The Heat Is On

 I’ve just sent in my electricity reading on line. Trelawnyd has no piped gas, so heating is generally oil fired or from gas cylinders. As you all know my central heating and thermal store is fuelled by kiln dried logs and prices for these haven’t risen drastically as yet. 

The Community Association has a fuel expert on its committee in the shape of Gwawr . I have a feeling her ear is going to be bent double in the months to come.

When did central heating become standard ? I suspect it was the early 1970s after the fuel strikes and power cuts ? Am I right? 

Only last week I had a conversation with a young nurse about the downsides of no central heating. She couldn’t quite get her head around how freezing it was behind the couch once the front had been heated by the coal fire 

Hot water bottles and eiderdowns so heavy you almost struggled to breathe underneath them were the norm, and thickly cut white bread with strawberry jam was a treat after it was toasted in the fire with a long fork. 

I wore a vest then 

With baggy bottoms 

And bathrooms were small then too, and filled with great clouds of immersion heated water and steam , overseen with a cosmic zeal by a father who paid the bills. 

Bwthyn y llan has 18 inch walls of limestone which finally keep the heat in once the place is eventually heated up ( which takes an age) and the new windows I had put in  are double glazed and draught proof . My only extravagance being my new electric shower…blissful and glorious on a cold winters morning

I’m ready for winter

Ps….last night just before bed the “unthinkable “ happened

Dorothy cuddled up to Roger in front of the fire

Thank fuck for that

The silent war is over

idiopathic vestibular disease

 

Albert looked drunk last night. He staggered and slipped on the back of the trendy blue sofa, so much so that the dogs jumped up in panicked attack mode. 

It’s a hard fact of life that when an animal acts outside it’s normal behaviour it is ganged up upon and often attacked by its peers. 

I have seen such behaviour in hens and ducks and turkeys and dogs .

I scooped Albert up and he sat quietly on my knee for a while, before I placed him in a dark corner of the living room where he settled and slept

Today he looks his normal self 

I cleaned the carpet in the living room this morning too

And before I could put away the cleaner Roger had chewed the plug off it. 

The weather is atrocious today

Wild 

Soup and Rom Coms

 

I didn’t need to be in work today

I didn’t want to be there. 

My manager is a good one and I took time owing and left early.

I was sat in the cinema in llandudno minutes later watching the mindless Ticket To Paradise which is a rom com of sorts. 

Cinema has always provided me with a safe place to go through my childhood and adult life. 

It’s a place to get lost in 

And it’s a place to mislay your feelings

I came home and made Italian bean and Ham soup thickened with gnocchi instead of potato 

And ate a hearty bowl of it whilst listening to The Archers

Am I shallow? 

GEORGE CLOONEY’s big OLD MAN EARLOBES HAVE REALLY PUT ME OFF HIM ? 

Discuss……

This Too Shall Pass

I slept until 6 pm  

I slept heavily still with my crocs and hoodie on.

I slept with Dorothy watching me carefully as she does before I eventually opened my eyes at dusk 

It’s a habit she got into not long after she arrived

It’s not been a particularly nice day, so I made it a bit better by having a shower, walking the dogs in twilight and by eating  a nostalgic supper of chicken and mushroom pot noodle straight from the pot

Comfort food from the Spar in Dyserth. 

As I walked to the till with my pot noodle and tin of whiskers a boy of around seven asked me if I knew where the cheese was. I showed him and there followed  a rather sweet conversation between us of where the mild cheddar was. He had obviously been sent out by his mother to get something for tea . 

I pointed out a large block which cost over three pounds and the boy told me he hadn’t got enough money 

We searched the shelves together until  I found a smaller non branded block which still he couldn’t afford so I gave him a pound which gave him the extra and smiled to myself when he told the cashier to keep the change when he was 9 pence in credit.

I watched The Repair Shop and had a good cry at the table renovation.

And we are all going to bed feeling just a little bit better.

I’m not going to bang on about the lows of being single.

We all know what they are, and we singletons live with the negatives by generally celebrating the positives when we can . 

The negatives can just creep up behind you when you are unawares , like rainy clouds do in Autumn.

And I hate it when those negatives slap your face hard when you really don’t want them to.

