08:00 Lois and I start the day in bed - a very good place to start (phase copyright: whoever wrote it for Julie Andrews to sing in "Do-Re-Mi" from the Sound of Music). And who knew that whereas in English we say "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do", almost every other country in the world says "si" instead of "ti"?
What's wrong with us? Why are we always out of step with the rest of the world. It's total madness !!!!!
As I struggle to wake up, Lois is reading her current book and giving me a simultaneous summary of the action at the same time [That's always the best way to do "simultaneous" isn't it! - Ed].
It's a children's book, a Caribbean pirate-and-treasure-hunt adventure that's set not in the 18th century but in the (reasonably) modern era: the 1930's. It's Arthur Ransome's "Peter Duck" (1932).
Oh the nightmares I had about Caribbean crabs that eat people, and about tropical "water-spouts" that swallow up whole ships and their crew, never to be seen again. Yes, that book has probably scarred me for life, but it's too late to do anything about it now.
Poor me!!!! I was just a young innocent boy of 11, when I read the book, on a beach in Somerset: Burnham-on-Sea to be exact. My god !!!!!
10:00 Lois goes off to have her hair cut by her local stylist, James, while I set to work to vacuum the whole house, which is a workout in itself, I always say. No need to do the exercises that Connor, my NHS physiotherapist has scheduled for me today. Don't tell him, though, will you!
14:00 Lois and I are planning to move house in the next few months, and loads of paper-work is hanging over us, even though we try not to think about it. Today I pay in advance online for a surveyor to inspect the house in Malvern, Worcestershire, that we're hoping to buy.
It's fascinating to see how rock'n'roll and religion were intertwined in the young Jerry Lee Lewis's life. A fervent boogie-woogie piano player from an early age, as a teenager Jerry Lee was kicked out of the South West Bible School for playing a boogie-woogie version of a religious song.
In this programme of the series, presenter Waldemar Januszczak (crazy name, crazy guy!) reveals that Botticelli's Venus "opened the floodgates" of Western Art to portraying nude women, open floodgates which many an artist took full advantage of, let's be frank!
However, Botticelli's Venus looks quite mild, shy and vulnerable, and radiating modesty, like all the women that Botticelli painted. His women all had a distinctive "group look", says Waldemar.
two of my childhood nightmares: horrible crabs that eat you...
see they're all over the beaches on Crab Island: yikes !!!!!
..and waterspouts that swallow ships whole, including their crews
DOUBLE-YIKES !!!!!!
flashback to August 1957: me on the beach at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset,
with my father, and I'm reading "Peter Duck" for the first time - yikes, scary !!!!
[Look, it's June 29th 2022 now! When are you going to get out of bed today? - Ed]
08:30 We get out of bed and have our twice-weekly shower, but I'm going to have to give my feet another special wash tomorrow morning, because Lois and I are going to have our feet inspected and pampered tomorrow morning at the Bishops Cleeve so-called "Village Clinic".
Lois has been before, but for me it's my first time: I'm a so-called "foot virgin" haha!
What luxury! And what madness !!!!!
staff at the Village Clinic, Bishops Cleeve
I set to work to vacuum the whole house -
a total body workout on its own. My god!!!
I've also started taking my blood pressure twice a day, because I've got my annual check-up at our local doctor's surgery next month. I suffer from so-called "white coat syndrome" - my blood pressure and heart rate always goes up if I have the measurements taken by a nurse, so I have to be able to show them a month's worth of normal results based on the tests I do at home. See? Simples!!!!
a typical check-up as depicted in this scene from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" -
Larry David gets a check-up from from Nurse Renée
10:45 Lois comes back from her session with James, her stylist. That guy always does a good job on her, that's for sure.
Lois comes back after a session with James, her stylist
And our son-in-law Ed comes back to me in an email, after consulting his financial adviser about how Lois and I might get a couple of trusts set up, and included in our wills.
Yikes - our wills !!!!! But yes, we've got to face it - Lois and I may not be around 50 years from now, unlikely though that thought seems to us now haha!
