Tuesday August 29th 2023

Another day for me to try and begin to sort out the chaos that's looming over Lois and me for the month of September - yikes!!!!

First off, I book our old-codger flu jabs and manage, using Lois's phone in my left hand and mine in my right hand to get us there at exactly the same time, because it's obviously nicer when we synchronise - 10:49 am at our local doctor's surgery. Good!

The surgery say that they're planning to lay on another COVID booster for later in the year, but it hasn't been confirmed yet. It's only for those who are "eligible" but Lois and I think that will include us, so that's nice!

flashback to April 2023: we stand in the queue behind a bunch

of other old codgers for our last COVID booster jab

Next up, I book two nights in a hotel for us so that we can attend the get-together in Beaconsfield, Bucks, of some of my cousins - there are around 30 of us in all, although every time I try to count them mentally  I get a different result: oh dear, and I've got a maths degree, which is a pity !!!!

flashback to 2007: a previous cousins get-together for cousins,

plus spouses/ partners and children

I go on booking.com, as usual and the first hotel on the website's list looks really weird, but then it IS called "The Crazy Bear", so I suppose that's what you expect - what a madness it is !!!!

I don't think so, somehow. Call us unadventurous if you like, but I think our days of booking rooms like that are over and done with haha !!!!

09:30 A text comes in from our daughter Sarah, who's on holiday camping in the Lake District this week with husband Francis and their 10-year-old twins, Lily and Jessica. They've pitched their tent by the shores of Lake Coniston, where they got married in 2010.

That last picture also shows Brantwood House on the opposite shore of Lake Coniston, where Sarah and Francis got married in June 2010. It's the former home of Victorian artist John Ruskin.

flashback to June 2010: Sarah and Francis's wedding at Brantwood House 

on Lake Coniston, the former home of Victorian artist John Ruskin

Let's hope the weather isn't too bad for them all this week - the Lake District is in the county of Cumbria, which has a bit of a reputation for rain, to put it mildly.

This is the last week before the twins start their first English school, a local Church of England primary school - in May this year the family returned to England after 7 years in Australia. And it's their first school of any kind for 2 years or so: Sarah and Francis weren't happy with their Australian school and decided to home-school them, which might have been good for them academically, but will inevitably have held back their social development. 

some typical students at the local Church of England primary school,

where the twins will be starting their first ever English school since moving 

back from Western Australia in May this year

So we'll see how they get on. The twins are certainly looking forward to being at a school again, and the great thing is that they've always got each other, so going to a new school isn't such a big thing as it would be for a child on their own. 

I envy them because I know what it's like to start at a new school. My siblings and I changed schools an awful lot when we were growing up because of my father moving from job to job across the country. At age 11, entering secondary school, I was already starting at my 6th new school, and in my teenage years I had another 2 to start at eventually, after that one - what a madness it all was!!!!

flashback to 1958: me, back row second from left, aged 11, 

just after starting my 7th new school - what a madness it all was !!!!

20:00 We wind down with a documentary about artist David Hockney on the Sky Arts channel. A few days ago I took the plunge and paid for a 6-month subscription to Now TV, which means that for the first time we can watch several new channels, and also watch on catch-up some of the channels we were only able to see live before, like Sky Arts. So we'll see - so far, it's looking good.

We're neither of us great fans of a lot of modern artists, but with Hockney you can definitely see what it is that he's painting - no doubt about that! And they're generally quite happy paintings, with lots of sunshine and a feeling of space in the scenes he depicts, so they add those feelings to any wall they hang on. And David himself is a very pleasant man, not pretentious and with a sense of humour, which is something you don't always get with artists do you.

Yes, joy, sunshine and plenty of space - Lois and I like those things too, that's for sure. His sister once told him that "Space is God" and we know what she means. And "Painting landscapes should be a joy", he tells us in tonight's programme. 

And it's nice to see David's sense of humour coming out in these interviews. 

An inveterate smoker, David has always resented all the campaigns against smoking which he regards as officious, overbearing and dictatorial. During one interview tonight he is seen sporting a badge he designed himself, "End Bossiness Soon". He says he rejected the slogan "End Bossiness Now", because it would perhaps sound a bit too bossy, and you can see what he means.

Hockney, proudly wearing his "End Bossiness Soon" badge

But tremendous fun !!!!

Plus, it's always interesting to see what artists' parents were like, isn't it. David's father's business was reconstructing baby's prams, which Lois and I never knew was "a thing", although the father too had wanted to be an artist, and liked drawing posters in his spare time.  

David grew up in Bradford, Yorkshire - and it's funny to think that when my parents were living there for a couple of years 1952-4, that David was somewhere else in the city, although several years older than me and my little sister Kathy and little baby brother Steve. David left school aged 16 and was a student at the Bradford Art School between 1953 and 1957.

1953: (left to right) me (7 years), my little brother Steve (1)

and my little sister Kathy (5), by the greenhouses in Bradford Moor Park.

Happy days !!!!!

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