Oh dear - Valentine's Day, which is supposed to be a peaceful and dreamily romantic day, has been hijacked by business phone-calls and IT problems - damn!
At least Lois and I got our Valentine's Day lunch, as planned. And I had a glass or two of red wine, emboldened by our American brother-in-law Steve's report of a shock study from China based on UK residents' health data, which, according to Wine Spectator, shows that a glass or two can reduce your risk of catching the COVID by as much as 10 to 17 per cent- good news, no doubt about that!!!! White wine is also good, to a lesser extent - 7 to 8 per cent reduction in risk. Beer has the opposite effect, and makes you 28% more likely to catch it. My god!!!!
Yum yum! See? That red wine result's just got to be right, after all, hasn't it haha!
The morning however, has been scarred by IT problems and by having to get in touch with a couple of estate agents - if our daughter Sarah and her family in Perth, Australia, are getting serious about moving back to the UK, we need to get going with possibly downsizing, that's for sure.
One of the agents has got my name wrong. I spend about 5 minutes explaining what my name is, and how it differs from my email address, and I think he understands. Then I get a so-called "confirmation email", in which he's reverted to the wrong version.
What a crazy world we live in !!!!
And to make matters worse, the desktop that Lois uses is now getting virtually unusable: it's far too slow, so I have to get her set up on my little laptop, which takes more than 5 minutes to put it mildly. Oh dear - I wish I knew more about IT !!!!!
13:00 Although we are both feeling slightly frazzled, we sit down to our lovely Valentine's Day lunch: duck with dauphinoise potatoes and red cabbage, followed by salted caramel cheesecake: yum yum to put it mildly: my god!
Later we try and calm down with the Radio Times puzzle page. We do terribly on the PopMaster questions, as usual (only 30%), but quite a lot better on the Egghead ones (80%).
Sad news about one of my cousins, Peter, who has passed away in the Bournemouth nursing home where he's been resident for a few years, suffering from vascular dementia. Luckily Lois and I managed to visit him about 2 years ago, and we had a really fun time with him reminiscing about when we were all young and living in Oxford.
Peter's daughter Ruth told us today that Peter kept the photos of our visit on the wall of his room, which we find incredibly touching.
Rest in peace, Peter!
flashback to 2019: Lois and I visit Peter in his nursing home
flashback to Peter (born 1943) in happier times: with some of the younger
cousins and a lot of our uncles and aunts at Garsington, Oxford,
including Aunty Mary, Uncle Jack, Aunty Babs, Uncle Jim, Aunty Bobby and Uncle Bob, with cousins
Peter (born 1955), Jonathan (1959), Hilary (1952) and John (1950)
Brighter news as regards my "new" cousin, David (born 1959), who my sister Gill discovered we were related to, after both she and David happened to submit a DNA test to a large genealogical database, who reported back to them on the connection: David was adopted as a baby, and has never known till the last few months who his real family were.
Today Gill visited him and his wife Zanne at their home in north Oxfordshire.
my sister Gill visits our newly-discovered first cousin David (born 1959)
and his wife Zanne at their home in north Oxfordshire
[That's enough family trees! - Ed]
20:00 We watch some TV, tonight's programme in Michael Portillo's new series of "Great Coastal Railway Journeys".
And who knew that the Norwegians weren't satisfied with just owning the islands - they wanted the mainland of Scotland too? My god (again) !!!!!
In 1263 King Haakon of Norway sent a fleet of 160 long ships and 15,000 men to invade Scotland - this was apparently a bigger invasion fleet than the Spanish Armada that sailed to England in 1588.
There was a big battle between the Vikings and the Scots at Largs, now a seaside town. King Alexander of Scotland put up as much resistance as he could, and the results of the battle were officially "inconclusive". However they must have been conclusive enough, because they ensured that the Vikings never tried to invade mainland Scotland again.
the large stone erected where historians believe
the Battle of Largs took place in 1263 between the Vikings and the Scots
Also in tonight's programme there's an interesting sequence, in which Michael visits an atomic power station south of Fairlie, Hunterston B, which is now in the process of being decommissioned. Michael remembers the station when it was still relatively new - as his first role in government aged 25, he was appointed a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Energy in 1979, when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister.
tonight Michael visits Hunterston B, an atomic power-station,
now in the process of being decommissioned
a young-looking Michael Portillo, aged 25 - special adviser
to Margaret Thatcher's Secretary of State for Energy
Oh dear - we're all so much older now aren't we, Michael haha !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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