i'm driving him to distraction
The Bitch In Charge
I was feeding the bachelors when I heard a commotion.
There was a large lorry with it's engine running in the lane and I could hear the dogs barking from the cottage so I hurried back to see what was going on.
This was 8.30 am this morning.
Two delivery men were standing stock still on the garden path with a heavy radiator between them. They looked worried
For standing between them and the back door was a very angry barking Mary.
" She's come through the cat flap right at us !" One of the men said and he jumped as Winnie ever so slowly forced her face through the flap behind , to see what was going on.
I hurried round and picked Mary up and immediately she quietened down and started tail wagging.
Her job of protecting her home now thankfully over.
The Smallest of all of the dogs, Mary now seems to possess the bravest of hearts.
With me out of the house, it would seem that it was up to her alone to protect the older dogs and Albert from the threat of the dreaded radiator men!
Kevin Spacey How Dare You
Kevin Spacey..how dare you
How dare you attempt to hide the drunken molestation of a child
behind officially outing yourself out as a gay man!
How dare you!
The Sins Of The Past
Towards the early days of Going Gently I wrote a blog about a childhood bully.
It was a short piece about a slight from another "country" in time. A once painful but then muted memory that seemed more anecdotal than cathartic, was shared on the blog inappropriately for I named the bully.
Months later I received an email from the former bully. Through osmosis and across oceans the blog entry had reached him and as it is common with memories of past sadder times, the individual had no recollection of the events I wrote about.
We corresponded for a short while, with the hindsight of adults, and, I thought that they were positive emails between two men who had perhaps had rather unhappy schooldays.
We left things wishing each other well.
Months later I received a very different email, informing me of the death by suicide of this man. I had no idea of the motivations for this terrible event and even though I immediately pulled the old post, the cached memory of it reverberated for a while afterwards and must have caused considerable heartache for this man's friends and family.
This is not a blog for debating his motivation, so please don't. It's just a warning to everyone to be very careful of what you write about even though memories from the far distant past seem that they come from a land so very far away.
It was a short piece about a slight from another "country" in time. A once painful but then muted memory that seemed more anecdotal than cathartic, was shared on the blog inappropriately for I named the bully.
Months later I received an email from the former bully. Through osmosis and across oceans the blog entry had reached him and as it is common with memories of past sadder times, the individual had no recollection of the events I wrote about.
We corresponded for a short while, with the hindsight of adults, and, I thought that they were positive emails between two men who had perhaps had rather unhappy schooldays.
We left things wishing each other well.
Months later I received a very different email, informing me of the death by suicide of this man. I had no idea of the motivations for this terrible event and even though I immediately pulled the old post, the cached memory of it reverberated for a while afterwards and must have caused considerable heartache for this man's friends and family.
This is not a blog for debating his motivation, so please don't. It's just a warning to everyone to be very careful of what you write about even though memories from the far distant past seem that they come from a land so very far away.
Moments Of Pure Drama
The Prof's guilty pleasure on a weekend is breakfast in bed with Netflix
This morning he's been watching The Crown and although this romp-through-the -Palace drama is probably as historically correct as Mel Gibson's BRAVEHEART , I did notice some fine set pieces, noticeably the wonderfully bravura moment where the grieving Queen Mary ( Eileen Atkins) glides into Sandringham in full mourning attire like a spectre at the feast, to curtsy ever so slowly in front of the the new Queen Elizabeth (Claire Foy)
It's a fantastic piece of television
So, on this fairly drab Sunday I'm asking for your Biggest Moments of a drama ! This seems a sensible request from an ageing drama queen! But you'll get my gist.....
I can think of one moment in my life when after my paternal grandmother died in our home after a short illness, my father, in a Moment of what could only be described as grief fuelled hysteria actually accused my mother of killing her!
Now this scene was a scene worthy of Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to baby Jane?and although as a teen , even though I understood, where the screaming fit actually came from, the drama of the event is still hard and fast in my memory.
Share one of your most dramatic Of moments.
I'd be interested to hear them
Mrs Trellis
Mrs Trellis doing the raffle at one of my allotment open days
I caught up with Mrs Trellis this morning in both meanings of the word as Mary and I came across her on the Marian road trying to pull her Greyhound, Blue off a dead rabbit.
She's had new kitchen tops, and has been to the Cotswolds with Voel coaches.
Blue went for Mary as he thought she was after his rabbit, but Mary wasn't bothered. She's too quick for even a greyhound to catch.
Mrs Trellis was bounced around the lane in her effort to keep him under control.
Her long white hair was blowing untidily in the wind.
I told her we were off to New York soon, but she didn't seem very interested and seemed more preoccupied with a long story about Church business than the Oyster bar under Grand Central.
We walked past the footpath on the side of Gop Hill and talked some more about this and that
" It's very hard being on your own" she mused " People think that they can take advantage"
I didn't explore it any further , I didn't have the time.
Audit
So asked The Prof over a very passable low fat lasagne
" Not much" I told him
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Fucking kitchen tiles! That's what I've been sorting out today....fucking kitchen tiles
Project managing!
I've made an audit of" tile-gate" that's how Effin sad I am
65 minutes on line, (the line has been discontinued after I bought half the tiles!
14 phone calls ( yes 14!) - approx 1 hour 20 minutes of my time
One 20 minute visit and quote from the lovely old tiler who fell in love with Winnie and who promised her ( and not me) that she could watch him lay every tile!
Oh and one 40 minute journey to B&Q to buy that last box which some fucker had removed three tiles!
All for 5 square metres of ceramic
It was bloody less stressful looking after a ventilated patient on ITU
" Dangerous Jonney"
So goes the old joke.
I'm not one of the most confident of drivers it must be said
This drives the Prof to apoplectic distraction .
