Tuesday July 30th 2024 "Museums can be a lot of fun!"

Another personal question for you, folks, and I make no apology! [Why not?! - Ed]

Well, this is the thing..... You see, have you ever visited a museum? A lot of us have, haven't we. Even I have visited the British Museum in faraway London, at least twice, so case proved haha!

flashback to 2013: I visit the British Museum with my

medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois...

....and in 2008, when I visited the museum with Tünde, 

my Hungarian pen-friend 

And if YOU have ever visited the British Museum, I'm sure you were impressed, as I was. 

But a word of caution. Not all museums are as impressive as that one, and I've seen a few of those too in my time, let me tell YOU! And you yourself may have seen some of the helpful maps that some museums have started to issue, under public pressure from yours truly, amongst others [Source: Onion News] !

"At last!", Lois and I say, in unison, when we read that story this morning. "At last a truly "grown-up" museum guide that treats visitors like adults!", which makes a change, to put it mildly.

Sadly some local museums here in West Worcestershire haven't got the idea yet - maybe they're afraid that visitors may "skip" their museums altogether. 

I wonder.... ! Source: Onion News again.

Well, the town of Malvern, where Lois and I "downsized" to back in October 2022, has a nice little town museum of its own, but we're still waiting for a more local one to open up here in our new-build suburb, Malvern Rise. 

However, on our morning walk today, Lois and I are delighted to see some historical information boards, at least, that have gone up next to the playground area in the middle of the estate, telling us all about the Roman origins of the area. Plus there's information about the way that the ground the estate is built on was once a top-secret Ministry of Defence establishment developing techniques of radar, that were used to telling effect by the RAF and air defence units during World War II.

As fully paid-up history buffs, we soon get distracted by these information boards, when we're supposed to be walking over the common. Oh dear!

But who knew that, before the Romans ever started their metal-working in this area, it was part of the huge homeland of my favourite Ancient British tribe, the Dobunni? [I expect a lot of people knew that Colin! - Ed]

I've always had a soft spot for the Dobunni, who I think were arguably the most intelligent, and certainly the most pragmatic, of all the Ancient British tribes that the Romans stumbled across in Britain after their invasion in 43AD. 

Unlike some of their more stupid neighbours, the Dobunni, as soon as they saw the Romans, realised that the invaders were "streets ahead" (or "strata ahead" to use the Latin (!)), nay, centuries ahead, in military technology and everything else, and so they didn't bother resisting them. And they quickly set about adopting the Roman lifestyle, with all its benefits: hot water on demand and all that stuff.

Smart guys !!!!

the territory of the "smart" British tribe the Dobunni, covering

(parts of) the following present-day counties: West Oxfordshire,

Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, North Somerset, Bristol,

South Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire 

Although a bit distracted by the historical titbits on these shiny new information boards, Lois and I eventually manage to finish the rest of our walk, and then, on our return home, we cool off with some iced coffees on the patio. And in the afternoon we're able to go to bed - our bedroom's on the cool north-facing side of the house - and we can throw the windows wide open. We're in the middle of a 3-day mini-heatwave at the moment, with a high today of 82F (28C): phew, what a scorcher!!!

in the blistering 82F heat, Lois and I struggle to complete our walk

in the lee of the 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills

the old black village pump, preserved in the quiet of the local churchyard...

 on our return home, we finish up with 

a nice iced coffee on the patio

20:00 There's news tonight about 2 of our 5 grandchildren, which is nice. Our daughter Alison tells us that her daughter Josie (17) is back at home now after spending 2 weeks in a village in Tanzania with about 20 of her schoolmates, working on various projects like painting and decorating for the local community. And Josie has brought a tee-shirt back for her 14-year-old brother Isaac, which is nice.

Awwwwww!!!!!

flashback to 2 weeks ago: our granddaughter Josie (17)

at London's Gatwick Airport with a party of schoolmates

bound for Tanzania to work on "projects"

Josie (ringed) in Tanzania, near the villate where

the group are going to be working on building and repair work

Welcome back to England, our Josie, and we look forward to hearing about your adventures in due course, so watch this space!

21:00 I wind down for bed on the couch with Lois, watching the first half of the first part of a fascinating new 2-part history of the British Sex Comedy.

Lois and I didn't know that, 50 years ago, people in the UK had become so transfixed by TV, with its massive choice of three channels (!), that, by the start of the 1970's, they had mostly stopped going out to the cinema, and the UK's film industry had fallen into dire financial trouble. And that's why the so-called "sexploitation" films of the 1970's began to be made, showing things that weren't allowed to be shown on TV at that time, ie nudity and other sexually suggestive material.

We both remember the period quite well, because it was when we had not long started "courting". And courting couples had traditionally spent many an evening at the cinema, if for nothing else, at least to enable them to get outside and away from their parents (!). And there wasn't much else on offer at the cinema at around this time, apart from these "saucy" films. That was our excuse anyway haha (!). 

