13:00 Lois and I stumble back into our house a little bit tired and wet from our walk on the common, and we're immediately faced with a ticklish issue.
What is the world's most recognisable face?
An email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, suggests that it may be Adolph Hitler, although one in 20 British schoolchildren apparently identified his face as that of Germany's national football coach. Lois and I don't think they look alike at all, to be frank!
Adolph Hitler
Hansi Flick, Germany's national football team coach
A minority view, however, according to Steve, is that it's Rowan Atkinson, in his Mr Bean persona, who is the world's most recognisable face: Atkinson says it himself in a PBS documentary that Steve has seen. So it'll be a pity if Atkinson "muddies the waters" further by taking on the role of Hitler in TV's "Peaky Blinders" series, as reported a couple of years back.
That really will be confusing - no doubt about that!
Rowan Atkinson (left) with Adolph Hitler
a wet walk on the common....
...followed by a slightly naughty and fattening coffee'n'cake session
in Poolbrook Kitchen and Coffee Shop - yum yum!
flashback to April 2019: Poolbrook Kitchen and Coffee Shop
seen here in warmer and dryer times
Sue rings the door-bell - she always seems to come when we're in bed, so I have to struggle downstairs in a hurry again, to try and catch her before she gets back into her little van. Sue is the local delivery driver for Evri, Britain's worst delivery company. We once caught her out claiming she "couldn't deliver" a parcel to us, when we know for a fact that she didn't even ring the doorbell or knock on the door. What a madness that was!
Lately however, Sue has been much better and friendlier - maybe because of a couple of bad reviews, do you think? But we don't know for sure - the jury's still out on that one. And I have to say that Evri themselves are very much at fault today because we didn't get our usual email with a time-slot: and no email either to say she'd delivered our package, so no chance to give Sue a good review, which is a pity.
It's funny to think about how many days we typically get deliveries of one sort or another every week - something that didn't happen that much for us before the pandemic. It's a different world now, isn't it - see?!
Also look at all the days when we, as a retired couple, take in deliveries for our working neighbours - Matt'n'Timera or Laurence. At least it makes us feel useful for once, which is refreshing!
And what did Sue deliver today? Why, some heavy-duty bookshelf book-ends, from Ebay, for what will be our shiny-new kitchen bookshelf for Lois's cookbooks - see? It's all beginning to make horrible kind of sense now suddenly, isn't it haha!
16:00 A new concern is starting to hit us. What are we going to do with our so-called "back garden"? We've turfed it, but we've got no shed, and no lawn-mower (because no shed, so nowhere to stash it). Soon that grass of ours is going to go wild and quickly turn into a jungle, that's for sure!
Yikes!
To make our concern worse, "shed fever" has started to hit the street, all new-build houses where people have not yet experienced a spring here, when grass grows like crazy in England, as you know.
A couple of days ago the couple with the two children had a shed erected at the back of their driveway, and today components for a shed were delivered to "Mrs W" who lives next door-but-one to us, the other side of Laurence.
Help! It's "shed fever" time all right, but we can't do anything yet, because Lois has to decide what she wants to do with our back garden "space".
"Shed fever" has "hit the street", no doubt about that! And we know how to do it, as the songs says!
the couple with the children across the street
have a shed erected at the back of their driveway - yikes!
our turfed back garden (right) and Mrs W's back garden, next-door-but-one,
with its shed components stacked against the back fence - yikes (again)!!!!
interview with modern composer Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson (left)
hosted by Eric Idle on the BBC's flagship arts programme, "It's The Arts",
an interview which led to Arthur's eventual ejection from the studio
20:00 We settle down on the couch to watch an old 1987 acting masterclass given by film actor Sir Michael Caine on BBC4.
Luckily Lois and I are fairly ancient now, so not getting up from a chair too quickly is an art we've pretty much been able to master without too much problem haha!
And, crucially for us, Michael gives his masterclass pupils some advice about something they may not have thought about: what if the special effects man comes in and says, "You stand here, and on the word 'Action!' that wall will be blown out - don't worry it'll go the other way!" or "The roof will come down, but that way!", or "The floor will open up and you're going to fall in some water!". Or "There's a shark in there, but don't worry, we took its teeth out!".
Or "As you crawl out of the water, a snake will crawl up your trousers, but don't worry, an expert from the zoo has just milked it".
And Caine advises that, in any situation like that, before you do your part, make the special effects guy demonstrate it first and do your part, just to show you!
Makes sense to us, because I think these are just the very scenes that Lois and I would find the most challenging, that's for sure!
And interestingly, from the point of view of today's #metoo era, one of his class asks him what's the best way to prepare to do intimate scenes with an actor or actress you've only just met. Is it important to get to know them and to feel relaxed with them before you film the scene?
"The thing to do is to be extremely professional about the whole thing, inasmuch as this is a job, this is what we do, we're naked in bed, we've never met each other before. You're rarely naked, but you're in some intimate positions, kissing people you've never met. What I do is I joke about it a lot, so that the actress is never under the impression that I'm getting off on it".
Fascinating stuff!
22:00 And, as we go to bed, Lois and I reflect on how we've become real "nosy neighbours" since moving into this house, monitoring such things as shed acquisition and window-cleaner hiring by our neighbours.
Caine of course is the world's most famous "nosy neighbour".
"My name is Michael Caine, and I - am - a - nosy neighbour"
- that was his catchphrase
Come on BBC, pull your finger out haha!!!!!
Zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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