08:00 Lois and I have a much better night but are still feeling a bit below par, having had our Oxford/astrazeneca COVID vaccination on Saturday afternoon - they told us to expect some minor side-effects for up to the next 3 days or so.
one of the county's fire-stations - Cheltenham East,
where patients can take the 15-minute rest after their vaccination
flashback to Saturday afternoon: I smile broadly behind my mask after my vaccination,
as I sit in the vast room normally occupied by some of the county's fire engines -
meanwhile the fire-engines have to sit parked outside in the cold - poor fire-engines!!!!
As both Lois and I are feeling out of sorts, we decide to postpone our usual Monday morning shower, and I make today an exercise day instead of a "walk day".
My sister Gill texts me to find out how we're doing. Her husband Peter and daughter Lucy, who are both disabled, had the astrazeneca jab a few days ago - Peter seems to have escaped with just a sore arm, but Lucy has had feverishness and achiness including severe headaches. Gill herself is a mere youngster, at only 62 years of age - but her turn will come, that's for sure!
10:00 I look at my smartphone. Lynda's U3A Middle English group is holding its monthly meeting on Friday on zoom, and she has emailed all of us members to tell us which text we'll be looking at. It's going to be another medieval "Towneley" play from Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Lynda has chosen the Second Shepherds’ Play, on the grounds that it was apparently written by the same person as the Play of Noah, which we looked at last month.
the text of the medieval Second Shepherd's Play: not a very catchy title in my view, and the jury still seems to be out on where the apostrophe goes: is it "Shepherd's" or "Shepherds' " ????
The bit she's chosen takes place after "Mak the Thief" has stolen a sheep and taken it home to his wife, who has put it in a cradle. They plan to pretend, when the shepherds come looking for it, that it’s a new-born baby. [Say what???? - Ed}
a typical scene from the medieval "Second Shepherds' Play", where a stolen sheep masquerades as a new-born baby - what madness !!!!
I don't know! What crazy japes and trickery they went in for in those days!!
19:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Seminar. I settle down on the couch to watch the latest instalment of "The Great", a drama loosely based on the life of Catherine the Great of Russia.
Quite an exciting episode, because everybody thinks the Emperor, Peter VIII, is going to die - his "best friend" Grigor, annoyed with Peter's continued sexual relationship with Georgina, Grigor's wife, finally loses patience with the Emperor and puts poison in his food.
Marial, Catherine's maidservant, breaks the "sad" news about Peter
when Catherine is in bed with her lover, Leo
If Peter dies, his wife Catherine is first in line to succeed him. She's not popular with the Establishment, however, i.e. the Church and the Nobility, because of her barely-concealed "liberal" agenda - e.g. abandoning the war against Sweden and abolishing serfdom in Russia: yikes, that's bold!!!
Mariel prepares Catherine for her first test - a speech to the Senate
The anti-Catherine faction are trying to find the whereabouts of the naughty Ivan, a young boy who's next in line for the throne after Catherine. They don't know where little Ivan is, but the pro-Catherine faction do know where he is - hidden away in the palace, and they make sure the little boy meets a bloody end - yikes! But then, that's the way they did things in Imperial Russia, wasn't it!
Finally the Emperor recovers, so that's all right isn't it haha!
21:00 Lois emerges from the Bible Seminar and we settle down on the couch to watch our favourite TV quizzes, University Challenge, the student quiz, and Only Connect, which tests lateral thinking. University Challenge first, while our brains are still marginally in gear - oh dear!
We're in the quarter-finals now, so these are two of the best teams in the competition: Lois and I struggle to find answers that the students don't also get, but we still score 5 of these, so not too bad an evening for us.
1. In April 1912, the US aviator Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly solo over what body of water, although news of the feat was overshadowed by the reporting of the sinking of the Titanic?
Students: Gulf of Mexico
Colin and Lois: the English Channel.
2. The French town of Nancy was the birthplace of a writer, whose bequest established an eponymous literary prize, first awarded in 1903. What was his surname?
Students: Flaubert
Colin and Lois: Goncourt
3. Identify the blues musician who's the subject of this portrait by photographer Berenice Abbott:
Students: [pass]
Colin and Lois: Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter)
4. Identify the designer in this second portrait by photographer Berenice Abbott:
Students: Mary Quant [say what??? - Ed]
Colin and Lois: Coco Chanel
5. Subtitled "Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China, Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister" is a 2019 work by which author?
Students: [pass]
Colin and Lois: Jung Chang (author of Wild Swans)
21:30 So not a bad result for us tonight on University Challenge. However we always like to go to bed on something a bit lighter, so we watch the other quiz, "Only Connect", which tests lateral thinking.
By this time in the evening, however, our lateral thinking is taking a bit of a nose-dive - by now we're more into "horizontal thinking" - oh dear!
We do recognise the four pieces of music in the music round, however, something which the teams fail to do. And we can see they're all about "things you throw".
Perhaps, given the teams' ages, it's not surprising that, for instance, they don't remember Charlie Drake's recording of "My Boomerang Won't Come Back" (1961). Also they've never heard of Bobby Vee, who sang "Rubber Ball" (also 1961). My god, were those songs really from 60 years ago - it seems like only yesterday!!!!
22:00 Feeling rather old, we stagger up to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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