Tuesday November 10th 2020

10:15 My first so-called "physiotherapy session" begins by telephone. Connor gets me to describe my problem, which is mainly that I've been taking less and less exercise as the lockdown has progressed, leading to general unfitness: which is clearly my fault. 

But Connor isn't judgmental, which is nice. And he's going to mail me some exercises and some general advice suitable for old codgers. He and I will have another telephone "session" in 3 weeks' time to see how I've been getting on. I've been trying to do a bit more exercise recently: a 4-5 mile "ride" on my exercise bike about 3 times a week, some not-very-challenging weight training, and a bit of work on my so-called "grip" machine - oh dear, it doesn't sound like much does it, come to think of it!

the local general hospital where the physiotherapy department is located

11:30 I haven't been doing much going for walks, so Lois says she is going to bully me into doing that on a daily basis, weather permitting. We would have started today, but we are half expecting Mark the Gardener to come round, and he's not answering his phone. Only Mark, and Mark alone understands his own schedule, which seems totally arcane and indecipherable to his customers, I sense - oh dear (again)!

Having a gardener is a very satisfying hobby, however, even if the gardeners, as they normally do, quickly "take over", and start regarding your garden as their own, and soon start making all the decisions. We were first introduced to this so-called "gardnering" hobby by local woman Susan Tager, who wrote a fascinating piece about it for the local news website, Onion News Local.

Local housewife Susan writes, "If you had asked me three years ago if I was ever going to have a gardener, I probably would have thought you were out of your tree. Sure, I loved the idea of lush greenery and fresh vegetables, but in my mind, it was simply not worth the finding the time and expending all the effort to deal with a gardener every day from spring till fall: way too much hassle. 

Nothing seemed more tiring than having to figure out what my gardener was going to have to plant and where to order him to plant it—all the countless headaches of getting someone to take care of the garden just seemed overwhelming. To say nothing of the hours and hours I'd have to put in under the deck umbrella watching his every move, making sure every last detail was exactly as I wanted it. Everything about it just screamed "No, thanks!"

But my mother and sister and the servants kept insisting that I needed to get out and be more active. "Why Susan," they'd say. "Look at you! You barely have the energy to get out of bed after breakfast each morning!" They kept telling me how rewarding it was to have a gardener, what wonders an outdoor hobby would do to invigorate my delicate constitution. So I finally gave in and decided to give 'gardenering' a try.

And you know what? They were right! And now I can't imagine life without a gardener any more than I could without stables, the wine buyer, or my kitchen staff!"

Well, Susan talked us into it all right, and since then we've never looked back!

I know I can become fit again, if I'm just determined enough about it. If at all possible I want to emulate the inspirational success of another local hero, Matthew Sabourne, who doesn't let anything get in his way. His story was reported on the same local news website recently. 

Saying that he wouldn’t let his problems define him, recently injured man Matthew Sabourne told reporters Thursday he was determined to maintain his normal sedentary lifestyle despite his new physical challenges.

“I caught a tough break with the accident, but I’ll be damned if I let this injury stop me from getting out of bed every afternoon, plopping down on the couch, and binge-watching Netflix for eight hours just like any other able-bodied person,” said Sabourne, 29, who also vowed to maintain his previous diet of nonstop fast food and carbonated beverages.

“I will not let this injury get in the way of my personal or professional life, at least any more than my recliner did before. As soon as I finish my FIFA season, I’m turning off my PlayStation, hitting the job market, and landing a regular gig where I can sit in front of a computer all day long.”

What an inspiration to all of us! 

Hail to thee, Matthew Sabourne - you kept us out of war!!!!

20:00 We watch a bit of TV, the first part of Lucy Worsley's new series on 

The amount of information that Lucy Worsley gets across in her hour-long documentaries is really quite small, because she has to "jazz up" every point she makes with some sort of visual display. Do we really need to see endless displays of little cakes while she's illustrating the point that Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake", for example?

Queen Marie-Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake" , but yes, Lucy, we do know what a cake is!

A lot of the material she presents about the French Revolution is familiar territory to Lois and me, as we're both history buffs, but it's nevertheless useful to be reminded of the famous misconceptions about the revolution, especially because, at our age, we're inclined to be more and more forgetful - oh dear!

We both knew that the French state was bankrupt in the run-up to the revolution, but we didn't quite realise the scale of the cost to France of the support she gave to the American fight for independence from Britain - their expenditure in supporting the colonists was equal to two and a half times the country's annual budget - my god!

The moral: don't spend out an excessive amount of money, more than you can afford, just to spite your neighbours, however much you may dislike them haha!

There have been many popular misconceptions about the revolution, and Lucy reiterates tonight some of the true facts, including, for example:

1. The revolution wasn't started by the hungry, downtrodden masses - it actually started as a revolt by middle-class professionals.

2.  When the mob stormed the Bastille, there were actually only 7 prisoners in it, and not a single one of them was a "political prisoner".

3. The slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" was in fact only adopted over 50 years later, in 1848.

4. The guillotine was actually introduced as a humane alternative to existing methods of execution, which were far more brutal.

5. Napoleon's "short stature" was in fact just a British propaganda slur - he was 5 ft 7 in (170cm) tall - and this was close to the average height for men at the time.

...and much much more! Robespierre in particular has been very misunderstood - he was originally against the death penalty, for a start, and of course he himself got guillotined in the end. And Lucy points out that, strangely, there are very few statues of him around today in France. 

Would the "woke" people be attacking such statues, if they were there? Lois and I are not quite sure about this, so the jury's still out on that one. Guidance, please!!!!

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