Sunday April 11th 2021

09:00 We can stay in bed a while - hurrah! Since our clocks went forward an hour a couple of weeks ago, there's now only a 7-hour time difference between us and Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, so 4:30 pm their time, when we normally zoom, is now 9:30 am here, compared to 8:30 am in winter. To make it even better, Sarah texts us to say that she, Francis and the twins are spending the day down by the Swan River today, so she asks to put back the zoom till 9 pm their time (2 pm here).

Lois and I remember well how we spent an afternoon down by the river the last time we visited, in 2018. Sarah and her husband Francis hired a boat while we looked after the twins.

flashback to 2018: me with my granddaughter Jessie

Lois with the twins

Sarah and Francis on the river

12:00 We have lunch - sleet and/or snow is falling outside. What crazy weather, anyone would think it was April haha!!!!

our back garden this morning

13:00 Steve, our American brother-in-law, has sent me some interesting information about Winston Churchill's "We shall never surrender" speech of May 1940, which we saw a documentary about last night.

What Churchill told the House of Commons in full, however, was, that "Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

The words of this speech are quite well known to old codgers like Lois and me. But I must admit I've always wondered why Churchill didn't stop at "we shall never surrender" (4 lines up from the end). That would have been the dramatic climax. So why did he go on to tell the nation that there was a chance of defeat, at least, for a time, and how that would play out - surely that was madness??!!!!

Steve passes me the explanation: that in fact there was a compelling reason for Churchill to add these extra remarks. The American government wanted him to. The USA of course was still neutral at this stage – Churchill’s initial draft included a reference, which he later deleted by hand, to its ‘strange detachment’ in the face of the Nazi menace. However, President Roosevelt made clear via secret channels that he wanted a commitment from Britain that even if she were defeated she would not surrender her fleet but would send it to South Africa, Australia, Canada and other parts of the Empire. If this were done, American intervention could be expected to follow quickly, he promised. So Churchill was giving Roosevelt the message that he wanted to hear – a message that is now largely forgotten.

Now it makes sense!

Fascinating stuff !!!!

As we now know, Britain was able to fight off the threat of invasion, and the gloomier vision in Churchill’s speech, prompted by Roosevelt, never came to anything. Still it's nice to know there was a  "Plan B", to put it mildly!

13:00 Yesterday Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, passed me an interesting magazine article about Prince Philip's frequent visits to Hungary with the Queen - Lois and I weren't aware that the royal couple visited the country many times.

It's especially interesting for us to see pictures from Blikk magazine of the Queen and Philip's 1993 visit to the town of Kecskemét, which we ourselves visited in 2002 with our friends, "Magyar" Mike and his wife, "Magyar" Mary. The royal party visited the Kodály schools, the Great Church and the Town Hall among other places.

Kecskemét is about 55 miles south east of Budapest

crowds in Kecskemét, waiting for the arrival of the royal couple

These pictures bring back happy memories for Lois and me. In 2002, we spent a few days in Kecskemét where our Hungarian friend Miklós lives, and he showed us around.

The Town Hall - our Hungarian friend Miklós tells us the history of the building.

Seated on the left: Mary, and on the right: Mike and Lois

flashback to 2002: Lois outside the Kodály Institute, Kecskemét

monument to the 1956 Hungarian Uprising: "Magyar" Mike to the right

(left to right) Mary, Lois, Miklós and me

14:00 Our zoom call with Sarah in Perth begins. The twins are now in bed, but Sarah's husband Francis pops into the room from time to time.

Francis is in an especially good mood today because he won a golf tournament yesterday - the prize was a luxury hamper, which the family have been enjoying - my god!

They are watching the news every so often to check the path of a cyclone called Seroja which threatens 100 mph winds - yikes! It's to the north up the coast a way for the moment. The road north from Chittering has been closed, as a precaution. But the cyclone will probably pass their house to the north, hopefully.

Cyclone Seroja

The family house has been plagued by millipedes this week. Sarah says they are attracted by lights, so she and Francis sometimes turn off the indoor lights and turn on the outside lights to lure them outside. They're not very bright and they often fall for this ruse, which is encouraging. The millipedes also seem to like to come out especially if there's been rain. Oh dear - good thing we don't get that many of them in the UK, that's for sure!

20:30 We settle down on the couch and listen to the radio, the latest edition of "Last Word", which was to have been aired on Friday afternoon, but got cancelled due to programmes covering the death of Prince Philip. It had been recorded before the news of Philip's death.

This week's edition of the obituary series doesn't mention Prince Philip, of course, due to the timing of his death. 

Nevertheless it's sad to hear that Bernice Cohen has died, at the age of 84. Although she had looked for decades like somebody's sweet old granny, she got a reputation for giving hard-nosed investment tips on Channel 4, interspersed with homely asides to herself like "I must remember to order another bag of flour this week".

Bernice Cohen

Lois and I didn't know about Bernice's earlier career, where she wrote a book that tried to "explain" everything, including anthropology, sociology and the meaning of life. This reminded us of Peter Cook's character E.L. Wisty, friend of TJ Bleendreeble, who famously wrote a book abut the universe. Wisty always used to say that Bleendreeble "specialized in the universe", but never really branched out much beyond that, which is a bit of a shame. 

E.L. Wisty, friend of TJ Bleendreeble, the author of "The Universe"

Bernice had an enquiring mind, that's for sure. Later in life she became fascinated by Van Gogh, and also by the question of who "really" wrote Shakespeare's plays. What a woman!!!

 

Rest in peace, Bernice!

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