Danskcolin: Sunday October 3rd 2021

Today is the third day of my personal roller-coaster.

my personal rollercoaster - yikes, scary !!!!

Day 1: on Friday I gave my triumphant presentation to Lynda's local U3A Middle English group on zoom: the talk about "How the Vikings Changed Our Language", which proved to be a sensation - so many comments and questions were excitedly raised by my audience that my 40-minute talk took 100 minutes to give, and at the end of it, both speaker (me) and the audience (them) were clearly emotionally drained and physically exhausted - my god!!!

the reception that my presentation received from the audience

[artist's impression only - library pictures]

the same audience photographed 10 minutes later

[library pictures]

Day 2: Saturday (yesterday) and I was now feeling the effects of yesterday's overstimulation and a resultant sleepless night. I was just begging Lois to distract me with some kind of special treat - an ice-cream perhaps - and to settle me down by telling me a nice little story, one that'll get me sucking my thumb again!

Day 3: Sunday (today), and I suddenly realise I've got masses of spare time now, and I don't have to keep thinking of tweaks to my presentation, which is now complete history. What can I do with myself?

I decide to put the triumph of my presentation totally behind me now and symbolically bury it - I find the multiple versions of my script and tear them up and sling them into the paper waste, apart from the pages which have printing only one side, which I keep for use as scrap paper for note-taking. Very therapeutic, and I soon start to feel better haha!!!

Printwaste - subcontractors for paper waste collection: luckily I still have a soft copy version haha!

10:45 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in the first of her sect's two worship services today on zoom. It's entirely on line today - there's no physical meeting at Ashchurch Village Hall, because another church has booked the first Sunday in October every year for their harvest festival - what madness!!!!

flashback to August - Lois showcases the village hall where

her sect holds its Sunday services all year round

except for the first Sunday on October - what madness !!!!

14:30 Lois's second service is over and we go to bed for a bit. I try and get some more drops into her left ear: she has to lie on her side for 20 minutes afterwards, to make sure it all goes in. Her ear clinic appointment is only about 2 weeks away. I don't need my instructions this time - it's not exactly rocket science is it!

an illustration from my "instructions", but this afternoon I find I can

do it from memory now: it's not exactly rocket science is it !!!!

16:00 We get out of bed and have a cup of tea and a currant bun on the couch. I look at the Danish news media, which are creating a "shitstorm" following the latest "outrage" by America's squirrel community.

The Danes are particularly sensitive about threats from squirrels because they seem to have lots of squirrels of different colours: red, black and grey - so it's always a potential flashpoint waiting to happen. [I think you'll find that flashpoints don't "happen"! - Ed] Oh dear!

And now, according to Danish news website Ekstrabladet.com, a squirrel has been found to have stashed away 160 kilos (42 gallons) of walnuts under the bonnet of a Chevrolet Avalanche owned by North Dakota resident, Bill Fischer.

I'm not like normal people - I have the memory of an elephant, and I remember that I was a bit apprehensive when I read that the US had renewed its contract with spotted ground squirrels through 2015 (source Onion News).

WASHINGTON—The Department of the Interior announced this week that ongoing negotiations with the nation's population of spotted ground squirrels have been resolved and that the rodents are now contracted to continue activities on U.S. soil through Dec. 31, 2015.

"We're happy to have finally reached an agreement with this vital American species, and we thank all the ground squirrels who have been carrying on in good faith for the past 18 months while we worked this out," a jubilant but visibly exhausted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. "Their continued participation in our forests, meadows, and prairies is an integral part of our natural world, and I think our generous offer reflects that fact."

A lot of people celebrated the deal, when it was finally struck, but to me it smacked too much of appeasement. Give a squirrel an inch and he'll take a yard.

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

20:30 We have a phone-call with Alison, our elder daughter, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children Josie (15), Rosalind (13) and Isaac (11).

The petrol shortage crisis, which Lois says has eased in most of the country, is still as crazy as ever in the South-East, Ali says. Ed works from home most days, but Ali has to drive to Tilford every day to do her part-time teaching assistant job. She also has to take the children to various out-of-school activities most days.

Her car was very low on petrol this week, but Ed took time out to ring round local garages, find one that had petrol, and then take the car and queue up, so she could have a full tank for this coming week, which is a relief.

The builders are still busy renovating the crumbling Victorian mansion that the family bought earlier this year - progress is being made, but it's slow, Ali says. At least now they've got hot water in all the bathrooms and kitchen, which is nice. Lois and I may go and stay there for a few days, some time later in the month.

flashback to August: our last visit to Ali and Ed's house

20:00 We wind down by seeing a bit of TV, the last programme in the "Gone Fishing" series, presented by ageing comedians Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.

Tonight the pair are here in Gloucestershire, fishing for zander in the River Severn, which is nice. And it's nice also to see them being joined by local boy Charlie Cooper, who starred with his sister Daisy May Cooper, in the Gloucestershire-based rural sitcom, "This Country".

Charlie Cooper (left) in the role of Lee "Kurtan" Mucklowe, with his sister

Daisy May Cooper playing Lee's cousin Kerry Mucklowe.

Who can forget Charlie's homespun advice on dating his current squeeze in the sitcom? And now we know he's a fishing fanatic, it all starts to make a kind of weird sense!

"When we first started datin’, I was textin’ her all the time. But that’s because I wanted to reel her in. Now the fish is in the net, I aint gonna keep throwin’ worms in it, that’s a waste of worms. Y’know, correct me if I’m wrong, but 4 texts a day is complete madness. No-one can keep up with that!

And it's nice tonight on this Mortimer and Whitehouse fishing series, to hear Charlie open up about the joys of fishing.