10:00 The time for giving my so-called "presentation" is getting close now - only 28 hours 30 minutes to go - yikes!!!!
It's a talk about "How The Vikings Changed Our Language", and I'm due to give it to members of Lynda's local U3A Middle English Group.
a typical Viking schoolteacher teaching some nicely-brought-up
Anglo-Saxon children some typically gruesome and horrid Viking words
The problem is that I still don't really know how long the presentation is going to take to deliver. I can't be bothered to write it all out - I'm just going to speak from the slides, but what if there are any awkward questions, or what if I get through the slides too quickly?
I decide to scribble some "extra bits" in the right-hand margin to fill in some time or deal with some annoying requests for "more detail": I think I can guess what some of the "smart alecs" in the group are going to want chapter and verse about. What madness!
my first two slides - with "extra bits" scribbled in the right-hand margin
I'm starting off with the Goths, which is a good starting point for any talk, especially as I can't think of a joke to open with - damn! Steve, my American brother-in-law, has reminded me that we hear a lot about the Visigoths but not much about the Ostrogoths, so I'm going to make sure I compensate for that deficiency in our education system.
where the various Gothic tribes ended up - they started out in modern-day
Sweden or Poland - nobody's quite sure which,
and they decided they'd find somewhere a bit warmer
I've decided not to include anything about the so-called "Mall-o-goths" who haunt shopping centres to this day. I don't think they were around till much later, but I'll have to check up on that to be sure of my facts here.
Do Mall-o-goths speak a primitive form of Germanic? It's a primitive something-or-other I believe, I just can't remember exactly what - old age creeping up again! [I think old age has done more than that in your case! - Ed]
14:45 I drop Lois off near our dental surgery. She has an appointment at 15:10 for the second part of her 3-part course of treatment to have a long crown fitted over several teeth. Luckily most of the worst of the drilling was done in Part 1, so we're hopeful it won't be quite as traumatic as last time.
After it's all over Lois gets the receptionist to ring me to say she's ready to come home. She had tried using her mobile but it told her she was out of credit. I pick her up and we come home - she's feeling like she's been through the mill again, and who could blame her? Like me she hates it particularly whenever they take an impression of your teeth - I just want to gag, but she just finds it extremely painful.
She now has 8 days before she has to go again for the third and final part of the course of treatment, which includes fitting the crown.
It's a pity that our usual dentist Daria is leaving the practice shortly after Lois's last appointment, and moving to another practice on the other side of town. It'll be handier over that side because her partner works in Bristol. But it's a pity for us because we've got to know Daria now - her replacement is going to be another woman, but that's all the detail we know at the moment.
our dentist Daria, seen here in happier times:
"Make mine a large one!" - that was her catchphrase.
We relax on the sofa: Lois has a rooibos tea without milk, and I have my usual extra-strong Earl Grey.
It'll be me on dinner-making duty tonight, that's for sure, and something soft is needed that doesn't need a lot of chewing. After careful thought I select one of my two signature dishes: jumbo fish-fingers, mash potato and peas. Yum yum!!!!
20:00 We settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV, the latest programme in Pam Ayres new series about the Cotswolds.
It's nice to see country poetess Pam wandering around her native Cotswolds. I always remember her iconic poem for hard times, "
Sling another chair-leg on the fire, Mother".
And it's nice tonight to see Pam visiting the Rococo Garden at Painswick near Stroud, a garden created in 1740 to provide secluded nooks for so-called "erotic assignations". In a way it's a little bit surprising that they don't create places like that any more today - I don't know the reason for that, but I think we should perhaps be told?
Painswick's Rococo Garden - designed in 1740 for "erotic assignations"
Lois and I visited the Garden in 2003 with Lois's cousin Brian and his wife Ruth. We didn't see anything erotic going on, but I suppose it was the middle of the day. Perhaps the "scene" doesn't get going till after dark maybe?
flashback to August 2003 - we visit the Rococo Garden, Painswick
(left to right) Lois, me, Ruth and Lois's cousin Brian
Happy days !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment