Yikes! It's almost September already, and lots of big events are coming up, some of them very much to be feared. What should be a pleasant thing, however, is going to be a get-together of some of my 30 plus cousins at my cousin Jeannette's house in Beaconsfield, Bucks. Lois and I will drive there, but it's about 120 miles, so I'll have to book a couple of nights at a nearby hotel for us, before and after the "do".
My cousin Jill is hoping to attend, but will be coming by public transport, so I start thinking about finding the best way of picking her up from her coach and dropping her back there for her return journey. Later today she texts me to say she thinks the coach journey - 4 hours each way - is perhaps a bit much, so she probably won't be coming after all. So we'll see.
Of course all we cousins are becoming dreadful old codgers now, Lois and me included, so I'm expecting that attendance will be considerably down on the get-together we had 15 or so years ago - oh my goodness yes!!!! On that occasion, incredibly, there were still 3 members of my mother's generation around to take part - my mother, her sister Babs, and her sister-in-law Bobby.
get-together of my 30 plus cousins, with spouses and children
that took place at my cousin Jeannette's 16 years ago:
ringed are my mother and in front of her, my Aunty Bobby and my Aunty Babs,
the last surviving members of the older generation
Our new cousin David, discovered only a couple of years ago to be a relation through a DNA test that my sister Jill took through a family history website, is hoping to be there, but he may have to absent himself due to some long-awaited surgery. But it'll be nice to see our cousin Susan, who lives in Monument, Colorado, so we don't see her that often, that's for sure.
our "new" cousin, David, here showcasing one of my family heirlooms -
a painting of Ogmore Castle and stepping-stones, which was the route our mothers
used to go to school, a picture painted by our Great-Aunt Kitty
flashback to the 2007 gathering: my cousin Susan from Monument, Colorado
together with her daughter Magda, who lives and works in California
Something else that's coming up faster than I would like: in early October I've got to give a so-called "presentation" on Shakespearean English to Lynda's local U3A "Making of English" Group, and I can't seem to get going on it - there have been so many distractions and events in the last month: it's total madness !!!!!
I look at some of my source materials today, but I haven't yet got a grip on the subject, that's for sure. But one thing I read today surprises me. In the 16th century there was really good standard of literacy among what was then the world's only English-speaking population, 4.5 to 5 million people, pretty much totally confined to England east of the Tamar River, but also the people of Lowland Scotland : but the language was spoken nowhere else in the whole world.
These 5 million people, however, were generally literate, including even a lot of the poorest people, which surprises me. It was pretty much later that literacy declined - the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century condemned the poor, especially the urban poor, to a life in atrocious conditions. As a result levels of literacy nose-dived, at least until the board schools got going in the late 1800's.
What a crazy world they lived in, back in those far-off days !!!!!
16:00 Lois and I settle down on the couch with a cup of tea and a piece of Battenberg cake, while Lois reads me out some interesting facts about the town of Alcester where our daughter Sarah has moved to with Francis and their 10-year-old twins, Lily and Jessica. We visited Sarah and the twins there on Saturday and we picked up a booklet on the town's history on a visit to the town library.
flashback to Saturday: we take Sarah and the twins to Alcester's
town library - here the twins are explaining to the librarian the plots of the
latest books they've been reading, for which they pick up certificates.
Awwwww, bless them !!!!!
This afternoon, Lois tells me some facts about some of the quaint names of various town officials, who have been elected in the town continuously since medieval times.
As you can see in the picture above, the town still elects a High Bailiff and a Low Bailiff , plus others including the Ale Tasters - what a great job! - plus the Bread Weighers and the Brook Looker, who checks on water quality in the local streams and rivers.
I google the subject and I find that the town has also always elected a Steward of the Manor, who acts an advisor to the town's courts, a Town Crier and Beadle, a Constable and a Marshall, and two Fish and Flesh Tasters, a Surveyor of the Highways, and even a "Hayward", who is supposed to check local fences and enclosures, so that stock can't break through from common land to enclosed fields. Also a Searcher and Sealer of Leather, needless to say - how could you manage without one of those haha!
What utter utter utter madness !!!!
flashback to last Saturday: our daughter Sarah, with the twins,
having lunch in their Alcester rental home
Our daughter Sarah and her family aren't going to be in Alcester this week - today they've driven the 200 miles up to the Lake District up towards the Scottish border for a week's camping near Lake Coniston and the other lakes in the area. Lake Coniston is actually where Sarah and Francis held their wedding ceremony back in 2010.
