06:00 I wake up and I think six o'clock is good enough, and that it's not worth trying to get a bit more sleep. It's only after about 60 minutes of lying there, while Lois sleeps on, that I suddenly remember that the clocks went forward an hour overnight last night, and that I "really" woke up at 5 o'clock - damn! I feel really short-changed by that - I need more sleep than that - damn (again) !!!!
09:00 Our neighbour Bob rings the door-bell. I am up and about by now, although Lois is still upstairs getting dressed. Bob has brought a pheasant that somebody in his enormous family has shot. Oh dear - we regard these occasional pheasants as a bit of a mixed blessing: they're delicious to eat, but they've usually still got all their feathers and everything else on. We feel that we ought to use all the meat as a tribute to the dead bird, but in practice it's so time-consuming to prepare that Lois has decided we should concentrate on the breast in future.
I put the pheasant - what gorgeous birds they are - in a plastic bag and hang it up in the larder for the time being.
the pheasant that one of our neighbour Bob's relatives has shot
Poor pheasant !!!!!
flashback: our neighbour Bob (right) in happier times - with his
grandson, who was on leave from Afghanistan
10:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in the first of her sect's two worship services taking place today on zoom. I'm still feeling, and looking, slightly rough so I try to relax in the living-room.
I get a phone call from Ursula, an elderly sect member, asking for Lois. She wants me to tell Lois that she would like to take part in today's second zoom worship service - it quickly becomes apparent that Ursula doesn't know about today's change to British Summer Time (BST). To make things easier I tell her that the second service will be starting at 11:30 am, even though it's actually starting at 12:30 pm (BST). I calculate that this will be less hassle than trying to explain to her about the clock change.
What a nuisance the clock changes are! I envy our daughter Sarah in Western Australia, where they keep the clocks on the same time all year round. We have two clocks in our house that are set to Western Australia time, and they're the only ones we don't have to change twice a year: the time difference is 8 hours in winter and 7 hours in summer.
On the other hand we have about 7 clocks and 3 radio-clocks on British time that I have to change manually every March and September. What a chore!!!!
example of a typical time difference between here and Western Australia:
the white clock on the mantelshelf shows 12:30 am (Perth time), while the clock
on the wall shows 5:30 pm BST. This wall-clock also showcases
Britain's pre-decimal coinage set that was in use prior to 1971
The Americans change their clocks twice a year as well, but I know that the March change happens usually a couple of weeks before our change, for some reason, and each year I'm keen to follow how well that goes in the US, using the Onion News website as my principal source. I find it's a useful pointer as to how the thing will go here a little bit later on. It's always a bit touch-and-go, and I always hold my breath a little.
The twice-yearly custom of changing clocks also seems to bring out the best in Americans, I must say, with their "can do" spirit. I always check Onion News's vox pop sources, and I relish the homespun but canny wisdom of people's reactions over there.
There's a lot of wisdom to be garnered there in those typical comments, no doubt about that!
She says that a developer has created an app which lets users sabotage their own Zoom calls, to give them an excuse to get off the line. The standard option is to choose one of several sound-effects that imitate a bad connection. If you are more adventurous, you can also opt for noises like a barking dog or a crying baby. And if you are particularly courageous you can choose the more extreme noises, such as "man weeping" or "somebody urinating".
My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
20:00 We see a bit of TV, the latest edition of Antiques Roadshow, where members of the public bring along long-forgotten treasures and antiques from their attics to get them commented on, and valued by, the programme's team of experts.
Several things on tonight's show catch mine and Lois's eye. Who could resist this set of little figurines of cats playing billiards, for example, that programme expert Judith Miller valued at £2000 to £2500 ?
Another highlight for us is a set of sketches by the osteopath Stephen Ward, who was at the centre of the Profumo scandal in the early 1960's. Lois and I didn't know that Ward was a compulsive sketcher, and that he studied art in his youth. Besides being an osteopath he had been trained as an artist at the Slade, and he loved drawing people's heads while he was talking to them.
John Profumo, Secretary of State for War, and his wife Valerie
Christine Keeler, the model who became the mistress simultaneously of both
Profumo and a Russian naval attaché, Yevgeny Ivanov: hence the scandal
The woman who brought the sketches in said that she was given them many years ago by the chief clerk of a well-known celebrity lawyer, at a time when the Profumo scandal was at its height. The clerk had apparently put the sketches in a folder at the time and then forgotten about them.
the sketch of model Christime Keeler, that Keeler herself
has confirmed was Ward's sketch of her
Lois and I always comment during Antiques Roadshow that we never have the slightest idea of what each item featured is worth. We thought these sketches might have carried a big price-tag but they turn out to be "only" £2000 to £3000, a substantial amount but not really a fortune.
I don't think Lois and I would ever have had careers as antiques experts, that's for sure - oh dear!
The programme's expert is at pains to stress that he wasn't himself personally involved in the scandal, which is nice to know!
22:00 Not for us, though, those parties - my god! We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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