October 8th - my late mother's birthday: she would have been 102 today, if she'd lived.
flashback to 1936: my mother, aged 16, posing in
her parents' back yard in Oxford in her brand new dress,
and with the whole of her adult life in front of her
Steve, our American brother-in-law, reminded me of a photo he took some years ago, a photo which is possibly the happiest ever photo taken of my mother, on a beach with my late sister Kathy.
Of the photos I took, I think my favourite is this next one - it reminds me so much of quiet evenings at her house in the soft electric light of evening, when she would get the chance to sit at the table and chat away with us to her heart's content.
This next one is the last photo I have of her when she still had all her powers, sitting with Elizabeth, one of her many great-nieces, all dressed up for a family get-together at the Rising Sun pub/restaurant, Cleeve Hill, in 2009. She passed away 2 years later.
11:00 Today proves to be pretty much ruined by the inefficiency at our dental surgery. Lois is expecting to have the 3rd and final part of her current course of dental treatment at 12:10 pm today. I drive her there, but the receptionist tells her that her appointment isn't till 2 pm. What????
the reception desk at our dental surgery
The receptionist says she spoke to one of us on the phone a few days ago to tell us of the change of time - I know this isn't true. They say the new time was also on the electronic form they sent Lois to "sign" with the cursor, the form where she states she hasn't got COVID etc.
After I collect Lois, we check the online form, and as the receptionist says, it does give the new time. But that isn't good enough, is it - the time is not particularly highlighted on the form, and in any case, how can they change the time without checking with us that it's convenient?
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
12:30 We have lunch and then I drive her back to the surgery for her 2pm appointment. The treatment is all done, and I collect her at 3 pm. We come home and at last we get the chance to go to bed for a bit, which is nice. Lois is hugely relieved that the course of treatment is over. There's no longer a huge hole in her teeth, but it's left a huge hole in our wallets, that's for sure. What madness !!!!!
the hole in the teeth translates to a hole in the wallet - oh dear!
17:30 We get up and have a cup of tea on the sofa, and share a Chelsea bun.
What a day!!!!
18:30 I see a text from Sarah, our younger daughter, who lives in Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 8-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. Lois and I recently ordered some books for them in the Worst Witch series, as well as sending them a couple of parcels containing some of Sarah's old childhood favourite books.
flashback to yesterday: the twins down at the Swan River with their father Francis,
and the family's new second-hand 20 foot boat, the Rioja.
We hear some interesting discussions in the programme between Mary and her guests.
Series of books set in boarding schools were so popular when Lois and I were growing up - it's easy to see why the focus was on boarding schools. You can't have very many exciting adventures and solve exciting mysteries if your parents are around, or if you have to go home every day at 4 pm or whatever.
Have other countries ever had this obsession with stories set at boarding schools? Or is it just a British thing? I think we should be told.
Lois and I discuss the programme afterwards, and we comment that, whereas there were a couple of famous series set in boys' boarding schools, the vast majority were set at girls' schools, and we think it's easy to see why. Girls in those days and before, in the 1930's and 1940's, were particularly constrained by society to be ladylike and not to "take charge". All those constraints disappeared if you were at a female-only boarding school. It was girls taking charge, girls solving mysteries and girls catching crooks. Simples!
Lois was a bit of a tomboy in the 1950's, by her own admission. She didn't want to be a boy exactly, like some of the characters in the books did: she just wanted the freedom to do the things that boys did - climbing trees and suchlike. And she did do them too, by golly!
Lois climbing a tree in the early 1950's - she's the one on top!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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