Sunday July 17th 2022

09:30 Lois and I are up early again this morning to take part in another zoom call with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, and with her husband Francis and their 8-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie.

we talk on zoom with our daughter Sarah and her family

in Perth, Australia: with her here are the twins Jessica (left) and Lily

The twins are in a good mood - they'll turn 9 in just over a week's time. And when Jessica slips away for a moment, Lily takes the opportunity to showcase one of the birthday presents she's made for her twin sister. Lois and I aren't really sure what it is exactly - it seems to be some sort of pillow with pom-poms attached, which is nice.

Lily showcases for us the birthday present she's made for

her twin sister Jessica - we're not completely sure what it is.

It seems to be some sort of pillow with pompoms attached, which is nice.

In the second photo (above), the twins' father, Francis, can be seen on the left of the picture in a red sweater, "sporting" some sort of ski-cap. He wants to stress to us how cold it is at the moment in Perth, compared to the sizzling heat of this weekend's Cheltenham.

Later I check the Met Office website and I can exclusively reveal that he's got a point.

I don't know - the world's turned upside down, that's for sure. What a crazy planet we live on !!!!!

But imagine the twins 9 years old. My god! How they've grown since they were being born in hospital in Gloucester, UK, in 2013.

flashback to July 2013: the day that the twins are born

in Gloucester Royal Hospital, sporting their NHS blankets - how cute they are!!!

And remember those heady days in London, back in 1955, when I myself turned 9 years of age? Oh the nostalgia!

flashback to 1955, London: me, aged 9, with my little sister Kathy (7)

11:00 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in the first of her sect's two Sunday morning meetings on zoom. The sect's numbers have recently been boosted by an influx of Iranian Christian refugees, between 10 and 20 of them. They like to call themselves "Persians", so that the public won't think that they're terrorists - what madness !!!! 

Most of the Persians live in Cheltenham or Gloucester in accommodation provided by the Home Office, while they wait for their claims for asylum to be approved.

a group of sect-members, including Iranians,

relaxing recently on a hilltop in the Malverns....

The village hall where the sect meets on Sundays is just outside the town of Tewkesbury, so the Iranians have to travel up by train, a service which is subject to delays, and, true to form today, they arrive 40 minutes late. To add to the confusion, the sect's simultaneous English to Farsi speech translation software doesn't seem to be working - there's some sort of problem with Microsoft or Google - Lois isn't sure which it is, when she reports the mayhem to me later. 

What madness !!!!! 

flashback  to last August: here we see Lois showcasing the village hall,

just outside Tewkesbury, where the sect is holding its Sunday morning meetings

15:00 Lois and I continue to fret and agonise over which house to try and buy in Malvern, where we're hoping to move in the next few months. At the moment we've got a 1950's house and a brand-new house "on the table". 

the so-called "new" house

The 1950's house has tons of defects - we've asked our son-in-law Francis in Australia to give us his opinion on these. He knows about "building" and "houses", that's for sure - and we know nothing.

The new house won't have those sorts of defects, but we don't know exactly when it'll be ready. The builders' sales office says it'll be "either September, October or November". What use is a promise like that? And my bet it will be (earliest date) November, and possibly later. After all they've got nothing to lose by being unrealistically optimistic. As long as they've got our signature on the contract they can take their time, presumably. 

So we might have to just rent somewhere while they finish it. 

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!

19:00 A phone call with our other daughter, Alison, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children: Josie (15), Rosalind (14) and Isaac (11).

flashback to August 2020: the family visit Cheltenham

in the early days of lockdown, camping overnight in our back garden

Alison, who also works part-time as a teaching assistant at a primary school, tells us about the emergency arrangements that children's schools have been making, in order to cope with the current mini-heatwave, which is expected to peak tomorrow and on Tuesday.

It's complicated a little because Alison's school, and the school that the two girls attend. are both in Surrey. Isaac's school, however, is in a different county, Hampshire, and the two counties have decided on different measures to cope with the heat.

Surrey has laid down that pupils should attend school wearing basically a slightly amended version of their school "gym kit", rather than their formal school uniforms, and that all schools will finish for the day at lunchtime. Hampshire, on the other hand, has closed all its schools for both of the 2 days.

What madness !!!!! [That's enough madness for one day! - Ed]

20:20 Lois and I wind down by looking at two very old editions of the Benny Hill Show and the Harry Enfield Show, on the UK's newest TV channel, the "That's TV" channel, "The Home of Classic TV".

My god! We haven't seen either of these two shows for at least 25 years, and it's a bit of a culture shock. We don't think of ourselves as a "woke" couple, but my god, we are a bit taken aback by how much things have changed from what they routinely used to show on TV then, back in those wild and crazy times!

We can't say we aren't warned, however haha.

the UK's newest TV channel, "That's TV", gives a timely

warning to viewers of a nervous disposition haha

It's nostalgic, tonight, however, to see some bit-part players in the sketches on Harry Enfield's show who later went on to mega-stardom.

Do you recognise Martin Clunes as well-dressed beer-swilling rugby lout #2, in this bar scene?

Harry Enfield (left) and Martin Clunes (centre) as

well-dressed beer-swilling rugby louts

Of course Clunes went on to worldwide fame as the brusque, unfriendly, autistic Cornish GP, Doc Martin, in the long-running series of the same name - the last ever season of "Doc Martin" is due to air soon, and Lois and I are eagerly awaiting that.

Martin Clunes, seen here in happier times, as 

brusque, unfriendly, autistic Cornish GP Doc Martin

And do you recognise Mark Williams as the customer in this second pub scene? Mark enters the bar and asks where the cigarette vending machine is, and cheerful but vague bearded barman Harry Enfield directs him to the juke-box.

pub customer Mark Williams (centre) is looking for the cigarette vending machine,

and cheerful but vague barman Harry Enfield (right) directs him to the juke-box

Mark Williams, of course, went on to worldwide fame as the crime-solving Cotswold priest Father Brown in the long-running series of "Father Brown Stories".

Mark Williams (right) seen here in happier times, as crime-solving

Cotswold priest Father Brown in the long-running "Father Brown Stories" 

Happy days!!!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!