Going Gently

Agrado's Monologue (All about my mother - Almodóvar)

I loved yesterday. The weather was glorious as my friend Ruth and I drove to the PictureHouse to see All About My Mother

The famous 1999 movie by Pedro Almodòvar was on a rerun , presumably to celebrate Pride Month and I hadn’t visited it since the early 2000s when I think I had it on dvd.

This film, because of its bold signature use of red , should be seen of the big screen.

It’s a sumptuous looking drama set between Madrid and Barcelona and is a study of motherhood in all of its facets and complications.

For those that don’t know, I will try to give you a flavour of the piece.

Manuela ( Cecilia Roth) is the loving single mother of 18 year old Esteban, a budding writer and theatre obsessive.On a trip to see aging actress Huma Rojo ( Marissa Paredes) in A StreetCar named Desire , Esteban is tragically killed, after which Manuela goes of the search for Esteban’s father, who is a trans woman, called Lola, living the low life in Barcelona.

On her travels, Manuela joins forces with a nun ( Penelope Cruz) made pregnant and HIV+ by Lola, a feisty trans sex worker Agrado ( Antonia San Juan) and Huma who is still appearing in Streetcar’s tour around the country. And the film explores how the quartet ( and others) deal with issues such as motherhood, acceptance, and forgiveness we see the lives of the women the piece with Hollywood references not only to Streetcar but to All About Eve.

It’s showy, funny, loud and at times incredibly moving with great performances all round especially by Sam Juan , whose foul mouthed turn as the whore who literally doesn’t give a fuck in incredibly brave and touching all at the same time.

This is a women’s film obscured by gay and trans issues, a tribute to Douglas Sirk from the 1950s and it’s glorious in every way.

As we came back out into sun shire we watched people dancing salsa outside the Chester Market which was an absolute joy

Then went for a lovely relaxed but ordered lunch at Hamayuu

Remembering The Importance Of Gardens

Back to almost normality today. My friend Ruth will be arriving soon and we are off to the cinema, it’s a sunny day and I’m writing this in the garden

My garden has had praise recently from many of the locals, positives I passed onto Janet when I saw her last night at my birthday meal.

It’s a sanctuary of peace, not too neat and tidy but ordered in its own way.

The honeysuckle obscuring the front door, is

Flowering as the little hazel and oak saplings thrive in their pots ready to

be planted around the village

Gardens are a haven, and I’m lucky to have one that works for me, and I’m reminded of just how important your own little piece of garden can be to a person

The memory

Patients with facial tumours can be a challenge to look after . Not only can tumours bleed and bleed badly, but they can cruelly infiltrate soft tissue, and bone snd cartilage obscuring airways and the ability to see, speak and communicate .

They also mask personality, create shame and allow fear to grow and patients can find themselves hiding away in side rooms and at home, out of sight and out of mind.

The student I was working with asked for some “advice” with one such patient and after a moments reflection I told her that we had two vital weapons in our arsenal.

The first was the fact that the patient had the most beautiful blue eyes,

“Focus on those lovely eyes” I told her, in any procedure , in every wobbly moment ,

Focus on those eyes”

And the second I showed her and the patient together.

It was a gloriously sunny day and I turned off the door alarm in the patient’s bedroom and opened his patio door wide into a private garden filled with agapanthus, roses, rosemary and honeysuckle

“ I can go outside whenever I want “ the patient said quietly, hands stretched into flower beds, their voice suddenly rather emotional and I replied “ of course you can” as the student nurse gave a watery smile as she grew a few years older.

Company

My friend Colin arrived last night clutching a good Prosecco in one hand and some Aporol in the other, a lovely nod to Venice, I thought. We had dinner at The Crown ( again!) and came back to the cottage for drinks and entertainment from Roger who had gotten himself all too giddy with the unexpected company so was racing around doing zoomies, with intermittent stops to lick the skin behind each of Colin’s ears which he suddenly found strangely irresistible.

“Is he always like this?” Colin asked slightly perplexed,

And Roger was off galloping up the stairs again, grinning like an idiot.

