The tense situation in our local U3A "Making of English" group rumbles on, the group of local old codgers studying the English language and its predecessors, and all their linguistic twists and turns over the last 6000 years.
a typical "Darby and Joan" couple, standard bearers
of Cheltenham's U3A (University of the Third Age)
When it comes to our Making of English group, there's a definite power struggle going on behind the scenes, following former group leader Lynda's shock resignation back in 2023: not the usual sort of "power struggle", as I expect you've heard - it's a struggle not to become the new leader, which is now becoming more cut-throat with every day that passes here. My goodness yes, you would not BELIEVE!
flashback to last year, when group-leader Lynda triumphantly announced
her mysterious resignation on zoom to the 6 members of our group
flashback to 1976: a 60-year-old Harold Wilson
leaves 10 Downing Street for the last time as premier
And do you remember all those rumours going around at the time, like the story that Wilson was suffering from dementia, or that he was about to be "unmasked" as a Soviet agent, or that a sex-scandal involving his long-time political secretary Marcia Williams was about to "break". And we never really found out the truth, did we. Be honest!
This weekend at least, and by a happy coincidence in view of the still-simmering local U3A scandal, some light is being shed on Wilson's relationship with his secretary Marcia in a new book, reviewed in Lois's copy of "The Week" magazine, the issue of the magazine which "plopped" onto our doormat yesterday afternoon.
The magazine, which offers a digest of the big stories from home and abroad, has made "Marcia Williams" by Linda McDougal, its "Book of the Week".
Not satisfactory? "Why not?", Lois and I wonder today as we muse over the review. Did Marcia not "orgasm"? Did he not? It's a pity we're not told isn't it, really, in the grand scheme of things!
That would be quite nice, to have a tidy mouse in the house, wouldn't it, to clean up and clear up perhaps on a weekly basis. Holbrook's mouse seems to work exclusively in his shed, but it's the same principle isn't it.
There's usually a bit of a tussle between Lois and me when "The Week" magazine "plops" through our letterbox - we both want to be the one to read it first and tell the other one about all the "juicy" bits.
Lois's subscription copy of "The Week" magazine,
which "plopped" onto our doormat yesterday afternoon
And this weekly two-way "tussle" to grab the latest issue, the tussle between Lois and me, has become a bit of a three-way struggle just recently, because our daughter Sarah has taken to bringing her twins over here most weekends, and surprisingly to us, Sarah has developed quite a taste for the news herself, and likes to grab the magazine for herself.
This is "surprising" to Lois and me because we still remember Sarah most vividly as she was in her teenage years, before she left home, when meeting boys and buying clothes and watching pop-music videos were the thing to do, and watching the news on TV was a bit of a turn-off, as it is for most teens, to put it mildly!
But not any more, for Sarah at least !!!!
And, as an example of Sarah's interest in the news, it's in fact Sarah who "breaks" the week's big story from the magazine to Lois and me this weekend.
You know the story I mean, don't you. The one about that mouse in Powys, Wales. If you too get a subscription copy of "The Week" you'll find it on page 2 in the magazine's often disappointedly short "good news" section.
Lois and I are old enough to make comparisons here with the fictional character "Mary Mouse", created by prolific children's writer Enid Blyton in the 1950's. Mary Mouse had been evicted from her mouse-hole in a family home, but had managed to get a job clearing up in the family's dolls-house, where the little house's doll-residents were notoriously careless, feckless, and downright lazy.
some of prolific children's author Enid Blyton's
books in her "Mary Mouse" series from the 1950's
Lois and I inherited a number of these books from our own childhoods and those of our siblings, and we sometimes used to read them to our own children, Alison and Sarah, back in the 1970's.
The books always had a bit of a tragically heart-breaking flavour for me, because the poor, conscientious Mary was often exhausted by the time she went to bed, but she always soldiered on with her duties, getting up early as usual the following morning to begin again her selfless and often unseen, and totally un-regarded, work of cleaning up and polishing, and making everything "spick and span" again, as Mary was in the habit of saying.
