Friday, July 17, 2020

10:30 We telephone our order for next week’s groceries to the convenience store in the village. They still have no frozen peas – damn!

the convenience store in the village –

but they can’t get frozen peas:  damn!

Alison, our elder daughter, rings us from the family’s home in Haslemere. They recently planned to adopt a second dog, Rosie, and they picked her up last Sunday. But the plan is not working out. Rosie gets on fine with Sika, the family’s Danish dog, but she doesn’t like the family's 2 cats, Dumbledore and Otto. 

As a temporary measure the cats have been mostly kept out of Rosie’s way, shut inside one of the bedrooms. But it’s clear that it’s not going to work out long term. Rosie is being taken back today – poor Rosie!!!!!

Rosie – doesn’t like cats. Poor Rosie!!!!

Our dental clinic calls us about our check-ups next month.  We must not come early and we have to ring the doorbell. They will let us in, take our temperature  and give us a mask. What a crazy world we live in! 

16:00 A cup of Earl Grey and a piece of Lois’s delicious home-made walnut cake – yum yum!

We listen to “The Last Word” on the radio. We try to listen to this programme every week to see if anybody has died recently or not. Usually it’s about 4 or 5 people only, so not too bad!

Charles Webb, the writer of the novel, The Graduate, has died unfortunately. He was one of the most non-materialistic people in the modern world: he gave away all his wedding presents shortly after his wedding. He gave away the house he inherited, and he also sold for quite a small sum the rights to both his novel and “any sequels he might write thereafter”. He became a poor man, needless to say. Poor Charles!!!!!

Ida Haendel, the famous violinist, has also died, aged “either 91 or 96” – there is evidence for both figures. She escaped to England from Poland before WW2. She loved to keep pet dogs, and when they died she had them stuffed one by one, at least 10 in all, so that they could continue to sit on her sofas. What madness! I’m sure our old family adage “pets have the best seats”, was certainly true in her case.

We had another family adage, “things have the best seats”, in tribute to our children’s habit of putting their books and other belongings on our armchairs, so it was difficult to find anywhere to sit down. What a crazy world we lived in !!!!!

17:00 Off to our neighbour Frances’s house to water her enormous collection of plants and also her greenhouse. Frances’s daughter Elizabeth is in the house – I caught sight of her through the kitchen window. But she doesn’t come out to greet us – probably wisest!!!!

19:30 We speak for an hour on the phone to our daughter Alison in Haslemere. She hopes to visit us in early August with the three children and hopefully with Ed too, if he can get away. This will be the first time we will have seen them since last Christmas.

We watch a bit of TV, the first episode of a dramatization of Jane Austen’s “Emma”.

An enjoyable performance, although I myself, as a language nerd, can’t help finding it jarring to hear modern expressions introduced into the dialogue. When Mr Knightley says he doesn’t mind walking the half mile a day to visit Emma’s household, and we hear the expression, “Mr Knightley is making us part of his exercise regime”, it’s quite an amusing line, but I don’t think Jane Austen or any of her characters would have known what to make of the phrase “exercise regime”. What madness!

22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzz!!!!