Danskcolin: Tuesday May 23rd 2023

Lois and I are still feeling jaded after hosting our daughter Sarah plus husband Francis and their 9-year-old twins at the weekend: feeling a bit more rested after yesterday when we spent a lot of the day in bed - oh dear! But not feeling 100% as yet.

We ordered a Hozelock starter garden hose kit from Argos a few days ago, so this morning seems a good time to try and fix it up.

I attach the Hozelock "starter" garden hose to our outside tap

- it seems to fit well !

The hose seems to fit well onto our outside water tap, but later there is much anger when it's discovered that, when turned on, it leaks water all down the wall. Oh dear (again) ! Oh well, I guess there's nothing for it but to dismantle the connection and try to make it firmer second time around - what a madness!!!

11:00 We go for a pre-prandial walk on the common, the first time we've been able to do this for a couple of weeks, for various reasons. And it feels great to get ourselves out into the open at last.

Going for a walk in the open with Lois is always a bit like a guided nature-study walk - what Lois doesn't know about wild flowers could be covered by a postage stamp: the old sort, not the stupid modern ginormous ones with the (to me) pointless barcode, needless to say!

a typical old-style plain and simple stamp and the

stupid ginormous barcoded stamp that Royal Mail has introduced,

that seems to cover half the envelope - - what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Today, however, Lois is for a while puzzled by clumps of little white flowers blooming amid the buttercups. When we get back home, she tracks it down - it's from the parsley family, and probably so-called "cow parsley".

Lois is puzzled by clumps of a little white wild flower

- later diagnosed tentatively as cow parsley. Who knew?

Yes, who knew about "cow parsley"? Certainly not me - I don't know my Parsley Family from my Partridge Family - sorry !!!!!

members of the Partridge family...

...and members of the Parsley family. Shirley Parsley,

Keith Parsley (singer David Cassidy), Laurie Parsley,

Danny Parsley, Chris Parsley etc - not necessarily in that order, need I say!

14:00 There's time for a quick nap after lunch, before I have to drive Lois into Barnard's Green for a 3 pm appointment with Rachel, her hair stylist at the Divine Hair Salon ("It's just the name of the salon, dear, haha!").

us on the sofa in the waiting-area of the Divine Hair Salon

at Barnard's Green, waiting for Lois's stylist Rachel to call her over

Later, Rachel working on Lois's hair, behind the partition

flashback to a cold January: Lois visits the Divine Hair Salon

for the first time

Rachel, Lois's hair stylist

After the appointment is over we pop next door so that Lois can buy some bizzy-lizzies for the pots she keeps in front of our front door, plus we pick up a Belgian bun to share on the sofa.

after the hair appointment we pop next door

so Lois can buy some bizzy-lizzies and a Belgian bun for two...

...and back home in time for a bun on the sofa

15:30 We come home, scoff the Belgian bun and then get back into bed - well, wouldn't you, if you had the option? It's still officially our "recuperation period" from hosting Sarah and family, so you see, so it's quite permissible: and it's all "above board" haha!

20:00 An evening watching the last of last Wednesday's programmes about the late great comedienne, writer, playwright and singer song-writer, Victoria Wood.

Our viewing is disturbed somewhat by some anguished texts from, and eventual phone-call with, our daughter Sarah, who, newly back from Australia with her family, is trying to buy a house near Evesham, where she works. It seems that even more complications have developed with the house deal - oh dear, nothing's ever simple is it - my goodness, but watch this space. Oh dear (again)!

This made-for-TV drama is mainly about a daytime TV show's organised reunion of 2 sisters Pat and Margaret, one of whom - Pat (Julie Walters) - has become a famous soap star in the US, while Margaret (Victoria Wood) has stayed in Lancashire and works as a humble waitress at a motorway services cafeteria.

However, there's also an interesting sub-plot about Margaret's boyfriend Jim, a simple-hearted guy, illiterate while not being as unintelligent as he seems, who's still under the thumb of his ageing mother. His mother, played by Thora Hird, is trying to sabotage Jim's relationship with Margaret so that he will stay at home looking after his mum, rather than get a proper, grown-up life of his own, with Margaret.

Before the drama starts there's an interesting interview with Duncan Preston, who plays Jim. And in the interview Duncan tells us how he prepared for taking on the role of this simple-hearted, kindly, mother-dominated man.

Duncan says that he modelled his performance on his next door neighbour's father. He says, "That man was one of those people who, when he was driving, always had a smile on his face."

Fascinating stuff !!!! And I wonder if that's how Lois and I look when we're driving along. We're not sure, but it's time now that we were told, maybe, before it's too late, do you think?

After the Duncan Preston interview, we see the actual TV-drama "Pat and Margaret". It's a pity but I doze off in the middle, but luckily Lois "fills me in" after I come to.

Luckily I wake up just in time for the iconic "eiderdown" scene between Jim, Margaret and Jim's controlling mother. We see Jim arriving at his mother's house with Margaret, the scene where Jim finally stands up to his domineering mother, after she forbids the couple from setting up home together.