09:00 Oh dear! The usual fight by Lois and me to get ready for our weekly zoom call with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, her husband Francis and their 8-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. This fight is made all the worse by the struggle to get ready for our weekly delivery of groceries from the village convenience store - they normally deliver about 5 minutes or so after the zoom call starts for maximum annoyance factor - what craziness !!!!
Still it's nice to chat to Sarah and the rest of the family, as always. And who knew that Western Australia (WA) is going to open its state borders on March 3rd (next Thursday)? [I expect everybody in WA knew, for starters! - Ed]
The WA population are living in fear and trembling, Sarah says, not knowing if the opening of the borders will lead to a massive increase in COVID infections. Of course the infection numbers in WA up to now have been far, far below anything else in the world, but that doesn't make them feel any easier about it, and I can sort of see why. Sarah says that WA premier Mark McGowan has finally given in to pressure from Qantas and other travel companies, and the decision is not popular with the general population.
Mark McGowan, prime minister of Western Australia
The children, Lily and Jessica, have both had their first vaccine jab, and the second one is due on 16th March, so Sarah is hoping they'll be able to stay clear of infection till then - it's only 13 days after the borders open, so fingers crossed.
Sarah and Francis have been thinking of going over to online food shopping. Many supermarket shelves in Perth have been empty, but it's because of an excessive amount of rain, which has caused flooding and disruption to the rail link between Adelaide and Perth. What madness !!!!!
11:00 Lois and I go out for our walk round the local football field, followed by a drink of hot chocolate from the Polish girl at the Whiskers Coffee Stand. It's unexpectedly quiet - we were expecting the Junior Soccer to be in full swing, but then we remember that's its half-term week for the county's schools.
Of course - that explains it !!!!!
We walk round the local football field and have
a hot chocolate at the Whiskers Coffee Stand
19:00 After dinner at 6 pm, my main efforts this evening are now concentrated on reporting what I suspect is a fraudulent request for payment from somebody claiming to be my former energy-supplier. I'm currently ringing my bank's fraud hotline, and I keep being put on hold. What a crazy world we live in !!!! And what a criminal waste of time !!!!!!
To complicate things, Lois's cousin Iris keeps trying to ring our number while I'm being put on hold by the bank, so the phone keeps beeping - we've got "call waiting" installed on it. Oh dear!
Eventually I get through to the bank, and the woman on "fraud duty" gives me a contact number to call my former energy-supplier, but it turns out their lines are only open during office hours Monday to Friday. What madness (again) !!!!!
20:00 Iris finally gets to talk to Lois, but after the first hour I can tell that Lois is getting a stiff arm from holding the phone, so she makes the excuse that "I think Colin wants to watch something on TV at 9 o'clock, I'd better hang up now". Aren't spouses wonderful when it comes to making excuses for doing something or not doing something! It can be a life-saver!
21:00 We watch some TV, an interesting documentary on the Sky Arts channel about comedian George Burns.
Lois and I both have many happy childhood memories of watching the George Burns and Gracie Allen show when we were kids growing up in the 1950's. They were, of course, husband and wife in real life as well as on their show, with Gracie playing the ditsy wife role, and George as the straight man. It was in his periodic little monologues to camera that he got the chance to play the stand-up, using his trademark cigar to allow pauses for audience laughter. Sheer genius!
The documentary tonight demonstrates how the show became the first real sitcom, and one that paved the way for many others, first and foremost another husband-and-wife show, "I Love Lucy" with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, another show both Lois and I remember fondly from our childhood.
All our favourite Burns and Allen moments are here: in this first one, we see George talking to camera about Gracie's encounter with a famous interior decorator who came to dinner:
And in this second scene, Gracie is talking disparagingly to George about their new doctor's office. George is playing the "straight man" role again.
Tremendous fun !!!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!!
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