Friends, have YOU had YOUR coronavirus and flu jabs yet - just asking haha (!). And I wonder if the wealthier among you have even had that special new Pfizer jab - you know, the one that comes into your body courtesy of one of those new, special "golden needles" - as in the song "Silver Syringe and Golden Needles"(!) ?
Do you know what I'm saying? [Get on with it! - Ed]
What a story! And Onion News has more....
Poor Chris !!!!
Well, my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I have a good laugh this morning reading that local story about poor local man Chris Brady from Nob End - if you missed it, it's in the paper's "Leave Time For A Smile" section at the end of the paper, page 94, reserved for "local lighter-hearted stories" - always guaranteed to be a relaxing "read" over the lunch-table, if you haven't discovered it yet (!).
Both stories are strangely topical for us today, because Lois and I have got appointments to get our old codgers' winter flu and coronavirus jabs today, at our local NHS doctor's surgery around lunchtime. And so we decide to go for our early walk a bit early this morning in case we feel a bit "naff" after the jabs, as people sometimes do.
Plus, it's a chance for me to show you another picture of the street of new-build houses here in Malvern, Worcestershire, where we live, in the lee of the lovely 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills. And I can also add a shot of the estate as seen from the bottom "gate" to the site: not yet open due to the ongoing building works - you know the gate that supermarket delivery drivers are always trying to drive through, without success, because it hasn't been officially opened yet (!). The estate is still only about two-thirds built, by the builders, Persimmon.
somewhere up on the left behind us -
"our house, in the middle of our street"....
..and a view of the whole estate, in the distance, still only
two-thirds built. Get your finger out, Persimmon haha!
And we remember only too well, some of the queues for jabs that we've had to suffer in the past, like last autumn:
flashback to September 2023: the end of the queue of
"old codgers", for last year's COVID and winter flu jabs,
snaking its way through the building
And there'll be no "limited edition vaccine" for us, we realise that. Lois and I are just humble NHS patients, and we suspect that the "Silver Syringes and Golden Needles" malarkey will be reserved for the private patients. No fair !!!!!
We spend the afternoon in bed, trying to put those poor jabbed arms behind us, all three of them - not physically haha! