09:30 A zoom call with Sarah, our younger daughter, who lives just outside Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 7-year-old twins Lily and Jessie. The twins are bouncing around as usual, and they tell us about the "assembly" that their school year presented on Friday - we're not sure exactly what that word means in Australian schools, but it isn't the same as year, that's for sure. The theme was "Under the Sea", so we think they all dressed up as sea-creatures. Sarah will be sending us photos in due course - in the meantime we have to make do with the pictures they showed us on Sarah's phone.
Kids today - they master mobile phones and other modern technology without blinking an eyelid. You should see that swiping away on the tiny screens like they've been doing it for decades - my god!!!!
we think this is the twins' class in their sea-creature get-ups
Luckily Sarah has a video clip of the performance, a clip she's going to put on a USB memory stick for us, so we'll wait to see, when that arrives in the post, after making the 9000 mile journey - my god!!!!
Sarah's husband Francis pops in for a few moments. He's engaged in refurbishing the second-hand boat they bought last weekend - it's 20 feet long, apparently and has a "downstairs" and 4 "beds" - mattresses really, we think. Lily demonstrates one of the two child mattresses.
How cute the twins are - and so full of confidence now. That's Australia for you - it does that for kids, my god !!!!
Francis is older than Sarah by about 12 years, so he's in his 50's. He'll get a chance in a couple of weeks' time to get his first astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine. Australia has lagged behind badly in getting its population vaccinated - they've concentrated on keeping the virus out by banning a lot of arrivals and being very strict with the people who do arrive from overseas.
10:30 The call ends, and Lois gets ready to take part in the first of her sect's two worship services today on zoom. I hurry into the kitchen and make lunch: cheddar cheese and home-made pickle sandwiches and mini-tomatoes - one of my signature dishes. With banana for dessert.
15:00 I go up to the bedroom to do the exercises that Connor, my NHS physiotherapist, has scheduled for me.
Lois goes for a walk in the local so-called "play park". I always encourage her to take her phone with her and take some pictures, so she can master the technique.
Today she takes a couple of selfies where she's looking intently at her phone screen and frowning - a common "rookie-error" with selfies (not shown), and a third picture: this pleasant study of a suburban street.
Lois's study of a quiet suburban street on a Sunday:
a street full of parked cars with their owners lazing about inside their houses
If I were to criticize this study at all, I'd just say there perhaps isn't quite enough in the way of interest items in the foreground, but that's nit-picking a bit.
It's a thoroughly workmanlike result, and "does what it says on the tin". Most of the newly-built houses on this nearby new housing estate are occupied by young couples who don't want to bother with working in the garden (cos there isn't one haha!).
There was absolutely nobody to be seen on the streets, Lois says. And when I see this photo, taken on a typical Sunday morning, I can imagine the couples lounging around inside their houses, in pyjamas maybe, and enjoying the thought of not having to do anything in a hurry - perhaps they are bingeing on box-sets, or dreaming about the paradise of having a public holiday in prospect for tomorrow.
What bliss - I remember that feeling from when Lois and I were a young working couple. There's nothing better, is there!!!
flashback to 1973 - we look out at the snow on a quiet Sunday morning
from the window of the first flat we shared together
our weekend at a B&B in Mid-Wales in 1973: outside the B&B
1973 - Lois and me on our weekend in Mid-Wales: happy days !!!!
20:00 We settle down on the couch and watch some TV, a special edition of the Antiques Roadshow from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, a building that was destroyed by bombing in World War II, as revenge for an allied attack on Munich that had taken place shortly before.
A poignant edition of the show, where members of the public bring their mementos from World War II to be looked at by the show's experts. Both visitors and experts are close to tears at times.
To give the show full credit, it doesn't just stress the sufferings of the people of Coventry and elsewhere in Britain, but also reflects the pain suffered by people on the other side of the conflict too. The first exhibit is a brown tea cup found by chance by a British soldier in the ruins of Dresden.
In tonight's programme, presenter Fiona Bruce, standing in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, asks expert Will Farmer for his opinion about the cup. It turns out that the cup was made by the Wedgwood Company in England in the early 19th century. Found amidst the rubble in Dresden, it's a minor miracle that it survived the heavy bombing of the city undamaged.
Fiona comments that the cup is a reminder of the many things the ordinary people of Britain and Germany had , and have, in common with each other and with the people of all other countries of the world: liking to call round, socialise and talk, and have a cup of tea or coffee together.
Tonight's programme is also a reminder to me of a visit I paid to the old Coventry Cathedral in September 2001 with my late mother, my late sister Kathy, and Kathy's American husband, Steve.
flashback to 2001: I visit the old Coventry Cathedral with my late mother,
my late sister Kathy, and Kathy's American husband, Steve.
It was ironic that the day of our visit coincided with the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, which may have been already underway at the time these photos were taken. So you see, it all goes on.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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