Monday May 31st 2021

08:00 Lois had a bad night, so we are postponing today's shower till tomorrow. She's got lots of planting to do today so she wants to sleep in a bit longer to get her strength up.

Luckily there's a bit nicer weather in prospect for a change, in the forecast by the BBC's Louise Lear for today and tomorrow, which is nice.

We had a brief chat last night with Alison, our elder daughter, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children. Today Ali texts us with a plan for us to go and see them some time over the weekend. It would mean that I couldn't host a zoom meeting of Lynda's U3A Middle English group, as I agreed to, even though I have already sent the invitation out - oh dear, if this plan goes ahead I will have to find out how to cancel a zoom and how to let everybody know. Yikes!!!!

One of my problems these days is that I don't cope well with sudden changes of plan, particularly if it involves making a 100 mile journey for the first time since Christmas 2019, due to the lockdowns. Yikes (again) !!!! 

I check my latest Google Maps Timeline for last month (April), just to make sure I haven't been too adventurous lately or made any reckless trips. I find I walked 4 miles and drove for 32 miles, which sounds rather a lot. I wonder if they've got that right?

I've only visited one "city", according to Google, and a total of 3 "places" in that "city". That sounds pretty adventurous, doesn't it, but I can't for the life of me remember where those places were, apart from the local football field (new official name: Prestbury Play Park). 

Yikes - but a journey of 100 miles: that still sounds a bit scary, even taking account of the above wild living !!!!

I think that Steve, my American brother-in-law, has sent me an advert for a suitable T-shirt, which warns people of what might happen if they were so bold as to suggest a new plan to what I've been expecting to do. Yes, this is the one, I think:

Oh dear - I don't like surprises, it's true! For myself, I've sort of got used to not going anywhere, but I don't think Lois has. I'd better just go with what Lois decides, I suppose. Steve has a t-shirt for that as well, luckily!

17:30 We go over to our near-neighbour Frances's house to water her garden in her absence. It's becoming a little bit annoying now that the weather has improved - I think there's a 20% chance of a shower on Wednesday evening, but apart from that it's going to be dry this week: damn!!!! Needless to say, Frances has stuffed plants and vegetables in every available square foot of her garden and every available pot - my god!

we water Frances's garden in her absence

19:00 After dinner I check my smartphone. Lois and I have two twin granddaughters, Lily and Jessie, who go to a catholic school just outside Perth. I see that their teacher has put up a picture of the class's lesson today on healthy eating. 

This gives me a chance to hone my "blurring" skills, so I blur out all the children's faces except Jessie's. She's the blonde girl right at the back on the right. It's nice that they're learning all this stuff - in mine and Lois's day, nobody cared about eating healthily, that's for sure !!!

Leaning how to eat healthily - 

I've successfully blurred out all the faces except for Jessie's,

the blonde girl at the back on the right. 

Isn't technology wonderful !!!!

20:00 We settle down on the couch and watch a bit of TV, another programme in ex-Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo's series "Great British Railway Journeys" - at the moment he's travelling around the London area.

The current map of the London Underground railway system, first designed in the 1930's by a man called Harry Beck, is really famous in the UK - it was radical because it was modelled on a circuit diagram rather than on the real geography of London and real distances etc. This "circuit diagram" approach was the only way to do it clearly, as it turned out. 

The old-style maps had, by the 1930's, become a total nightmare to follow.

the old-style maps of the London Underground railway system,

like this one (above), had by the 1930's become a nightmare to follow

Beck had the bright idea of remodelling the map like a circuit diagram, without regard for physical distances and directions. Unfortunately, as reward for his revolutionary work, he was only paid 10 guineas (£10.50 in today's money). 

Poor Beck !!!!

Also in tonight's programme we see Churchill's underground, bomb-proof War Rooms at Westminster, where he held all his important cabinet meetings, safe from the German bombing raids which hit Downing Street on more than one occasion. The Rooms have been laid out to resemble one such cabinet meeting in October1940. 

Churchill's chair is still there, and you can still see the marks on the chair arms made by his signet ring and fingernails, perhaps from whenever he was getting agitated - oh dear!

Fascinating stuff!

Strangely enough, I'm sure I have visited the War Rooms, but it wasn't with Lois - she confirms that she's sure she's never seen them. I think I visited them in 2008 with Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, who was on a visit to this country at the time. I can't find any photos, however. Perhaps photography was banned inside the Rooms in those days?

flashback to 2008, Madame Tussauds: me with Margaret Thatcher,

Michael Portillo's old boss

Tünde with entertainer Freddie Mercury

(left to right) Lois, me and Tünde at Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon

Happy days!!!!

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

Sunday May 30th 2021

09:30 Our weekly hour-long zoom call with our younger daughter Sarah, who lives near Perth, Australia, together with Francis and their 7-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie.

we talk on zoom with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia

and the family's 7-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie

We ask about the sailing boat the family recently bought, which they're going to call "Bluebird" - the name is a connection with Lake Coniston, England, where Sarah and Francis got married in 2010, and where also Donald Campbell made his attempt on the world water speed record in his "Bluebird" boat, which was in 1967. 

