Taskmaster

 

Another day another tv programme review.

That’s how simple my life is today.

After all the detailed and oh so useful psychological reflection session at work, coming home on Wednesday  to an empty house is still hard after a challenging shift.

What we all need at these times is someone else to run a bath for you and to kiss the top of your head as you soak away the days stress in bubbles you’d never sort out for yourself 

Hey ho..I’m not complaining …I’m just saying

Anyhow,

Second best is a large gin and some nice tv.

The day before yesterday it was the great Royal documentary

Last night Taskmaster was back like an old friend returning home.

Silly, funny, entertaining , and clever, this quiz show has been aired since 2015

I love Alex Horne and adore Welsh born Greg Davies so the addition of my favourite Victoria Coren Mitchell is a real bonus in this series 12..and so is the rather sexy Gus Khan with his smile and lovely beard 

Have a look at it if u can it’s on channel 4 Thursday nights 9 pm

I’m back at work all day today and tomorrow ….thank you to Trendy Carol again for taking the girls 

I couldn’t cope without her and her hubby’s help.

I will leave you with a pic of a slumbering Dorothy with Sunflowers last night

Welcome to my world x

The Duke

 I got home last night and took a rain check at the what’s app video meet I had planned with a friend.

I was all out of talk

Instead I poured myself a very large gin and sat down to watch the Prince Philip-The Royal Family Remembers 

The documentary was filled with personal memories spoken to camera by all of Philip’s Children, their spouses and his adult grandchildren. The only absentees were Kate and Meghan and of course the Queen and the only addition was one of Prince Philip’s personal secretaries who quite movingly gave the audience a stiff upper lip viewing of her boss’ private offices.

I liked the documentary 

It humanised the Duke enormously and it reeked of respect and affection for a man who didn’t suffer fools   but who had a sharp brain and a talent for leadership.

The Royals collectively came out very well too.

I was especially impressed by Anne ( wearing double denim without a care) and her children Peter and Zara who all spoke eloquently and movingly about their memories. 

The best anecdote surly came from Prince William who shared the story of when his grandfather stopped a  young man hiking on one of his own Duke of Edinburgh award challenges and asked him how he was getting on. The young hiker, irritated  with the interruption shot out with a “ Fuck off Grandad” comment which apparently amused the Duke no end.

I slept long and heavy last night and got up late this morning

Outside the back door my sister had left a bucket of sunflowers she had grown on her allotment

And I cut and arranged them in a glass vase.

They have lifted the living room with their sunny faces

Goats on the Orme

The patient I was fond of died peacefully today with his family round him.

I'm sitting quietly having a late lunch, alone

It's sunny and I can see the goats on the Orme

Four of them standing very still against a deep blue sky

 

GGBO

 The Great British Bake Off contestants were introduced today and it’s a more ethnically diverse bunch than we’ve  ever seen before…. 2 Greeks, a geek, an Asian, a hairy Italian, a humourless German, one posh old lady who cries ,a  bright Liverpudlian, a Greta Thumburg lookalike, a gay Jamaican…….etc …..they are all here…. All we needed was a Jewish New York lesbian in a wheelchair and every box would have been ticked.

It feels that they’ve tried a tad too hard…..

The programme still works after eleven years because it’s about nice people doing nicely talented things in a nice way 

Holiday End

 The lecture was less about understanding violence and more about understanding and diagnosing mental illness which I thought it would be. 

It was interesting nevertheless.

I’m back in work tomorrow and I’m a little ambivalent about it. 

I’ve so enjoyed my holiday and know the patient I am close to is still with us. In some ways I was hoping he had passed away before I got back on the floor.

It will be fine, but I still has that feeling, I did have as a child the day I started secondary school after the summer holidays.

This morning, as I was messaging my friend in Korea I was cooking udon noodles with chicken for my lunch tomorrow. To give the meal a Korean twist, I use gochujang paste with soy, garlic and honey. 

I bought the gochijang in Waitrose and a jar lasts ages

I’ve only just realised that Mr Poznań caught me licking my gravy covered fingers this morning after I had put Mary’s dinner bowl onto the front lawn. 

He had distracted me with talk about the buddliea  

This isn’t such a big deal except I’m sure he thought that the bowl was full to the brim of dog food.

I must have to admit now , that it wasn’t even though It looked as though it was….a few times a week I treat Mary to some tinned stewing steak. In it I disguise a big dollop of cod liver oil which seems to be helping her coat condition. 

