14:00 Two o'clock in the afternoon, and for once I'm in bed on my own, which is nice sometimes isn't it - be honest!!! It happened once last month, I seem to remember.
flashback to November: I lie in bed alone, and watch, as our builder
Persimmon's "Orelli-men" plant a tree outside our new-build home
I know I've told you before that on these rare occasions - when I'm completely alone - I empathise strongly with that now-famous "pickle in the jar" in Minneapolis, the story in Onion News that I told you about on another occasion, the story that quickly "went viral". Do you remember it?
Lois and I have been retired for nearly 18 years now, and we "live in each other's pockets", especially now, since last October, that we're officially downsized and living in a much smaller "space". I have a lot of fun being in Lois's pockets, but would she say the same about me? Maybe not. Perhaps I should be told, and quickly!
Lois and me, officially retired since March 2006
Anyway this afternoon Lois has got the chance to be get away from me for 2 hours, and "live a little" and "see life", because she has the opportunity to go into town with our daughter Sarah, son-in-law Francis, and their twin daughters and to the local skating rink, which is nice.
We've both had a busy morning.
At 9 o'clock or thereabouts, we were both puffing and panting a bit, getting our Christmas wreath up on our front door. I was inside the house screwing in a hook and Lois was outside pulling a string, so that we could hang the wreath inside but it would show outside.
How many old codgers does it take to do a simple job like that? We made quite a bit of noise, and I don't know what the neighbours must have been thinking - my goodness!
we "mount" our Christmas wreath on a piece of string inside
the house, so that it shows outside - how many old codgers
does it take to do that? A two-codger team is the minimum I would suggest!
Luckily Lois and I had pre-prepared Activity no.1 all ready for the twins' day today: decorating Lois's 2023 Christmas cake. Just the sort of activity that the twins love - they absolutely live to design things and decorate them, and all that malarkey, and they're never happier than when they're doing that kind of artistic work, which is nice.
within minutes of arriving for their regular weekend stay with us,
our twin granddaughters were busy decorating Lois's 2023 Christmas cake
the decorated cake, lying peacefully, later, in our larder,
next to the six-pack of UHT milk
It gives me a rare bit of "me time", but of course I unfortunately miss out on seeing the twins on an ice rink, which will be their first ever experience of it. The family spent the last 7 years out in the bush in Western Australia, where ice-rinks are thin on the ground to put it mildly.
flashback to December 2020: Sarah, Francis and the twins
experiencing the heat of a Western Australia Christmas
At least one bit of me - my 2023 festive "Santa hat" - will be there at the ice-rink with the family this afternoon, because Sarah borrows it today to keep her head warm there. She and the twins tend to be a bit absent-minded and, incredibly, they all forgot to bring any hats or coats with them when they drove to our house earlier this morning.
What madness - in December, in England !!!!
flashback to last week: I take delivery of my 2023 "Santa hat",
which Sarah gratefully borrows today
Lois in her shiny-new festive 2023 "elf hat",
waiting for our son-in-law Francis to arrive
and take the family to the local ice-rink
Lois takes her phone with her to the ice-rink this afternoon, so later I can get to see some of the pictures she takes.
15:00 When they come back, all Sarah and Francis's talk today is about the dreaded "Eleven Plus Exam", which is still given to all 10-year-olds in the educationally-conservative counties that we tend to have in this part of the UK: Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire included.
the twins skating this afternoon for the first time in their lives,
at Malvern's "Winter Glow" ice-rink, Jessica wearing
one of Lois's so-called "meeting hats"
If kids pass the Eleven Plus Exam in this area, they get to go to one of the prestigious local grammar-schools. Lois and I, and Sarah and Francis are all sure that the twins are very gifted - I realise all parents and grandparents tend to think this, but honestly, it's true in this case! Honestly! We wouldn't make a thing like that up now, would we haha!
some star pupils at the Prince Henry High School, Evesham
one of the area's prestigious grammar schools.
Sometimes when Jessie is talking, it sounds to me like it's an adult talking. She doesn't laugh a lot but she has a really dry sense of humour, and a special voice she puts on whenever she's telling a funny story. Lily is more of a laugh-out-loud child, and very quickly sees the humour in everyday situations: she's also more confident physically and athletically than Jessie.
Lois says that today on the ice-rink, Lily was much quicker at dispensing with Sarah's helping hand, while Jessie held on to her dad's hand much longer. See these pictures of them at the ice-rink today.
our son-in-law Francis taking a hesitant Jessica's hand
as she experiences an ice-rink for the first time...
...while Sarah, wearing my "Santa hat", just keeps an eye
on the more confident Lily for her first go on the ice
It's always fascinating to compare twins, isn't it. Lily and Jessie aren't identical twins, but they've obviously got the same parents and had the same upbringing. However they're still noticeably different in all sorts of ways.
And nothing in the above guarantees that they'll necessarily pass the Eleven Plus Exam of course. And as Sarah and Francis bemoan this afternoon, many local parents are spending vast sums on private tutors, to try and buy success for their kids. Oh dear!
Luckily Francis has an engineering degree, so he's good on maths and science. Sarah's an accountant so is also good on maths, but also on the arts subjects like English and languages, so between them they can probably do their own tutoring of the twins. Let's hope so.
17:00 Dear reader, do you ever do "normal things", like all those "normal people" do? Lois and I don't do that very much, but today, after Francis leaves, we settle down with Sarah and the twins to watch a film on TV and have pizzas delivered by the local Domino's Pizzas, ordered online by Sarah.
Normal, yes, but for Lois and me a bit weird.
our pizzas are delivered to our door by a guy
from Domino's Pizzas, Malvern
The film that we watch is the original 1971 version of the Roald Dahl's story "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", which our own daughters Sarah and Alison watched while we were living in America 1982-85, on one of the cable channels, HBO or Showtime, I forget which.
It's the perfect time for a gin-and-tonic. Cheers!
And after Lois reads the twins another chapter of their current bedtime book, "The Wind in the Willows", she and I get a chance to relax on the couch with the last programme in the series by Michael Portillo (formerly one of Margaret Thatcher's junior ministers), all about the Andalucian province of Spain, where the half-Spanish Portillo now has a second home.
Tonight we see Michael visiting one of Seville's hat shops, where the assistant puts Michael's hat through a hi-tech "head-shaper", a 19th century French invention.
This "head-shaper" produces a 2-dimensional model of Michael's head's shape, and assigns it to one of a number of "head categories" - Michael's is classed as a "potato head".
Poor Michael !!!!!
And what a crazy world we live in !!!! Imagine - "head-shapers"!!!! What will they think of next!!!!!!
But maybe I should get my own head put through a shaper. I've got quite a big one - size 7.5 - which is a bit quirky, and I always have trouble finding a suitable hat.
flashback to 1983: me with our two daughters Sarah (5) and Alison (7).
I finally find a hat that fits me, and suits me too,
don't you think? It's a size 7.5 tricorn from a shop in Williamsburg, Virginia
[That's enough hats! - Ed]
22:00 Lois and I put on our respective Elf and Santa hats and go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!
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