06:00 I wake up - it should be an easy day for me today, which is nice. The first thing to do is to get my physiotherapy exercises out of the way - so I decide to go and do them immediately, at 6:15 am, and then get back into bed - hurrah! Now the rest of the day should be a breeze!
the bed I creep out of at 6:15 am, as it appears much later in the day
10:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's 2 meetings on zoom, which gives me a chance to do some routine maintenance work, e.g. get the recycling boxes in order for Wednesday's kerbside collection, and replace a burnt out light bulb.
Finally, I hang up on the wall of the living-room our collection of Christmas cards - we've got 5 so far, but that's going to be just the start, I'm sure of that! It's only December 12th but if we prove to get only 5 in total this year , I'll know that we've really become social pariahs, that's for sure!
I have to decide what order to display the five cards in, and I think I've probably got the balance about right. Lois doesn't suggest any changes, I notice, so I've probably judged it near enough perfect, I'm guessing
Later, in the afternoon, as the daylight grows dim, I take a picture of my Christmas card display, high up on the picture rail, while Lois watches another Christmas TV movie, this one centred on Dolly Parton's theme park, "Dollyland". And I can only repeat - I expect this collection of cards to grow no less than exponentially (phrase copyright the Government Health Secretary) by the end of December.
our five Christmas cards are already strung up like flags and bunting
on the picture rail, as Lois starts watching another
Christmas TV movie on Channel 5, "Christmas in Dollywood"
"Christmas in Dollywood" - yet another
Christmas TV movie starring an event planner - what madness !!!!!
At "Dollyland", Rachel, the newly-hired event planner who's the main female character in the movie, is eager to meet Dolly Parton for the first time when she starts her job. However Rachel is quickly told that Dolly is a busy woman travelling here, there and everywhere, and that staff never know quite when or where she's liable to turn up! What madness !!!
Lois and I are betting, however, that Dolly will show up either at, or just before, the climax of the movie - but we'll see. We could be quite wrong!
16:00 While Lois is busy with the movie, I download another app onto my phone.
Aren't apps great? Today I'm downloading the "NHS app", which I'm hoping will cure me if I catch anything from anybody, but we'll have to see. I haven't read the documentation fully yet.
New apps are coming out thick and fast nowadays. Only the other day I read about an app that tells you information about your upcoming flight, which sounds absolutely great, and long overdue, if I may say so! (Source: Onion News)
Fantastic stuff ! It's only early days but this app's going to turn out to be a real game-changer, I have no doubts about that!
17:00 The "Christmas in Dollyland" movie ends happily, which is a bit of a relief, to put it mildly. Rachel puts up a nice giant Christmas tree at the theme park, and Dolly stops by to thank her personally, which is a nice touch.
19:30 After dinner is cleared away we play a game of scrabble to pass the time till our phone call with our daughter Alison, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children Josie (15), Rosalind (13) and Isaac (11).
Lois and I are quite well-matched at scrabble, so we never know who's going to win. I take this photo at the point we abandon the game, to give time for our usual post-scrabble fight.
an artist's impression of what the board might look like
if the photographer were standing on his head and looking in a double mirror.
(something I try to avoid doing at my age haha!)
[I don't think that fully explains it! - Ed]
During the game Lois puts down "noons" as a word - is that a valid word? Well, I have to concede it, because I google it and it
is used apparently - what a crazy language we speak !!!!
The final score is very close, as always.
the final score when the game is abandoned
20:30 Our phone call with Alison: Ed has just had his COVID booster jab, and Ali is having hers on Tuesday. The two older children will have to wait a month or so for their second jab.
21:00 We finish the evening off with a 1984 episode of the 1980's sitcom "Chance in a Million". The plot is totally chaotic, as always.
And as usual Lois and I don't fully understand the plot till after the programme's finished, and we've had a chance to talk it over.
Nevertheless one surprise tonight is that former 1960's model Mandy Rice-Davies, who played such a big part in discrediting Harold Macmillan's Conservative Government through her part in the Profumo sex scandal of 1963, has an unheralded small part in the episode - we don't recognise her at all, and don't realise it's her until the final credits roll.
The series's starring couple, Tom (Simon Callow) and shy but sexually forward librarian Alison (Brenda Blethyn), are looking for a flat to rent. When the landlady shows them around her vacant flat, she says that it's in very good condition - it's apparently only been being used one night a week, by Alison's friend Roger to have a tryst with his girlfriend Celia, she explains.
Tom and Alison are a bit taken aback by the flat - the ceiling over the bed has a huge oval mirror placed over it...
when the landlady shows Tom and Alison the bed, they're
a bit alarmed to see a big mirror on the ceiling directly above
...and shortly afterwards they discover that whenever you sit on the sofa, the lights dim to soft colours, and dreamy music begins playing. What a crazy flat!
when Tom and Alison try sitting down on the sofa,
the lights dim to soft colours and dreamy music can be heard on the speakers
- what madness !!!!!
It's the flat that Alison's friend Roger has been using for his once-a-week trysts with his girlfriend Celia, and later we meet Celia, when she tells Tom and Alison that she's decided to keep renting the flat long-term, as Roger has decided to leave his "shouty" partner Susan.
the moment Roger's girlfriend Celia arrives,
played by Mandy Rice-Davies, to say that she and her boyfriend Roger have
decided to keep renting the flat after all
Lois and I don't recognise Mandy at all - she's obviously 20 years older than when she was in all the papers during the Profumo sex scandal of the early 1960's.
flashback to the 1960's and the Profumo sex scandal: Mandy Rice-Davies (left)
with Christine Keeler
It's not until the final credits roll that we see it was Mandy. I'm the sort of annoying person who actually reads the credits, sometimes out loud - credit reading is normally held to be optional, and not that desirable, but that's just me, isn't it, after all - optional and not really desirable haha!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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