Yes, Friends, are YOU planning on somehow fitting in a lunch today, despite your busy schedule? More and more people are deciding that lunch is a "must have", despite its ability to squeeze out some of our important "must do's", if that's a word! [No! - Ed]
Incredibly perhaps, people are still having lunch - at least if you believe some of the whacky headlines in today's Onion News, to put it mildly!
my wife Lois and me - a recent picture
And just so you'll know, this year we've picked Liphook's shady Radford Park woods for the walk, Adriano's Italian Restaurant for the lunch, and our "afternoon bed" for the nap, the one usually reserved for guests, which makes it feel a bit 'cheeky', so that's all good!!!!
09:30 We start our anniversary by decide to go for a tramp in the woods, but we can't see any sign of him (!) (joke copyright: Lois's dear late dad Dennis!). But lots of tits are on view which is some compensation.
And there's a lovely super-clear reflection in the duck pond, so we can check that we've groomed ourselves properly for our 'special day', and that dopey Yours Truly hasn't forgotten to shave for it, which is nice!
four different varieties of tits on display in the park this morning, and a
lovely clear reflection in the duck pond, so I can check I've shaved, which is handy!
And no need to check, in the mirror or whatever, that kitchen staff have remembered to shave Lois's parmesan for her - they're meticulous about such things at Adriano's !!! And for our mains, Lois chooses the papperdella with slow-cooked beef shin, while I keep it simple again with a plain-old pizza margherita, so that's all good!
And that's the way you do it - "text book" haha!!! However, unfortunately, not "text-book" is the fact that we asked for a "doggy bag-o" to take home our mains leftovers, put the bag carefully under the seat while we had our "desserto" of double-gelato ice-creams, and then totally forgot to pick up that "doggy-bag-o" when the time came to go home, which was a pity!
So if you're thinking of copying our example too literally for any special day that YOU have coming up, you might want to leave that last bit out (!). What an utter utter utter "snafu" !!!!!
And what a couple of 'noggins' we both are haha!!!!!
[Have you only just realised that, Colin?! - Ed]
21:00 Feeling pleasant relaxed again by our afternoon in bed, and still too "stuffed" to want an evening meal, we get ready to go to bed again, in our proper bed this time (!), by watching a fascinating programme about ex-poet laureate John Betjeman on one of BBC4's periodic "John Betjeman" evenings.
21:00 Feeling pleasant relaxed again by our afternoon in bed, and still too "stuffed" to want an evening meal, we get ready to go to bed again, in our proper bed this time (!), by watching a fascinating programme about ex-poet laureate John Betjeman on one of BBC4's periodic "John Betjeman" evenings.
The BBC's excuse is that it's the 120th anniversary of the poet's birth on Friday, but Lois and I don't mind, because "a lovely bit of Betjeman" (not saying which bit (!)) is the perfect way to end our anniversary on - for us, anyway, no bones about it!!!
An interesting programme, focusing not on Betjeman's poetry but on him as a person - his life-story and his personality - starting off with the poor relationship the young John had had with his parents.
And it's fascinating to hear that his parents never really forgave him for not taking over his father's clothing store business as they had both hoped. So like many children, he turned out to be a disappointment to the very people who had brought him into the world.
Poor parents!!!!
the 3-generation family firm, that John refused to take over from his father
Interestingly, it's clear that the secret to John's successful life, in his early days at least, was not his poetry, but his ability to make people laugh.
He was obviously a sensitive child, and Lois and I wonder whether joking around was a tactic he perhaps first developed at his private boarding school to protect himself from the bullies. And later, at Oxford University, when he found himself mesmerised by the rich and glamorous among his fellow students, he discovered that he was able to attract their company through his witty conversation and general clowning-around, as many contributors to the programme attest:
Betjeman particularly liked aristocratic women, to put it mildly, especially if they were also beefy and had freckles (!). And he "ran" two high-born "wives" for most of his life: his actual wife the Hon. Penelope Chetwode, to whom he was devoted but with whom he shared few interests, and his mistress Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, who seems to have been his true soulmate.
This kind of "have your cake and eat it" situation, although nice for Betjeman during his lifetime, always tends to make funerals difficult, however, doesn't it (!),
Who was to get pride of place at his funeral - the wife or the mistress? Well, luckily Betjeman avoided personal embarrassment here at his little Cornish church, by being firmly dead of course, but others couldn't escape the awkwardness of the occasion, which was a pity!
Well, the title of this BBC programme from 2001 was "The Last Laugh", and Betjeman certainly had the last laugh as regards his funeral. Oh dear!
Naughty Betjeman haha!!!!!
However, I don't think he would have wanted to have been at his funeral - most people are content to leave that to their relatives, aren't they, and I think that's probably for the best for everyone concerned, all in all.
For the whole of his life Betjeman had suffered from an intense awareness of death. Although a devoted High Anglican, he nevertheless found it difficult to shake off his doubts, and fears, that perhaps, after all, there wasn't actually anything in any of it (!).
"The Last Laugh" was the final poem in his final collection.
Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it !!!! And let's hope Betjeman was still getting that "bonus of laughter", right up till the moment when he finally "lost hold".
"Did he have any regrets about his life?", he was asked, in one of the last interviews he gave.
Rest in peace, John !!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
