Danskcolin: Sunday December 27th 2020

09:00 Lois and I tumble out of bed. Storm Bella was rattling against our bedroom window panes last night, so I venture outside just to check that all is okay. I can't see anything knocked over, despite the reported 45 mph south-westerly winds, which is a relief.

My NHS physiotherapist, Connor, has scheduled an exercise day for me today, and a walk tomorrow. I've looked at the weather forecast, however, which gives sunshine and chilly temperatures for today, but snow or sleet tomorrow. I take an executive decision to switch the two days round - hopefully Connor will never find out, as long as I don't weaken and confess during our next telephone-only session! It's not till January 19th anyway, which is a bit in the future anyway. He probably won't ask with any luck!

09:45 We take our walk on the local football field. Parts of the field are waterlogged, as expected, thanks to Storm Bella - it's Sunday so we have to avoid all the joggers as we make our way round the circumference path.

it's sunny but chilly - we go for a walk on the local football field

10:45 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's Bible Hour on zoom.

Mari-Ann, one of the sect members sent out a whatsapp message at 10:15 am to all the sect members asking who was giving the talk - the answer was that it was supposed to be Alf, her husband. Alf had obviously forgotten all about it. But Lois says he must have acted fast and cobbled something together in time for the talk at 10:45 am., which was nice.

I settle down on the sofa and watch a special Christmas edition of the "Motherland" sitcom, set in a London suburb, all about a group of harassed burnt-out mums, and one useless stay-at-home dad Kevin, Lois doesn't like this sitcom, so it's a good opportunity for me to see it.

We see the burnt-out mums, and useless stay-at-home dad Kevin, gathering outside the school gates, after sitting through a taxing performance of the school's annual nativity play.

After the school play, Kevin wants the mums to come with him to the town's "Living Nativity" display as an "end-of-term treat", but the mums have other ideas - oh dear!

Oh dear (again) ! Poor Kevin !!!!!!

12:00 A quick lunch on the sofa and then Lois disappears into the dining-room again to take part in her sect's communion service - they only get a half-hour break, so I had previously got everything ready including a cup of tea.

15:00 We take the car for a 6-mile round trip to Bishops Cleeve and back, to keep the car "ticking over". We pass without difficulty the GE Aviation complex, where the road was closed due to flooding 4 days ago.

flashback to last Wednesday: the county police close the road

from Cheltenham into Bishops Cleeve at GE Aviation, due to flooding - yikes!!!!

16:00 We relax on the sofa again with a cup of "Tea Pigs" Extra-Strong Earl Grey tea and a slice of Christmas cake - yum yum! After that we go back up to bed for a supplementary nap. We're becoming so lazy - oh dear!!!

17:30 I look at my smartphone, and see an interesting article by Robert Reich on the Guardian website, where he argues that Donald Trump has "brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking-ball to American democracy".

“Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows.

The message is: do whatever you want here, because others have done it and got away with it….but [during Trump's presidency] America’s most privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity."

The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’ investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors-general who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and “enemies of the people”, and make money off his presidency.

I'm no expert in American politics, but I know that the American political system is remarkably resilient, however, and much bigger than any one President. I assume that Biden will be able to repair a lot of the damage, and that the Republican Party will recall that following tried and tested principles and standards is more important than beating your opponents; also that Trump will be constantly pointed out as an example of the sort of president to avoid electing at all costs.

A bit like Tony Blair in this country haha!!!

Certainly Lois and I subscribe to the "broken window" theory. For years, we used to pick up litter in the alleyway near our house, on the theory that if litter is left to lie around, it encourages more people to throw litter down. We stopped touching litter when the pandemic started, just to be on the safe side! Call us overly cautious if you like !!!!

20:00 We watch a bit of TV, an interesting new 2-part Channel 5 series, "A Wartime Christmas".

This first part of the series covers the first 3 Christmases of World War II: 1939 (during the so-called "Phoney War", when nothing much had really fully kicked off), 1940 (the most terrifying one), and 1941 (more hopeful because the US had just entered the war).

A fascinating programme, bringing back, for Lois and me, memories of what our mothers had told us about the war when we were small.

We see the corrugated metal "Anderson shelters" that people built in their back gardens - when my parents and siblings and I were living in London 1954-58, there was one of these old shelters still surviving in our back yard, although it had by then been converted to store coal - what madness!!!!

typical wartime "Anderson shelters"

It's interesting to see also the card games and board games that children used to amuse themselves with, including the "Touring England" board game, that my siblings and I were still playing during our childhood in the 1950's. It featured a map of England and Wales with major roads marked. Each player was dealt 6 cards, each one carrying the name of a town. The object of the game was to visit all your 6 towns, by throwing a dice, along the marked roads, and then get back to your starting point.

It certainly taught us the geography of our own country - something which children today are not so good at, we feel. Oh the wisdom of old age!!!

When our daughter Alison, together with Ed and their 3 children, returned to England in 2018 after 6 years in Denmark, we bought them a "vintage" version of this fun game to help teach the children about the geography of England.