Going Gently

Village Day

Mrs Trellis has her overly erect bobble hat on, so you know it’s cold

She’s written a story about the Avanti West Coast Trains and wanted to know if I would blog it.

I told her that I would

Blue shivered in the cold despite his expensive woolly coat .

Roger went around to the Manley’s to socialise with bouncy new English Setter Skye. The meeting went well, with his placid dimness calming her innate silliness and after an hour both had found themselves calm, and warming close to the fire.

It was almost dark when I got home, and village Elder Islwyn, half joking , told me off for my untidy. Drive. It’s bin day tomorrow and so he has a habit of changing some of the contents of my refuse bins in order to “streamline” things better.

I’m obviously a work in progress

He picked up the litter in my drive

I just go with the flow

I dropped my TCA resignation letter to the velvet voiced Linda and stayed for a lovely, potent, and much welcomed gin and bitter lemon

I bought some second hand records today, a deluxe 2 LP set of Andy Williams 1968 , Sound of Music and Abba The Visitors 1981. Eve( daughter of affable despot Jason) has messaged, she has been gifted hundreds of LP S if I want to do through them xx how kind

And made Chicken and Sweetcorn soup thickened with fluffy egg

11 January 2024

I bought a cheap turntable and some vinyl records today which pleased me greatly,

Baking Bread

I’m just about to go into an 11 am baking course

Today it’s bread, the type of which I’m not sure of yet.

I’ve not been before so this is a new skill.

More information later!

I made two bloomers on the course. One sourdough which just needed stretching and folding and a classic white boomer which just needed “ knocking back” instead of intense kneading.

The course was open to all, but clearly had been designed for people on low budgets and limited experience.

On my table was Leanne, a mum in her twenties who wanted to boost her self esteem ( her words not mine) and Tony who was an unemployed retail worker and lived with his mum.

We had a jolly laugh all told.

Leanne was surprised to see me there “given the well known fact that all gays bake well”

Tony had come because he was interested after watching Bake Off in the autumn.

I gave Tony one of my loaves at the end, I couldn’t eat them both

I stopped off at Home bargains on the way home to get a dinosaur tidy away box and then valeted Bluebell at the garage before my final job of the day, sorting out the patio clearance which I will get stuck into after writing this.

Put Your Money where your mouth is !

The first fifth of my counselling course is almost completed

The next part veers away from academia to the psychological

As a group we embark on “Personal Development” which is essentially weekly facilitated group therapy .

Individually we have to experience therapy as any client would do.

Paying for the service like any other member of the public.

Soon after we start our placement areas supervised by trained therapists specially trained in the support of rookie counsellors. We have to pay for that support too.

I have already started my counselling experience and I have a male counsellor at my request.

He’s gay, insightful and has lovely potted plants.

Today, after college I explored my dealing ( or lack of dealing) with loss and the session was filled to the brim of grief and of crying.

I have never cried for a nearly an hour , in my life before.

Even my counsellor looked a little concerned

Are you ok to drive home ?”he eventually asked

And I was, even though I looked like a melted waxwork of Christopher Biggins

Is this normal ?” I asked before I left, knowing the answer as soon as I said it

And my counsellor , knowing his stuff , said nothing but “well done”

I lit the fire when I got home, answered blog comments without thinking and curled up on the couch in the dark under a blanket covered in dogs, who could all sense the emotion of the day.

We shared a large packet of chicken crisps

And my salty cheeks were licked clean of historic sadness

Discuss

I’m back in university today

'This be the verse

'They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

Philip Larkin

Far From The Madding Crowd

“ Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray”

So goes the Poem.

I’ve spring cleaned the living room today.Scrubbing away the soot and dust and washed curtains, carpets and upholstery, stopping here and there to catch up with 1967 film Far From The Madding Crowd before sweeping away dirty cobwebs like a tubby Snow White with my feather duster.

Far From the Madding Crowd was a long movie and was filled with the beautiful people of the day. Terence Stamp was glorious as was Julie Christie but Alan Bates was a bloody lovely hunk of spunk, and made for a very believable Victorian shepherd.

The film finished just short of 5 pm and so did my cleaning

Men Up

The first clinical drugs trail for viagra were held, surprisingly in Wales.

Swansea in fact back in 1994.

The Welsh produced fictionalised story of the men who joined that trail was shown on tv recently to much acclaim. The movie is called Men Up , and it starred an all Welsh cast led by Iwan Rheon and Mark Lewis Jones .

I found the story of Eddie O’Connor ( Paul Rhys) incredibly moving and this, his speech, as he is ousted from the research trial for being a gay man, incredibly powerful