Last night Lois and I watched a film about the history of British Music Hall. There was people on her father's side of her family tree who were sort of famous in the 19th century, the so-called "Thompson Trio", who were famous enough to be invited to perform at the Folies Bergere in Paris.
The trio were a married couple, and their son - real name Percy Henry Thompson, stage name Percy Honri - had a long life and career, stretching through most of the 20th century. He died in 1973, at the age of 99 - my god! You can even see him in video clips on YouTube, which is nice!
flashback to the 1930's: Percy Honri on the concertina
accompanies his daughter Mary playing the accordion
This whole excitement has spurred Lois on to do more research into the Thompson branch of her family, who all came from Banbury, including William Thompson, who became the town's first police officer, in the 1830's.
Lois is never more concentrated than when she's doing research into her family history - she's 200% focussed on it, to put it mildly, and becomes totally unaware of anything else going on in the house, or in the world, for that matter - my god!
Today she's joined the Banbury Historical Society online, and has been browsing the society's online journal, "The Cake and Cock-horse". The "Cake" is a refence to Banbury Cakes, and the "Cock-Horse" is a reference to the children's rhyme Ride a Cock-Horse to Banbury Cross..."
typical Banbury cakes - yum yum!
"Ride a Cock-Horse" - the children's nursery rhyme
This course was run in Banbury, so Lois and I spent a couple of nights in a hotel there, doing a bit of her family history research at the same time.
Before we checked out of the hotel on our last morning we walked around the hotel's corridors, then slipped out into the back garden, and then onto the street in front
of the hotel, to take some photos.
King James II visited the town in September 1687 and stayed in one of the hotel's rooms: this room was actually used by local Catholics for secret meetings. It was then illegal to perform Catholic services.
The room was connected to a system of secret stairs and tunnels so that the Catholics could, if necessary, easily escape to other parts of the town if the authorities became suspicious. The King himself was a (semi-secret) Catholic, and was exiled by Parliament the following year. He was then replaced by the Protestant duo, William and Mary, in 1688. This was the so-called "English Revolution", which led to an important democratic advance, the Bill of Rights.
Lois in the garden where we drank tea and ate sandwiches in the afternoons
Me in front of
the hotel's main entrance
Me in front of the so-called
"Fathers Dyneing Room", where King James II stayed in 1687
Happy days !!!!!
11:30 It's chilly today, but at least there's a nice blue sky for our usual walk and cup of coffee, which is nice.
Is this the Mediterranean? Not really!
It's chilly, but at least there's a lovely blue sky for our walk today
We sit on the Pirie Bench - last Wednesday we accidentally left behind there my old green plastic mac, which we use to sit on, if the benches are damp, but somebody must have found it and draped it over the back of the bench, so no harm done! It's a reminder - most people you meet are honest, although I think I bought the mac about 25 years ago, and haven't used it much. On the other hand I think they're out of fashion these days.
Still, it's refreshing to find it there, nonetheless! Thank you, local residents haha!
We sit and drink our coffee, and we're "vastly" entertained by the Old Codgers Soccer Team who are practising their moves today in the netball court, as they do every Monday lunchtime.
Go Old Codgers haha!!!!
19:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Seminar. I settle down on the couch and watch the 1994 Christmas Special edition of the 1990's sitcom "The Brittas Empire", all about the Whitbury New Town Sports and Leisure Centre, and its well-meaning but unpopular manager Gordon Brittas.
Synopsis of episode: Set on New Year's Eve 2019, Laura lives in Chicago and has a twentysomething son, Linda is an archdeacon and Gavin is running for election as a Conservative MP. The old staff of the centre prepare to reunite again for their usual end-of-year celebrations.
The audience are taken back to the early weeks of the centre's existence in December 1989 and January 1990, when the staff are snowed in. As a result, they are forced to spend Christmas and New Year in the centre with limited food and heating.
Another marvellously inventive effort by the two writers, Richard Fegen and Andrew Norris. The plot idea is that the Leisure Centre staff spent a disastrous Christmas and New Year in 1990, when they were snowed in at the centre, with no power, and only minimal food supplies.
Eventually the staff raid a broken-down lorry near the centre, which had been transporting stage costumes and furniture to a nearby theatre. The driver had abandoned the lorry and gone home for Christmas. As a result the Leisure Centre staff were able to burn all the wooden furniture = chairs and tables and the like - to keep themselves warm, which was nice. And they were able to dress up in warm theatrical costumes and light all the candlesticks: the play must have had a Victorian theme, because the women are all in long dresses.
Also luckily, the centre's weepy receptionist Carole who used to keep her children in drawers and cupboards behind the reception desk, had also stashed several weeks' supply of baby food, which staff were able to convert into a number of imaginative dishes.
Scabrous Deputy Manager Colin makes good use of bags of helicopter-dropped pig food supplies - the helicopter overshot its target of a nearby pig farm - to make 8 pints of strong spirits.
The staff were thus able to survive the holidays and live to tell the tale. And ever since they've met up to celebrate New Year together.
the traditional linking of arms and the singing of
Auld Lang Syne down in the centre's boiler room
Then, in the climax to tonight's episode, time moves on nearly 30 years, and we see the staff's 2019 New Year's Eve get-together at a Scottish castle.
The surprise is that all the seemingly seedy and useless members of the leisure centre staff, have all made something of themselves over the intervening 25 years or so - several are millionaires. Scabrous Deputy Manager Colin is a laird with the Scottish castle that is used to host the reunion. Weepy receptionist Carole is an internationally acclaimed pianist, Linda is an archdeacon in the Church of England, and Manager Gordon and his emotionally unstable wife Helen are now a Lord and Lady. My god!!!
Tremendous fun !!!!
It's slightly weird that the writers chose New Year's Eve 2019 as the date of their imagined future reunion - a year which would have seemed impossibly far in the future at the time. And the number of year - 2019 - must have seemed weird too, and hence the addition of the letters "A.D." to make things clear to the 1994 audience.
As it's turned out, New Year's Eve 2019 was also the Eve of the Coronavirus Pandemic, which is also weird. My god! Did the writers know something we didn't know haha!!!!!
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session and we watch an interesting documentary about film-star Doris Day.
I used to enjoy hearing Doris Day sing "Move Over, Darling". And I don't think I realised that she was supposed to have a wholesome image, and had been called a "professional virgin", until I heard some joke on the radio in the late 1960's, to the effect that "The US has landed a man on the moon - but how long will it take to land a man on Doris Day?".
Her heyday was probably in the early 1960's but as the decade rolled on, and permissiveness gained ground, she quickly fell out of favour.
Her studio, however, made one last effort to "sex her up" for her last big movie hit, "The Glass Bottom Boat" (1966).
Poor Doris !!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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