09:00 An unpleasant early chore in the chilly morning - to move back some of the garden furniture, wheelie bins etc from Patio A to Patio B. Recall that Lois and I moved them from Patio B to Patio A yesterday so that Mark the Gardener could power-clean Patio B. What madness !!!!!
flashback to yesterday - and Patio A is seen to be in total chaos - my god!
the scene this morning after we've transferred some items back
and are sweeping up a bit
My god - it may seem trivial, but this is the kind of chore that stops us lying in bed or having fun. What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
10:00 Yesterday was Burns Night, and Lois and I remembered again our favourite Burns poem, "John Anderson my jo", all about two lovers who had a lot of fun on a hill when they were young - now they're old and poor old John's hair is not black any more. And he and his sweetheart, as death draws near, visualise themselves sleeping together for ever at the foot of the hill, which is rather sweet.
This morning I see that Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, has sent me a Hungarian version of this poem, written, I think, by Hungarian poet Szabó Lőrinc (1900-1957). In this version poor old John's hair is "fluttering frostily" (leng deresen), which is alliterative (in English), and nicer, I think, than "your locks are like the snow". My hair would certainly be fluttering frostily if I wasn't wearing something on my head, that's for sure!
But probably it's too late to suggest this to Burns, unhappily! So best to leave the poem as it is, I would say, on balance!
11:00 We go out for a walk on the local football field - the last few days a queue has suddenly appeared from nowhere, as soon as we get near the Whiskers Coffee Stand. Is this some kind of conspiracy perhaps?
for the 3rd time in a week, a queue of three has suddenly materialised
ahead of Lois at the Whiskers Coffee Stand next to the Parish Council offices -
and it's materialised literally from out of nowhere - what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
we share a flapjack - the "award" we were given
last week for being the Coffee Stand's best customers - hurrah!
14:00 We have a self-indulgent afternoon - a shower followed by a nap in bed, and not getting up till nearly 5 pm. This self-indulgence has been a while coming - it was supposed to be on Monday but then got postponed till Tuesday, and then postponed again till today.
It's a tribute to our ability to "think on our feet" that we were able to reschedule our 3 hours of indulgence without too much difficulty - I used an app on my phone haha! But that's modern living for you, and one has to be flexible.
17:00 Lois is in the kitchen listening to the news on the radio - some of it's about the Ukraine but mostly it's highlighting the trivial gossip about so-called parties in Downing Street, and a new suggestion that Boris prioritised the evacuation of animals from Kabul over the evacuation of people: complete rubbish! The plane was an animal transport plane, and couldn't have taken human passengers.
Lois has begun to detect, however, that the BBC have at last begun to see sense, and are challenging some of Boris's accusers: asking them if they don't think their complaints are utterly trivial and suggesting to them that there might be more important things to concern themselves with than this tittle-tattle.
We agree with that! But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!!
Colin says, "In the name of God, Boris, please stay !!!!!! [You're repeating yourself again! - Ed]
17:30 To retrieve a bit of my sanity after all this Boris nonsense, I turn to Onion News to catch up with the latest tittle-tattle gradually emerging from the rest of the Anglosphere.
Years ago I predicted to Lois that nude men and women would be one of the last minority groups in society to achieve recognition of their rights, and so it has proved.
Nude people have suffered persecution and derision for years: witness the recent story from Denmark of a 19-year-old nude man who got stuck in a blackberry bush and who suffered the indignity of being forcibly "cut out" of the prickly bush by police, or "clipped free" (klippes fri) as the Danes say in these sorts of cases, this one emanating from the upscale Copenhagen suburb of Gentofte, where our daughter Alison lived for 6 years from 2012 to 2018.
But maybe there's a change in the wind coming at last.
NEW YORK—Calling the experience “deeply inspiring,” local nude woman Kassandra Harster told reporters Wednesday that she was pleasantly surprised to see herself represented in an art museum’s collection.
“Wow—I don’t see many bodies like mine in fashion magazines, so to see myself in everything from the Renaissance statues to the surrealist paintings is very empowering,” said Harster, who paused as she strolled through the Metropolitan Museum of Art to marvel at a Greek marble sculpture that was as unclothed as she was.
“This kind of representation is especially important because, as a
nude woman, sometimes people treat you differently. I’m completely blown away
by what I’ve seen today. Who would have thought that naked bodies were once the
beauty standard?” At press time, Harster's old insecurities had come surging
back after she passed a sculpture that did not have a head.
Well, the prospects for "Nude Rights" certainly look a bit more promising now, don't they, after publication of that story, a story that would have been censored out completely just a few decades ago!
20:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's Wednesday Bible Class on zoom. I settle down on the couch to watch this week's episode of "Toast of Tinseltown" - where West End star Steven Toast is followed around by reality TV cameras as he tries to "make it big" in Hollywood.
It's indicative, I think, of the very fierce competition there is when it comes to getting roles in Hollywood films and TV, that Toast, despite his reputation from the West End stage, has to go through several rounds of auditions before landing the plum part of Doctor Grainger in a new daytime soap "Hospital", which is all about a hospital.
At least now he'll be playing something other than the butler, and hopefully be getting more than a single line in the production, which will be a bonus!
And who knew that Toast was such a master of improvisation, or "improv" as they call it in the trade!
In this round of the auditions he's asked by directors Bellender Bojangles and Hoop Kaaak to improvise and say some "doctor-related things".
Somewhat taken by surprise, Toast recovers his legendary composure and somehow manages to come up with this brilliant mini-scene:
And then this second, more nautical scene:
At this point, directors Bojangles and Kaak are ready to eat out of Toast's hand, but Toast rams home his advantage by giving them some more, another emotional scene, again completely unscripted and unrehearsed:
Finally Toast clinches his right to go forward to the next round of auditions with this "killer" exchange:
The directors can't believe that Toast (a) isn't a doctor, and (b) that he's never played a doctor before in his life. So by this point, Toast feels he has to come clean and admit that he did have some very brief experience on BBC radio.
Toast finally lands the part as heartthrob hospital doctor, Dr Grainger. It's just a bit of a shame that, when the series airs, Grainger gets stabbed to death by a deranged patient in the first episode. At least, however, Toast has now got something to put on his 'cv' other than that he spoke one line as a butler, which is some consolation!
Keep trying, Toast. From now on the only way is up!!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session, and we decide to go for an early bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!
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