Get Ahead Get A Hat

 

I don’t wear hats as a rule . In winter I prefer those woolly beanie hats to anything else, but these are purely functional. I don’t go for sports hats. I think in older men, they are generally worn in an effort to look younger or to cover baldness.

I have a big head…that’s another reason I don’t wear hats, so this morning when Dorothy ran over with a black cap in her mouth, I was all ready to return it to the bench from which she had taken it. 

I had seen the cap on Monday where it had been placed by a Walker thinking it’s owner would retrace their steps to retrieve it. Two days later it was still there.

I put it on.

It was cool with dew and that felt good

And Cinderella, it was a perfect fit. 

I’ve kept it ! 

It makes me look a tiny bit younger and it covers my admittedly very small bald spot.

Seeing I have to be at Mowgli ( https://www.mowglistreetfood.com/ ) in Liverpool by 6 ish, I’m staying home today to do gardening.

Finally big Good luck to the powerhouse which is Cheryl R who has organised tonight’s Bingo and cake sale at the Memorial Hall tonight. She’s just collected my rather banal banana loaves and is offering lotus Caramel Sponges for sale

Bloody lovely

The Remainder Holiday jaunts

 Tomorrow , me and my friend Colin are off to the philharmonic Hall in Liverpool to see Simon Amstell 

He’s  is a very sharp witted comedian and writer and presenter.

I shall enjoy his view on life.

Thursday night Affable Despot Jason and I will go and see a play at Theatr Clwyd,….I haven’t seen him in ages, the play is cheap so may be crap but he’s already messaged me “ it will be a larf” 

Friday it’s Shang chi and the legend of the ten rings at the cinema 

Saturday I’m meeting old friend Cheryl for brunch and sea walks at  Bryn Williams at Porth Eirias in Colwyn Bay …we both say we need a hug xxx

And Monday it’s a Bodnant Gardens visit with my friend Neil and our respective dogs, luckily his bulldog loves Dorothy .

So the final chapter of my holiday is almost sorted save a few open windows say SUNDAY ? Any takers?

I’m having a lovely time….

But it’s taken bloody organising 

Mixed Bag

The cottage is filled with the heady smell of banana loaves baking.

I’m preparing a few cakes for the village bingo night which is raising funds for the Church.

I will leave them on the kitchen wall to be collected tomorrow.

Banana loaves take at least an hour to cook.

So as I’m waiting, I’m catching up on jobs and am pottering

I filled a cheap planter with delicate violas, and filled the hanging basket by the front door with the remainder.

I’m having another coffee and have checked the news,

The local news is full of the fact that several of the Llandudno goats have got themselves stranded on a Rocky outcrop by the town. 

I will watch this story with interest.

The weather is so so today and I’m contemplating what I’m going to do with the rest of my day.

Apart from my ABBA gift I will leave you with this photo

I took it on my way back from London

I’d love to know his story

Lovely weather this afternoon , so we all went to Colwyn Bay Promenade and shared a panini .

Long walk included a visit to the=newly completed 130 foot truncated pier.

Co-Pilot

 

Asli ( Canan Kir) is a Turkish/ German Muslim living in 1990s Hamburg. She leads a relaxed Westernised life as a medical student, a life which changes over a five year period after she meets a slightly more orthodox Arab Muslim Saeed (Roger Azar) who is Lebanese. 

She drinks and smokes and has non Muslim friends which he starts to disapprove of  but the couple embark on a sexual relationship which finally leads to marriage. 

Only then does Asli start to realise that Saeed is more fundamental in his beliefs than she once realised.

Co-Pilot , a film by German film maker Anne Zohra Berrached , feels a little flawed halfway through as Saeed’s path towards piloting one of the planes during the 9/11 attacks is clearly defined for the audience to see, even though his erratic yet loving relationship with his wife remains steadfast.

Would such a fundamental Muslim terrorist actually see his wife as his co pilot in life? especially one who smoked and drank without even a hint of  a hijab ? 

