Goodbye

 Saying goodbye to a work colleague who you like and respect , I think is the easiest goodbye you can make. If you are friends the friendship will often continue, if you both move on, you have the knowledge that you have touched each other’s lives for as long as you were part of that work team and you now wish each other well. Julie ( centre) has been a nurse longer than I have. 

We are old school nurses, brought up to follow our guts rather than pure protocol and audit and have spent many hours in that drug room, with me trying very hard to get her to wet herself with silly jokes and observations. 

That laughter is a typical nursing coping mechanism, especially within palliative care, 

And I’m lucky I work with a nice group of people.

What Larks Pip

The oddity that is the kitchen wall was underlined this morning by a plastic container full of Indian “ nibbles” complete with raita! 

No name, but a yellow post it instructing me to Enjoy! 

I’m on three nights and a favourite patient of mine passed away last night, so the treat was welcomed warmly.

Indian food for breakfast

What larks Pip! 

 

Katherine Priddy - A Boat on the River

The last lines of this song have a resonance  

“ All that I want is to live slow and easy

One day at a time is enough speed to please me
A dog by the door and someone to sing me to sleep”

Enjoy

Who would you call in those last 18 minutes?

 

Kathryn Bigalow’s nuclear war thriller is a clever piece of filmmaking 

Seen in six or so 18 minute set pieces each portraying the same time line from different perspectives . We watch the US response to the arrival of a single nuclear missile heading towards Chicago from an unknown source. 

Each official response and episode is muddled and unsure. Military Chief (Tracy Letts ) is gung ho and war proactive whilst young Defence advisor Jake ( Gabriel Brasso) is cautious and hopeful. Analyst Olivia ( Rebecca Ferguson) rings her husband in order to save him and their baby and Chief of Defence Baker (Jared Harris) whose daughter is in Chicago, rings her for one last contact before horrifyingly killing himself ( the most shocking scene in the movie)  

Finally we follow the enigmatic President ( Idris Elber) who is away from the drama in an Airforce one helicopter , it is his final scenes of indecision and horror which are the most sobering , as he has the final say on the military response with what it would seem the least preparation and objectiveness of anyone.

It’s a cracking film with all the tension of new bra strap but I must also add a mention to Bigalow’s clever use of recorded  sound here. Not until the last reel do we actually see Elber as the President , we only hear him indistinctly through the failing PA system, and I must admit his way of speaking reminded me directly of Trump and his directness. Bigalow subtly reminds the audience that Elber could indeed in reality be Trump with that last desperate decision , his alone to take.

Like the lessons we learned from 9/11, the thrust of the drama is whose do you want to talk to or be with in those final moments. The mobile phone is centre stage here. Little nuggets of gold that are able to link loved ones in such terrible times. 

We all have the urge to say 

I love you 

When faced with disaster..those last few minutes? 

I wonder who I would contact? To reach out to ?

If I was honest? 

I think I would ring my sisters and Nu of course

And I’d text a few close friends 

Hey ho

Who would you ring/ message in those last 18 minutes? 

Chess

The storyhouse in Chester, pleases me

It always did even when it was a cinema back in the early 1980s

Minutes after I had plonked myself down with a flat white, a friendly Dutchman asked if I would like to play chess with him which I proceeded to do rather badly. 

My adversary proved to be a rather amiable mature student in Chester University who enjoyed the chat rather than the game, itself. 

He still beat me after only 20 minutes, but flattered me by saying that he’d heard that most Welshman didn’t have a sense of humour, a trait contradicted by my giggling efforts in pronouncing schaakspel the dutch word for chess.

Im watching the movie A House Of Dynamite soon

WTF?

 It’s a hundred yards to Trendy Carol’s

Shes been going to a gym recently and looks gorg and svelte in pants reminiscent of Emma Peel’s from The Avengers. 

The dogs and I stopped to talk last night only to see Bun standing outside the cottage mewing loudly at us with some attitude and bad temper

“Bloody Hell is that yours?” Trendy Carol sung out and we both watched with interest as Bun bellowed out a shrill call of “ Fucking well come home” again

She’s been doing it a lot at the moment , a behaviour I can’t quite understand 

We hurried home and Bun danced in a circle for a second or two before storming into the cottage where she then ignored us all.

What’s that all about? 

I’m more a dog person than a cat, and Albert was such a simple soul, compared to these two personality challenged individuals.

Has anyone else seen this kind of behaviour?

Jumpers

 I’m not a saint. 

Far from it. But then you all know this fact, some more than others, I dare say.

I have been reminded of my lack of sartorial elegance by this morning’s annual troll through the jumpers initiative. 

It’s autumn and the jumpers and cardigans have been released from their shelves again, but this time it’s for my counselling day, where I need to look suitably professional but relaxed enough to trust. 

Finding a suitable jumper without the obligatory food stains down the front has proved to be a difficult task.

I’m annoyed by my own slutty behaviour! 

For even after washing several still have the ghosts of gravy and soup once enjoyed !

Eventually I found a rather nice blue arran, but alas, this had a doggy rip in the sleeve so I eventually settled for a Scandinavian number in blue

Bette Midler - Wind Beneath My Wings - Yankee Stadium 2001, a short Essay about bravery

The highlight of one of many trips to New York I’ve made was watching Bette Middler perform her one woman show at Radio City.

She was a typhoon of an act, funny, strong , exhausting, and genuine 

Her smiling and brave performance at the 9/11 memorial is a tour de force of smiling bravely . 

Watch her singing in video. 

No self pity 

No emotional romping

She grabs the song’s importance by the scruff of the neck and delivers it with the broadest of smiles

It’s the bravest performance I’ve ever seen. 

And it galvanised a nation and part of the world.

I see such bravery every day. 

The daughter of a patient who refuses to back down in her advocacy 

The friend who is facing cancer again who shoots out with a sassy comment with steel blue teary eyes

Another friend who sees their spouse fading, raising their chin to all observers 

A lonely person who joins a village group without self pity,

An old Welsh terrier, refusing to bow to semi blindness

Mr Posňan walking all the way to the village hall to check the building works despite the pain in his hips

A villager who has endured 100 eye injections without ever complaining to the internet audience

We all see such bravery every day

That urge and need to set one foot in front of another

To march on