Oh dear - as Lois and I lie in our bed early this morning, we're plagued by anxieties about a dentist appointment this afternoon, even though it's only to see one of the practice's hygienists.
Some of this anxiety is caused by a recent story in the Onion News about a local hygienist who lives not far from us here, in Upper Wick, Worcestershire, but I think that the article, and particularly the picture, has been preying on our minds.
Did you see the story?
Our anxiety is also partly because it's a new dental clinic for us - we moved from Cheltenham to a new-build home in Malvern a year ago and we've already had one check-up with James, one of the dentists here, but we haven't met our hygienist Traci yet. I check out her picture on the clinic's website, and I can't help thinking she's the one in the Onion story.
Yikes!!!!! Let's hope she's made it up with her husband now and that she's going to be gentle with us! Please, Traci, have pity on a pair of old codgers haha !!!!!!
Traci, the hygienist - it'll be our first time with her this afternoon.
She looks friendly in her picture on the website, but let's just wait till
we've been in her chair before we give our final verdict. Oh dear!!!
And as we lie here in bed, trying not to think about Traci, our anxiety isn't helped by extreme noise coming from the street outside - shaking the house to its foundations - as "Evans's men" start work at 8 o'clock, ripping up the pavement outside our house for the umpteenth time.
What do these guys think they're doing? They only tarmacked it over about 10 days ago.
It's completely crazy !!!!
the view from our bed at 8 o'clock this morning
What utter utter utter madness !!!!!
16:00 Later in the day, we emerge from the dental clinic, having both had our first experience with Traci. I have to say that appointments at 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm aren't the best time of day for us - we're usually in bed, but these were the only times we could get this side of Christmas. Oh dear!
Lois goes in first, at 2:30 pm. I caution Lois before she goes in, not to make the old Chinese dentist joke - "Tooth hurt-ee", now considered "racist".
What a crazy world we live in !!!!
Instead, I suggest this one - Traci won't have heard this one before, and it could relax her before she gets her hands in our mouths....
17:00 Later, when we're at home again, and relaxing on the couch, Lois and I indulge in a quick de-briefing session.
We both got the impression that Traci was nice overall, but a bit "school-ma'amish" and seemed to be hinting to both of us that we weren't looking after our teeth well enough, without her saying so explicitly. "You must be a tea-drinker too", she said to me, and I realised later that she was referring to me being like Lois, not to me being like herself.
these are the stats for Americans - I don't know
what the UK stats are. Perhaps we should be told?
Well, anyway, Lois and I both refuse to give up drinking tea, so that's that, Traci !!!! You can go too far with your advice, you know, you can push us just so far, but then we snap haha!!!!
20:00 We know that our daughter Sarah, with husband Francis and their 10-year-old twins, are at Alcester Rugy Club this evening watching the club's fireworks display for the annual upcoming Guy Fawkes celebration on Sunday: you know, fireworks along with the burning, on bonfires, of effigies of Guy Fawkes, the Catholic conspirator who tried to blow up the King and Parliament in 1605.
flashback to November 1605: Guy Fawkes is arrested, caught
red-handed with his dynamite in the cellars of Parliament
It's not a particularly jolly anniversary, Bonfire Night, but we and our forefathers have been doing it on November 5th for over 400 years, and it's all part of our history isn't it, so fair enough!
Wikipedia-man writes: The
following January, days before the surviving conspirators were executed,
Parliament, at the initiation of James I,[3] passed the Observance of 5th November Act, commonly known as the "Thanksgiving Act". It was
proposed by a Puritan Member of Parliament, Edward Montagu, who suggested that the king's apparent deliverance by
divine intervention deserved some measure of official recognition, and kept
5 November free as a day of thanksgiving while in theory making attendance
at Church mandatory.[4] A new form of service was also added to the Church of
England's Book of Common Prayer, for use on that date.[5] Little is known about the earliest celebrations. In
settlements such as Carlisle, Norwich, and Nottingham, corporations (town governments) provided music and
artillery salutes. Canterbury celebrated 5 November 1607 with 106 pounds
(48 kg) of gunpowder and 14 pounds (6.4 kg) of match, and three years later food and drink was provided for local
dignitaries, as well as music, explosions, and a parade by the local militia.
Even less is known of how the occasion was first commemorated by the general
public, although records indicate that in the Protestant stronghold of Dorchester a sermon was read, the church bells rung, and bonfires
and fireworks lit.[6]
But what a shock it must be tonight for our little twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessica, to be watching fireworks, shivering in the cold of an English November evening.
Last time the family was watching the fireworks it was at Perth Harbour in Western Australia. They had moved out to Australia in 2015 when the twins were only two and a half, and moved back to the UK only this year, so it's the twins' first Bonfire Night that they're going to be able to remember.
our son-in-law Francis, with 10-year-old twins Lily and Jessica
the firework display tonight at Alcester Rugby Club
Brrrrrr !!!!! And what a weird price range - £0 to £9.38 - that the Rugby Club is offering. I'm guessing you don't have to pay if you just want to stand outside and watch the fireworks, but again, perhaps we should definitely be told, don't you think?
[No, it's not important enough! - Ed]
And contrast the photos above with the photos Francis took of the celebrations at Perth Harbour just 3 years ago, in 2020:
the annual fireworks at Perth Harbour, Western Australia, in 2020
Spectacular or what?
Enough said. But I can't help feeling it's more fun in November here, getting all wrapped up in coats, hats and scarves, and then afterwards going inside for a nice, warming cup of hot chocolate. Call me old-fashioned if you like haha!
I can remember Bonfire Night, at the earliest when I was six years old, in 1952, when my late sister Kathy and I ventured out into the dark on November 5th to enjoy the fireworks that our late father lit for us in our little back garden in Thornbury Avenue, Bradford, Yorkshire. I can still remember also hearing, at the same time, all the pops, bangs and flashes that were simultaneously coming from all the neighbours' back gardens, all those years ago.
flashback to the early 1950's: me and Kathy with our baby brother
Steve, pictured here by the greenhouses in Bradford Moor Park
Happy days !!!!!
21:00 Lois and I wind down for bed with tonight's edition of the weekly comedy News Quiz, "Have I Got News For You", with this week's chairperson, comedienne Jo Brand.
Tonight, team captain Ian Hislop, is critical about former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's initial approach to the coming COVID pandemic, as revealed this week during the House of Commons inquiry into the government's early reactions to the coronavirus threat.
Yes, Boris, don't forget you came to power largely on the backs of the UK's increasingly ageing population, who must have all voted for Boris's Conservatives, almost to the last old-codger. Oh yes!
Chairperson Jo Brand, however, puts her own spin on the story.
Poor Jo !!!!!!
But it's Boris's ageing father who I feel most sorry for. What must he have felt like hearing those caustic remarks from his own son?
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right)
riding the London Underground with his father Stanley
Poor Stanley !!!!!!
The news of these callous views of Boris's at the start of the coronavirus pandemic has even made the headlines in Hungary, according to an article on the influential Hungarian website, Blikk.hu, an article sent to me yesterday by Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, where Boris is reported as saying that old codgers should "bow to their fate".
[Oh just bow to YOUR fate and go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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