Kilroy and Peter Rabbit woz here

 I’ve been sleeping in the spare room for the past week.

I don’t quite know the reason for the change from a lovely kind size bed onto the antique brass single bed in the corner of my office, but move I did and yesterday afternoon the room felt overly cozy what with me , Dorothy and Albert curled up in what was free at the time of settling .

I’m on night shift for most of the weekend.

The bed squeaks dreadfully when you turn and squeals alarmingly when you first sit down on it, but it’s comfortable and warm and reminds me of when I was a child.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve sought it out just after Christmas.

Alan Bennett always sleeps in a single bed, he wrote about it in his memoirs 

It kind of suits him, I think.

Mind you he never shared his bed with a bulldog.

Yesterday I went to bed before nights at 2 pm. 

I’m full of thoughts at the moment, 

Things to do, things I want to do. 

Things not done.

In my double bed sleep takes a while to catch me 

In my single bed, I doze long before Dorothy has stopped licking any limb poking from under the duvet.

Peter Rabbit I remind myself  and now at 2 am in the morning, I’ve wrapped the book up and addressed the padded envelope in readiness to post on Monday morning

I like giving books to Children and infants and you can’t go wrong with The Tales of Peter Rabbit. for a first gift. My great nephew Rew will receive it next week.

The start of his collection. 

I’ve written on the cover 

To my Great Nephew Rew Gray from your great Uncle John Gray

The inscription pleased me.

I’m feeling my mortality a bit this month. 

Work gets you like that sometimes, and insidiously wrong foots you, so the inscription feels positive in a sort of I was ‘ere kind of way…like Kilroy used to say.

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/NeATBJZ

Bunkum

Prince Barry, The Duke of Essex has a new tell-all book out. It is scheduled to be a worldwide bestseller and he is bound to make far more from it than the £20 million advance he has already received from his chosen agreeable publishers.

Cunningly, in an effort to deflect criticism about greedy money-making, Prince Barry has already arranged that 0.5% of his profits should go to worthy charities. The book is called "Bunkum" and within its pages, Prince Barry reveals many one-sided home "truths" that will no doubt prove to be embarrassing for his nearest and dearest such as his father King Colin III and his brother Prince Wilbert.

However, Prince Barry may also have caused dangerous offence to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. In the book he states that while serving there with the British army he killed twenty five Taliban fighters but to him they were not really people - just "chess pieces". In stating this he has unwittingly and overnight become the Taliban's number one overseas target.  He may wish to seek advice from the writer Salman Rushdie.

Of course Prince Barry was never the sharpest pencil in the box. Many thousands of pounds were invested in his ultra-privileged  private education but in the end he came out of Eton College with just two A levels - a Grade B in Art and a Grade D in Geography. Rumour has it that these disappointing grades were only achieved with the help of private tutors who intervened far too much with his coursework.

In "Bunkum", for whatever reason, he tells us that he lost his virginity with a farm  animal in a field behind a pub when he was seventeen. Of course - like everything else - this was clearly the fault of King Colin and his brother Wilbert who may or may not have been laughing in the pub lounge that overlooks said field - now home to a small herd of alpacas.

Prince Barry writes about a contretemps with his prizefighting, ferocious ruffian of a brother - Prince Wilbert who had just given an accurate description of the Duchess of Essex. In the scene that followed, Barry tripped over the dog's bowl and as Wilbert tried to prevent his younger brother from falling down, he accidentally broke Barry's  favourite opal necklace - a souvenir of Australia.

Promoting the new book in a series of planned TV interviews, Prince Barry said that he desperately wanted his father and brother back. Clearly, it had not occurred to him that King Colin and Prince Wilbert might be feeling rather uncomfortable about picking up the pieces with a son and brother who is happy to make as much money as possible from opening up about private family matters and conversations. Could he ever be trusted again? 

Anything said behind closed doors could easily end up in another tell-all book written of course once again with the essential help of his ghostwriter - J. R. Moehringer. After all, you didn't think that Prince Barry could write a book all on his own did you?

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/jWnPpqg

Questions

 What are you cooking?

Favorite Christmas gift?

What are you reading?

from R's rue https://ift.tt/vUTjGrV

Just Listen

 

It was a quiet evening 

Dark and somewhat wintery.

I’d lit the fire early and had hunkered down for the night

And there was a tap at the kitchen window.

The dogs were up and barking as one, and as they hurled themselves into the kitchen, I slipped through the front door and into the rain to catch one of the villagers in the lane

Only a villager would know to knock on the lane window .

It was a lady from Trelawnyd who I know well and she gave me a bunch of tulips.

“What are those for ? “ I asked but I kind of already knew the answer

They were a thank you for an interaction a day or so previous.

In my mind I hadn’t done anything as all,

I just listened 

I listened to a problem that needed verbalising 

I listened without trying to solve it

I just listened.

No big deal in the scheme of things 

But big enough for this one person to want to thank me with some tulips on a wet, dark night 

The tulips were a sign , not only of thanks ( which were gracefully received) but a sign of how much pain and upset was around at the time, pain and upset that could be salved, in part,by a little time and some empathy. 

We can all listen and empathise a little more, can we not?

Even if we are hurting, or tired, or kind of sad

We Just need to remind ourselves not to run inside if it’s cold , or run away if the conversation takes a turn you didn’t expect. 

Tulips won’t arrive every time.

But you will know 

That  you’ve done the right thing, at the right time

For a person who needed you.

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/s4aWAod