Poor Mary!!!!
11:00 It's impossible to feel sad for long, however, when Sarah and her lovely twin daughters are spending the weekend with us, as they do most weekends, and today disappears in a whirlwind of visits to the local playground, and to the town library to pick up another 20 or so books: the girls are voracious readers, which is nice!
Sarah and the twins relax this morning at this new-build housing estate's
playground, against the backdrop of the lovely Malvern Hills
And as for library books - they "devour" most of them in a few hours. And you can tell that Lily and Jessica are avid readers simply by some of the "grown up", literary words that they come out with in their conversations with us - sometimes it's just like taking to a pair of adults.
And we think that their reading has helped them enormously in the difficult transition they've had to make this year: after 7 years in Australia, Sarah and husband Francis decided to move the family back to the UK, so the twins have had to quickly get used to British schools, and to British classmates and all that kind of malarkey.
this morning we have some nostalgic fun looking back
at some of the twins' early artwork from their days
at their Australian "kindy" - which is what the Australians
call kindergarten. Awwwwwwwwwww !!!!!
Plus the twins have had to get used to the hugely different climate here. The twins are gagging to see real snow, which we haven't had yet in Malvern so far this winter, and which you never see in Perth, Western Australia, needless to say.
The twins were amazed in late November to see a completely frosted-over field near their home in Alcester, another new experience, but that was just a "taster". Sarah says that next weekend Francis is planning to drive the whole family up somewhere maybe a couple of hundred miles north of here, to the Pennine Hills, he's suggested - so that they can see some real snow.
19:00 The weekends when Sarah and the twins are here are unlike the quiet weekends when they aren't here, during which Lois and I seem to spend a lot of time either in bed or watching TV on the couch.
Tonight however we've got a DVD to watch, borrowed this morning from the town library. It's called "The Nut Job", which I think is all about the animals, squirrels and the like, in a local park trying to ensure that they have enough nuts to get them through the winter, and simultaneously to foil all the predators who want to keep the nuts to themselves.
Soon, everybody but me is fully engrossed in the film, and has quickly "bought into" the story's heart-warming, animated, "animal-interest" plotline, with its bitter-sweet twists and turns.
I'm not sure exactly about the what the story-line is in the film, because I quickly "lose the plot" and go back to my crossword, the one in this week's Radio Times, which turns out to be a real "doozy", incidentally - you might care to take a look if you get the magazine yourself. You'll see what I mean !
However, if on the other hand you've seen this film "The Nut Job" yourself, do let me know what the plot is, if you have the time to write a quick postcard, that is! Go on, think about it - if you just organised your day a bit more skilfully, I'm sure you could "make the time". Don't you agree haha!
although initially enthusiastic, after about 5 minutes
I seem to "lose the plot" of this film and go back to my crossword
Look away now if you haven't done this puzzle yet! Oops, too late haha!
This is the crossword in this week's Radio Times - and it's a real "doozy" !!!!!
22:00 The times that Sarah and the twins go to bed are extremely variable, and seem to depend on "how tired they are" - a revolutionary concept to Lois and me, who are just a couple of old "boomers", brought up in the disciplined 1950's. My goodness, yes!
Tonight turns out to be a late night for all of them, which may mean a late start in the morning, but we'll see. Sarah has brought her laptop with her this weekend, plus a bunch of work she wasn't able to complete last week at her accountancy job in Evesham.
flashback to 2015: Sarah (second from right) joins with her colleagues,
as they meet to celebrate the accountancy firm's 80th birthday.
Within weeks of this picture being taken, the family was on the
plane taking them out to Australia for their 7-year stint "down under"
And for Lois and me, it's a case of "once a parent, always a parent", and to help Sarah out tomorrow, so that she can do her unpaid overtime work uninterrupted, Lois has decided to sacrifice her usual attendance at her church's Sunday Morning Meeting at Tewkesbury, so that we can entertain the twins and stop them getting in Sarah's hair.
What a woman I married. She's so warm-hearted, I wish I could be more like her !!!!
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!!
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