10:00 A phone-call from my old friend "Magyar" Mike. It seems incredible but I've known Mike for almost 30 years, ever since, on a whim, I took an evening class in Hungarian at a local college. We've met on a weekly basis since then up until when the pandemic started, in order to study Hungarian.
Flashback to 1994 and my first visit to Hungary: "Magyar" Mike (right)
in happier times: we showcase our second-hand "excellent worker"
medals from the Communist era
Since the pandemic started Mike and I just exchange Hungarian vocabulary tests by email on a weekly basis, to try and keep our knowledge alive. Here's the test I sent Mike this morning.
Have a go at it yourself - don't be afraid - it IS fairly basic haha!!!
See how many you can get right - answers will be given later in this blog post.
Mike says his daughter Claire was taken by ambulance to hospital in Stoke Poges the other day, suffering from sodium deficiency - this is the second case of sodium deficiency I've heard about in the last couple of weeks - is it the new "thing", I wonder?
The worst thing about Claire's case, however, is that, after she arrived at the hospital, she was kept waiting on a stretcher for 13 hours before she was admitted. And as Mike says, if you know in advance that you're going to have to wait 13 hours, you can sort of resign yourself to it, but when you don't know that, and you're expecting to be "called" any minute, it must be a extreme type of mental torture. My god!
Later today I tell Lois about an article on the BBC talking about the problems the NHS is facing at the moment, and suggesting that they've been exacerbated by old people, who have become less fit due to the lockdowns etc.
And Lois and I say to each other - "We must stay out of hospital, if we possibly can!!!" My god !!!!!
What can we say except "YIKES !!!!!"
Here are the answers to the vocabulary test above. There, it wasn't so bad was it haha!!!!
Tomorrow our friend Fran, one of Lois's fellow sect-members, will be visiting for morning coffee, and then on Thursday morning, Ross, our former milkman, will be coming to clean the carpet in the living-room. This is all in preparation for the visit of our "new" cousin, BBC online journalist David, whom we found out that we were related to after my sister Gill took a DNA test.
Although we haven't seen Ross since the pandemic started, Ross has been cleaning our carpets for many years - and he used to do my late mother's. And before that he was our milkman. And he has a massive area of England where he's willing to travel to, to clean a carpet. Carpet-cleaning is his passion!
Ross's carpet-cleaning sphere of influence -
the so-called Ross-zone.
a typical "urban carpet" - this one
is in Aarhus, Denmark
15:00 After lunch and a nap in bed we have a cup of tea. Lois rushes into the kitchen to bake some rock cakes - these are important in keeping up our morale in these difficult times. Yum yum !!!!
Lois's latest batch of rock cakes - yum yum!
19:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her great-niece Molly's yoga class on zoom. Molly has just moved from Oxford into a flat in Leeds with her boy-friend, Sam. Molly will be working for Social Services up there, helping the homeless.
After the yoga class Lois stays by the laptop to take part in her sect's weekly Bible seminar, also on zoom.
As usual a somewhat confusing episode, with several strands of plot for me to unravel, which is nice - I enjoy a good challenge!
I settle down in the living-room to watch an old episode of the 1990's sitcom "The Brittas Empire", all about Whitbury New Town Sports and Leisure Centre, and its well-meaning but unpopular manager, Gordon Brittas.
I settle down in the living-room to watch "The Brittas Empire"
Synopsis of episode: Colin finds an unexploded World War II bomb that is liable to explode. Brittas prepares to leave for his job in Brussels, to which Helen immediately warms upon seeing the luxurious lifestyle they will have. Carol, Julie, and Linda are given chances for happiness; and Laura announces her pregnancy and her plans to move to America with her husband, meaning that Gavin, and consequently Tim, are to ascend to the vacant management positions. Just as a happy ending is in sight for all of the centre's staff, Brittas gets cold feet.
The most important underlying theme, I would say, is manager Gordon Brittas' imminent departure from his managerial job at the leisure centre to take up the prestigious post of Commissioner for Leisure at the European Commission in Brussels.
An important subsidiary theme, however, is that of scabrous and pock-marked deputy manager Colin's discovery of a 100 lb unexploded World War II German bomb behind a wall at the centre. He manages to get it out of the building, despite many near-misses, where either Colin drops it on the floor or children start playing with it. He finally stashes the bomb in a box containing Gordon's croquet set.
the moment Colin first discovers the 100 lb unexploded German bomb
he takes it downstairs in a crowded lift, but a child starts
hammering it with its little tiny hammer
Colin sees manager Gordon's croquet set box, and decides
on the box as a temporary place to stash the bomb, while he alerts senior management
Before Colin can report his find of the bomb to senior management, however, he is temporarily knocked unconscious by a flying cricket ball, and after that he has forgotten everything about the bomb.
Before Colin can report his find of the unexploded 100 lb bomb, however,
he is accidentally knocked unconscious by a flying cricket ball, and has to be
"stretchered out". When he comes to, he has forgotten all about the bomb.
The bomb itself, still in the croquet set box, finally gets loaded onto the furniture van that is collecting Gordon's belongings to the ferry port for transportation to Brussels. Well, at least it's out of the leisure centre - that's a big relief, to put it mildly!
the bomb, still in Gordon's croquet set box, gets loaded on a removal van,
taking Gordon's belongings to the ferry port for transportation to Brussels
When, at the last minute, Gordon gets cold feet about the move to Brussels, it's typically deputy manager Laura who settles his nerves and gives him renewed motivation to make the move.
"You have to go. Europe needs people like you. They have a dream there - there are 170 million people over there, all marching towards a new dawn. Go to Brussels, Mr Brittas, it's made for people like you!"
Laura settles Gordon's nerves and motivates him to go ahead with the move.
"Go to Brussels, Mr Brittas! It's made for people like you!!!"
My personal favourite sub-theme is that of Carole, the leisure centre's weepy receptionist. Social services have received a tip-off that Carole keeps her 3 children in drawers and cupboards behind her reception desk, and in tonight's episode she gets a visit from one of the County Social Services Department's inspectors.
Weepy receptionist Carole gets a visit from a Social Services inspector,
after a tip-off that she keeps her 3 children in drawers and cupboards
behind her desk.
In an astonishing twist to the story, however, the inspector turns out to be one of the Von Trapp children from "The Sound of Music", who has 4 children of his own. His heart melts when he hears Carole singing "Edelweiss" to one of her children in her desk drawer, and he offers her the job of governess and music teacher to his own children, in addition to her own three little ones.
The inspector turns out to be one of the Von Trapp children from
"The Sound of Music" and all ends happily
I admit it all sounds pretty unlikely, but strange things like that can happen in real life, I know that from experience!
All in all, a heart-warming, feel-good ending to the episode.
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session and we watch a documentary about the life and career of film star Jimmy Stewart.
The fault may lie with Stewart himself, who was notoriously modest and self-effacing. Somebody said that "people didn't get to know Jimmy, he got to know you".
Lois and I think that one of the great things about Jimmy was his voice. And somebody tonight makes the point that in non-English-speaking countries his voice was, for 35 years, normally dubbed, which meant that audiences around the world were unaware of this great quality of his.
Oh dear! Poor rest-of-the-world !!!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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