Phew, what a scorcher (again!) !!!
There are high temperatures of 82F (28C) today here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, down slightly from 86F (30C) yesterday, but at least our dwindling population of Liphook insects should be enjoying it, you would think. But where are these little guys ????
Did you see this story in this morning's Onion News - at last experts have discovered just why the world's insect populations are dwindling, which is a start!
Let me put my cards on the table at this point!
Lois and I are currently hosting our daughter Sarah and family, who arrived from Perth, Australia early yesterday morning, and we had booked Sunday lunch at Applegarth Farm shop and restaurant, for them, plus our other daughter Alison's family, who live locally at Headley, Hampshire.
Applegarth Farm, Grayshott, Hampshire - farm shop and restaurant
So a big party of us - eleven in all, and because of the current heatwave, Lois and I had asked for a table for eleven outside on the restaurant patio.
Big mistake! Wasps were everywhere, which was a surprise, because Lois says wasps don't normally start to be nuisance till August, when their other sources of food have dried up, or some such reason - ask Lois if you want detail here, be it on wasps, or on anything else, come to that (!!!).
Of our 5 grandkids present, however, it was notable that it was the 3 English ones who were panicking about the wasps - our 2 "Australian" grandkids, who have become used to venomous spiders, snakes etc - you name it! - didn't bat an eyelid, which was nice. Eventually, however, we had to ask staff to re-seat us on a table inside, so all was well in the end, you'll be pleased to know!
lunch today at Applegarth Farm, with our daughter Alison's family (husband Ed, plus Josie (18),
Rosalind (17) and Isaac (14) and our daughter Sarah's family (husband Francis,
plus their twin daughters Lily and Jessica, who flew in yesterday from Australia
After that, and with all of us feeling completely "stuffed", Ali and Ed drive their three kids back to their temporary home in Churt, Surrey. The rest of us - Lois and I plus our Australian family Sarah and Francis and twins Lily and Jessica - drive back to our house in Liphook, Hampshire, where everybody more or less goes back to bed to sleep it off for a couple of hours.
What madness, isn't it!!! But a good time has been had by all, and we won't need much, if anything, for "tea" tonight, so that's the important bit (!).
Lois and I are proud grandparents - and we make no apology for that [Why not? - Ed]. All 5 of them are such "bright sparks", we think, but then we are their grandparents !!!!
me at lunch today, pictured with our five grandchildren: (left to right)
Jessica (11), Josie (18), Isaac (14), Rosalind (17) and Lily (11)
Yes, Lois and I think all of our five grandchildren are "bright cookies", and our two "Australian" ones, Lily and Jessica, are no exception. They've even brought all their puzzle books and crossword books with them from Perth, but the puzzles are ridiculously complicated and sometimes the twins need help, and who wouldn't, when you've got crosswords with words like "chutzpah" and "roil" in them, like the one Lily shows us - what madness (again) !!!!
the scene in our living-room this afternoon; Lily (11), one of our twin
"Australian" granddaughters has a difficult crossword she's trying to
complete, here seeking help from her mum Sarah and grandma, Lois
The twins are really interested in science too, and we've booked to take them to the Science Centre Planetarium at Winchester in a week's time. And today I show Jessica the results of my "merlin" app, which recorded the birds Lois and I heard on our early morning walk today through nearby Radford Park.
And are the twins going to grow up to be super-empowered businesswomen also?
Their favourite TV programme back home in Perth is "The Apprentice (Australia)", would you believe, but they also watch the original UK version, which is transmitted in Australia as well, but only after a time-lapse. They haven't seen the latest UK series yet, and they'd like to see it here during their visit, they say, so later this afternoon we watch the first two programmes with them and their mum, on BBC iPlayer, with the terrifying Lord Sugar in the chair, as per usual.
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
It's all quiet upstairs, so we can also all three of us watch a bit of tonight's "Wheeltappers" re-run on the Talking Pictures TV channel, the 1970's series that tried to capture the atmosphere of a typical Working Men's Club in the north of England during one of their regular Saturday night live shows.
Poor Colin - he never relaxes, does he, and he's forever holding up the "turns", which are the things that people have come to see, with his seemingly endless trivia about the club's admin side.
20:00 Evening falls at last, and Francis and the twins disappear for an early night. They're all pretty jet-lagged. Our daughter Sarah stays up, however, so Lois and I can have a good chat with her about her childhood and adolescence with us in the UK, and then about her new life in Australia, and her two jobs - she's an accountant in Perth, while still doing her old accountancy job in Evesham UK online, thanks to world wide web. That's the real madness in their story !!!!
our daughter Sarah's two accountancy jobs, (left) her old one in Evesham, UK
where Sarah is second from right, and (right) her new job in Perth, Australia
Club chairman and self-styled "turn manager", the grim-faced Colin Crompton, is sitting at his stage-side table as usual, with his usual unsmiling face on, as he reads out some of his interminable "notices to members".
What madness !!!!
[That's enough madness for one day! - Ed]
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!!
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