Sunday 11th October 2020

 08:30 We tumble out of bed to get dressed and fed before our weekly zoom call with Sarah, our younger daughter who lives in Perth, Australia, together with Francis and their 7-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. A lively session as always, with the twins anxious to show us what they've been making - Jessie, who now has a definite Aussie accent, has finished her model of the solar system - my god! Lily hasn't finished painting hers yet, but Lily is keen to show us Chapter 1 of a story book that she and Jessie have been working on - how cute they are!!!!

over breakfast, we talk on zoom with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia

Jessie's model of the solar system: her favourite planet is the yellow one, Saturn because of its rings - how cute she is!!!!

Lily reads the story-book the twins have started writing - good gracious!!!!

There is also some shock news about Sarah - she was involved in a car accident this week which could have been serious, but she had a lucky escape. On her way home from work, she found herself driving behind a big Toyota with bars all round it. It had a "young idiot" at the wheel, she says. Suddenly the guy pulled off to the left onto the grass verge and then started to do a big U-turn, smashing into the side of her car. 

Sarah's car is now a total write-off, and she has had to rent a car at the airport to give her a means of getting to work. She has strained her neck and shoulder but is getting physiotherapy, two sessions a week for a few weeks. My god!!!! Luckily she has two witnesses to the accident, a couple of motorists who stopped to see if she was okay.

The family are living right out in the sticks at the moment, at Lower Chittering - the weather's warming up and the local snakes are getting restless, Francis says. He and Sarah are thinking about moving back to the coast, somewhere near Ocean Reef, where they were living until last year. And a possible eventual return to England is also on the cards - Francis is still chewing the idea over. We'll have to see.

We love Jessie's model of the solar system - how clever she is! 

By the way, does anybody know what happened about the new solar system that was discovered a few years ago, according to a report by Doyle Redland of Onion Radio News? I didn't hear any updates on it, so it's all a bit of puzzle - solar systems don't just vanish after all !

 At the time it was hailed as "the most significant astronomical find in decades". 

Astronomer James Chang explained to Chief Reporter Redland at the time, that to really understand the distance "4 feet", the ordinary person can examine any yardstick he/she might have at home, and imagine it were lengthened by approximately one third - this would give a good enough idea to the lay person of the proximity of the new astronomical body, he said. 

I remember the report said that a mission to plant a ladder against the new solar system and attempt a landing was being planned for 2007 - why didn't we hear any more about this? I suspect it's the old story of the media losing interest in an event as soon as it becomes widely known and commented on. It would have been a pity if the mission got cancelled - as it was estimated to cost only about $60. It would have false economy to drop the project just to balance NASA's budget, in my opinion!

What madness!!!

10:30 Lois takes part in her sect's two worship services on zoom and I rush out to the kitchen to make lunch: cheese and cucumber sandwiches with mini-tomatoes and banana to follow - yum yum!

14:00 We spend the afternoon in bed again - oh dear! While we're lying there, Sarah sends another picture of the twins to Instagram - they've been making croutons. How sweet !!!!

Jessie (left) and Lily, making croutons - how sweet !!!!

21:00 We watch some TV, the last episode of "Us", a drama about relationships which is also a bit of a travelogue: not really my cup of tea, but "we've stuck with it so far so we'll see it through" - a bit of a metaphor for the characters in the drama as it turns out!

The premise is a middle-aged couple, Douglas and Connie, whose only child, Albie, is about to disappear to start a 3-year course at university. Douglas has done some meticulous planning for a trip to Europe so the three of them can spend some quality time together before Albie flies the nest.

In the first episode shown a couple of weeks ago, a few days before the trip, Douglas and Connie have just got into bed, when she tells him their marriage is over – she can’t face being alone with Douglas in their big house, once young Albie has gone. I think this situation that’s quite common in marriages – one of Lois’s work colleagues went on working for years after she should have retired, because she wanted to get away from her husband during the day – yikes!

The image that finally drove Connie to her decision was the thought of the endless “box sets” of DVDs that the controlling Douglas was planning for them to watch together – and we can sympathise with her on this.

At the time we wondered why Connie didn’t wait till after the Europe trip to tell Douglas it was over between them, but then I don’t suppose that would have worked from the drama viewpoint - what madness!

So the trio travel from Paris to Amsterdam, but in Amsterdam Albie disappears with a girl to go busking round Europe. Connie goes back to England, while Douglas tries to find Albie, following him first to Florence and then to Barcelona (cue travelogue shots of famous tourist sights!).  

In tonight's episode Douglas eventually catches up with Albie in Barcelona, and the two makes things up with each other, and at the same time Douglas finds out that Albie is in fact gay. 

Then all three, Douglas, Connie and Albie, finally find themselves back in England, Albie goes off to university, the parents shed a tear, but what will happen next? Will Douglas and Connie put aside their differences, settle back into their life, and "grow old together", as Lois is hoping?

No they won't, is the short answer - we suddenly see them packing up their belongings so their marital home can be sold, with some stuff going with Connie to London, and the rest going with Douglas to somewhere else - it isn't clear exactly where, but later we see him hooking up with Freja, a Danish divorcee he met when in Florence.

So that's all right then! But we can see that the writer has skipped one or two important conversations, mainly the one where Connie and Douglas finally decide that their relationship really is over, and that they've got to go their separate ways (if amicably). This omission was presumably designed to keep up the dramatic tension till about 10 minutes before the end of the programme, but Lois and I feel a bit cheated - damn !!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!