Today is Lois's 76th birthday, and we have a crazy day - dominated in the afternoon by watching the Platinum Jubilee Pageant parades going up and down the Mall and in front of Buckingham Palace.
A crazy but hugely entertaining parade, which leads us constantly to asking, "What on earth group are going to come along next, dancing and singing and looking completely crazy in a random way?" My god, it's so random, but totally brilliant in our view, for its complete unexpectedness.
For example who would expect a giant barefoot Lady Godiva puppet, followed by a troupe of mechanical corgis on wheels. It's total insanity!
a giant 20 foot high, barefoot Lady Godiva puppet,
symbolising social justice, followed by...
... what else? A bunch of mechanical corgis on wheels, of course: my god!
Yes, it's total madness - but in a good way, thankfully haha!!!!
09:00 The day begins more calmly, with Lois opening her birthday presents, especially the one sent by Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, because we're going to be zooming with her at 9:30 am (4:30 pm Perth time).
the pendant that Sarah and family sent Lois
for her birthday
a pair of red earrings - one of the presents from Alison,
our other daughter, and her family
part of my birthday message to Lois..
...and the skirt and dress I bought her last week in Grayshott
Unfortunately it's far too cold today for her to wear either new dress or new skirt - brrrrrr!!!!
09:30 We log onto zoom and we get the chance to talk to Sarah's whole family today, which is nice.
we speak on zoom with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia,
and with Francis and their 8-year-old twins Lily and Jessica
flashback to June 5th 2010, and Sarah and Francis's wedding
on the shores of Lake Coniston in the English Lake District
- happy days!!!!
We tell Sarah and Francis this morning that we saw new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese [pronounced Albin-easy, to rhyme with "queasy"] on TV the other night, lighting the jubilee beacon in Canberra.
But we go to bed on the climax of this afternoon's pageant, which was the Queen's appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
And that's it for another Jubilee - we had the silver one (1977), the golden one (2002) and the diamond one (2012), so now we have the full set, which is nice!
flashback to Thursday: the new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
lights the jubilee beacon in Canberra, Australia
Francis suspects that Albanese was perhaps burning some of the stuff former Prime Minister Scott Morrison ("Scomo") had left behind by mistake in the Prime Minister's office. Morrison is held in low regard in Australia, says Francis - he had the reputation of going on holiday whenever there was a crisis. Not the kind of knee-jerk reaction you like to see in your Prime Minister, that's for sure. What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
15:00 Another pandemic milestone comes up for Lois and me today - a huge delivery of groceries arrives from the local Sainsbury's Supermarket and we make the decision not to swab all the items down with disinfectant. We just put all the stuff away and then wash our hands afterwards. This is the first time we've taken this risk in at least 2 years - my god!
20:00 I speak on the telephone to my cousin Liz, who's away from her Oxford home on holiday this week in St Ives, Cornwall, with her husband Roger. Liz is planning a get-together of as many as possible of all the "southern" cousins with our new cousin David, who we discovered through a DNA test - David was adopted as a baby and he had lived the first 60 plus years of his life not knowing who his "real" family were. Let's hope that comes off some time in the next couple of months.
20:30 Lois and I settle down on the couch and watch the rest of this afternoon's Jubilee Pageant and the rest of last night's Jubilee Pop Concert, both held in front of Buckingham Palace.
Later Lily sends us a couple of charming photos, to which she has added emojis, one photo just of her twin sister Jessica, and another one of both twins with their best friends, Samara and Gianna. And Lily says they had chocolate cake ice-cream and mini-marshmallows for dinner - my god, that sounds like some jubilee dinner to me! Why couldn't Lois and I have had that haha!
our twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica (centre) with their
"bestie" Samara (right) and Samara's little sister Gianna (left)
But we feel so alive as a result haha !!!!!
16:30 We calm down with a cup of tea and a slice of Lois's birthday cake on the sofa.
we calm down with a cup of tea and a slice of Lois's birthday cake
She's hoping to see, as minimum, her sister Jeannette (b. 1937), John (1950), me (1946), my sister Gill (1958) and Kate (1947), but we'll see!
flashback to November 2021: David meets my cousin Liz for the first time
at her home in Headington, Oxford. David lives in nearby Woodstock
in the north of the county
Later tonight, Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, sends me the story, on the Hungarian telex.hu website, about the Queen having tea and marmalade sandwiches with Paddington Bear, in the little comedy sketch that kicked off yesterday's programming.
Tünde writes, "She's funny, and I think she's great not to be afraid of showing it. I need humour in this crazy world". Amen to that !!!!!
And Michael Cowan tweets [Who he? - Ed]:
But tonight, as Lois and I watch the rest of last night's Platinum Jubilee concert, for me it was the pictures that are the highlight, and all the aerial views, not forgetting the great light shows projected onto the Palace and above it, behind the performers, especially during the singing of the National Anthem.
and look at little Princess Charlotte sitting there with Kate - awwwww!!!!
Tomorrow, for Lois and me, it's back to a lot of unpleasant realities, including: the broken 1980's gas fire, the dentist on Tuesday, not to mention looking for a new home.
YIKES !!!!!!!
Can't we turn the clock back to Thursday again please haha!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!
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