Monday February 27th 2023

Today, February 27th is the 10th anniversary of my dear sister Kathy's death in Norristown, Pa USA. She was born just 20 months after me, in November 1947, so literally I have no recollection of life before Kathy. She was just "always there".

flashback to 1952: Kathy and me at a photographer's studio

in Bradford, Yorkshire

flashback to 1955: me and Kathy in the back garden

of the family home in Kingsbury, London

flashback to November 1984: watching the Veterans Day parade in Washington DC - 

me (right) and Kathy, with Kathy's husband-to-be, Steve

Rest in peace, Kathy. We won't forget you, that's for sure! You'll always be in our hearts.

09:45 Meanwhile, life goes on.

Lois and I drive into the Barnard's Green suburb of Malvern and I drop her off near the "Divine" (just the name of the shop!) hairdressing salon, before driving home. As soon as I arrive back in our house, I get a call from her to say that the salon is closed, and that she "must have made a mistake about the date". 

It's an easy mistake to make, however. I've done the same thing - you see, we're both used to calendars that have Sunday as the leftmost column, and the one we're got for this year has Monday as the leftmost column: hence the mistake. And yes, her appointment is for tomorrow Tuesday, as you may have guessed!

What madness !!!!!

We make up for the mistake, and the disappointment, when I drive down to pick her up. We stop at the Café in the Green to have a coffee and a slice of cake each - coffee cake for me, and lemon cake for her. It's quiet inside, as always on a Monday morning, which is nice!

the Café in the Green, conveniently next door to the Divine

Hair Salon ("no, that's just the name of the shop, dear!")

That feels better haha! Yum yum!

After that, we pop into the shop a couple of doors down and pick up some polyanthus plants - is that the right word? Our frontage looks a bit drab at the moment, and Lois wants to brighten it up, probably with some pots, which makes sense!

These plants are destined for the rather drab frontage of our house, but probably will stand in pots. I know nothing about plants, so I take all this on trust from Lois. But I'm sure she knows what she's doing!

the drab frontage to our new-build home in Malvern -

the most attractive bits are the gas and electric meter boxes - what a madness !!!!

12:40 I'm a proud member of two U3A groups, one is the Intermediate Danish group that Lois and I run jointly - the only one in the UK, for some reason: that's just madness again, isn't it! But I'm also a member of Lynda's "Making of English" group, which is looking at the history of the English language over the 6000 years since the emergence of the Yamnaya culture in south-west Asia: ambitious or what?!!!!

Joe, a fellow-member of Lynda's "Making of English" group, is also a former member of our Danish group. He's married to some Swedish woman, and he left after the group "got too Danish" for him, which a bit crazy but understandable. Today he sends me a puzzling article about some research going on in some U3A groups in the east of England, which claims that English was "creolised" by the Danes,  who created a pidgin language based on Old English, in the 11th century. 

The researchers say that "a sudden change" occurred around 1132 - which is a very precise date. Languages tend to evolve quite slowly, so you wouldn't expect anything much to happen in a single year. I hope these Eastern England U3A groups aren't just having a bit of a laugh and not doing any serious research at all. I definitely think we should be told !!!!

Sounds like a load of nonsense to me !!!!

What exactly happened in 1132? Did the Government just come out and say to the people that they would have to just speak English from now on, or to just speak Danish, or to just speak "Danglish"? Again, I think we should be told. I must try and get in touch with the U3A researchers concerned, and do so urgently! This matter needs to be settled now, once and for all, or, before we know it, it'll be 2032 and another 900 years will have gone past!!! 

Yesterday, on that TV documentary about Linda Ronstadt, Linda said that she grew up thinking that people spoke in English, but sang in Spanish - her father, who was very musical, had Spanish or Mexican roots, I can't remember which. 

Linda said you weren't allowed to speak English at school, however, or you'd be punished. Were the school authorities perhaps referencing some English Government act from 1132? I believe British legislation was still valid in the States after Independence, unless revised or abolished by the Congress. We need to know the facts  now!!!