Unfortunately we see the drama unfold purely from Asli’s point of view. We understand nothing of Saeed’s motivations or his history ( save for one sequence when Asli strangely visits his rich, very liberal, matriarch led Lebanese family) and so I felt somewhat let down by the time the horrible truth is revealed to all. 

I must add that one particular scene did Berrached proud as a filmmaker .

On a wintery German street when the couple are courting, a love struck Asli pretends to be a plane with Saeed playfully piloting her…they run down the street then very slowly are raised into the night sky with the street falling gently away behind them . 

Ok a heavy metaphor for the co-pilot title, a reference to their marriage and a foreshadow to his terrorist future but a beautiful scene.

Office

I’ve had quiet morning doing paperwork and catching up with bills and life organising.

I love working at my desk as it’s a comfortable sit…thank god for John Lewis’s rather expensive but bloody comfortable desk chair

The girls, as usual are asleep on the bed behind me . 

Both are snoring after their walk

It’s stopped raining , so Albert is out hunting rabbits, I’ve seen him walk up the lane …he knows there are a few in the Churchyard and he is too old to climb the six foot wall.

He prefers now to walk through the gates.

I’ve booked tickets for Ode To Joy at the Philharmonic to compensate for the ones I missed yesterday

I’ve never heard it live .

The bills are all paid, (another satisfying job in itself) and I’ve booked to go to the cinema this afternoon in Chester.

What Pleases Me

 

I bought this ceramic cheese board today.

It cost 8£ from Sainsbury’s 

It’s cool to the touch and you can feel the leaves when you run your fingers over it.

I was so pleased by it.

I love being pleased by simple things

The joy of a gift given, a sweet view of the sea on the way to work last night 

And the cold touch sweetness of a cheeseboard 

Bought as a self gift 

No one else would buy you 

Hey ho

Best Laid Plans

 I never made the bloody concert

It was a case of best made plans.

It was Sod’s law for me to have volunteered for what turned out to be one of my busiest shifts this year during which I felt my old nemesis of a urine infection hitting home. 

I drank buckets of bland fluids but that was a difficult balancing act given the workload .

Subsequently I was exhausted and feeling rather under par when I got home.

I slept heavily until 3 pm .

In one way I was glad to have gone in for the extra shift. 

For one of my “ favourite” patients was approaching the end of his life.

Clinically I know I am an unflappable nurse. This comes from my psychiatric roots where I was always taught that good nursing was 50% Confidence , 45% Knowledge and 5% bullshit 

The secret of reducing anxiety in patients and their family is to take control and have a plan.

I took control and had a plan 

I felt vindicated in doing the shift when my patient’s mother whispered into his ear

“It’s alright , John’s here!” 

Luckily this sort of thing happens with many of the clinical staff at the hospice.

The night team left work late this morning and I emailed the concert tickets to my friend in Liverpool before going to bed. 

I needed a heavy sleep and felt better for it.

I was sorry to have missed the concert though

This afternoon I walked the dogs and went to Sainsbury’s where I bought chicken and salad , dog food and of all things, a ceramic cheese board.

On the way home I popped by Hattie’s neat new home to drop off a Welsh terrier toy for her new baby , which is due in a couple of weeks.

It was nice to see her.

Puffin

Cro reminded me too that it is the anniversary of 9/11 

I remember that lunchtime very well.

As I was watching the news, through my lounge window I caught sight of a stranger rummaging through the skip I had hired . He ran off with a plastic human head. 

The sort you used to see in men’s wear shops advertising hats.

I’m having a quiet day today. 

Last week, I promised work I would cover sickness by working an extra shift tonight .

It will pay for my new painting which is pragmatic of me, if not very practical, for tomorrow lunchtime I’m off to Liverpool to see the City’s Philharmonic with a friend

Waltzes by Strauss, and works by Dvorák, Prokofiev, and Márquez…the full orchestra is back on stage! 

