Mindful

 A common theme in counselling is wellbeing and wellness. Helping the client to recognise strategies and mechanisms that enhance the nurturing of self.

To some it’s an alien concept.

Others may feel unworthy of such “selfishness” 

I recognise the benefits of it, now and won’t automatically put others first as I often once did. 

I am worth looking after, I have worth and rights and needs

And from that perspective I try to share my belief in self care to my clients.

This week is a case in point. I’m working sat and Sunday , and have already done a shift on Monday. Wednesday was my Counselling day 

I’m on the train to London where I know my batteries will recharge under the ever mindful Nu.

I will leave you with the delightful Celia Imrie in Celebrity Traitors. Her total lack of guile is charming as it is hysterical 

New Coat

 Trendy Carol bought Mary a winter coat today . It was comfortably in place when I picked both dogs up after counselling. Trendy Carol loves treating Mary ,indulgences I never mind, and Mary is toasty warm tonight , a night which is chilly and very autumnal. 

Even Weaver has softened herself enough to sit in front of the log burner, ( but still has not had her flea treatment : the bitch lol)

Tomorrow I’m off to London to meet with Nu and to watch Every Brilliant Thing with Minnie Driver .

I’ve missed Nu so, 

I can’t wait to see her

Weaver From Hell

 I’m overdue with flea treatment 

Well Bun is sorted at least, that’s the easy job. Bloody Hell she’s over me like a proverbial rash 

No it’s Weaver’s turn 

And like Maggie Thatcher “ Weaver’s NOT for turning” 

She knew something was afoot after I had sat down on the sofa today, gently waving a piece of chicken at her. I was whistling which probably gave me away, but I had to do something, an hour had already gone past with me pretending to doze on the bed, ready to give her neck a squirt is she forgot herself and walked within touching distance. 

The flea spray pippette had been secreted in the folds of my jumper, but the bad tempered cat had already figured this subterfuge out and deliberately swiped my paper sculpture of the Sagrada Familia from my desk top, before staring at me with narrow eyes.

She a Nazi and  knows just how much I love that little keep sake.

I threw a tiny bit of chicken at her and she gave me one of her now famous fuck off looks and ignored it 

The Mexican Standoff had begun. 

That was around twelve noon. 

It’s now almost four and I still have to corner my most bad tempered of pets.

I did get close, just the once , after I had lulled Weaver into a false sense of security by pretending to watch Antiques Roadtrip in the arm chair, a piece of meat, lazily dropped on my jumper front

This time she managed to take the chicken piece AND bite me and still have time to smack Roger a vicariously evil blow on the bottom as she ran outside.

She’s been outside ever since, mentally flipping me off, as she watches the kitchen activity with all the look of disgusted serial killer. 

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