Today has all been about preparations for June's funeral. June was a member of Lois's sect who was in her 80's, and Lois has been asked to cooperate with 2 other members: Mari-Ann and Hilary, to provide food for the eats after the burial.
The problem is that Hilary has a stinking bad cold, but she is still incredibly eager to help by providing a cake and other things, while Lois and Mari-Ann want her to stay out of it. Who wants to catch a bad cold in the run-up to Christmas? It's madness !!!!! Think of everybody else, Hilary haha!!!
Lois has baked a cake, and assembled other goodies, including mini-pork pies and muffins.
Lois showcases the cake she's baked for the after-funeral get-together,
together with mini-pork pies and muffins she's bought
I think they've finally persuaded Hilary to stay out of it, but we'll see. Lois wants me and her to drive over to June's house tomorrow morning, when it'll be empty, lay out all the goodies she's got ready and then skedaddle before anybody else arrives. It's only a small house, and it could become an incredible germ factory if there's a bunch of people in it, so we want out !!!!
14:00 We open yesterday's post after its compulsory 24-hour period in quarantine. My old school, Bristol Grammar School, has sent me a letter and colourful booklet advertising that they've started thinking already about the school's 500th anniversary, which isn't till 2032. What madness !!!!
Ah - schooldays! The happiest days of our lives!
the school as I remember it - in the early 1960's
[I haven't heard that you spent too much time on the rugby field! - Ed]
It's incredible to think of it now, but the school was actually founded back in 1532 by a so-called "Royal Charter", issued by Henry VIII, no less, at a time when there were hardly any schools in the country at all.
I get regular news about the school from the Old Bristolian Society, which is nice. But the school has changed so much since I left in 1964 that I don't really identify with it any more.
The biggest change is that it's long since gone co-ed. I've got nothing against having girls in the school, it's just that I see the school now and it's not the school I remember any more - it almost looks as if it might be fun to be there now, perish the thought My god!
Bristol Grammar School then and now
That girl in the second picture isn't even wearing a tie - what madness!
{Stop saying that! - Ed]
[And I meant to add, "You stuffy old bugger!" - Ed]
Since 1932, I guess, the school song has contained these words:
I guess that in the next 11 years they'll have to find somebody to change the words "four hundred" to "five hundred, in Latin as well as in English - which shouldn't be too difficult, hopefully. But just in case of any hiccups here, it's a good thing they've started the preparations so early perhaps.
I've still got my old school tie, and surprisingly it still fits me, which is a big tribute to my efforts not to put weight on around my throat, that's for sure! I've always tried to keep my neck nice'n'trim, and now it's clear that all that hard work has paid off, which is nice.
this is me earlier today, "rocking" my old school tie
[Isn't that your 1957 UCS tie, not your 1960 BGS one? - Ed]
[Well, the principle's the same! - Colin]
flashback to 1960: me aged 14, wearing my school uniform and carrying my little sister Gill (2)
1960 again: me, aged 14, in my school uniform again, in the back garden of our house in Bristol, with my sister Gill (2)21:00 We go to bed on an interesting documentary about the musical Evita, apparently first shown a couple of years ago.
As the blurb in the Radio Times says (above) this programme is torn between tracing the story of Eva Peron's rise from poverty to the Presidential Palace and the story of the musical. Lois and I would have liked a bit more of the history and a bit less musical, but then that's just us.
Apparently in Argentina at the time you were either a socialist or a Peronist. And who exactly were the Peronists - were they fascists, or what? After all, Argentina is "a far away country of which we know nothing", at least in the UK [phrase copyright: Neville Chamberlain].
We in the UK were suddenly forced to get to know about Argentina in 1982, when their army suddenly appeared in the Falkland Islands, apparently to divert attention from Argentina's other problems. What madness!
This was also the summer I started working in the US for a government agency there, and I remember one lunchtime entertaining [?? - Ed] some American work-colleagues by singing my parody version of the show's big song.
It started like this:
One thing Lois and I are particularly interested to find out from tonight's documentary, is - were there any other nice songs in the show apart from the well-known "big one" that singer Julie Covington took to no.1 in the UK charts even before the musical itself had been written.
Well, the programme doesn't really tell us, but I see from Wikipedia that there was one song, "Another Suitcase in Another Hall", that I vaguely remember hearing. However, it seems that, overall, apart from the big song, Evita was otherwise a bit light on really memorable songs, like most musicals in recent decades.
Elaine Page got the original part of Eva in London's West End - she stood out from the other auditionees by singing Paul McCartney's "Yesterday", whereas all the other women sang "Don't Cry For Me..". And she was exactly the right height - 5'2", just like Eva herself (1.57m).
Lois and I knew that popstar David Essex was also in the show, singing a rather sardonic version of the "big one" - Oh what a circus, oh what a show...
What Lois and I didn't know was how that fitted into the story of the musical. And we learn tonight that David Essex was in the story in the role of revolutionary guerrilla Che Guevara.
Guerilla Che Guevara
And who knew that Che was originally an Argentinian? We both assumed he was a Cuban, although we're not sure exactly why. But who knew that? [I expect everybody in the world knew that apart from you two noggins! - Ed]
Apparently Evita's writers, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber, depict Eva and Che as meeting up in the story, to illustrate some political point or other. However Eva and Che never actually met in real life, we hear tonight.
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
about his childhood, and the awakening of his interest in Eva Peron
the show's writers, Tim Rice (left) and Andrew Lloyd-Webber in the late 1970's
Maggie Thatcher certainly enjoyed the musical. In a letter to her speech-writer after seeing the show, just before she became Prime Minister, she wrote,
"My dear Ronnie, it was a strangely wondrous evening yesterday. leaving much to think about. I still find myself rather disturbed by it.
"But if they can do this without any ideals, then if we apply the same perfection and creativeness to our message, we should provide quite good historical material for an opera called 'Margaret' in 30 years' time."
What on earth was in Maggie's mind when she wrote that letter? Did she really think she'd be the star of an opera plot???? What madness !!!!!
Henpecked husband and hotelier Basil Fawlty's favourite film was "How To Murder Your Wife", which he saw 6 times.
And Donald Trump saw Evita 6 times. And who can say that it didn't influence him? After all his favourite movie was "Citizen Kane", which he saw multiple times - you know, the film which depicts a candidate who alleged vote-rigging after losing an election.
Just a coincidence?
Steve, my American brother-in-law, defines "coincidence" as quote Coincidence - the thing which most people misconstrue as God talking to them, or other people sending thought messages, or that they must be feeling guilty about something, or shit happens unquote.
I rest my case haha!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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