07:15 It's me to get up and get the cups of tea today, to do penance for my laziness yesterday - damn! When I get back into bed I switch on my smartphone and look at the BBC News page. The Government are going to be starting this week to offer coronavirus vaccines to all over 70's, which is nice. And I get a text from Alison, our elder daughter in Haslemere, Surrey, highlighting this development. Sarah, our younger daughter in Perth, Australia does the same thing later in the morning - she sends us an encouraging text. Nice to know they're thinking of us, bless them!
We have heard that a drive-through system is operating from today at the Cheltenham fire-station next to the hospital - the Oxford/astrazeneca vaccine is now being used which is much easier to store. Last week when the NHS was using the Pfizer vaccine, there was criticism that patients had to park at the Lido and pay parking charges, something which at lot of our neighbours were complaining about, according to social media - oh dear!
09:45 Later I look at the Hungarian news, and I see that all the Hungarian leadership, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, are preparing to get vaccinated with the Chinese coronavirus vaccine. I discuss this with Lois, and she thinks that the Hungarians are perhaps getting impatient because of the failure of the EU to organise themselves efficiently on this project. However, we're not 100% sure - so the jury's still out on that one.
Comment: why isn't Orban wearing a mask?
10:15 I have my monthly telephone appointment with Connor, my young NHS physiotherapist. He's encouraging as always: and he okays the adjustments I have made to some of his exercises, adjustments which he says are "cool". I keep quiet about the fact that I have monkeyed about with his so-called "schedule", which divides my days between "walk days" and "exercise days", and he appears not to be suspect anything, which is a relief ! He's going to send me some more exercises in the post, so that I can have more variety from day to day.
the local general hospital where the NHS physiotherapy clinic resides
11:15 We go for a walk on the local football field. We don't meet many people, which is nice. There are about 4 dog-walkers and one jogger.
the local football field, with running track highlighted in red
we do a walk on the local football field - some dog-walkers can be seen
in the distance behind us to the right
12:00 We have lunch in the front room as usual, and when we are just finishing we see the Sainsbury's delivery van parking up outside our house - it's about 12:50 pm, although the delivery slot is supposed to be from 1pm to 2pm. But we're ready for him this time - he did the same thing the last time we ordered from Sainsbury's - ha! Sainsbury's ask customers to lay out boxes and bags for the delivery guy to put the stuff in, and we've already done it - ha (again)! You have to get up early to catch us out haha!!
we wanted 4 oranges and they sent about 36: what madness !!!!
This isn't the first time we've been misled by the display on the Sainsbury's website. A couple of times recently we ordered 1kg of sprouts, only to receive a single little sprout. What a crazy world we live in!!!!!
flashback to last November: Sainsbury's deliver us a single, lonesome sprout - sheer insanity!!!
as my Hungarian penfriend Tunde reported
14:00 Anyway it's too late now to hand back today's 27 unwanted oranges: the delivery guy is long gone. So we decide to do our usual washing job but give one bag of oranges each to our 3 neighbours, Bob, Nikki and Frances. It's nice to have the opportunity to do something generous once in a while, that's for sure!
we wash the 10 remaining oranges and other fruit, and leave
them to dry on the draining-board in the utility room
16:00 After a nap in bed, we have a cup of tea and an iced bun on the couch. I look at my smartphone and I see that the next G7 summit, in June, will be held at Carbis Bay Hotel in Cornwall, a place where Lois and I once had a beer in the bar, during a walk along the coast from St Ives. Oh I feel like a beer right now, but it wouldn't go with an iced bun, I suspect - damn!!!
flashback to 2015: Lois and I walk along the coast path from St Ives to Carbis Bay
and have a beer in the bar of the Carbis Bay Hotel - happy times !!!!
19:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Seminar on zoom. I settle down on the couch and try to find something I can watch on TV that Lois isn't interested in. I decide to go for "The Great" episode 3, all about Empress Catherine of Russia: not an ideal choice but I'm hoping to pick up a bit of historical knowledge in between all the mayhem on screen.
Tonight we see Emperor Peter talking to his generals and proposing a surprise attack on the Swedes, but the generals point out that Peter's chosen location cannot be approached by stealth. Peter is undeterred, suggesting that they attack at night wearing black, or wearing green "if the grass is high". What madness (literally in this case!!!).
Emperor Peter's plan for a surprise attack on the Swedes - what madness (literally haha!)
The Empress, the enlightened Catherine decides the only way to achieve a more civilized society in Russia is if she stages a coup against her husband, and she begins to plot in a rather amateurish way with her maidservant Marial and with her learned and equally enlightened courtier Orlo.
However, Marial, Catherine's down-to-earth maidservant, suggests that they take the chance to just stab Peter while Peter and Catherine are having sex.
Marial's down-to-earth approach to staging a coup against Peter - simples!!!
What a crazy country Russia was in those times haha!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her Bible Seminar and we watch our favourite TV quiz, University Challenge, the student quiz. Tonight is the second quarter-final contest between Balliol College, Oxford and King's College, London.
Each week Lois and I try to catch the students out by answering questions correctly that the students get wrong. But the quarter-finals are a real challenge for us, because only the really good teams are left in the contest by this stage. Last week we failed to get a single correct answer that the students didn't get also, which was disappointing.
We do better this week, getting 8 answers that the students don't get, but we're helped by a multi-part question where the students have to identify the voices of 4 popular singers from the early 1960's, each singing songs by the Bryant song-writing team. The students, all in their twenties, unsurprisingly fail to identify any of these voices correctly. The singers concerned are the Everly Brothers, Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly.
Lois and I are initially very pleased about getting this question tonight, but as soon as the excitement dies away we start to feel suddenly very old, as I'm sure presenter Jeremy Paxman does also. He must be almost our age - oh dear !!!!
22:00 Time to go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!
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