Tuesday September 1st 2020

08:30 Lois and I are just getting out of the shower, when the paving guy we were in contact with last month rings at the door – what madness! He says his men are re-paving our neighbour Frances’s path and driveway starting this morning. He says they can also pave our front path and driveway starting later today.

They’ve also done one of our other neighbour’s (Nikki’s)

driveway and path recently – so Lois and I don’t want

to be the only house with a shabby driveway – oh dear!!!!

We say okay, but then later we remember that Lois is teaching her Iranian students about adult baptism on zoom at 1.30 pm, so we ask them not to start drilling before 3 pm. Pneumatic drills are not a good background to a zoom educational session, to put it mildly – my god!

Later on, in the afternoon, when Lois and I are in bed, one of the paving guys calls round to say that in fact they can’t start until tomorrow now (8 am – yikes!!!) – the work on Frances’s driveway has taken longer than expected, evidently. What a crazy world we live in !!!!

So another early start tomorrow – damn !!!!

15:30 Lois and I get out of bed and have a cup of tea on the patio. Then I check my emails. Lynda’s U3A Middle English group is holding its monthly meeting on Friday on zoom – we’re looking at John of Trevisa’s 1387 translation of Higden’s “Polychronicon” – two passages in particular: “the Marvels of Britain” and “The Languages o Britain”.

John of Trevisa

I take a quick look at the first half of the texts we’re reading, in the “Marvels” section – I didn’t know that there was a place on top of a hill somewhere in Britain, where you can go if you’re feeling tired, and it takes away your fatigue and makes you feel fresh again. That sounds good, I must say!

John de Trevisa extract

“Also there ys yn the cop of an hill a buryel. Everych man that cometh and meteth that buriel a schal fynde hyt evene right of hys oune meete; and yef a pylgrym other eny wery man kneoleth thereto, anon a schal be al fersch, and of werynes schal he feel non nuy”.

or in modern English, “Also there is on the top of a hill a grave. Every man that cometh and measureth that grave shall find it just right for his own measurements; and if a pilgrim or any weary man kneeleth before it, he shall soon be all fresh and of weariness shall he feel no bother”.

On reflection, however, I wonder if that hill maybe isn’t open any more – I’ve never heard of it. But it obviously helped a lot of tired people in the medieval period. 

Pity about the hill not working any more, though, isn’t it – I was thinking of recommending it to the man in today’s Onion News, not named, but described as an “area man”. Locally, however, I believe the man’s been named as possibly “Duggy” Brinklow’s brother Spike.

Unnamed area man (is it Spike?) hits the world headlines

Poor Spike!!!!!!

20:00 We watch a bit more of an interesting documentary on Channel 5, looking back at the old sitcom series, “Are You Being Served”, set in an old-fashioned London department store – a series which ended 30 years ago.

Very nostalgic.

22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzz!!!!