Saturday January 9th 2021

10:30 My friend, "Magyar" Mike and his wife, "Magyar" Mary, are supposed to be having their coronavirus vaccination today, we think in some local NHS surgery in Nailsworth. But when I ring him later to find out how it went, he said that the appointment got cancelled: instead he has to turn up to a surgery in Stroud tomorrow morning at the same time (10:30 am). What madness!

Flashback to 1994: "Magyar" Mike in happier times – on my first ever visit to Hungary: me (left) with Mike showcasing for the cameras our newly acquired second-hand  "excellent worker" medals from the communist era

Mike says he'll ring me tomorrow and let me know how it went and which vaccine it is that they get - Pfizer or Oxford-Astrazeneca. The government plans are that everybody over 70 will have had their first dose by mid-February, which will be nice, to put it mildly.

At least it means Mike and Mary didn't get their vaccination before the Queen and Prince Philip, who got "done" today at Windsor Castle. Lois and I were surprised to learn that the Queen and Philip hadn't been vaccinated already, but I'm going to let that one slide!

flashback to Dec 31st 1999 - the Queen and Philip in happier times:

linking arms with Tony Blair and singing Auld Lang Syne

11:30 Lois and I go out for a walk on the local football field. The tops of the hills are shrouded in mist. It's freezing cold - only 32F (0 C), but it's Saturday so there are a lot of mums and dads, with kiddies riding their junior bikes, going round the perimeter circuit. As a result Lois and I have to step off the path to let the kiddies go by with 2m clearance, just to be on the safe side. 

Because of the current lockdown, all the play and sports equipment has been padlocked up now, apart from the playground for the very little kids: the swings, slides, roundabouts etc where, years ago two days a week we used to take our twin grandchildren Lily and Jess: the twins now live in Perth, Australia, with their parents, our daughter Sarah and her husband Francis - they left England in late 2015, so they've been in Australia for 5 years now: sob sob !!!!

we go for a walk on the local football field: it's so cold

that Lois has to warm her mouth with her scarf - brrrrrr!!!!

flashback to summer 2014: we take the twins to the playground 

next to the local football field - happy days !!!!

16:00 We have a cup of Tea Pig Extra Strong Earl Grey tea and a Chelsea bun on the sofa. 

a typical box of 50 Tea Pigs Extra-Strong Earl Grey tea-bags: 

"grey with attitude" - just like us haha!!

I look at my smartphone: the Trump and Capitol riot affair rumbles on. Let's hope that after 4 years of the Trump presidency everybody concerned gets their just deserts now, whether good or bad, which will be very satisfying - Lois and I will be very disappointed, not to say "gutted", if anybody (not mentioning any names haha)  turns out to get away with anything we feel they shouldn't have got away with: that's all we're saying for now. As long as the "just deserts" involves, at the very minimum, a crippling financial penalty or three haha!!!

It's amusing to think that a person with access to the nuclear codes has been deemed too dangerous to have a twitter account. What a crazy world we live in !!!!

Steve, our American brother-in-law, has sent us an interesting article on the PsyPost psychology website identifying a previously undiagnosed personality syndrome, which the study authors call a "Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood" (TIV). 

Study authors Rahav Gabay and team describe how the social world is satiated with interpersonal transgressions that are often unpleasant and seemingly unwarranted, such as being interrupted when speaking. While some people can easily brush off these moments of hurt, others tend to ruminate over them and persistently paint themselves as a victim. The authors present this feeling of being the victim as a novel personality construct that influences how people make sense of the world around them.

The researchers call it the Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood (TIV), which they define as “an ongoing feeling that the self is a victim, which is generalized across many kinds of relationships.”

An initial three studies established the TIV as a consistent and stable trait that involves four dimensions: moral elitism, a lack of empathy, the need for recognition, and rumination. A follow-up study further found that this tendency for victimhood is linked to anxious attachment  — an attachment style characterized by feeling insecure in one’s relationships — suggesting that the personality trait may be rooted in early relationships with caregivers.

Next, two studies offered insight into the cognitive profile of those with TIV. The studies had participants consider scenarios that involved another person treating them unpleasantly — either by having subjects read a vignette describing a partner giving them poor feedback (Study 3) or by having subjects play a game that ended with their opponent taking a larger share of the winnings (Study 4). Interestingly, the two studies found that those who scored higher on the measure of TIV were more likely to desire revenge against the person who wronged them.

Since reading this interesting article, Lois and I have been wracking our brains. The sort of personality described reminds us of some prominent personality, but we can't bring his or her name to mind. 

This kind of thing happens to us a lot nowadays, and we are constantly testing each other with questions such as "Who was it who played the café waitress in the Bluebells' video of the song "Young at Heart" (1984) - you know, the one who did the cartwheel in the middle of the café, with Stratford Johns?" 

Don't send in your answers by the way - we've remembered now that it was veteran Scottish actress Molly Weir: although Molly was 74 at the time the video was made (same age as us now!), so we're not ruling out the possibility that the cartwheel was done by a stuntwoman. Call us cynics if you like haha!!!!

waitress Molly Weir relaxing in the café at a table (right) with Stratford Johns

just prior to doing her cartwheel

20:00 We settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV, an interesting documentary on the PBS America channel about the early years of, and the rise to power of, Spanish dictator General Franco.

A fascinating programme. And Lois and I are surprised to find how little we knew about the rise of fascism in Spain in the 1930's. 

It's interesting how fascism often seem to arise when a country feels it's been demoted in status in the world: Germany after the defeat in World War I is a prime example. Spain was the world's first superpower, with a vast empire at one time, one that gradually dwindled as colony after colony fought for independence. The final straw came in 1898, when the Spanish fleet was destroyed in the war against the US.

Franco taught himself English during one of his periods in the political wilderness before his successful climb to supreme power. And it's slightly weird to hear his somewhat halting English in a speech he made when on the brink of taking over, in 1936.

Thanks to the thousands of souls...

...who follow our movement in defence of civilization...

..country, religion, family: this is our faith and our dream.

Later in 1936 he was busy enlisting German and Italian support for his side in the Civil War. Here we see him with his wife, Carmen, and his daughter, also called Carmen: his daughter is sending a message to German children -  in Spanish this time:

Franco [translation]: Would you like to say something...

... to German children?

Little Carmen: I pray that no child on earth will have...

...to experience the grief and suffering...

...experienced by children in the hands of...

...our country's enemies.

But was little Carmen really Franco's daughter? According to tonight's programme, during his youth Franco was not thought to be very interested in women. Rumours claimed that little Carmen was actually the daughter of Franco's brother Raoul, and her mother was a local prostitute. My goodness!

What a crazy world we live in !!!! [You must stop saying that - this is your final warning! - Ed]

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