“ I’ve no benchmark “ I replied as Roger ran into the toilet and skidded loudly on the Vinyl flooring.

What could have been the toilet brush bounced across the floor.

The behaviour continued until Colin left for home this morning, after which Roger wound down completely like a clockwork toy. Affable despot Jason called around with a card as did Mrs Trellis and Llewella widow of Ralph The gentleman farmer stopped to wish me happy birthday which was sweet

Chic Eleanor Says Happy Birthday For Tomorrow

Chic Eleanor always makes a fuss of me when we meet

Lots of “Oh Darlings“ and big hugs which I love ,

And she never pulls her punches even when inside a venue, where she can be overheard

She is honest and loving and free with her emotions

That’s Another thing that I so love about her .

We shared a bloody lovely Scotch Egg starter and talked without taking breath for two hours straight.

I was once approached on a period train journey by a fellow traveller who noted that Me and Nu had never stopped talking for hours over dinner and drinks.

I can always tell best friends rather than a husband and wife, she said, they talk constantly

A great way to start my Birthday

Tired

God I was tired this morning

Work in a hospice is not all floating nuns and piano melodies on the radio

Many of our patients, for a variety of reasons can be for resuscitation and escalation of their care. Issues that can prove to be a challenge when you are dealing in incredibly poorly people.

I worked alongside Julie yesterday, a Lancashire nurse a year older than me.

My the end of the shift we were still laughing but incredibly weary .

I slept in until 11.30 am this morning,

Something I haven’t done for years.

Today is my set counselling day, but my client is on holiday , so luckily I was allowed that lie in .

I’ve walked the dogs and checked what food I had in so made a mushroom and chicken omelette covered in spinach and Parmesan shavings

It didn’t look up to much but it tasted bloody lovely.

It’s already 1.30 and I’m surfing and still drinking coffee.

I’m meeting Chic Eleanor for early doors at the pub and supper.

Church & Flowers

The whistle heralded Islwyn’s arrival at the kitchen wall.

Both dogs barked and raced out to say hello

When I walked out he was itching both dogs behind the ears

They both love Islwyn

He was wearing his usual yellow safely coat and had been moving my garden waste Janet collects in one of his large plasticised collection bags. As usual he bantered about doing my jobs for me.

I smiled , used to him, and thanked him for his altruistic work .

We talked for a while and he asked me to blog about the church

It is exactly 300 years since the Parry family rebuilt the Church in its present form ( without the vestry) and 300 years since they rebuilt my cottage

I promised I would , and I have, and I promised to acknowledge his request on the village website too.

As we talked , I cut flowers from Janet’s sculptured herbaceous beds , alliums, blue iris , early roses and honeysuckle,

And put them in a jug some ITU staff gave me as a leaving gift.

I’m working today, just one day this week, which suites me just fine

All About………Me

Right, let’s get away from the wonderful Madrid

However I have just left a video and a link of two of the encores

The link especially will give a proper flavour of the event .

No doubt I will post more as their arise.

It’s my birthday on Saturday, and I’ve planned a few things. For the past 5 years I have made the effort Not to celebrate the day, going to lengths to work, stay in and play the martyr. Some of that stems from the fact that a had lost a bit of myself in my divorce

Some of it stemmed from the fact that I couldn’t be arsed.

Whatever the reason

I’ve changed this year.

On Thursday Chic Eleanor and I am going out for supper. Friday I am meeting up with Colin and Sunday my friend Ruth are catching a rerun of that classic old Spanish ( what else) drama All about My Mother in Chester followed by a Japanese lunch, and on Saturday night I’m meeting my sisters and family for a meal at La Ricetta.

As you can see it’s all about Me !!

Yesterday I went to see the prequel to Mad Max Fury Road , Furiosa A Mad Max Saga

Violent, action filled and beautifully filmed this movie had the difficult job to fill some very big shoes and although it tried, the original with Charlze Theron and Tom Hardy ( who apparently hated each other) has remained king not only for how the main actors gave it some gravitas and style but also for the fact the movie had a heart in the guise of a mainly female cast filled with old lady warriors