Saturday July 20th 2024 "Do YOU know what America's 2225th most popular boys-name is?"

Dear friends, may I ask you, "Have you been to a school reunion recently?" [No we haven't got time for that kind of question today, Colin! - Ed]. There are a lot going on at the moment, aren't there, what with this last week being the end of schools' summer terms, when most institutions are "breaking up for the holidays".

Here's just a sample of some of the local press reports I've seen this week [source: Onion News West Worcestershire Desk] - and this "doozy" is just the "tip of the iceberg", let me tell YOU!

Well, Lois and I were thinking of Clarkson's trip down memory lane today, plushis long-awaited "nursery school reunion", 25 years in the making, because also today, here in Malvern itself, we're planning a weekend reunion between our 2 daughters Sarah (48) and Alison (49) and their families. There'll be 9 of us in all this evening, the most this house has ever "hosted" since Lois and I moved here from Cheltenham in October 2022, in a flawed attempt to "downsize". 

Sarah and family arrive from nearby Alcester around 5 pm and Alison and family arrive from Headley, Hampshire around 7pm, "just in time for tea" which is nice!

today's family reunion over a Cookshop ready meal of fish pie

- yum yum! (clockwise from bottom left: Lois; Isaac (13), 

Rosalind (16) with their parents, Ed and Alison; Sarah 

and her 10-year-old twins Lily and Jessica)

Of mine and Lois's 5 grandchildren, there's just one absence today, which is Alison's daughter Josie (17), currently on a 2-week school trip to Tanzania, where she and some of her classmates will be helping out on unspecified projects in a remote village. 

Let's hope Josie is doing okay - the news from there is limited, Alison says, because the girls were told it was too risky to take their mobile phones there. Yikes!!! However, one of the accompanying teachers has been sending the occasional picture, which is nice.

Our 17-year-old granddaughter Josie (ringed), newly arrived

in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, with a party of classmates

from her high school in Guildford, Surrey, enjoying supper....

...and in the bush: Josie (in sun-hat, ringed) with classmates

on their 2-week trip to Tanzania to help villagers with "projects"

It's Ed's first visit to our new-build house here in Malvern, and he says he's impressed, particularly with what Lois has managed to do with our tiny garden. He's also impressed with my own personal physical confidence and agility - it's the first time he's seen me since my hip replacement operation at Redditch in April. No walking-sticks for me now haha - although I'm keeping them in the garden shed, just to be on the safe side. 

Call me an old "worry-wort", if you like haha!

as proof that my 3-month-old hip replacement is "working just fine",

I don't need even to get up from my "Bingsta" armchair-with-arms: 

I can just show our son-in-law Ed pictures like this "doozy", which proves

that Lois and I are now leaping our way routinely again

over the 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills.

[I can't see your legs, Colin. How do we know you two "noggins" aren't just sitting on folding chairs or comfortable leather "pouffes", out of shot of the cameras? - Ed]

And this evening is also a chance for everybody to catch up on everybody else's news. The twins, Lily and Jessica took part in a "time capsule burying" project yesterday at their county primary school near Alcester, with their teacher Mr Palmer. The metal container is labelled "2024" and contains the kids' views about the state of the world, and what they've been doing recently, and that kind of malarkey.

Lily (above) and Jessica get the chance

to hold the time-capsule before it gets buried

There's an important question here, though, isn't there. The kids first unearthed the previous time-capsule, which was assembled by former students 10 years ago, in 2014, and looked at what their predecessors were talking about.

My question is - "Is 10 years a suitable time interval for these capsules?"

I know that Mr Palmer is lobbying for a longer, 20-year interval, but I, ever the iconoclast and devil's advocate, suggest a one-day gap,  so that no subtle nuances and trends will be missed or "go under the radar". The twins however, counter that there wouldn't be time for any lessons if they were continually "unearthing" their thoughts from the previous day.

Your perspective on this please! What do YOU think? Do let me know (postcards only please, as usual!).

the kids watch expectantly as Mr Palmer prepares the hole

that the time capsule will reside in until 2034.

Fascinating stuff isn't it! [If you say so, Colin! - Ed]

It's also a chance for us to ask young Isaac (13) about his recent school trip to China with fellow students from his Mandarin Chinese class at his high school in Liphook, Hampshire.

flashback to June 30th, Isaac (front, right, half out of shot)

on the bus to London's Heathrow Airport with classmates

to catch a flight to Beijing, China

the group from Liphook, Hampshire, photographed 

here during their 2 week study trip to China

Isaac's anecdotes are interesting for me personally because I myself spent a study year in Tokyo, Japan 1970-1971. He recalls how his group were stared at everywhere they went, and I remember how that happened to me too, in Japan. I tell Isaac today that I was just sitting on a bus out in the sticks somewhere in Japan, when the young woman sitting behind me started to feel my hair, just so she could find out what "European hair" felt like. 

What a madness it all was, wasn't it!

flashback to 1971: me with Lois on her 2-week trip 

out to Japan to see me

Isaac's been back in England a few days now, but he's still jet-lagged, and I remember how that feels. In 1971, after I came back from Japan after my study-year, I slept for 24 hours non-stop - that was a bit of a madness too, wasn't it. [That's enough madness for today! - Ed]

flashback to 1971: my photo of the plane's transit stop 

in Moscow, en route from Tokyo to London

my first sight of "Old Father Thames"

 as we approach Heathrow Airport, London

Heathrow Airport in 1971 - I arrive back from Japan, via Moscow,

exhausted after a sleepless trip - oh dear - but so pleased to be home!

(me pictured here with Lois and my little sister Jill (13))

21:00 And tonight, here in Malvern, expectations are high for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, and the chances of Brit newcomer "Lando" Norris, who came second there last year, are thought to be medium-to-high-levelly "good". 

This year he's got a special Japanese-designed helmet, which he claims will enable him to drive faster, but the jury's still out on that one.

Some of Norris's Formula One drivers have labelled the new helmet "a bit poncey", but they could be laughing on the other side of their faces after tomorrow's race, that's for sure!

Norris's new helmet, which will increase his driving-speed,

although some of his jealous Formula One driver-friends

have labelled it "a bit poncey" - well, we'll see on Sunday!

And have YOU been wondering where Norris got his crazy moniker "Lando" from? I know a lot of my readers have.

Well, it turns out it's actually a real name, and not just a cruel nickname, which was what Lois and I had suspected. And Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend informs me this evening, that the name has got a decent enough pedigree. Here's "chapter and verse" from Jamie Allen on the fascinating new website, thebump.com, which Lois and I have never heard of before today:

So "Lando" is obviously a real name after all, although it may be dropping in popularity - down 153 places in 2023 from 2022, and now the 2225th most popular boy's name in the US.

Can it ever beat the odds and get into the Top Ten? I think a lot more than Formula One Championship Points will be riding on Norris's shoulders tomorrow, won't it. A win by Norris could shoot the name thousands of places upwards.

I wonder......!

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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