Saturday April 29th 2023

This is the big day, when our daughter Sarah, plus husband Francis and their 9-year-old twins Lily and Jessica leave their transit point of Dubai and fly on to England, moving back for good after their 7-year residence in Perth, Australia. Both Lois and I have this strange feeling that it doesn't seem real, and maybe it won't feel real until we actually get to talk to them. I guess that won't be for a while, because  they'll need to get to Francis's sister's house in Kent and recover from their 9,000-mile flight from the other side of the world.

flashback to September 2022: Sarah with the twins...

...and Francis with the twins, on a stormy day near the coast

Lois and I are both feeling incredibly sleepy today - why? Well, we're not sure. We get these days sometimes - do you? 

We have our shower in the morning, and after that we don't do much. Lois does some emailing to fellow church members. While she's doing that, I vacuum the whole house, and after lunch we're ready to get back into bed for a nap. But we have to be out of bed again by 3 pm, because Amanda says she'll be coming some time after then to mow our lawn. Busy busy busy haha! You would never imagine we've been retired for 16 years, would you - it's total madness!!!!

While we're in bed, every so often, we keep half an eye on the progress of Sarah's Emirates/Qantas flight from Dubai. It's exciting to be able to follow it online, isn't it. My goodness - you couldn't possibly have done that in the old days, that's for sure!

2pm - they're approaching the Romania-Hungary border

3pm - now they're going to be coming over Germany

4pm and now at last they're over the North Sea, heading for home !!!!!

... doing a big loop over Windsor before coming in to land at Heathrow!

What an experience for our 9-year-old granddaughters Lily and Jessica! They're not going to remember being in a plane the last time they flew - the flight that took them to Australia in 2015 when they were just 2 and a half years old. 

flashback to November 2015: a tearful farewell to the twins

from Lois and me outside our house in Cheltenham,

as the family prepare to drive to Heathrow for the flight to Perth - sob, sob!

first pictures of Sarah's family newly arrived in Australia December 2015

Keep calm, we tell ourselves haha!!!!

15:30 Amid all this excitement, we also manage to be out of bed for a bit, at just the right time to let Amanda into the back yard to mow our grass. We still haven't got our own lawn-mower or strimmer, but it's not for the want of trying - oh dear!  We're still waiting for our refund from stupid old Amazon after their abortive attempts to deliver us a mower, which never came, despite the fact that it was clearly marked with our name and address - what madness!!!!

It's much warmer today - Amanda's wearing her shorts, which is a good sign. 

Amanda, seen here in happier times,

riding her horse 

The slightly warmer temperatures will hopefully be nice also for Sarah and family coming back from the heat of Australia. They'll still probably think that it's just like winter, however. 

But what a crazy planet we live on !!!!!

Amanda has another go at taming our new lawn

20:00 We wind down with an interesting retrospective on the incredibly successful, long-running sitcom Hi-De-Hi, which was set in a fictitious holiday-camp in the 1950's, the series running on BBC1 between 1980 and 1988. 

For Lois and me, the highlight of this series was the very moving story, behind all the laughter, of camp activities-organizer Gladys Pugh, the Welsh "vamp from the valleys", and her hopeless, unrequited love for buttoned-up camp manager Jeffrey Fairbrother. 

You must remember that heart-breaking scene, where Jeffrey reveals to Gladys that he "almost went into the  church". 

And Gladys responds with "What a pity, Jeffrey! You'd look wonderful standing  in the pulpit in white, with your angelic face, telling people not to do wrong things."

Do you remember? You must do! And then Gladys asks Jeffrey why it was that he didn't take the plunge and become a minister.

And do you remember Jeffrey's reply, the one that set poor Gladys's heart racing?

"Well, after much heart-searching, I decided that I was too fond of the pleasures of the flesh!"

Jeffrey then hurriedly explains to Gladys that by "pleasures of the flesh", he is simply referring to eating and drinking.

"Well, they're nice as well", replies Gladys.

Poor Gladys !!!!!!!!

Later Jeffrey is replaced as camp manager by Clive Dempster, who's the opposite of the professorial Jeffrey. Remember? And Clive tells Gladys, "Those brainy chaps are all the same. They spend so much time with their noses buried in their books, that they get frustrated. It all builds up inside them, and then BINGO!"

And then, almost before Gladys knows it, with little more than a quick "Eyes down for a full house", Clive is already looking down Gladys's blouse - oh dear!

Poor Gladys!!!!  You can't win with men, can you! They're either too distant, or they're all over you! 

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

But tremendous fun !!!!!!

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