08:00 I struggle downstairs but Lois wants to stay in bed longer and read more of her current book, Alison Lurie's "War Between the Tates", written in the early 1960's. The book is all about Erica Tate, the wife of university professor Brian Tate, who gets one of his students, Wendy, pregnant. Brian is trying to persuade Wendy to have an illegal abortion, but she isn't keen - oh dear! And when Brian tries to end his affair with Wendy, she proves difficult to shake off - oh dear (again) !!!
An abortion would cost some sum like $350, and when Brian withdraws this exact amount from the bank on campus, word quickly spreads that "Brian's got somebody knocked up - who can it be?", or whatever the slang was at the time.
But what a clever title for the book! Neither of us realised it to start with, and then I suddenly remembered that the Americans often refer to their civil war as the "War Between the States". Simples!
Alison Lurie, author of "The War Between the Tates", in the 1960's
On the news today, we hear that Under 30's will be offered an alternative to astrazeneca, even though there have already been well over 20 million doses given, and there have only been 79 cases of blood clots and only 19 deaths. Yet apparently if there were 20 million women on the contraceptive pill, scientists would expect hundreds of women developing blood clots, and nobody makes a fuss about that!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!
10:30 The second call is from CookShop. We're hoping that our elder daughter Alison, together with her husband Ed and their 3 children, will be able to visit us on Saturday - the first time we will have seen them for about 7 months or so.
(left to right) Ed, Josie (14), Rosalind (12) Isaac (10), and Alison
main meal: grand cottage pie, to which we'll add the trio of greens
choice of desserts: apple and blackberry crumble or
chocolate and salted caramel mousse
When they ring me, CookShop say they've run out of the apple and blackberry crumble and they ask if we will accept spicy plum and pineapple crumble instead. I agree, if somewhat reluctantly, because apple and blackberry is Ed's big favourite. Damn!!!!
Still I feel a certain sense of pride that I have handled both phone calls unaided, and in a professional way. Perhaps an office job would suit me, as a way of augmenting my pension perhaps? But we'll have to see haha!!!
12:30 Lois didn't come downstairs till nearly 11 o' clock so we're going to be late with everything today, but no matter - we've been retired for 15 years, so it's Liberty Hall haha!
It feels bitterly cold outside, but we decide to go for a walk on the local football field to see what's going on. We're not surprised that there are no old codgers on the tennis courts today, but it's nice to see that the newly-established Whiskers Coffee stand, being operated by the Royal Oak pub, is doing good business.
Brrrr! Us on our walk over the local football field - in the background
the newly-established Whiskers Coffee stand is doing good business this chilly morn...
.. but there are no old codgers to be seen on the tennis courts: no surprise there!!!!
A spooky wind blows over these unloved courts today, and I imagine them all quiet and abandoned, and freezing cold tonight, as in Paul Simon's song, "Night Game":
Then the night
turned cold
Colder than the moon
The stars were white as bones
The tennis courts were old
Older than the screams
Older than the teams
There were three
men down
And the season lost
And the tarpaulin was rolled
Upon the winter frost
20:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Class on zoom. I settle down on the couch and listen to the radio, the first in a new series of Matthew Paris's series "Great Lives". This one is all about US writer Patricia Highsmith, author of "The Talented Mr. Ripley".
Patricia Highsmith was an unusual woman, by all accounts. She lived for her work, and used to quote Noel Coward's adage that "work was more fun than play". Her writing seems to have saved her from having to endure what might otherwise been an awful life, it appears - oh dear!
She was obsessed with snails - she kept several as pets, and liked to watch them when they were mating. When she travelled, she carried several of them around with her in her bra. If she became aware of a beautiful woman, she would stalk her in an effort to get to meet her - she was essentially a shy person, but she was very explicit in her diary entries. She toyed with getting herself "cured" of her lesbianism, but when she tried having sex with a man, she said it was like "getting steel wool in the face" - my god!
20:30 Lois is still busy with her zoom session, so I listen to the start of another radio programme, the latest in Melvyn Bragg's "In Our Time" series, this one being about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.
Japan's emergence in 1904 as a big player on the world stage created mixed feelings in the West, to put it mildly. There was admiration that Japan had come from being essentially a medieval society in the mid-1800s, to being in a position by the turn of the century to challenge a major power like Tsarist Russia, but this admiration was mixed with a new phobia about the so-called "Yellow Peril".
The Russian Pacific Fleet got a bit of a mauling from the Japanese, and they sent for reinforcements. The country's Baltic Fleet then set sail for the Far East - the journey took 7 months going round the Cape of Good Hope to get there (they were too big for the Suez Canal), and when they arrived they were similarly taken apart by the Japanese.
The commanders of the Baltic Fleet that made this epic journey to disaster were pretty paranoid about Japanese ambushes from the moment they left the safety of the Baltic. When they encountered some British fishing trawlers in the North Sea, they mistakenly concluded that it was the Japanese fleet lying in wait for them and they opened fire on the poor trawlermen just outside the port of Grimsby.
My god!
Poor trawlermen !!!!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session and we settle down to watch some TV, the latest in the BBC2 series on "Amazing Hotels", this one being about the Brando Hotel, founded many years ago by the film-star Marlon Brando in French Polynesia.
Oh dear - we both fall asleep and miss most of this programme. We are both feeling terribly tired tonight, but we're not sure why - Lois thinks it's what she calls "Lockdown Fatigue", and maybe she's right. After all it's been about 13 months, and when it started they said it would be over in about 12 weeks. What madness!!!
one of the hotel's typical villas, each with their own private beach
Presenter Monica Galletti joins the hotel's housekeeping staff to help prepare a villa for a VVVIP couple arriving that day to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.
22:00 We go to bed: no native flowers or tiare on it but it's got everything else we need, that's for sure - zzzzzzz!!!!
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