Tidy Up

I’m working the next four out of five long days ( the hospice is getting the most of me before I go part time in four weeks) so I may not be blogging every day. We are so short staffed, a symptom of post covid too, me thinks ….so many nurses have left nursing after the last two years 

In health care masks are still to be worn and it’s playing havoc with my beard which has morphed from being a trimmed goatee to something like Father Christmas would be proud of,

Perhaps I will leave it and wear purple, and shout in the street…..I’m 60 on Wednesday

 

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Rascals

When I chose "Yorkshire Pudding" as my nom-de-plume I had also been thinking about "Fat Rascal". The fat rascal is another baked Yorkshire delicacy made famous by Betty's tea shops in Harrogate and York. It is essentially a large scone with some ingredient twists - including citrus peel and sour cream or creme fraiche.

We looked after Little Phoebe on Monday night and took her to nursery school on Tuesday morning. Mummy and Daddy were away for the night celebrating Daddy's birthday in a country hotel near York. When they returned, they gave us two fat rascals as a reward - bought at Betty's tea shop in Harrogate on Tuesday morning. See the picture at the top.

They were very yummy. I guess that if you eat too many fat rascals you might become a fat rascal. Back in June 2005, I decided against the nickname as my body was and remains as lithe and sculpted as that of an Olympic swimmer.

Ingredients

• 100 g butter, softened
• 250 g plain flour
• 75 g currants
• 50 g mixed citrus peels
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 75 g golden caster sugar
• 150 150 ml sour cream or 150 ml creme fraiche
  
• 1 egg, beaten
• glace cherries, for decoration
• blanched almond, for decoration (whole)

Directions

• Pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 and grease or line a baking sheet, or oven parchment
• Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.
• Add the cream and mix to a stiff paste - a firm dough.
• Roll the mixture out on a floured board, to about 1" thickness and stamp out rounds, of about 3" in diameter. ( You can also shape the fat rascals by hand; take a piece of dough, about the size of a small egg, and make a small ball - flatten it out slghtly into bread roll shapes - like a bread bap shape.)
• Arrange them on the greased baking tray and glaze them generously with the beaten egg.
• Then place 2 whole blanched almonds on top with a halved glace cherry for decoration - pushing them down gently into the dough, so they do not fall off during baking!
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they have risen and are golden brown.
• Allow to cool on a wire cooling rack.
• Store them in an airtight tin for up to 4 days.

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Herbivore & Benediction

 

The cafe in Chester’s Storyhouse doubles as a library and a study area. Consequently it is always busy with tables filled with students on their laptops and diners eating Trendy bites.

I found a table only frequented by one academic type at his computer and asked if I could share. He readily agreed and made room for me when I returned with my Americano. 

As I sat down the man pointed to my T-shirt and asked if I was being ironic

I told him that I was but added that most herbivores were big boned.

He laughed and said he wasn’t inferring anything.

The man was slim and smart and was in his forties. He looked Middle Eastern or perhaps Egyptian but had a crisp radio 4 accent.

I looked at my phone and I could feel him looking at me. 

We fell into an easy conversation .

He asked me what I did for a living and mentioned he had done some work in Chester’s Hospice collecting recorded thoughts and reflections from patients. I shared that I had done the same from older residents in Trelawnyd .

We discussed the use of memory boxes in hospice care ( they are boxes of memories some patients like to prepare for their loved ones to reflect upon after their death) and my companion shared that he’d often thought about videoing messages for his children to see after his death .

As I sipped my coffee, he looked at his watch and said he had to go.

“ You have a happy face” he said as he gathered his bag and I laughed in genuine surprise 

“See you again in here” he said before leaving.

And he left me pleased and intrigued

The conversation was as refreshing to me as a beer is to a tired man on a very hot day.

Jack Lowdon

I went to see the rather sad drama Benediction which is the story of the wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon from his invalided exit from the army, his subsequent unhappy relationships with Stephen Tennent and Ivor Novello, through an unhappy  marriage ending with his conversion to Catholicism as an older man .

The narrative, especially the ones of the wartime years, is told in a series of cinematic tableaux where music and poetry, photographs and live action build a picture of a man haunted and angered by the horrors of war but as the story moves towards Sassoon’s search for love the plot becomes a little more traditional.

Jack Lowdon is impressive as the angry and eventual rather lost Sassoon. Mathew Tennyson is heartbreaking in his short but pivotal role as the gentle Wilfred Owen who Sassoon meets in the Scottish “neurological/ psychiatric” hospital and Ben Daniels gives the bleak first half some warmth as his role of Dr Rivers, a gay psychiatrist who sees the world with some welcomed benign pragmatism 

Terence Davies has produced an impressive but overwhelmingly sad film about failure, survivor guilt and sexual shame.

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Alive

 I have no words today. 

Look upon us Lord

Grant me peace

Where there is

No understanding 

Search your hearts

Your souls

Dig deep

Because today 

It is a privilege

To be alive

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