Danskcolin: Thursday June 23rd 2022

Thursday today, and another day for trying to cross off items on mine and Lois's to-do-lists, which are now each officially in excess of 25 miles long [Can I see the documentation for that so-called "official" length? - Ed]

We've been invited to my niece Maria's wedding to her long-time partner Tom over in Suffolk, which is further away than Lois and I normally drive in any one journey these days, in our now increasingly decrepit state. [What do you mean? It's only 160 miles! - Ed].

Maria, youngest daughter of my sister Gill and her husband Peter, was originally going to get married to Tom in April 2020, but that plan was knocked on the head by the COVID pandemic, needless to say.

flashback to May 2015: Gill and Peter's 30th wedding anniversary:

(from left to right) Tom and Maria (who had first planned to marry in April 2020),

Chris and Zoe, Lucy, Gill, Gill's best friend Jill, Jill's husband, and Peter:

Zoe and Lucy are Maria's older sisters.

our projected perilous journey to the wedding venue

Well, Lois and I haven't had a proper holiday since the pandemic started in early 2020, so we think we deserve to make a nice little break out of the wedding invitation, staying halfway near a place, Naseby, which has special memories for us after an idyllic and really warm holiday there several years ago, in 2007 when we'd been retired for about 18 months.

The place that also carries special memories for the former Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell, who also stayed there and even found time to win a decisive battle here against the Royalists during the civil war in 1645 [Surely he's dead now, though, isn't he? He's not going to care! - Ed].

the Old Posthouse B&B, Naseby, where Cromwell

could have stayed before the battle, though in fact he didn't

- too expensive perhaps, or not near enough to the battlefield maybe?

And who can forget that lovely old song about the battle, believed to be the first time in history that "Naseby" was rhymed with "Praise Be", a rhyme that's since, sadly, become a bit of a cliché, but well - let's not worry about that right now!

Oh they don't write them like that any more, that's for sure [Thank God for that! - Ed]

flashback to November 2007: Lois and I visit the

Naseby Civil War battlefield site, Northamptonshire

10:00 An email arrives from our financial advisor, Andrew. We've asked Andrew to help us with sorting out our wills so that we can help Sarah, our younger daughter, to move back to the UK after 6 years down under. What's my problem with Andrew's email? Just one thing - that I don't understand a word of it - YIKES!!!!

What do I know about "trusts"? I'm just a simple lad when it comes down to it. I'm just guessing that setting up a trust will be (a) expensive, and (b) take a long time. Oh dear!

Andrew, the first financial advisor that we've ever had

in our lives - and what is he talking about? Yikes, we don't understand!!!!

15:00 Lois and I normally live very quiet lives, which suits me down to the ground, though it suits Lois less, I have to say. However, it's suddenly crept up on me that we're going to be having a busy time in July and August travelling hither and thither. Yikes !!!! [That's enough yikeses! - Ed]

How on earth did it all happen? When did it happen that "life" a.k.a. "stuff" started filling up our usually blank calendar? We'll be pet-sitting for our elder daughter Alison's family in Headley, Hampshire (July), going to my niece Maria's wedding in Suffolk (August) and celebrating our own golden wedding anniversary, again in Headley (August), and then finally a get-together of some of my 30 or so cousins in Oxford (late August / early September). It's total madness, I tell you!!!!

And something has definitely gone horribly wrong with our diary, that's for sure. Oh dear!

20:00 It's been a funny old day weather-wise - not nearly as sunny as promised, and close and unpleasantly humid rather than very warm.

We wind down by watching the second half of a compilation of clips of singer-songwriter Paul McCartney at the BBC, featuring his post-Beatles career, including vocal performances and excerpts from interviews.

One of the Lennon-McCartney songs Lois and I particularly remember from our crazy teenage years was "I Saw Her Standing There" (1963). Apparently it was mainly a Paul song, although some lines were contributed by John. But Paul's original opening lyrics went like this :

"She was just seventeen,

She was never a beauty queen..."

After collaboration with John, the second line became:

"She was just seventeen,

"You know what I mean"

Lois and I both agree this is much better - I'm sure Sir Paul would be pleased to know our opinion on that. And Lois and I should know because we were both 17 when the song came out - how spooky is that haha!

And it's particularly nice for me tonight to see a clip of Paul on Michael Parkinson's show in 1999 singing "The Long And Winding Road (that leads to your door)".

I always remember first hearing that song as I was walking through a massive department store in Tokyo in 1970, during my student year in Japan. I think I was feeling a bit lost (although only mentally - the store had excellent signage, I remember haha) and I was missing Lois.

But what a crazy year that was, my student year in Japan 1970-71 ! Lots of great experiences, flying there over Greenland, stopping off at Anchorage on the way, settling in in Tokyo, really getting to know the culture and the young people, seeing the country, flying home over Siberia and stopping off at Moscow on the way back - yikes: what a madness it all was !!!!!