This afternoon, as Lois and I sit on the couch and sip our tea, Sarah sends us a picture she took on their arrival in the area.
Sarah, Francis and the twins arrive in the Lake District this afternoon
flashback to June 2010: Sarah and Francis take a boat trip
around Lake Coniston after their wedding.
16:15 Meanwhile, an email has come in from Steve, our American brother-in-law, containing another of the amusing Venn diagrams that he monitors for us each week on the web.
While I've got Lois on the couch, I decide to "brain-storm" with her this thorny issue of why we too always seem to pick the slowest queue.
When I google the controversy I find that somebody called David Andrews has finally worked it out in his book, "Why does the other line always move faster?". This is quite an achievement, because I understand the question defeated Einstein and other great scientists and thinkers.
Lois and I always say that time goes faster when we're in bed, because before we know it, it's time to get up again.
Einstein actually predicted this - not specifically for Lois and me, but generally, like. Our bedroom is on the upper floor of our house, like many bedrooms are, so it's a bit further from the earth's surface and there's a bit less gravity. See? The old man was right after all! [Who are you calling 'old'! - Ed]
20:00 We watch this week's edition of "Only Connect", the TV quiz that tests lateral thinking.
This week the Mercians - all from the Midlands - take on the Volunteers, all people who work at jobs in the volunteer sector. By the end of the show it becomes clear that the Mercians have scored a devastating victory, and Lois and I wonder if they'll turn out to be this year's winners when the whole contest comes to an end in a few months' time - well, we'll see!
The Mercians have a good spread of ages in their team, which Lois and I have noticed helps enormously - we ourselves get on much better at the puzzles in the Radio Times magazine when one or other of our daughters is helping us, that's for sure.
Can YOU guess what might be the fourth element in this mystery sequence?
It's based on the old saying about how, for luck, brides should be wearing "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" on their wedding day, a phrase going back to 19th century Lancashire. The "wearing something blue" was a superstition that was supposed to ward off "the evil eye".
brides should always wear something blue,
according to the old superstition
And in the world of words, "archaism" is an old word, a "neologism" is a new one, a "loan word" is borrowed, so what's a "blue word"? Well, it's something rude, of course. Simples!!!! And once more it's the Mercians who guess the answer.
Fascinating stuff!
[If you say so! - Ed]
21:00 We get ready for bed by watching the third programme in Alexander Armstrong's new series all about the history of Buckingham Palace.
Tonight's programme covers the early years of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's married life at the palace, when Victoria was "churning out the babies" - one a year, to start with: and eventually there were nine of the little rascals!
Once more some fascinating details come out of the programme. We tend to take it for granted that there's a balcony on the front of the palace where the royals can come out and wave to the crowds, but it was a totally new idea in the 1840's, when Albert decided to add the whole new frontage to the palace with a balcony on the front.
It's been such an iconic feature of great moments in our history since 1851, when Victoria and Albert came onto the balcony for the first time to greet the crowds thronging the Mall.
And Lois and I think there isn't another country in the whole world that has this kind of platform on their royal or presidential palaces or residences, is there? Well, is there? I think we should be told, and quickly, because I'm probably wrong there! [And not for the first time! - Ed] Oops, what about Kim Jong Un in Pyong Yang?! Still, that came a lot later didn't it.
And Steve, my American brother-in-law, later reminds me about the Truman Balcony at the White House - oh dear, I expect there are dozens of examples!
Oops!!!! Sorry !!!!!!
flashback to August 1945: Prime Minister Winston Churchill
joins the royal family on the balcony for the VE Day celebrations
Great idea for the 1840s, though, Albert!
And who knew that when the 10-yearly UK national census was taken in 1851, that everybody in the Palace, including the Queen, had to take part and supply their details?
In the "relation to head of the family" column, Victoria is described as "wife", aged 31, and in the "occupations" column, her occupation is listed as being "The Queen" - makes sense to us, although it's a bit weird that Albert is still described as 'head of the family', although he's listed second, of course.
Different times !!!!
Underneath Victoria and Albert's names on the census return we have Victoria's family members, followed by an army of housemaids and servants etc.
Yes all those servants - my goodness !!!!
And all the female servants were normally required to be either single or widowed - if they weren't, they were supposed to be at home looking after their husbands and running their own households!
What a crazy world it was, back in those far-off days !!!!
But fascinating stuff !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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