Saturday, 8 May 2021

Saturday May 8th 2021

09:30 A zoom call with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia. We also see our 7-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessie, but only fleetingly. They're a bit preoccupied making cakes and other things for their mum - it's Mothers Day tomorrow in Australia, just like in the US. They like nothing better than celebrating birthdays and other celebrations, and even all their soft toys each have their own birthdays, all marked in on their calendar - how cute they are!!!!


the zoom call with Australia begins: our daughter Sarah is in the foreground
and the twins can be seen at the table decorating the cakes
that they have baked for Mummy, for Mothers Day tomorrow - how thoughtful !!!

10:30 The zoom call ends and Lois and I set to work to swab down with disinfectant all the groceries that Budgens has delivered  - what a chore! And we're not sure that it makes any difference, because people say you not likely to catch coronavirus from surfaces, but now we've got into the habit of doing it, we're going to carry on. Creatures of habit - that's us!

Today is a day for staying indoors, no doubt about that. Strong winds and heavy rain for most of the day but both wind and rain moderating for this evening and overnight.

What we're most excited about is tonight's predicted night-time temperature: mostly as mild as 56F (13C) with a low of only 54F (12C) - after weeks of cold nights, phew, what a scorcher!! And when we get into bed we're planning to throw off the covers just to celebrate haha. Although I don't think we'll be needing the fan - we must keep a sense of proportion - we mustn't go completely mad haha!!!!


I guess tonight is destined to become just another statistic, and all thanks to global warming - oh dear! We read recently in Onion News, how all this mild weather (tonight) is likely to cause real hardship (tonight) to at least one section of society often overlooked, the country's hard-working Frosty the Snowmen.

Poor Frosties!!!!

snowmen (and snowwomen) demonstrating today 
in Imperial Square, Cheltenham

Braving balmy temperatures and sunny skies, millions of scarf-less snowmen and snowwomen gathered in Imperial Square, Cheltenham today, to raise public awareness about the heavy toll global warming is taking on their health and well-being.

 According to organizers of the march, the global warming predicted for tonight is the primary cause of the sudden steep reduction in the snowman population throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Demonstrators worldwide called on their governments to take more aggressive steps to reduce the effects of climate change.

Organizers estimated the crowd at more than 375,000, but Gloucestershire Police Commissioner elect Chris Nelson estimated turnout at 30,000 whole snowmen, with scattered rounded abdomens accounting for an additional 5,000.

Well, after reading that news item, Lois and I reckon we've seen just about everything in our long lives - snowmen (and snowwomen) demonstrating in the middle of Cheltenham. My god, whatever next, elephants in Pittville Park perhaps ?!!!!!

What a crazy planet we live on !!!!!

20:00 We watch a bit of TV, the latest programme in the "This Time With Alan Partridge" mid-morning chat-show series.


Another chat show with Alan packed with entertaining items. But what we like about this show is the behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in the studio between the videotaped reports that are the show's staple.

And one of the issues seldom talked about is surely the power of the modern make-up artists who get the stars ready for the cameras. Tonight we see Alan being made up just before the show. It's a touchy area, and stars have to make sure they don't fall foul of new rules protecting make-up-artists "space", as here when the woman catches Alan momentarily appearing to look down her blouse.






Luckily this particular make-up artist isn't the type to report Alan, which is a great relief to him, to put it mildly!






A true slice of life in the post-#metoo era. Fascinating stuff!!!

Make-up artists today are not the submissive lackeys that they used to be, that's for sure! Yesterday on the "Life with the Richardsons" reality documentary following the married lives of stand-up comics Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont, we see Jon's make-up artist giving Jon some lifestyle-advice: noticing that he's balding, which she diagnoses as due to stress, she passes him a sachet of "weed" to take away with him.







Jon takes the "weed" and puts it in his pocket. We know he's not going to use it, and we suspect somebody will discover it and he'll get into trouble. Luckily it's just Jon's wife Lucy who finds them. And surprise surprise, she tells us she wishes that Jon did take drugs!




Lucy explains that she'd like Jon to take drugs, because he "never properly lets himself go". 


Jon assures her that if he did "properly let himself go", then she wouldn't like the result.




And he compares what it would be like if he let himself go - what would come out, he says, is something like "the black flies" that come streaming out from somebody or other in the film "Green Mile". 

Unfortunately Lois and I have not seen this film, so it doesn't make the image very much clearer for us. Still, never mind, we get the general idea !!!!

And this is just the kind of issue that makes this series such unmissable television, we think. Fascinating stuff!

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











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