Danskcolin: Sunday October 1st 2023

08:00 Our daughter Sarah and her 10-year-old twins Lily and Jessica have been staying with us here in Malvern for a couple of nights, but today they have to drive back to their rental home in Alcester.

But first - those twins have got school work to do. Sarah's giving them a spelling test while they eat their breakfast cereals.

Poor twins!

during breakfast, our daughter Sarah tests one of her twin daughters, Lily,

on her spelling - the family recently returned to England after 7 years in Australia

Yes, it's another spelling test at breakfast-time. On their return from 7 years in Australia, the family has moved into a rental home in Alcester, Warwickshire. So for Lily and Jessica, as for all children aged 10-11 in the county, the Eleven Plus exam will be coming up in the spring. Sarah and Francis are hoping that the twins will pass the exam and qualify for one of the county's prestigious grammar schools.

Hence the pressure to improve the girls' spelling and maths in particular after their years down under.

What madness!

Lois and I, however, both remember with affection our time at that age, back in 1956, when we both managed to pass the Eleven Plus and go to local grammar schools, me in North West London and Lois in Oxford.

me (ringed), at my final year in primary school, in Mr. Spicer's class

Lois at her primary school - awwwww!!!!! - a member of Miss Shepherd's class

In some ways schooldays are the happiest days of our lives, aren't they. And it's hard to better them in later life. Did you read that nostalgic feature on it in Onion News a few years back?

JEFFERSON, MO—Contrary to what he had been assured about adult life, local resident Mike Glick, 24, reported Monday that he is even less popular than he was in high school.

Glick paused to check his e-mail inbox, where he found a company-wide e-mail from a law partner whose billable hours he had itemized that morning.

Glick was one of the least distinguished members of Monroe High's Class of 1998. Too timid to rebel and not confident enough to be well-liked, Glick was at least noticed long enough to occasionally be mocked. Once known by such affectionate nicknames as "The Glicklicker", he said he is now more likely to be referred to as "the guy in payroll. No, the shorter one."

"When high-school graduates enter the world, they meet people with whom they share common interests," said Dr. Sharon Kesselbein, a Kansas City-based psychologist and former public-school guidance counsellor. "While being cast into a wider world can be disorienting, it can also be liberating and enriching. The young person discovers that he isn't so strange or misbegotten, as he's opened up to friendships with people who are making similar discoveries and experiencing a similar openness".

The working life has given Glick certain material advantages denied him as a jobless teenager, such as his own apartment and new clothes. In high school, Glick was teased about his sparse and shabby wardrobe, and this led him to believe that an opportunity to purchase a larger wardrobe would lead to increased popularity.

"I quickly realized that no one cares what I wear," Glick said. "This pair of khakis I have on and one or two dress shirts are basically enough to get me through the week. I have a tie in my desk in case a senior partner calls me to his office, but that never happens."

Kesselbein, however, offered hope for Glick.

"Popularity may be the most sought-after and wished-for thing among young people, but high school doesn't last forever, and adults have to fall back on other things, like knowledge and common sense," Kesselbein said.

"The content of your character is more important than whether you can throw a football or how much you weigh. Really, it's true. I'm an expert, and I spend all day and night studying these things."

Poor Glick!!!! But it's always reassuring to think back to those golden days when one was less unpopular - memories like that are truly priceless, aren't they.

Fascinating stuff !!!!

09:30 Sarah and the twins are now getting their overnight bags packed and getting ready to leave.

Lois and I can see why Sarah and husband Francis want to persevere with extra coaching for the twins - both girls are academically-inclined, and so a grammar school education is probably going to be the best for both of them, if they can just pass that crucial exam.

some typical pupils at the local Alcester Grammar School

10:00 Sarah and the twins drive back to Alcester. They can't stay here longer because Sarah's phone has run out of data - whatever that means - and so the twins won't be able to use the phone for their weekly zoom call with their best friends from their time in Australia - Samara and Djanna. They need to be back at home to make the call.

flashback to May: a previous zoom call to Samara and Djanna in Australia,

during a weekend stay by the twins at our house here in Malvern,

just days after the twins' return from the family's 7 years in Australia

flashback to June 2021: the twins (centre), still living in Perth,

Western Australia, photographed here with their "besties"

- Samara (right) and her Samara's little sister, Djanna (left)

10:00 It's finally time for Lois and me to say goodbye to Sarah and the twins, so we step outside the front door to wave them off.

After we wave them goodbye, Lois and I also have to be on the road. Lois wants me to drive her to her church's Sunday Morning Meeting.

It's a special occasion this week. It's not being held at the Village Hall outside Tewkesbury, where services normally take place - it's being held at Chief Elder Andy's house in Eckington, because there's also going to be a full-immersion baptism in the hot-tub in Andy's back garden.

Over the last couple of years, the local church's numbers have been swollen by an influx of Iranian Christian refugees, and one of these, a young woman named Chenor, is going to be baptised this morning, after which she'll become a full member of the local church community, the 17th Iranian to join the local church since the Home Office began settling some of the refugees in a hotel in nearby Gloucester, pending approval for their requests to stay in the UK.

Lois and I drive over to Chief Elder Andy's house in Eckington and take our seats in the living-room, where Andy, just back from a Mediterranean holiday and somewhat incongruously sporting a white shirt and shorts, has set up the big screen above the fireplace so that church members unable to attend in person can watch the service online via zoom.

Chief Elder Andy (rightmost on the sofa opposite) starts the meeting

with a welcome to Iranian baptismal candidate Chenor (facing him

on the other sofa, in baseball cap)

After a hymn, a prayer and a couple of bible readings, the congregation goes out into chief elder Andy's back garden to watch assistant elder, Alf, baptising Chenor in the hot-tub, and to welcome her into the community.

cross your arms...

...pinch your nose...

...and splash - you go under!

And that's the way you do it! So simple, isn't it!

After that, it's just a matter of everyone going back into the house, eating their packed lunches, and then listening to Brother John's exhortation, which as always is from time to time punctuated by the sound of random, barks and growls from the 3 dogs that are also in attendance, and who have also brought along their owners, which is nice!

The dogs' barking and growling always reminds me of black congregations in the US, and their spontaneous cries of "AMEN !!" etc which punctuate the preacher's remarks. Do our dogs perhaps understand more English that we sometimes give them credit for, do you think?

I wonder....!

two of the three dogs in attendance today "let off steam"

in Chief Elder Andy's enormous back garden before the meeting begins

21:00 Back home again for a restful afternoon and evening, Lois and I go to bed on tonight's episode of the new series of "Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing". In this episode, Paul Whitehouse has temporarily acquired a new fishing-buddy, comedian Lee Mack, as Bob Mortimer was unwell at time of filming, and unable to take part.

In this programme the boys are on Burgh Island off the beautiful south coast of Devon, doing some sea fishing instead of the normal river fishing that has featured in this series. And they're hoping to catch some wrasse.

Scholarly note: Did you know that "wrasse" is one of the mere handful of words that English has borrowed from the Celtic languages spoken in these islands before the English arrived? It's related to "wrach" in Cornish and "gurach" in Welsh]. [Thank you, no, I don't wish to know that! - Ed]

It's a beautiful part of the country isn't it, Devon, and so uniquely British, as the boys point out. Both men are seasoned world-travellers and it's enthralling to get some of their insights into world scenery tonight.