Danskcolin: Sunday August 22nd 2021

08:00 Lois and I are in bed discussing whether we can stay in it a bit longer. I think we can, because we don't have a zoom call at 9:30 am this morning with Sarah, our daughter in Western Australia. But Lois is conscious that she has to be ready for her sect's 10:45 am worship service on zoom, and she wants to get the lunch ready before then.

As usual I lose the argument and agree to get out of bed and bring up 2 cups of tea, plus Lois's cornflakes. Oh dear!

10:00 So a bad start to the day for me, but I remember that I've got a massive pile of my ironing that I've been ignoring for several months, so I get going with that little job, to keep me busy.

I do some of my ironing pile for the first time in 19 months -

what madness !!!!! Here you see me showcasing one of my striped

nightshirts, purchased with the idea of my becoming more popular

- but is it working? I think I should be told!

Later I look back in my blog to see when I last did any ironing. A shocking "factoid" or "glum fact": I have, for months, been sneaking a lot of my ironing back into the wardrobe without ironing it, and actually the last time I did any ironing at all was January 28th 2020. No wonder my piles of undone ironing are threatening to take over the whole house. What madness!!!

10:15 Meanwhile Lois goes for a walk on the local football field. I encourage her to take her phone with her and take a few pictures, which works out well. Here are a couple of photos that she took:

First, she has been checking on progress with the so-called "extra bit" of the field, where developers have started to erect a couple of nasty-looking blocks of flats. The boundary fence is now fully in place, making it difficult to see what they're doing exactly.

the so-called "extra bit" of the football field has now

been completely fenced off by the developers - damn !!!

aerial view of the football field, demonstrating where

the so-called "extra bit" lies

Lois reports that there are also a few people around today in the play areas and the tennis courts next to the Parish Council Offices, which is nice.

a few people making use of the play areas and tennis courts

next to the Parish Council Offices

10:45 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in the first of her sect's 2 worship services today on zoom. She plans to take part in the second one by going over to fellow-sect member Alf's house, where he has also invited another member, June. They will all follow this second service on zoom, using Alf's computer, which will be nice.

Meanwhile I finish my ironing and set out the lunch in the living-room, together with cups of tea etc. Lois will have to eat her lunch pretty speedily to be finished in time to drive over to Alf's house for the 2nd service's 12:30 start.

12:00 We have lunch and then Lois drives off to Alf's house. I get into bed and look at my smartphone. I see that Cheltenham has been named the thriftiest town in the UK, which is quite an honour, although I don't suppose that local shopkeepers are all that pleased.

My god!

The article is quick to point out that this doesn't mean that Cheltenham residents are stingy or mean, merely that they like to avoid waste and are good at managing their money. The study analysed, among other things, local Google search data, in order to find out where in the UK the highest number of searches for terms like "upcycling" [??? - Ed], "ikea hacks" [??? - Ed] and "recycled furniture" take place.

It's interesting that, while Cheltenham topped the UK list, local rival Gloucester was only at no. 116 in the list of 222 most populous towns. So what's gone wrong there then? I think we should be told!

13:00 I continue to look at my smartphone, and check on the latest news from Hungary (Hungary Daily News).

Yes, apparently Hungarian government circles are feeling pleased at the moment, sensing that other EU countries, having up until now been sharply critical of Hungary's tough border controls, are going to be eating humble pie soon: these other EU countries are allegedly starting to realise that they have to adopt something similar to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's policies, in order to restrict the threatened flood of immigrants from Afghanistan. Oh dear.

Some estimates suggest that a million Afghans may try to enter Europe. The article mentions France and Germany in particular because of forthcoming elections in those countries, saying that it will be interesting to see what sort of stand the politicians there take on the issue in the run-up to those elections.

The article doesn't mention the UK. I would have thought Afghans would be less keen to come to the UK now that we're no longer in the EU, but I know that the English language in itself exerts a strong pull on many refugees from Middle Eastern and other Muslim countries. If these refugees know a foreign language at all, it's almost certainly going to be English.

Plus, we've got a lot of Afghans here in the UK already, and some of them could be relatives of some of this new lot of refugees. Well, we'll see.

Why are such a crazy and stupid lot of people like the Taleban able to take over and run a country in this day and age? Creating a decent and civilized society isn't exactly rocket science. You'd think they would have got the idea of how to do it by now, wouldn't you!

Some countries have been doing it for centuries! Being civilized I mean!!!

18:15 Lois and I have a CookShop meal tonight, chilli con carne - yum yum!

20:00 We see a bit of TV on the couch, a behind-the-scenes look at the still-popular 1970's sitcom Dad's Army, a sitcom all about the so-called "Home Guard", the civilian volunteers who manned this last-ditch defence force, intended to act as a last resort in the event of a German invasion.

It's nostalgic tonight to see the famous sketch from the 1968 pilot episode of the show, where the local volunteers show up for their first parade, under the orders of pompous local bank manager "Captain" Mainwaring, and his "sergeant", polite local bank clerk Wilson.

The real Home Guard were made fun of initially in the UK because of their lack of weapons, being called the "Broomstick Brigade". And in this sketch about this local platoon's initial parade, "Captain" Mainwaring notices that old codger Godfrey has turned up with his own rifle: so he gets "Sgt" Wilson to order Godfrey to hand it over for the use of the whole platoon. When Godfrey refuses to hand it over, Mainwaring warns him he could be shot for disobeying orders.

Tremendous fun!!!

Lois and I visited the Dad's Army Museum at Thetford when we were holidaying in Norfolk in 2014. We particularly liked the poster of "Cpl" Jones, the local butcher, unwittingly passing a wanted poster with his own face on it - due to an administrative error, police were searching for him as a "extremely dangerous" escaped prisoner-of-war.