15:00 Lois and I run the local Intermediate Danish group - well, it's a nasty job, but somebody's got to do it haha! The group is fortunate to have among its members Scilla, who's an expert on the Vikings and their language - Old Norse.
Lois and I hear today from her son Tom in Frome, Somerset, that Scilla's been checked into the Royal United Hospital in Bath for various symptoms, but Tom says she's responding to antibiotics, which is good news. But he thinks his mum will be in hospital for a while longer yet.
evidence of Scilla's academic credentials seen in this bibliography
It's our next group meeting tomorrow, so we'll have to manage without Scilla - who normally tells us how the Danes' Viking past still "informs" (as people say nowadays) the way today's Danes think and act today, which is always revealing.
Fascinating stuff! [If you say so! - Ed]
20:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Class on zoom. I settle down on the couch and watch a programme in the Music Icons series, this one being all about "wild man" Louisiana-born rock'n'roll singer and piano-player, Jerry Lee Lewis.
And the recording of an early jam session at Sun Records with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley reveals that the 4 hell-raising rock'n'rollers had a break-time discussion about the real meaning of the Holy Ghost - what a crazy world they lived in in those far-off days!!!!
Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash
jamming and discussing the meaning of the Holy Ghost - what madness !!!!
During his career, however, Jerry Lee several times fell foul of the US religious establishment. Two of his biggest hit records were "Whole Lot of Shaking Going On" and "Great Balls of Fire", both of which were banned by many US radio stations because of their alleged suggestive lyrics. I know the songs, but I hadn't previously thought of the lyrics as being particularly suggestive, but it's amazing what you can read into almost anything if you're determined to, that's for sure!
I hadn't realised that it was during his first tour of Britain (1957) that the story was broken, by the good old British press, that Jerry Lee had the previous year secretly married his 13-year-old first cousin once removed, Myra Gale. By "first cousin once removed", I'm guessing that Myra was the daughter of one of Jerry Lee's actual cousins, rather than the mother of one of them.
Was Myra staying with Jerry Lee when he came to Britain? How does it work if a relationship that's legal in one country continues to play out in a country where it isn't? I don't know, but I think we should be told. I think it would "clear the air" a bit, don't you!
The story caused a big scandal, not just here but also in the US, according to the programme, but Jerry Lee bounced back eventually, and years later he became an established country music star - and so dropped under the radar as far as UK audiences were concerned. Oh dear!
Fascinating stuff !!!!!
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session and we watch the third programme in a series revealing the mysteries about famous works of art, this one being about Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus".
Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" (c.1485)
And his Venus is a bit reminiscent of early Lady Di, says Waldemar - you remember, those photos, when the press first got wind of her romance with Charles?
early Lady Di
In contrast, Waldemar says, later Venuses, by other artists, tended to be more steamy and erotic, like Titian's "Venus of Urbino", painted only 50 years or so after Botticelli's effort.
Titian's "Venus of Urbino" (1534) - already more steamy and erotic
According to the ancient Greek writer Hesiod, the Greek equivalent of Venus, Aphrodite, was born "from the white foam produced by the severed genitals of Uranus, after his son Cronos had thrown them into the sea". Which seems appropriate, because "aphros" means "foam" in Greek.
See? Simples!
Waldemar, commenting here on the absence of foam
and testicles in Botticelli's masterpiece
Presenter Waldemar point out tonight that we don't see any severed genitals or foam in Botticelli's painting. What we see is Venus, having just come ashore, starting to make the earth fertile with lots of flowers and vegetables springing into life all around her.
In the picture, lots of anemones come floating around, and roses come blowing about, and there are cornflowers on the dresses of the maidens of springtime on the right.
Which is all very appropriate, particularly as the Roman goddess Venus was originally the goddess of flower-, fruit- and vegetable-growing - the goddess of allotments, Waldemar calls her. It was only later, under Greek influence, that Venus had to take on a lot of additional, and figuratively more "earthy" duties into her "portfolio", as the "official" Goddess of Love.
But what a crazy world people lived in in those far off days!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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