Supper Out

 I dug out my new linen trousers and green shirt bought especially for Rome ( and never bloody worn) and had a shave and a good hair brush and met the twenty five or so members of the village TCA and volunteers at  The Crown for a meal. The food was lovely and the company chatty, and as the gin and tonics were downed we thought of more outlandish ideas for the association to support in addition to the following hall based activities. 

Between now and Christmas we have organised 

A Casino night 

A concert night by the Trelawnyd Male  Voice Choir 

An Apple Festival  day 

A Christmas Fayre 

And It’s a Wonderful Life Christmas film night as well as the usual Saturday coffee mornings 

Our Chairperson Bridget making her thank you speech

My suggestion of a ancient Welsh tomato festival where we villagers throw ripe tomatoes at each other in the street after copious amounts of Cymraeg gin is drunk was met with mixed but chuckling  results 

Masks

 I always found the slightly sanitised Russell Brand vaguely amusing. His overly pompous way of challenging pomposity tickled me in its irony and could see why the BBC Thought he was a little bit of a darling and a trendy challenge to they grey suits and grey hairs that fill the organisation . 

But then we didn’t then see his stand up. A stand up that revealed his leopard spots, his crude way of viewing some women and his misogyny. 

Glinting eyes and a persona reminiscent of a cartoon wolf he underlined in the most crudest of ways what he thought of rough oral sex, and he lost me in that second, as I suspect he did of many of his audience members. 

He crossed the line and the level headed and fair BBC documentary Dispatches illustrated its point perfectly with that one vile clip that was shown. 

Masks, we all wear. 

They protect others from seeing the real us

They sanitize and provide a screen on which we project the more acceptable and socially polite self

But masks can slip 

Sometimes they do just for a second 

And when they do, I will always stick to my gut feeling , to that inner voice 

Which tells u

This person is poison 

Bake Off

 

It took me ages to sort out my Facebook avatar 

I played around it as I got used to the new Great British Bake Off Contestants 

As usual they are a lovely bunch of despots 

The Beaver Comment was worthy of Mel n Sue

Lockdown

 I was just downloading some information on ethics and counselling when the librarian hurried up behind me and hissed “ Go to your classroom now “ 

She had chivvied several students ahead of her and Donna whispered “ It’s a lockdown “ into my ear. 

We hurried into our classroom where the tutor closed the door and turned off the lights.

We were ushered into a corner of the room, away from prying eyes

Only then did we realised that it was a test. 

Sadly all colleges , schools and University campus’ now have to have this training. Not only from lone gunmen but also from knife assault 

I’ve just been looking at the stats

And they are worrying

That will do…….

 

I’ve added the same scene this evening, which looks nicer

Rearranging the furniture is always therapy 

The living room is now cosier with the sofa facing the log burner and the radiator now free to do it’s job.

I’m sorting through piles of stuff for university tomorrow 

That’s a big job in itself.

I almost bought a replica New York snow globe to replace the one broken by the dogs  and I actually found one on line but stopped short of buying it.

Do I really need another? I asked myself 

Nostalgia? Sentiment? A clinging onto the past all wrapped up in a romanticised New York scene, covered with snowy water

I dried the bits of the globe that remained , the plastic New York skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty only millimetres high, and the squat little Brooklyn Bridge and I set them up to the paper Sagrada Familia on my desk. 

That will do, I said to myself That will do……………

Postscript

As we turned at the end of the lane

There it was 

A magnificent rainbow over Trelawnyd 

I stopped looking at it for an age , and Roger searched the sky to see what I was gazing at

He sat down to ponder

I’ve had shitty days 

Many over the last few years 

But there’s always a rainbow 

Waiting in the wings …..

In the shape of a friendly text, a jar of jam, a box of soup 

A kind word 

And a bunch of flowers

The real Rainbow was the icing on the cake

Sunday

 I’ve spent the day quietly. 

I made a late lunch of  salmon covered in dill yogurt with roasted new potatoes spiced with home made harissa.

I will treat myself to a McFlurry later, it only takes a few minutes to get one.

I’m in my pjs and have been all day.

I noticed that all of the 20 mph signs in the village have been defaced.

The village website is filled with keyboard warriors shouting the odds about it all.

 My twin sister called around with more flowers. Like my elder sister did yesterday, she also bought me some Italian food . A selection of antipasto! ( my family loves ironic humour) 

I had run out of vases so used my kimchi jar to house the sunflowers

The velvet voiced Linda left me some soup on the kitchen wall,which was kind and I’ve had many messages of commiseration  which is sweet, some of me feels I should feel sick

But of course I don’t 

Lywenna sent me some jam ,,perched by the front door.

I rearranged the living room furniture ( a favourite pastime of middle aged gay men), shampooed the carpet free of the contents of my beloved New York snow globe which had been broken when I was in London  😢 and have drunk several buckets of tea 

It’s blustery and feels like autumn 

I’m watching Ocean’s 11 

It’s a classy watch 

Bra straps

 Yesterday’s shenanigans have left me thoughtful and a little upset.     

Upset, because I was already nervous about travelling alone and this incident has unnerved me greatly and has zapped my confidence. Ok I know all of the platitudes, and at least it was in London and not Rome, but that’s not the point. 

I spoke to Nu and I feel better because of it. 

She forwent the platitudes and just listened.

Having an emergency alone isn’t very much fun

Thank you all for your comments ,

I’m grateful for your concern.

Yesterday was horrid, but all of the people involved were kind. From the woman who cleaned my bloody face with a towel to the Muslim woman and her husband who accompanied me to the ambulance, I saw nothing but concern yesterday. The airport staff were second to none and today located my hand baggage which had been handed in and will have it sent to be here and the Registrar who dealt with me yesterday had to be pushed to discharge me only because she was being kind keeping me, knowing that I lived in Wales and not London. 

My sister has just popped up too, ironically with a pasta supper, and although concerned found that my losing a shoe at the point of collapse very funny…..funnily enough so did I 

I’ve done a few nice things this afternoon to compensate . I made stew and dumplings, cut roses from the rebloomig rose Bush in the front garden and bought a string of light up dinosaurs from Tesco which I hung over the fireplace 

The stew, roses and dinosaurs all look cheerful.