Linda said they sang all the time at home. "It was completely incorporated into what we did. We sang at the dinner table, we sang in the car, we sang with our hands in the dishwater. I thought Spanish was this magical, musical language. When I was growing up I thought people sang in Spanish and spoke in English. If you spoke Spanish in the playground, you'd be punished, you weren't allowed to do it."

15:00 Steve, our American brother-in-law, has sent us another amusing Venn diagrams from the series he monitors for us on the web.

Particularly amusing this week we think. Actually Lois says that I do poached eggs perfectly almost every time, but I agree that there's always the potential for failure. I remember that on the four-way B&B contest show "Four In A Bed", that we used to watch, the rival B&B owners would almost always ask for poached egg at breakfast, hoping that their hosts for the day would screw it up. 

What I do is I put the eggs into a saucepan of cold water, completely covered in the water, bring them to the boil and then take them off the heat, leaving them to stand in the gradually cooling water for exactly 5 minutes. See? Simples, isn't it really haha!

And let's hope that they've got that Northern Ireland protocol right at last. After all, it's just such a boring issue if you don't live in Northern Ireland, isn't it!

20:00 We wind down on the sofa by watching tonight's edition of Only Connect, the quiz that tests lateral thinking.

this year's second semi-final: on the left the Scrummagers (rugby fans)

and on the right, the Crustaceans (fans of the ocean)

It turns out that there is lots of fun again in tonight's contest. Challenged to come up with the 4th element in the following sequence, the Crustaceans come up with the correct answer: Tereshkova. The names given are the first female astronauts in reverse chronological order, as if you needed me to tell you that!

Presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell admits that of these women, the American, Sally Ride, is her favourite, because Sally talked about her relationship with NASA, and about the fact that NASA wasn't really used to female astronauts. They said to her at one point, "Would 100 tampons be correct for a week in space?", to which Sally replied, reasonably enough, "No, it would not!". 

Educational note: Lois laughs and says 4 or 5 a day would be adequate in her experience - but what madness!!! [That's enough madness! - Ed] 

Later in the contest, this is the challenging wall facing the other team, the Scrummagers.

The wall is resolved as follows:

It turns out that the top row is made up of words spelled/spelt differently in US and UK English. The second row consists of words that can be represented by the letter 'L'.  The words in the third row are all frequently followed by the word 'city'. 

But what about the fourth row? The Scrummagers suggest, incorrectly, that they're all expressions from Cockney rhyming slang. 

And I like Victoria's suggestion about going into a bar or restaurant and saying, "Giss a gin and phonic, mate!" [ie. gin and tonic]. I must remember that one!

It turns out that the elements in the fourth row are actually all anagrams of classical composers: Mahler, Elgar, Chopin and... ...Schubert. See? Simples again!!!

22:00 Lois and I go upstairs.

Our bedroom faces north, so we decide to go to bed tonight with the blinds open, hoping that the cloud cover will clear, and at some point we'll awake and find ourselves bathed in a lovely green light. We've never experienced the Northern Lights, so before we get into bed, I try to adjust my phone camera, switching off the flash etc, just in case we get the chance to take a photo. We keep the blinds open and decide to take a punt on the people opposite not looking in at us!

As it turns out, however, we strike out again, and from time to time we awake to hear a couple of minutes of annoying drizzle, indicating that the sky is still overcast. Damn! And that means tomorrow I'll have to adjust my phone camera back to its normal settings. Bet I get it wrong !!!! Damn (again) !!!!

Other people were luckier - like these people on the Isle of Skye, up in Scotland.

What a crazy country we live in !!!!!

Zzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!!!!

Sunday February 26th 2023

Lois and I spend some time this morning by text and email hopefully allaying the anxieties of our daughter Sarah, who lives in with husband Francis and 9-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica in Perth, Australia. The family are about to do a big thing and move back to the UK after 7 years "down under", and there are lots of financial and legal hurdles to jump.

flashback to 2017: our dear daughter Sarah 

celebrating her family's first 3 years in Australia

flashback to 2018: me with Sarah, at Scarborough, W. Australia

flashback to 1977, 40 years earlier: little Sarah, in my arms

makes her first appearance on camera - awwwww, what a precious little bundle!!!!