Sounds great , and lunch at Mowgli beforehand ..what a treat

Big thank you to Sue at https://paw862.blogspot.com/

Who sent me her painting of a puffin

She had underplayed it on a recent post and I told her then that I thought it was lovely

It is….

Simple and elegant 

And she sent it to me as a gift! 

Thank you.

The dogs have just had a long walk and I think I shall scrub the doggy smells from Bluebell’s interior before we all have a siesta .

But I will finish my bucket of coffee first

And listen to the tick of the kitchen clock

Sushi In Russell Square Gardens

Holiday day 5

Well.

I’ve known Alex since 2008. 

I didn’t know he fancied me until I met him two years ago, when I was newly single

Yesterday we had a lovely flirty time 

It’s a pity he lives in Poland. 

When you are in a long term relationship that has been ended unexpectedly, your self esteem takes a real bashing…

Well smashing or crushing would be the words I would personally use.

The thought that anyone else could actually fancy you never really enters your head again.

Not until it is spelt out to you

The South Bank was vibrant and buzzing again last night. 

The play was complicated but worth concentrating on. Written by Winsome Pinnock , it’s a weaved web of stories centred about the theme of slavery and black identify in Britain . From the 18th century we follow the fortunes of a Black seafaring family mixed in with the painter Turner’s famous anti slavery work The Slave Ship , as seen from Turner’s perspective and from the group of actors playing him and his contemporaries on a modern day film set. Add into the mix a contemporary  black actress, a second generation Windrush woman, and a black teacher and her pupils visiting the painting insitu and you will get the flavour of the production .

It was so refreshing picking my thoughts out with Alex after the production . 

He’s a professional film critic so post mortems come easy.

Walking back across Waterloo Bridge is a free joy at night, what with the lights of the city and the warm breeze off the Thames.

It was quite…magical.

This morning I went to the beautiful Somerset House for the massive PhotoLondon Exhibition . 

The ticket cost a few pounds more than the Banksy ticket did but you literally had two thousand more exhibits to review…an impossible task.

I concentrated my efforts on works by the vintage American photographer George Rodger and  on Robert Capa and enjoyed more contemporary works by the likes of Poulomi Basu and other documentary war photographers. 

It was like going to a huge antiques fair as it was so easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the exhibition but I didn’t want to get over faced by the amount on show so stuck to my themes 

In addition to my favourite rooms I particularly liked this work by the Norwegian photographer Simeon Johan 

Only 25,000£ of photo

And these rather moving “ portraits” by Diana Matar

I walked up from The Strand to Tobiko on Garrick Street and bought some expensive homemade sashimi takeaway before ambling through Bloomsbury to sit in the peace of Russell Square Gardens where I ate my sushi by the fountains in peace.

Russell Square Gardens 

Sunflowers in Bloomsbury’s window boxes

London is always a pleasure , the National Theatre and Somerset House and the night view from Waterloo Bridge were just icing on the cake. 

But to be found interesting and attractive by an interesting and attractive man has done me the world of good.

It really has…….

Hey ho

Rockets & Blue Lights

Met my old friend Alex….lovely day had, lovely company, great theatre at the National 

We flirt dreadfully…..always have done ……….thank goodness

Banksy was a rip off btw
 

London

 

Holiday day four

I’m on the way to London.

Bollocked the e tickets but finally managed to sort them in the end….fucking Luddite ! 

My itinerary has been sorted. 

Banksy exhibition…then check in to hotel ( Nice one in Covent Garden again) then meet my friend Alex for food, then National Theatre to see Rocket’s And Blue Lights .

Tomorrow , I’ve booked to see the London Photo Exhibition at Somerset House before coming home .

No Nu unfortunately ….she’s at the Wisley flower Show 

Curlew

Running late….meal out at The Crown tonight was lovely..just got home

Dorothy is over heated and is now lying on a blanket I put in the freezer two hours ago

I had Chicken supreme ….something I haven’t had since the 1980s

As promised a quick snap of my new curlew painting

Queer Art

 Holiday day three.

The weather remains fine.