What madness !!!!

[That's enough madness and exclamation marks (!) - Ed]

Already, for a long time before 1970, films showing nudity and sex had been freely made uncensored on the Continent - the difference was that many of these continental films were classy productions with often serious underlying themes, whereas the British public, who had always thought of sex as something slightly comical, demanded comedy with their nudity.

And who knew that "Confessions of a Window-Cleaner" was the highest grossing film (grossing in financial terms haha!) in the UK in 1974, and that it also had long runs in both Europe and the US, where you would have imagined they would have had more sense haha!!!

The film featured a shy and gauche, and virginal, young window-cleaner, Timmy Lea (played by Robin Askwith), who saw a lot of things he shouldn't have seen from the top of his ladder, as he cleaned bedroom windows. Timmy became prey to the advances of a lot of sexually voracious women, before finally losing his virginity to a housewife, Mrs Brown (Sue Longhurst), on the floor of her kitchen, while it was becoming slowly flooded by a dishwasher malfunction. 

Askwith says in tonight's programme that he and Longhurst were hosed with detergent for so long during  the shooting of the scene, that by the final take his scrotum had been "ripped apart". What madness !!!! [Second warning! - Ed]

And Sue Longhurst, now aged 81, reminisces fondly about the scene in tonight's programme too, which is nice.

shy and gauche young window-cleaner Timmy Lea (Robin Askwith)

finally loses his virginity to a sexually voracious housewife

Mrs Brown (Sue Longhurst) during a malfunction of her dishwasher 

- what madness !!!!

A redeeming feature of this type of film, says Longhurst, was that the men in theses films "never did anything nasty to the women", which is nice. And in a way, this film, like many in the "sexploitation" genre, played to the feminist movement of the era, because it was the women who were essentially in charge. 

Plus, it was considered acceptable by Brits just by virtue of being a comedy. Even Prince Charles famously saw the film, when he was at Cambridge.

Prince Charles, at a cinema in Cambridge to see "Confessions.."

But what a crazy world we lived in, back in those far-off days!!!

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Monday July 29th 2024 "We watch our first Olympic TV programme shock horror!"

Toes - most of us have got them, haven't we. And yours truly is no exception let me confess to you right here and now! 

some typical toes - these ones are male,

but female toes are similar, I've noticed, but I'm

not sure about the non-binary ones, so do check yours: 

it's a good "sexer" when it comes to people, I think

"(You Gotta Have) Heart" sang Eddie Fisher in the 1950's, and Alan Sherman gave the thought a truly "sixties" "twist" with his 1964 smash hit "You Gotta Have Skin", to a similar tune. Remember?

Eddie Fisher's 1950's smash hit (You Gotta Have) Heart

Sherman, who gave Fisher's song a 1960's "twist"

And do you still remember Sherman's haunting lyrics?

Awwww !!! They don't write songs like that any more, do they. [Well, that's something to be grateful for, anyway! - Ed]

But who's going to write an equivalent song for toes - "You Gotta Have Toes" ? We've been waiting since 1964 - so, 60 years now - but without an answer. Why the delay? I think we should be told, don't you.

And have you ever wondered why we have toes? Well, seeing as how you're asking (!), researchers at nearby Worcester University are reportedly hoping they'll find the answer "soon", essentially as a by-product of their work on fingers, which is interesting [Source: Onion News Worcestershire Desk]:

Well, I for one am not going to be holding my breath on that one! Toes are always the "Cinderella" or should I say the "Twinkletoes" (!), of digital research, aren't they, which is a pity!

And in the meantime, however, while we wait patiently for Packer's team to find the answer (!), for most people, having toes is "just fine", if only as a distraction technique in embarrassing situations, as this little local charmer from the village of North Piddle found out recently, and pretty early in life, which was a bonus!

Well, we all had a jolly good laugh at that story this morning, didn't we! 

But there's a serious side to toes too, and it gives me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois plenty to talk about on our morning walk today through Polly's Orchard - founded by the late daughter of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland. 

Lois showcases one of the many delightful

fruit trees, still left over from when romantic novelist Barbara

Cartland's daughter Polly was still in the tree-planting game

Plus, by  a happy fluke on our walk, we just happen to see the Worcester to Hereford train roaring past, so we are able to give the train a special wave, just in case baby Liam is on board (see Onion News story above), hoping to make him feel "special" after all, which is a nice touch!

Lois gives a passing Worcester to Hereford train a wave,

just in case Baby Liam is aboard, and maybe feeling foolish again (!)

Poor Liam !!!!!!