11:15 We drive over to Ashchurch, just north of Tewkesbury, so that Lois can attend her church's communion service this morning. When we arrive it's the lunchbreak between the day's two services, so we find an empty table and eat our packed lunches. 

Attendance is sparse today, predictably so, because the Iranian Christian refugees, who make up almost half the congregation, hold their own service in Farsi, every last Sunday in the month, at a room above a café in Gloucester. This is the city where most of them have been housed temporarily in (usually cheap) hotels by the Government, while they await the granting of permission to stay in the UK. The standard of treatment they receive from the Government during their waiting period, is often quite appalling, we think.

The refugees are not allowed to take jobs, so basically they have very little to do all day. Their meals are provided for them, but they are often poor quality and the kind of things Iranians don't normally eat. One young Iranian wife in attendance this morning has suffered badly from rashes etc as a result of the poor standard of the food provided for them at one of these cheap hotels. It really is crazy.

Ashchurch Village Hall during the lunch break: Lois is in the background.

Seated on the left is the young Iranian wife who's been suffering from rashes,

because of the poor quality food supplied by the Government

This poor woman, who's been suffering from rashes looks too young to be married, doesn't she. But Lois says that in these types of countries the fathers like to marry off their daughters as quick as they can, so that they've always got a man to take charge of them and keep them on the straight and narrow. What a madness it is.

Lois then starts talking to a British couple, Lucy and John, who were living on the Isle of Man until about a year ago, but have now moved to a village just north of Evesham, to live near one of their children.

Lois goes over to talk to an older couple, Lucy and John,

under the watchful eye of the portrait of our late Queen, HM Elizabeth II

An astonishing coincidence comes to light from this conversation. Lucy and John live in an apartment in a big old house in a tiny village. The coincidence is, that the house they're in is just literally a few yards away from the house that our daughter Sarah and family are hoping to buy when they move back from Australia this spring.

What are the chances of that happening, eh?

And Lucy and John can also give a glowing report on the local school which our twin granddaughters will be attending after the family moves back to the UK. Lucy and John have a grandchild at this same school, and they say it's a really nice school, a typical village school, not too big, and with a great headmaster and all. Wow, that's reassuring, to put it mildly!

the little local village school which our granddaughters will hopefully

attend, after the family moves back to the UK from Australia

20:00 After another afternoon in bed followed by a nice meal of lamb shanks in red wine, roast potatoes and vegetables, we settle down on the couch to watch an interesting and enjoyable programme about the singer Linda Ronstadt, "

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I've got the feeling that Linda Ronstadt has never had as high a profile in the UK as in the US - maybe because she often sang other people's songs rather than having a lot of original hits over here? I don't know - maybe this is just musical ignorance on the part of Lois and myself. However Linda certainly did an incredibly good job not just of singing other people's songs, but also of "making them her own", that's for sure.

Speaking personally I have got to know Linda's incredible voice really well only in the last couple of years, thanks to suddenly finding I can watch YouTube on our TV, which has broadened my musical horizons a lot, to put it mildly.

One shock tonight for Lois and me is to see the modern (and ageing) face of Peter Asher from the 1960's pop duo Peter and Gordon, and to realise that he's been Linda's manager for decades. We hardly recognise him - he's lost a lot of hair, but haven't we all haha! [Speak for yourself! - Ed]

Peter says tonight, "Linda never thought she was as good as she was. and that is an interesting paradox, because she's confident about her ideas, but not about herself and not about her singing."

flashback to the 1960's and pop duo Peter (right) and Gordon

Dolly Parton says, "Linda has the ability to hear a song and to 'claim' it. You claim it as your own, as a singer. If you love it like that, you get inside it, you become it."

