Dear reader, have you got a fence or a hedge that separates your house from the one next door? A lot of people do, I've noticed. And it's kind of reassuring, even if they're nice people next door, because they may keep a fierce, unpleasant dog, say - do you know what I mean?
Or alternatively maybe the dog is nice, but the neighbour is fierce and unpleasant. A boundary fence or hedge works for this case as well, which is kind of reassuring!
The downside, particularly with fences, is that they may blow down in nasty, or what people nowadays call "extreme", weather. Have you noticed that too?
Lois and I moved to a new-build home in Malvern in December 2022, and the fences here are rock-solid. However, in our previous house in Cheltenham, we had numerous experiences either with our own fences or our neighbours' fences blowing down in extreme weather.
Do you remember the great storm of April 2022, when one of the 6ft x 4ft fence panels between our old house in Cheltenham and our neighbour Nikki's house got torn off and landed somewhere in our garden. Nikki hadn't noticed, and it was quite a surprise to her when I took it round to her the following day and asked her if it was one of hers. She readily acknowledge ownership and invited me in for a cup of tea, so it was a win-win.
KOROMA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA—Huli tribesman Olene,
32, expressed annoyance Tuesday after being "guilt-tripped" into
agreeing to attend his friend Gumaiba's boundary dance.
"This is the last thing I need tonight," said Olene. "I had a really bad day. I'm beat from a long day of hunting, and I broke my favourite hongoia bone knife. All I want to do is chill out at home, maybe craft myself a new knife. Instead, I have to go out to Gumaiba's boundary dance. What a drag."
The boundary dance is a traditional ceremony performed by Huli tribesmen to mark the territory they own, or that their sub-tribe owns, around their simple straw huts.
Gumaiba, 30, first invited Olene to the event last week, when he handed his friend a hand-painted, bark invitation. According to Olene, Gumaiba has reminded him of the dance several times since then. Olene said Gumaiba then used guilt to coerce him into attending the boundary dance.
Members of the same clan, Olene and Gumaiba have known each other since childhood. "Gumaiba and I go way back," Olene said. "We're not close-close, but we often run into each other at the shrine." Olene has attended three of Gumaiba's boundary dances in the past.
“It's just, look, he's not a very good boundary dancer," Olene said. "It's sort of painful, as a friend, for me to sit through it.”
Gumaiba began performing boundary dances two years ago. Olene acknowledged that
his friend has improved his presentation in recent months, by adding more
plumage to his manda wig and by obtaining an impressive array
of pajabu cordyline leaves for his buttocks. Olene
maintained, however, that no costume alterations will help Gumaiba's poor
dancing.
And I can hardly even begin to imagine the shame that Gumaiba must be feeling because of his poor dancing skills.
But also poor me, if if "boundary-dancing" ever catches on here in Malvern, as everybody seems to believe !!!!
Don't you just hate the feeling of pajabu cordyline leaves round your naked buttocks - I personally find them so itchy. Call me over-sensitive if you like haha! And anyway the local B&Q Garden Centre don't stock them - I rang up a few days ago to check.
And secondary issue, but also important - I personally will not be in very good shape for the dancing bit of the boundary-marking, because of my dodgy right hip.
Hopefully all that will change, however, starting from next month, when I'm due to check in at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, for some hip treatment. It'll take up a Wednesday and a Thursday, so today Lois and I book a couple of nights in a nice local country pub, to make it seem more like a naughty romantic "getaway" - it's the psychology that's SO important isn't it.
Or maybe I'll just lobby my local MP to campaign for garden fences to remain legal. So the jury's still out on that one.
Watch this space!
[That's enough whimsy! - Ed]
21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session with local church-members, and we watch the final episode in the current series of the sitcom "Here We Go".
For me the key "takeaway" from tonight's episode was Dad Jessop's problems with his head size, or more precisely his hat size, which really resonated with me, and it's something I can relate to, no doubt about that!
Dad Jessop has been training to become one of the city's newest police constables, and his head size has proved to be something of a sticking-point, particularly now that he's due to "graduate" and take part in this year's intake's "passing out parade".
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