Danskcolin: Saturday January 1st 2022

09:00 Our weekly zoom call with our daughter Sarah, who lives in Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 8-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.

She and Francis were planning to work on the family's boat this weekend, but their club, Nedlands, has installed a new launching ramp, which means that their boat and a lot of other members' boats can't easily be launched from it - the club are working on a solution, Sarah says, but it's all very frustrating.

flashback to October: the twins down at Nedlands Yacht Club

on the Swan River

Sarah says they've had 16 cases of COVID in Western Australia detected recently - a backpacker from Queensland slipped into the state just before the "hard border" was announced, and he managed to infect 15 other people. All of them have been rounded up and quarantined, however - they take a tough line in WA, that's for sure!

10:00 Later, Francis puts this charming picture of himself with the twins on social media.

Our other daughter, Alison, is staying down on the coast at Hill Head, for a couple of days, with their friends the Andersens. She put some charming beach pictures of the children up on social media.

our daughter Alison, with Ed and their 3 children, travelled down

to the coast yesterday to spend a couple of days with their friends the Andersens

Josie, with (in the background) Isaac (11) and the

two Andersen boys Thomas and Olly

Josie (15)

Josie with Isaac

Rosalind (13)

11:00 Sadly, out of the blue, we get a very jarring phone-call, to put it mildly, from my old friend "Magyar" Mike, who's been learning Hungarian with me for nearly 29 years - my god!

Mike and his wife, "Magyar" Mary, heard yesterday that their daughter Clare, who must be only in her 50's, had just died. Apparently Clare had been suffering from breast cancer for about 10 years, but she had decided that she wanted to keep the illness a secret from her parents. As a result it was a huge shock to Mike and Mary when they got the news yesterday.

Nobody wants to outlive their children, that's for sure. Mike and Mary had been told that Clare was seriously ill, and they travelled over to Hertfordshire a few days ago to spend some time with her. But they were completely unaware of the true cause of her illness.

Clare was Mike and Mary's only child. She leaves behind a husband, Charles, and two sons, Stephen and Adam. Mike has sent me a picture of the two grandsons, taken last Sunday afternoon, I'm guessing this was during Mike and Mary's flying visit.

Clare's sons, Adam (left) and Stephen

Mike's call and sad news takes Lois and me by surprise, to put it mildly. We try to think of some words of comfort, but it isn't easy, especially when taken unawares, on the spur of the moment. We say that at least Clare died knowing our two sons were both firmly established in their careers, both professionals: Stephen a lawyer and Adam a veterinarian, even though Clare hadn't been able to see either of them marry, which is sad.

flashback to 2014: (left to right) "Magyar" Mike, grandson Stephen now

a lawyer, and Mike's wife "Magyar" Mary, in the Czech Republic

11:30 A "happy new year" text from my sister Gill, who lives in Cambridge with her handicapped husband Peter and their handicapped daughter Lucy. Gill, who's suffering currently from a frozen shoulder, says that their newly-installed live-in carer proved to be a disappointment. However a replacement carer is expected from Tuesday, so fingers crossed!

12:00 We drive over to our friends Mari-Ann and Alf's house with a belated Christmas present, a calendar of pictures painted by Lois's second cousin, artist Peter Barker.

flashback to 2016: Lois with her second cousin, artist Peter Barker,

during our visit to his gallery near Uppingham

13:00 Recently Lois and I travelled 100 miles down to Hampshire to spend a few days over Christmas with our daughter Alison, her husband Ed and their 3 children, also with Ed's parents.

flashback to Christmas Day 2021 - we eat Christmas dinner

with Ali and Ed, their 3 children, and Ed's parents

Right up to the last moment we didn't know whether the Government would impose new curbs on socialising in England, and so we weren't 100% sure that this visit to Ali and Ed's would go ahead. As insurance we ordered a Christmas dinner for two from Cook Shop, and we stuffed it all into the freezer.

Now it's time to cash in on our prudence, get the good stuff out of the freezer and make use of it! And what can I say except "yum yum!" ?

for this meal, timing is of the essence...

the starter, brie and cranberry soufflé....

...and the turkey-based main course, with mince pies to follow as dessert

Who's to say we can't have two Christmas dinners this year haha!

We actually ordered this Cookshop dinner-for-two ready-meal way back in October. How's that for foresight haha (again) !!!!

Hurrah!

20:00 We watch some TV, the third in a special Christmas series of one of our favourite TV quizzes, Only Connect, which tests lateral thinking.

Presenter Victoria Coren-Mitchell introduces a special "cold weather"

edition of one of our favourite TV quizzes, Only Connect

Lois and I have definitely been getting the feeling, this week, that our brains aren't as quick and smart as they used to be. On the other hand, the teams taking part in this special Christmas series are probably some of the better teams that have taken part in the show over the years, so maybe that explains our failure to get many answers that the teams don't get - oh dear!

Tonight we have to wait till near the end of the show to get an answer the teams miss, in the second of the "connecting walls".

This is the solution:

The top row elements (dark blue) are things named after famous battles. The second row elements (green) are all the names of young animals with a different first letter (joey, kitten, puppy, calf). The third row elements are items of clothing to keep you warm in cold weather.

The fourth row (light blue) is the connection that Lois and I have identified, but which the team can't work out: in fact they're all words that can be followed by "box": "voice box", "glove box", "hat box" and "boom box".

See? Simples!!!