And how nostalgic tonight for Lois and me to see Jerry Brown again - remember him? The one-time Governor of California? You must remember haha!!!! Jerry dated Linda as well as dating his other multiple celebrity dates, apparently. It didn't turn into anything long-lasting, however. And Jerry says that neither of them was cut out for long term relationships. And Lois tells me how much she admires Linda's ability to have held her own as a woman in the heavily male-dominated world of rock music.

Jerry Brown with Linda Rondstadt

Linda is around our age - I google her and find out that she's another "1946-er", a real baby-boomer, just like us. She was born about a month after Lois. It's poignant to read that she was diagnosed with Parkinson's about 10 years ago, later discovered to be a separate but similar condition, and that this has meant that her voice lacks the flexibility it once had. She still enjoys singing at home with her brother and other family members, however, and she remains positive about her life, considering herself to have been really fortunate.

Linda has never married, although she admits to having had this really strong crush on one particular guy, although revealing that it didn't last long - "he dumped me for this pig!", she confesses. Goodness, his loss haha!

"I had this really strong crush on a guy, but it didn't last long.

He dumped me for this pig!".

Trust me, he wasn't right for you, Linda!

Fascinating stuff !!!!

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

Saturday February 25th 2023

Hurrah! Lois and I are still the only couple on our 300-house newbuild estate to have 1930's-style picture rails on our walls, and now the pictures are being hung at an exponential speed. Yesterday there were only 3 on the wall, by tea-time today I find Lois has been busy again and there are now 8 - yikes! When will it end, I ask myself haha! [That's hardly "exponential" growth now is it, Colin! - Ed]

Six pictures in the living-room....

...and another two in the kitchen-diner: where will the madness end haha!!!!

But doesn't it look so much homelier! After all, the bare walls you tend to get in new-build houses can look a bit drab and character-less, can't they!

10:00 Our daughter Sarah, who's been living in Perth, Australia since 2015 with husband Francis and their 9-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, is planning to move back to the UK in the next couple of months. 

a house similar to the one our daughter Sarah and son-in-law Francis

are hoping to buy in the next month or so, when they move back from Australia

Sarah, Francis and the twins pictured here at Christmas 2021

The twins will have some catching up to do at a British school, assuming the move goes ahead. Australian children start school a couple of years later than British children. Sarah herself faced a similar issue herself aged 8, when Lois and I returned from 3 years in the States in 1985. American children also start school a couple of years later than children do here.

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

flashback to 1986: Alison (left), aged 11, and Sarah aged 9,

have to get used to schooling in the UK again, after 3 years in the US,

Plus they have to get used to wearing school uniforms among other bombshells

- what a madness it all was !!!!!

But back to the present!  Sarah and family will need to get a smallish mortgage a few months after they've moved back to the UK, to finance the refurbishment and extension of their property. Francis plans to do most of this work himself, but the family need to find the best lender, so I put them in touch with the mortgage broker used by Ed, who's married to our other daughter Alison. See? This is the kind of thing parents can do, if they keep their wits about them, don't have too many naps, and generally try to keep their brains sharp. You know what I mean!!!

Christine, office manager at Ed's mortgage brokers

11:00 Lois's church is going to baptise another Iranian Christian refugee - they have about 20 or so Iranians in all who attend their local services. And they're "broadcasting" the ceremony and the accompanying service on zoom, which is convenient, so Lois will watch from here.

Lois logs on to watch the baptism on zoom. Unfortunately

there's really bright sunshine in our kitchen so it's difficult to make out

the screen, even with the blinds drawn - what madness !!!!

The ceremony is taking place in the back garden of local church elder Andy's house near Eckington, in Andy's hot tub. It's only February so it's a mite chilly out there, so only Andy, plus of course the baptiser and the "baptismal candidate" will be out in the garden, while other church members watch through the window of Andy's kitchen-diner. It's always by full immersion - the church believes that anything less doesn't count as a baptism.

Because it's such brilliant sunshine in our kitchen, it's very hard for Lois to see the detail on the screen, but it's good enough, she says, which is a relief.

February weather in the UK is not the best weather to have for getting into a hot tub, but everything seems to go smoothly this morning. 