And poor me too !!!! [hashtag poormetoo#]

Yes, "poor me" too, because Lois and I are "talking toes" on our walk this morning, and for a good reason. You see, after 11 days, I still haven't managed to get an answer from our local GP surgery and medical centre about the current state of my toes. I saw the centre's podiatrist, Becky, 11 days ago, and she emailed her "toe-pictures" of me to the duty doctor the same day, but when I ring the surgery this morning they can't find them initially, but eventually they get hold of them, and promise that a doctor will contact me.

Promises, promises! 

flashback to July 18th: Lois "takes me" to see

Becky, our local GP surgery's podiatrist

to have yet another look at my toes

And this is the picture Becky sent to our GP surgery, in case you're interested! [I don't think we are, Colin! - Ed]

As you can see, my right toes are in quite a state!

[portion of picture redacted by me to avoid causing unnecessary

distress to readers: see me if you require further details - and only 

genuinely medical reasons will be considered to support your request.

Foot fetishists need not apply, nor would they want to, if they'd

seen what I've just seen haha! - Ed]

Hopefully I'll get a call from one of the doctors in the next few days, so watch this space! [I can't wait! - Ed]

20:00 Luckily Lois and I can put my toes behind me, not physically (!), when we're on the couch tonight, because there's a very interesting Channel 5 documentary we can watch.

It's no secret that we're neither of us sport fans, and I have to confess we haven't watched a single event from the Paris Olympics so far, but history really "lights our fire" that's for sure, so we absolutely devour this "doozy" of a documentary - no question about that!

London actually offered to stage the 1948 games, despite being a city that the Luftwaffe had tried to obliterate with 6 years of bombing, and despite the fact that the country was more or less broke financially - mainly the US, but also Canada, had loaned us billions of dollars to keep us afloat in World War II, and now they were wanting it all back - well, fair enough, you might say, but it took us till 2006, so 60 years, to repay it all, with interest. My goodness !!!!

One of many interesting facts that emerge from this documentary is how much the International Olympic Committee was still very much Eurocentric in those crazy, far-off days : some US cities had also offered to stage the 1948 Games, but the Committee passed these offers over, in favour of London.

Still, there was no doubt it was a good morale-booster for the UK's war-weary population - something to cheer about, finally. And the London organisers did a good job of "washing the taste of Hitler's Nazi-tainted 1936 Berlin games out of the world's mouths", and making it wholesome again, and more in line with the vision of the Games' founder, the French visionary Baron de Courbertin in 1896. 

German and Japan were still excluded, as the allies' two big World War II enemies, and Russia had refused to take part. Perhaps not surprisingly, the US team dominated the medals table by the time the Games ended, winning 38 gold medals. The Great Britain team was somewhat disappointed to come away with only 4, but part of Britain's deliberately un-Nazi, un-nationalist philosophy for the 1948 Games was "It's the taking part that's matters, not the winning or the losing", so that was just as well for Britain as it turned out!

The documentary makes the point that European athletes tended to be in a much weaker physical state than the American ones. In Britain, wartime rationing continued well into the 1950's, and Lois and I personally can well recall, back in our very early years, seeing ration books and "coupons" in our mothers' hands when they took us shopping. 

No exceptions were made by Britain for athletes, needless to say - they had to restrict their food just like everybody else. The US, by contrast, hadn't, of course, had to introduce food rationing during the war, and their athletes had been able to prepare for the Games on all the correct "fuel", as far as the then state of nutrition sciences was, at the time, able to declare it.

It was a joyous Games for some of Britain's ex-colonial subjects - Indian athletes, for instance, were competing under their own flag for the first time, which was quite an emotional experience. And the US team's only female gold medal winner, Alice Coachman was an African-American: she was the first black woman from anywhere in the world to win a gold medal.

Experts were still worrying about the perceived risks of women taking part in events, in case they did damage to their "fragile" "female parts". Track events for women in 1948 were subject to a limit of 80 metres (about 87 yards). And this caution about women had already gone back a good few years:

And javelin-thrower Tessa Sanderson, who won a gold medal for Britain in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, and who, incidentally, was Britain's first black gold medal winner, comments:

What madness !!!!

Men and women athletes were strictly segregated from each other in the living-quarters, and women athletes had to make sure that their sporting gear was not too revealing. Dorothy Manley, a British silver-medal winner in 1948 made these comments:

The master-mind for the London Games, local business-man Arthur Elvin, somehow managed to stage the games on a shoe-string, saving money wherever he could: housing the world's athletes in wartime military accommodation, and staging events in the already existing Wembley Stadium, while using the already existing Empire Pool for the swimming and boxing. At the same time, he still managed to organise the first ever TV coverage of the Olympics through the BBC, and the first ever use of the newly developed photographic techniques for "photo-finishes".

And the bottom line was good too - the 1948 Games were also one of the few games to have turned in a profit, which was nice, and something for Elvin to put in his pocket at the end of the day.

Fascinating stuff!

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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