Wednesday July 7th 2021

09:30 Lois has an appointment with James, her stylist, at his Billy Shears establishment at the end of Linden Avenue. 

the "Billy Shears" hairdressing salon (second business on the left), 

which Lois's stylist James has recently bought up and is now running

At the moment it's masks for all round there, both staff and customers, but only till July 19th apparently. After that, however, he will wear a mask if the customer asks, which is nice.

Lois gets ready to go and see James, her stylist.

How cute Lois looks in her hat and animal-print-fringed face-mask!

Lois comes back and shows me the result.

James has cut it nice'n'short as usual.

10:30 July - the season of mellow fruits and bad backs. Yes, not just the raspberries but a start has to be made on the gooseberries, and the meagre harvest of blackcurrants have to be picked too: damn!

The skies are grey and it's none too warm, and all the patio furniture is wet from the overnight rain, but we venture out anyway - what courage!

some more raspberries, which Lois safely gathers in today

I cut off the most heavily-laden branches from our

gooseberry bushes: these bushes are only 2ft high

or less, which is a pity - so back-aching !!!!

we sit down on the damp seats on the patio

and try to do our work as best we can

While I process the gooseberry branches, Lois

gets going with the blackcurrants: so annoying 

because they're so small, and not particularly plentiful this year

- damn!

I'm pleased with my work, because it turns out I have picked about 5.5 lbs (2.5 kg) of gooseberries, and a lot of them are quite big ones, which is nice. But I've only done 3 bushes, there are loads more still to do - damn!

We just manage to finish before the rain starts again.

16:00 We have a cup of tea on the couch. I look at my smartphone, and I see that one of our favourite quora.com forum pundits, Olivier Nitre (crazy name, crazy guy) has been weighing in on the vexed question of whether France is a North European or a South European country.

Olivier writes, "The hilarious thing is that :  

for Nordic countries like Sweden, Denmark and so - even Germany (although Germany's not that Nordic) ☺️… France is seen rather as a “southern” country

BUT

For the southern countries like Italy, Spain or even Greece - overall France is actually seen as a “northern country”

And now a funny exercise: where to put the limit between Southern Europe and Northern Europe? It would probably look something like this [thick, wavy pale green line]:

"Above the green line: NORTH … Indeed ! ( hmmm! most likely )

Below the green line: SOUTH… For sure (or almost sure)

And in the green area… hmmmm… Gosh!! this is where France is: in the North of Southern Europe, and in the South of Northern Europe….

EVEN MORE FUNNY…

People from South of France see themselves as “southern or Latin “ persons...

...just like people from North/East of France feel lot more like they belong to a 'northern place'. "

Olivier then brings his exposition near to a climax as follows: "But where is the North/South limit : let’s say that even the French don’t all agree on this point, and they actually see themselves like this (Blue, Black, Grey, Green = more north, Red=more south).

He concludes as follows: "So: I’m afraid the answer to your question will depend on the person you are asking, and the place where he lives … So good luck!"

I'm indebted to Olivier for this remarkably clear answer to this vexed question. I've shown it to a number of Brits, who, for obvious reasons have asked to remain anonymous, but they have all commented, however, that they don't think the answer is necessarily always as humorous as Olivier thinks it is. 

Maybe - but then it's not clear whether Olivier is a "northerner" or a "southerner", which probably determines what kind of sense of humour he has - so let's be fair, and give him the benefit of the doubt!

Also, a lot of the Brits I've shown Olivier's answer to have also said, "I'm glad we Brits are not the only people in Europe to be feeling totally confused!" 

Amen to that!

17:00 I craft an email to one of my cousins, giving her the bombshell news that my sister Gill and I have discovered, through a DNA test, that we have a close relation, David, a BBC online journalist, that we didn't know anything about. 

I take ages crafting the email tactfully (as I think), and I get Lois to check it and make suggestions. Well, the email has gone off now, so I await the reaction. Will that reaction be eager curiosity or a desire to close the whole story down, "slapping a D-notice on it", as we used to say at work - well, we'll see, won't we!

flashback to 1987: a gathering of us and many of our aunts and uncles and their children 

and grandchildren : mine and Lois's red Vauxhall Astra can also be seen 

parked on the street, in front of my father's Austin Mini - happy days !!!!

Later I speak to my cousin on the phone. She wants Gill and me to wait before releasing the shock news of the previously unknown close relative until she's figured out how to handle the problem of a relative who's been told a white lie - a lie which will be revealed to him by this news. This is the stuff of soap-operas, folks!

18:00 I'm feeling relieved at the moment because I've at last found a missing book which I was after. 

I'm a member of Lynda's U3A Middle English group. One of the group's members Cynthia this month gave the group a presentation on the influence of French on Middle English. After she had given her talk, Cynthia suggested that I give a presentation on the influence of Danish / Old Norse on Middle English. I was happy to accept this request but at the same time I realised that I would have to find the missing book I need to prepare the talk, Matthew Townend's seminal "Language and History in Viking-Age England".

At last, this afternoon, I've at last found the book! It was stuck inside a loose-leaf binder on the very high shelf in the dining-room, right under the 8 ft ceiling. What madness!

the shelf where the book got lost - what madness !!!!

As far as I can remember - I read the book about 5 years ago I think - Townend proves that the Anglo-Saxons and the hundreds of thousands of Danes who settled in the eastern half of the country could more or less understand each other's language, with mutual good will and a bit of give-and-take. This made it easier for the Anglo-Saxons to absorb hundreds, even thousands, of Danish words without necessarily even being aware that they were doing so. Even really basic words such as "they", "them", "are" etc.

This was a quite different situation from when the Norman French arrived in 1066 - the Normans were far fewer in number than were the immigrant Danes, and the English and French languages were certainly not mutually intelligible, to put it mildly. My god!

20:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Class on zoom. I settle down on the couch and watch the last episode of the mammoth 20-part Danish crime series, "The Killing", which Lois doesn't like.

I always love it when police inspectors are told "You're off the case!". I remember Chief Inspector Dreyfus telling Inspector Clouseau this - "Just for that, you're off the case", in the film "A Shot In The Dark".

Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom, left) tells Inspector Clouseau

(Peter Sellers), "Just for that, you're off the case!".

Tonight, in "The Killing"' series's thrilling final episode, Inspector Sara Lund gets taken off the case by her boss Blix, then she gets suspended from her job, and then she gets arrested for the alleged murder of her sidekick. But she manages to escape from custody and hijack a police car at gunpoint, and then continue to solve the case, which she does, of course.

My god, what a woman!!!! And that's what you really can call a "maverick cop", in my humble opinion haha!

The moment when Inspector Sarah Lund, sitting under arrest in the 

back of a police car, seizes the driver's gun and forces him to stop 

the car and get out, so she can use the car herself to pursue the case.

My god, what a woman !!!!!

"The Killing" is the best "Scandi-noir series" I have seen, without a doubt. I think it's got everything, and it's kept me on tenterhooks till the very last. More please, Danish TV !!! [They've already done another two series, and everybody except you seems to know that! - Ed]

21:15 Lois emerges from her zoom session. We haven't much time so we just watch an old episode of "Four in a Bed" before dragging ourselves upstairs for a "Two in a Bed".

22:00 Zzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!