A couple of years ago I drove Lois to Andy's house because she wanted to witness another baptism, this time of a British candidate, but fortunately that was in summer, so the church members were able to gather outside in relative comfort.

flashback to 2021: another baptism in Andy's hot tub,

carried out by Andy and watched by Andy's wife 

14:00 After lunch we go up to bed for a nap, as we usually do on a Saturday, but we decide not to bother with the shower first this week - we had one a couple of days ago, and people say now that you don't need to shower every day. Once or twice a week is fine: it saves on water too, so it makes sense to us! Sue us if you like haha!!!!

20:00 We watch the latest episode of Bettany Hughes' oddly-named series "Treasures of the World".

This is a very nostalgic programme for me, because I went on a business trip to Cyprus in the late 1980's, with 2 of my work colleagues. The government department were I used to work had 3 or so "branch offices" in Cyprus on land ceded to the UK in perpetuity at time of the independence of the island in the 1960's, the so-called SBAs (Sovereign Base Areas). 

Two of these "branch offices" were fortunately in the south of the island, but the third was in Famagusta, which fell to the Turks when they invaded in 1974. Lois and I were at the time very friendly with a British couple, James and Judy, work-colleagues of mine, who had been posted to Famagusta shortly before the Turkish invasion. They told us how they had to hastily pack all their belongings into their old and not-very-reliable Renault 4, and drive like crazy to the safety of the south.

Yikes, glad it wasn't us haha!

a typical old Renault 4 - I don't think James and Judy's

was quite that bad, but who knows?

For my business trip in the late 1980's, I was accompanied by my deputy, Yvonne, and an army sergeant Dusty. We were staying on the British army base at Dekhelia. Luckily we had time off in the evenings and at the weekend to have fun and also do some sightseeing. 

my travelling companions, Dusty and Yvonne

During our trip in the 1980's I remember seeing some fascinating Ancient Greek and Greco-Roman ruins, of which the most spectacular was a huge stone amphitheatre.

the Ancient Greek amphitheatre that we visited.

I'm the figure in blue shirt and shorts standing on the top

It's interesting to see in tonight's programme a visit by presenter Bettany Hughes to  a similar amphitheatre on Cyprus - or is it the same one as the one I visited? I'm not sure - the jury's still out on that one. Still, it's the same principle, I suppose.

the amphitheatre at Kourion, visited by Bettany Hughes

Well, we've seen Bettany touring Greek and Cypriot ruins many times before, so tonight for Lois and me perhaps the most interesting part of the programme is when she's taken through the peace line or green line or no-man's-land that runs through the middle of the capital, Nicosia. It's been pretty much left the way it was in 1974, when the UN took on their peace-keeping mission.

Perhaps the most bizarre sight is a collection of what were around 50 brand-new cars in 1974, all rotting away at a former Toyota car dealership. The cars had all been landed at Famagusta and then driven to Nicosia for sale, so they've all got just 30-50 miles "on the clock". And they have never moved since!

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

21:00 We wind down with an interesting documentary about the Kemp brothers, guitarists in 1980's band "Spandau Ballet", as part of nationwide celebrations for "Forty Years of Spandau Ballet".

Some interesting snippets emerge from the programme. We see Gary and Martin returning to their childhood home in Islington, North London. One amazing thing is that this was the first time they'd ever been back there since 2019, at the time of the last documentary that was shot about them - who would have guessed haha ??!!!

Programme-maker Rhys Thomas asks the two Kemp brothers why they decided to manage themselves. Their answers are quite revealing:

Martin: We didn't see the point in paying someone else, you know so I manage Gary and Gary manages me.

Gary: I used to manage myself and Martin, but it got too much. So Martin came in to lighten the load, and took me on, and now I can focus more on him.

Not as simple as it sounds, is it - pop management!

Gary Kemp (left) and Martin Kemp dishing the dirt on the

ugly realities of pop management in tonight's Rhys Thomas documentary

flashback to Spandau Ballet's 1980's heyday:

Martin (far left) and Gary (far right)

What a crazy world we live in !!!! [You've got to stop saying that! - Ed]

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