It's a busy day for Lois and me today, getting read to "baby-sit" our 3 teenage grandchildren in Headley, Hampshire, while their parents take a flying trip to Berlin to meet some old friends from their Denmark days (2012-2018).
How old are these grandchildren of ours? Well, they're 17, 15 and 13, so is "baby-sit" the right term, do you think? Is there a word "teen-sit"?
The question is: at what age can parents trust their children not to get into trouble when they take a weekend away? Well, these days, even if your daughter is a US Supreme Court Judge, you have to be nervous about leaving your house in their care, let me tell YOU!
If you don't believe me, take a look at these recent stories from Onion News:
ALEXANDRIA, VA—With her parents leaving town to celebrate their 98th wedding anniversary, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made plans Friday for a major house party, inviting all her Supreme Court colleagues to what she promised would be “a classic Ginsburg throwdown.”
Ginsburg, a Clinton appointee who traditionally votes with the court’s liberal wing and whose 120-year-old parents explicitly told her not to have any friends over, confirmed that she waited until her mother and father had pulled out of the driveway before texting “it’s on” to her fellow justices and telling them to “get ready to drink [their] [expletive deleted] asses off.”
Yes, I know that was America, but such things happen here in the UK too, you know, even in quiet places like the Worcestershire village of Bell End - I expect you've driven through it on your way into Worcester in the mornings, haven't you?
“I tried to cover it up before they came home by throwing blankets over the worst scorches on the floor and couches, but they could definitely smell smoke on me as soon as they came through the door,” said Towser, adding that what began as a small house fire soon got completely out of control and kept on going until well after 4 a.m.
“I mean, of course they were going to find out: The den, kitchen, and master bedroom are totally destroyed. Plus, the neighbours complained when it really started raging.”
Another worry is that these days, even "kids" as old as 26 need to be "sat" (or is it "sitted") ?
Here a local family in Upper Wick were reported as having to instruct their sitter on how to overfeed their 26-year-old daughter Evie.
“It’s pretty simple—in the morning, she gets too much cereal, and in the evening, she gets too many pies and too many chips,” said Williamson, who showed Pacana the plastic scoop she used each day to accurately measure out twice the amount of medically-recommended calories that twenty something girls required. “I overfeed her just like I’d overfeed my cats. Don’t worry, it’s super easy. If she’s not so full that she’s about to puke, she’ll let you know.”
See what I mean? No wonder our daughter Ali and husband Ed are keen for us to come over this weekend and "keep an eye on things".
What a crazy world we live in !!!!
11:00 Our busy day starts in earnest with a trip to the petrol station to fill up for tomorrow's journey, check the tyre pressures, and then start packing.
We've been living in a new-build house in Malvern for over 12 months after downsizing from a large house in Cheltenham, and we've got a long list of things the builders need to put right with the house - one of the very first "snags" we ever reported to Persimmon, the builders, was chipped paint on the front door - why hasn't this been seen to?
You've probably got the same problem if you live in a new-build - do write and tell me!
It's hardly rocket science is it! And while we're in bed this afternoon, somebody called Pete calls round to do the job but it turns out to be a 2-day job, Pete says, something about because he would have to take the door-seal off one day, paint the door, and then put the seal back on he next day. As we're going away tomorrow, this meant the job has to be put off again till next week at the earliest.
Oh dear! What a madness it all is !!!!
All those calls by respected pundit Duane Pleis, all those years ago in 1998, have gone unanswered again, that's for sure!
As we hurtle toward the next millennium, we should take a moment to pause and judiciously examine the state of our country. The years ahead will no doubt bring wondrous advances in computers, HDTV, electric automobiles, and the like. But none of this will matter if we do not address the most pressing problem facing us today–the sorry state of our nation's chipped front doors.
And what's happened in the 25 years since Duane's clarion call?21:00 I don't remember much about the rest of the day. "Forgot what did", as Katy of What Katy Did Next, wrote in her diary.
I do remember that Lois and I wind up in bed again at 10pm tonight after seeing a nostalgic retrospective on Blondie in Britain, as part of BBC2's Blondie Night.
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