Danskcolin: Friday April 7th 2023

Not much to report today - over Easter we're going to see our daughter Alison and family: husband Ed and their 3 teenage children Josie, Rosalind and Isaac. So we spend the day with a walk on the common, then a bit of packing followed by a shower and a bit of naptime.

When we get out of bed, Lois has to tidy things up on the computer. She acts as a kind of treasurer for many of her church's activities, including the expenses taken up supporting the 20 or so Iranian Christian refugees that come along on Sundays.

three of the church's Iranian Christian refugees, seen here relaxing

during the lunch break between the 2 Sunday meetings

The refugees are waiting for their applications for asylum to be processed, and in the meantime the Government is paying for them to stay in some not-very-good accommodation in Gloucester, with some not-very-good meals provided for them. Lois has to keep track of the church's expenses, many of which are designed to make these people's lives a bit less dreary and uncomfortable.

What a woman she is!

we start the day with a walk on the common

Then we do a bit of packing. Lois has the big suitcase and I have the little one, plus a big bag. And that's fair enough, because I don't take as much stuff with me as she does, to put it mildly!

the little suitcase I take for my things, plus a bag for extras

In the bag (foreground) I put the laptop and mouse, and all the chargers that you have to take around with you nowadays. It's madness, but I go along with it. We've got no option have we, really!

I also take my faithful Danish dictionary - you can see it there on our guest bed, it's the one with the red cover. Lois and I lead the local U3A Intermediate Danish group, and we have to find the group some short stories in Danish that aren't too sexy and then we help the group to read them by providing vocabulary lists.

We're so kind-hearted haha !!!!!

16:00 When we've had our shower and nap, our thoughts turn naturally enough to having a hot cross bun each on the sofa, with a cup of Earl Grey tea. Don't your thoughts turn that way too haha?!!!

We look at the puzzles in next week's Radio Times, but we only get "middling" scores, It's been pretty much a middling sort of a day - I expect you get those too, don't you? Go on, admit it!

We get a pretty middling 5 out of 10 on Popmaster. Not great, but can you do better?

And we get a pretty middling 6 out of 10 on Eggheads.

Better luck next week perhaps!

17:30 Lois disappears into the kitchen-diner to take part in her great-niece Molly's chair yoga class on zoom.

Lois disappears into the kitchen-diner to take part

in her great-niece Molly's chair yoga class on zoom

Molly works for Leeds Social Services, working with vulnerable individuals and groups. She's also a bit of an entrepreneur and has built up quite a sideline in yoga classes, both online and in person in Leeds.

Lois's great-niece Molly

one of Molly's in-person yoga classes in Leeds

17:45 Meanwhile I amuse myself by watching a bit of telly - an old episode of "Cunk on Britain", a fact-based miniature guide to Britain, past present and future, presented by Philomena Cunk herself.

One tends to forget these days, how much of the style of modern TV documentaries was pioneered by Cunk all those years ago. Techniques like getting outside in the fresh air and away from the lecture platform. She also pioneered the art of starting sentences in one location and finishing them in another, a style which caused a sensation at the time, I remember.

Remember how she surprised us all with her ground-breaking "odyssey" to find out what Britain is, and who we British really are,

Also, before Cunk, no historian had dared to ask the questions we all secretly wanted to ask, but didn't quite dare - do you remember that too? Like for instance in her fearless investigation of Henry VIII.

And remember how so-called Tudor expert Professor Kate Williams, was completely gobsmacked by this question, which, unaccountably, nobody had ever asked before. I think it's fair to say that Prof. Kate had no answer she could give on this one.

It was all kind of embarrassing, wasn't it! But fantastic television!

TV Tudor expert Prof. Kate Williams, for once at a loss

for words, after Philomena poses "that question"

20:00 We relax on the sofa with a new documentary, written and narrated by ex-BBC DJ Paul Gambocini, all about the career of 1950's popstar Buddy Holly.

It's nice to be reminded that in the mid-1950's nobody thought that the "pop music" was going to last more than about 6 months, and so a singer like Buddy was concerned more than anything else to release all the songs and recordings he had, "before the next big thing came along". It was madness, but people all bought into that notion, that's for sure!

Buddy was the kind of singer who was really shy in his everyday life, but the moment he got on stage, it was like somebody had flicked a switch inside his head and he became somebody totally different. But he still looked terrible in his "good suit", until one day the Everly Brothers took him shopping in New York, telling him he looked "too West Texas". They also got him some smart new horn-rimmed glasses, and the rest is history.

And who knew that Buddy was the first pop or rock'n'roll singer really to use strings in the arrangements for his songs, on records like "It Doesn't Matter Any More"? And after Buddy did it, everybody was doing it - Bobby Vee and all that crowd.

Buddy toured Australia early in 1958 and also England - he arrived in London on February 27th 1957, and he did a range of dates at concert halls up and down the country. What a punishing schedule - my goodness, they worked them hard in those days, didn't they !!!!

Buddy Holly's tour dates in the UK in March 1958

Lois and I notice that Buddy did 2 shows at City Hall, Sheffield. It reminds us that, when I was a student at Sheffield and Lois came to stay with me on a visit, we had gone to a concert there on April 4th 1970, when Gene Pitney, Badfinger, and also Clodagh "Jack-in-the-Box" Rodgers were playing. Ah, the memories come flooding back!

the impressive line-up of concerts at Sheffield City Hall,

a top venue - no question about that haha!

And who would have guessed that it was comedian and middle-of-the-road singer Des O'Connor's job in those days to get Buddy out of bed in the morning? "He was a lazy young bugger", Des says.