Sunday August 13th 2023

10:00 Our daughter Sarah and the twins, after staying 2 nights with us here in Malvern, get ready to leave for their rental home in Alcester, and Lois and I get ready to drive to Ashchurch, Tewkesbury, so that Lois can attend her church's Sunday Morning Meeting in the Village Hall.

It's been a delight to have had Sarah and the twins with us again for a couple of nights, and the twins are so cute and well-behaved, Lily is always quick to see the funny side of things, while Jessie is quieter, speaks with a quiet voice, and is more of a thinker - I think she's a lot like me in many ways - that's how I see it anyway. 

Our daughter Sarah and the twins, after 2 nights here with us

in Malvern, get ready to leave for their home in Alcester

Lois and I drive the 17 miles to Ashchurch Village Hall

just outside Tewkesbury, so that Lois can attend her church's Sunday meeting

When we get there they're just finishing up the Bible Hour and starting the lunch break. Lois has made a packed lunch for us, as well as a packed lunch for Sarah and the twins to eat when they get to Alcester. 

She has also brought loads of fruit and nut collections as a favourite dessert supplement for "the Persians" - the Iranian Christian refugees who have doubled the numbers of the church here. While they wait for permission to stay in the UK, the Home Office pays for their board and lodging at various hotels around the country, and these particular refugees have all been settled at hotels in the Cheltenham and Gloucester areas. 

But how does Lois do it all? What a woman I married !!!!!

the lunch break: Angie, wife of Chief Elder Andy,

chats to one of the Iranian Christian refugees

Angie chats to Lucy in the doorway to the kitchen

while Phil and Rebecca sit and have their lunch

Because of our late arrival, Lois and I don't really know what the "Bible Hour" was all about this morning, but we guess from later comments that it was something to do with the prophet Elijah. And the slide still showing on the big screen when we arrive shows some pictures of birds. Perhaps if you're very clever you'll be able to guess something from that - let me know: but on postcards only please!

the last slide from the Bible Hour. Maybe I'm "sticking my neck out" here,

but the talk must have had something to do with birds, is my guess !!!!

15:00 Lois and I arrive home, and we have an Earl Grey tea before getting back into bed - oh dear, in bed again! It's an unmissable experience for us to have Sarah and the twins here after their 7 years in Australia, but their visits inevitably also mean extra jobs for us, Lois in the kitchen with me helping where I can, and me moving furniture and equipment around the house to make the space.

We want the rest of our day to be "hearty and comforting", so earlier, on the way back from Tewkesbury, we had stopped off at a local M&S mini-supermarket and got ourselves a couple of "hearty and comforting" lamb hotpot ready-meals for tonight, plus we came away from the Sunday meeting with a couple of large slices of home-made apple and plum pie that the Persians couldn't manage, plus G&Ts readily available - what's not to like haha! 

In other words we can afford to completely relax now, knowing that we'll be eating like kings tonight - no question about that!

the "hearty and comforting" ready meals waiting for us tonight

- yum yum!

20:00 We settle down on the couch and watch the second half of a documentary from 1984, all about Don and Phil, the Everly Brothers - we had to go to bed last night half way through it, so it'll be nice to see the rest of it tonight, no question!

Back in the 1950's there were no clothing stores specifically for young people, Don says, so it was difficult for rock'n'rollers on stage not to look like just like their fathers did on the way to their office jobs etc. What crazy times they were!

The big hits dried up for them in the later years of the 1960's, which to some extent Don and Phil blame on the popularity of the Beatles and other British groups. 

For a few years, you just "had to be English" is what Don and Phil say. 

But was it that, or was it that the Everly Brothers phenomenon eventually just ran out of steam after their long run of hits? That's what happens to most artists, isn't it? If you look at interviews with the Beatles from their early days, they were always saying how they expected Beatlemania to only last a couple of years, and that's why they wanted to exploit it as much as possible while it was still around.

They say that they attempted to fight back, trying to get into the free-living radical spirit of the 1960's with its drugs and psychodelia etc, and becoming generally more "way out" and rebellious, but it wasn't really them, Lois and I think, and there's no reason why it should have been. 

Always be yourselves, that's what we say to artists who ask for our advice haha! [And when was the last time any artists did that! - Ed]

And after seeing a bit more of Don and Phil's triumphant reunion concert in 1983 at the Albert Hall, London, it's a nice end to the programme to see them finally back at their home gospel hall in Kentucky with their surviving relatives, including all the singing uncles and cousins, and all the Everly family children and grandchildren etc in the congregation.

Fascinating stuff !!!!

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