It's Mother's Day at last, and I hear that by 8 am, the big shopping centre in Worcester is "rammed" again with mums armed with a selection of "gift vouchers". Predictable maybe, but also a bit sad, don't you think?
It's no surprise really because, after all, the press is always full of stories about women's needs not being fulfilled by their husbands for a start now, isn't it - you've got to admit that!
SANDUSKY, OH—Area resident Pamela Meyers was delighted to receive yet another thoughtful CD recommendation from Amazon.com Friday, confirming that the online retail giant has a more thorough, individualized, and nuanced understanding of Meyers' taste than the man who occasionally claims to love her, husband Dean Meyers.
"To come home from a long day at work and see the message about the new Norah Jones album waiting for me, it just made my week," said Meyers, 36, who claimed she was touched that the company paid such attention to her. "It feels nice to be noticed once in a while, you know?"
Amazon, which has been tracking Meyers' purchases since she first used the site to order Football For Dummies in preparation for attending the 2024 Citrus Bowl as part of her husband's 10th wedding anniversary plans, has shown impressive accuracy at recommending books, movies, music, and even clothing that perfectly match Meyers' tastes.
a typical 2024 Citrus Bowl game
While the powerful algorithms that power Amazon's recommendations generator do not have the advantage of being able to observe Meyers' body language, verbal intonation, or current personal possessions, they have nonetheless proven more effective than Dean, who bases his gift-giving choices primarily on what is needed around the house, what he would like to own, and, most notably, what objects are nearby.
"I don't know how Amazon picked up on my growing interest in world music so quickly, but I absolutely love this traditional Celtic CD," Meyers said. "I like it so much more than that Keith Urban thing Dean got me. I'm really not sure what made him think I like country music.
Meyers said she was especially moved that the online merchant remembered that she had once purchased an Ian McEwan book, and immediately reminded her when the author released a new novel. Moreover, despite only having had 37 hours of direct interaction with Meyers, Amazon was still able to detect her strong interest in actor Paul Giamatti, unlike husband Dean who often teases Meyers about her non-existent crush on Tom Cruise.
Poor Pamela !!!!!!!!!
No such problems here in Malvern between me and Lois, however, I'm delighted to report.
For Lois's Mother's Day gift I've got her a nice set of multi-coloured kitchen chopping boards, which she was delighted to unwrap in bed this morning, although they were quickly tossed aside, together with the card, I have to admit. However, these are chopping-boards which I'm certain will "hit the spot", if not immediately then eventually, in the weeks, months and years ahead - that's for sure!
flashback to the scene in our bed this morning,
when Lois first sets eyes my this year's Mother's Day gift
- a set of kitchen chopping-boards, on special offer from Argos
Lois leaves the boards, together with my card, in the bed when she
gets up, but helpful as always I take them downstairs for her later
Poor Lois!!!!
Only joking naturally!!! Lois asked for these chopping-boards, and although they're a bit smaller than she hoped for, she's decided not to send them back to Argos, which is a sure sign of appreciation if ever I saw one haha!!!
But I mustn't forget - there are actually two mothers in the house today, because our daughter Sarah is spending the weekend with us, together with her 10-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. And while Lois is upstairs getting dressed, Sarah is already downstairs with her laptop, grabbing some Cheerios with Jessica and me, while doing some unpaid weekend overtime on her laptop for the accountancy firm she works for in Evesham.
a "working breakfast" for our daughter Sarah (left), while our
granddaughter Jessica and I grab some Cheerios
Lily, the other granddaughter of ours in the house, has postponed her breakfast this morning. She's busy making some last-minute "finishing touches" to her home-made Mother's Day card and gift for Sarah, and all is later revealed in a short, but heart-warming and cute, ceremony in the living-room.
Awwwww - bless them, and Lois and I love them all so much !!!!!
10:30 Lois and I say a tearful goodbye to Sarah and the girls, because I'm driving Lois to her church's Sunday Morning Meeting in Tewkesbury today, and Sarah and the girls will have gone home when we come back home around 2:30 pm.
11:05 We arrive at the Village Hall, a bit early for the Bible Hour, which starts at 11:15, but Lois wants to "settle me down" near a radiator, and she also wants us to get a table not too far away from the preacher's platform, because of her hearing problems. She's due to get an NHS hearing-aid fitted at Specsavers tomorrow morning.
She duly "settles me down" with a cup of hot coffee to keep me quiet and focussed, and then goes round greeting her fellow-church-members, including the large contingent of Iranian Christian refugees.
Lois "settles me down" at a table next to a radiator with a coffee,
while she goes around greeting her fellow-church members,
including a large contingent of Iranian Christian refugees.
And I'm comforted as always by the portrait of our late Queen,
looking across sympathetically at me from the opposite wall.
It's cold inside the hall, as always, although possibly about 0.5 degrees less cold than last Sunday. We keep our coats and scarves on etc, and I check my smartphone, which has this brilliant app I downloaded recently that tells you the temperature inside and outside of the building you're in.
the brilliant new app on my phone - isn't it great,
or isn't it great !!!!
How great is that!!!!!
But brrrrrr, all the same haha !!!!!!
Chief Elder Andy is giving the "Bible Hour" address, which is all about "Making Sense of the Devil", and he's got some colourful slides, including Farsi translations for the Iranians, which is nice.
Lois's church is a fundamentalist denomination that doesn't believe in a personal devil, and regards mentions of Satan etc in the Bible as purely symbolic. Other denominations, including the Jehovah's Witnesses, who are also fundamentalists, take the opposite view, which is interesting.
And there's maybe an extra reason why Chief Elder Andy has chosen this subject for today, because one of the church-members, a widower, is trying to "woo" one of his women neighbours, also widowed. She usually comes with him here on Sundays but she is actually an Anglican I think, or something like that. And the widower wants to convince the widow to adopt his own views on the Devil, the Trinity, and a bunch of other "sticking-points" etc, before he will agree to "get serious" about their relationship.
So it's a bit of a cliff-hanger to put it mildly! Will the widow give in to all this pressure from the widower, and will the two of them get to "hook up" after all their weeks of study and scriptural debate etc?
Tune in next week (or maybe the week after that, or maybe the week after the week after that haha!) to find out haha !!!!! [That's enough hahas! - Ed]
20:00 We go to bed on a repeat of the old TV film version of Stella Gibbons' 1920's novel Cold Comfort Farm, the story of flapper Flora trying to "sort out" the lives of her simple, medieval country cousins in deepest Sussex.
In this scene, Meriam flaunts her charms in a successful bid to entice Urk away from his fruitless longings for Elfine.
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