Sunday March 26th 2023

It's my real birthday - hurrah! I'm seventy-seven today - that's a great age to be, isn't it. What a pity that the clocks went forward an hour overnight, so that Lois and I are feeling a bit drowsy when we eventually drag ourselves out of our warm, comfortable bed. Damn!!!

After breakfast we have a cup of tea on the sofa while I unwrap my presents: Lois has given me a box of Turkish delight, a book on the history of Iceland, a sort of hot-chocolate drink-maker, and a DVD of the tenth series of my favourite sitcom, Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm". What could be a better combination? And our daughter Alison has given me a bottle of Hendrick's Gin, so that completes the picture more than satisfactorily.

Good !!!!

Yes, Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10, and the first episode (see above) sounds action-packed, to put it mildly - my goodness!!!

We are under a bit of time pressure this morning - Lois has agreed to provide a lunch for the visiting preacher at her church, and a bonus one for the preacher's girlfriend, and also she wants to leave here on 11 o'clock for us to drive to the church at Ashchurch, just outside Tewkesbury, to make sure she has plenty of time to serve the couple with the lunch before the 1:30 pm meeting starts.

10:00 Because of this time pressure we have a shorter zoom session than normal with Sarah, our daughter in Australia, and her 9-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica. Sarah and Francis are in the process of vacating their rental home north of Perth, which they must do by Wednesday. After that they're going to be camping at a camp-site near the airport, in preparation to flying out of the country on April 24th. They'll be spending a few days in Dubai, before flying into the UK on April 29th, thus ending their 7 year residence down under.

Yikes, exciting times!!!!

The twins want to wish me a happy birthday on zoom today and show me the birthday cards they have made for me - they're so sweet!

the twins show me the birthday cards they have made for me

with their sweet messages and cute artwork - aaaaaawwwww!!!!

Is it not worth all the money in the world to have 9-year-old granddaughters who spend time making me adorable cards like these? [Say that once more and you're fired! - Ed]

Both twins have seen Peter Pan the Movie, and they are interested to know about their 12-year-old cousin Isaac, in Headley, Hampshire, who has got the part of one of the Darling children, John, in his school production of the musical. He is singing one of the songs, and is going to be flying across the stage at one point. I tell the twins that I only had one piece of advice for Isaac for when he's doing the flying scene - don't scream while flying through the air, however much you may feel like doing so, because if you do, it'll really take a lot of the magic out of the spectacle, especially in front of such a predominantly young audience - that's for sure!

If all goes well, the twins will be back in the UK by the time the performance takes place in July, and they'll be able to watch it live at the school, which will be nice!

John Darling flying through the air 

in a typical animated version of the Peter Pan story.

Don't scream, John haha!!!

11:00 We drive off to Ashchurch so that Lois can attend her church's Sunday morning meeting. The rest of the congregation are particularly glad to see Lois today, because numbers are down quite a lot this morning - this is the Sunday in the month when the church's contingent of Iranian Christian refugees are holding their own Farsi meeting in Gloucester, and also many of the church's British members are away for one reason or another. 

I count only about 20 souls there this morning, way down on the average, and this total includes only one dog, Richard's, who today has no other dog to chat with or catch up with, which is a shame.

Poor little doggie !!!!!!

Because there are so few people present today, Lois takes off her coat and volunteers to do a lot of the work in the kitchen, serving meals, washing up and putting away etc. She's so kind-hearted - I wish I could be more like her!

Lois typically volunteers to do much of the lunch-serving

and washing-up in the kitchen.

today's president, Alan, sits and eats his lunch under the clock in front of the big screen;

and the visiting preacher's girlfriend (standing, centre) talks to Gill

and Brenda, while chief elder's wife Angie (left) pets Richard's dog,

the only dog present this morning -  awwwwwww, bless him !!!!

21:00 We wind down on the sofa with the first episode of the BBC's new "jazzed up" [old person's phrase] version of Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations".

Let's admit it from the get-go: at first Lois and I said we'd "boycott" this series in protest against the BBC "jazzing up" [old person's phrase] yet another Dickens classic, as if what "old Charlie boy" wrote wasn't good enough for us any more. Then we changed our minds and decided to watch at least the first episode - just to see how awful it was and maybe do a little gentle mocking just between ourselves - well, it is Sunday night, isn't it, time to let our hair down haha!

As it turns out, it isn't as awful as the Radio Times has led us to believe, although there's been much speculation between Lois and me as to what the threatened "sex scene" could possibly be - it's not in Episode One, that's all that I can exclusively reveal at this point in time. 

The casting is weird - but no surprise there! We knew from the cover of Radio Times which character the statutory actor/actress-of-colour was going to play - and, as suggested by the cover picture, this time it's Miss Havisham's ward, Estella, the orphan, who's being played by the great Chloe Lea (remember her in Scott and Bailey?). 

It's a bit weird however, that the producers seem to have given Olivia Colman, who plays Miss Havisham, a fake tan (see picture) - particularly ironic, given that Miss H, the archetypal jilted bride, who still wears her bridal veil every day, spends most of her time "hiding herself  in sorrow" "in her lonely mansion with a tear in every room" [phrases copyright: Dick Reynolds and Jack Rhodes] . 

To sum up, Lois and I are pretty sure Miss H. doesn't get out much, so presumably she must have her own tanning lamp in one of her extensive boudoirs. But we can't say that for certain - we looked, but we didn't spot a lamp in any of the dark corners, so the jury's still out on that one!

Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman) seems to have acquired a tan, 

despite not getting out much - but is that a

so-called "tanning candle" that we see before us?

I think we should be told - and quickly !!!!

And what about Pip himself? He's supposed to be about 9 when he first meets Miss Havisham, but Tom Sweet looks and sounds like he's about 16, and he's already doing a lot of work at the family's blacksmith business.

What a madness it all is !!!!!

Pip (Ffion Whitehead) is supposed to be 9 years old 

- shome mishtake shurely!!!!

Apart from the above, however, the programme isn't too awful so far, so we'll see.

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