09:00 Lois and I can luxuriate in bed this morning, because our usual weekly zoom call with Sarah, our daughter in Australia, happened yesterday by special arrangement. We love to talk to Sarah, Francis and their 7-year-old twins Lily and Jessie, but it's quite a struggle to get ready in time for the 8:30 call.
Sarah didn't say why Sunday wouldn't be convenient for them, but it may be something to do with Francis's birthday on Tuesday. We know that they're probably going to be celebrating next weekend with a cruise-and-lunch package, probably on the trip to Fremantle and back: but they may be doing something today as well - we're not sure.
Lois and I have many happy memories of a cruise we did with Sarah and family in 2018 on the Swan River.
flashback to April 2018 - we do a cruise on the Swan River
Happy days!!!!
10:00 Lois and I do our usual bit of "Danish" on the sofa, but after that I don't see much of her today. Her sect has 3 online meetings today, the usual 2 worship services on zoom, and then a meeting on "Google meet" (?) to discuss what to do with the sect's seminar students. What madness!!!! Still, I suppose these meetings have got to happen - oh dear!
I look on my smartphone and I see that it's mainly cautiously good news on the COVID front both here in Gloucestershire and in Surrey where our daughter Alison lives with her family.
In our county, Gloucestershire several areas around Cheltenham, including our own, are officially COVID-free (coloured white), which is reassuring.
In Surrey, where our elder daughter Alison lives with Ed and their 3 children, infection rates are generally falling, and their district, Waverley, is one of the safest in the county, with a rate not much more than half the average for England as a whole. This is reassuring, because Alison recently started a part-time job as a teacher's assistant at a local primary school. She has to test herself twice a week with the so-called Lateral Flow Device (LFD) home testing kit, and report in to the school before she turns up for duty.
the so-called lateral flow device (LFD) home testing kits
that our daughter Alison has to use twice a week to continue working as teacher's assistant
Meanwhile, our other daughter, Sarah, living as she does in Western Australia, has no real worries at all to speak of on the COVID front. The state's prime minister, Mark McGowan, recently declared a 5-day lockdown after just one person in the state was found to be infected, and no other cases were detected, which is good news, and the lockdown has been over for a week, although some precautionary measures remain in place.
17:00 Lois's last meeting finishes. It's been her first experience with Google Meet, and she says it worked really well, with clear pictures and clear audio. Even Mari-Ann and Alf, who normally sound on zoom as if they're speaking from the inside of a vacuum cleaner going round one of the departure lounges at Heathrow Airport, sounded "clear as a bell", she says.
And there were no dogs or other pets on view, she reports, which is good news after a recent disturbing story we saw on Onion News, the influential American website.
At least we've come a long way since the 1970's when literally dozens of muppets were held against their will in proto-Skype-arches.
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!
17:30 Lois showcases the cake she's been baking this afternoon. What a woman!!!!
Lois showcases the "morale-booster cake" she's been baking
some of the Brussels sprouts our neighbour Bob has been growing
tonight's roast pork dinner using some of Bob's sprouts - yum yum!
20:00 We settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV: one of the late, great comedienne Victoria Wood's stand-up shows at the Albert Hall.
Tonight we particularly like Victoria's performance as an ageing, 40-something singer working for a third-rate cruise line, a sort of seedy D-list version of cruise-singer-celebrity Jane McDonald.
Victoria is performing tonight with her young keyboardist, Nick.
Impressive performance by Victoria, but Lois and I still prefer Jane McDonald, on balance, but it's a close thing: call us "old-fashioned" if you like!
Included for comparison:
flashback to November 2019:
Jane McDonald hits the headlines with her comeback TV series
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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