Monday December 18th 2023

It isn't a good idea to eat too much, in general, is it. But it's an easy trap to fall into, especially at Christmas, even for the well-intentioned. Look at what famously happened at this church bake sale in Alabama a few years back, as reported on Onion News.

You're probably curious to know how the other 6 sins, apart from envy, were committed at the bake-sale, but I'll leave that to your imagination, I think! But it's easy to guess, isn't it. One thing always leads to another, really, doesn't it. Commit one deadly sin, and you're more likely to commit another, basically, aren't you!

And it's been the same throughout history, hasn't it, as you can tell from some of the old Flemish masters from the 16th century, like this couple preparing to try a few deadly sins by first demolishing a pile of oysters.

Or that painting where a man and woman come upon mountains of wonderful food,  and prepare to gorge themselves. You know the one I mean! The one where there's so much food that they don't know where to start, like this couple pictured here in Utrecht in 1645?

"Let's start over there by the window!", the man 

appears to be suggesting to the woman

But what did food taste like in 1645? I think we should be told, don't you?

And even if nobody tells us, Lois and I are going to experience a bit of the answer this Christmas, when we bite into the Christmas pudding that Lois's forebears in the Oxfordshire countryside were enjoying for Christmases at least 150 years ago and probably even further back.

We won't be biting into the actual puddings that they made at that time, needless to say, but Lois still has their recipe, so it's more or less the same thing, isn't it. This recipe goes back at least to her grandmother Milcah Cox, born in 1870, and according to family legend, to ancestors many generations further back than that. 

Lois here showcases the old Oxfordshire country recipe

for Christmas Pudding, used by her grandmother

and by her grandmothers in decades long past

Flashback to 1932: Ruth Cox (1916-1995), Lois' mother (right), 

at the age of 16, with her mother Milcah (1870-1952)

Lois with the four puddings, all looking surprisingly perky, 

including Lois, by now 5 hours into their 6-hour-plus cooking time

So Lois has been busy, that's for sure. But don't think that I myself have been idle today, while Lois has been slaving over her hot puddings. Let me tell YOU!

Today for me is like "just another day at the office" as it always used to be for me, before I retired from my old civil service job, even though I've been retired now for an incredible 18 years, come next March.  Yes, I've got to do all sorts of paperwork today and get hold of bank statements etc, without even stopping for a cup of tea, unlike what most office-workers do.

And the reason for all this paperwork is our daughter Sarah, who, with her family, recently moved back to the UK after 7 years in Australia, and they want to buy a house here - at the moment they are temporarily living in a rental home in Alcester, but they'd like to buy a house nearer to Evesham, where Sarah works as an accountant.

flashback to May: Sarah and family have their first meal

with us after moving back to the UK from Australia

Luckily Sarah is at the other end of an email connection and can tell me what she wants me to do. She's effectively like my line manager now - my goodness! But every "aged parent" has to go through the culture shock, through mental feebleness, of having to ask their grown-up offspring, "What do I do next, chief?". It's all a bit mad, isn't it!

20:00 Lois and I are both tired after our busy day, so  we decide to just relax on the couch with tonight's first programme in a special Christmas series of "University Challenge", one of our favourite TV quizzes.

This series is a bit different from the normal series of this show, because it's between teams of "celebrity" or "notable" graduates who used to go to the colleges or universities concerned, rather than between current students still studying at these institutions.

Needless to say, Lois and I haven't a clue about who these 8 "celebrities" are: not one single one of them!

However, we show that we've "still got it" by getting 11 answers correct that the "celebrity graduates" strike out on, which sends us to bed in an excited mood - you would not BELIEVE!

See how many of these "doozies" YOU know....

1. Aldous Huxley's short-story collection "Brief Candles" takes its title from a brief soliloquy spoken in the final act of which of Shakespeare's tragedies? 

Students: King Lear

Colin and Lois: Macbeth ("Out out brief candle, life's but a walking shadow...")

2. Identify this island:

Students: [pass]

Colin and Lois: the Swedish island of Gotland.

3.    

[That's enough "doozies"! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!