The Great British Unwashed

I'm the one on the left

In two days,I have done around seven and a half hours taking money on the Prestatyn flower Show  gate. Generally it is a worthwhile and enjoyable job, full of good humour and idle chatter.
Only occasionally does some uncouth specimen spoil the harmony of the day by complaining on the cost of admission  (£1.50!) or the fact the Show doesn't provide it's own toilet facilities!

The best complaint of the day came from two middle aged women who, quite honestly had seen better days. Not locals, they actually stopped me on their way home to complain that one of the brass band players ( Rhyl's excellent brass band had been commissioned to play to entertain visitors ) had showed too much of his arse cheeks when bending over.
I tried to make light of it by smiling a big smile and saying  " well it's a very hot day" but this seemed to irritate one of the women more and she kept on repeating that the whole spectacle was " absolutely disgusting "
I smiled a big false smile at the woman and chirped out in my best sing song voice
" life's a big disappointment sometimes isn't it?"
And went back to my next customer.
The great British Unwashed
Who needs them?



Preview

Just watched a four minute preview of the new series of The Walking Dead
Hidden away amid the action was one brief clip of
Carol & Daryl together!
Roll on October


The Prestatyn Flower Show

Only a week before The Trelawnyd Flower Show ( which takes place on the Aug 9th) is the much larger and more robust Prestatyn Flower Show.
I have done my stint taking monies on the gate today....in the glorious sunshine.....almost content ( but not quite) in the fact that I got a third place for my veg basket and 3rd prize for my hen scarecrow
( there were only THREE ENTRIES IN EACH EFFING CATEGORY!)
To add insult to injury my two competitors in the scarecrow competition were aged 6 and 7 respectively.
Little bastards.....bet they got their parents to help them!
It's not fair
I'm an orphan
My basket of veg is the piss poor one in the background

A Monster  cabbage entry


Garlic Farts

Chris has gone to London for work, then he's off to spend a few days 
With his family in Kent
He won't be back for a week.
I treated me and the dogs to a pepperoni pizza tonight
It was Winnie's first experience of a " thick garlic crust"
And I think she liked it given the amount of herby farts coming from her cage at bedtime


"My land's only borders lie around my heart"

The unlikely star of the games...one of 41 Scottish Terriers

So says the final stirring line from the musical number Anthem from " Chess" , and the sentiment kind of captures the national pride evoked by sporting and cultural events such as The Commonwealth Games.
I always cry at open ending ceremonies.
It's the surge of emotion that carries me away........
And when you analyse it, the odd situation of several thousand happy people celebrating the fact they all live in a country that the emotional romping organisers have wrung every bit of positivism out of in one huge set piece...it is no wonder that the tears start to flow.
National events like these provide us with a collective " feel good" moment
And we don't have many national feel good moments in the great scheme of thing ...do we?

I am patriotic but not particularly nationalistic...does that make sense?
My loyalties have always been somewhat split.
I am very proud to be a Welshman, even though I don't particularly have a welsh accent and can only hold down a rudimentary welsh language conversation. I am a typical hybrid of North Wales.
My parents essentially were English, ( hailing from the North West) and my Grandparents came from Scotland, Liverpool with Irish and Lancashire backgrounds themselves....I am, as most people are in the  uk, a mongrel.
At the end of the Trelawnyd  Male Voice Choir concert, I adore standing with the audience to belt out the Welsh National Anthem ( which I taught myself to sing from reading it time and time again from a tea towel someone had given me)....yet when I watched the  Yorkshire segments of the Tour de  France , I could have popped with pride for my adopted home of South Yorkshire, as the population good naturedly took the event to their hearts.
It's a simple psychological phenomenon
We , as a species , love and need to be a part of something... We need to be owned by a tribe.


Last night, swept up with good intentions  and good will, the Scottish crowds warmly greeted the Malay team which were flanked by several Malaysian air hostesses .in an act of solidarity and respect the stadium fell silent to mark the recent air disasters and messages of goodwill were sent to Hollond on their national day of mourning.
Such is the power of events like these
I just wish politicians and the fundamentalists in this world could take note  

Commonwealth

As I could make out ,the only thing the organisers of the Commonwealth Games didn't throw into
it's opening ceremony was porridge 
Everything was there
Rod Stuart, The Loch Ness Monster, charity donations,
Susan Boyle , men with kilts and Lulu
But for me
The real stars were the dozens of scotties 
Leading out the athletes
With their fast little legs and proud fierce looking faces 

Yawn

Bloody hell, I am even boring myself now!..... I have just read this morning's Blog.....what a shite previous post!
I have been going around the village conscripting people to enter the Flower Show and I felt a little like the bandit king riding into the Mexican village in The Magnificent Seven.....when no one could be found........

I will leave you with a couple of photos of my next door neighbours wild flower garden
Absolutely stunning and oh so interesting.
I





Sunshine Cleaning

Contrary to public opinion, a moderate amount of sunshine can be bloody good for you.
Sunshine lowers cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, disinfects and heals wounds, improves the immune system,kills bad bacteria and improves depression
It also cleans and deodorises cottage carpets , once they have been scrubbed  within an inch of their lives
In the 1950s and 1960s  thousands of sickly children were often given weekly " sunlight" treatments in order to be healed from anything from skin disorders to respiratory problems. Skin cancer was never considered.....sunlight healed all..or so it was thought