Sunday's always a bit of a mad chase for Lois and me. She has to take part in her church's two Sunday Morning Meetings on zoom with only a short break in the middle for having lunch.
Meanwhile we're still trying to keep up with the day's royal events so we keep the TV on. We see Elizabeth's coffin leaving Balmoral, and somebody says on TV that you never really believe that somebody famous and long-lived has died, maybe, until you see their coffin.
And I think that's true for Lois and me, especially in the case of the Queen who we both childishly thought would still be there, even after both of us had popped our clogs. But no! And it's immediately clear to us, as never before, that Elizabeth isn't coming back. How childish we are!
Queen Elizabeth's coffin leaving Balmoral this morning
we then see [right-hand screen] aerial pictures of the funeral cortege's
progress from Balmoral to Edinburgh via Aberdeen and Dundee
And who knew that the monarch's official bodyguards in Scotland are a company of archers, complete with bows and arrows - it's crazy! Lois wonders if the arrows are poison-tipped, but my feeling is probably not. What do you think? Answers on a postcard as usual please!
Then we see the official public proclamation naming Charles as Elizabeth's successor.
15:00 Well, that's another stage over and done with. The big event to put on the calendar now is the funeral on Monday September 19th, although before then there'll be some lying-in-state, in both Edinburgh and London, I believe.
I also find a book of 6 months of old editions of Radio Times magazine, from the first half of 1962 - it's the Welsh edition, but that doesn't make a huge heap of difference, luckily.
a company of archers are the monarch's official bodyguard
in Scotland - how did that happen eh?
Finally we see God Save the King being played and sung, including by Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister, which is nice.
Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, joins in
the singing of "God Save The King"
the 96-gun salute - and what a beautiful setting,
the city with the Firth of Forth in the background
16:00 After our cup of tea and bun on the sofa Lois and I now suffer a bit of a setback in our efforts to declutter and downsize, so we can move from Cheltenham into a smaller house 25 miles away in Malvern, Worcestershire.
I had convinced myself that our attic was pretty much empty, apart from a few cushions and a chair, but when Lois and I venture up there this afternoon, we find that once again, my memory has been playing tricks on me. In fact there's lots of other junk up there still. We could bring it all down bit by bit, but we haven't really got anywhere to put it all at the moment, so we may need to leave it for the clearance firm to deal with. Damn !!!! Still, that's less work for us, I guess!
disappointment in the attic - we find that it's far from empty,
Damn !!!!!
There are some pluses, however, from our labours in the attic this afternoon. We find our daughter Alison's wedding dress for example, from her wedding to Ed in 1999. We need to ask her if she would like it or whether she's happy for us to donate it to charity.
while rooting about in the loft, I find our daughter
Alison's lovely wedding dress from 1999
flashback to 1999 and Alison's wedding to Ed
at Gotherington, just outside Cheltenham
Lois and me at Alison and Ed's wedding
How delightful! It's pure nostalgia, I tell you!
I open a couple of pages at random, from January 10th 1962
Then, in the evening, we've got dear old "Dr Kildare" with Richard Chamberlain at 8 pm, Rudolf Nureyev at 8:45 pm and a discussion at 9:25 pm about "Is Boxing Dying?" in Sportsview.
And just look at the right-hand advertising panel publicising Leroy Tours and their holidays to "Western Europe", all priced in "guineas" - what madness ! - all being showcased by company boss Lewis Leroy, who surely must have been the model for Benny Hill's "Fred Scuttle" character. And if not he's not the original Scuttle, I think we should be told - and quickly!
Has anybody else noticed how alike the two men are? Scuttle and Leroy, I mean. I wonder if they could possibly be related?
Fred Scuttle
travel boss Lewis Leroy - could the two men perhaps be related?
19:30 We talk on the phone to Alison, our elder daughter, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children Josie (16), Rosalind (14) and Isaac (12).
Ed, a legal expert with Scottish Railways, has just returned today from a 3-day training course in Iceland, and today he's put some charming pictures up on social media.
our lawyer-son-in-law Ed on a course in Iceland this week
20:30 We curl up on the couch and watch the first half or so of an interesting documentary about James Joyce's "Ulysses".
An interesting programme. We didn't know, or had forgotten, that despite its length, the novel really only covers one day and night in the life of Dubliner Leopold Bloom and his girlfriend Molly. It's set on, and commemorates, the evening of June 16th 1904 when Joyce himself met in the street his long-time love, Nora Barnacle, a chambermaid at Finn's Hotel. It was on that night the couple performed a sex act in a cupboard at the hotel. What a crazy life they used to lead in Dublin in those far-off days!
The couple spent the next ten years on the Continent masquerading as man and wife, in Trieste, Zurich and Paris. They wanted to get away from the "suffocating" society of Dublin, a city which Joyce nevertheless loved, and indeed a city which Joyce spent all his waking time on the Continent thinking about.
Whenever apart, James Joyce and Nora wrote each other raunchy letters in what was at the time considered filthy language. And it was these letters that gave Joyce the courage to write his book in the same sort of language, even though it resulted in the book being banned for many years in the UK and US.
Joyce always said he would prefer that just one person read his book and read it a million times, than to have a million people read it just once. He really wanted the reader to get inside his book and live it for himself or herself. Sadly both Lois and I failed him here, although the programme makes us resolve to try again at some stage when we're a bit less busy!
Joyce was a wonderful singer, apparently, like his father before him, and hence all the passages in the book about singers - music brings people together, particularly in Ireland, often in those days to sing of the country's patriotic struggle for independence. It's obvious, however, that Joyce had no interest in the traditional Irish romanticising of martyrdom and of their perennial struggle against the English, and he makes his indifference clear in the book.
Fascinating stuff !!!!!
21:30 We go to bed on an old episode of the 1970's sitcom "The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin", starring Leon Rossiter as burnt-out middle-manager executive Reggie, a man who's seemingly always on the verge of a breakdown.
After years of fantasising about Joan, Reggie has decided that the time has now come to "make his move" on her. And to his surprise he finds she says she's been waiting years for him to reveal his feelings.
And it's a poignant reminder, today of all days, of the Queen's long reign, that when, in this 1976 episode, Joan leads Reggie up to the bedroom, Reggie catches sight of a portrait of the Queen hanging on the bedroom wall and he decides to turn it over, so the Queen doesn't see what he and Joan get up to on the bed.
Oh dear!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!
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