Do you remember that right-royal, truly magic moment 6 years ago when world-class pop-star Taylor Swift gave birth to twins during the Billboard Music Awards presentations, live on stage? My medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I were awake in bed at 3am toasting the Queen of Pop's "happy event" back in our old house in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, that's for sure!
And we thought it was a pity that Beyoncé made all that fuss, threatening to take Her Majesty the Queen of Pop to court over alleged "breach of copyright". What a nonsense all that was!
And if we do it for twins, we're not going to ignore the happy "tredecaplets" event that we were blessed with today here in our own household in rural, semi-rural Liphook, Hampshire - that's for sure as well!
my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I,
relaxing after the birth of another 13 "children"
Yes, and I know the story unfortunately got garbled on its way round the neighbourhood, that's for sure, so you may have swallowed the obvious "fake news" that Lois had somehow managed to give birth to 13 babies this morning - let me tell you that, although she doesn't look it, she's going to be 79 next week, so that particular "ship" sailed for us a long time ago to put it mildly!!!!
And yes you've guessed it! Our local "happy event" is just that our pet queen bumble bee Elsie has laid 13 eggs today in our charming back-garden bee "colony". We're calling Elsie's thirteen shiny new eggs "our new children", and in a way we're entitled to do that, because we do think of them as part of our family. We did everything humanly possible to landscape the area and create a romantic atmosphere in the colony, in the hope of encourage our plucky band of pet drones to "get busy" with Elsie.
flashback to May 9th, the day our new gardener Mitchell discovered
the bee colony in our back garden here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire
I even played some of "Walrus of Love" Barry White's songs on YouTube on my mobile phone a few times out there in the back garden, just to put our little drones in the mood, so fair enough, I say! And for the moment I'm calling the little buggers my children, no doubt about that!
flashback to earlier today: (left) Barry White, the Walrus of Love,
has worked his magic again and (centre) our 13 pet drones have
"done their stuff" (or should I call them 'our late pet drones'
(the poor buggers!!!!!) , and (right) me toasting Elsie
and her 13 'happy events - not so happy for the drones,
although I expect they enjoyed it at the time haha!!!!
At 79, it's a nice feeling for Yours Truly to become a "daddy" again, anyway, if only by proxy! And the thought keeps me going today as I battle to prepare for tomorrow's online meeting of the local U3A "History of English" old-codger group that I lead (for my sins !!!!).
The topic is "numbers, quirks of counting and other quirks of arithmetical language", and as usual my so-called members haven't managed to come up with many ideas as yet, so it'll be for "muggins" here to fill most of tomorrow's 90 minutes with my own stuff, which is annoying, to put it mildly!
a typical online meeting of our local U3A "old codger"
"History of English" group
Some Brits count on the fingers of two hands, which means that they can go up to a maximum of ten - hence our decimal system, although many people round the world base their counting on twenties, taking in also their toes, whenever they haven't got any socks on, that is.
However, I discover in my researches today that the Oksapmin people of New Guinea, who don't wear a lot of clothes generally, can count using a bigger selection of body parts, up to a maximum of 27. For example by the number 14 they've got round to the nose, and the eyes are 13 and 15, so it goes "left eye, nose, right eye" for 13, 14, 15.
Also used are the ears, neck, shoulder, 4 parts of the arm and some other parts I won't mention (!). Presumably their numbers as a whole, therefore, are on a 27-base system, which must make their higher mathematics extraordinarily complex. Rather them than me!
But what a truly crazy world we live in !!!!!
the Oksamin people of New Guinea - can count up to 27
using not just fingers but various other body parts. What madness !!!!
Mine and Lois's new "nature kick" is, if I'm honest, probably just because the BBC are showing their annual "Springwatch" nature programme Monday through Thursdays this week and next.
And when we take our daily walk through nearby Radford Park, we go into raptures over the birds identified on my phone by my shiny new "merlin" app, and also, today, over some tiny black dragonflies that seem to be swarming there today - well, why not, the little buggers have only got one day to play with, so why not see what Radford Park has to offer haha!!!!
us on our daily walk this morning through nearby Radford Park:
(top right) the 9 birds whose songs we were hearing at 11:39 (!)
and (bottom right) a lovely black dragonfly pausing on a nearby leaf
On last night's Springwatch TV programme, we heard all about how dragonflies have all sorts of little sensors on their wings that make the control panel of a modern airliner look antediluvian by comparison - what madness isn't it !!!!
[That's enough madness! - Ed]
It's altogether a more relaxed day for us generally today. Lois plants two types of lettuce and two types of carrots in her shiny new vegetable bed, and she'll be planting spinach tomorrow, plus runner beans in pots. And I'm feeling good because I've postponed my next horrific dentist appointment till later in June [You wimp, Colin! - Ed].
Well, we've got enough coming up next week without any more dental trauma, thank you very much !!!!
It'll be Lois's birthday next week, plus we're going down to Bournemouth to see Lois's cousin Brian in his care-home, plus we've got my cousins' get-together in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Busy busy busy!!!!
flashback to 2019: for the last time before COVID, Lois and I visit
Lois's cousin Brian and wife Ruth in Bournemouth for their 60th wedding
anniversary: (left to right) Brian's original best man Terry, Brian, Ruth,
then their two original bridesmaids Ann and Lois.
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! -Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!
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