Monday August 17th 2020

09:00 Today the family of our daughter Alison, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey with Ed and their 3 children, are proudly celebrating the sixth birthday of the family’s Danish spaniel Sika. 

Sika has had an early morning grooming session and is looking very smart today, Alison says.

Poor Sika !!!!

And this morning Ali has baked Sika a special doggy cake, made from Peanut butter, carrots, egg, flour and a little honey. Then we added peanut butter as icing and grated carrot as sprinkles – yum yum!

Sika later came on to “Insta” himself, under his own user, and confirmed that the cake was quote very yummy  unquote.

Flashback to last Thursday, when Sika, still at that stage just 5 yrs of age,

asked his “Insta” followers whether his nose “looked bigger” –

but the jury is still out on that one! Poor Sika !!!!!!

14:00 While I’m having my nap, Lois contacts fellow-sect-member Alf to iron our arrangements for tomorrow’s “zoom” bible class for about 20 Iranian immigrants, consisting of a talk on the subject of adult baptism by full immersion. Some of the Iranians know no English or have only a basic understanding, so the participation of a Farsi interpreter is also needed.

a typical slide from the talk – yikes, scary !!!

Alf usually gives the talk, one sentence at a time, after which he waits for the group’s Farsi interpreter to translate it, before moving on to the next sentence. Alf can’t do the class tomorrow because he’s had a call for assistance from his brother in Birmingham, so he won’t be in Cheltenham tomorrow, and he's asked Lois to step in.

Completely contrary to my pessimistic forebodings, Lois and Alf manage, this afternoon, to master the zoom techniques and clicks needed for Lois to deputize  for Alf tomorrow. So fingers crossed!

Lois is so plucky – I wish I had half her courage!

19:30 Lois goes into the dining-room to take part online in her sect’s weekly Bible Seminar on zoom. I settle down in the living-room to watch a bit of TV, the latest edition of the student quiz, “University Challenge”, tonight between Balliol College, Oxford, and Clare College, Cambridge.

I find I can answer about 1 question in every 5, and I can also answer 5 questions that the students get wrong or are stumped over, so not too bad an evening for me.

1.      What is the title of the closing song in the 1964 film version of “Mary Poppins”?

Students: “Let’s go have a look”.

Colin: “Let’s go fly a kite”.

2.      What are the termini of this French railway line, that runs between 2 of the country’s major cities?

Students: Montpellier and Nice

Colin: Toulouse and Marseilles

3.      Name the composer of this work [we hear an excerpt from the "Polovtsian Dances"]

Students: Rimsky-Korsakov

Colin: Borodin

4.      Paul Morrell is the male character protagonist of which semi-autobiographical novel by DH Lawrence?

Students: “Fathers and Sons”

Colin: “Sons and Lovers”

5.      In which year was DH Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” finally published in London after a landmark obscenity trial?

Students: 1965

Colin: 1960

A close result at the gong this week: Balliol 150, Clare 135.

the final result at the gong

21:00 Lois emerges from the dining-room. Tonight’s seminar took 90 minutes instead of the usual 60, because some of the participants hadn’t heard last week's, so poor Andy had to give a resumé of the previous talk before he could start on tonight’s.

What madness!!!!

21:15 We watch the final part of the retrospective on the humour of much-missed comedienne Victoria Wood.

A very nostalgic programme for Lois and me. Victoria was one of our favourite comedians.

And so nice to see again her show’s chirpy “continuity announcer”.

22:00 A big day for Lois tomorrow – she’s got her presentation to give to the Iranian immigrants, provided the technology works.  We go to bed – zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!