I spend a lot of today working on my so-called "presentation" to the local U3A "Language and Languages Group", with its rather catchy title, "If George III came back to life, would we understand what he was saying to us?".
[If that's all you've got, Colin, it's time to start worrying! - Ed]
These don't seem to work, but it's getting late, so I decide to postpone trying the Stage 2 trouble-shooting tips till tomorrow. They look more of a challenge to me, so I'd better get a good night's sleep first if I'm going to be in with a chance of trying out any of these "doozies", that's for sure!
[Good luck with those - particularly the last one haha! - Ed]
21:15 When Lois emerges from her zoom session, we wind down for bed with another episode of "Yes Prime Minister", the 1980's political sitcom.
Sir Humphrey Appleby, Head of the Civil Service and Prime Minister Jim Hacker's principal advisor, has such a way with words, hasn't he. And when he's explaining something, Lois and I find that he's so clear that he completely short-circuits our powers of comprehension. This means we can just "leave it to Sir Humphrey", which is a relief when you've got a lot of things going on in your own private lives, isn't it!
Oh, never mind, you'll look after all that, won't you, Sir Humphrey haha!!!!
They certainly mangled their pronunciations in those crazy, far-off times, didn't they - my goodness!!!
And they cut all sorts of corners, leaving last letters off words, like husban' instead of husband, also making 'housewife' into 'hussy', a short-cut which later developed its own separate meaning of "a saucy girl without morals".
a typical "hussy"
Back in the 18th century they also kept themselves busy adding unnecessary letters onto the ends of other words, like adding a 't' onto "vermin", so you get "varmint" alongside plain "vermin".
Unexpected letter 'j' sounds were common, like "eejit" for idiot, and "Injun" for Indian, etc etc.
What an utter utter utter madness it all was!!!!!
Thank goodness that in the 19th century the Government made all children go to school so they could learn how to spell and then pronounce all these words properly, like what me and Lois does. There's something to be said for education isn't there, with all its faults (or its "fauts", as they used to pronounce it) !!!!
Cartoon in the satirical magazine Punch
commenting on the passing of the Education Act of 1870
For Lois and me, today is also a day of deliveries galore, and our doorbell seems at times to be ringing non-stop, always a good sign. At last we get our grubby little hands on our Retractable "Cordomatic" Clothes-Line, my shiny-new watch, and Lois's "grow your own potatoes on the patio" kit, to name but three.
a typical patio potato-kit
the actual kit we ordered - taking advantage of a
massive discount (not shown) - new bargain price £6,
so yes - "the price is right" haha!
In view of the potato-kit's complex "tracking details" where it seems to have been moving about from pillar to post just inside Gloucester, I'm frankly amazed that it's got here at all, what with Gloucester being 17 miles away from us here in Malvern.
What madness !!!!
But oh dear - on the minus side, today is also a day when technology seems to be letting us down all over the place. Our computers stop communicating with our shiny-new printer, the one I was so proud about installing a couple of weeks ago.
Plus, our TV is having troubles communicating with the wi-fi via our Roku box. And last but not least, Lois's phone is taking ages to recharge, and her phone-company top-up service is down for maintenance so she can't put any money on the phone: she's realised that lack of money on it was what was stopping her texts being sent.
Soon we're going to be reduced to "making our own fun". [Good luck with that... - Ed].
[...judging by the pictures - I should just stick to the first one if I were you haha! - Ed]
What a crazy world we live in !!!!
At last I find the Onion's "modern technology" trouble-shooting guide, and I go through all the Part One (basic steps) that the website recommends.
On the whole, however, I'm getting a positive feeling from today, and the biggest plus of all is that Lois and I are both clean again, having taken our first shower for about 8 or 9 days: neither of us can remember our last shower, and as we're both getting on in years we have to take ourselves slowly through the basics, but we manage to do it in the end, which is nice, at our age!
a typical older couple taking each other
through the basics of "how to shower", "brush teeth" etc
20:00 Lois disappears into Bedroom 2 to take part in her church's weekly Bible Seminar on zoom, and that's another plus to add to the achievements side of the day, because she finds that our shiny-new webcam with built-in microphone works fine, which is a relief.
flashback to yesterday: I set up our shiny new
webcam (ringed). Awww!!! Bless me!!!!
Here he is, explaining to a puzzled Prime Minister the etiquette for the system of multiple waiting-rooms to accommodate the multiple people queuing up to have their appointments to see the PM on any given day.
Tremendous fun !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz!!!!
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