Dragonfly



I am working tonight and Sunday ! My last two official shifts as a nurse! Hey ho
I will leave you with a photo of Albert who I snapped as he watched a dragonfly dart through the cottage

Out Of The Blue

I wasn't going to blog today, I was going to let Anne Marie bask in her justified glory! Ive made minted pea soup and a batch of butternut squash curried soup. I've painted the neighbour's wooden fencing and I've scrubbed the overlooked dirty scum marks off the bath.
Not much has happened today


Then as Mary and I stood at the junction of Marian and London Road, on our powerwalk, a small black hatchback sped past and something fairly hard and white flew out of the passenger window and hit me square in the chest!
The projectile didn't hurt me, but I was somewhat shocked!

It was a shop bought cheeseburger with just one bite taken out of it.!
I took it back for the bachelors to eat! 

Thank You Anne Marie



Anne Marie has supported The Trelawnyd Flower Show for many years now!
I love this!
A woman from New York State having a huge influence on a tiny Welsh event populated by just a few hundred people!
How wonderful is that?
This year , as always she has sent a box load of home knitted items to sell on Auntie Glad's stall....
Oh behalf of the show committee.....Sailor John, Trendy Carol, Animal Helper Pat, matriarch Irene, Terry and Ann, Heulwen and Derek, Val , Meirion and Daphne and myself
We Thank You x 

Duelling Banjos



Not everyone in the village is a smiling, happy character right out of The Darling Buds of May. In fact some are just downright mean.
Last night was a case in point.
I was selling raffle tickets door to door when found myself at the door of a somewhat prickly woman I had tried to conscript into entering the flower section of last year's show soon after she had arrived in Trelawnyd from a village further along the coast..
I should have known better, for as soon as she had bought her raffle ticket, she launched into what only could be called a bad mouthing tirade against her neighbours.
I tried to change the subject by complimenting her hanging baskets and planters but this seemed to infuriate her even more and she spat out that she would never enter anything into the show as one neighbour "always won everything" 
I should have walked away, but as she went on an on about how awful people that I actually know, where, I became so irritated that I dropped a grenade into the mix by smiling sweetly and adding " Have you ever thought It could be you?" 
She hit the roof
" Derek! Billy!" She called behind her " This man has just insulted me!" 
It felt as though we were in some strange movie as slowly two large stern rough looking men lumbered to the door behind her and I suddenly realised that the woman wasn't playing cards with a full deck.
Suddenly I had visions of being thumped out of my second best Walking Dead T shirt, so rabbited on a bit about how friendly I HAD found the villagers until the elder man slowly got bored and ambled back inside.
It was the oddest of confrontations .

Gop Hill and The Village

A recent video of the neolithic burial mount on Gop Hill below which the village nestles.
There is a lovely shot of the village at the end!
Relax and enjoy
Ps..tomorrow's post tells the tale of how I was nearly beaten up selling raffle tickets today! 

You need bigger balls!


I'm  now sat at the kitchen table with a large coffee. According to radio 2 research has " proven" that drinking three cups of coffee in a 24 hour period is good for you. I drink one massive cup of coffee in the morning, so I'm doing something right!
One of cockerel bachelors has been attacking a couple of the more timid  neighbours. Nothing serious given his size but it was slightly upsetting for the slightly built Mandy who was actually sharing a few crusts of bread with them at the time.
"Stand you ground, stamp your foot at him, face him and flap your arms like wings" I told her as she gave me a rather dubious look. " He has to know you are a tough bitch with balls bigger than his" 
It seems to have worked as Mandy has been " flapping her arms" like a good un everytime she passes the group as they sunbathe by the field gate.
Back to my coffee.
The sun is shining today too which is lovely. I can catch up with jobs after the torrential rain of yesterday.
My job list is growing as my 500 ml coffee cup empties

Bath dogs,
Order coal and logs, book car service, more phone calls....Flower Show jobs
Paint old Trevor's side fence ( he's paying me!)
Finalise garden entries for Flower Show
Deliver remaining schedules, and sell raffle tickets to the East side of village,
Make turkey meatballs and a tomato sauce from scratch for supper
Write a letter to the village conservation group
But for now......before I start.......I shall sit quietly at the kitchen table with the sun streaming through the window.
And I will drink my coffee
Beetroot rat

The latest novelty veg photos
Zombie celeriac  

Tired & Emotional

I finished SAMS shift at 1am and was happily driving through the village of Dyserth home when a figure in black staggered into the road in front of me , tottered in front of the Spar shop and bounced over the litter bin which looked like R2D2 before landing legs akimbo outside Morgan's Pharmacy.
I stopped and half got out of the car before the figure waved me away
" I'm alright I'm just PISHED !" He called out and in way of an explanation he added " It's my birthday!"
" How old are you? " I asked as he rolled on the floor
" 66! " He slurred
There's no fool like an old fool! 

Catch Ups

I have known this woman for thirty six years!
She looks great...I look like the wreck of the Hesperus
Hey ho

Where does the time go?

