Danskcolin: Saturday December 18th 2021

09:00 We have our weekly talk on zoom with our daughter Sarah, who has lived there now for 6 years, together with Francis and their 8-year-old twins Lily and Jessie.

The twins look pretty tired - it's been an exciting week for them, and they're feeling the after-effects now, but they join in the zoom call from time to time and show us some of their magic tricks, which is nice.

Sarah says that there's an air of foreboding in Perth, Australia, at the moment. On February 5th, the State Premier, Mark McGowan, is believed to be finally going to give into external pressure and open up the state's borders to visitors from the other states. Yikes !!!! The locals are hoping he'll change his mind, and maybe the new omicron variant will give him an excuse to do so. But we'll see.

For the moment, however, McGowan has also given the go-ahead, from January 10th, for children aged 5 to 11 years to get their first vaccination and for a second one to be given 8 weeks later. But the State's schoolchildren, who are now on their long "summer" holiday, will be returning to school at the beginning of February, just when the borders will be opened up - is this a recipe for disaster, wonders Sarah.

Meanwhile Francis is getting his booster jab on January 20th, but Sarah will have to wait till March for hers.

Sarah will be able to take a couple of weeks' break from her accountancy job starting next Thursday (23rd December), which will be nice, letting her spend more time with the family.

The firm she works for held its pre-Christmas party on the Friday before last at a pub, the Royal on the Waterfront, in East Perth, which was a nice evening, she said, and one that was made even better by a work colleague who drove her there and drove her home afterwards - that's the best kind of work colleague, that's for sure!

The Royal on the Waterfront, the East Perth pub

where Sarah's firm held its pre-Christmas party

Francis has won another competition today at his golf club. And it's a prize worth having at this time of year. My god!

10:15 Time to end the zoom call - sob sob!

As always, Lois and I get the feeling after the call that Sarah and the girls have so much to tell us that they've been doing, while we have only got really boring things to talk about in return. But Sarah often says that it's just such a pleasure to spend an hour or so a week chatting to us and hearing our voices.

We think she really misses us, as much as we miss her and her family. After all we used to look after the twins 2 days every week, until they moved to Australia 6 years ago this month, and it was a real wrench to say goodbye to them.

the twins watch TV. Peppa Pig, in our house for the last time

time for them to leave - sob, sob!

flashback to November 29th 2015 - the day we said

goodbye to Sarah and family, when they left Cheltenham to fly out to Australia

But what sweeter thing could two "aged parents" aspire to hear from their grown-up children, that they "miss us"? It's so heart-warming isn't it - my god!

10:30 We start swabbing down next week's groceries which Budgens, the convenience store in the village, has just delivered.

Lois is so thoughtful. She told the Budgens manager to give all the store's assistants and volunteers a Christmas gift of wine or chocolates from us, and to put it on our bill. Lois is so warm-hearted. She makes a conscious effort to think of doing such things, and then she doesn't forget to follow through - she goes ahead and does it. What a woman!!!!

After that, we go for a walk on the local football field, and see a bit of the weekly junior soccer activity, which is nice.

Mist and fog cover the tops of the hills, and it's chilly,

but we go for a walk on the local football field and watch a bit of

the weekly junior soccer activities

I reserve a space on the so-called Pirie Bench, while Lois orders two coffees and a treacle tart from Monika, the Polish waitress at the Whiskers Coffee Stand. The treacle tart is a new item on the menu, and we don't forget to give our review of it before we leave, which she really appreciates - the treacle tart was one of her own ideas, and we give it 5 stars, without hesitation. It's yummy!!!!

I reserve two spaces on the so-called "Pirie Bench"

while Lois orders 2 coffees and a treacle tart from Monika

treacle tart - this is going to be a firm favourite,

as we'll make clear in our forthcoming review on Tripadvisor,

also on the new Tartadvisor website haha!

20:00 We watch some TV, an interesting travelogue-cum-documentary on Charles Dickens, presented by TV personality Gyles Brandreth.

A pleasant, undemanding 90 minutes viewing, as with all Gyles's programmes, and you certainly don't need a degree in English Literature to appreciate it, that's for sure.

Dickens certainly exposed the plight of the poor in Victorian England, but Lois points out that it's hard to feel a lot of admiration for the guy's campaigning side when he treated his wife Catherine so badly.

After Catherine had borne him 10 children, Charles became bored with her. He separated himself from her, with a partition through the middle of their bedroom. He claimed to all and sundry that she was mad, and finally tried to have her locked up.

Charles Dickens' wife, Catherine, mother of his 10 children

Why the separation? Well, as we have found out, although only in the last 20 or 30 years Lois thinks, the 45-year-old Charles had begun an affair with 18-year-old actress Nelly Ternan.

the 18-year-old actress Nelly Ternan, whom the 45-year-old

Dickens started an affair with

Many scholars think that the character of Estella, Miss Haversham's adopted daughter in "Great Expectations" was probably based on Nelly, and that Dickens was thinking of his love for Nelly when he described Pip's obsessive love for Estella:

"When I loved Estella as a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all, I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be."

Pip and Estella in "Great Expectations"

For all Dickens' sympathy for the poor, his treatment of his wife Catherine seems totally shocking, however. Lois reminds me of the song "Easy to be Hard", that we heard sung by Annabel Leventon when we saw the musical "Hair" at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London on our second date, in 1969.

On a related issue, was it wise for a couple like Lois and me to expose themselves to the sight of full-frontal public nudity on stage, on only their second date? I think we should be told, and quickly. Although it's too late to do anything about it now - damn! We weren't in the front row, we were a few rows back, which helped - my god !!!!