Very warm with a nice sea breeze. 

I popped over to the Mostyn Gallery to see the Tarek Lakhrissi My Immortal exhibition 

Which was described thus

“Taking the 2003 song ‘My Immortal’ by American pop group Evanescence as its title, the exhibition reflects upon the notion of community, particularly a queer community which it considers as a complex, fragile and ephemeral entity. On the one hand it can offer possibilities of love, empowerment and protection but also nightmares and fears”

I read the exhibition notes for a long time https://www.mostyn.org/sites/www.mostyn.org/files/Exhibition%20Guide%20Tarek%20Lakhrissi%20ONLINE.pdf

But still didn’t grasp his concepts fully. 

I did like the spear mobiles though…..quite beautiful. I posted photographs on my Facebook page and my Sheffield bestie commented

“ Michael Kilner

Did you inform the gallery they have been robbed? All those mobiles stolen that were hanging from the wires. The horror!  x“

 I had a flat white in the cafe and, bought a picture of a curlew which made me feel better then went for a long walk on the Prom and out along the pier .

The breeze was gloriously warm

I bought myself an ice cream and people watched for a while

Everyone seemed to be in couples 

I’m meeting a friend for dinner later

Tomorrow I’m off to London

Holiday Day Two

Holiday day two today. 

I’m off to Mostyn Art Gallery tomorrow afternoon then I’m catching up with an old friend for dinner. I want to plan “holiday”  things after today.

Today was another “ jobs catch up day”

Mandy & Sailor John from next door gave me an old bookcase a while ago .

It was a utilitarian, ugly piece that sucked the life out of my office/ spare bedroom

Yesterday, I sanded it down and painted it a cheerful gentle  yellow with the paint leftover from the living room.

A bit rustic but certainly an improvement 

I’ve gone all DIY 

 

Stand Off

 

Ozzie

My sister brought her dog, Ozzie up to the cottage for the night.

The whole family is attending a wedding in October and for that  night Ozzie will be coming up to Trelawnyd to be babysat.

He has never been parted from my sister before.

Now I am an old hand at introducing new dogs into the household…god knows I’ve had enough experience and the secret to it has always been , stay calm, remove leads, and show everyone you are the boss.

Ozzie’s introduction to Dorothy and Mary was fine. They had all met before on the occasional walk so after the initial sniff and greet all three settled down on their respective chairs and rugs to rest as I blogged and watched tv from my place on the trendy blue sofa.

Then Albert appeared on the stairs.

Now Albert despises new dogs 

To him they are irritating stupid beings that need to be driven out of his peaceful life and home.

And his eyes flashed a cold gold behind the bannisters.

I watched the drama unfold and almost held my breath. 

Ozzie was oblivious . 

He was a bit unsettled, which was understandable and after sitting for a while he decided to explore the cottage. While he was in the kitchen, Albert walked stiffly down the stairs and sat behind the little yellow armchair in the alcove.

Ozzie walked past him twice without knowing he was there and as he was upstairs sniffing at Dorothy’s old wee stain on the office rug, Albert stalked into the kitchen after giving me a very angry look.

The inevitable meeting came  moments later.

Ozzie looked at Albert with a surprised expression on his face as the cat walked back slowly into the living room.

He jumped forward without thinking, giving a little woof as he did so.

And Albert reared up, yowled loudly and swiftly boxed Ozzie’s face with at least six smart very sharp jabs 

The drama was over and Dorothy hadn’t even opened one sleepy eye.

Ozzie hid behind the draught excluder by the front door for a while.

Albert gave himself a victory walk around the living room and then sat on the arm of the sofa next to me and licked his arse and a relaxed manner. 

As Ozzie watched silently, Albert then rubbed heads with me ( to underline his social standing) and then very slowly got up and walked up the stairs to bed.

Wash Day

 

First day of holiday.

Washing day.

I’ve cleaned the cottage and stripped the beds . 

The duvet covers  are pristine white and are drying gently on the field gate in the warm breeze we have today

Their presence signals I am home.