Francis is about to order a motor, as backup: he's going for a 2.5 hp motor - he wants something light enough that both of them can carry, while he's installing it. The couple bought their reconditioned 20 foot boat a couple of weeks ago at the Nedlands Yacht Club down on the Swan River.

flashback to two weeks ago: the twins on their bikes 

exploring around the Nedlands Yacht Club - we miss them so much, but

how lucky they are, and what an exciting childhood they're getting !!!!!

the Nedlands Yacht Club on the Swan River

the boat that the family have bought, seen here

during its refurbishment by "Stuman"

Earlier today, Sarah and the girls went to a local swimming pool, where they took advantage of the free body-painting service on offer there.

Jessie (left) and Lily, out 7-year-old twin granddaughters,

showcase the body painting they got today at the swimming pool:

Jessie has a dragon on her arm, and Lily has an octopus on her face - what madness!!!!

Lois and I miss them all like crazy: we used to look after the twins two days a week before they moved to Australia. But we have to say, they're certainly having a whale of a time over there, 9000 miles away, that's for sure.

They've been getting quite a bit of rain recently, which is good for their water tank: they're not on any water mains at their house. If the cooler, wetter weather continues then the State Government is likely to approve use of barbecues and pizza ovens, also fireworks etc in back gardens, which is an important factor in observance of Western Australia Day on June 7th. What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

12:00 After a mostly abysmal month of cold, wet weather, there's a change this week: milder, and with more sunshine. For the first time this year we have lunch out on the patio, which makes a nice change.

we have lunch on the patio for the first time this year

16:00 We have tea and a scone on the sofa. I look at my smartphone - there's more interesting chat on the quora web forum about lack of authenticity in films set in medieval times. We've already heard that, if the films were realistic, then a fairly significant proportion of the women shown ought to be visibly pregnant. Also that medieval people would have had really good teeth and would have displayed dazzling smiles - people back then didn't have access to sugary foods and they had to do a lot of vigorous chewing. Makes sense!

Today I see that historical expert Enrico Toro has weighed in, to say that, just as a lot of the women were pregnant at any one time, it stands to reason that in those times there would also have been kids, kids, kids, everywhere you looked.

Toro comments that the medieval demographic pyramid (see above) looked very like it does today in many developing countries.

"In population pyramids based on demographics studies, Germany's age distribution in the 13th century had the under 13's making up 1/3 of the population and the under 25's forming 55%. This distribution matches Angola’s today. Median age was 16–18, same as in many African countries today. Half of the people in a movie that is set in medieval times, ought to be teenagers or younger.

"Since this large amount of kids was not brought by a stork, but made by human parents, married women age 15 to 45 were pregnant an awful lot: some historians think, for as much as one third of their fertile life. That means that the majority of women aged 18-45 that you would meet, would be either pregnant or breastfeeding.

"The cities and villages would be filled with people under 20, with bands of urchins roaming the streets. This is something you would never see in a period drama or even described in historical novels."

Fascinating stuff !!!!!

20:00 We settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV, the latest episode in the reality tv-documentary series "Meet the Richardsons", which chronicles the married life of two stand-up comics, Jon Richardson and his wife Lucy Beaumont, who have settled in the quiet Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge.

This fascinating documentary study of a celebrity couple's marriage is now nearing its end. Lucy devises a "surprise birthday present" for Jon, a down-market version of "The Masked Singer" to take place in the local village hall, with the miserable Jon as a contestant. Something which she knows he will hate, but it will make her happy, which is the important thing - oh dear!

Lucy admits to the cameras, as the day approaches, that she's reeling with anticipation, and is more excited than she was before the couple's wedding, which says something!

It all kind of figures, because Lucy has admitted before, that she married Jon mainly to try and get him to like himself, but that she realised, after many years, that she didn't like him either - oh dear!

Also during this programme tonight, Lucy and Jon have to travel to Salford so that she can record an episode of her new sitcom.

two of the routes the couple could have taken for their trip to Salford

Before the trip the couple have their usual argument about luggage: Jon has a simple small bag, whereas Lucy has packed a large suitcase plus a large carrier bag.

Lucy retorts, that in the suitcase and bag, she's got everything she could possibly need. Plus she packs a big suitcase, she says, because she knows it "pisses him off" - oh dear (again) !!!!

Later, for the documentary film crew, there's some discussion about the couple's different ways of packing. Lucy admits, "I just want to get it all done. I just ram it all in, the way I would load the dishwasher. I just ram it all in and hope for the best".

The film crew ask Lucy what her technique is, and at this point it's unclear whether they're talking to Lucy or to Jon.