But Mr Poznań wasnt privy to this information and now must think, I’m an animal 

He was right about the buddliea though. My three bush/trees have lost their blooms and now look dull and brown and rather sad. The clouds of butterflies that enveloped them only a week ago have all but gone 

“Prepare yourself for autumn” Mr Poznań lamented 

Summer holidays have finished I thought 

The Walking Dead 11x05

I’ve caught up with The Walking Dead on Disney+ 

( Is it me but am I the only one who thinks it a bit odd that a violent zombie apocalypse tv show is airing on Disney?)

The last season has been somewhat variable but this episode 5 was a cracker! 

I love this little gentle scene between Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Judith (The delightfully talented Cailey Fleming )

Quite lovely

Understanding Violence

 

Zoom lectures have become some of the major benefit side effects, of the pandemic

I have enrolled in several film study lectures varying from such topics as new film noir, wind mise en scéne and horror and have dipped my toes into Opera appreciation and Welsh Folklore.

Tomorrow at noon there is a free zoom lecture run by the Chester Storyhouse in conjunction with Chester University. It’s topic should be interesting as it is a discussion by a forensic psychologist on the subject of violence .

https://www.storyhouse.com/event/dangerous-minds

I’ve left the link if anyone wants to give the free lecture a try.

When I was a psychiatric nurse I was never really exposed to many violent encounters. 

Sure there would be the odd moment when a sectioned patient may have needed restraining, or medication was needed to be given. But the training was good and staffing was adequate that these sort of situations were rare.

As a general nurse however, I have been involved in many more graphic and upsetting physical altercations , not everyone with patients and I must say, being of a bigger build has proved useful at these times.

I have punched only one person in my life. And that punch was meant to hurt and hurt badly, as the recipient had pulled a knife out in a drunken rage.. 

And I have also slapped someone who said something so hurtful I reacted like a pained child and lashed out.

The punch I don’t regret

The slap I did.

That is a synopsis of my brief journey into instigating violence.

I will listen to the lecture by Professor Taj Nathan with interest.

He’s somewhat easy of the eye too 

I wonder if I will see any of you there?  

The Intern

The Intern is a sweet unassuming film

I knew it would be. 

Essentially it’s an old fashioned romcom with the friendship between 70 year old return to work Ben ( Robert DeNero) and his thirty something Internet sales company wunderkind boss Jules ( Anne Hathaway)

as the rom in the con 

The narrative meanders gently from Ben’s quiet and slightly desperate  existence without the stimulation of work to his and Jules’ acceptance that success is a balance between home and work and love life ( but only if you are successful at all three which was a tad disappointing, but it was refreshing enough to have a movie that celebrates the talents and experiences of the older population even though DeNero and Rene Russo ( who pops up briefly as a sexy something 60 year old company masseuse )scrub up nicely.

Hathaway is on her best charming form and is quite lovely in the lead role with DeNero gallantly underplaying his role nicely in support.

Light, frothy and at times kind of  moving…it was a good choice of film, on a quiet Sunday afternoon

A Quiet Rainy Sunday

 

Sunday morning.

Coffee and eggs.

The Archers.

I’ve cut flowers from the garden and set them up in dark corners of the cottage to lift the day

Then

A walk around the village 

The main road is quieter on Sundays  so Dorothy was able to negotiate our way without the usual hysterics.

Few people are about 

I waved at Nick and velvet voiced Linda who were having breakfast at their kitchen table and to gwawr out in her car. But I saw no one else.

Most of the neat gardens are still retaining their colour.

Stan’s deep maroon dahlias look marvellous, and the cheerful rubekkia at Graham’s are still a stand out on High Street…but I did notice that the garden around the hall look a little untidy and overgrown . 

I will see if I can get a few volunteers together to help me tidy it up 

The rain started as soon as we got home. 

That fine rain that soaks you immediately .

I’ve written emails in support of the Pilgrim Church and posted more on the village websites about it, but my back is aching so I can’t sit for long.

Yesterday I ordered a dvd which will, surprisingly will be delivered today ( I thought there was a shortage of delivery drivers) Its a gentle comedy drama called The Intern with Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNero

An Ideal Film for a quiet rainy Sunday

Enjoy

 

Brunch

 

I met my friend Cheryl for Brunch and a walk this morning. Both off our diets for one day 

We had the full breakfast at Bryn Williams with buckets of good conversation and strong coffee.

I’m having a quiet day tomorrow so it was a lovely way of bookending my holiday.

I’ve had a nice productive holiday.

Cheryl was impressed

I must have bored her with most of my list but she didn’t let on ..

