09:30 Oooh - those perfumes and soft sofas!!!!
Yes, I expect you've guessed! Lois and I get another chance to sample the "harem vibe" on the sofas at her stylist's again this morning, the seductively furnished "Divine" Hair Salon at Barnard's Green. And while we wait for Lois's stylist Rachel to get her "instruments of pamper" together, we sit and chat amid the soft cushions in the "waiting area" and start to absorb all the perfumes.
two old codgers sampling the "harem vibe" in the waiting-area
at the Divine Hair Salon, Barnard's Green this morning
And we start to ask the question which will return to haunt us again and again throughout the morning. "Do harems get decorated at Christmas time?" If you know the answer, do tell !!!!
Be that as it may, the "Divine" hair salon certainly goes in for Christmas decorations, and why not? It only comes but once a year, doesn't it.
Our verdict on the "Divine Christmas" decorations malarkey this year? A bit over-the-top perhaps, but then Lois and I can be a bit over-the-top ourselves on occasion [Yes, but not in a good way! - Ed].
above the parapet you can see Rachel
working on Lois's "look" this morning
10:00 After we emerge, Lois does some bits of pieces of Christmas shopping, while I drive home to work on the ID checks for our daughter Sarah's house-purchase. Sarah and her husband Francis and their 10-year-old twins returned from 7 years in Western Australia at the end of April and they're hoping to buy a house near Evesham.
flashback to May 4th: we do dinner for our daughter Sarah, plus husband Francis
and twins Lily and Jessica arrive back in England after 7 years in Australia
When I get home I've still got the scent of those "Divine" perfumes exploding inside my nostrils, but unfortunately the associated "harem vibe" quickly disappears, as I wrestle at the laptop with the "automatic" ID checks for Sarah's house purchase.
There's nothing more guaranteed to get you in a bad mood than these automatic ID checks, which is a pity. I try to upload pictures of mine and Lois's driving-licenses and then I have to sit in front of the laptop moving my head around for the laptop camera, but I still don't know if the website has accepted them.
And my heart sinks at the danger that, as a last resort, I may have to "contact Khiah", as the display above suggests, and possibly wait for up to an hour to come to the top of his or her "waiting list".
What a madness it all is !!!!
11:00 Lois and I run the local U3A Intermediate Danish group, and at the moment the group is reading a rather racy murder mystery, "Judaskysset" (the Judas Kiss) by Anna Grue. It's all about an affair between a menopausal art teacher, Ursula, and her young paint-supplier, Jakob.
Ursula (53) and Jakob (29) are certainly having a lot of sex, although there are some minuses for Ursula: the sex is giving Ursula backache, plus she's long-sighted so has to wear her glasses to see him clearly when they're in bed, and on top of all that, she has to rely on her hot flushes to keep her warm when Jakob rolls over in his sleep taking the duvet with him.
The writer, Anna Grue, was herself 53 when she wrote the book, and our group-members often speculate on whether the story could be autobiographical.
Danish author Anna Grue - "Is she the 'Ursula' in this book?" we wonder.
Be that as it may, the "older woman - younger man" vibe makes it an exciting book for our elderly and predominantly female group-members to fantasize over, no doubt about that! "What's not to like?" I sense they're thinking.
For me, however, it can be a lot of work. And I spend much of the rest of the day working on vocabulary lists for the next few pages - yes, it's not all Horlicks-and-skittles when you lead a U3A group - let me tell YOU!
a typical vocabulary list that I compile for this book - and it's a lot of work, let me tell YOU!
Incidentally the above list is part of my vocab guide to page 9, in case you've got a copy of the book and you're struggling with some of the Danish - no thanks needed, it's my free gift to you haha!
Little do I know, however, when I'm sweating over my vocabulary lists today, that the story is good background for mine and Lois's evening viewing - as you'll see below.
20:00 When Lois and I settle down on the couch to wind down for bed, by coincidence we watch a programme about another "older woman, young man" theme. What are the chances of that happening, eh?
It's on the Sky Arts channel, and it's all about the making of "The Graduate" (1967), a film which Lois and I went to the cinema to see, back in the day.
flashback to the late 1960's: Lois and me when we'd started going out,
at around the time we first saw "The Graduate" at a local cinema
"The Graduate" is all about a nervous student Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman), who gets seduced by one of his mother's friends, "Mrs Robinson" (Anne Bancroft), but who eventually winds up with Mrs Robinson's daughter Elaine.
This was a very successful and influential film at the time, and it led to a whole new genre of radical films.
A big part of the film's success was the Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack, but the biggest plus was the casting. Benjamin, the young student, is shy and nervous and uncertain about how he's going to live his life, while Mrs Robinson, the alcoholic older woman who seduces him, has a world-weary, slightly embittered air. Who would YOU have got to take on these roles?
We hear tonight that the studio's initial ideas for the casting included Robert Redford for the shy, uncertain student Benjamin, and Doris Day for the embittered older seductress. What a madness THAT would have been!
Luckily the studio rejected these ideas, in favour of two actors who were more than a bit like their characters: Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. Hoffman was a shy and anxious young actor, still doing part-time jobs in supermarkets in his evenings to supplement his earnings, and afraid that if he starred in the film that "people would start recognising him in the street".
Whereas Anne Bancroft had her own slightly embittered air, and the feeling that Hollywood had "given up on her" because she was no longer a spring chicken. You know the sort of thing!
So both actors were perfect for their roles.
"perfect for their roles": Dustin Hoffman as the anxious Benjamin,
and Anne Bancroft as the slightly bitter, older woman
The film also came at the right time for Hollywood. In 1967 the old "studio system" was beginning to unravel, and a new approach was needed.
At the end of the film, Mrs Robinson's daughter Elaine is getting married to her mother's choice, the ambitious medical student Carl. Suddenly, Benjamin makes a dramatic entry into the church hoping to stop the marriage taking place. He fights off Elaine's father and the wedding guests by swinging a large cross which he uses to barricade the church door, trapping everybody inside while he and Elaine make their getaway.
Benjamin appears in the church, in an effort to stop
Mrs Robinson's daughter Elaine from marrying Carl
In an "old Hollywood" film, it's pointed out, Benjamin would have stopped the wedding before the vows had been taken and given, but in this "new Hollywood", the vows have already been exchanged, but Elaine and Benjamin run off together anyway.
Benjamin and Elaine flee, after jamming the door with a big crucifix
It was the hit film of the year, and the "New Yorker" magazine devoted 26 pages to its analysis.
It had a radical approach, but it was basically just a story of ordinary middle-class families, with a generational theme. It certainly wasn't radical in a political sense: contemporary issues such as the Vietnam War weren't mentioned. However, it was still incredibly popular on student campuses, among students of whatever political persuasion. Students taking part in sit-ins at Columbia University, for example, organised rotas so that they could all sneak off in their turns to watch the film.
It was certainly a crazy time, wasn't it.
But fascinating stuff !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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