Wednesday December 30th 2020

09:00 Lois and I tumble out of bed. It's a big day for us, because we've got to interact with strangers: Lois has promised her friend Ursula, who lives on her own about 30 minutes away in Churchdown, that she'll take her a couple of slices of her Christmas cake. She makes up a bag for Ursula containing the cake slices, but also a couple of portions of her home-made Christmas pudding, and a couple of her home-made Christmas cookies. She's so warm-hearted - if only I could be more like her!!!!

The major concern is that the petrol in our petrol tank is getting quite low - oh dear, that means we've got to brave our local petrol station - damn! It seems a long time since we last filled up - I look back in my blog and see it was August 26th: four months ago. The time before that was before lockdown, in March 2020 we think. 

The Honda Jazz petrol tank holds 9 and a quarter gallons (42 litres) - you do the maths haha!!

11:00 We drive round to the local Murco petrol station. We're going to try and make it straightforward. It's my job to fill the tank, and Lois's job to go in and pay. We've both got plastic gloves and a face-mask on, and we've got hand sanitizer in the pocket of the car-door. Simples! What could possibly go wrong haha !!!!

our local Murco petrol station

11:45 We arrive at Ursula's, expecting to have a chat with her on the doorstep - we don't want to risk going inside. But none of that works out - Ursula has a carer there, who answers the door while simultaneously talking on two mobiles for some reason. She says Ursula is only half-dressed for some reason (again): oh dear! So we just have to leave the Christmas goodies with the carer and drive home.

It's still been nice to get out of the house and see people going about their normal business. And it's sunny and we get good views of the snow-capped hills around the town.

12:30 We arrive home. There's a message from Steve, our American brother-in-law. He says that there is more snow and ice in the forecast for Cheltenham. He asks if anybody has suggested tossing Boris Johnson into a volcano to appease the gods. I don't think I've heard that proposed seriously so far, but I guess it may come to that, at some point - yikes, it's getting serious!

Lois and I have heard there's a bit of a rumour going around locally. Scare stories maybe, but we'll see! People are suggesting there may even be a repeat of the freak January snowfalls in America's north-eastern states, a wild few weeks that occurred a few years ago. an extreme weather event which was fully reported on the influential Onion News website, and has since passed into local folklore.

 

SYRACUSE, NY—In a rare instance of icy-cold January weather, much of the Northeast awoke Tuesday morning to find itself buried under nearly 1.5 inches of snowfall.

"This is really bizarre," said Syracuse resident Mary Baloh, who noted that her garden was doing very well until the unexpected weather struck. "I've seen some freak weather in my lifetime, but this definitely tops them all."

"It's like Christmas in January," Baloh added.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature, which plummeted to an unseasonably cold 31 degrees, is supposed to linger at the freezing mark over the next several days. The inclement conditions have forced school cancellations, shut down federal and state office buildings, closed municipal pools, and put a damper on common seasonal activities such as barbecues and beach volleyball games.

Still, a few adventuresome individuals ventured outside to frolic in the strangely still, white scene, donning cross-country skis, thick boots, and other accessories more appropriate for Alpine climes than the north-eastern United States.

 "Look, you can almost make a snowball," said 17-year-old Theo Baldesseri in Pittsburgh's Riverview Park. "My older cousin told me about stuff like this happening when he was a kid, but I always thought he was just making it up."

Some people in our neighbourhood are boldly insisting that this "couldn't happen here", but Lois and I are not so sure. Luckily we have several years' supply of porridge oats and Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup in our larder, so we'll be all right even if everybody else around here goes down - haha! 

12:45 After a cup of coffee and one of the Christmas cookies each, we go out for a walk on the local football field. Connor, my NHS physiotherapist, has scheduled a walk for me today.

we take a walk on the local football field

14:30 After lunch I look at my smartphone. As expected, the Government has put our county into Tier 4, the highest tier. It doesn't make any practical difference to Lois and me - all along we have acted as if we're in the top tier anyway. Also they've approved the Oxford - astrazeneca vaccine, which is nice. And I see also that the New Year's Day race-meeting at the local race-course has been cancelled - nothing to do with the virus, the course is just waterlogged: no surprise there. There have been three and a half inches of rain in the last few days - oh dear!

