It was a good job that I didn’t understand the new lockdown rules in Flintshire last night when I had that run in with the two “ ladies” last night
If I had I would have said a little more than just cheap shoes!
The new lockdown in Flintshire has been a terrible disappointment
Organised cinema trips To Chester are now cancelled , meet ups with Liverpool friends postponed and even our 1940 s moustached choir master is now isolated along the coast, unable to meet us outside our choir venue.
These little luxuries of social contact have been a life saver
Now many are on hold.
Anyhow I’m luckier than most , so I’ll shut the fuck up...I thought this , at lunch with a friend today when I learned he was about to lose his job thanks to the virus
All I could do was to treat him to the meal and to listen
Not much in the great scheme of things
It’s wet and miserable tonight
Sod the diet...comfort food and a real fire is the ticket tonight
Certain trolls will bust their pantyhose at the chance to remind you all of this fact.
I won’t disagree
I can be a real bitch when I’m in the mood.
More about this later, firstly, I must big up Y Shed cafe again. I met my friend Ruth and after a nice walk with the dogs we chatted for hours over a very passable corned beef hash and coffee
Quite lovely in fact
That was this afternoon
Later on, I was indulging in a loud debate with a fellow customer at the checkout in Tesco
I wasn’t happy.
I wasn’t happy at all.
I noticed the woman and daughter were not wearing masks as they were yelling at each other about the cost of some luxury ice cream . The younger woman had a baby looped over her arm.
I gave them a wide birth, out of range of any droplet splatter
Later on, of course, they came up behind me at the checkout .
Loud and brazen
It’s called sod’s Law
I caught the older woman’s eye and asked her “why no face mask ?”
I had to repeat myself as she couldn’t hear me
“ what’s it to you ?” She snapped back
“ I’m a nurse and I wear one to protect you as well as myself “ I told her
“ Oh Fuck off “ the younger woman raised her voice “ mind your business “
The cashier looked at me pleading for the argument not to go any further
So I shook my head in a patronising way and looked down
Both women were wearing plastic sandals below Stretch leggings
and I resorted to the old tried and tested
“ Cheap Shoes !” I said and the younger woman countered with a “ yer what? “
“C h e a p s h o e s “ I said clearly and rather too loudly
And I could see the cashier half smile as I walked away
Ps..local lockdowns in Flintshire and Denbighshire start on Thursday
Pps thank fuck I was wearing my blue brogues rather than my Aldi crocs lol
Only 48 hours or so after I publicly announced that I am happy being single
I have been propositioned by two men. One, I haven’t heard from in a long time ,texted me hoping for a quick roll around in the sheets
The other had more obscure needs and wanted a Sort of date.
I’ve politely refused both.
Being asexual is en trend so they say.
So does this mean that I am finally grown up ? or is it as Rachel Philips perfectly explained that us singleton’s living main benefit is
“.....being answerable only to myself is doing what I like, when I like, how I like and at whatever time of the day I like.”
Yesterday around 4 pm I found that I couldn’t sleep and so I got up, donned my fourth favourite Walking Dead T shirt And pants ! and took Winnie and Albert for a short walk into the churchyard.( I had gotten up a few hours earlier and had dropped off the younger girls at Trendy Carol’s )
Winnie is incredibly slow now and Albert seemed to chivvy her along with morale boosting slides under her chin with his entire body but it still took a good seven minutes to walk up the lane and through the lytchgate .
It was warm and sunny and from our bench we lazily watched the lane as Mrs Trellis tottered down with Blue she left a carrier bag on the kitchen wall which later I found out contained a home made egg custard , three rustic napkins and somewhat strangely a set of pencils tied together with a piece of wool.
The day before my elder sister left bags containing jigsaws, a homemade cake, snowdrop bulbs and a book
That kitchen garden wall seems to possess great magical properties I thought.
A place for gifts!
It has been for years now.
As Mrs Trellis tottered down the lane I was listening to this piece of music.