At least I have a nervous bulldog who watches over me carefully when I sleep

Who can ever say that ……? Eh ?

Getting Going

Some days I feel brave and positive and full of bounce.

Like one of those girls of roller skates you see on transatlantic tampon adverts

I can do this life thing and grab it by the balls.

I am that assertive twat that asked the neighbours to keep their yappy dogs quiet

And I almost brought in the cheap shoe gag when coping with a strangely irate woman in Jackson’s Nurseries who belittled the cashier over the price of cushion. 

Today I don’t really feel brave and positive and bouncy.

I feel lumpy and old and I can’t get my head around Google classroom as quick as I’d like.

I want someone to make me soup and rub my hair with cold fingers

And I want to be told it will be alright

Which of course , it will be.

I’m a bit tired, me thinks …and my bladder is playing up today

Dorothy and I are going to sneak under the eiderdown shortly and have 40 winks 

Hey ho

The Five Of Us

Tonight it is cool, almost cold with a brisk wind

The five of us settled in the living room together.

The fire is lit, and I have a blanket come homemade pashmina on

Chic Eleanor would be proud.

Mary is on the little grey arm chair in the corner

Roger is in front of the fire 

Dorothy is in her usual position next to me 

And Albert is perched on the back of the trendy blue Sofa next to my shoulder.

We sit in the dark , with only me watching Bake off.

The chubby Polish guy is sweet

Roger took himself to bed in his crate in the kitchen a few minutes ago 

Finally, he’s comfortable enough to make his own decisions 

 and he is truly home

Young Dog New Tricks

 I got up early and after walking the dogs, Roger and I drove to Llandudno. I had to take my DBS paperwork in to HR and needed to complete my online mandatory training, something I cannot access on nights or at weekends as I needed the aid of their help desk. 

Roger proved to be a wow with the secretarial and managerial staff and after some initial nerves 

Slowly got used to the adulation, closing his eyes to the mew mews of the ladies .

I took him to the bedside of one patient who I had discussed his progress with.

Much is said regrading disclosing your private life to patients , but in the hospice some idle banter about ordinary things can often be a great leveller to patients undergoing stress towards their end of life.

I shared stories of Roger’s small adventures after coming to the cottage and she had offered me some sage advice of how to deal with a dog not blessed with a huge brain.

Like most of my Welsh who visited patients, Roger was gentle and inquisitive with my patient. 

He lay next to her, with his paws either side of her elbow and he let her pat his head gently with a boney hand without playing with the tie on her nightdress sleeve  which dangled before him

She coo cooed at him quietly, telling him how smart he looked and she didn’t turn her head away when a single tear ran down the side of her face beside her ear. 

Roger sniffed her face gently as she called out “ My sweet, sweet boy “ 

…and it was me who turned away and pretended I hadn’t noticed.

The Famous Five

 

Gorgeous Dave and I have a sort of pact together. We not only book theatre for productions that we know we may like but we have agreed we would try things off our own radar so to speak.

It was the World premier of The Famous Five - a new musical by Elinor Cook at Theatr Clwyd and although I scarcely thought that Enid Blyton was our cup of tea, we went.

It’s not a great musical 

Apart from just one song, where Aunt Fanny( Laura Denning) bemoans being an overlooked housewife , the songs are a bit bland and at times very shouty. 

A sense of 1930s whimsy is almost lost in present day ideals  of saving the planet and modern language and the cast of characters as written by Blyton, just don’t have the light and shade and depth the characters in a musical need to have in order to make it interesting, even when Cook brings in the potentially difficult elements of bad parenting , unhappy marriages and sibling rivalry 

Which was a shame.

The puppetry of Timmy was a highlight of the musical

When Things Go Quiet

 It’s a while since I had a puppy.

It’s probably like parents with grown up children.

You quickly can forget the rules of ownership 

And the first one is?

When everything is quiet

Something is afoot.

20 minutes unsupervised after a walk and two pot plants were disemboweled and scattered around the living room and one pile of vomit  left thoughtfully on the trendy blue sofa seat.

Roger has had his first telling off and is quiet and contrite in his cage.

Im sure Dorothy is actually smiling from her arm chair at his disgrace.

