09:00 A letter from the Borough Council's Planning Department tells us that Nikki, our next door neighbour, has applied to have the back of her house enlarged: it will have one of the modern-style large open-plan kitchen-diner-lounge areas at the back of the house with lots of tall thin conservatory-style windows looking out onto their back garden. How big will it be? We "guesstimate" that it will be about 30 feet by 24, but we're not really sure.
Cheltenham's Director of Planning
We can't help feeling a bit jealous - but on the other hand we don't really like open-plan for ourselves. We prefer the traditional smallish rooms where you can concentrate. Call us old-fashioned if you like! [Well it's hardly news to say you're just a couple of old fuddy-duddies - Ed]
Anyway we don't have any plans to object to Nikki's plans. We're so warm-hearted haha!
Nikki's plan to have one massive open-plan
kitchen-dining-room-seating-area
with enormous TV on the wall
What madness !!!!! And we certainly wouldn't want all that open-plan area if we were parents with three young kids in the house, that's for sure!!!
11:30 We go for a walk on the local football field and treat ourselves to a coffee. For the first time I'll be using the so-called "e-mug" - a reusable mug - plus two of our own drinking straws. You can't get much more "green" than that, can you. No plastic cups to throw away afterwards which will be nice.
Lois posts a parcel to Sarah, our daughter in Australia,
an extra birthday present - a "tote bag" designed
individually for her by Molly, Lois's artistically-gifted
great-niece in Oxford.
a damp day with low cloud/mist over the hills, and
not many people about, which is nice!
Lois showcases some flourishing privet-hedge - coincidentally
we've just been learning the Danish for that: ligusterhæk,
if you're interested! [I'm not! - Ed]
Lois buys us 2 coffees at the Whiskers Coffee Stand
We sit at opposite ends of the so-called "Buddy Bench" -
we haven't had a row, and we're not socially distancing.
These are the only dry spots on the bench !
Flashback to May 2015: Gill and Peter's 30th wedding anniversary:
Tom and Maria are standing on the far left
Gill says she's managing to get out of the house a bit more. She's visited a couple of shops, and her book group, which has been meeting online for several months, had an in-person meeting recently in a local park, which is nice.
Peter gave Gill a DNA test as a birthday present 6 weeks ago, and she's found a reasonably close match with somebody on the database, but it's somebody neither Gill or myself were aware of, so we'll both have to be doing a bit of research to see where the person fits into our family tree. I really gave up doing family history over 10 years ago, so I'll have to look back at my notes. Exciting!
19:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Seminar on zoom. I settle down on the couch and watch Episode 16 of the mammoth 20-part Danish crime series, "The Killing", which Lois doesn't like.
Every episode now a new suspect for the murder of high-school student Nanna comes into the frame, and this episode is no exception.
We find out in Episode 16 that on the night she was murdered, Nanna was planning to leave Copenhagen for Berlin with her childhood sweetheart Amir (whom we see for the first time here), but she never got to the train station for the departure. But one or other of Nanna's father's employees knew about the plan and seems to have seen them go off: is he the murderer ? (at the moment his status is Suspect #323 - my god!!!! What madness !!!!!!
In this episode we see Amir give Nanna's father the video she recorded for her parents on the night she disappeared.
In the video, she tells them, "When you watch this, it'll be Monday. You'll think I'm at school. I love you all very much and I'm fine. I'm with Amir. We met when he came home this summer. Although 3 years had passed, it felt like yesterday. We've always loved each other. Mum, I think you knew. I want you to know, I've never been happier. I love you. I'll ring you soon."
Poor Nanna !!!!!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session, and we watch the first programme in a series of 5 where Scottish stand-up comedian Susan Calman visits a different British seaside resort every night this week. In this episode she visits Great Yarmouth on Norfolk's North Sea coast.
Eventually we realise, that THIS PROGRAMME IS NOT AIMED AT OLD CODGERS LIKE US! Lois and I grew up in a time where every family went to the seaside for their summer holiday every year, and did all the traditional things like ride the roller-coasters, go on the pier and play the penny slot-machines, build sand-castles, watch a Punch and Judy puppet show etc etc. And these are just the things we see Susan do tonight.
We can see now that this programme is aimed at young people whose previous idea of a summer holiday was to go to the Mediterranean and sunbathe in the day, and dance and drink in clubs and discos at night. But of course they can't do that quite so easily now, what with the pandemic and all. So Susan is in effect selling them the traditional British seaside of the past.
The highlight of this programme for me was an old clip of a very young looking Benny Hill from the 1950's - he was obviously doing a summer show at the variety theatre on Great Yarmouth Pier. I can see he was already perfecting his "grin and squint" look, which he later made famous with his iconic "Fred Scuttle" character.
a young Benny Hill on Great Yarmouth Pier in the 1950's:
note - admission to the pier was just 6d (six old pennies): what a bargain!
Benny Hill in later years
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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