Tuesday May 9th 2023

Yes, it's a "small day" (after all)) for Lois and me today, suddenly on our own after our daughter Sarah plus husband Francis and their 9-year-old twins Lily and Jessica departed our little house yesterday for a few days at a local Airbnb. 

Lois and I try to relax and recharge our batteries as much as we can - we're getting old, no doubt about that. Oh dear!

Ian Shaw, singing at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival at the weekend

- and yes, today is a "small day" for Lois and me, after 5 hectic days

hosting our daughter Sarah and her little family in our very modest-sized house

It's a big day for them, however. i.e. for Sarah and co. 

Sarah herself is going to restart work this morning at the old accountancy job in Evesham that she left in November 2015, when the family moved to Australia. She's got to be at least a bit nervous about that - she admitted to us frankly that she "couldn't remember what she used to do there", and of course since COVID there's far more meeting with clients online rather than by personal visits, not to mention all the new software and software updates that will have come in over the last 7 years - yikes!!!

flashback to 2015: Sarah, second from right, pictured here

with her colleagues at the firm's 80th birthday celebration 

- within 3 weeks of this photo-op, Sarah and her family were on a plane to Australia

A big day also for our son-in-law Francis. He'll be taking the girls to the nearby Church of England school in Alcester for an interview with the headteacher, hoping that the school can give the girls places and without placing them in too high a grade class, so that the twins don't suffer too much of a shock from the level of education in British schools, which is generally higher than the equivalent grades in Australia.

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

the Church of England Primary School in Alcester,

where Sarah and Francis are hoping to send the twins

some typical students at the school

Meanwhile at least the family has been able to relax a bit in their Airbnb accommodation in the nearby village of Ashton-under-Hill, near Evesham.

Last night Sarah sent us a few charming pictures of the family as they settle into one of the site's huts.

the campsite

the twins, Jessica (left) and  Lily, relaxing in their cabin with Francis

Lois and I can hardly wait to hear how they all got on today, that's for sure! Fingers crossed!

20:00 Despite being both brain-dead from tiredness, we decide to risk it and watch this week's edition of University Challenge, the student quiz, and try to get one-up on the students.

Lois and I surprise ourselves yet again tonight by getting 9, yes 9, answers right that the students don't know or get wrong. Yes, we may be old, but in some sort of sense we've still got it, that's for sure!

See if you know any of these "doozies" - bet you don't haha!!!!

1. A single-word term derived from the Latin for 'will': what doctrine is the theological application of the metaphysical belief that gives a greater role to the will, rather than to the intellect? It says that actions are good or right because God wills them.

Students: deontology

Colin and Lois: voluntarism

2. What short word comes from the imperative form of the Hindi-Urdu verb meaning "to see" in English? It also means "look" and usually follows "have" or "take".

Students: squiz

Colin and Lois: dekko

3. The species Anas erythrorynka is more commonly known as the red-billed what? It shares its name with the European duck, and by extension a blue-green colour.

Students: mallard

Colin and Lois: teal

4. Covering the period from 1714 to 1760, the historian Linda Colley's 1992 work "In Defiance of Oligarchy" concerns what political grouping?

Students: the UN [Say whaaaaaaaaat?!!!! - Ed]

Colin and Lois: the Tory Party

5. Linda Colley's 1992 work "Britons: Forging of a Nation" covers a period of more than a century from 1707 to what year, that of the accession of a long-lived monarch?

Students: 1836

Colin and Lois: 1837

6. Name the artist who created this altarpiece.

Students: Fra Angelico (Southampton), Vermeer (Newnham)

Colin and Lois: Giotto

7. "The Sowers" and "The Gleaners" are works by which prominent member of the Barbizon School, noted for his scenes of rural life?

Students: [pass]

Colin and Lois; Millet

8. The following is the International Astronomical Union's official abbreviation of which constellation: the abbreviation "Sct", nicknamed "The Shield", 

Students: cetus

Colin and Lois: scutum

9. "The Garden of the Evening Mists" by Tan Twan Eng is set in which South East Asian country? The novel's time-frames include the Japanese occupation and the post-war emergency.

Students; Taiwan

Colin and Lois: Malaysia 

Enough said. But the bad news for me tonight is that my favourite team, Newnham, are eliminated. They're so funny because they discuss the answers as if they weren't on TV, which is a refreshing change. Well you win some, you lose some, that's for sure.

Yes, it's bye-bye to my favourite team this year, Newnham - sob sob!

21:00 We wind down by watching the rest of the jazz concert from this year's Cheltenham Jazz Festival, the programme we started watching earlier this week.

And it's nice to see most of the performers tonight joining forces in a James Brown medley that ended Saturday's show in Cheltenham's Montpellier Gardens, climaxing with "Papa Got A Brand New Bag".

Tonight's version of this classic song is slightly different from the one that Lois and I have heard before, which is nice.

The lyrics, however, are quite difficult for Brits to understand. But luckily Peter Cook and Dudley "Bo Dudley" Moore explained the original version as follows, many years ago.

Remember that BBC documentary from the Panorama team? 

In that famous documentary, we first saw "Bo" giving a spirited performance of the song in a London nightclub, before being interviewed about the song's controversial lyrics by the BBC's Peter Cook.

"Momma's got a brand new bag yeah

We're gonna groove it the whole night long, baby, yeah

We're gonna work it out, baby, mmm,

We're going to shake it tonight

I hear you talkin', yeah, baby, uptight

Well now you'd better turn me on baby

You burning up now, baby"

Hard to fully understand, aren't they, those lyrics, to put it mildly!

But more understandable now, thanks to Cook's neat summary: 

Summary: The Momma has gone out into the gay, bustling streets of Harlem. She's seen a brand-new bag. She's bought it, this gaily-coloured, plastic bag, she spends the whole night grooving it for her child [i.e. making artistic indentations in it with her specialist "groover tool"]. Then she discovers that she's grooved it badly - she hadn't worked it out beforehand, and only done so afterwards, which was, regrettably, too late. 

Cook's summary continues thus: ...and so, in her rage, she shakes all night, attempts to go to sleep, but the neighbours start talking [I hear you talkin', yeah] - she can hear them through the paper-thin walls. She asks the child to turn on the light [Turn me on, baby - (Harlem dialect expression)], but the child fuses it and whole wigwam or igloo goes up in flames [You burning up now, baby].

And as Cook points out, "We're left with the underlying question - was it right for the mother to squander her money on these gaily-coloured plastic bags? Wouldn't she have better spent it re-wiring the entire house?" 

And then there's the obvious question,  "Should there be legislation to prevent the sale of these bags to people who aren't quite ready to use them?"  Cook is not 100% sure.

Thought-provoking stuff!!!!

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