It’s Exsultate Justi from Empire of the Sun
Somewhat oddly her steps fell in time with the beat of the music and it has sudden become her anthem. Music and Trellis as one as it were.
It seems to capture her nervous vitality quite wonderfully, especially as her Bobble hat “ bobbed “ Smartly as the sopranos trilled
Days off ! four full days off
What to do?....got tickets to see the indi coming of age movie Rocks. An “ in bubble” friend is coming for dinner and am meeting another friend for lunch
Oh Lord I’m only two nights in and I’ve gone a bit stir crazy
So I got up, washed my face , packed Bluebell with uniform, food and books and drove to Colwyn Bay where a walk on the Promenade before work was in order
No one at work knows where I live, so to make it easier for them I point across the bay and say my village is under the second hill from the left
It’s a sixty mile round trip, home -work-home
The second Hill a little clearer
I walked down the Promenade with the wind stinging my face , then drove to West Shore in Llandudno to watch the Sunset from the beach next to the hospice grounds.
Sometimes you just need the shock of the cold to remind yourself things are ok.
The wind turbine that powers Porth Eirias, which is a sea sports centre and restaurant in Colwyn Bay
which is a coastal town on the way to Llandudno
Looking West from Colwyn Bay to Llandudno
The sunset last night from outside the Hospice on West Shore Llandudno
I will leave you with some followers favourite cafe and bars.......
I’m working night shift and the hospice is uncharacteristically quiet.
I’ve completed all of my on line training and updated my revalidation documents and I have researched papers to support my interest in starting some informal staff support meetings around case reviews.
and I have just eaten a healthy supper of gnocchi, asparagus and sugar snap peas tossed in garlic and basil
The title is a saying pinched from a friend of a friend
It means smile and glide and be kind to yourself
My healthy eating is a part of that...being kind to myself
It’s something many of us are poor at.
Ive just listened to a message from my niece in law she was discussing Bake Off.
My nephew Leo has just texted a message that he agrees with my thought that Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure was a bit rude.
Gorgeous Dave wants to catch up soon, Kim isn’t looking for a date.
Ruth and I are planning to visit South Korea, Nu’s off to Ireland
I’m fortunate for the distractions and the company
I’ve come to another conclusion that I’m single and I’m ok with it.
The world of mature gay menseems to be fraught with complications, baggage and a little bit of drama
Open relationships are often the norm, apps and expectations are confusing, fickle and seem to have rules of their own
Rules that I’m not really privy to
Friends without frills are the order of the day for me.
Friends are uncomplicated and are always welcome
That simple tin of salmon will suffice nicely
I will leave you with a few of my followers favourite bespoke eateries
One has gone out of business and has shut for good.
The other re opened the other day and is holding on by the skin of its teeth.
The one that has closed had a rather stern barista and wonderful food. The barista , some may recall spent almost two hours listening to an interview I had with my divorce mediator and at one emotional moment came to the table with a jug of iced water and napkins !
I’m so sorry she’s gone.
Y shed in Meliden
The other cafe at “ y shed” is modern and adaptable. It is situated in a converted railway shed and welcomes walkers and their dogs. I went today for breakfast and noticed Dorothy in one of the snap shots the owner takes of the canine visitors .
I ordered a large coffee and breakfast
The waitress thought I ordered a large everything so I was faced with a belly buster meal.
I can’t now eat for the rest of the day
I overpaid the bill in a gesture of support
“ It’s just nice to have you back” I told the owner.....
We need to support these small businesses
So please take a photo of your local coffee shop, or tea room or restaurant Or takeaway and send me the photo
jgsheffield@hotmail.com
Let’s big them all up
And finally today I will leave you with Andy Grammer singing his own song
In between kitchen cupboard cleaning and organising
I went to the cinema to see The Roads Not Taken .
The beautiful Selma Hayek
A day in the life of Leo ( Javier Bardem) a Mexican author suffering from a dementia like mental illness , isn’t an easy watch.
