Saturday June 1st 2024 "I lead a bunch of Hungarian nomads up (or is it down?) the Russian Steppes"

Dear Reader, do you envy the Americans their "county fairs" - they sound such fun, don't they! 

Look at this report that came in way back in the early coronavirus lockdown -source [Onion News' Indiana Desk]. Do you remember seeing it at the time? 

And if you're one of those "stick-in-the-muds" round here who only look at the Onion News' Worcestershire news-desk's stuff, this story might just encourage you to "get a life" and "broaden your horizons", and maybe even wake up to the fact that there's a big wide world sitting there outside our county where things you never dreamt of are happening all the time - it's true isn't it!

It's a wonderful tradition they have over there, isn't it, and it's all basically about "healthy competition" - and not just the prize hog competitions, but also "prize other things" - and it's even incorporated the world of politics, which is nice, I think, and a great "humaniser" of the sometimes bitchy world of election campaigns: something we know all too much about at the moment in our own country, to put it mildly!

Remember this story from America's 2019 election campaigns?

We don't really have anything quite like those County Fairs over here in the UK, do we, more's the pity, and our "village fêtes" and suchlike, can often seem a bit unenterprising, "poncey" even, in comparison, can't they.

At least they've give us the old joke, "A fête worse than death" which still brings a smile to the face of many people! [Not me! - Ed]

Fêtes are good news for me, today, however, because it means that my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois can take our weekend guests - our daughter Sarah and her twins - to a local village fête happening today at Madresfield Court, about a mile away from where we live, here in Malvern. 

Lois helps our 10-year-old twin granddaughters Lily (left) and Jessica,

 with their school homework, over a comforting mountain of breakfast Cheerios 

And while everybody else is out of the house today, I can get a bit of "me time" writing my so-called "presentation" to our local U3A "History of English" group, a presenation which will be happening next Friday on zoom, in which I will  reveal, exclusively or not, how the Hungarian language differs from our own. 

flashback to 2022: me, with a print-out of a previous talk of mine, 

as I wait ready to address a previous zoom meeting of our local U3A group

And today, to get myself "in the mood", I can also fantasise about riding on horseback with the Hungarian nomad tribes, galloping through the Russian steppes and into Europe all those years ago. And I can make the "neighing noises" and shout "gee up" etc without attracting undue attention or ridicule even, which is nice!

flashback to a 896 AD: me (ringed) in my fantasy world,

leading the Hungarian nomads, as they ride fearlessly

across the Russian steppes on their way into Europe

Hungarian isn't supposed to be related to English at all, and it stands in its own tiny group in Europe, made up of just 3 sister languages: Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian, 

Hungarian and its sister languages in Europe:

spoken today in Finland and Estonia

Weird as these languages sound to our ears, they do share a few tantalising similarities with English and other Western languages. These are probably "coincidences", or ARE they? Let me explain!

Dear reader, do you ever talk about yourself? A lot of people do it, I've noticed, sometimes a little too much, which can be annoying at times! [At least you're not guilty of that, Colin (!) - Ed]

And when you're talking about yourself, have you noticed how you use the letter 'm' a lot? "My" this, "my" that, I "am", "That's mine!" etc etc. It's the same in Latin - "meus" means "my", and "I am" is "sum", as in "civis Romanus sum", (I am a Roman citizen), as Kennedy said in Berlin all those years ago.  Well, it's also the same in Hungarian, the letter m m m all the way, which is weird. 

CAN that be just coincidence? I wonder....!!!

"I Me Mine" - that was the song George Harrison wrote, calling out people who just talk about themselves. Remember?

song by Beatle George Harrison

Or, what about Neil Diamond's "I Am I Said"?  

It's like a thread running through our culture, isn't it.

[Remember this is supposed to be a 45-minute presentation you're meant to be giving, Colin. I think you'll need a bit more material than that! - Ed]

[And don't even THINK about opening up with recordings of those songs, and gradually fading them out as you fumble for your opening Hungarian so-called joke! - Ed]

[Awwwww! You're no fun, Ed haha !!!!! - Colin]

15:00 Lois Sarah and the twins come back from the village fête, and I suddenly realise, "Oh dear, another opportunity to write my talk has been shamefully squandered in fantasising and taking a self-indulgent nap etc. Damn!!!!" 

[Well, you've only got yourself to blame there, Colin! - Ed]

At least Lois Sarah and the twins all had a good time at the fête, which is something. It was held at nearby Madresfield Court, a country house surrounded by a real moat, and home of the Lygon family since the 12th century, and they're still all living there today (only the surviving ones, needless to say!).

Lygon-descendant Lucy and husband Jonathan, 

with their 4 children May, Jack, Evie, and Max

The house has had a line of unbroken family ownership only exceeded in length in England today by properties owned by the Royal Family. 

Novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was a frequent visitor, and he based his fictional family of the Marchmains in "Brideshead Revisited" (1944) on the resident Lygon family.

today's fête : the falconry display (falcon ringed)

the rock choir

our twin granddaughters Lily (left) and Jessica

relax by the Madresfield Court moat

our daughter Sarah photographing local country house 

Madresfield Court and moat

the fountain, with its 13 ft nude statue of the god 

Mercury, sculpted by Charles Gidding

the twins by some of the stalls selling

various merchandise to visitors

There was a "best dog" competition, but despite this being general election month in the UK, there was no Indiana-style "Biggest Candidate" competition, apparently, which is a bit of a disappointment to me when Lois and Sarah break this disappointing news to me on their return here this afternoon. 

There are a lot of "vertically-challenged" candidates standing this time, nationally at least: Rishi Sunak is 5' 6", and Keir Starmer slightly taller at 5'8" - not that that matters, of course. But I don't know what the equivalent stats are for our local West Worcestershire candidates - perhaps we should be told?

our local candidates for the forthcoming General Election:

sitting MP Harriet Baldwin (Conservative) looks the largest, or tallest at least,

in the picture, but is that deceptive? I think we should be told.

17:00 After a pizza tea, Sarah and the twins depart for their home in Alcester. The family's own washing-machine is still broken, but luckily during their 24 hour stay here, Sarah has had the opportunity to do their weekly washes in our machine, which Lois hung out to dry earlier today - luckily it's been not too bad weather here in Malvern, so Sarah's washing is all nice'n'dry by the time she and the twins leave this afternoon.

flashback to earlier today - Lois hanging out some of our daughter

Sarah's weekly family wash on our washing line and airers

Lois and I collapse in a heap, as always, after a family visit. We're getting old, that's for sure.

Memo to self: tomorrow I really MUST get down to writing my presentation - the synopsis at least has to be emailed out tomorrow, so I've really got to get a move on with this now, and no mistake!

[You lazy bastard! - Ed]

I should still be able to meet the deadline, if I really "pull my finger out" tomorrow. I've got this haha!!!!!

[Oh, just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!