10:00 We get another surprise visit, the second in two days, from Graham, site manager for this half-finished 300-house new-build estate in Malvern, where Lois and I bought a house over 3 months ago.
part of the half-built 300-house new housing estate
in Malvern, where Lois and I have been living for3 months
Yesterday Graham told us that he'd decided to "move" his customer care manager Neil to a less sensitive site after disagreements about Neil's performance. Today, when Graham calls round, he brings with him Neil's replacement, Harry, to introduce him to us and to get us started on our much-delayed 30-day "snagging report", where all outstanding defects with our property will be listed, and hopefully corrected "the same day", Graham says. That day is scheduled to be Monday, so we'll see!
11:15 It's cold again, but the sky is blue, so Lois and I decide to go out for a walk on the huge nearby common, with its lovely views of the hills to the west and across the valley to the east. There are loads of walkers and dog-walkers about, but they leave us alone, which is nice!
we go for a walk on the common, with lovely views of
the Malvern Hills to the west...
... and of the Vale of Evesham to the east
we sit awhile on a bench by a half-frozen pond
14:00 After lunch we go upstairs for a nap. When we finally roll out of bed, I check my phone and see a message from Tünde, my Hungarian pen-friend, passing on the shock news broken by the Hungarian news media (telex.hu), that comedian John Cleese is planning to revive the Fawlty Towers 1970's sitcom after 40 years - "Waczak" Hotel as it's called in Hungary.
Now that really is madness!!!!
Cleese wants to play his original character Basil Fawlty. In the suggested revived series, Basil discovers he has a daughter he didn't know about, and the two decide to open up a boutique hotel. And the daughter is going to be played by Cleese's own daughter, Camilla.
I can't help thinking this would be a huge mistake, John. Leave us with our memories of the original series intact, please!
Later I read that the Daily Express has also picked up the story, but report that the early BBC reactions are firmly against the idea of a reboot, so fair enough!
I think that's the right reaction by the BBC, speaking personally. The show could never be as funny again if it had to be "politically correct", that's for sure!
20:00 Lois disappears upstairs to take part in her church's weekly Bible Class on zoom. When she emerges we watch the third episode of the mammoth 8-part series "Atlantic Crossing", which chronicles the fortunes of the Norwegian royal family during World War II.
This series is a bit slow-paced, to put it mildly, but Lois and I don't mind, because it's a subject we knew literally nothing about before beginning to watch it. Also it's nice to hear the weird Norwegian language, which is quite like Danish but has a quite different intonation.
The series is certainly pushing the idea that FDR, who, we have discovered, had quite an eye for the ladies, took a fancy to Swedish-born Martha, the Crown Princess of Norway, who had sought refuge in the US with her children, and that this was a significant factor in persuading FDR to try and push his Lend Lease Bill through Congress. This was the legislation that allowed him to "lease" military equipment to countries, principally Britain, that were still holding out against Nazi Germany.
We see some hand-holding and heart-felt exchanges between FDR and Martha, in which Roosevelt candidly mourns his physical disability and details all the political pressure that he is under. To us it seems fairly innocent, although it seems to excite the jealousy of FDR's mistress and secretary.
For Martha, politics clearly isn't her "bag", but she is nevertheless relentlessly prodded by the Norwegian Cabinet and Royal Family to try and influence FDR into sending equipment to the allies.
In the programme, Martha does this influencing with the help of a personal anecdote - at some time in the past Martha's house back home evidently caught fire, and her neighbours did all they could to help out, on the grounds that "fires spread". According to this episode, FDR is obviously impressed by this anecdote, because he is shown to include it in his speech to the press explaining the rationale of his Lend Lease Bill: "fires spread", and if Britain falls, the US will become a target, because it would be pretty much the only island of democracy left in the world, as Martha had said to him.
It's interesting to Lois and me that FDR's wife Eleanor remains steadfastly opposed to the idea of the Lend Lease Bill, at least for the time being. We suppose that that must be historically correct, but we're not sure. Perhaps we should be told?
Fascinating stuff !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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