Danskcolin: Friday July 21st 2023

For Lois and me this is our first full day of staying with our daughter Alison, son-in-law Ed and their 3 teenage children Josie (16), Rosalind (15) and Isaac (12) at their house in Headley, Hampshire.

But for us, it's a day of "keeping out of everybody's hair" because Alison's family are all getting ready for their big holiday of 2023: a railway adventure into Europe, taking in mainly Spain ("scorchio") and Italy ("scorchio") ending with Switzerland ("mildio" or maybe "dampio" - it's not very different temperature-wise there from the UK, it appears, which will be nice!).

The highlights will be Barcelona and Madrid - where keen soccer fan Isaac is looking forward to visiting the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium, and then Pisa and Florence in Tuscany.

Pisa will be very nostalgic for Alison because she spent a year studying at Pisa University in 1997-8, during which time Lois and I had a memorable stay in the city. Lois and I will never forget our nights under the Leaning Tower staying in that budget hotel where the mosquitoes stayed for free, and where in the early hours the police used to bring drunks to "sleep it off" - it was madness, but the stuff that memories and dreams are made of - happy times!

flashback to 1998: Alison and Lois on a balcony in Pisa

10:00 With all the packing going on here, today is definitely a day for Lois and me to stay out of everybody's way.

So after we do a bit of food shopping for Alison in nearby Grayshott, I get a chance to do some of the quiet things I love, like browsing on my laptop, and keeping up to date with local news from Malvern, the little town in Worcestershire where Lois and I moved to last October.

There's a lot to be said for quiet things, and I'm glad to see, on the influential Onion News, that a local Malvern couple have opted for a quiet wedding. I think there are far too many big weddings these days, so it's nice to see a couple bucking the trend. Maybe it'll start a new fashion - let's hope so, at least!

MALVERN—In an effort to make the ceremony feel as special and intimate as possible, local engaged couple Nate Brewer and Tara Simmons confirmed Friday they were keeping their wedding to just uncles.

“We know we have a lot of friends and extended family members who will feel disappointed, but we’re keeping the ceremony and reception to just immediate uncles,” said Simmons, who explained that while she and her fiancé had initially envisioned a large event with hundreds of friends, family members, co-workers, and acquaintances, they quickly became overwhelmed with the planning and realized that limiting the event to a handful of their parents’ balding brothers was best.

“My uncles Joe, Scott, and Steve will be there, as well as Nate’s uncles Jack, John, and Greg. It’s our dream wedding, really. The wedding party itself will be tiny too, with just the groom’s best uncle and the bride’s uncle of honour.”

At press time, Simmons revealed her fiancé was also her uncle.

Refreshing news, no doubt about that!

13:00 Some amazingly good news also arrives today for our granddaughters Josie and Rosalind. The whole family has been spending a lot of time online in the last few weeks, trying without success, like a lot of people worldwide, to get the girls tickets to see a Taylor Swift concert.

Last week Rosalind was doing work experience at a law firm in central London last week, a firm that legal expert Ed has a lot of dealings with. Rosalind's boss there was very pleased with her work, and has promised today to get free "corporate" tickets for the girls plus Ed, to one of Taylor Swift's concerts in the UK.

How lucky is that? I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that the two girls are now officially "over the moon". My goodness, what a stroke of luck!

And for Rosalind, the answer to "How to get tickets?" is easy - just know the right people, it seems. See? Simples !!!!! And that's the way you do it! But what a crazy world we live in !

Ed and the girls will be seeing the Taylor Swift Show at Wembley Stadium, London in June 2024.

What a coincidence, because in July 1988 I took the girls' mother, Alison, then 13, to a Michael Jackson concert at Wembley Stadium, having taken second place in a competition to suggest a title for Michael's next album - a suggestion that Michael didn't take up, as it transpired, but still you win some, you lose some, don't you.

Michael Jackson performing live at Wembley Stadium, London in July 1988,

with me and our daughter Alison somewhere in the crowd

Happy days!!!!

15:00 There is unfortunately some less good news from Hungary, in an email that comes in from Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend.

It seems that the country's crazy prime minister Viktor Orbán, has been annoying the Romanians again by making his annual speech in Tusványos, Romania, where many of the residents belong to Romania's Hungarian-speaking minority population.

And on social media Viktor has shared a picture of one of his US-based fans, Ákos Kötcsén Szilágyi, who is a supporter of Fidesz, Viktor's crazy political party, and the founder of the New York Civic Circle. The guy lives in New York and is a big supporter of Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump.

He's wearing a tee-shirt with the legend "Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump, the peacemakers, the saviours of the world".

Now that really IS what you call madness!!!!

16:00 Lois and I snatch a bit of quietness sharing a cup of tea with Alison, while we look at the puzzles in next week's Radio Times. We get some help from Alison on the Popmaster questions, which is nice, and makes us feel a bit less like old fuddy-duddies.

Lois and me doing the puzzles today in next week's

Radio Times - and getting a bit of help from Alison

on the Popmaster quiz, which makes us feel a bit more up-to-date haha!

20:00 While the family finalise their packing, Lois and I wind down for bed by watching the latest programme in Michael Portillo's new series of "Great British Railway Journeys".

Tonight Michael is very much in our part of the country and it's fascinating to see him heading out of Gloucester towards the Welsh border, to have a look at a factory, right out in the wilds, that since the 1940's has been making a very well-known soft drink, the blackcurrant flavoured classic Ribena.

It all started in World War II, when oranges from exotic climes were unavailable here. The Government was concerned that the population get sufficient Vitamin C to the nation's children, and in this cause it recruited the humble but thankfully home-grown blackcurrant. The Royal Forest Factory at Coleford in the Forest of Dean first manufactured the blackcurrant drink Ribena in 1947.

the factory near Coleford, Gloucestershire in the Forest of Dean,

where the blackcurrant drink Ribena has been made since 1947

Michael finds that the tanks at the factory contain at any one time 20,000 litres of blackcurrant fruit, and the factory, incredibly, uses about 90% of the UK's blackcurrant harvest. Vernon Charley, who invented the drink in Bristol in the late 1930's came originally from Coleford, and that's why he sited the factory there. See - makes sense at last, doesn't it haha!

Each half-litre bottle contains the fruit of around 37 berries, but there are also 12 other ingredients in the highly protected secret recipe that the factory uses. The factory produces 10 bottles a second.

half-litre bottles of Ribena coming off the production line at Coleford

at the rate of 10 bottles a second - my goodness !!!

Ribena was a staple delicious drink for me and my siblings in my childhood in the 1950's, and also in the childhood of our daughters in the 1980's. And when we spent 3 years in the US 1982-85 we sought out, and found, a shop that sold it in the local mall, which was a great relief to all concerned. Ribena was a go-to reward in our house for giving dour children after they've agreed to swallow some foul-testing medicine, so an essential product to have in the house, no doubt about that.

a typical magazine advert for Ribena from the early 1950's

But who knew that Michael Portillo, who later became one of Margaret Thatcher's and then John Major's ministers, appeared in a TV commercial for Ribena when he was 8 years old?