11:15 I don't really want to drive Lois to her church's Sunday Morning Meeting at Tewkesbury today, but I can see that she feels she can't get out of it.
Somebody has asked her to bring the communion bread, and she feels she can't let them down, so fair enough. Last Sunday the church was holding the meeting at Chief Elder Andy's house and what do you know? - that very night he came down with the COVID. And while we were at his house, he had not only hugged Lois and shaken my hand, but he had also made us both a cup of coffee.
Yikes!!!!
Andy and his wife Angie had just 2 days earlier come back from a holiday in Turkey, and well, you know how easy it is to catch things on aeroplanes, with all that infected air being circulated around. It's total madness really, isn't it !!!!
flashback to last Sunday: Chief Elder Andy (ringed) looks on, as Brother Alf
baptizes an Iranian Christian refugee woman in Andy's garden hot-tub
However, Lois has promised not to hug anybody this morning or even shake their hand, so maybe we'll be okay and come away unscathed again.
We have never had the COVID. We have both successfully avoided it for 18 months or so, that is, ever since the pandemic first hit, and we don't want to have to cope with it now. We're both 77 you know! [You won't get any sympathy from me! - Ed]
11:45 As Lois and I arrive at the village hall where meetings are held, the "Bible Hour" is just concluding and the lunch break is starting, which is good timing. Chief Elder Andy hasn't come today - he's still suffering from the COVID. And David, who's just recovered from it himself, helpfully doesn't try to hug us or shake our hands, substituting for both gestures a simple salute and a wink, which is thoughtful of him.
We arrive, sneak in, and take our places unobtrusively at one of the inconspicuous tables near the back of the hall, and eat our packed lunches.
we grab an inconspicuous table at the back and eat our packed lunches,
while Lois chats away, to fellow church-member Gill [not shown]
I finish off my coffee, while Lois goes to the front of the hall
to chat with this Sunday's visiting preacher,
that nice Brother Tim [not shown] and his wife Jen
Oh dear! I'll try and do better next week, I promise!!!
Once more, during the preacher's remarks, I find my mind being diverted onto trivialities. The first one is that I'm feeling sorry for John and Lucy's dog who's sitting behind us. I forget his name, but let's just call him Ted.
I also forget what breed he is, but John has told Lois that dogs from this breed become unusually attached to their owners, and pine for them, making low, pathetic moaning noises, which is what this dog is doing today.
And poor Ted has been left alone during the preacher's address - John is today's president so he's sitting at the front of the hall, and Lucy is masterminding proceedings in the kitchen, and listening in on the intercom, so their poor dog is sitting on his chair all alone at the very back of the hall, and acting completely bereft.
this morning I find I'm distracted by John and Lucy's dog Ted (ringed),
who's sitting at the table behind us, and emitting extraordinarily
pathetic low moaning sounds during the preacher's remarks - poor Ted !!!!
Yes, poor Ted !!!!!
Lois tells me later that the only way to calm Ted down is apparently to tickle him under his chin, just long enough to allay his fears, but not too long, because then he'll start going into ecstasies, and will begin to behave unpredictably.
Awwwww - bless their little cotton socks !!!!!
I suppose that Adam and Eve could be classed also as the world's earliest "naughty people". And coincidentally, a favourite palindrome of mine, and one that's also genuinely useful in a practical way, is this much fuller list of naughty people in the world - a list that's hopefully exhaustive. At least, that's what I've always assumed!
You must remember this episode! You know, the one where Caroline's American ex-husband, Brian, turns up at Caroline's house in Henley, Berkshire,
Oops!
But tremendous fun !!!!!
Yikes !!!! Typical man, eh !!!!!
Happy days !!!!!
The other thing distracting me today is the sight of our late Queen, Elizabeth II, still staring down on proceedings from her portrait on the wall. When are the people who run this Village Hall going to get a portrait of Charles?
It can't be that difficult, can it?
I find I'm also distracted by the sight of our late Queen, Elizabeth (ringed),
looking down on proceedings from her portrait on the wall
14:00 If I've got a "butterfly mind" I know who I inherited it from - my dear late mother, of course, who would have turned 104 today, had she lived. Yes, it's her birthday today, and she's also been on my mind, which doesn't help me concentrate, either.
Steve, our American brother-in-law, sends me today a really touching photo of my mother with my dear younger sister Kathy, who has also passed away. This is one of the best, if not the best photo of them together that I've seen, I think.
a photo, taken by Steve, our brother-in-law, of
my late mother, Hannah, with my late sister Kathy
another great one, also taken by Steve, I think on the beach
in South Wales near to where my mother was born and brought up
flashback to St Ives, Cornwall, in the late 1970's: my parents,
with our 2 young daughters, Alison and Sarah,
and Lois standing in the doorway of our holiday cottage
15:00 Lois and I drive back to our new-build house in Malvern. During our absence today in Tewkesbury, our daughter Sarah and our twin granddaughters have packed up and gone back to their rental home in Alcester after their two nights with us.
And, happily, we find, with relief, that they've left the house in good order. Sarah is now 46. but it's still reassuring to any parents to see that their "children", even when those "children" have become middle-aged, at least know to leave a house secure with no doors or windows left open haha!
It's also nice to see that the twins have arranged all the soft-toys they keep here in some sort of ranking order on the single bed that Sarah sleeps in, when she's staying with us.
in our absence, Sarah and the twins have left our house and
gone home to Alcester: and the twins have arranged all the
soft toys that they keep here tidily on the bed that Sarah sleeps on.
18:00 An email comes in from Tünde, my Hungarian pen-friend, with some gloriously fiendish palindromic sentences in that wonderful, playful language that the Hungarians speak.
When Lois and I were growing up in the 1950's there was a well-known palindromic saying that had been triumphantly ascribed to Napoleon after he had been exiled by the British on the Mediterranean island of Elba in 1814:
I don't think they teach much history to children these days, at least not in terms of specific events and dates etc, so I'm not sure that that once-famous palindrome, which, in those crazy, far-off days, "every schoolboy knew", would have much currency today. O tempora, o mores haha !!!!
Oh dear, I don't want to become a "grumpy old man"! [That ship sailed a long time ago! - Ed]
Another famous palindrome that readers will definitely know is "Madam, I'm Adam", possibly the earliest ever palindrome? I think we should be told!
Colin's helpful hint: Try and avoid all these people if you can, unless you're actually on the list yourself, in which case you might want to seek out some of the other names there. It's no fun being naughty on your own, is it. Be fair haha!!!!
And is there any significance in the fact that, although both sexes are represented, female names definitely seem to predominate on the list?
I wonder...... !
But fascinating stuff !!!!
21:00 Lois and I unwind on the couch with Friday's episode in the sitcom series "The Upper Hand", a series from the 1990's currently being repeated on the Drama tv-channel.
Brian has a problem - he wants to marry his new girlfriend Suzanne, but he's discovered that he's still legally married to Caroline. Both Brian and Caroline had previously believed that their Mexican divorce was a valid one, but it seems not - oh dear!
At this point, Brian shows Caroline the English-language version of the official Mexican paperwork. And luckily, Caroline's capable housekeeper, Charlie is on hand to try and sort out what this mess is all about.
I think there are incidents like that in most people's "back-stories", aren't there!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!!
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