Sunday August 25th 2024 "We struggle past ageing Bananarama fans in traffic nightmare shock horror!"

Music can be a blessing at times, can't it, and at Christmas, for example, a family struggling to cope can be "kept afloat" emotionally by hit such as Little Jimmy Osmond's "I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas", and other "biggies". Look how this poor local family from the lovely Worcestershire village of Nob End was kept going this last winter, partly by Christmas music [source: Onion News West Worcestershire].

A heart-warming story, isn't it! But I have to say that music these days, especially in connection with concerts and pop festivals, is more often associated with heartbreak and misery, not to mention humiliation - I'm sure you've seen some of these stories:

And did you see this "doozy"?

It's always a risk, isn't it. Not everybody always seems to like the same music.

These days, however, very often it's traffic jams that produce the misery, rather than just the music itself. And my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I are very conscious of that fact today as I drive her to her church's two Sunday Morning Meetings at Tewkesbury this morning, where we have to dodge some of the revellers and their camper vans heading for Upton-on-Severn's "Sunshine Festival".

We arrive on time, fortunately, and there's a moment before the meetings begin, for Lois to make me a cup of coffee, and for me to check that the Queen's portrait is still there on the wall of the Village Hall, and hasn't been replaced by a portrait of Charles, nearly 2 years after her sad demise (Paris Councillors please note haha!!!!

despite the traffic jams [see story above], there's luckily

time for my wife Lois to make me a coffee before the meeting 

begins which is a relief!

Yes, readers, it's still there (ringed) !!! Two years

after the Queen's sad death, her portrait

hasn't yet been replace - what madness !!!

Parish Council please note !!!!!

For Lois and me, it's actually our 52nd wedding anniversary today, would you believe, but we're pretending it isn't, postponing all our revelry for 2 days, because that's when we're celebrating with a lunch at local watering-hole, The Plough and Harrow. So watch this space! [I'm not holding my breath!  - Ed]

us, as we look today

flashback to the first ever picture of us together, taken in 

Shropshire back in 1970, 2 years before we got married

Yes, 52 years of marriage have left their mark, haven't they, but only in a good way, and in a sense that's inevitable, surely. Your views please - oh, on second thoughts, perhaps no (!). 

14:00 We spend the afternoon in bed, after we struggle home from Tewkesbury through the hordes of camper vans going to the pop festival or coming away from it, or trying to get a break from it. 

Well,  wouldn't you go to bed every afternoon if you had the chance? And we've got to keep our strength up for tomorrow, Bank Holiday Monday, when we'll be incipient-teenager-sitting over in nearby Alcester. 

Our daughter Sarah and husband Francis will be spending the Monday selling what they can of their household belongings at Southam Car Boot Sale, before they move to a new life in Australia, for the second time in 9 years: let's hope they have better luck this time. And Lois and I will be looking after our granddaughters, Sarah and Francis' 11-year-old twins Lily and Jessica tomorrow, while their parents are away at the car boot sale. Our mission is to ensure that the twins won't realise that some of their beloved ornaments, toys etc are going to be taken away by strangers, never to be seen again.

Poor twins !!!!

typical scenes at a Southam Car Boot Sale

Some other larger beloved toys belonging to the twins have been lodged with Lois and me here in our new-build home in Malvern. 

Eleven years old is a magic age isn't it - the twins can talk to us about all the science stuff they learn at school, and still treat their toys like they're real when they come to stay with us.

And of course, inevitably, some of those beloved stuffed toys sadly can't conveniently be "crammed" into the family's hand luggage when they board the non-stop flight from London's Heathrow Airport to Perth, Western Australia in 10 days' time, so Lois and I will be taking charge of them.

The official story that's been told to the twins is that these stuffed toys, Buckles the Unicorn and Rover the dog-faced pony, are going to be "keeping Granny and Poppa company so they don't get lonely, when we're 9000 miles away in Australia"

Rover the dog-faced pony (left) with your truly..

and me again, with Buckles the Unicorn (left)

Poor Rover!!! And poor Buckles !!!!

Luckily Lois and I will have some fun creating a special periodic newsletter for the twins to email to Australia, detailing the adventures that the two old buddies Rover and Buckles are having under our guardianship, complete with photos. 

YOUR ideas for outings, meals out, and other "wizard" japes for our new newsletters will always be welcome, by the way. Postcards only haha!!!!

20:00 We go to bed on tonight's concert in the BBC Proms series, featuring Holst's Planet Suite.

Our evening ends with Holst's vision of Saturn, the "Bringer of Old Age", with its menacing "ticking clock" that keeps getting louder. Yikes !!!!!

Well the clock's ticking for Lois and me now, that's for sure. We're 78 you know! [I thought you were older! - Ed]

Yikes !!!!!

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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