Another funny old day really - a nasty day weather-wise, with drizzly rain most of the morning.
Lois and I had been planning to drive over to Headley, Hampshire, to our daughter Alison's today to spend Easter with her family - husband Ed and their 3 teenage children, Josie, Rosalind and Isaac. However, we found out yesterday that Isaac had come down with a virulent tummy bug, so we've put the journey off for a few days, until it becomes clear whether the infection is going to run through other members of the family.
See? You know it makes sense!!!
flashback to Christmas 2022: us with Alison and family, seen here in happier times
(left to right) Isaac, Ali, Lois, Rosalind, Josie, me and Ed
This has meant a rethink on shopping and meals. We had already cancelled our doorstep milk deliveries so we're running out of milk, and we'll need to get some other essentials. We plan to drive over to the local coffee shop, Poolbrook Kitchen and Coffee Shop, and then get a few groceries at the One-Stop shop next door.
Disappointment awaits us however, when we find that the coffee shop has already closed for Easter - it's overenthusiastic public holiday madness, I tell you !!!!!
the local Poolbrook Kitchen and Coffee Shop, seen here
in happier times: when it wasn't shut for Easter - sob, sob!
We decide at least to use some of our time today to fill the car up with petrol for the journey. It's always a bit mad trying to get petrol immediately before Easter because everybody else is doing the same.
Good! So we're all "tanked up" now, and ready to go, which is nice! Once again, being retired, we can beat the competition!
We finish our mini-expedition this morning by getting milk and a few other groceries, plus 12 loo rolls. It seems incredible but we're only now just coming to the end of the huge quantity of loo rolls that we stockpiled at the start of the pandemic. Those loo rolls have seen us through hard times, no doubt about that!!!!
I showcase on our bed the 12 loo rolls that we buy today.
It seems hard to believe, but the huge quantity of loo rolls
that we stockpiled at the start of the pandemic, are only now
beginning to run out. Such are the benefits of foresight haha!!!!
15:00 An unexpected benefit of not driving down to Hampshire today is that we're still here in the house, and not away, when Martin, our friendly local window-cleaner, rings our doorbell in preparation for doing his monthly clean.
Martin doesn't use a ladder, he uses some sort of cleaning device on the end of a long pole. This is a definite plus, because if we're having a nap we don't have to get out of bed, which is nice!
Martin, at work cleaning our bedroom window
15:30 Martin goes off after pushing his bill through the letterbox, not using a long pole as far as I can see, and I pay him later by online bank transfer. See? That's the way people do it these days - and you'll find that Lois and I are as modern as anybody else!
Martin uses a pole to clean windows, but not to push
his bill through our door, which is a relief!
19:00 We settle down on the couch to watch Monday's edition of one of our favourite TV quizzes, University Challenge, the student quiz.
Tonight's quarter-final contest is between Southampton University and Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
Lois and I have a great time during the quiz tonight, and get 8 answers correct that the students don't know or get wrong. Woweee!
See how many of these "doozies" that you know - bet you draw a complete blank haha!
1. Three questions about constellations, as described in the ancient Greek work Katasterismoi, attributed by some to Eratosthenes of Cyrene.
(i) Some say that it is a reminder of the first labour of Heracles, since he, thirsting after glory, killed this animal without a weapon, strangling it with his hands.
Students: the Bull
Colin and Lois: the Lion (Leo)
(ii) She was placed among the stars because of Athena to commemorate the feats of Perseus. Her arms are outstretched as when she lay exposed to the sea monster.
Students: Hera
Colin and Lois: Andromeda
(iii) He carried Europa from Phoenicia over the sea to Crete. The stars named Hyades make up the forehead and face. Toward the edge of the backside are the Pleiades.
Students: Orion
Colin and Lois: the Bull (Taurus)
2. Identify this city, which houses multiple Max Planck research institutes:
Colin and Lois: Leipzig
3. Identify this city, which houses 8 Max Planck research institutes:
Students: Stuttgart
Colin and Lois: Frankfurt
4. According to Schopenhauer, life swings like a pendulum, to and fro, between pain and what undesirable state? Bertrand Russell said that half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
Students (Robert Gordon U.): suffering, (Southampton): despair
Colin and Lois: boredom
5. The Zimmermann telegram of 1917 proposed an alliance between German and which country? Its publication helped gain support for US entry into the First World War on the allied side.
Students: Russia
Colin and Lois: Mexico
6. Created using death masks, the tomb in Westminster Abbey of which English king and his consort is described as England's greatest memorial of the Italian Renaissance?
Students: Henry VIII
Colin and Lois: Henry VII
Enough said - Lois and I are going to be in a good mood when we go to bed tonight, that's for sure!
20:00 Lois disappears into the kitchen to take part in her church's weekly Bible Class on zoom. I help her to set up the stereo speakers in case the sound is bad again.
21:15 Lois emerges from her zoom session and we sink down on the couch to watch a bit more TV to go to bed on, an old episode of the Cuckoo sitcom from 2014.
Yes, I know the synopsis is a bit complicated, but you must remember this episode! You know the one where Ken and Lorna's teenage son Dylan plans a party for when his parents are away, with the idea of losing his virginity to Zoe, teenage daughter of family friends Steve and Connie.
You know the one, don't you!!
Dylan's mother is actually keen for her son to hook up with Zoe, but unfortunately his mum lets the secret out about his plans to Zoe's mum Connie, who is horrified.
The two mums then gate-crash the party and surprise Dylan and Zoe in the bath about to have sex - you must remember this one?
And you definitely remember this bit, don't you haha !!!!! When the two mums start hammering on the bathroom door!
The mums burst in, and then Dylan throws up all over Zoe in the bath, because like everybody else at the party the couple have been eating potato with a home-made dressing made from 2-year-old fish sauce that's just been kept unrefrigerated in the garage.
Meanwhile downstairs, all the other kids at the party are starting to throw up over each other.
Lois and I had to look away at this point, but thinking back, it was all the most tremendous fun, wasn't it haha!!!!!! [I don't think you've really shown that! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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