The slap Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce has always had a gay following. It’s Joan Crawford beating flour stew thickener without even looking as she argued with her husband, it’s Joan Crawford learning to be be a waitress ( and a good one) in a frantic bed tempered restaurant, and it’s Joan Crawford listening to Eve Arden’s sassy manager before getting her eyelashes slapped off her head by the most odious of movie daughters.

It’s a life as improbable as Crawford ‘s shoulder pads that’s why the gays love it so much.

It was worth going to see a restored version at the Picturehouse this lunchtime.

I wasn’t the only gay in the audience 

IKEA

 I will leave you with this little village video. I’m out for the day

IKEA is fun especially when you find the meatballs 

I went for a duvet set and came back with ( are you ready?)

2 kitchen chairs,

A selection of chopsticks, 

A tablecloth and napkins

A vase

A tea pot, 

Sushi knives, 

Plates,

Kitchen hooks in the shape of dogs’ tails 

A rainbow doormat

And a toy dinosaur

Summer

Will from Byron Street came around this morning to repair the roof slates moved by storm isha. Older than me, I was impressed by just how quickly he got up that ladder. 

Like a rat up a drainpipe.

It’s almost oppressively warm here, with hazy sunshine lifting the day.

I’m seeing clients this afternoon and have lots to do at home.

Summer may finally be here

Today’s video is of the surprise speech from Princess’s  Leonor and Infanta to celebrate the first decade of their parents accession to the throne. 

King Filepe’s face is a picture 

 

The Goat

 

My adopted nephew Leo is visiting me next week 

I haven’t seen him for a year or so

I’m so glad he’s coming up to see me 

I’ve been booking stuff for us to do, which is easy has he is a total film geek like me so we are going to see A Quiet Place Day One with the glorious Lupita Nyong’o as well as the Theatre Clwyd production of Rope 

I’ve also booked us and my family for a meal in The Goat which is a new eatery in Llandudno ( a homage to the Kashmiri Goats living on the Orme) and we have plenty of time to fill in with other movies he wants to see.

Mary is ten years old this month too so it will be nice for Leo to meet with her for the first time, she’s an old gal now. When he was a little boy he visited and bonded with old George so I suspect him and Roger as well as Mary  will become firm mates too

 

Leo and George on my field 

Many years ago 

Quandary

 I’ve found myself at a V in my road today.

Something quite profound happened today but in a small way as it often does, and I’ve had to choose how I cope with it.

The choice ( and I’m not apologising for how vague I am being) is between lying to myself or facing the music with a nod and a word of thanks.

I’ve chosen the latter, without excuses and bullshit.

I am flawed like we all are.

Now this sounds all very mysterious 

It isn’t really, I’m just protecting myself from embarrassment, so the full story remains where it is.

Dealing with a proper embarrassment is a life long trauma for me. 

It has the ability to crucify 

And stems from a childhood where a mother salved her own embarrassment by picking of those exhibited by her children. 

Teeth and wounds 

Wounds and teeth.

I’m sad , I can’t be frivolous today.

I’ve made the girls I work with laugh tonight as I normally do

But it has been a serious day all told.

I will leave you with this silly video, don’t be too irritated Andrew xx

Non Nobis Domine. Orquesta Metropolitana y Coro Talía

The lisping choir completing one of my favourite pieces of music, this time during distancing restrictions , a hard job indeed if you have ever been part of a tight knit choir, and are used to having your fellow harmonisers at elbow distance.

I’m sorry for the quality of Going Gently recently. It feels somewhat disjointed and variable in content ( which it is anyhow to be fair), I think it’s reflecting a slightly misaligned, not too joined up thinking which is me at the moment. 

I’m in a neither fish nor fowl frame of mind. 

Still a student not yet a counsellor,

But with clients of my own 

A part time hospice nurse, just outside the loop,

I’ve had a couple of dates over the past few months, both perfectly nice individuals, all told , but not for me and I’ve decided that being a spinster ( and I like using that epithet , before you open your cakehole troll) is the way forward.

I’ve thought this before

Now I’m embracing the concept.

The Hospice is due to close for a month for some refurbishment in August and a month away will do me some good to re group and redefine 

Siestas

 

The garden is lending itself nicely with flowers for the cottage. I’m working nights, so today is a catch up day, with washing set out on the bushes and walls and pad Thai noodles being prepared for supper.

I haven’t got much to talk about today, I have a bit of a longing for some excitement again but like most people who crave it, I am a bit of a loss of where that particular itch can be scratched.

The usual election tit-for-tat interviews are boring me 

They sound like a divorcing couple scoring points at each other at a boring relate interview. And the more I hear the less I take in. 

My father was a big political fish in a small conservative pond.  

We were local politics orphans my sister Janet and I 

The weather is cool but sunny and the rooks caw loudly from the tops of the churchyard elms

I’m off for a siesta….do the good people of Madrid sill siesta I wonder?

Answers on a postcard please

Blind

 Blind as a bat at work, sat on my specs