Oh dear - I waste almost two thirds of my Sunday and achieve nothing. Lois, at least, takes part in her sect's 2 meetings on zoom, but all I've got to show for my time till 2 pm is that I did my the 30 minutes of exercise (the so-called "List A"), the ones that Connor, my NHS physio, has scheduled for me today.
some typical NHS physiotherapists (warning: none of these are Connor)
I'm back in bed at 1 pm having a nap while Lois takes part in her sect's second service, and then I wake up and suddenly realise we haven't used the car for 7 days. My god, this weird pandemic life! So I jump out of bed and we just drive the car to the late Joyce Arnold's Fruit & Veg shop at Bishops Cleeve and then straight back home again, simply to give the car some perfunctory use.
What madness !!!!!
we take the blue route on the outward leg of the journey
and the grey one coming back - call me a thrill-seeker if you like haha!
It's a good route because you can get up to 50 mph on some of the stretches without breaking the law, which is a requirement as far as I'm concerned. Call me a stick-in-the-mud if you like haha!
I choose the grey route coming back to give Lois some of the variety of experience I don't give her in other ways haha! [That's enough ha-ha's! - Ed]
15:00 When we get home we settle down on the couch with a cup of Teapig Extra-Strong Earl Grey Tea and a slice of Christmas cake.
Yesterday we saw a documentary on the life and career of the actor and film-star Richard Harris. They mentioned Harris's marriages in the programme, including his first one to Welsh socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams, and I remember telling Lois that Harris appears in my mother's family tree because of this marriage.
I sensed however that Lois was dubious, and that, without saying it, she was challenging me to give her proof of the connection.
a still from yesterday's documentary about the life and career
of film star Richard Harris
And now this afternoon I suddenly decide that I must find the proof of this link, while the question is still fresh in my mind!
And so, while Lois watches the end of a Jane Eyre adaption on the Drama TV channel, I get out my 2 family history box-files and try searching for a mention of Richard Harris. The papers are all in a mess, unfortunately. I haven't really done any substantial family history research for 15 years or so.
In the end I find the bit of paper I'm looking for. It's only a connection by marriage, but it's interesting to me, anyway. This bit of my mother's family tree has 2 world-famous actors in it, not only Richard Harris, but also Rex Harrison, and also a peer of the realm, William Rees-Williams, who became Lord Ogmore. Who would have thought it?
And, just for completeness, here's another picture of "Welsh socialite" Elizabeth, this time with Rex Harrison, her second husband - by contrast Rex had "been through" (as Lois says) an even bigger total of wives: Elizabeth was his fifth - my god!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!
16:00 I look at my smartphone. The former Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, ousted from office by an election in 2019, is back in the Danish media again.
After his election defeat, Løkke subsequently quit his former party, the centre-right "Venstre", and I see he's still pressing ahead with his own "new party", the so-called "Moderates", with its shiny new website. He's managed to get a few politicians to join him, but the Danish press is complaining that they've never heard of any of these so-called "big names" - what madness !!!!
Poor Løkke !!!!!
Løkke seems to be well and truly out in the political wilderness these days. How different, and how less promising is his position today compared to his position during the 2015 Danish election campaign, on the back of which he became Prime Minister.
During that campaign 6 years ago, Lois and I, and our daughter Alison, all shook Løkke's hand one lunchtime in the middle of Copenhagen, at the start of Alison and her family's 6 year residence in the city.
flashback to Denmark's general election campaign in June 2015 - Lois (left)
turns her head as Løkke's "posse" of cameramen, supporters, flags
and assorted demonstrators approaches in the distance
Lars Løkke Rasmussen (right) prepares his right hand, and seconds later
he comes across to shake mine and Lois's and Alison's right hands (separately)
in central Copenhagen
after winning his election Løkke went on to shake
the hand of British Prime Minister David Cameron...
...and the hand of US President, Donald Trump
I think Løkke did some other things as well - and not just hand-shaking. But oh dear, how are the mighty fallen! Where are they all today, Løkke, Cameron and Trump? - haha!!!!
20:00 We watch some TV, chat show host Michael Parkinson recalling some interviews he did decades ago with two of the UK's most popular comedians, Frankie Howerd and Tommy Cooper.
In a way I'm not surprised that repeats of these interviews didn't surface for years after they were first aired. None of them are really very successful, not through any lack of skill on presenter Michael Parkinson's part.
The problem was that these 2 comics didn't like giving interviews, and didn't like being asked sometimes personal questions that they weren't prepared for.
Tommy Cooper got around this by bringing along some of his trademark dodgy conjuring tricks, some of which worked and some of which, as usual, didn't work.
Frankie Howerd insisted on being sent a list of the questions in advance so he could work out, and memorise, his answers, like this story:
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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