08:00 Lois brings the tea and I switch on my smartphone - it's our son-in-law Francis's birthday today. He and our daughter Sarah live in Perth, Australia, with their 7-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. Sarah took a charming birthday picture of him earlier today (Perth time) with the girls and some of his birthday presents, including golf balls and pink champagne.
a birthday picture of our son-in-law Francis, seen here with our 7-year-old twin
granddaughters Lily and Jessie, looking all smart in their school uniforms - awwww!!!!
flashback to 2010: Sarah and Francis take a boat ride on Lake Coniston
after their wedding at Brantwood House, John Ruskin's former home
09:00 Meanwhile our other daughter Alison, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey with Ed and their 3 children has put a charming picture of her 10-year-old son Isaac up on "Insta". She took the picture when the two of them were taking the family's Danish dog Sika for a walk at the Devil's Punchbowl.
Our 10-year-old grandson Isaac on a walk with our daughter Alison
at the Devil's Punchbowl a couple of days ago
Alison writes that "the sun was out, the sky was blue, it was mild and the birds were singing, on their early morning dog walk". And "they talked Fortnite [a popular computer game - Ed] solidly the whole way" - what madness!
Lois and I sense that Isaac is getting less interested in soccer these days - his soccer blog posts have become rather few and far between.
Could computer games be Isaac's next obsession perhaps? I got a whatsapp text from him just this morning inviting me to subscribe to his shiny new YouTube "gaming channel",
two of Isaac's recent posts of "gaming footage - but it's all a bit of a mystery to me:
oh dear - I must be getting old - who would have thought it haha !!!!!
The more I see of today's computer-crazy generation, the more I empathise with Paul Moyers, an area dad who lives round here somewhere, and hit the world headlines recently, according to the influential American news website Onion News.
16:00 Lois and I sit down on the sofa with a cup of tea and a slice of her sponge cake. I try and think of what I've achieved today - not much! We took the car out for a run this morning, to "keep it ticking over". We drove to Winchcombe, and the sun was shining, which was nice. I sorted out our recycling boxes for the kerbside collection early tomorrow morning.
But I haven't yet compiled a Hungarian vocabulary test for my friend "Magyar Mike". We're not able to meet for our weekly Tuesday language sessions obviously, but maybe the opportunity to resume those sessions is not that far away now. In the meantime we just exchange vocab tests every Tuesday, which is better than nothing. My god!
flashback to 2014: my friend "Magyar" Mike in happier times,
with Lois (centre) and Mike's wife "Magyar" Mary (right)
17:00 I look at some up-to-date COVID figures. I have to say that Lois and I, and our two daughters, are for the moment all in relatively safe areas, but it doesn't do to boast, as Lois's father used to say. Things could change overnight.
Of the 315 local authority "districts" in England, Cheltenham is only the 309th most infected area, so is among the safest in the whole country. Waverley, where our daughter Alison and her family live, is at no.292, which is pretty good, considering its proximity to London. And in Perth, Australia, where our daughter Sarah and her family live, they only have to have one single case pop up and the whole state locks down for 5 days.
the above are the top ten most infected areas of England
the above are the 25 or so least infected areas
20:00 We settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV. It's nice when the BBC bring out some of its older comedies to show us. There's a dearth of new sitcoms at the moment for obvious reasons, and Lois and I often complain that there isn't enough to laugh at, many evenings.
It's nostalgic tonight to see what we think must have been the very first episode of this long-running series, featuring the well-meaning minister (and later Prime Minister) Jim Hacker trying his best to introduce progressive measures and a spirit of greater openness, only to be thwarted by his scheming civil servants, who reckon they know what's really best for the country (and for themselves).
All the element of the show's later success are here in the very first episode. But it's a surprise to see Hacker's wife Annie, whom we don't remember at all - we're guessing that the show went on to concentrate on scenes in the so-called "corridors of power", and that Annie was perhaps squeezed out as a result, which was a pity.
22:00 Enough said ! We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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