As Leo is taken to routine visits to the dentist and optometrist by his daughter Molly ( Ellie Fanning) we glimpse two former periods of his life, which are either muddled and sporadic memories or present day hallucinations and the film is a relentless study of a mind fragmented and a psychi blunted
Don’t go and see it if you are at a low ebb.....
Bardem who is usually so animated and watchable in his movies captures that faraway vagueness of dementia quite brilliantly and Selma Hayek is worth watching too in a smallish but vital role as his grief stricken first wife
Hummmm yes depressing stuff
So on a brighter note,
When I was out walking the younger dogs Winnie broke into a full shopping bag without breaking a dozen eggs and managed quite deftly to break open a container of 70 cocktail sausages ( 2 weeks treats ) and ate the lot
She remains unrepentant and rather flatulent after my return home
I’ve been well overdue for a rom com, so one set in a beautifully photographed New York with a likeable cast and a witty script was just up my street today.
The Broken Hearts Gallery fits the bill nicely .
Although wordy ( blink and you will miss the machine gun delivery ) this is a story that will touch everyone who has been dumped in a relationship.
Geraldine Viswanathan
Lucy Gulliver( Geraldine Viswanathan ) is a twenty something gallery supervisor who hordes memorabilia from every failed relationship She has ever been in . After being fired from her job after been dumped by her boss boyfriend she bumps into Cute as a button Nick ( Dacre Montgomery) Who is trying to built a bespoke hotel and by chance opens up an art gallery in the Hotel’s balcony , an art gallery filled with the public ‘s saved Souvenirs from past relationships .
Of course the plot after this isn’t rocket science to work out , but if you add to the mix Lucy’s wisecracking flatmates, Nick’s best friend Marcos (Arturo Castro) - who looks and sounds like an young Bill Murray and a botoxed to death Bernadette Peters as a wacky art expert you can see that writer and director Natalie Krinsky has thrown everything but the kitchen sink into this her first film .
The adorable Dacre Montgomery
Generally the movie works.
It’s amusing and sweet despite given a slightly hardened and foul mouthed New York tinge.
Viswanathan is sassy and bright in the lead. Montgomery is very easy on the eye and cries more than the heroine and the supporting cast is likeable and memorable and look like they enjoyed acting out the bright and sharply observed script.
In one interesting scene Lucy is finally able to dump an unsuitable boyfriend and her words to him resonate amid the laughs “ You are the hero of your own love life And the villain in mine,!”
If you need an amusing , light romantic movie to fill a dull afternoon...try it out
For those that don’t know , my brother died nine years ago of motor neurone disease
It’s a cruel disease, possibly the cruelest and strange as it may seem North Wales has a cluster of people diagnosed with the condition
The three hospices of North Wales often take these patients in for symptom relief, respite and for end of life care and their care is usually challenging and intense .
Communication of needs is often the major difficult area to nurse and something like the “ simple” positioning of a limb can take an hour to achieve correctly
Perhaps now you can understand why I had such a hard shift the other night.
Now I’m not being dramatic here.
I am good at distancing myself from situations that can suddenly become personalised
Most nurses of a certain age, have to be
But motor neurone patients have special needs and those are ones that we all take for granted
They need to be understood and they need to feel empowered
Looking after them can leave you worrying that you’ve failed them
and I always thought I could have done more for my brother.
So caring for them, can be particularly challenging
I admitted a patient with MND the other night
The night I got home very late
A friend and colleague has just texted me to tell me that they had died peacefully.....
Too sudden but fortunate with the hospice care
And I took the dogs out for a walk in the now cold night
And in the darkness of the still village
I remembered a lot of stuff running around my head
Mary has has a special “ pellet “ of antifungal meds placed inside her ear canal and she is looking brighter for it even though her already selective hearing has become even more selective
A new smiley and rather smarmy vet has started at the practice And he didn’t ingratiate himself with me especially after referring to Mary as looking a bit tatty
“ You don’t look all that spruce yourself “ I countered to little effect.