We get some texts from Alison, our elder daughter who lives in Haslemere, Surrey together with Ed, and their 3 children, Josie (14), Rosalind (12) and Isaac (10). She says Isaac, the youngest, will be going back to school as scheduled in early January, but the girls will be having 2 weeks more holiday before they have to go back to school. Alison herself is hoping to start as a teaching assistant at a local primary school, which means that she will be starting back the same time as Isaac. This will leave Ed to supervise the girls: Ed works mostly from home anyway, and the girls will be studying online. 

flashback to June: (left to right) Ed, Josie, Rosalind, Isaac, and Alison:

20:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's monthly business meeting. They're going to discuss what books of the Bible to concentrate on in the next term's sessions - the problem, Lois says, is that she thinks they've pretty much done all the books once already, so where to go next is an issue.

I settle down on the sofa and watch a bit of TV, a special Christmas edition of the Scottish sitcom Two Doors Down, starring Doon MacKichan as the terrible Cathy, wife of Colin, who are hosting their Glasgow neighbours up in the Highlands for the New Year holiday.

It's funny as ever, in its inimitably subtle way. Cathy and Colin have invited their neighbours to their luxury lodge up in the Highlands, and Colin is anxious to tell their guests of all the opportunities for activities there are in the area.

Christine, who lives on her own, is taking advantage of Cathy and Colin's hospitality to eat non-stop as usual.

Somehow the terrible Cathy always finds an opportunity to kiss her neighbour Beth's gay son's partner Gordon full on the mouth - it happens almost every episode. Is it just because Gordon is 30 years younger than her husband Colin, or is she trying to "turn" Gordon? I'm not sure - the jury's still out on that one!

The group have gathered to celebrate the New Year, which in Scotland, unlike in England, is a bigger celebration than Christmas. For Christmas itself, Cathy and Colin were on their own in the lodge, it seems, but it seemed to have been a romantic break for them.

Oh dear, let's draw a veil over that one, shall we?!!

21:15 Lois emerges from her Business Meeting, and we watch the latest programme in a special Christmas series of our favourite TV quiz, University Challenge. For these special programmes, colleges and universities are being represented not by current students but by "distinguished alumni" of the institutions concerned - they may be "distinguished", but Lois and I haven't really heard of any of them - oh dear: old age creeping up on us again! [Creeping up? I think it's crept well past you! - Ed]

Oh dear - the semi-finals have arrived: that means that only the top 4 teams are left in the competition now. These are the really good teams, and Lois and I are going to find it much much harder to come up with answers that the contestants can't come up with themselves, which is a pity.

We still get 6 of these answers tonight, however, so it could be worse.

1. Which North American city hosts a major winter carnival with a parade on routes which may include Grande Allée and Place George V?

Distinguished alumni: Montreal

Colin and Lois: Quebec

2. Along with Raymond Gosling, who co-authored a paper in the science journal Nature in April 1953, that stated, "The structure is probably helical. The phosphate groups lie on the outside of the structural unit, on a helix of diameter about 20 angstroms" ?

Distinguished alumni: Watson and Crick (St John's),  Courtaulds [pass]

Colin and Lois: Rosalind Franklin

3. The films of George Cukor: Basil Rathbone plays Mr Murdstone in Cukor's 1935 adaptation of which novel by Dickens?

Distinguished alumni: A Tale of Two Cities

Colin and Lois: David Copperfield

4. Whitby Abbey was the home to which 7th century English poet? His "Hymn to God" is thought to be the oldest recorded Christian poem in Old English.

Distinguished alumni: Bede

Colin and Lois: Caedmon

5. "The Merry Widow" and "The Land of Smiles" are operettas by which composer, born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1870?

Distinguished alumni: Strauss

Colin and Lois: Franz Lehar

6. Of the eight English or British kings with the regnal name Edward, which had the longest reign?

Distinguished alumni: (St John's) Edward I, (Courtaulds) Edward IV

Colin and Lois: Edward III

Enough to send us (a little bit) smugly to bed. But we're living on borrowed time as regards the second semi-final tomorrow, and the final on New Year's Day, that's for sure - oh dear!!!!

22:00 We go, in trepidation, to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!