Both Lois and I slept badly last night, and we spend the morning walking about "like death warmed up", as people used to say. It's a comfort, though, isn't it, when your spouse or your partner feels equally jaded as you do yourself - and there's nothing worse than if they aren't, especially if they're all the time just gagging to do things or go places.
It's the pits! !!!!
if your partner isn't feeling as jaded as you are -
it's the pits, no doubt about that!
10:30 A cheering text comes in from Sarah, our daughter who, since 2015, has been living in Perth, Australia with Francis and their 9-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. They told us some time ago that they were intending to move back to the UK, but now, in Sarah's text message today, we get quite a bit more detail on their plans.
They've vacated their house and are currently camping in the family tent. They'll be catching a flight leaving Perth Airport on Monday April 24th, and they'll be arriving back in the UK on Saturday April 29th, having spent a few days in Dubai en route. They'll stay initially with Francis's sister Shirley who lives near London's Gatwick Airport.
Ah Dubai! Incredibly Lois and I have been there, also en route to/from Australia. When you think how little time you sometimes spend in transit, it's amazing how these places stick in your memory. I stopped at Anchorage in 1970 en route to Japan, and I stopped in Moscow, en route from Japan.
the magic of transit points - flashback to April 2016: Lois and I stop off at Dubai
for one night en route to Melbourne - were we really once there?
[Yes, you were! - Ed]
flashback to autumn 1970: I stop off at Anchorage, Alaska, in transit,
en route to my study year in Tokyo - was I really once there, and was
I seeing those beautiful mountains in the distance? [Yes, you were! - Ed]
flashback to autumn 1971: I stop off at Moscow airport, in transit
on my way home from my study year in Tokyo - was I really once there?
[That's enough "Was I really once there?" questions! - Ed]
Sarah has been offered her old job back as a chartered accountant for an accountancy firm in Evesham, which isn't far from here. She'll need to travel back to this area, because her boss Phil wants to see her in the office on the following Friday, May 5th, to start work the following week - probably Tuesday May 9th, because it'll be a special bank holiday on the Monday for the Coronation.
The nice thing is that Sarah is going to stay with us temporarily in this new-build home we moved into at the end of October last year. Yippee !!!! The family hasn't yet had the time to arrange accommodation while their house purchase is still going through.
14:30 It's a pity that Lois and I are feeling so rubbish today, because we've got to chair the fortnightly meeting on Skype of the local U3A Intermediate Danish group that we run.
And it's sod's law that this street of ours, which is usually quiet as anything, especially during the day, turns out to be really noisy today, while our meeting is in progress - we discover that Persimmon, the builders of this half-finished 300-house new-build housing estate, has chosen this afternoon to install little shelters above all the front doors. What are the chances of that happening, eh?
The upshot is that it's really noisy, with impressive modern power-drills being trained on the front wall of our house, just feet away from where Lois and I are sitting in our living-room, trying to understand somebody speaking in Danish to us.
What a crazy world we live in!!!!
Having said that, we're afterwards very pleased that these shelters have been installed - it means you can't get rained on when you're locking or unlocking the front door, which is nice! Call us pampered delicate creatures if you like haha!
Later Lois takes a picture of me showcasing the new fixture:
now at last we don't have to risk getting rained on
when we're locking or unlocking our front door, which is nice!
Doesn't it look great, though!
20:00 We watch a disturbing documentary about a cult called the Lighthouse - not the stereotype and, originally at least, not religious in character, although a religious strain to it came in a bit later, apparently .
It seems hard to believe now, but once I worked for a living - Lois and I have now been retired for 17 years. But thinking back, especially to the 1990's, I remember going on a few courses focussed around various new theories about work and management, and even life itself, the importance of having goals, motivation, life-coaching etc, usually courses based around the ideas of some business superman who had probably brought out several books on the subject.
flashback to 2006: one of the first pictures taken after our retirement
(left to right) my late cousin Peter, my mother, Lois and me
Who would have thought that all that life/work motivation/goals stuff, which seemed so relevant at the time, could, in the wrong hands, turn into a Hare Krishna style cult, and manage to make one man, "the leader" very rich, and turn the poor suckers who followed his ideas into people with massive debts?
It's a crazy world isn't it! It sounds like "The Lighthouse" cult has finally been exposed, however, thanks in part at least, to the journalistic skills of Catrin Nye.
Go Catrin! You go girl !!!!!!
plucky investigative journalist Catrin Nye "buttonholes"
Lighthouse cult leader Paul "Paulie" Waugh
21:15 In search of something more soothing to go to bed on, we watch another old episode of the Cuckoo sitcom from 2014.
Ken and Lorna eh, what a couple! Ken's very much the serious lawyer, but Lorna isn't the staid woman she at first appears to be. In tonight's programme, Ken comes home unexpectedly and catches Lorna doing something she's been keeping to herself.
The first time he bursts in, Lorna is doing a pregnancy-test in their bedroom, but she manages to hide the kit away in time, so that Ken doesn't see.
The second time Ken comes home unexpectedly, he finds her in the bedroom again, and this time she's obviously been "smoking dope".
This time Lorna persuades Ken to join her. They smoke dope together and they wind up in bed (not shown).
Next morning Lorna drives Ken to his offices so he can work on the defence for their neighbour Steve against a charge of medical malpractice. And on the journey Lorna teases Steve about his sexual prowess.
What Lois and I can't figure out is - does Laura want to get pregnant? Surely she doesn't, because we think she persuaded Steve to get a vasectomy, an operation he didn't go through with, although he never told her about this. She still thinks he's had the operation.
We're guessing she was taking a pregnancy test in this episode because she'd missed her period, but we're not sure. We're quite old, so it's sometimes difficult to follow the plots in modern sitcoms. Suggestions welcome - on a postcard please as per usual. Thanks, and this time don't forget haha!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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