08:00 I get up ready to take the call from Budgens, the convenience store in the village, to tell us when our delivery will come and how much it's going to cost etc.
I see that there's an overnight text come in from our daughter Alison, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children, Josie (15), Rosalind (13) and Isaac (11).
flashback to last month: Lois and I visit our daughter Alison and family for
Alison's 46th birthday celebrations: (left to right) Ed, Rosalind, Alison, Isaac and Josie
This month Isaac has started at his secondary school, and he's enrolled on the school's Language Immersion Course. That means he has to choose a language - French or Mandarin - and as well as language lessons, he'll also get some of his non-core subjects taught to him in his chosen language. Isaac has chosen Mandarin - yikes!
Isaac trying out his new school uniform earlier this month
- what a clever chappie he is !!!
In her text to me last night, Alison has appended some of Isaac's early Mandarin homework. He's obviously learning to write Chinese characters, so he's coming on fast, that's for sure. I studied Japanese at university so I've got a rough idea - the Japanese borrowed all their characters from the Chinese, which helps me a bit, to put it mildly! Isaac's first sheet is dead easy for me to grasp - it's just the numbers from one to seven.
Isaac learning the numbers 1 to 7...
...and some more difficult stuff !
I remember that you have to write the various strokes in a particular order - otherwise they don't look right. I can recall that the young Japanese students I hobnobbed with in Tokyo in the early 1970's used to draw the characters in the air with their fingers, whenever there was an ambiguity, so that they could get their meaning across.
What a crazy language!!!!!
11:00 It's nice to hear that young Isaac is getting on so well, because it turns out to be a frustrating day for me. I wanted to get on with my so-called "presentation" - the talk I've got to give to Lynda's U3A Middle English group about the influence of Old Norse on English. There are less than 2 weeks to go now till I have to give the talk - help!!!!
I don't do any work on my presentation today, however. It turns out that my time is taken up with other routine tasks, which is annoying. This includes all the swabbing down of the groceries and vacuuming the whole house - which is a full work-out in itself. Damn!!!
How am I ever going to get the time to write my presentation??? What madness !!!!!
12:00 At least Lois comes away with something productive today. She's harvested the remaining fruit on our cooking apple tree - not a bad haul, particularly since we had written the tree off earlier in the summer because it looked so unpromising, as a lot of the apples looked completely rotten.
It just shows, it pays to hang on and see what you get when September comes, that's for sure!
15:30 Our doctor's surgery texts us to say they've cancelled our appointments for a booster COVID astrazeneca vaccination next week. New government guidelines recommend a 6 month gap between the 2nd and 3rd jab. We had our 2nd jab only in April, so they are going to let us know when they've made us a new appointment.
My god, what a frustrating day!!!
20:00 We watch a bit of TV, the latest programme in Bettany Hughes's series on "Treasures of the Mediterranean".
Lois and I are intrigued to see pictures of Gibraltar the town, and to see all the signs of Britishness there. We hardly ever see Gibraltar on TV for some reason.
And tonight we also see an early form of Neanderthal cave art, some crossed lines that many people think is a representation of the palm of a hand, proving that Neanderthals didn't just hunt, they had hobbies too, which is nice. Plus we see a footprint left behind from the same era.
some Neanderthal art
...and a Neanderthal footprint
And who knew that the Gibraltar Chronicle is the second oldest English language newspaper in the world, after the Times of London? And in 1805 the Chronicle got its big scoop - the news of the Battle of Trafalgar, fought nearby, and also, tragically, news of the death in the battle of Admiral Nelson, commander of the British fleet.
The article quotes Nelson's last words - "Thank God I have outlived this day, and now I die content".
Lois and I had no idea that in World War II, Britain was so concerned that Gibraltar might be captured by the Germans that they shipped all the real inhabitants over to Morocco and other places and then filled the colony with thousands of troops. My god !!!!!
The troops created an underground world in the Rock itself, with hospitals, ammunitions stores, bakeries, all inside 30 miles of tunnels. My god (again) !!!!!
There was even a fall-back plan that if the Germans captured the place, half a dozen naval personnel would remain in an ultra-secret cavity hidden deep in the rock, with a clandestine view over the sea and over to Morocco. Their job would be to report back to London by radio on German movements both on the Rock and at sea. The personnel included two surgeons, and the unit had food supplies for up to 7 years. The existence of this so-called "Stay Behind Cave" remained classified top secret, and it was only discovered accidentally, by potholers, in 1997. My god !!!! [Stop saying that! - Ed]
Naval officer and later James Bond author, Ian Fleming was involved in the management of the mission and it's said to have been one of the inspirations for a lot of his writing. What Bond villain hasn't got a secret hideaway somewhere. Makes sense !!!!!
There's a so-called "legend" that Britain will always keep the Rock, as long as the Barbary Macaque monkeys remain there - and one stage their population declined and during World War II Churchill became so concerned that he had some shipped back there.
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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