Visitors

Wet dog

The cottage smells of wet dog.
I have old friends from Sunny, fragrant Australia popping in and the place reeks of animal!
I've ran around with the fabreeze and in a moment of madness squirted each dog with a few blasts of my clinque Happy...so now the cottage smells of fabreeze, clinique Happy AND wet dog...it's not a nice combination!
It's an awfully wet and dismal day to be visiting Wales a fact made worse by Albert who has utilized the time it took me to drag the dogs around a very wet Trelawnyd in order to remove the prawn filling from some newly made sandwiches left out on the sideboard. ( I say handmade.....handmade by marks and Spencer!!!!)

When we visited our friends in their mansion just outside Sydney the sun was shining and the Kookaburras laughed in the shade of the trees!
Here a bedraggled cockerel is crowing into the rain as damp Mrs Trellis runs past in her kagool

Being Nice


People are suddenly being nicer to me,
At work someone brought me a cake and two scotch eggs were put in the nurses' fridge for my break!
and I received hugs from members of staff that won't see me next weekend when I finally complete my last shift.
"I won't see you again!!!!" one menopausal colleague wailed
" I am retiring NOT dying of cancer!" I reminded her.
It just so happens that four of my favourite nurses are leaving roughly when I do. One is going into nurse education, one into Student support and the other is moving to an ophthalmic ward where the hours and the physicality of nursing is better for her back.
We shall have a joint leaving do, which means more people there but increases the chances that someone who does not like you but likes someone else turns up......
What larks Pip!
Even Ursula or Petra might say something nice to me this week! 

So my question to you all this sunny Sunday afternoon is this?

What was the best compliment someone has ever given you?

 I am reminded  of my grandmother here, who was the Queen of the backhanded compliment.....on seeing that I had made an effort to get my unruly hair neat and tidy for a family do, she commented " oh your hair looks lovely.....from the back!" 

Answers on postcards please!


Queen Lumley


The other night I watched a documentary that was so warm and fuzzy and sweet that I totally forgot the ills of the world for an hour or so
Joanna Lumley's India saw the actress revisit the country of her birth and with a whispering, schoolgirl charm we saw her flit through the Calcutta slums, the Himalaya mountains and Elephant jungles like a smiling and very gracious cocktail party host.
Lumley is a delighterful woman for everything she experiences is either " extraordinary" or " magnificent" and with this slightly naive 1950s way of looking at the world she draws in people of all cultures to delight in her charm and politeness.
At one point as she was driving in an open topped sports car, she greeted a passing street woman standing by the side of the road with a beeming smile and a breathless " hello sweetie"
I was totally beguiled by her

Copybook Blot

well after today's once in a lifetime comment by The Prof
I well a truly blotted my copybook by leaving on the car lights and radio when I went to pick him up after his very hard and long day in Cardiff
The car battery failed and we had to wait for an hour and a quarter for a jump!
Earlier I was the best husband since Prince Albert
Now I am a useless burke.......that has a brain the size of an average peanut!


Nursing-Some Final Thoughts


I was twenty when I started to nurse. It was 1983 and I was a gauche unassertive, shy character who looked awkward even in his nursing group photo where he should have felt comfortable amongst his friends and his mentor.

Psychiatric nursing taught me to act as an advocate and to care for the distressed and weak.
Spinal Injury Nursing taught me to nurse holistically and to trust my gut in how to handle people.
Nurse management taught me to believe in myself , voice my own opinions and helped me to develop the skill of taking a deep breath before speaking.
Oh, ...and Intensive care nursing has taught me the power of good team work.
Each area has shaped and sculptured me over the years.

Nurses have not really changed in my thirty five year experience. Most want to care the best way they can. It is the system that has changed and it is this system change that has complicated the issues and practicalities of care giving.
The "forces" discipline has disappeared from the workplace and a more academic/ assertive based training has replaced the old " learning by watching Nellie" approach to development.
Student Nurses are brighter than those of old which only can be a good thing, but boy don't they look sloppy in their badly fitting uniforms and lack of "starch"
That's an age thing!

Policy, protocol, HR, a computer full of e- fucking learning needs and the fear of missing something now replace common sense management and firefighting is par for the course for harassed middle managers who need to sell the corporate message to their peers without ever believing in the message.

Have I any advice for those bright eyed, energetic bods who are just starting out on their careers?
Well yes I have.
Grab every opportunity to see the best!
Move away from home, go to a good teaching hospital trust, soak up the special and learn to recognise good , innovative practice and management, there is plenty of it to see
Don't be afraid to question and to challenge
Be warm and thoughtful
And please PLEASE PLEASE develop a ROBUST sense of humour




Note To Self

I've just spent an exhausing couple of hours knocking on doors selling raffle tickets.
I left William asleep in the back garden
I won't do that again
He peed inside my gardening shoes just before I got home
George was shocked and disgusted



A First!


