Danskcolin: Sunday October 24th 2021

A raw, cold and damp day with intermittent drizzle - the weather people got it wrong again: what rubbish their forecasts are !

Lois has to go on zoom to take part in her sect's two worship services today - the sect's local chief elder has requested as big an attendance as possible in person at the Village Hall, Ashchurch, where the sect holds its Sunday meetings. Lois's friends Alf and Mari-Ann are going to be there, so Lois can't participate at their house in Cheltenham, like she usually does.

flashback to August - Lois showcases the village hall where

her sect holds its Sunday services all year round

Lois is nervous about going to Ashchurch herself, however, and she has decided to stay at home today.

One local sect member, Gillian, has put the cat amongst the pigeons by texting all the local sect-members to say that new COVID infections "have gone shooting up" in the county - yikes! But what Gillian doesn't say is that the spike was caused by a COVID testing lab producing a lot of false negative results for a few weeks, results which have now been corrected, but which has now bumped up the figures artificially. I explain this to Lois, which calms her anxieties a bit.

What madness !!!!

14:00 Steve, our American brother-in-law has sent me some information about his ancestry, information which one of his brothers has compiled. Lois and I have had a quick look at this, and we're finding it absolutely fascinating.

For a start it's in a format we haven't encountered before, something called "Ahnentafel". With this method you work back generation by generation, only looking at parents, and not bothering about siblings.

So for example, as Wikipedia explains, if you're focussing on Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, you just look at his parents - Prince Charles and Princess Diana. You don't bother about William's siblings: Prince Harry can get lost haha! And so it goes on.

"Prince Harry, you can get lost, your highness !!!" haha !!!

Next, you look at Prince Charles and work out his parents (the Queen and Prince Philip), not bothering about Anne, Andrew or Edward. And then you look at Princess Diana and work out who her parents were too (Earl Spencer and Frances Roche). And so it goes on.

See? Simples!

And you keep on going back till you get to Adam and Eve! It's as basic as that haha !!!!!

And what's so intriguing about Steve's family tree, is that, because he's American, you can see various strands of immigrants of various nationalities coming into the lineage at different points over the last few centuries - it's like a microcosm of the melting pot that is America. [Can you have a microcosm of a melting-pot? Surely not! - Ed]

Lois and I are both the product of centuries of generations of English and Welsh couples, so we're really quite boring ! [You don't need a genealogist to work that one out! - Ed]

20:00 We watch some TV, an interesting documentary on the Sky Arts channel about the life and career of film-star Greta Garbo.

Garbo started her Hollywood career in the silent movies era, but she managed to make a smooth transition to the talkies, because, luckily for her, she had "the right voice for her face". She had frequently played opposite John Gilbert in the silent era, but unfortunately John had "the wrong voice for his face", so he quickly faded after about 1930.

Poor John !!!!!!!

Garbo became a big star after only her second film, "The Temptress" (1926). She introduced an entirely new kind of actress to the screen, She was totally unlike Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, the stars of the day who tended to veer towards melodrama to make up for the lack of speech. Garbo, by contrast, acted "quietly", expressing feeling with just a flick of her eye, and she didn't seek refuge in caricature gestures.

Garbo created the idea of being a goddess on one level, but she appeared vulnerable at the same time. She had a kind of smouldering intensity that was also a little distant, and weirdly, people warmed to it. The audience could see her thoughts, which was important because it allowed them to worship her as something they understood. See? Makes sense to me anyway !!!

One of her great films from the talkies era was "Queen Christina" (1933). based on the life of the famous 17th century Swedish queen.

Yes, whether she was acting in silent movies or in talkies, Garbo had that great combination of quietness and passion - isn't that the most attractive thing? [I don't know - you tell me! - Ed]

Director Alfred Hitchcock certainly thought so. His ideal leading lady was normally a quiet woman who mostly kept her cool. But what intrigued Hitchcock was the hint of uninhibited passion behind the cool facade; in his own words, “the drawing-room type, the real ladies, who become whores once they’re in the bedroom …”. Oh dear, Alfred. You wish haha !!!!

Quietness can even be a turn-on for some girl-singers. Who can forget the Crystals' famous song?

Fascinating stuff !!!!!