The Randa girls stopped yesterday. I say girls loosely as they are now very much young women but I’m happy to say that their need to cuddle the dogs have not diminished since they were little girls. Mary clambered into Eve’s lap and happily closed her eyes and Liv held Roger as though he was a baby, and although he sat stiffly at first, unsure of this new “ friend” he relaxed soon enough and closed his eyes too, as Welsh terriers have a want to do.

I reminded both girls of the time I babysat them years ago when I caught them back combing William ‘s red fur so much though that he happily resembled Tina Turner in her Mad Max period

Things suddenly went quiet then…..

What am I doing today? 

I refer to the filofax list after making a few litres of sugar free lemonade.

I drink nothing else during the day.

In the filofax is scribbled Shona

…..this means Lunch with an old colleague from my Intensive Care Days 

Reading……means Some reading for college tomorrow.

Theatre with Gorgeous Dave . A premier of The Famous Five musical at Theatre Clwyd.

It may be shite , but because it’s just bedding in and the tickets are cheap.

The weather changed last night and at 2 am I walked around the cottage closing the small windows which had been open for much of the summer . Both Mary and Dorothy cuddled up to me in bed, and even Albert sneaked in to the periphery to share some warmth. 

Roger has yet to be able to negotiate  the stairs so is not allowed on the bed as yet.

The winter duvet is airing over the thermal store

I don’t feel very inspired to write this morning 

Hey ho

Car Reliance

 

I’m going into work late today. Bluebell is playing up and I’m waiting for a man with the van to get her going again. 

I’m hoping it’s something simple. 

I have some time owed to me and there are enough trained staff to cover my absence until things can be sorted.

I’m lucky today, that this is the case.

Relying on a car is given to country people. 

It’s also a pain when things go wrong. 

I work 23 miles away from Trelawnyd which doesn’t sound far, but depending on traffic it’s a 40 - 45 minute commute one way on a bad day

Twice last week I caught pub quiz Claire walking to Dyserth to catch a bus to Rhyl. The walk on grass verges with long grass and no pavements next to a busy A road is difficult and potentially dangerous. She was waiting for her new car to be delivered and as there is no public transport available until later morning she just had to walk to work….I was happy to give her a lift, even though Dorothy never stopped barking.

I remember just a few years ago now when Aunty Gladys was in her late nineties and starting to get a bit confused she once set out on a dark winters morning to walk to the doctor’s surgery on the same road. 

Luckily two “ delightful “ policemen picked her up and took her home before disaster occurred 

Bluebell has her main service and Mot next week. 

She has served me well for the past few years 

And I hope she will last me a few more

Mrs Harris and Other Stories

 

I bought a second hand book online last week and it arrived yesterday. Paul Gallico’s The Snow Goose. The novella was written in the 1940’s and read by me when I was eleven back in 1973. 

It haunted me then, 

The visuals in my head of the snow goose circling the little boat in Dunkirk

I have not read it since although one of Gallico’s later novels The Poseidon Adventure is still one of my most favourite and perplexing reads. 

Gallico’s seems to be haunting me a little for after seeing this trailer I’ve booked to see Mrs Harris Goes To Paris at the Storyhouse 

It’s a gentle movie,I know I’d like 

I didn’t know until recently that Paul Gallico wrote the novel 

Pond

 The velvet voiced Linda and I had our first Pond Open Day meeting last night over one of her lethal gin and bitter lemons . The other members of the TCA have done all of the hard work clearing the land and planting and setting up the decking and the like. 

Our remit is just to sort out the open day which will, I’m hoping include the school children who I suggest will be conscripted into a competition to design a pond logo.

Flintshire council will have a whole plethora of environmental experts we may be able to use on the day and with the promise of free home made cakes and cups of tea, I’m sure we will have an impressive turn out. 

I didn’t stay too late. I’m mindful of not outstaying my welcome as Linda and hubby Nick are such good company so it had just turned properly dark when I left their cosy cottage which overlooks the pond and original village green.

It’s one of my favourite places in the village and one of the oldest. A square boarded on three sides with houses and cottages. The fourth side, the pond and lane leading to the Livery Stables and the ruined Siambr Wen 

Youth club Bridget and her family, Boffin Cameron and his , the Manley’s , Mr Poznań  all live on the quadrangle and each house ,was cheerfully lit up behind Living room curtains and small door windows. 

