18:00 Yes, it's 6 pm, and here are Lois and I, 120 miles from home in Headley, Hampshire, enjoying a tea assembled for us by our 15-year-old granddaughter Rosalind.
a tea of tuna-mayonnaise, baked potato
and baked beans, assembled (and cooked) for us
by our 15-year-old granddaughter Rosalind
"How did Lois and Colin get here?" I hear you cry!
Well, we came by car from Malvern this morning, turning a Googlemaps-recommended 2.5 hour journey into a 3 hour route: we did some of our own inventive variations, avoiding the mayhem of roadworks round the former Air Balloon pub at Birdlip, and also avoiding the "smart" part of the M4 motorway: we only do the "unsmart" parts these days - call us hopelessly old-fashioned if you like!
Well, WE understood that summary, even if you didn't, but bear with us, we are terribly old haha!
What a truly crazy country we live in !!!!
Lois and I are 77 now, and we find it hard to keep track of where all this family of 5 are, at any one time. They're always dashing hither and thither - you know what these "youngsters" are like!
The three children each go to a different school, two in one county and one in another, and they are constantly being ferried here and there to their schools, to piano lessons, to football practice, to lifeguard training, to driving lessons - you know the kind of thing; Alison has a part-time job as a teacher's assistant, and Ed is a legal advisor to one of the big train companies, sometimes working from home, sometimes working in his office in central London, and sometimes on trips around the country - he's in Derby today, but will be back by 9 pm, Alison says.
And this is the bedroom where Lois and I sleep when we're staying here. The window overlooks the house's massive 6.5 acre grounds, where the deer and the foxes play (no antelopes, incidentally!):
And yes, do let's hope that Admiral Parish won't be turning in his grave next year when all the refurbishments will be going on.
They all appear in the house and disappear from it again at various times, and, when Lois and I get the chance, we look up from our jumbo crossword book and chat to them in the vast cavernous rooms of the crumbling 19th century mansion where they live.
Lois, seen here with our daughter Alison (48)
Josie (17) who's now studying for her A-levels
and also learning to drive
Josie talking to Rosalind in one of the
vast cavernous rooms of this crumbling Victorian mansion
Yes, it's a vast but crumbling Victorian mansion, but it's going to look even crumblier next year. They've had surveyors in to look around recently and there's going to be a major refurbishment job happening in 2024.
I know that Lois and I won't want to be here next year, when various walls are going to be knocked down, ensuite bathrooms installed, and, worst of all, we won't want to be here when the two side-by-side staircases are "taken out" to be eventually replaced by one "master staircase": the upper floor will be out of bounds for the duration, and the family will either have to all sleep downstairs, or in tents in the garden.
What utter utter utter madness !!!!
Even the family's cleaner has quit already, which tells you something about the scale of the plans. My goodness!
the house's totally incomprehensible floor plan
Let's hope that Vice-Admiral John "Jack" Parish, one of the key figures in Queen Victoria's Royal Navy, won't be turning in his grave next year if hears about all the changes.
Poor John !!!!
This is the house that Jack built:
the bedroom where Lois and sleep, overlooking the house's massive
6.5 acre grounds, where deer and foxes roam.
It's quite something for Lois and me to be in bed here at night, for example during a storm, hearing the wind whistling through the 100-200 trees that grow on the property; or to be here in the mating season, hearing the frantic cries of the deer and the foxes, and imagining what's going on out there - it's all total madness!
Vice-Admiral John Parish, who had the house built in the 1870's
some of the highlights from Admiral Parish's "cv"
Admiral Parish's grave in the local churchyard
Poor John (again) !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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