Tuesday March 9th 2021

08:00 Lois gets up to make us a cup of tea and swab down the 5 pints of milk that the dairy's "New Guy" has hidden behind a flower pot - what madness!!!

example of milk bottles in their natural (unhidden) state - 

what's so difficult about that, Mr New Guy haha!

I look at my smartphone and I see that Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, has sent a copy of her 7-year-old daughter Jessie's 8-page story book "The Lost Valley of Seeds". Her class were all asked to write a story inspired by their class visit to a performance of "The Gruffalo" at a local theatre. Everybody else just wrote half a page apparently, but Jessie really went to town on it - my god!

Jessie's teacher passed her book on to the school principal, who awarded Jessie the first "Principal's Award" sticker of 2021.

page one of Jessie's "book"

the last page of Jessie's book with comments

 from her teacher and from the school principal, complete with sticker

Is there anything in the world, however expensive, that is worth as much as living long enough to see one of your grandchildren's imagination in full flight telling a story she has thought out for herself, and writing it all out, and in a language like English, which is maybe the most difficult language in the world in which to spell out words?

Of course Jessie makes some spelling mistakes, but it irked me slightly to see that Jessie's teacher "corrected" Jessie's use of the word "past", substituting (wrongly) the word "passed". Jessie was right in this instance and the teacher was wrong - oh dear! 

Jessie wrote, "That day the fox, owl, snake and mouse were walking past..." - and the teacher crossed out "past" and substituted "passed" - my god!!! And that wasn't the only slip-up by the teacher. But I'm going to let that one slide for now.

Jessie's experience resonated with me, because something very similar happened to me at school when I was about the same age, where I "went to town" and wrote a whole mini-book, while the rest of the class just did a few lines: but I didn't get a sticker from the principal - they were tough on children in those days, sob sob !!!!

(left to right) Francis, Lily, Sarah and Jessie on Christmas Day 2020

back in 1953 - me aged 7 at my school - 2nd row from front, 2nd from left

Later I notice that Jessie and Lily's teacher has put some pictures up online about the class visit to see the Gruffalo play, which was performed at His Majesty's Theatre in the centre of Perth, built 1902-4. How exciting it must have been for the kids - no doubt about that!!

the class go into the theatre

here's Jessie's twin sister Lily waiting for the performance to begin

I'm guessing this picture was taken during the interval maybe

11:00 I vacuum the whole house - a work-out in itself: yikes! Meanwhile Lois goes out and prunes some of our roses. When we've finished we have a coffee and a biscuit on the sofa.

19:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's new Tuesdau Bible Reading Group on google meet. I settle down on the couch and watch a bit of TV, a bit of lockdown stand-up comedy.

A lot of the jokes tend to leave me unmoved - it's an age thing, I think! But interestingly one of the comics comments on how the Brits are the second most obese people in Europe, thus technically contradicting a BBC news story that Steve, our American brother-in-law, sends me.

According to one of the stand-up comedians tonight, however, we're perhaps only the second fattest. He claims that it's the Maltese who are actually the fattest, and he's not surprised, he says - after all Malta is "where Maltesers come from". Makes sense to me! I suppose they grow on trees down there, but I'm not 100% sure - the jury's still out on that one.

a typical bag of Maltesers

21:00 Lois emerges from her Bible Reading Group and we watch a bit more TV, an old 1970's episode of "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin", the sitcom based around the life of a middle-aged middle manager who's going through a mid-life crisis.

Reggie has been fantasizing for years about making love to his secretary Joan, indulging in fantasy as he sat daydreaming at his desk.

one of Reggie's frequent fantasies about making love to his secretary Joan

- this one takes place on the floor of the local laundrette

And now that his mid-life crisis is taking a hold of him, Reggie decides to make use of his wife's absence one Sunday to invite Joan over to his house, on the pretext of "something important that's come up on the work front". Oh dear!

When Joan comes over, she tells a nervous Reggie, to his surprise, that she has actually been waiting years for him to make his move. 

When they go up to the bedroom and Joan starts getting ready to climb into bed, Reggie notices a portrait of the Queen on the wall, and he tactfully turns it over so the Queen can't see what they're going to be doing, something which Lois and I think is a nice touch. But how many men having a mid-life crisis today would bother to do that? Makes you think, doesn't it !!!

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