A quiet day, and as I try and write it up around 5:30 pm, I realise I've got a thick head - mainly because Lois and I spent the afternoon in bed, and woke up feeling disoriented, like when you fall asleep on the bus - oh dear!
Remember Katy's famous blog entry, "Forgot what did". Well I feel a bit like that today - oh dear (again) !!!!
The sequel to this, "Katy Forgot What Did" was never published.
But why? I think we should be told !!!!
I'll try and remember roughly what we did anyway.
11:00 Lois goes out for her walk on the local football field, while I write an email to my old friend Annie, an English expat who lives in central France. Twenty years ago, when I used to edit "French Window", a magazine for Francophiles, she was one of my most faithful contributors, giving us the inside gen on what living in France was really like - my god! And she didn't mince her words, that's for sure!
Flashback to 2007: Annie, my chief French correspondent
I still have a copy of the very last issue of the "French Window" magazine that I edited, from January 2008 - sob sob !!!! I used to produce it on my old computer in Word, and it was printed and distributed to members by the office in Birmingham.
Happy days !!!!
flashback to January 2008: the last ever "French Window"
that I edited - happy days !!!!!
And below, my final tearful farewell to my loyal contributors and readers:
Lois says they're cunningly disguising the new surgery so that it fits in with the surrounding buildings - all large but conventional houses. It's not going to look like a surgery at all, which is nice. That should cut down the number of people wanting to register there, which means there'll be less competition for Lois and me when we try to enrol there.
See? Simples !!!
12:00 We have lunch and afterwards start sorting through a bunch of old letters I found in the attic this week when I was doing a survey of its undocumented areas (ie most of it haha!). These are letters we wrote to my mother when we lived in the US from 1982 to 1985, some of them from our two daughters, Alison and Sarah. Awww, how sweet they are too, when we read them now !!!!
We hear the amazing story of this radio programme, the premise of which is quite simple: each week a celebrity is invited to choose the 8 "gramophone records" he or she would like to have with them if they were stranded on a desert island. They're also invited to choose one book and one "luxury item". On the show, their 8 choices are played, interspersed with them being interviewed about their life and career.
the new doctor's surgery being built down the road -
perfectly camouflaged as houses like the ones that surround it,
which is nice!
letters we sent home to my mother in England when we were living in the US 1982-1985
flashback to 1984: us when we lived in the US:
Awww - how cute little Ali (9) and Sarah (7) look !!!
I glance at my smartphone, and I browse the Danish news media, as you do haha! I see that Danish and Norwegian scientists are looking into the possibility that wearing glasses protects against the COVID. That would be nice, because wearing a face mask is famously inconvenient for glasses-wearers, because they soon start to "steam up".
At last things are looking up for us old "four eyes" guys, no doubt about that. They won't be laughing at us now, that's for sure !!!!!
14:00 This is our first "self-indulgence" afternoon of the new week, and the new month, so we take a shower and spend the afternoon in bed having a well-deserved nap, before waking up at 5pm with sore heads - damn!!!!!
17:00 According to the BBC, Putin has told the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, that Russian energy supplies to Hungary will be guaranteed, in a way they won't be guaranteed for other European countries, apparently just because Orbán is being nice to Russia.
When will people realise you can't depend on Russia for anything: they're just not reliable enough. What madness !!!!!
But why does Putin sit Orbán so far away from him? Has one of them got the virus, I wonder? Can somebody please tell us haha !!!!
Viktor [shouts]: "Pass the ashtray please, Vladimir" !!!!
What a crazy world we live in!
19:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her great-niece Molly's yoga class on zoom, followed by her sect's Tuesday Bible Seminar.
I settle down on the couch and watch an interesting documentary on what I believe is the world's longest-running radio show, "Desert Island Discs".
The idea was thought up one snowy winter in 1941 by BBC staffer Roy Plomley, and was intended to run for 6 weeks. The series is still going today after 80 years. Roy presented the programme himself until 1985, and there have been 4 other presenters since then: the current one is Lauren Laverne.
Roy Plomley, the BBC staffer who had the idea for the programme in 1941,
and ended up presenting it himself on BBC Radio from 1942 to 1985 -
here Roy sits in a deckchair, pretending he's on a desert island.
You big tease, Roy haha!!!!!
the current presenter of the show, Lauren Laverne,
takes us through a history of the programme
The secret of the show's success seems to be that you can really get to know the celebrity by their tastes in music, and their defences always seem to come down, which is nice.
Given that guests are invited to choose also one "luxury item" that they would like to have with them on the island, it's surprising in a way that in 80 years only one guest chose anything with a slightly risqué flavour: in the 1970's Ronnie Scott, the saxophonist and London jazz club owner, asked for "either" a saxophone, "or" a life-size rubber inflatable Faye Dunaway doll. My god!
Ronnie Scott - saxophonist and London jazz club owner
It sounded from the recording of the interview that the show's very correct presenter, Roy Plomley, either didn't fully understand this answer or tried not to appear fazed by it. He merely insisted that Scott chose either the doll or the saxophone - luckily Scott chose the saxophone, so that's all right then!
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her multiple zoom sessions, and we watch tonight's programme in Margaret Thatcher's ex-Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo's series on "Great Coastal Railway Journeys".
At Cullen, Michael samples the famous [???-Ed] Cullen skink, a fish soup, which Lois loves. She remembers that after we had looked over Stirling Castle on our famous 2005 Scottish adventure, we walked down the cobbled streets into the town looking for a place to have lunch, and she ordered Cullen Skink in a little restaurant.
I remember Lois ordering this dish in 2005, and I remember that I "chickened out" - I think I was mainly put off by the name - what a wuss I am haha !!!!! Given a second chance I think I'd be willing to try it. I like smoked haddock.
Cullen skink is a thick, creamy soup made of smoked haddock, potatoes and onion.
I've always been slightly wary of fish soups, ever since our experience in Hungary with the dreaded "halászlé", which has all the bones still in it. It tasted nice, but I couldn't cope with the bones. What madness !!!!!
flashback to 1998: (left to right) me, Lois, and our friend "Magyar" Mike,
in a restaurant in Szentendre, Hungary, about to sample the halászlé
"Cheers!" or "Egészségedre!" as the Hungarians say.
Why don't you try saying that after a few beers haha !!!
Later, Michael visits the massive Fort George, near Nairn, which the Government built after the failed 1745 Jacobite rebellion to intimidate any Scottish rebels thinking of stirring up further unrest in the area. My god!
the massive Fort George, built by the Government after the failed
1745 Jacobite Rebellion, to intimidate any local rebels in the future!
My god !!!!
The outfitter remembers meeting Michael back in 1997, when Michael, as a young Defence Secretary, arrived to oversee the handing-over of the colony to China.
But tremendous fun !!!!!
Poor Michael !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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