Saturday, 13 March 2021

Saturday March 13th 2021

09:30 Lois and I speak briefly on whatsapp to Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia - it's not the regular weekend social call: this morning Sarah just needs our help to communicate with her UK bank, who are still sending correspondence to us, even though Sarah, plus husband Francis and 7-year-old twins Lily and Jessie, moved to Perth in 2015: what madness !!!! 

flashback to March 2015: our son-in-law Francis retrieves his kayak
from our garage, prior to shipping it out to Australia for use over there

The proper social call with Sarah on zoom will take place at 8:30 am our time tomorrow (Sunday) - 8:30 am is a bit early in the day from our point of view, but it makes sense for Sarah and the twins, because it's 4:30 pm there and not quite time to start getting the evening meal. It just means Lois and i can't stay in bed as long as we'd like to - the story of our lives!

10:30 Our delivery of groceries arrives from Budgens, the convenience store in the village, so Lois and I set to work to swab all the items down with disinfectant. 

Budgens, the convenience store in the village (on left)

Yesterday I spoke to my sister Gill in Cambridge, who has devised a method which enables her to only swab down a proportion of her groceries. She lives with her husband Peter and daughter Lucy, who are both disabled, which means all the swabbing work devolves onto her, which is very time-consuming.

flashback to August 2020: my sister Gill (right) 
with daughter Maria and Maria's partner Tom

To save time Gill has set up two "quarantine" areas - one in the house and one out in the back yard, where she can store some of the grocery items for a few days, if suitable, until such time a she needs to use them - makes sense to me: what a great idea!

15:00 Tomorrow it's Mothers Day in the UK, and also in Ireland and Nigeria: but nowhere else - what madness! This kind of British awkwardness was partly what made the EU so pleased about Brexit, that's for sure!

I've already got my Mothers Day presents for Lois: three Alison Lurie books about adultery among academics: I hope it doesn't give her any ideas - oh dear! 

This afternoon I creep into the dining-room to design my Mothers Day card for Lois on the computer. My theme will be eating-places high and low that we've eaten at over the years. 

I've found two high places, the "C" Restaurant in Perth, Western Australia, in 2016, and the revolving sky-lounge at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo in 1971 before we were married. The Perth experience was nearly 5 years ago, the Tokyo one almost exactly 50 years ago - cripes, how time flies !!!

flashback to Lois's 70th birthday high over the city of Perth

flashback to March 1971 - 50 years ago: yikes!
high up above Tokyo in the Hotel New Otani's sky lounge, the year before we got married 

The 'low' eating-place I've come up with is the Whiskers Coffee Stand at the local football field, a few days ago. It seems like a come-down after Perth and Tokyo, but it isn't really, as long as we are still having fun - that's the main thing, no doubt about that!


down to earth with a bump: a few days ago at
the Whiskers Coffee Stand on the local football field

20:00 We settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV, some old extracts from failed comedy pilots, forgotten comedy series and unimpressive first appearances by later comedy legends.


We find that, disappointingly, there's quite a lot of dross in this 60-minute programme, including pilots that certainly didn't deserve to made into series - my god!

However we both enjoy an old sketch from the forgotten John Bird and Eleanor Bron series, "Beyond a Joke", a reminder of the BBC's bureaucratic past, where 2 BBC department heads, Eleanor Bron as head of "Small Catastrophes", and John Bird as the head of "Innocence Protection", clash over plans for a forthcoming drama series.






Eleanor Bron sticks to her guns, however, and defends her idea.









Tremendous fun!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!@




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