A typical lockdown day in which my main achievement is to put the recycling boxes out on the kerbside for collection early tomorrow morning - my god, not much to brag about there!
Lois is still feeling slightly numb after the stress of worrying about our daughter Sarah last week: Sarah found herself and her family in the path of the biggest bushfire Western Australia has seen for years. Oh dear!
flashback to last Wednesday; the Wooraloo bushfire begins to take hold
Because of the slightly tense atmosphere, we can't really watch anything "nasty" on TV at the moment, and I sympathise with Lois's feelings on this - but as a result all the "nasty" programmes we've recorded recently are beginning to pile up. They're not VERY nasty but they're not exactly sugary either, to put it mildly!
For example, we've so far seen 4 episodes out of 6 of the Danish crime series "The Investigation", which is based on a real-life murder story: the story of Danish billionaire Peter Madsen, who was found guilty in 2017 of the sex-murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his private submarine. I'd like to see the last two episodes of the series and have done with it, but we've had to put it on hold for the moment, which is fair enough.
By coincidence I read today in the Danish news media that Madsen has been sentenced an additional 1 year and 9 months for his attempted escape a few months back from Herstedvester Prison where he's already serving a life-sentence for Kim Wall's murder.
actual video footage of Madsen breaking out of prison
and making a run for it across the prison car-park
Madsen seems to be a bizarre character, to put it mildly. He murdered Kim on his private submarine. He then told police she had hit her head in an accident on board the submarine, and that he'd "buried her at sea". Later Kim's torso was washed up on the beach and a search of the seas between Denmark and Sweden eventually came up with the discovery of her head and limbs, plus clothing, in a bag. The discovery was made thanks to some Swedish underwater-corpse-sniffing dogs, that the Danes borrowed for the purpose.
Police discovered that Madsen had previously fantasized about "committing the perfect crime". And who else but a complete fantasist would have hatched a cazy scheme to break out of prison wearing a gun-belt and a bomb-holding device, so that police had to keep their distance from him.
15:00 We take the car out, to "keep it ticking over" and to post some letters. We come back and enjoy a cup of tea on the sofa with some of Lois's delicious home-made biscuits [Copyright: Mrs Overall, the "Acorns Antiques" sitcom].
The BBC's "Acorn Antiques" sitcom: Mrs Overall (Julie Walters)
with a typical tray of her "delicious home-made gingerbread" - yum-yum!
For the moment the county's "coronavirus hotspots" map is looking good for this area. There are several white areas on the north side of town, including our village, that have either zero or near-zero infections. Still, it doesn't do to boast does it! Things could change tomorrow haha!
17:00 Another minor achievement for today: I manage to compile a Hungarian vocabulary test for my friend "Magyar" Mike to complete. We exchange these tests every Tuesday, because we haven't been able to hold our usual in-person language sessions for almost a year now, due to lockdowns.
It's slightly odd that he hasn't sent his test for me yet. Usually he's dead keen to do this and most weeks he has usually emailed it to me before Lois and I have even struggled out of bed - what madness!!! Let's hope Mike is okay.
flashback to 1994: Mike in happier times, with our friend, Ibolya, in the small town of
Kaposvár in southern Hungary
Me in Kaposvár, Hungary, 1994
20:00 We watch a bit of TV, the latest programme in actress Joanna Lumley's new series on "Travels in My Own Land".
Lois and I don't much care for "celebrity travelogues" - we've seen too many of them - my god! But we're prepared to make an exception in Joanna Lumley's case, because she's such an engaging character.
Tonight Joanna arrives at Crinan, a small harbour town on the west coast of Scotland, where a local boatman, Sandy, takes her out in his small boat to see the world's third largest whirlpool, the notorious Corryvreckan, where the sea water is forced between two islands, Scarba and Jura.
The Corryvreckan nearly claimed the life of George Orwell. He had rented a house on Jura in 1948, and it was there that he finally finished his book '1984'. he and his 3-year-old son were out on a small dinghy: they got into difficulties and were swept into the maelstrom. The outboard motor sheared off and they capsized, but a passing fisherman rescued them.
Barnhill, the house where Orwell stayed, is still owned by the same family, the Fletchers.
Barnhill the house where Orwell was staying in 1948
when he finally completed his futuristic novel, '1984'
Joanna comments, "Imagine that great brain sitting up there alone, he just had to be alone. He was ill, he had tuberculosis. Sometimes he had his young son staying with him, but he just wanted the silence, so his mind could roam free. Thank goodness Orwell was spared by the Corryvreckan, and disconcerting to think, that in these glorious surroundings, his genius created the nightmarish future of '1984' as a warning to us all".
It's amazing how powerful and long-lasting has been the influence of Orwell's books warning about totalitarianism. Our 12-year-old granddaughter Rosalind in Haslemere, Surrey, has started reading "Animal Farm" at school, and says she is finding it fascinating.
And Steve, our American brother-in-law, has just sent me an article from spiked-online.com protesting about calls for a government "Reality Czar" to be appointed in the US - the writer uses Orwell's concept of "Ministry of Truth" to lambast the idea.
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
Also tonight, Joanna pays a nostalgic visit to Eilean Donan Castle, where they shot the very first episode of a new series, "The New Avengers" with Patrick McKnee as Steed. In the very first episode Joanna, playing the part of Purdey, had to emerge out of the sea in a wetsuit, to arrive with Steed at the castle in search of some "dreadful Nazis" who were holed up there.
Tremendous fun!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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