10:00 A quick 30-minute zoom call with Sarah, our younger daughter, who lives in Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 7-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie.
zooming with our younger daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia
(left to right) Lily, Sarah and Jessie, in front of a low-tech "virtual" background
of the English Lake District (Francis holding up a picture behind them)
ditto with 3 giant parrots - still lo-tech haha!
It's 5pm local time, and the family has just got home after spending the day at Nedlands Yacht Club down on the Swan River, doing what Australians call "Busy Bees" duty: apparently you don't have to pay the full annual membership fee if you agree to spend a minimum number of days a year doing maintenance, cleaning or other unskilled work at the club. What a good idea!
A few weeks ago Sarah and Francis bought a little yacht, called a Redwitch, which is a "shallow, draft 20 ft "trailer-able", fixed keel yacht, designed to fit under major bridges on the Swan River. This particular boat had been refurbished by a guy called (informally) "Stuman", so I'm guessing his real name is Stuart or something similar!
the Redwitch yacht that the family has bought,
seen her during its refurbishment by "Stu"
Sarah asks us to come up with a name for the boat that channels the "red" theme of the Redwitch name. We come up provisionally, during the call, with "The Jolly Rioja" - Francis says that Aussies aren't as familiar as Brits are with Spanish pronunciation, and so are likely to pronounce the name of the red wine Rioja as "Roger" in any case, so it all fits - simples!!! But we'll see if we can think of something better in slower time.
10:30 The call ends and Lois disappears to get ready to take part in the first of her sect's two worship services today on zoom. I look at my smartphone and see that Sarah has put some charming photos of the twins on "Insta" - apparently Jessie has established her own mini-restaurant in the family's house in Lower Chittering, complete with menu. Sarah said Jessie asked the whole family to dress in "tropical" clothing for the meal experience.
the menu
How cute is that? And is it not worth all the money in the world to have a grandchild who comes up with such ideas, and such a menu?
[Right, I've warned you before - you're not saying that again after today! - Ed]
14:00 Into bed for a nap but after 30 minutes Mark the Gardener rings us on my mobile. He can come and do a bit of work for us right now - he couldn't come last Tuesday because he was on holiday in Devon with his partner. I say "Can you give us 20 minutes" to give me time to get dressed and open the side gate for him. What madness! Still Mark is in great demand, so we've got to get him while we can: oh dear: no peace for the wicked haha!!!
Mark and his partner in happier times - on a picnic
15:00 I look on my smartphone, and I see that my sister Gill has put a charming picture up on "Insta" of her birthday yesterday. Her youngest daughter Maria came up from London with her partner Tom - just for socialising outside in the garden, because of the current lockdown restrictions. Luckily the rain seemed to stop for a few minutes, enabling this picture of all three.
Maria and Tom (left) with my little sister Gill
20:30 We speak on the phone to our elder daughter Alison, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children, Josie (14), Rosalind (12), and Isaac (10).
(left to right) Alison, Isaac, Rosalind, Josie and Ed
Josie and Rosalind have been taking piano exams recently, I think it's Grade 7 for Josie and Grade 5 for Rosalind, but I may have got that wrong. Rosalind has heard her results now - and it's pass with distinction. My god - what a high-achieving family they are! But Lois says it's not a good idea to make too much of a fuss: in other words it's best to congratulate but not to go over the top with it. She thinks it can put unwelcome pressure on, and she's probably right - she understands these things better than I do, that's for sure.
21:00 We watch a bit of TV, the latest edition of the Antiques Roadshow, where members of the public root around in their attics and bring along their treasures, family heirlooms etc to some stately home or other, and have their treasures valued by experts.
One of the heirlooms was a child's jigsaw dating from 1807. It depicts the path that wise children should travel: through the "gate of languages" (learning to read and write), and then proceeding along the right path, avoiding various traps, trials and tribulations - "the gulf of oblivion", self-complacency, "confused murmurings", "heaps of rubbish", the "mansion of appetite", and arriving, through "application" to the "votaries of truth" at the top of the "Hill of Science".
A moralistic game, to put it mildly!
The programme's expert comments that the jigsaw tells us something about childhood 200 years ago. Up until about 1800, he says, children weren't really thought about as being anything other than small adults. But towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, we get this whole idea of childhood being this sort of special kingdom, with the concept that children should perhaps be treated differently, receive an education, and perhaps even be given toys. And a whole new market springs up. of toys and games and books for children.
Fascinating stuff !!!!
My god, I just wish I'd been given this puzzle as a child, that's for sure. I think I'm still stuck in the Gulf of Oblivion myself - damn !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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