Waiting for MOT (passed) I was browsing my volume of the Dylan Thomas Notebook Poems 1930-1934.
I came across this piece which I had never seen before. I admit it shook me; in 1934 he was in his early twenties. It really brought tears to my eyes (soft old sod that I am):
You too have seen the sun a bird of fire
Stepping on clouds across the golden sky,
Have known man’s envy and his weak desire.
Have loved and lost.You, who are old, have loved and lost like I
All that is beautiful but born to die,
Have traced your patterns in the hastening frost.And you have walked upon the hills at night,
And bared your head beneath the living sky,
When it was noon have walked into the light,
Knowing such joy as I.Though there are years between us , they are nought:
Youth calls to age across the tired years:
‘What have you found’, he cries, what have you sought?’
‘What you have found’ age answers through his tears,
What you have sought’.
A clear exposition of the human condition.
Thank you Mancunius, I always enjoy your comments and your sally about maidens made me snort. In this part of South West Wild Wayells unfortunately they are difficult to find. By yer there are lots of lusty boyos on the prowl!
However, from the little I have seen of the pub scene there is every chance to grab a granny; maybe that would suffice?
Though not in the class of Upset and others I enjoy cooking and make most of my meals from scratch. Usually soup or stew, maybe beef, fish or chicken and also chilli con carne, curries, liver with onions, cottage pie and the very occasional ready meal or steak pie. I use a lot of onions, garlic, herbs and spices. Nothing scientific – make it up as I go along; some of this, a pinch of that, bung it in.
Today I have made pea and ham soup. Got a lovely big hock from the market for a fiver. Used a lot of the meat for the soup but roasted the bones and what meat was left with some potatoes. I took off all the skin which made some lovely crackling bursting with great tasting fat.
I reckon if I were on my own I could live on less than a fiver a day as most of my concoctions do me for at least three days.
Diet is a very personal thing and I mostly try for a keto style but am leaning towards a Mediterranean diet in the future. I was always below average height and of course have shrunk a bit over the years. I am currently around half a stone heavier than when I was at my fittest in my mid-twenties. I have oedema in my legs, ankles and feet with a heart which is pushing blood out fine but the retrieval is problematic – that has been improved in the last few weeks and I have lost a lot of water. Kidney function doing well!
Sad to see so many men walking around with huge bellies, no old bones there.
I have not eaten much pork in the flat in the last couple of years in a bow to the sensitivities of my muslim wife. Last week I told her I miss eating pork and would be eating some at home. She appeared ok about that. Long ago after she made a few comments and looked at me sideways once or twice I told her I would drink what I wanted to when I wanted to and if she didn’t like it she could f-off and find someone else. (h/t Treason May – They will not change our way of life’ – such a dozy bitch!)
I have lived in Tunisia and Bahrain with spells in Libya, Jordan, Aden and I noticed, particularly in Tunisia, that drink and pork (not fresh) was available if you looked for it. In tourists spots in Hammamet I have seen young men displaying themselves hoping to find a little man to man business and I read that the most performed operation is hymen repair. Lots of hypocracy in the muslim world but there are good and bad practices everywhere.
I have submitted a FOI Request to Swansea Council asking for the amounts of money spent up to and including 5 April 2025 on illegal immigrants; broken down in separate headings viz hotels, food, transport etc. They had 20 days in which to respond and I will publish their reply.
Perhaps Us Puffins submitting similar requests would cause a bit of a stir?
I do try to keep up with what’s happening on the political stage but it is almost impossible with such a deluge of shite produced daily. Government advisors, SPADS, experts, scientists and consultants and still they have no clue what they are doing. Oh woe is us!
Key words ‘may ‘might’ should’ ‘proposed’ etc Reminds me of the old saying. ‘If ifs and ans were pots and pans there’d be no need of tinkers.
I am not the first to say that GP helps keep me sane – Thanks SB – this the other day from and there’s more. Carpenters………… we’ve only just begun….priceless.
Us Puffins masters of the vividly expressed self-deprecation….
Another – I have the IQ of a broken parrafin heater!
Kentledge.’I had a goldfish once that could breakdance on the carpet. But only for like, twenty seconds, and only the once.’ Dearie me!
I love the eclectic range of articles; whoever before now would have used the words Reggie and Trekky in the same sentence?!
Have seen a noticeable drop off in the volume of spam emails – from maybe twelve a day to a trickle and some days none at all. Wonder what is happening?
Reading GP is getting harder. I do not click now on any X links (I do not have an account) as it seems each time I do it logs me out of GP. Pain in the arse. What is going on?
Anyone heard of Patrick Hutber’s Law which states : ‘Improvement means deterioration’. He was a very wise and respected economic commentator in the 1970s. I see it on discus, I see it on AOL – I used to log on simply – now on different browsers I am subjected to more crap ‘If you see this click on it’ another useless step added. We will send an OTCode. On one a reference to QR codes. I do not want to fart around with QR codes just to read my emails, not that I am interested in what they are and what they can do. Life is too short.
I have previously noted that I enjoy following several sites which are either people building up small holdings or renovating old properties. The two which engage me most are Domaine Sauvage following a Belgium couple renovating a farm in Southern France and Diego Leon and wife renovating old buildings again in Southern France. Phillipe in the first, by trade a plumber, shows extraordinary versatility with keeping old machines going (helped by old neighbour Claude). He has a Bobcat digger – (I used to work for Clark Equipment who made and sold them so I enjoy seeing one in action) and young Diego is a one man whirling dervish of a jack of all trades, mostly working solo. Well worth watching. Both have their own Utube channels.
Not a surprise to see that HMRC staff took 500k sick days last year, we wonder where our taxes go!
Expect to spend a while in Italy later on so I have time to acquire a phrasebook and start to work on a little of the language. Last time I travelled the length of Italy then back again was 1968-1970. I managed to get by on Dova Sta? Grazie and Stol multo Bene and visited The Colosseum and the Vatican, Pompei and Pisa. Want to do better this time.
© Gillygangle 2025
