Thursday - and it's a tricky morning for Lois and me. We've got to start thinking of our planning for the logistics of the coming weekend, when our daughter Sarah will be arriving with the twins tomorrow (Friday) evening and staying one night with us, and my younger sister Jill will be arriving by train on Saturday morning and staying two nights (Saturday and Sunday). Our poor "old codger" brains start to hurt from the unaccustomed complexities, but we think on balance that things will work out okay, which is nice!
Well, it takes a bit of time to figure these things out when you're our age, as former University Challenge presenter Jeremy Paxman once acknowledged haha!
Also - and this is another typical "old codger" problem: Lois and I have planned to have afternoon tea today at the prestigious Abbey Hotel in the heart of Malvern, and we've booked it for 3:30pm. This is bound to mean quite an intake of cake and sandwiches at a time when we're not normally eating anything more than a doughnut or something similar, with a cup of Earl Grey Tea. So we decide to make the "tea at the Abbey" our main "eating event" of the day, and just have a tiny lunch of baked beans and cheese on a single slice of toast at 12 noon, and then a tiny supper at maybe 8 pm.
It's a bit of a proverbial brain-teaser, though, isn't it. What would you do haha!!!
13:30 Lois had a poor night's sleep last night, so the opportunity to have a couple of hours in bed before we go out to the Abbey Hotel for our "afternoon tea" is especially welcome.
It's a pity that, this week, Persimmon, the builders of this new 300-house estate in Malvern, have been ripping up the pavement outside our bedroom window for the umpteenth time, but we've got so used to their pneumatic drilling now that we can effectively "screen it all out", which is nice!
the familiar scene outside our bedroom window again today: Persimmon's men
ripping up the pavement with their pneumatic drills - what a madness it all is !!!
We're also quite lucky in that, from our bed, we can normally get advance warning of potential visitors, provided that they approach us from the "standard" direction, that is, from the direction of the main entrance to the estate.
"Bandits at 3 o'clock!!!" is our usual warning cry, in an amusingly whimsical [I'll be the judge of that! - Ed] reference to World War II RAF slang, as used by fighter pilots reporting the approach of enemy aircraft.
flashback to World War II: "Bandits at Three O' Clock !!!"
- RAF Spitfire pilots reporting the approach of enemy aircraft
Then, after the "Bandits!" warning is sounded, Lois and I can then decide how important it is to go down and answer the door, if the door-bell rings. The answer could be yes, for a much-awaited online delivery or something of that sort, for instance. The answer would perhaps be no if it's likely to be just a delivery for one of our many neighbours who go out to work.
See? Simples really isn't it!
And this afternoon I'm able to spot the approach of the two young Jehovah's Witness women that Lois got to know at our front door on a visit from them two weeks ago. Lois normally likes to discuss and debate with them, and I'm sure it's mutual. However, this afternoon is clearly not suitable, as we'll be getting out of bed any moment now, to get ready to go out to the Abbey Hotel , so we decide to "lie low" and pretend that we've "gone out", although, of course, our car is parked out front, so they may be suspicious.
Next time, perhaps!
15:15 We drive over to the Abbey Hotel near the centre of Malvern for our "afternoon tea".
entrance to the Abbey Hotel, Malvern (right):
behind Lois you can see the 15th century Gateway (c. 1480),
now one of the main relics of the original Benedictine monastery
"dissolved" by Henry VIII in the 16th century Reformation
this is what two old codgers look like
when they're looking forward to "lots of cake" - oh yes!
Most of this centuries-old monastery was gradually taken apart by the locals, bit by bit, after Henry VIII "dissolved" England's monasteries in the 16th century English Reformation. The old Priory house itself was quickly "snapped up" by local villagers for the knock-down price of £20, and by the mid-1700's the building had become a lodging house, where you could get a week's board and lodging for 15 shillings (75p).
After the "healing properties" of the local water were first promoted in 1842, the lodging-house became inadequate to cope with the resulting hoards of visitors, and so it was torn down and replaced by the current building, now called the Abbey Hotel.
What can I say, but "yum yum" !!!!
21:00 We go to bed on the second episode in a new series of Channel 5's "re-booted" version of "All Creatures Great and Small", centring on the activities of a Yorkshire veterinarian practice in the 1930's and 1940's.
One of the nostalgic delights of this show for Lois and me is to get a glimpse of some of the simple pleasures that country folk used to enjoy in those far-off days.
Tonight we see a spirited version of the old traditional pub game, "Ferret Roulette" being played out in the local hostelry. You know, that old game where a ferret is placed inside an enormous coat and bets are laid as to which of the coat's "holey" pockets the ferret will eventually emerge from.
It's early 1940. and young veterinarian James and his wife Helen are standing at the bar, discussing whether they should "start going for a baby" despite the growing uncertainties of the war. They are just settling on a "yes, and let's start tonight", when one of the pub's regulars comes in announcing a game of "Ferret Roulette".
Tremendous fun, wasn't it!
And I sometimes ask myself - Do games like that, with their traditional knock-about humour and roistering atmosphere, give people more genuine pleasure than our so-called "sophisticated" modern games, like Scrabble, Cluedo, Sherlock Holmes the Master Detective, Scotland Yard etc, or even "Bandits at Three O' Clock"?
I wonder..... !
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!!
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