08:00 Lois and I can’t lie in bed again – Ian, our friendly local window cleaner is coming at 9 am, and it’s always embarrassing if we’re still in bed or in the shower when he’s on his ladder standing outside the window. Damn!
09:30 [Perth time 4:30 pm] A nice zoom call with Sarah, our younger daughter, who lives in Perth, Australia, together with Francis and their 7-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. Sarah didn’t go to work today – Western Australia has a holiday for the Queen’s Birthday.
We also talk to the twins, who are anxious to show us some of their favourite books – books about fairies are popular with them at the moment: it’s a popular theme with small girls, no doubt about that.
Our other daughter, Alison, whose children are older – 14 and 12 - had a lot of trouble trying to persuade her daughters to give up their fairy books, even though they obviously don’t read them any more: the hoarding instinct starts young, it seems – my god!
I read in Onion News that a new book about the pixie and fairy world is shortly coming out, written by best-selling author George RR Martin, in a departure from his usual fare. In the new book he has controversially cast himself as the main character, in a world of little pixies and fairies, a world where he finds he can easily dominate proceedings and call the shots.
SANTA FE, NM—Explaining that the new novel would be a radical departure from his previous work, best-selling author George R.R. Martin reportedly announced to his readers that the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series will feature pixies. “And guess what, this next instalment is also going to be loaded with fairies,” said Martin.
“Not only is Jon Snow not in this next one, but you’re going to find out that he was a figment of everyone’s imagination the whole time. I’m in it though, because I’m the hero."
One to watch out for when it comes to the UK, that’s for sure!
12:00 We have lunch, followed by a phone call with Alison, our elder daughter, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey, with Ed and their 3 children, Josie (14), Rosalind (12) and Isaac (10). Lois and I are trying to keep up with the three children’s interests. They all three play the piano, but Josie has recently taken up the clarinet. Isaac plays the violin but he is also taking singing lessons. Good grief – what a talented family! They’re also all good at soccer – Rosalind scored all 3 of her team’s goals at the match at the weekend – yikes!
Ed is still working as a lawyer for some Scottish railway companies, working under rolling 6-monthly contracts. His current contract ends in October, but his employers have just extended it to April, and after 3 months he’ll get the chance to become one of their permanent employees: which will mean greater job security, but the contract work pays a bit better, Alison says. The family are still hoping to sell their current house and move to a much bigger one in the next couple of months.
Luckily Frances is coming back on Wednesday or Thursday, and there's rain forecast for Wednesday anyway, so fingers crossed.
20:00 We watch our two favourite quiz programmes, Only Connect, where contestants have to find links or sequences connecting seemingly unrelated objects or concepts, and University Challenge, the student quiz show.
A reasonable quiz evening for us, and we go to bed pleased with ourselves.
We only count points for ourselves if we get an answer the contestants don’t get. On Only Connect, both teams strike out on finding the connection between printing, the compass, papermaking and gunpowder: Lois and I know that they were of course all invented, or developed first, in China. Simples!
20:30 We also get 6 answers right on University Challenge that the students
don’t get, starting with this one:
Q: According to Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, what is “sore labour's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast”?
Sleep – yes! We know that one all right! Enough said!!!!
22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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