klea

Several of the hospice staff are moving on to other things this week. Today we are all meeting for a beach party on West Shore. I will post some of the photos after I go later as I am writing this from last night's night shift. 

Confused?

You will be.

I shall miss all three of the clinical staff that are leaving. Beth and Klea (who is Greek) are excellent nurses and will blossom as they move forward in their careers. Mandy, a previous spinal injury Physio is retiring 

I have a soft spot for all of them.

when I was a ward manager, I could spy a good nurse from fifty yards and over they years became very adept at headhunting nurses with potential for my own ward. 

After the beach party Im meeting Gorgeous Dave for Mission Impossible
 

Roger sirt of behaved himself

Funny Feeling Day

 Each one of us should have something beautiful to experience everyday.

The older I get, the more I believe this.

Today it was this bit of mindfullness initiated by Jacob Collier 

Humbling, extraordinary and profound.

I watched the video a few times, caught by the shared joy it captures

I feel a little lonely today. 

Just a little

I’m not complaining, just observing 

The weather is atrocious and at the last minute I said I’d cover night shift sickness tonight.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been spoilt with good weather and company

The video underlines company , and unity , and something shared 

How great is that.

And it’s ok to miss that a little. 

I’m not beating myself up with it.

As I type this I’ve seen a mark on the kitchen table, I’ve cleaned it now I have to scrub the whole thing, 

I can see Albert marks on the wall near his window shelf, so I’ve bought paint on line to freshen things

The patio is sodden but the flowers look vibrant

I’ve photographed them in the rain

I had an argument with a friend too. I don’t like the fact the argument took place but I needed to stand up for myself too.

It’s a funny feeling day