A quiet day for Lois and me, because we're getting ready to welcome our weekend guests: our elder daughter Alison, and two of hers and Ed's 3 children: Rosalind (14) and Isaac (12). It's still half-term till Monday, so Ali is driving over tomorrow morning from her home in Hampshire, and staying with us till Sunday lunchtime.
It's the first time we've actually put guests up in this new-build home of ours, since we moved in on October 31st last year, so 3 and a half months ago.
First thing is to make up the beds: one single and one double. The 4ft 6in double is really squashed into a room that's too small for it. It just about fits, but my goodness, it's a close-run thing, though!
I myself have real trouble getting round the sides of this bed - mostly because of my big feet. They're not exactly enormous: I'm only a UK size 10 (US size 11, Europe size 45), but it still means that I'm continually getting my feet caught in the bedclothes and ending up in a heap on the bed, which is a pity!
11:00 The next thing is to take delivery of all the extra groceries we'll need and pack them away into the fridge, freezer and larder. We ordered a bunch of things from Morrison's online, and the supermarket's American driver has had trouble finding our house with his GPS, which doesn't surprise us one iota - all the delivery drivers who look for us say the same. What a madness it all is !!!!!
As usual, they don't have the flavour of Magnum Ice-creams that we ordered, and they've substituted with the one flavour our grandchildren don't like, so we have to reject those. There'll be nothing for it but to go out ourselves tomorrow to Upton-on-Severn and get the correct flavours from the Warners supermarket over there.
What madness !!!! [That's enough madness! - Ed]
14:00 After our lunch there's a bit of time for a nap up in bed.
In a quiet moment I look at my smartphone and browse the Quora Forum website. I'm pleased to see an article by one of our favourite pundits on the Quora site, Spaniard Aurelio Germes (crazy name, crazy guy!), who's been weighing in on the vexed question of "whether or not Britain eradicated the entire Spanish population of Gibraltar before bringing British settlers there".
A fascinating subject for me. I've always thought it was slightly weird that we have this colony down at the southern tip of Spain, with typical British features like red phone-boxes and post-boxes, and where everybody speaks English.
We've even met a Gibraltarian. When Ali and our son-in-law Ed were living in Copenhagen between 2012 and 2018, we visited them frequently and there was a Gibraltarian we met a few times because he was on the SAS check-in desk at Copenhagen Airport, and he spoke English just the same as you and me.
And then of course everybody's heard of Gibraltarian singer-songwriter Albert Hammond, who wrote "It Never Rains In Southern California" and "One Moment in Time" and other hit songs.
Apparently Gibraltar is a real relic of our naval past, and it became British in 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht. Our quora pundit Aurelio Germes says that at this point in time all but around 25 Spaniards moved over into Spain, leaving behind just a few who were seriously ill, plus a priest and a couple of his assistants, who stayed behind to look after these sick residents. It still sounds really weird to me.
Then, about 40 years later, in 1753, the first official Gibraltarian census was taken, with the following results: 434 British, 597 Genoese, 575 Jews, 185 Spaniards, and 25 Portuguese. Aurelio thinks that these 185 Spaniards, who in 1753 made up 10% or so of the population, may have been Protestants fleeing Spain, or other "special cases".
What a strange story, though - my goodness! Of course we trust Aurelio implicitly. We feel sure he's got it right. And yet... and yet... does Aurelio's answer raise more questions than it answers? What are all those 597 Genoese doing there, for example? They can't be Protestants too, can they? I think we should be told, and quickly!
19:00 A phone call with our daughter Alison in Headley, Hampshire. She's planning to leave for here with Rosalind and Isaac about 9 am tomorrow, Friday, so they should be with us for lunch.
Ed's away on business tonight, in Glasgow, no doubt doing some of his work covering legal issues for the Scottish railway companies, but he'll be back home for Friday night. Our eldest grandchild, Josie, will be on her own there tomorrow, but she's 16 now, and well able to look after herself, and also take care of the family's dog and 2 cats, plus tropical fish - yes, she's more than capable of that job. And she'll have lots of peace and quiet to do her GCSE revision, that's for sure!
flashback to November: me with Alison and Rosalind (14)
on their last visit to us in at our new address:
note the cardboard box cover in Lois's and my bedroom window
at that time we hadn't even had blinds fixed up - what a madness it was !!!!
20:00 We watch an interesting documentary on Channel 5 about "The Great Stink of 1858", when London's sewage problem, combined with record high temperatures, caused problems even for Queen Victoria, and even more so for Parliament.
Sewage had been dealt with satisfactorily for centuries in London by shipping human waste out to the countryside where it could be used as fertilizer by the farmers. But in the mid-19th century somebody had the bright idea of piping it all into the River Thames - bad idea!!!!! Soon even the Queen was complaining about the stench, and Parliament, which was housed right down by the river, had to suspend sittings after members claimed they could hardly breathe for the smells, and some were passing out.
The only answer, of course was to build a proper network of sewers, but then as now, the Government always jibbed at anything that costed a lot of money.
What a crazy world they lived in, back in those far-off days!!!
21:00 An interesting programme, but one which leaves a bit of a bad smell in the nose, so we decide to go to bed on an old episode of "The IT Crowd". You know, that sitcom series detailing the adventures of a small team of IT trouble-shooters, Roy, Moss and their boss Jen, who work down in the basement of the multi-storey Denholm Industries building in London.
You must remember this one - it's a real "doozy" haha!!!!
It's the one where Roy is sad all the time, because he's just been dumped by the only long-term girl-friend he's ever had.
Do you remember? And to try and get over her, Roy's photoshopped her out of all the pictures he has from their relationship.
It's all a bit of a madness, but in a way it kind of makes sense, doesn't it. Admit it - it does haha!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!! See you on Sunday, and I'll tell you all about Ali's visit.
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