Sport

Chris McQueen (Huddersfield) - Man of the Match in yesterday's rugby league final.

I admit that I like watching sport on the television. This past weekend has been a big one. 

On Saturday afternoon, I watched The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final live on the BBC. Wigan Warriors narrowly beat Huddersfield Giants to lift the trophy though in my humble opinion Huddersfield were the better team. They lost because their goal kicker was not on his best form. He missed four kicks. In top level Rugby Union that simply would not have happened. Huddersfield had not won the trophy since the year that I was born - 1953 and of course, coming from Yorkshire I wanted them to win.

On Saturday evening, I got to watch The European Champions League Final live from Paris. It was just before the scheduled kick off time that I discovered I could view the game free of charge on YouTube via the BT.com site. I watched every dramatic moment as Real Madrid beat Liverpool by one goal to nil - raising the cup for the fourteenth time in their illustrious history.

I would have liked to watch The English Championship Final live from Wembley in London. this evening but Sky Sports held the rights to it and we do mot have access to any Sky sports channels at home as I refuse to subscribe to a service that was initially funded by the right wing media megalomaniac - Rupert Murdoch.

In the end Nottingham Forest beat Huddersfield Town by a single goal - putting Forest back into The Premier League for the first time in twenty three years. The winner's purse in this match is probably the biggest in world football with Forest set to earn £175 million.

Like many sports fans, I thoroughly resent the impact of pay-to-view channels in the televisual enjoyment of big games and major sporting events. It is as if they have stolen our sports away. I feel this most hurtfully in relation to watching cricket. It seems that  the cricketing authorities have sold their souls to the highest bidders so that many cricket lovers - myself included - rarely get to watch any live cricket on TV. In addition, many youngsters who might have been inspired to take up cricket are denied vital on-screen inspiration.

How dare they take our national sports away from us!

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  The woman was around 80 I suppose

She had bright orange hair which had been dyed within an inch of its life 

And she had been a psychiatric patient for most of her adult life.

Me and my fellow student nurse Paula ( a cheerful scouser with a foul mouth) were student nurses back then and we were on placement with the occupational therapy department  at the West Cheshire hospital where the patient  with orange hair visited daily.

We were being taught how to shampoo and set hair that day! 

Now, even back then, I wasn’t known for my sartorial elegance, but I was game to learn a new skill and so with the equally clueless Paula we set about shampooing and setting the patient’s hair and rolled layer upon layer with curlers that looked like rigid hairy caterpillars. The OT in charge told us to pin the curlers and to treat the lady with a cup of very sweet tea and some Jaffa cakes.

I remember Paula telling me that the hair had to be “wrapped” very tightly around the curler so after a good three quarters of an hour wrapping the patent resembled a German mine and was placed for a long heat under an industrial sized hair dryer. 

We knew something had gone slightly awry when the OT angrily called us back after she had finally “unwrapped” the patient an hour later, finding  her covered in a bright orange mop of near steel strength red curls 

She looked dreadful but the patent grinned widely at everyone as the occupational therapist shrieked at us “look at her !!! …LOOK! What have you got to say about this?” 

I just blushed

But Paula with her Liverpudlian wit spread her arms out wide 

And sang 

“ THE SUN’l COME OUT TOMORROW ! BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR THAT TOMORROW !!!!”

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Sunday

 It’s a grey morning, and wet.

Even though is almost summer, it feels like Autumn.

It feels like a back-to-school day.

I’m not making my bucket of coffee this morning. I will buy some on the drive through as a treat.

I’m working with new bank staff today.

We are short staffed again

Healthcare feels as though it’s gone tits up following the pandemic 

I was talking to Nu about it yesterday 

So many nurses have left, retired, resigned, moved on….burnt out and tired.

She worked in the big teaching hospitals in London

She knows.

Dorothy knows I’m going to work and is unhappy .

Thank god for Ewan ( Trendy Carol’s hubby) who will be collecting them soon.

Dorothy loves him too

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