08:00 Today is not an ordinary day - it's the 8th anniversary of my much-missed younger sister Kathy's death, aged just 65, in Norristown Pennsylvania, where she lived with husband Steve and with, over the years, a collection of cats, including Katy. Katy survives to this day, which is good, because she provides some comfort to Steve.
Kathy and Steve visited us many times periodically after their marriage in 1985, but on one occasion only, in November 2007, Kathy came on her own for a few days - Steve wasn't able to join her, I forget what the circumstances were.
On Kathy's las evening Lois and I and our daughter Sarah dined at the Kings Arms, a local pub, together with Kathy, my late brother Steve, and our late mother.
(left to right) my brother Steve, our mother, Sarah, Kathy and Lois, at the Kings Arms
Kathy's visit ended the following day, on February 24th , when we drove Kathy to the Royal Well Bus Station and saw her off on the bus to Heathrow Airport.
the next day we saw my later sister Kathy off on the bus to Heathrow Airport
Happy times!
09:00 No peace for the wicked! Lois and I have to be up, washed and breakfasted by 9 am for a zoom call with our daughter Sarah, who now lives just outside Perth, Australia, together with Francis and their 7-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. Yikes! We haven't really got our "talking heads" on yet, but we do our best!
The twins keep popping in and out. They have assigned birthdays to all their soft toys and today is apparently Snuff's birthday - and of course the twins are baking cakes for Snuff: how cute !!!!
11:00 After a calming cup of coffee and a digestive biscuit, we go for a walk on the local football field. We investigate the mysterious, so-called "Demilitarized Zone" [you're the only person in the world who calls it that! - Ed], which is a sad-looking mix of mud, ditches, pools of water, piles of sand, portaloos and inactive digger-machines. Nobody seems to know what it's for - what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
the local football field, with the mysterious "Demilitarized Zone"
on the left of the picture near the clump of three trees
we visit the mysterious "Demilitarized Zone", as it is today,
a zone that still seems to fulfil no useful purpose
16:00 We talk on the phone to our other daughter Alison, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey with Ed and their 3 children, Josie (14), Rosalind (12) and Isaac (10). They are still stalled in their efforts to move to a house a mile or two away in a quieter location, just over the county boundary in Hampshire. Somebody earlier in the chain is having problems with lawyers - what madness!!!! Ed is himself a lawyer and he says the problems are all the result of people who like to "think inside the box" - oh dear!
Alison has been working as a teacher's assistant for a month or so, her first paid job for 15 years. So far she has been teaching the children of front line workers. However if schools resume fully on March 8th as Boris plans she will at last be doing the job she signed up to, i.e one to one teaching of children with special needs.
20:00 We settle down on the couch and see a little TV, the latest programme in Janina Ramirez's new archaeological series, "Raiders of the Lost Past".
Another fascinating programme by the archaeologist Lois and I have got used to calling "Boots Woman", although whatever she wears on her feet now is normally shrouded by some generous trouser bottoms - what madness! But her strikingly "Latino" looks and figure make a stark contrast tonight with the tall, slim, fair-skinned Norwegians she talks to during the programme, that's for sure.
An intact Viking long-ship used in a ship burial at Oseberg was unearthed from a mound at Tonsberg near Oslo in the early 1900's.
Traces of other ship burials have been found in Norway, also Denmark and even Britain, but Oseberg is unique because most of the wooden ship itself was preserved, thanks to the damp clay and peat it was laid in, kept wet by a small stream - the only snag being that by 1903 all this wood was broken into about 2000 pieces, and had to be painstakingly reassembled, a job that took 21 years - my god!
At the time of the ship's discovery, the pride of finding it helped to stoke the flames of Norwegian nationalism, because just at the same time the Norwegians were getting ready to throw off the Swedish yoke they had been living under for 4 centuries.
Two skeletons were found buried in the ship, and it was naturally assumed at the time of discovery that these were high status men or one high status man and his high status servant. But much later, in 2007, it was discovered that they were actually women.
Ramirez infers from this that "women were more powerful in Viking culture than had previously been thought". Lois and I are doubtful about this, however - we think that powerful kings would have wanted their queens to be honoured at their death, because it reflected well on themselves. It didn't necessarily mean that the women had any position of power - that's what we think anyway, call us cynics if you like haha!
flashback to May 2013: we visit a Viking ship burial in Ladby, Denmark
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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