Monday’s were always wash days when I was a child.

The house smelled of OMO and hot water and the twin tub churned loudly in the back kitchen .

They were busy days

My grandmother was always there  

Big arms bare to the elbow and her face perspiring, she would squeeze the clothes and sheets through the mangle before filling the washing lines with laundry, wooden pegs in her mouth.

Lunch was hurried leftovers from Sunday dinner. 

Dark gravy to soften the dry meat.

The ironing came later. 

Ironing the whites with stories a plenty to entertain us with.

I used to love wash days just because of her.

I ironed the duvet today , which was a first .

I was shamed into by a gay friend who thought I was an animal for never doing so before.

I remembered my grandmother as I did so.

Wriggling the tip of the iron in the corners, like she did.

I never think of her for the longest of times now, then bam! a memory will surface like a whale breaching a calm sea and suddenly you are surrounded with thoughts and memories and smells and feelings from fifty years ago.

I miss her still

On wash days

Klute

 

I was in my 20s when I saw Klute. It was probably run late at night on channel 4 and I remember then thinking it was a class act.

I revisited it today at The Storyhouse and I was even more impressed with this new noir 1971 thriller which broke the mould by concentrating on the characterisation of its main female protagonist rather than the reveal of who was the serial killer.

Jane Fonda excels as the call girl Bree Daniels, a bright, intelligent woman who clearly understands her motivations in life. Through some revealing monologues with her pragmatic psychiatrist we see Bree take control of her call girl life where mysogyny and sexism controls her acting life. This existence is suddenly complicated by the appearance  of a strong, and passive private detective ( a doe eyed Donald Sutherland) who is investigating the disappearance of one of Bree’s supposid tricks and Bree has to confront proper and normal emotional attachment as they embark on a tentative and somewhat complicated relationship.

Director Alan J Pakula concentrates the camera on Fonda at almost every turn and she replays his trust with a nuanced and devastating intelligent performance. 

She’s a revelation, she really is and although the movie is essentially a character study of a woman in the sex industry , the film works very well as a creepy, serial killer thriller, but this objective is incidental to the main narrative .

If you haven’t seen it, please give it a go.

I’ll leave you all with this hilarious drag performance of let it go from Frozen

It has nothing to do with Klute 

But it did make me titter 

Pilgrims, Comets & Love and paracetamol

The walkers on the pilgrim walk turned up at St Michael’s around five pm. At least a dozen villagers turned up with cakes and tea and water bottles and good wishes  to greet them which was a welcomed first. Our jovial vicar David Lewis ( far left) was on hand too.

I do like him, he’s a sweet good natured soul. 

After that My friend Ruth and I went to Theatre Clwyd for an outdoor production off Catching Comets 

Which had a lot to say about the fragile nature of the male psychi in relation to love and relationships ..it was a pity there were only 20 people in the audience.

An intelligent and stimulating one man show 

I loved the venue ….when light fell on the outdoor stage…the huge brick wall of the East Wing of Theatre Clwyd stood illuminated as a back drop to the  drama….it felt like our own local Tate Modern.

 

I got home around ten pm and was stopped surprisingly by neighbour Trevor as I walked the dogs in the lane .

He’s 95 and rather breathlessly was brandishing a quality bottle of white wine, his trousers flapping.

“This Is for you .” He said, offering me the bottle 

“Whatever for ?” I asked him

Apparently I had given. him some advice a week ago about what dosages of  paracetamol to take for a painful shoulder.

“ I have my own personal doctor “ he quipped

“ And I had the best night’s sleep ever!”

And I smiled

I’m so happy to live in a place which I’m known, liked and valued

And if that sounds rather saccharine 

So be it

Life Finds A Way

 So said Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park

This delicate Welsh Poppy , I found growing valiantly by the kitchen wall this morning

I loved it’s chutzpah 

Got the pilgrims to sort out shortly then an outdoor play Chasing Comets at Theatre Clwyd 

Night shift last night