Now I like a new experience just like the next man, but one would have thought that a Primary School Sports Day may not be high on the list of a middle aged, somewhat cosmopolitan country homosexual with time on his hands! 
strange as it would seem I rather enjoyed myself
For yesterday the affable despot Jason invited me to an alien land full of egg and spoon races, javelin throwing seven year olds and balance-the-bean-bag -on-the-head multitasking! 
Yes it was Liv and Eve's school Sports Day at the village school.

It's rather sweet to be included in such an experience and I must say within minutes I was transported to those old fashioned primary school sunny afternoons of the 1960s where Fat boy Gray came almost last in most races , just beating a hyperventilating lad called Allen who wore a surgical boot

Today, unlike our sports day, the onus is on taking part and obtaining a prized " sticker" rather than just winning a cup or shield although it was nice to see young Liv fist pumping the air when she slaughtered the opposition in everything she took part in......
Today's School Sports are also attended by parents and grandparents who were marshaled with much skill by the wisecracking  head teacher with a megaphone. No photos can be taken which was a shame as it proved to be a rather naive , innocently sweet afternoon which was capped off nicely by a collective " marathon " where the entire school of all ages and both sexes galloped like loons around the racetrack in organised chaos.
I came away smiling and ever slightly melancholy for never having experienced the very individual joy of attending your child's sports day!

I will leave you with some more novelty veg entries
Keep em coming! And please send them as adownloadable attachment
I am having problems with some sent by email
Thank you all for your time and efforts
jgsheffield@hotmail.com


I Shouldn't Be Let Out!


I am pretty good at not snacking between meals.
But occasionally I just need to eat something savoury, just to placate the pangs of hunger when I am out and about.
Yesterday I got my salt fix from a packet of tesco snack a jacks, which for those that don't know,sort of resemble vinegar flavoured  sanitary pads or cavity wound dressings in so much as they are strange    Polystyrene like snacks that fill you but do little else! 
I ate several packs when I was waiting in the queue at the post office  
Not a problem I hear you say
Well I would generally agree, but as I stood third in line, I caught myself in a magnificent sneeze and peppered the  heads of two women in front of me with what could only be described as a food/ sputum confetti. 

Sixth Sense


I didn't take to him immediately.
I had been talking to his partner at the door when he suddenly appeared behind her.
He had one of those hormone filled expressions on his face
It shrieked, ( well bellowed) for me to keep my distance.
I sensed a controlling and overbearing man.
He talked over the woman and didn't smile once when I rattled on

The afternoon had been filled by smalltalk and the selling of raffle tickets
Scottish Margaret is going to celebrate her golden wedding anniversary very soon. Alan Walker bought 20 quids worth without batting an eye and I caught up with Pippa's new herbaceous border as she scoured her purse for change.
Small talk and chat.
That's what village life is about.
That sixth sense that tells you something is off is a powerful feeling. Within a second I felt I had read the relationship that I had no real knowledge of and I walked away from the house uneasy and unsettled.
Behind closed doors eh?





A Call To Arms ( and some good news to finish)


The ever smiling Terry and Anne have just put up the signs for the Show and with only four weeks to go before we start again for 45 th Year it's all hands on deck.
The Show is open to all; and we have scrapped rules such as only one entry per person per class, to maximise show numbers given competition apathy! 
The show schedule can be seen here
And readers of Going Gently may enter any class if they wish! 
Of course we are still collcting more of your novelty vegetable photos ( Rachel's My Little Pony is the latest example ! - see below) but I have to say that I have also had entries from bloggers for the general snapshot section  " Snapshot of a pet" ( class 37) and " Snapshot of seaside" ( Class 38) 
All photographs will be returned! 
I must add here that in the past we have had several entries to the craft section! So if you are arty in any way please feel free to put something forward! 

My little pony called ginger! 


I shall leave you with some sweet news as when I was away in sunny Spain, I recieved an email from a guy called Phil who is a bigwig in the village Male Voice Choir. 
He and several choir members went to see Auntie Glad recently and she was on much better form than she was when I visited with Amy's beautiful blanket ( which I almost conscripted into class 66 btw!)
Phil sent me this photo of Gladys and " her boys" 




Getting Back To Normal

She's only just speaking

I'm feeling more myself today. A busy two hour house clean at 6 am this morning followed by a snooze, food  Preparation, flower collection and a weigh in (surprisingly, I've not put on any weight since last fat club ! ) and I've been able to pull myself up by the bra straps and now can face the world again without sunny Sitges, great waiter service and tropical sun!
The home family is almost back up to strength, I collect the Welsh terriers this afternoon whereas Winnie and George were picked up last night from the  Greta and my sister respectively.
Winnie had been spoilt rotten and was wearing a new glitter collar when I arrived and has been suitably "cool" with me ever since she got home which is typical of bulldogs.
George on the other hand was waiting at the door for us to take him home even though my sister has pampered him like a mini celeb...... He's a real home bird!
Albert has been incredibly clingy after his week alone in the cottage, and his constant head rubbing and uncharacteristic purring has felt somewhat over-the-top given that our usual welcome has always been an occasional arse rub into the face when he is in the mood!