Danskcolin: Monday August 14th 2023

Well, Monday has dawned and suddenly a social event is looming large on my horizon, and Lois's horizon too - for us there's always a particular day, when an upcoming social event stops being "too far in the future to think about", and starts suddenly dominating everything - it's a bit weird but that's how it goes with us.

It's actually a mere 5 days away now - our Golden Wedding party at our daughter Alison's in Headley, Hampshire. But we've got to get down to preparing for it now, no question! I'm a shy person, and I'm not at my best at social gatherings, to put it mildly, but there won't be a huge crowd there, so it should be manageable, luckily.

And today there's food we've got to order online, and also a party pack of 50th anniversary balloons, and napkins, and a balloon pump.

See? And that's how you do it!

We're calling it our "Golden Wedding Party", but our real Golden Wedding was last August, and at the time we went out for a quiet lunch for two at Buckland Manor Hotel near Broadway. The postponement for the actual "Party" was to allow our other daughter Sarah and family to attend. She, plus husband Francis and their now 10-year-old twins only arrived back in the UK a few months ago, after 7 years in Australia.

The hotel near Broadway has been the favourite place for us to celebrate our anniversary for several years now, after we were introduced to the hotel by my dear late sister Kathy and her husband Steve.

flashback to August 2022: we celebrate our Golden Wedding with a twosome

at a "secret" location: Buckland Manor Hotel, near Broadway.

[Not much of a "secret" - that's where you always go, isn't it! - Ed]

Yes, we do always go there - here's the same "do" in 2013, so 10 years ago now: yikes, where does the time go?!!!!

Desserten på hotellets restaurant [Desszertek a hotel éttermében ]

In those far-off, crazy days I used to write my blog in 2 languages - Danish and Hungarian (as you do haha!), hence the caption on this photo. And I was still wearing the same suit in both 2013 and 2022, I notice. What madness !!!!

Different tie, though, which is a new approach, isn't it! [I wouldn't put it that strongly! - Ed]

And at least we're not like that couple in the Onion local news a few years back, you know, the "What's-their-names" - lovely couple, but honestly they'd forget their own heads if you let them!

Oops !!!!

A complication this week is that Ali wants me to look out some photos to illustrate our 50 years, photos which she can run in a loop on a TV screen I think. We've seen displays like that at other couples' "do's", but it's not going to be easy - it's a pity, but due to having to downsize to a smaller house 9 months ago, we decided to throw away all our dozens of bulky photo albums, saving all the photos themselves in big pouches, so everything's in a bit of a mess, to put it mildly. Still, I'll do my best!

Here's a start - two of the photos from our actual wedding, in August 1972:

Fifty one years is quite some time, and at least Lois and I pride ourselves on having got to know exactly what the other one likes. Not like poor Pamela Meyers, whose story on Onion News went viral some years ago now - remember?

SANDUSKY, OH—Area resident Pamela Meyers was delighted to receive yet another thoughtful CD recommendation from Amazon.com Friday, confirming that the online retail giant has a more thorough, individualized, and nuanced understanding of Meyers' taste than the man who occasionally claims to love her, husband Dean Meyers.

"To come home from a long day at work and see the message about the new Norah Jones album waiting for me, it just made my week," said Meyers, 36, who claimed she was touched that the company paid such attention to her. "It feels nice to be noticed once in a while, you know?"

Amazon, which has been tracking Meyers' purchases since she first used the site to order Football For Dummies in preparation for attending the 2004 Citrus Bowl as part of her husband's 10th wedding anniversary plans, has shown impressive accuracy at recommending books, movies, music, and even clothing that perfectly match Meyers' tastes.

a typical Citrus Bowl 2004 game

While the powerful algorithms that power Amazon's recommendations generator do not have the advantage of being able to observe Meyers' body language, verbal intonation, or current personal possessions, they have nonetheless proven more effective than Dean, who bases his gift-giving choices primarily on what is needed around the house, what he would like to own, and, most notably, what objects are nearby.

"I don't know how Amazon picked up on my growing interest in world music so quickly, but I absolutely love this traditional Celtic CD," Meyers said. "I like it so much more than that Keith Urban thing Dean got me. I'm really not sure what made him think I like country music.

Meyers said she was especially moved that the online merchant remembered that she had once purchased an Ian McEwan book, and immediately reminded when the author released a new novel. Moreover, despite only having had 37 hours of direct interaction with Meyers, Amazon was still able to detect her strong interest in actor Paul Giamatti, unlike husband Dean who often teases Meyers about her non-existent crush on Tom Cruise.

Poor Pamela !!!!!!!!!

14:00 An email comes in from Steve, my American brother-in-law, carrying the latest series of amusing Venn diagrams that he monitors for us each week on the web.

Yes, keeping your zoom camera off for morning meetings sounds like a good idea. I was lucky enough to have retired long before anybody had heard about Zoom, Skype etc. This venn makes me think of Gary Larsen's classic cartoon on the subject:

20:00 We settle down on the sofa and watch tonight's edition of the "Only Connect" quiz, that tests lateral thinking.

We're pretty tired but Lois and I are both avid cryptic crossword fans, so we have no trouble with finding the connections between the four items here, although it stumps both teams. Can you spot it?

Yes, it's a "word" connection - linking four well-known phrases: "long in the tooth", "jack in the box", "hole in the wall", and "man in the moon". See? Simples, once you see it isn't it haha!

And surprisingly Lois proves to know something none of the 6 contestants tonight know: the exact number of seats in the House of Commons at Westminster, i .e. 650. What a woman !!!!

Enough said!

20:30 We wind down with an old Doris Day film, "Pillow Talk". Just the other day we were watching a documentary about Doris - "I Don't Even Like Apple Pie" - did you see that one?

Who knew that Doris had to take elocution lessons when her career started? She came from Cincinnati, just over the border from Kentucky, and the movie studios' first job was to straighten out her long 'i's, as she puts it.

She was also given some good advice about her singing: to remember that you're not just singing the words, you're playing a scene, and always sing as if you're singing to one person, right in their ear. See? And that's the way you do it - and acting and singing became a "cinch" after that, that's for sure!

Who knew, also, that she was the first choice at age 44, to play Mrs Robinson in "The Graduate", the part that eventually went to Anne Bancroft?

And do you remember those TV ads that Doris did for Blue Band margarine? We'd forgotten about those, I have to confess.

Yes, Doris likes... Blue Band - yum yum!

Fascinating stuff!!! [If you say so! - Ed]

Well, tonight Lois and I wind down for bed with one of the films Doris made with Rock Hudson, "Pillow Talk".

There are lots of amusing scenes, like this one where Rock is pretending to be a shy Texan, seeing Doris home at the end of their date, and resisting her request to come in for some coffee.

Tremendous fun! Although, Lois and I wonder who Dave Garroway is, or was. We should definitely be told, we think!

And later we see Doris talking about the date with her neighbour Mr Allen, not realising that Mr Allen and the Texan are one and the same man.

We like that one - ending every sentence with a proposition - hahaha, tremendous fun!

Did you see the film yourself by the way? If so, did you catch the fleeting glimpse, behind the couple, of a so-called "Automat" sign in the 57th minute?

Go back and check for yourself - it was only showing for a split second, but Lois picked up on it straightaway! An "automat" in those crazy, far-off days, was a restaurant that was fully automated - no waiters or waitresses, you got your food out of a slot machine. I wonder why we don't have those today any more - what a time-saver haha!

Remember the old Marilyn Monroe song, "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"? "Automat" is right there in the lyrics!!!