Lemsip

 I sound like a seven year old boy.

I had to cancel a pub visit later with my oldest friend Sue. She has the ponies and lost one recently on the road at the top of the village. The pub visit was supportive. I can’t go, I can’t speak 

We have rescheduled for Tuesday. 

Coincidentally her brother delivered a massive big of logs this morning. 

I couldn’t talk to him properly either . 

Usually I would have put them all under cover this afternoon but I haven’t the energy 

I went back to bed at 11am but couldn’t sleep.

Islwyn has felled the dead ash tree in the graveyard and his chainsaw has been noisy 

Storm Babet is expected , he said, and he’s fearful the ash could collapse on his churchyard shed.

I’m drinking lemsip now

I need to go out for an extra tutorial , the one I rescheduled from Monday. I’m covid free and will wear a mask but I need to go, no matter how stupid I sound. 

I missed university all day yesterday.

It’s not like me I’ve eaten nothing today.

Dorothy has made the day a lot worse.

She has an itchy bum and left a foot long skid mark on my white duvet cover.

I haven’t the inclination to strip the bed as yet

Yael

 A few days ago I contacted Rachel to see if Israeli blogger Yael was ok. 

She told us that she was safe

I emailed a Yael myself too and have just got a message saying she was ok

It feels more real to hear from her in person

What an awful time

Fix It

 

I didn’t know that I’d lost my voice until I took the dogs out and called Roger to keep up

A rather strangled “Ro—-Ger!”, something Lady Bracknell would come out with echoed forth. 

I’ve COVID free but feel rough.

So not much to report today. 

I’ve caught up of the Jimmy Saville docu/drama The Reckoning is a chilling a sobering look at another era which didn’t see abuse in plain sight.

I remember meeting him at the Guttman Games in 1990, which is when all of the eleven spinal injury units in British met up in Stoke Mandeville Hospital to play wheelchair sports. 

I knew nothing of his sexual reputation save for the fact that most of the Aylesbury nurses disliked him intently

To me he was a creepy patronising old freak, a gob shite that wore too much jewellery and who tried to have a say about patients when he had not authority to do so. 

He was Stoke Mandeville’s cash cow , with his own office in the new wing

And I disliked the Spinal Injury Unit’s need to be sucking up to him.

Steve Coogan is excellent in the role of Saville, a complicated, lonely damaged man

The vanilla slice incident

 I feel rotten.

A product of sitting on a crowded train, tube, theatre last week I suppose

I’d booked myself an IT tutorial for University this afternoon and got up early after a short sleep to take a neighbour in to hospital for a blood test.

I’ve cancelled the tutorial until Wednesday 

I doubt I will be in university tomorrow either

At least I’m covid free.

I called into Sainsburys and bought flowers,  vicks, and a vanilla slice ( to soothe my throat) 

Unfortunately I lost most of it trying to negotiate  the Rhuddlan roundabout at speed

Never bite into a vanilla slice whilst turning a sharp bend and changing gear.

I could have wept

Bitches

 Just occasionally the two bitches will fly at each other 

It’s rare, and it’s frightening to watch but often it’s more noisy than anything else

But it happens

Bitches like people fall out

And bitches, unlike dogs

Never forget a fight.

All this happened when I was cooking Thai noodles with chicken

Dorothy has been grumbling at Mary for days now, usually over a position which is closer to me, and when she gave Mary a last growl when they shared the reading chair mary flipped and the fight started.

Well it was less a fight more a latch on and growl fest, but whist  Mary is smaller and has less power, her heart is true terrier and she will never back down .

I tried the wet mop head, and a couple of belts with a croc, but they weren’t having any of it. Roger complicated matters by bouncing around them, bring ineffectual as always, so eventually I sat down and waited for the girls to tire.

There was no blood, but after what seemed like an age, they were still locked together but noticeably quieter

A final loud, shout and a quick slap with the crock and they reluctantly separated only to be told off smartly by me then totally ignored. 

The girls hate that the most. 

Im off to work shortly 

And still I haven’t looked at either of them

The Choir Concert

I needed the Choir concert tonight 

It was the perfect and what’s more importantly local, home grown quality concert that reminded me that not everything nice can be found over the border.

The Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir (https://trelawnydmalevoicechoir.com/index.php?id=4)

peformed a set of three quarter Welsh Songs supported by a quartet of teenage singers from Ruthin School who were an absolute revelation and delight 

It’s was a lovely night

Made better by the above impromptu moment in the interval when half the choir sang happy birthday to 8 year old villager Sophia who is the delightfully polite daughter of Polish Monika, the hall’s caretaker.

Lots of the village turned out, Village Elders Ian and Helen , The velvet voiced Linda, Bridget and Andrew, Mrs Trellis ( looking lovely in pearls) Pippa, TCA Dave and Jean ,Mr Poznan in a bow tie, Gill and Gentleman farmer Peter from my Choir, et al

Ps they sang Gwahoddiad perfectly

Just like this

Spitalfield’s Vase

 

The dogs have been spoilt rotten by Trendy Carol and her hubby, but were still happy to see me. We’ve had a long walk this morning in the showers and they 

are now steaming quietly in the kitchen reading chair and are asleep.

It’s the charity concert by the village MaleVoice Choir in aid of the TCA tonight, but in the meantime I’m doing chores

I bought this vase at Spitalfields Market and filled it with garden flowers

Drying Your Bra

 Small disasters often make a few days away, funny and memorable.

I thought our train cancellation was unfortunate and symbolic of the bad luck I’ve had all this year with travel plans but after some judicious train swaps we made our superb supper reservation at the Opera House with two minutes to spare.   

Our hotel was the bijou hotel Mimi’s in soho. 

It’s central, and much cheaper than even the basic travelogues, but the rooms are comfortable ( if small) and the coffee good.

My room resembled a small, very smart one berth caravan 

Janet’s room sprang a leak through the ceiling at 4 am and the leak soaked her suitcase .

Unbeknown to me she had organised a change of rooms and had spent a merry few hours drying her bra and knickers with a hairdryer ( a video I thankfully missed because I was fast asleep)

Janet’s not a complainer but I am and I managed to get back a hefty rebate on the room by an unsmiling manager who found Janet’s wet bra tales somewhat beneath him.

The restaurant I picked on speck last night was an Italian meat place called Macellaoi and that was made special by the off duty manager who sat next to us at the bar where we managed to wangle a pre show supper. He was working on his laptop but I think noticed that the waiter was more attentive over an Á La carte group of diners than us. He took our orders then substituted bits on the menu for more expensive articles even giving us a bottle of Italian wine cheaper because the one I ordered was out of stock.

Being looked after at a restaurant is a lovely treat, and I twittered my thanks to him this morning .

It’s been a lovely few days, made better, in some ways by the bra incident which was something to laugh about.

Laughter is something I don’t find hard with my sisters 

Even though their bras may be sodden