A strange morning, doing what used to be considered "normal things". We drive out to Bishops Cleeve, and visit Macdonald's Shoe Repairers in Tarling's Yard. Lois has a pair of shoes to be repaired, and also a couple of watches she needs new batteries fitted inside. And I've got a watch that needs a new strap.
The entrance to Tarling's Yard - Macdonalds Shoe Repairers
is the first shop on the left - the one with the blue sign by the door
Just going into a shop is a fair bit of excitement in itself - it's a fairly rare event for us, but this is made even weirder, because we are actually parked in a supermarket car-park for the first time for about 18 months - yikes, scary !!!!!
Lois in her trademark pink coat waits beside our car
- the mighty Tesco Supermarket can be seen in the background
While "Old Macdonald" is busy putting the batteries in Lois's watches, we drive over to Southam and enter our second shop of the morning: Cleeve Picture Framing. Lois's great-niece and yoga-teacher Molly has done a print of one of her abstract paintings for Lois, and I've agreed to have it framed as my Christmas present to her. We took the print into the shop a couple of weeks ago, and the picture is now ready to collect, which is nice.
the print of Molly's picture, which we took in to be framed
a couple of weeks ago (this way up haha!)
flashback to November 12th - we take the print to Cleeve Picture
Framing, the building behind Lois to the right.
Framing, the building behind Lois to the right.
Then after that - and this is the really exciting part! - we drive back to Bishops Cleeve, park in the Tesco Supermarket Car-park again, and go into Macdonalds Shoe Repairers a second time, just to pick up the two watches Lois brought in, now with their shiny new batteries!!!! And I take the opportunity for an impulse buy: a tin of black shoe polish and some new black shoelaces - the thick kind, not the "poncy" thin sort haha !!!!
What an exciting morning - my god !!!! It almost feels like the pandemic is over, although we know it isn't really - damn!!!!
three possible routes home to Prestbury from Tarling's Yard, Bishops Cleeve
- we choose the blue one (the quickest): call us "madcap" petrol-heads if you like!!!
14:00 After such an exciting morning, we have an indulgent afternoon, napping in bed with the electric blanket turned up to "medium" and even taking a shower. And we don't come downstairs till 4:30 pm.
It's tropic madness !!!!!!
20:00 We watch some TV, a programme in the "Comedy Legends" series on the Sky Arts Channel. This edition is all about Frankie Howerd.
Frankie Howerd - he was a one-off, that's for sure. His original ambition was to be a straight actor, but he got diverted into being a comedian. He realised he needed a gimmick and so he developed his trademark style of displaying complete chaos, supposedly "unintentional" double-entendres and innuendos - appearing not to know what to say next, arguing with the audience, telling them off for laughing at something they had decided had a double meaning etc. But his patter was all apparently scripted, right down to the last "uh" and "um".
He wasn't an intellectual but was loved by intellectuals - getting a regular spot on David Frost's satirical late-night programme "That Was The Week That Was" in the 1960's, and later getting a rapturous reception at the Oxford Union. What a strange guy!
Here we see him engaged in a typical argument with his audience:
For some reason he was often cast, usually as a slave, in Roman epics, musicals and sitcoms, as in the BBC's "Up Pompeii":
Tremendous fun !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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