It's the second day of Cheltenham Race Week today, but the weather has been really wet all day, and we've seen far fewer race-goers passing the house than we did yesterday, and all of those we do see are looking very bedraggled. Still they'll be all right as soon as they get to the race-course - a lot of them just sit in the bars all day watching the races on the big screen. What a crazy world we live in !!!!
It's so-called "Ladies' Day" today at the races, which is a pity because a lot of the special hats and outfits on display are going to be either ruined by the rain or hidden away under umbrellas, which is a pity.
It's "Ladies' Day" at the racecourse today, which is a pity, given the weather
Poor ladies !!!!!
10:00 Lois and I have work to do inside the house, however. It's hard to believe, yet nevertheless, slowly but surely Lois and I are starting to get our house ready for possibly selling it, maybe later this year - yikes! We've only been here 36 years haha!
We moved into this house in January 1986, 5 months after returning to the UK after 3 years residence in Maryland USA. And we're still here today in March 2022 - what madness !!!!
flashback to September 1986: our daughters Alison (11) and Sarah (9)
in their school uniforms, pictured here 8 months after we had moved
into our current house following our 3 years in the US
1986: our daughter Alison's 11th birthday party in our back
garden, while a young-looking Lois (40) (top right) looks on
yes, it's in the back garden that's still our back garden today
- what madness !!!!
back to the present: how our garden looks today -
not much different is it, although the hedge now hides most of
that bungalow behind it haha !!! And somehow
Lois and I have become 75: what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
Stephen, our friendly local handyman is coming tomorrow to give us proper access to our hot water tank, with a proper access door. At the moment anybody trying to repair or maintain our hot water system has to undo about 15 screws in some bits of plasterboard in Sarah's old bedroom, the plasterboard that houses our hot water tank. What madness it all is !!!!
flashback to 1979: Stephen, our handyman, in happier times,
attending his auntie's wedding, at an age of about 9,
when Lois used to teach him at Sunday School,
when he still had hair and wasn't that tall - happy days !!!!
Stephen's coming early tomorrow so Lois and I have had to clear all the books and ornaments off what used to be our grown-up daughter Sarah's old bookcase and dressing table, so that Stephen can get to the hot water tank casing with the minimum of obstructions in the way.
Busy, busy, busy! Still, there would have been no question of Lois and me going out anywhere today, what with the non-stop rain and the roads being clogged with "race traffic", that's for sure.
Lois and me at work this morning in our daughter
Sarah's old bedroom
11:30 I glance at my smartphone, and I see that I have to spring into action again on behalf of my 30-or-so cousins. One of our number, Peter (born 1943), died a couple of weeks ago, and his funeral is going to be on Friday in Bournemouth, where he'd been a resident in a care home for a few years.
flashback to 2019: the last time that Lois and I
visited my cousin Peter in his room at the Bournemouth care home.
It's my job to tell all the cousins about the timing of the funeral. There's going to be a graveside ceremony at 3pm followed by a service of thanksgiving for Pete's life at a church hall in Winton, which will also be available to view online on zoom.
It's weird but I've become the go-to person for passing on "cousin news" by email to my large body of cousins, who live all over Britain and Ireland, and also the US and Australia. I think this is because of my work on family history from about 15 years ago. I seem to be looked on as some sort of a "central figure". Anyway it's no problem - I'm happy to do the job.
just some of my thirty-or-so cousins: what a crazy family !!!!
It's quite nice also being the family's "go-to" cousin, because I get lots of interesting replies to my emails, letting me know how people are getting on. Shortly after sending out my email today about Pete's funeral arrangements I get replies back from my cousin Susan (born 1948) in Denver USA, and my cousin John (born 1941) in Northumberland on the Scottish border.
John tells me that he and Gwen are soon going to be moving south to a village just south of Salisbury to be near his son, which is weird, because this week Lois and I have been looking online at houses in nearby Andover - Andover could be the town for us, because it could be about halfway between where our 2 daughters may be living soon, if all goes to plan.
Andover, is 18 miles north east of Salisbury: our daughter Alison is currently
living near Bordon, Hampshire, and our other daughter is planning
to move to somewhere in Dorset soon, from their current home in Australia
See? Now, suddenly, it's all starting to make sense, isn't it haha !!!!
[I'm not so sure about that! - Ed]
Perhaps you've never heard of Andover, but it's also known as the home of the late Reg Presley of "The Troggs", a pop sensation from the 1960's. If it was good enough for Reg, it's good enough for us, no doubt about that haha!!!
Rest in peace, Reg haha!!!
18:00 We "finish off" the second half of our specially-halved Hellofresh mealkit, which we started yesterday - due largely to our legendary self-control, we only ate half of it yesterday, which makes it much more economical, as well as meaning we don't feel too "stuffed" when we get into bed, which is nice.
So tonight it's Thai Style Pork Rice Bowl: take two.
flashback to yesterday: we make a start of the first half of
our Hellofresh meal-kit of Thai Style Pork Rice Bowl
19:00 Earlier today we had some disturbing news about Lois's fellow sect-members and long-term friends Mari-Ann and Alf: both have tested positive for COVID, together with Mari-Ann's sister Daphne. Yikes! It just shows that the current variant, delta-omicron or whatever it's called, is highly infectious, as the news media have suggested.
Lois and I had been planning to be brave and go out for a meal at Webbs Garden Centre next weekend to celebrate UK Mothers' Day and my 76th birthday, which are withing a few days of each other, but we decide instead to play safe, and order delivery of some CookShop ready-meals instead.
Call us risk-averse if you like haha!!!
We get on the desktop and order lamb shanks with dauphinoise potatoes and "trio of greens" followed by a salted caramel cheesecake. We also get 3 extra meals for two to stash in the freezer for those occasions when we don't want to cook - makes sense to us !!!!!
the dauphinoise potatoes
What's not to like haha !!!!
20:00 Lois feels too tired to join her sect's weekly Bible Class on zoom tonight, so we settle down on the couch and watch a bit of TV, the second episode in the new sitcom "The Witchfinder", se in 17th century England, all about a rubbish witchfinder, Gideon Bannister, and his mouthy "prisoner", suspected witch Thomasine Gooch.
Yes, in tonight's episode witchfinder Gideon Bannister (Tim Key) is taking his "prisoner", mouthy local spinster Thomasine Gooch (Daisy May Cooper), on horseback down to Chelmsford to have her tried there.
When they get to Chelmsford, Gideon is hoping to catch the eye of the English Parliament's Witchfinder-General, Matthew Hopkins, spiritual and titular leader of England's hundreds of itinerant witchfinders.
Are you with it so far haha?
On the trip down to Chelmsford, it's discovered that Thomasine is allergic to horse-hair and as a result she keeps sneezing - this leads one local village after another to ban the pair from entry in case Thomasine is carrying the plague. So Gideon is forced to call in at his parents' house to see if he can borrow their cart.
Gideon has no other option really, but he agrees to call on his parents only reluctantly, because we hear that he has always had a bad relationship with his father, which is a bit of a shame.
Apparently Gideon had on one occasion warned his mother about his father's dangerous obsession with bees.
A rare bit of self-awareness shown here by Gideon in this scene, and it perhaps gives us some insight into the troubled childhood of many of the country's 17th century witchfinders.
Could this be a PhD study for some bright young student today, perhaps?
Fascinating stuff !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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