In some ways tonight is a bit of a sad episode, because the couple have agreed to leave Hebden Bridge and move to London: it turns out this is very much Lucy's decision. She says, "I think our sex-life will improve. I've felt a bit stilted here [i.e. in Hebden Bridge - Ed], and I haven't felt very sexual. I think going back to London will make me feel like, you know, a woman with a career, and that I'm doing things, and I think it'll kick-start things for us. We'll be going out more, won't we. And we'll be going to theatres and opera."

This is fair enough, Lois and I feel, but what a pity that Jon's reaction to this is typically negative.

The move to London sadly means, also, the end of the current documentary series. Jon is very pleased, of course - he didn't want the film crew installed in their house in the first place - no surprise there!

But Lucy's reaction to this is different. And it speaks volumes about the state of her marriage to Jon. She says, "It's meant much more to me than to him [i.e. to Jon - Ed]. Because, you know, he doesn't enjoy people, things, joy, happiness, whereas you [i.e. the film crew - Ed] have been my lifeline. You've been my safety blanket. Just when I thought, 'I can't carry on any more', you came into my life. Do you know what you've done? You've drowned out the sorrow".

A nice tribute to the film crew, there, from Lucy, but at the same time it's a bit sad when you think how it reflects so badly on her marriage.

Lois and I just hope that the move to London will indeed do the trick for this engaging pair of comics with the troubled marriage, and maybe even kick-start the romance for them.

Fascinating stuff!!!

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

Wednesday May 26th 2021 - Saturday May 29th 2021

Wednesday May 26th 2021

05:30 Lois and I get up early to have breakfast - I'm not allowed to eat after 6 am because of the angiogram they're going to give me at the local general hospital. Then we go back to bed - ha!

07:30 Lois drives me to the hospital and drops me off. I will call her when I'm ready to be picked up. She tells me not to worry and assures me that everything will be fine. Or maybe that was what I said to her - one of the two anyway!

Copyright Roger Christian and Brian Wilson (the Lorrie Morgan version)

[That's enough schmaltz! - Ed]

I make my way to the Hartpury Suite and get there on time. They settle me down in an armchair by my bed, but little do I know at this stage, that I'll be sitting there now for the next nearly 5 hours, not able to eat anything. The delay is due to two unexpected emergency cases that come in for treatment: one patient became ill overnight in one of the hospital wards, and another critical patient was brought in mid-morning by ambulance from Gloucester. Oh dear! Luckily I've got with me my Philip Leacock biography, a birthday present from Lois.

flashback to March 2021: I showcase the three books

given to me for my birthday

The hospital in fact first invited me in for an angiogram in January but when I read about the details of the procedure in their letter, I chickened out, giving as an excuse the fact that I hadn't had a coronavirus vaccination yet. One of my problems is that I've been too fortunate over the years, and I have had very little wrong with me, which has given me a bit of a lifelong anxiety about doctors and hospitals.

13:45 A nurse and a porter take me across this huge hospital to the operating theatre or whatever it's called. I have to lie flat on an x-ray table. I decide not to ask for sedation, because I've noticed that other patients coming back to the ward, who have had sedation, have to take longer to rest before they're allowed to go home: they're not even allowed to go to the loo by themselves - my god! 

a typical angiogram procedure being carried out

The hospital carries out the procedure either through the wrist or the groin. I get the wrist option, it turns out. A small hollow tube is placed in an artery, and a catheter is passed through the tube into the heart - yikes, scary !!!!

As I lie there, just above my head is an X-ray machine, which is moved several times during the procedure to give multiple images of the arteries. A contrast medium (dye) is injected via the catheter to allow the coronary arteries and heart chambers to be seen clearly. 

To my relief I find out that the procedure is nothing to be alarmed about - it's completely painless and only takes about 5-10 minutes, which is the main thing. 

I've been told that if the arteries are slightly furred up it can be controlled with medication, but if the problem is worse, there are escalating actions they can take, starting with stents and then going up to by-pass surgery and suchlike. 

I'm in luck, however. The consultant cardiologist carrying out the procedure tells me, there and then in the operating theatre, that my arteries are clear, which takes me by surprise, to put it mildly. 

My god!!!!!

16:00 Lois comes to take me home. I have to follow all sorts of precautions over the next week, e.g. taking it easy, no strenuous activity, no heavy lifting, being careful of pressure on my right wrist, that type of thing. None of which I mind very much haha!

Thursday May 27th 2021

Lois and I take a tour of our back garden to check how things are going. The weather is taking a turn for the better.

our so-called "meadow" is looking good, that's for sure...

and the gooseberries are starting to come through, which is nice

18:00 It's our son-in-law Ed's birthday today - this year we got him a bottle of Wicked Wolf gin from Devon. Purely out of solidarity I also have a Wicked Wolf before dinner.

flashback to 2018: I buy my first bottle of Wicked Wolf

at a food and drink fair in Lynton Town Hall

Friday May 28th 2021 - Saturday May 29th 2021

Forgot what did (copyright Katy, and Susan Coolidge). I've always thought it a pity that Coolidge never wrote a book called "What Katy Forgot Did", but I guess it's too late for that now! A pity - a missed opportunity there.