Grace Under Pressure 2

  So putting the planet first I have managed to hold out and get all the way through 'No Mow May' without even the slightest inclination to do anything with the grass in my front garden, much to the probable disgust of my neighbours but the delights of the birds, bees and butterflies.

    I have no idea what I did today, but I bet it was fabulous!!

Today has seen the last of three funerals that I have conducted. It has been an emotionally draining time especially trying to compartmentalise each of them, so as to avoid any calamitous cock ups.  Thankfully they all went well And at two of them we have one of my favourite pieces of classical music, one that I first became aware of when it was chosen to accompany the film Raging Bull about the boxer Jake La Motta. It is of course the beautifully emotive Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana. And the bit where the full orchestra sweeps in still hits me harder than any punch to the solar plexus. Enjoy    

  T onight TOM and I had a jolly into Nottingham to see Barnum:the circus musical at the Playhouse. Normally we would go in by tram but as its half term the council have used the reduced no of commuters to do some essential maintenance closing the line we would have travelled on for the last three stops into the city. So it was a trip made by car, which due to being able to park for free as a result of TOM's blue badge turned out to be less expensive than two return tram tickets. Based on the story of PT Barnum, probably made famous to many by the original show featuring Michael Crawford or more recently The Greatest Showman with Hugh Jackman, this version featured Lee Mead, winner of one of those innumerable talent shows on the TV, and to be honest a better singer than either of the other leading men. As for the show its self it was a real visual treat with absolutely everything you might expect to find in a circus, there on stage, sometimes so much so that you really didn't k...

Local ice cream man, Ivor Cornett, is worried that if the current spell of hot weather continues he might actually have to buy some ice cream to sell rather than his usual offering of weed, ketamine and valium. Regularly heard touring local neighbourhoods, the sound of Ebeneezer Goode by the Shamen having replaced the more usual melodic nursery rhyme based tunes, the ice cream van has been the perfect cover for his door to door delivery of 'pharmaceuticals' even in the depths of winter when anyone out on the streets actually wanting to buy ice cream must already be off their tits on something. Speaking in an exclusive to Grace Under Pressure's very own Raspberry Ripple loving reporter, Ivor Cornett revealed, "Normally the parent are in no fit state to even notice the van is around never mind come to it, but the kids have been trained like Pavlov's dog to respond to the music. So they do the leg work, get a 99, a Rocket lolly or a Screwball as well as an under the c...

  Then Nicola Sturgeon might actually have 'seen' the £120,000 motorhome parked on her drive and wondered...'now how did we afford to buy that?'