10:00 It's back on the road again for Lois and me, and we head for the hills, the Malvern Hills. We've got two appointments to view houses-for-sale today in Malvern, one at 12 noon and another at 1:15 pm. We plan to get a quick lunch after the second viewing and then drive home to Cheltenham.
share somebody's bed and....
...you also share their "toileting events" - what madness !!!!
I'm fairly tall, but not that tall, at a very nice 5'10", thank you very much - and lots of people are taller than me. But I notice that the side walls of the loft space come sloping down at a punishing angle, so if you're more than about 5'4" tall you've going to have trouble going to the loo or getting close enough to the window to see the view - what madness (again) !!!!!
I think one of our Stuart kings, Charles I (1625-1649) was quite short - he'd have been just about all right in this loft space maybe, with just him and Queen Henrietta. And Napoleon - he was only 5'6", and Josephine 5' 0". Either one of them could have put an offer in on this property. But they might have demanded closer access to convenience stores, French restaurants etc, so it's hard to be certain about that. So the jury's still out on that one - and I suppose in a way it's a bit academic perhaps. But I think we should be definitely be told!
The second house that we see today is a bit on the small side, and it's also got a built-in young mum who is feeding a new-born baby in the living-room when we arrive. She and her partner are renting the house currently but the landlord wants to sell up. So you've got the heartbreak factor if you buy the house, because you're effectively throwing a young mum out onto the street. Poor young mum!!!!!!
In the publicity material for the house, the rooms are empty of furniture, but when we arrive at the house today, we find that it's full of furniture and at least two people.
This picture of the living room (see below) shows the front door of the house - we entered the property through this door, and found ourselves in the living-room, where we were surprised to see a young mum feeding a new-born baby on the sofa - YIKES !!!!!
a photograph of the living-room, taken when the house
was unoccupied by tenants
But after the viewings there's more disappointment to come, when we try to find the town's iconic "Kettle Sings Tea-room", which is nowhere to be seen, despite the efforts of our satnav. What a crazy world we live in.
Really hungry and thirsty at this point, and desperate to go to the loo, we strike out on all 3 counts everywhere we look, so we decide to head back to Cheltenham, eventually stopping in Tewkesbury town centre at 3 pm, having not eaten since an 8 am breakfast.
We park in Tewkesbury town centre - you know, the car-park with the nice loos next to it - and we get a lunch and a cup of tea at the Melanie's Café on the High Street, where we have baked potatoes with cheese (me) and with tuna (Lois). My god, this café really saves our lives today haha!
Yes, we are physically and emotionally "on our knees" by this point.
physically and emotionally "on our knees" (not literally)
we fall gratefully on a plate of baked potato and salad.
(NB the table isn't really sloping at a dangerous angle,
it's just my phone's camera, in case you're worried!)
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 an old episode of the 1980's sitcom, "Yes Prime Minister", starring Paul Eddington as Prime Minister Jim Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as top civil servant Humphrey Appleby, and Derek Fowlds as Bernard Woolley, Hacker's Principal Private Secretary.
In this episode Hacker is in trouble with his civil servants for innocently denying that an MP called Halifax was having his phone bugged. It seems that the bugging had been taking place, and had been authorised by the Foreign Office, but they just hadn't got round to telling Hacker about it.
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session and we watch tonight's edition of Springwatch, a series that monitors wildlife in the British Isles with the help of a team of presenters and a network of hidden cameras.
What madness !!!!!
Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603),
seen here sporting her ruff
And even earlier, the bluebell sap was used to glue the feathers to the arrows of medieval archers.
typical medieval "feathered" arrows
There's also a lot of folklore associated with them. It's said that when the bluebells "ring", it summons the fairies out of hiding. Who knew? So maybe Lois and I will catch sight of a fairy in our back garden one of these days, which would be nice.
And presenter Iolo Williams, a Welsh speaker, tells us that in Welsh the flower is called Clycha'ur Gog (spelling?), because the first bluebells appear at just about the same time as the first cuckoos are arriving from Africa after our winter.
Language note; I'm guessing that the "clycha'ur" bit is the "bells" bit - like "cloche", which is the French for "bell", but which was originally a Celtic word. It's also where we get our word "clock" from, which originally meant a clock with bells. See? Simples !!!!!
But this segment leaves Lois and me wondering why we've got so many bluebells in the UK, compared to, say, the Continent. We don't know, but it's definitely time we were told - tomorrow's programme perhaps?
22:00 But my god, we're tired. Time for bed, that's for sure - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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