Surprise surprise he is a very confident motorist.
He calls me " Dangerous Jonney"
I passed my driving test first time and my driving instructor eyebrows left his forehead when I told him.
"I'm a better teacher than I thought" he quipped as we shook hands before I drove off in my Austin 1300.
I was too happy to notice the irony .
Date Night
The music was lovely! The audience was geriatric, the ginger ice cream at the interval was refreshing, my haphazard negotiation of the traffic including the Wallasey tunnel afterwards was questionable
And the subsequent argument on the journey home-was......... inevitable
Coming Out- Yorkshire Style
Many years ago I asked my best male friend, Mike for a pint in Sheffield.
He jumped at the chance to have a Thursday night out at The Dog And Partridge.
The pub was always warm and welcoming and full of amateur folk singers and our nights out together were always full of chatter and banter about film, current affairs, news and gossip.
That night, however, I had an agenda.
For that night I had decided to come out to him.
I knew Mike very well, and thought deep down that everything would be alright, but as he was straight and a typical no nonsense working class married Yorkshireman I was surprised to suddenly find myself very nervous and fearful of a reaction I didn't want and more importantly couldn't cope with if everything went tits up.
I told him after a spirited group rendition of The Irish Rover
And afterwards he sat silently for a moment looking at his pint glass.
After what seemed like an age ( but wasn't) he nodded and said in his broad Sheffield brogue
" Does that mean I have to occasionally go a gay bar with you ?"
" Perhaps!" I replied and he nodded again
" ok!" He said brightly " it's your round!"
Time
Mary and I have walked to town to collect the car. I bought peas and mangetout and some eye drops for William.
I've cleared the garden of the downed ceanothus, did washing and spent three quarters of an hour looking over some legal papers for an elderly neighbour.
I've bought some dolls house furniture from eBay for my mother in law ( who has just renovated her childhood dolls house), cleaned up and collected firewood and stocked up on fuel ovoids
The afternoon is almost over and I still have things to do
The School Run
The Prof usually leaves the cottage well before 7 am and as he leaves I get up to walk the dogs.
Uncharacteristically this morning he left at 8 am and so the village was busy with school run traffic and people commuting to work as we stopped for wees and poos!
The older of the village children lined up with their smart phones at 1-3 London Road waiting for the school buses to arrive and I was suddenly reminded of dark depressing winter mornings when I walked to school with my heavy briefcase and chilblains.
Breakfast time at home before school were not Betty Crocker times when I was a boy. My father generally would get up after we had left for school and my mother often had a hangover or was still asleep So there was no cooked breakfasts made, no cheery words of goodbye and no smell of coffee brewing.
I do remember making jam on toast whilst listening to the ever cheerful Terry Wogan on radio 2
He was a friendly soul .
Mornings felt a lot colder then than they do today.
Uncharacteristically this morning he left at 8 am and so the village was busy with school run traffic and people commuting to work as we stopped for wees and poos!
The older of the village children lined up with their smart phones at 1-3 London Road waiting for the school buses to arrive and I was suddenly reminded of dark depressing winter mornings when I walked to school with my heavy briefcase and chilblains.
Breakfast time at home before school were not Betty Crocker times when I was a boy. My father generally would get up after we had left for school and my mother often had a hangover or was still asleep So there was no cooked breakfasts made, no cheery words of goodbye and no smell of coffee brewing.
I do remember making jam on toast whilst listening to the ever cheerful Terry Wogan on radio 2
He was a friendly soul .
Mornings felt a lot colder then than they do today.
The Walking Dead
I'm easily pleased!
For over seven years now ,I have followed the exploits of a group of apocalypse survivors in a savage world of zombies in the rural southern states of the United States and although I don't dress up as the crossbow welding redneck Daryl Dixon , like so many Walking Dead Geeks do, I am told I am just as obsessed with the show as a spotty teenager, with no mates could be.
Season 8 sees war break out between Negan and three of the new order communities, and in a complete contrast to the start of season 7, there is a wiff of hope in the air as Rick et al prepare to kick some ass.
There is some speech making, group hugs and plenty of action but it is the following small points that I found " interesting"
- The messaging between alter egos Daryl and Dwight provide an interesting mirroring between essentially the same character. I like the " softer" Daryl who is now more able to hug his friends
- Tara and her plastic specs amuse me, she and Jerry are the only characters that seem to own a sense of humour
- Carol on the overpass looks sadly at a graffiti flower ( ? Cherokee Rose!).....forshadowing?
- I noted Some nice moments between the minor characters before the action starts
- Why didnt anyone shoot negan when he appeared on the gantry?duh ?
- Negan's wisecracking is really getting on my tits
.but like all old friends, who sometimes disappoint you, its lovely to see them all back
I kinda liked it
The Dead Return
The Walking Dead is back tonight
I've got a low calorie scotch egg to eat when I'm watching it.
Mary is not impressed
Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen
I've been sorting out the itinerary for New York trip this afternoon and after a bit of juggling I was ticked pink to buy us tickets to see La Boheme at the New York Met.
The Prof has never seen Puccini's tale of love amid the poor artists of the Paris of 1840 and although it has been criticised by some as a lightweight opera , it does have the power to bring a tear to your eye and a lump to your throat!
Now even though I have filled most days of our visit with nice activities ( and before you ask I've been 8 times before so we've pretty much done the tourist stuff) I ask the Going Gently readers if they know of anything alternative that they have done in New York which is worth a visit. We are open to anything new, a lovely restaurant, exhibition,.....anything different......you could recommend
I'm all ears!
Still Life
I am sat at the kitchen table drinking a bucket of coffee
Im waiting for the plumber to arrive
I've just realised that I like yellow
Im waiting for the plumber to arrive
I've just realised that I like yellow
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