Never insult the dog of an old queen
We never forget
I’m having a mooch day today which is involving sharing the new sofa with Dorothy ( an activity designed to reduce her anxiety and jealous feelings of the other dogs.
Dorothy was Sooooo pissed off
It’s not working as you can see.
As Mary has just joined us
Dorothy is now in a foul mood
Foul
I’ve made pesto and sour dough bread this morning and my friend Colin is coming for dinner later which will be nice ( before the trolls say anything he’s in my bubble)
I’ve just listened to the Whitty and Valance Speech on COVID too
Things seem a little glum and I wonder what gems Boris will come out with tomorrow
It feels how we just have to live with COVID now and for some the axe will fall
Still maintaining “Dorothy “ time
I’ve paid bills online, watched the trailer of the Walking Dead finale which airs in two weeks and written some emails
And after Mary went off to mooch elsewhere Dorothy has had me all to herself
And her sulking and tantrums subsided to a peaceful hug and her face on my feet
No pashmina but she was sporting a very expensive Italian scarf which was looped informally around her neck
“ Darling John “ she purred behind her face mask as she stopped “ it’s been too long!”
We didn’t kiss as we usually do
We met friends Sara and Pask up the Conwy valley and was treated to a real Italian meal with four courses, antipasti ( and a special scotch egg just for me), orecchiette pasta, locally caught muscles in garlic and white wine and meringue with raspberries
Violas are such cheerful and robust little fellows
Unlike the fat headed pansies that resemble them .. I detest those
I’ve planted them out in pots around cyclamen of varying shades of pink and red and have placed them on the kitchen wall with enough gaps in between so that the regular gifts of tomato’s and the like can be left with ease.
It’s been a nice day, most of which I’ve missed after an extra Night shift
Lunch out with friends and Chic Eleanor tomorrow
Tonight already I’m lighting the fire against the already crisp autumn evening as I watch the live action Beauty and the beast on tv
Tonight I’ve been watching Carrie Fisher give tribute speeches on YouTube
What a wonderful orator she was
I became quite tearful at her power and intelligence
I’ve had one of those “ firefighting” shifts at work .
To be fair they don’t happen very often and so I’m not complaining , I’m merely telling you, but I’ve only just got home this evening and it’s 10pm .....15 and half hours after I left this morning.
I’ve done as much as I could for a complex patient, but it wasn’t quite good enough and I’m left feeling rather disappointed and very tired.
I’m 58 and I feel it today
I’m too old for this shit
But at least Dorothy has licked my sore feet back into shape
When I finish a day shift it is now very dark when I get home.
It was today and will be tomorrow
Albert is always sat on the kitchen wall waiting for me rather impatiently and gets down after a face to face rub to follow me to Trendy Carol’s to Collect the girls.
He never walks through her gate, for he knows he would be attacked by Carol’s fox terrier if he ever did so, so he stands and waits for the reunion he so clearly loves and craves for with tail swishing and eyes glowing.
The bulldogs bounce out of the conservatory like baby hippos and we all have to wait with everyone tap dancing In excitement for Mary who is usually secreted away on Carol’s knee for her daily love in .
Then the five of us walk home, with Winnie in the lead and with Albert trying manfully to rub heads with each of the dogs that don’t quite understand the greeting.
All they want is dinner
All he wants is for his pals to be together.
Half an hour later all four are crammed onto my new sofa fast asleep
I’m looking into getting Mary covered by a Welsh Terrier stud
One set of puppies before she gets too old
If all goes to plan I will keep one male puppy ( who will be called Roger ) and will give Trendy Carol a gift of a bitch to thank her for all of her kindnesses with the dogs since my divorce.
Without her, I could never have kept them with me, so it’s the least I and Mary can do
Yesterday........
Was
Lunch with a friend who is having a bad time.
Mary’s vet visit and steroid treatment for her bad ear,
A troll who irritatedly took my time
A heavy heart at work tomorrow when I’m not quite ready for it
But at dusk
I stood in the garden and realised that the climbing rose around the door had bloomed again
And everything was well
