Saturday, 9 October 2021

Saturday October 9th 2021

10:00 The usual Saturday morning scramble for Lois and me to get out of bed, and answer the door to the delivery of next week's groceries, which we are still swabbing down with disinfectant, and then we have to get ready for the weekly zoom call with Sarah, our younger daughter, who lives in Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 8-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. Phew!

Sarah and family recently moved from Lower Chittering way out in the sticks, north east of Perth, a bushfire zone. They now live in a house in Tapping, one of Perth's northern suburbs, which is a big relief for Lois and me - we didn't like it when they were in a bushfire zone, to put it mildly!

 a month or two back , the family moved from Lower Chittering
to Tapping, one of Perth's northern suburbs

The twins are only 8, but on Tuesday they'll be starting at the local Tapping primary school. Lois and I were worried about whether the twins would be nervous about starting in a new school, which will be their third primary school already. So we were very relieved today to hear that the twins' friend Samara, who lives round the corner and whom they have known for years, will be in the same class as them.

Samara (or more likely Samara's mum) gave each twin a "welcome bag" today, containing cards and little presents, to welcome them to their new school, which was really thoughtful, Lois and I think!

The twins and Samara will again have a teacher who's a Brit - Mrs Dixon, a woman from Surrey. Their teacher at their previous school, in Lower Chittering, was also a Brit - from Lancashire. The Perth area is crawling with Brits !!!

Lily showcases one of the 3 "Worst Witch" books we sent them. And Jessie says, "And the good news is that there are only 3 more to get in the series", a clear hint that they would like us to send the other three! How cute they are!

11:00 We have to say bye-bye sob sob!!!

Sarah's husband Francis is out playing golf, so we don't see him during the call. Later he posts a picture on social media about an uninvited spectator to the round of golf between Francis and his friends.


our son-in-law Francis's round of golf today - 
with uninvited spectator, showcased here: yikes !!!!!!

Yikes !!!!!!!

12:00 We go for a walk on the local football field.  The sky is pretty blue and the temperature is quite mild, which is a bit of a surprise.

The tennis courts are stuffed with old codgers, and the junior soccer match is in full swing on the field itself, which is nice.


the junior soccer is in full swing on the football field, which is nice

And I'm happy to report, that there weren't any snakes again, which was a bit of a relief, to put it mildly!

artist's impression of what an Australian snake
might look like if it strayed onto our local football field

20:00 We watch TV, a fascinating documentary about comedian Tony Hancock.


We always find these programmes fascinating, even if at times, it shows us that some of the comedians we found so funny 50 years ago weren't really quite as funny as we thought at the time.

This documentary is particularly interesting because it serves us some much lesser-known clips of the great man, like this "The Two Lighthouse-Keepers" sketch from, I guess, Hancock's vaudeville days.
 
Hancock is the one without the beard. He and Jimmy Edwards play 2 lighthouse-keepers, who think they've been forgotten about - their much-promised "relief crew" is months overdue. However, their dedication to "keep the light burning" seems undiminished.







There are unmistakeable signs, however, that Hancock is starting to crack.



Dan Dan tries to stiffen Hancock's resolve by reiterating the Lighthouse-Keeper's Oath.




Luckily, in the nick of time, there's a knock at the door - the two men's "relief crew" has arrived. 




The documentary-makers feel forced at this point to make an apology, admittedly somewhat half-hearted, for the sketch's "sexist ending".





Tremendous fun !!!!!

Poor old Hancock. He was Britain's biggest comedy star in the 1950's and 1960's, and he was big in Australia too. That wasn't enough for him, however - he wanted to be big in the USA too. But his humour wasn't right for the American market - his humour came from his being a total failure, which isn't something Americans laugh at as much as we do: at least that's what the programme says.

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz !!!!!!!


No comments:

Post a Comment