For Lois and me it's our 9th full day of house-sitting for our daughter Alison, who with her family is visiting Spain, Italy and Switzerland on a railway adventure holiday in "sub-scorchio-but-still-incredibly-hot" conditions.
It's a big old house that we're house-sitting, here in Headley, Hampshire. It was built for one of Queen Victoria's vice-admirals, John Parish, and most days it's just little old me and Lois rattling around in it, consorting with each other day and night, only stopping our "consortium" to look after the pets: tropical fish, cats and a dog.
What a madness it is, when you look at it closely! But it's also the most tremendous fun !!!!
the Vice-Admiral's mansion and part of its extensive 6.5 acre grounds
- dotted about you'll see Lois plus two of the pets we're pet-sitting for
How long is it since the late Queen had her Silver Jubilee? Well, it's a little over 46 years, we reckon, and it's hard to deny that some of her old Silver Jubilee memorials are looking a little down-at-heel. And Ludshott Common is no exception, so I put Lois to work to polish the tarnished little plaque on the disused Silver Jubilee bench.
I set Lois to work polishing the plaque on the
now disused Silver Jubilee bench
It has to be said, sadly, that this particular Silver Jubilee bench is not what it was. We suspect it rotted away and that, apart from the back of the bench with its plaque, the body of the bench was probably removed at some stage by the National Trust charity, who are responsible for maintaining the common.
Still, it looks much better now with its shiny plaque, after Lois applies her skilful friction, don't you agree haha!
the skeleton of the Silver Jubilee bench with its newly-polished
plaque: now it looks much better, doesn't it haha!
After improving the plaque we can now stride across the common with a clear conscience, which is nice.
And we can chat to other old codger couples that we come across. There is honour among thieves, it's said, and there's also a sense of community among old codgers, whether they know each other or not. Today we meet an older couple who say they've been walking this common for 50 years and they know every nook and cranny of it. We explain that we don't really know the area, and are house-sitting for our daughter, and they say, "Yes, it's nice to know that people our age can still be of some use!" Our thought for the day haha!
Yes, the Silver Jubilee seems a long time ago now, doesn't it! [That's because it IS! - Ed]
Remember the big celebration in Pittville Park, Cheltenham, in August 1977 ? You MUST do!
Flashback to August 1977: Alison (just turned 2) at the Silver Jubilee
celebration in Pittville Park, in front of the Pump Room (built 1830)
Alison looks on as the 2 month-old Sarah bawls her eyes out
over something or other - oh dear !!!!
13:30 Meanwhile Alison and her family have arrived in Florence this morning from Milan by train, a 2-hour trip.
in this last photo can be seen Alison's husband Ed,
plus the our three grandchildren: Josie (16), Rosalind (15) and Isaac (13)
Ali recalls on social media that she was last in Florence in 1997 - and in fact visited a lot between 1995 and 1997, mainly due to living in Pisa (1996-97) and spending a summer in Viareggio in 1995. "It was always one of my favourite places in the world", she says, "and I wondered whether it would feel the same 26 years later".
She adds, "It was crazy hot today and so so busy - Ed said it always was - but actually apart from 1995, I have never visited in the height of summer, so that may be the difference. Anyway, it was still magical and so so beautiful. I am looking forward to exploring further (haven't made it to the Arno yet) over the next couple of days."
Seeing the pictures is nostalgic for Lois and me also, because we stayed a week in Italy in 1997, based in Pisa, where Alison was studying for a year at the local university, as part of her degree course at Cardiff, where she also met Ed. See - it's all starting to make sense now isn't it haha!
Flashback to March 1997: Alison and Lois in la Piazza della Signoria in Florence,
where Michelangelo's "David" can be seen in the background. Happy days !!!!
19:00 We spend the evening in front of the TV: first we see a made-for-the-internet documentary by some enthusiast all about British rock'n'roll before the Beatles.
flashback to the early 1960's: Eden Kane, Helen Shapiro,
Billy Fury and Karl Denver, some of the early British pop stars
Lois and I are lucky in that we're both very much of a similar age - we were born about 10 weeks apart in the same hospital, the old Radcliffe Hospital on St Giles, Oxford, a hospital that later moved out to the suburbs (not the building, just the contents haha!). So we tend to remember the same things, and (more importantly perhaps) forget the same things, although occasionally the randomness works in our favour, and one of us remembers something the other has forgotten, which is such a help, when it happens - you would not BELIEVE!!!!
The UK rock'n'roll scene all grew out of the "skiffle craze" in the early 1950's, with Lonnie Donegan's "Rock Island Line" smash hit. We didn't know that skiffle was a music style developed by poor black artists in the US who couldn't afford to buy proper instruments, and so they used anything they could knock together at home. And home-made instruments also inspired later British musicians like John Lennon, who started out on the home-made stuff, washboards, one-string double basses etc.
And there are lots of facts in this home-made documentary that we didn't know. Who knew that Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' big hit "Shakin' All Over" (1960) was written on the back of an envelope by Kidd in a hotel room, because the day before their first big studio appointment the Pirates suddenly realised they didn't have a B-side for their first record.
As it turned out, the record company preferred "Shakin' All Over" to the A-side, so they made a switch, and the record went to No.1. It was later made popular in other countries, but as recorded by other artists and not by The Pirates, unfortunately for Kidd.
Poor Kidd !!!!!
20:00 We watch an old Scottish comedy sketch show from 1989: Naked Video.
My goodness - is this the English language we're hearing? It's hardly recognisable at times! Luckily we can get the subtitles on our laptop later, and THEN we can laugh, so that's all right!
20:30 We go to bed on bits of a BBC4 special evening on Michael Crawford's much-loved character, the childlishly inept Frank Spencer, from the 1970's sitcom "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em".
Flashback to 1970, when Frank and Betty have just got married, and "had a lovely day".
Be that as it may, it's so nice tonight to see and hear the 2 actors reminiscing together about the show 50 years on.
In an age when sitcom scripts are often turned out by a roomful of professional gag-writers, especially in the US but also now here, it's fascinating to realise that this whole incredibly popular series, which used to be watched by more than half the UK population, was written by one youngish man with problems in his own life, Raymond Allen.
Allen was a man who, himself, just like the Frank Spencer character, had had difficulty holding down a job, and who was a cinema cleaner at the time his sitcom idea was accepted by the BBC. He lived with his parents on the Isle of Wight, and he used to phone his scripts through to the BBC using a telephone in a public call-box.
What crazy days we lived in, back in those far-off times !!!!!
And we see a nice picture of Raymond just going inside his garden shed on the Isle of Wight, where he did some of his best work.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!!
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