I walked over to the pond and stood watching the bats flashing in black shadows over the water for a while. 

And I feel grateful I am home

Cack Handed

 Many years ago now, a doctor who was neurologically assessing my patient paused and watched me draw up some medication into a syringe. 

Because I am clumsy I always draw up meds in a certain way which may look conspicuous to those clinical staff that do it day in and day out. 

The way I do it minimises the chance of me dropping the glass vial but does look somewhat ham fisted to others. The doctor asked me if I had a tendency to drop things.

I was intrigued and told him that I often dropped items at work and when cooking 

“ Do you know a millisecond before you drop something that you are going to drop it?” he asked and that was a lightbulb moment. For this strange phenomenon has happened for all of my life.

When I was a child I was called cackhanded

As a teen, I was just gauche and awkward. 

I cannot dance, I am often awkward in my own skin and I fall over when others don’t.

My fine coordination can be lacking and at choir when Jamie feels he wants to push his chorus to some movement to accompany the singing, it is universally amusing that I cannot do both

I am, also well know for food stains down my t shirts

“I think you have a mild form of motor Dyspraxia” the doctor told me and I felt so much better after decades of being called clumsy and by association a bit dim .

I repaired the back door handle today. It was fiddly, especially as  there was a tiny Allen key to negotiate, one   which I must have dropped a hundred times. But after an absolute age I had drilled new holes, matched up the handles with the spindle and got the handle working well.

I’m meeting someone for lunch and have just realised I’m almost late…..

Check my T shirt 

Yeap! 

There’s breakfast egg all down the front of it.

Dreary Day

 

What a difference a day makes.

The weather is miserable, it’s wet and very damp and the dogs are restless.

Dorothy woke me up at 7 am- gently occluding my airway with her throat until I woke up…it works like a dream.

I’ve walked them now twice in the rain, shopped bought a new back door handle ( it broke last night in Trendy Carol’s husband’s hand) and cleaned the cottage . 

By the time I’d bleached the kitchen floor and hung damp washing next to the thermal store it was almost two in the afternoon and I’ve decided to do no more.

Feet are up on the couch 

A Victorian thriller on the tv.

I’ve heard we have a Ukrainian family living in the village . They have children in the school. It would be nice to meet them and say hello. There is a coffee morning on Saturday on in the hall they may well be going to , but I’m working 

The interest rates have gone up today. 

I’ve held off lighting the fire until later

I’ve put a jumper on

Ps in Roger’s Aladdin Crate cave of Stolen goods tonight

Another flip flop, a lurid purple microwaveable bowl ( my soup tea) one dog lead, 

One paperback ( thankfully now chewed) “ Basics of counselling” 

And my best reading glasses with the arms chewed off

The Welsh Orient Express

 Nu and I had a table to ourselves in a coach that looked as though it had been plucked directly from the set of Murder On The Orient Express

It was quite lovely

The train left Chester just after 9 am and we were tucking into a glorious brunch soon after we skirted Oswestry and followed the Welsh border south towards Cardiff. 

The staff couldn’t do enough for us.

A friendly middle aged lady sat opposite us with her elderly parents. They were from Whitstable and it was the parents anniversary . She quipped that she knew that Nu and I were not married and were friends 

“ you never stop talking to each other” she said

It was true , we have talked for twelve hours straight.

The train went through Hereford and entered Cardiff around one and we walked up to Cardiff Castle where our guide showed us through the Victorian house, through rooms King Charles held private meetings in only last week.

The quadrangle at Cardiff Castle

The beautiful roof garden on the top of the Castle’s Tower

We finished at the Castle, had a drink in the sunshine and mooched around the city centre before catching the Northern Belle home.

The five course dinner which was served in the deco dining car was truly lovely and by the time we came to a final halt back in Chester Nu was sipping the last of her port and I had just finished my coffee as the 1930s singer ( complete with spats) sang me happy birthday

I’m so lucky to have Nu

The day was perfect

Northern Belle

 It’s too late to play around with blogger. I have Uni every Tuesday evening until 9 pm and tonight blogger won’t even let me comment at all on my own blog after I eventually sat down fifteen minutes ago.

