Lois and I moved into this new-build housing estate over 10 months ago, and the builders still haven't repaired the chipped paintwork on our front door, nor the chipped paintwork on any of the other front doors in this street - until today, when Lois notices a guy painting up all the front doors on the other side of the street from us.
flashback to November 2022: Lois and Rosalind, one of our grandchildren,
in the doorway of our new-build home: we had just moved in,
but we had already asked the builders to repair our door:
JOB STILL NOT DONE AFTER TEN MONTHS !!! (Trump-style capitals)
It seems to us initially like a hopeful sign that the guy is doing this work today, but when Lois goes across the street to talk to the guy, he say that he (quote) has only been asked to do one side of the street (unquote), i.e. not our side.
Damn, foiled again! And for a moment I wonder if it's the builders' revenge for the review Lois and I submitted yesterday, saying we wouldn't recommend any of our friends to buy one of the houses here - until I remember that our review is still sitting on top of the trip-switch box in the hall, because we haven't got round to posting it yet.
flashback to yesterday - I showcase our "bad review" of our builders,
sitting in an envelope on top of the trip-switch box in the hall,
but then, after that, I forget to post it - damn !!!!
But what a madness it all is !!!!!
10:00 Lois spends most of the morning on the phone to the helpdesk at Lloyds Bank. She's responsible for one of her church's bank accounts, used to give financial help and support to some of the Iranian Christian refugees whom the Home Office has settled in cheap hotels in the Gloucester area pending approval for their request for residency permits.
a typical helpdesk and call-centre
Lloyds are still listing the address of this church business account as our old house in Cheltenham, and Lois has been asking them for 6 months to update the address to our new address in Malvern, but without success.
What's their problem? It's not exactly rocket science, is it !!!!
They tell Lois that they haven't got the authority to change the address, and that she's got to do that through Companies House - what madness !!!!
But just as Lois begins to think she's getting somewhere with the Lloyds "By your side" Bank helpdesk guy, who has a strong foreign accent, the line goes dead. What IS going on ?!!!!!
The line going dead at least gives Lois and me the chance to check a few things before she makes a repeat call tomorrow. It turns out that Companies House is a total red herring - the account is for a non-incorporated charity with an income well under £5000 a year - see?
Companies House??? - what nonsense !!!!
See?
my initial solution to the supermarket trolley conundrum.
Is this the answer?
It seems at first like a no-brainer, but Steve, my American brother-in-law, has criticised my patented design on various grounds. As he points out, it's going to make some of the bags a lot heavier than others, whereas the ideal outcome would be bags of roughly equal weight. Also, he points out the advantages of bagging together things that are stored together in our house, once Lois and I get it all home.
My solution? Well, it's still "a work in progress" but I'm leaning towards a "six-category" system, with separate sections in my trolley for heavy freezer-items, light freezer-items, heavy fridge-items, light fridge-items, and, finally, heavy and light larder-items.
What do you think? Answers on a postcard please as usual, and quick replies will be appreciated - thanks!
my new provisional approach to the solution of the
supermarket trolley problem
But watch this space!
19:00 It can be frustrating sometimes for grandparents trying to get in touch with their children and grandchildren. Lois and I have normally got lots of time, but we know that's not true of our daughters, always busy with their families. We're eager to talk to our daughter Alison about how her 3 teenage children are getting on with the start of the new school year.
And we'd also like to talk to our other daughter Sarah about her planned visit to us this weekend with her 10-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. A glance at the weather forecast reveals that the current heatwave is going to last all through the weekend, and we're wondering how best to handle this.
Well, we'll have to see, when they've got a moment!
Another fascinating episode in this series.
So the royal chefs improvised by producing some mock lamb cutlets using mutton mince, adding the sauce veloute - flour, butter and stock - a couple of spoonfuls of the tomato, two tablespoonfuls of breadcrumbs, and "squidge it all together", and make it into mutton cutlets. Pop it into some meagre flour and then egg (both in short supply due to the war), and then the breadcrumbs- see? Simples, really isn't it!