A trip to London

A trip to Liverpool

1 art gallery visit

2 theatre visits

3 exhibition visits

1 stand up comedy night

1 evening with ( online)

2 evening meals out

2 cinema trips

I day sanding and decorating a bookcase

Afternoons at Aberfalls, Colwyn Bay, Chester and Llandudno

Brunch at Porth Eirias

An afternoon of very nice sex! Hey ho…

( that one pricked-up her ears)

I got home this afternoon to a jar of jam left anonymously which was nice 

I’m getting that strange feeling I used to get days before I went back to school at the end of summer holidays..but it’s ok…

A National Treasure

 

Miriam was interviewed by the delightful and insanely attractive Simon Callow and to be honest she started off in a rather subdued and for her persona of chat tv shocker , incredibly subdued way

But when the audience fired questions at her, she blossomed into a warm, self reflective, certainly strident   and intelligent character who , loved celebrated and adored her epithet of national treasure 

A lovely evening 

Her autobiography This Much Is True was released yesterday 

Aber Falls and Miriam

 

This afternoon the girls and I drove to the mouthful which is the village Abergwyngregyn and walked up to Aber Falls. 

The girls were buggered when we got back to the car

Tonight, instead of the cinema , I’ve treated myself to cheese and crackers and I’m going to live stream “An Evening With Miriam Margolyes “ from the Alexandra Palace 

I do hope she’s foul mouthed

Missing Julie, Bab’s Patchworks and Lilies by the back door

 

Even though Trelawnyd is so small, I can go weeks without catching up with Jason The Affable Despot .

He’s a self proclaimed hermit at times.

Last night we managed a meet and went to see the world premier of Missing Julie at Theatre Clwyd.

It’s always fun catching up with Jason. He’s bright and arch and funny and laughs easily . He also doesn’t suffer fools gladly, a trait which I like.

The play was ok. A revisiting and a rehash of the infamous Swedish 1888 novel Miss Julie now set in post World War One North Wales. 

It had a lot to say about class and sex and war and post lockdown and we couldn’t help but giggle when Jason likened one of the more dour characters to someone we both know in the village.

It’s weird cos my sister and I saw another adaptation of the novel two years ago at the Storyhouse in Chester .set in 1945 Hong Kong .

That one was unfortunately much better. 

I hate to say that.

Anyhow …..Yesterday I received some gifts 

Babs from the US, sent me two exquisite home made patchwork wall hangings which will sit beautifully on my spare room/ office walls in the East Wing of Bwthyn y Llan 

I love both of them, but adore the fact she incorporated the gay rainbow flag in her design of the star…

I am always so humbled by gifts like these.

Gifts that have been made over time with care, affection  and with skills I will never possess.

Thank you Babs….

 I took the dogs out yesterday morning only to find a large vase full of lilies sat on my patio table when I returned.

I was pondering who was responsible when a disembodied voice piped up from next door’s garden 

“ We are going away for a day or so, and didn’t want to waste the flowers……..enjoy them!” 

I will……..

Before anyone says anything , Albert never goes near the kitchen window .

Today I’ve sent out emails to organise a meeting of the “ Support the Church Campaign” 

We need to get cracking on a plan of attack ……

I can’t believe I’ve had almost two weeks off  

I’ve had a satisfying holiday 

Recharged and peaceful ….this afternoon I’m back at the cinema and tomorrow I’m meeting a dear old friend in Lancashire  for brunch and hugs and walks and big  talks 

It’s funny but before my divorce went through …and  until really  recently I felt terribly brittle and lonely at times 

But this week ….I’ve felt more empowered and ok with the brick bats thrown in my direction .

Mowgli Chat Bombs

 

It was still sunny and warm when I got to Liverpool yesterday. I walked past Church Alley to photograph the umbrella art before mooching around John Lewis in order to touch lots of nice, fashionable and expensive items. 

I met my friend Colin at Mowgli and initiated him in the delights of the chat bomb.

Now if you get the chance try eating this delicate Indian tamarind dough balls filled with an explosion of flavour of chick peas, garbanzo beans, green chilli pickle, a cumin raita, pomegranate seeds and coriander.

You pop the whole bomb into your mouth and bite…kerrpow! BLOODY LOVELY 

Simon Amstell at the Philharmonic Hall was entertaining , in an understated Jewish Gay sort of way. I missed his enfant terrible days of Never Mind The Buzzcocks when he terrified the celebrity contestants with his waspish wit…last night he was much more reflective, and gentle .

Not a belly laugh evening, but a sweet smiling one.

As I was eating and socialising in Liverpool Cheryl R was working hard at the village bingo night

She raised 900£ For St Michael’s last night. Well done that woman.

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.