I eventually gave up the ghost

Tomorrow Im off with Nu on the Northern Belle,

It’s her birthday gift for my 60th…

She’s always come up trumps in my life….always has

What larks Pip

Balancing The Books

 It’s autumn and with yesterday all done and dusted the passing into another season feels so much more poignant. 

I’ve dug out jumpers and made pea and mint soup this morning and walked the dogs at 7.30 am when it felt cold and quiet and darker than I expected. 

And the day has an anticlimactic feel to it, which is exactly what I didn’t want to happen

And so I’ve taken my coffee upstairs and opened the office again.

Roger is happy in the kitchen, where I have hidden tiny bits of dry bagel around his bedding and under the table . He is happily searching for crumbs with satisfied nom noms when one is found.

Mary is asleep on the reading chair.

I am behind on paperwork today. 

Of looking at the bills,

Of checking for the best deals, of balancing the books.

There are other things that need sorting too. 

Online mandatory training for work, the Village Pond open day 

Updating the village website

Organising a meal here for my family ( it’s been over 5 years since I hosted anything) 

A super dinner party for friends, promised and overdue.

My friend Nigel hasn’t visited for a few years too, he needs a date to come over

I haven’t made lists in ages. 

Spare time is wasted on tiktok, YouTube, day dreaming, going out!

I need to make one today.

The filofax is ready.

I feel I need to be worried more about money too

The electricity bills need checking

Bloody hell the website says I’m 700 quid in credit ! 

There’s a turn up for the books! 

Shit, I’ve just remembered Bluebell needs an MOT and service 

Bollocks I need to get dog wormer too! 

11 am and 16 things ticked off so far

Just 15 bigger things to do

Happy Days Again

My nephew went to London yesterday, he’s been a bit low recently 

He went to soak up the emotion and experience of the “Queen’s Weekend”  and also met up with his daughter who lives there .

He sent me this photo last night after meeting up with her and her boyfriend,

They were scootering through central London

I love it so much

Funeral

 

I think broadcaster Huw Edwards explained the pomp and traditions around a State Funeral to me better than anyone else has.

He said a few days ago that a State Funeral is designed to be SEEN .

That resonated with me 

It makes sense.

The lying in state, the Grandchildren’s vigil and the Queue ( which was a phenomenon all of its own)  all had a theatrical, visual and ceremonial power of their own and in the case of the “ the queue” allowed the public to give a nod or a curtsy with their own faces joined in the spotlight.

I’m watching the tv now and will add to today’s blog as the morning progresses. 

Justin Trediau has just arrived who , apart from King Felipe of Spain, must be one of the most attractive world leaders.

The gun carriage has just left WestMinster hall amid a blast of bagpipers 

The hair on my neck , stands up.

142 sailors pulled the gun carriage through the streets from Westminster Hall to the Abbey

I’m glad it’s all over now 

But I’m proud to say , it’s all been done incredibly well, 

I have my highlights……Princess Anne and Sophie, Countess of Wessex have shone out as did the grandchildren’s vigil, not an easy undertaking in anyone’s mind and Charles will be a safe park of hands as king and has already stamped his way forward with his impromptu walkabouts and blustery pen gate.

It’s been a funny old week all told 

Like I said, I’m glad it’s all over

Ps I hope Charles keeps the Queen’s personal bodyguard Major Thomson has proved to be a bit of on line celebrity 

Chewer

Dorothy is just about coping with Roger’s wayward ways 

I went to stock up on “ funeral food” for tomorrow and wish I hadn’t. 

It was worse than bloody Christmas and Tesco’s was packed.

I got my nibbles, bought faggots in gravy for my tea and added pigs ears to my final items.

Roger needs to chew on something.

The new man in my life is a chewer and a hoarder, only this morning I ventured into his crate to find the following items hidden under his bedding

1 hairbrush

1 flip flop

1 small plastic container of olive tapenade

2 pencils

One sock 

I chewed plastic clothes peg

And oddly the red cloth lobster given to me by Mrs Trellis but with its antenna chewed off