07:30 Lois and I wake up in a strange bed for the 5th morning in a row - the same bed each time, thankfully! We scramble out and rush downstairs so we can stay "thank you for having us" and "goodbye" to our daughter Alison and grandson Isaac (12) who are off out of the house on their way to job and school respectively. Ali's husband Ed and one of our other grandchildren, Rosalind (15) were staying in London last night.
our bedroom in Alison's house, which overlooks some of their
massive 6.5 acre "grounds"
09:00 We pack all our stuff into the car and leave for our home in Malvern, saying goodbye to the eldest of Alison's 3 children, Josie (16), who has no school today.
Then it's back on the road again. Yikes! Lois and I are getting too old for this! Just the packing and the loading has tired us out quite a bit before we even start on the drive. This is a big old house, and it's a long way just from our bedroom to the front door, going up and down the huge staircase carrying the incredible amount of stuff we brought with us - what madness!!!!
And for some reason the 122-mile journey itself takes 3 hours, whereas the journey here on Saturday morning took only two and a half. It must be the traffic I guess.
[That's enough moaning! - Ed]
our route home to Malvern
There's a slight moment of panic on the journey as we approach RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. We have completely forgotten that the Fairford Air Show or "International Air Tattoo" starts today, an event which is notorious for traffic tailbacks. We had intended to come a different route today, but we just forgot. Oh dear!
Yikes, we're getting old, no doubt about that!!!!
[I think that fact left the realms of doubt several years ago now! - Ed]
flashback to 2018: "appalling traffic queues" near RAF Fairford
the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford
Luckily we started off early on our journey today, so we only meet a few vehicles obviously belonging to people "setting up" the 4-day Air Tattoo, which is a huge relief.
14:00 At least we can go to bed now after lunch, which is nice - you would not BELIEVE!
We try to put out of our minds the risk that our next-door neighbours, Matt and Timera, may ring the doorbell and interrupt us. While we had been having lunch, as two of the few old codgers on this street not at work, the postman found us in at about 1 pm and we had to take in a package for Matt - yikes, it's not easy being old is it! [No more moaning for today, okay? Or I'll send you for an early bed again! - Ed]
17:00 We struggle out of bed and start doing an online supermarket order online on the Morrisons website.
a typical delivery from a Morrisons supermarket
We're trying to get our other daughter Sarah, who lives in Alcester, to give us more notice than she usually does, of whether she's going to be staying the weekend with us, together with our twin granddaughters. But our fridge is pretty empty and we'll need to order a bunch of groceries anyway, whether she comes or doesn't come, so we go ahead with that.
Morrisons aren't always the best supermarket to order from, but they do have plenty of delivery slots which is good. And when it's for a Friday delivery, Lois likes to book an early delivery slot - like the one we book this evening, to come 8:30 to 9:30 am in the morning, so that there's time to pop out and get any vital things that Morrisons say are suddenly "out of stock" or if they turn out to have made some unsuitable "substitutions".
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
21:00 We wind down with this week's episode of the 1970 sitcom "Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads". You know the one where old friends Bob and Terry are chatting about Bob's forthcoming wedding to his girlfriend Thelma.
Lois and I are struck tonight with how refreshingly old-fashioned and conservative Britain still seemed in this 1970 sitcom, compared to today, that is, despite all the changes in social attitudes and all the other upheavals of the 1960's. Lois and I thought the UK had evolved "thoroughly modern" attitudes - right or wrong - by the end of the 1960's, but had it really?
I wonder.......!!!!
There are more references tonight to the religious angles of a church wedding than I think you'd hear today, and more references to religion in general. Thelma's mother was very anxious that her daughter have a Church of England ceremony and "God forbid it should be a Presbyterian one!". What madness !!!!
And in 1970, apparently, prospective bridegrooms were still being given helpful instructions in the form of "preparation for marriage" books, including stuff that was still being looked on as "the dirty bits".
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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