10:00 We open up our 48th anniversary presents to each
other – they arrived yesterday but we always leave the post 24 hours before
opening it: even though it probably doesn’t make any difference haha! Lois gave me
a box set of “The Day Today”, the spoof current affairs series, and I gave her
a watch. Simples !!!
Lois's anniversary present to me this year
“The Day Today” – some key moments from the show's long run...
...and possibly their best-selling item of spin-off merchandise
11:00 Today at last we decide to break out of our “twosome bubble”
here in the house, and make a run for it – or rather get in the car for it.
The much-postponed moment has arrived to fill up the car with
petrol, after several months of eking out the last petrol we bought before the
lockdown.
our local petrol station
Lois has some good plastic gloves, but we actually both touch the trigger
on the hose – partly because she can’t get it to work, but also partly just for
kicks!!! But I squirt my hands with sanitizing gel immediately afterwards, and
it’s Lois who goes in the shop and pays. When she comes out I squirt her gloves
with the gel. So that’s all right!
We drive over to Hayles Fruit Farm, just outside Winchcombe, to give the car a little run: it's a
place we used to go to a lot in the old days but we haven’t been there for at
least 10 years, we think. It was a nice place to take my late mother to for a cup of tea and a piece of cake.
We weren’t planning to go in the tea-room, but when we get there, Lois finds she needs the loo, so she goes in, and I squirt her again when she comes out.
We weren’t planning to go in the tea-room, but when we get there, Lois finds she needs the loo, so she goes in, and I squirt her again when she comes out.
We visit Hayles Fruit Farm, near Winchcombe - but we don't need any apples or plums,
we've got loads of them growing on trees in our back garden.
15:30 After an afternoon nap we get the big cardboard boxes out of
the garage so we can store all our home-grown apples there.
20:00 Lois is too tired to take part in her sect’s weekly Bible
Class on zoom, so we settle down to watch some TV. The last 2 episodes of
“Harlots” are on, a period drama set in the world of prostitution in 18th
century London.
As usual, it’s quite difficult to tell what’s going on, because of
the subdued lighting, dozens of characters, mumbled dialogue and fast-moving short scenes of
about 5 seconds each before another scene starts – what madness!
Not that we're getting old or anything!
Not that we're getting old or anything!
In the above dimly lit tavern scene it's just about possible to tell what's happening, but we have no idea who the characters are - oh dear!
By coincidence Tim Harford’s radio programme about statistics, which we heard earlier in the day, examined the “Harlots” series’ claim that in the 1760’s one woman in five in London worked as a prostitute. The programme called in “Whispering” Dan Cruickshank, the historian, to examine the evidence.
By coincidence Tim Harford’s radio programme about statistics, which we heard earlier in the day, examined the “Harlots” series’ claim that in the 1760’s one woman in five in London worked as a prostitute. The programme called in “Whispering” Dan Cruickshank, the historian, to examine the evidence.
Some researchers have reportedly used jail records from the time,
but as prostitution was not a crime in those days, the women must have been prostitutes
who were arrested for something else, so that’s not a lot of help.
There were about 250,000 women living in London at the time, and
the best reliable estimate is that there were about 20,000 full-time
prostitutes. If you add to that figure women who were prostitutes part-time or did
it occasionally, this figure would increase. For women suddenly finding themselves without means there weren't many other options in the 18th century.
But the figure often quoted of 50,000 prostitutes (or 1 in 5 women) included “kept women” (mistresses) and women who lived with a man without being married to him.
But the figure often quoted of 50,000 prostitutes (or 1 in 5 women) included “kept women” (mistresses) and women who lived with a man without being married to him.
What a crazy world they lived in in those times!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzz!!!!
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