Lois and I are finding that tonight, for the first time in this current heat-wave, the temperatures aren't cooling down very much, and although it's now 9pm and we've got the windows open at the front and back of the house, hoping to attract a through-draught, it isn't having a lot of effect.
And there's a torrid night ahead of us tonight, I feel - oh dear!
20:00 Lois and I settle down on the couch to watch another programme in Alexander Armstrong's new series charting the history of Buckingham Palace. Alexander has now reached the reign of George V (1910-1936).
Who knew that King George V and Queen Mary were a bit like Lois and me in some ways?!!! George, like me, was attached to the canon of traditional boring old British stand-by dishes for dinner - cottage pie, Irish stew etc, with perhaps going a bit mad over dessert and choosing apple charlotte, say. Whereas Mary, like Lois, leaned towards experimenting with continental cuisine - that's weird isn't it!
And you can tell that George liked quite ordinary brands from the makes that got the so-called "By Appointment" royal warrant of endorsement during his reign: brands like Twinings Tea, Kelloggs Cornflakes, Colman's Mustard, Bovril,, Johnny Walker whisky etc. Isn't that nice!
And it's heart-warming to see that although George and Mary were both very formal and correct, at the dinner-table for example always in regal dress with medals etc, and the pair could have justifiably been criticised for being "stiff" and "stuffy", their hearts were in the right place when it came to connecting with the people - and it paid off. George, despite an unpromising beginning and his generally "unflashy" and unglamorous life-style, lived to become one of our most popular monarchs, and there was a genuinely great sadness nationally when he died in 1936.
It was George who enlarged the famous Buckingham Palace balcony, with the result that the whole family could stand and connect with the crowds in the Mall on big national occasions. Not all of these occasions were happy ones, needless to say. One of the early occasions was when Britain was plunged into war in August 1914 and again, when peace was declared in November 1918,
Parts of the palace grounds were given over to vegetable growing during the war. And in 1916 the King and Queen threw the palace gardens open over a period of several days for tea-parties, to which all wounded servicemen were invited.
And towards the end of the war the Royal Family willingly submitted to food rationing when it arrived, just like everybody else. so the King and Queen would each have been restricted to, for example, 5 oz (140g) of bacon, 1.5 oz (40g) of tea a week. They were also permitted 8oz (200g) of sugar, which sounds like a lot, but remember, everybody had sugar in tea and on lots of other things, like breakfast cereals, in those far-off days.
Here, food historian Anna Gray explains to presenter JJ Chalmers, how the Queen insisted on taking part in the rationing measures, and we see the Queen's actual ration-book.
And the royal chefs played their part by eking out the meagre rations as best they could, especially the meat.
Before the war, one of the Queen's favourite dishes had been lamb cutlets, but under rationing, it was impossible to continue this dish as a regular item on the royal menu.
And yes, the royal pair could be called stuffy, but they weren't inflexible. Although George and Mary always dressed for dinner, and normally required their guests to do the same, they didn't utter a word of complaint, apparently, when Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi was invited to dine at the palace in 1931 and he insisted on wearing his famous "Indian pauper" robes.
Lois and I find all this very heart-warming, because George's reign was obviously the start of the tradition of modern royals, followed by his son George VI, and then by his granddaughter Elizabeth, and now, by his great-grandson Charles - the tradition of connecting with the people, leading useful lives, and not being just useless old remote symbols.
And that's how you do it, isn't it!
21:00 We decide to go to bed on Sara, Keren and Siobhan, a.k.a. the successful girl group Bananarama, with an entertaining retrospective on recordings and appearances they made on the BBC during their long career.
We decide to dig out one of our blow-heaters, which has a "fan" option, and we stick that on a chair in front of us, so we can luxuriate in the cool artificial breeze coming onto our knees, which is nice!
See? Why don't YOU try that - it's not rocket science haha!
And their old hit record "Cruel Summer" (1983), performed live at a reunion concert a few years or so ago, certainly reflects how Lois and I are feeling tonight, that's for sure. My goodness, yes!
our blow-heater, switched to its "fan" option, keeps Lois and me cool
as we groove on the sofa to some old Bananarama hits
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!
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