07:00 Lois and I are both awake. It's my turn to get out of bed and make the tea, and as it's a Thursday there should be 5 pints of milk on the doorstep. But the dairy has a new roundsman who started this week, and on Tuesday he left our milk outside our neighbour Nikki's house. Luckily today he has got the hang of the difference between an '8' and a '6' in a house number, and he has done it right - hail to thee, new roundsman!!! So I bring the milk in from the man's "hiding-place" behind a plant pot, and swab each bottle down with disinfectant as usual. What a crazy world we live in !!!!
a typical dairy roundsman
10:15 It's sunny today but a bit chilly to put it mildly. But it's nice to see the sun when we do our walk round the local football field, that's for sure. We've realised that the earlier we go out onto the field, the fewer sports-joggers there are, which is nice. And there are only 2 dog-walkers today, which is a relief, plus a few harmless elderly walkers like us, so no problem there!
a sunny but chilly morning for our walk: and there are
only 2 dog-walkers (not shown)
We decide to drop our Christmas cards off at the Breast Centre on Thirlestaine Road for charity, and also to reconnoitre the place where they've started doing the mass vaccinations at the old Cheltenham East Fire Station near Sandford Lido, and what the parking situation is like, and hopefully to watch some old dears trooping in for their jabs haha!
we stop by the Breast Centre to drop off our 2020 Christmas cards for charity
- we're all heart haha !!!
then we reconnoitre the Sandford Lido carpark (left): it turns out that the old
Cheltenham East Fire Station is just across the road from the car-park entrance,
just off this picture to the right - simples! Today we watch some old dears
crossing the Keynsham Road to get their jabs - bless them !!
the old Cheltenham East Fire Station where the old dears are getting their jabs
I park temporarily in the Lido Car-park keeping the engine running, while Lois reconnoitres on foot. But after we get home, I start to worry whether our number-plate was caught on camera and that we'll get a big fine in the post - damn !!!!!
12:00 I send an email off to Sarah, our younger daughter who lives in Perth with Francis with their 7-year-old twins.
Sarah and Francis are thinking of buying our house and renting it out to tenants, getting a mortgage based on Sarah's Australian salary - salary levels are higher than in the UK, as is the cost of living. But we have another daughter, Alison, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey, with Ed and their 3 children, so we have to protect Alison's inheritance if we're going to do a deal with Sarah for the house, which is a complication, one that's too much for my little brain: luckily Sarah's an accountant and Ed is a lawyer, so between them I'm sure they'll be able to sort something out.
Sarah and family on the shores of the Southern Ocean
Alison and family at a local pub near Haslemere
16:00 We sit down on the couch with a cup of Tea Pig extra strong Earl Grey Tea and the last 2 slices of Lois's delicious iced sponge cake - yum yum!
Lois gets a text from Rosalind, our 12-year-old granddaughter. She texts that she's currently on her exercise bike climbing (virtually) something called Alpe du Zwift, which (as we research on google) is "by far the longest, hardest, most intimidating climb in the game. Modelled as a GPS-accurate replica of the famous Alpe d'Huez, its 21 hairpin turns average 8.5%, and riders climb 1035 meters (3,396′) over 12.2 km (7.6 miles) to reach the summit."
While doing this virtual "climb" she somehow manages to send us the picture she is looking at on her bike - all this is quite beyond us: it's just the modern world, isn't it!
Rosalind's virtual climb up something called the Alpe du Zwift.
It's all beyond Lois and me, no doubt about that!!!
18:00 We have a Parsley Box ready-meal tonight to give Lois a break from cooking. It's their "Pork and Apple Cider Hotpot", but Lois adds a few fresh vegetables - what a woman!
our Parsley Box meal of pork and apple cider hotpot with added veg - yum yum!
20:00 We settle down on the couch and watch some TV, the first programme in Mary Beard's new series, "Inside Culture".
Mary discusses yesterday's inauguration of Joe Biden with her guests: satirist Armando Iannucci, journalist David Olusoga, Canadian author Margaret Attwood, and American academic Sarah Churchwell.
They point to the pageantry of the occasion, compared to the totally un-pageant-like change of prime ministers in the UK. American presidents combine the politics and the ceremony in a way unlike anything that happens here. And I remember my history teacher at school, when we were studying the US Constitution, saying that George Washington was a bit like an elected George III - I don't know how true that is.
All Mary's guests enjoyed yesterday's pageantry, including the poetry. Apparently the tradition of including poetry started with Robert Frost himself at the inauguration of FDR. Also important is the assemblage of as many former presidents as can be managed, which is the modern equivalent of the old transference of the divine right of kings, Mary's guests think. And all the pageantry is a necessary part of getting the public to accept mentally the change of president.
By contrast the kicking out of one UK prime minister and the moving in of a new one is a rather shabby and undignified process, mainly marked by the removal van turning up at the back door of No. 10 Downing Street, and the PM and his family scuttling out of the front door - they have to leave within 24 hours, so it's a bit humiliating, to put it mildly!
Here we see Gordon "Gordo" Brown with his family and possessions leaving Downing Street in 2010:
ex-Prime Minister Gordon "Gordo" Brown leaving office in May 2010
On the other hand we in the UK have coronations with lot of pomp and circumstance, where the new monarch is anointed with something or other in Westminster Abbey and some shouting of "God save the king/queen" goes on, to put the seal on the succession.
However, it gives Lois and me a start when presenter Mary Beard says that "we've sort of forgotten about coronations in this country". Of course she's right, simply because most people alive today were born after the Queen's coronation in 1953.
Gosh that makes Lois and me feel old, no doubt about that!!!! We were each 7 years old at the time, and we remember it well. In my case I remember that a dozen or so of our neighbours were packed into our front room to watch it, because we had a TV and they didn't.
me and my sister Kathy at around the time of the coronation
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!
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