Tuesday September 8th 2020

07:00 Lois and I make an early start again so that we are ready for the painting guys, who arrive about 7:45 am – yikes!

09:00 The eldest of our five grandchildren, Josie, turned 14 yesterday. How time flies! Our daughter Alison and Ed, her husband, treated all three of their children to a Danish “Sticks’n’Sushi” meal last night in the centre of London (by Victoria train station), and Alison has posted some pictures of the evening up on Facebook.

Ed was working in London again yesterday, possibly his third office day in as many working days, which has surprised Lois and me a bit – he seemed to be getting along fine just working from home, until last week.

Alison and the 3 children braved the train into London from Haslemere to meet up with Ed in the evening – she says there was hardly anybody on the train, even though the Government are trying to get people to travel more. What madness!!!!!

I’m not a big sushi fan myself, but Lois likes it a lot. When Alison and Ed and family were living in Lyngby, Copenhagen from 2012 to 2018, we visited them several times, and Lois accompanied Alison and the children to eat in a local branch of Sticks’n’Sushi over there.

the Lyngby branch of Sticks’n’Sushi in Copenhagen,

where Lois once ate, with Alison and the grandchildren.

Sushi bars are still very trendy in England, and there is at least one in Cheltenham town centre. I’ve heard that many of them have been opened as side-businesses by professional athletes, but they don’t always prosper, according to the influential American news web-site, Onion News:

FORT MYERS, FL—With shuttered windows, empty parking lots, and clearance sale banners dotting nearly every block, the community of Fort Myers, Florida has in recent years become a veritable wasteland of professional athletes’ failed side businesses, sources confirmed Thursday.

Residents told reporters that defunct enterprises, ranging from a closed seafood restaurant owned by retired Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler to a padlocked batting cage complex once operated by former Cincinnati Reds outfielder Eric Davis, have come to dominate the city’s commercial district.

“Nowadays, you can’t walk down the street without seeing a boarded-up nightclub, laundromat, or oil change place that doesn’t represent some athlete’s doomed investment,” said local man Charlie Stinson, 42.

Residents confirmed that the city of 62,000 has in recent years seen the opening and rapid closing of dozens of athlete-run ventures, including coffee shops, sushi bars, and go-kart tracks, nearly all of which have been mismanaged or neglected by a variety of current and retired sports figures.

A sad story! And proof, if proof were needed, that professional athletes’ desire to “be more than they thought they could be” tragically doesn’t always work out. Poor athletes!!!!!!

But such is life – oh dear!

11:00 The County Council’s resurfacing contractors have got going in earnest with work on the road outside our house. They’ve even banned pedestrians from crossing the road, but I suppose that makes sense: nobody wants all that gooey tar, or whatever it is, on the soles of their shoes, to put it mildly.

16:00 After an afternoon nap, we say goodbye to the painters until tomorrow an take a souvenir picture of ssome of the work they’ve been doing today. They’ve almost finished the front of the house now, but there are some little bits and pieces to finish first thing tomorrow. They’ve also started on the side wall.

20:00 We watch a bit more of Jon Richardson’s one man show part of his “Old Man Tour”.

Jon isn’t really old, by mine and Lois’s standards: he’s about 37, we think, but his mind and personality is much older than his years - he’s like somebody in his 70’s maybe, which is why we love his shows. He comes on stage for tonight’s show wearing an old man’s tie and cardigan. He takes his cardigan off after he gets warmed up, but the audience are delighted to find he’s got another cardigan on underneath.

He tells us a bit more about his marriage, to fellow stand-up comic Lucy Beaumont.

At the start of their marriage, they used to take turns to cook, and the other one would do the washing-up. But Jon had to abandon that plan fairly early on into the marriage, because Jon tended to tidy up as he went along when he cooked, and Lucy didn’t.

Jon says he can’t help himself when he cooks. He fills a bowl with warm soapy water, and then cleans the chopping knife and other utensils immediately after he’s used them, or sometimes he just leaves them to soak at least. Whereas Lucy just leaves all the cooking utensils around on the worktop for Jon to wash, after the food and grime on them has completely hardened up.

Jon and Lucy obviously have the secret of a happy marriage here somewhere – although perhaps Lucy’s sarcastic tone of voice when she mimics some of Jon’s little mini-lectures is possibly a sign of trouble to come. We’re not sure.

22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzz!!!!!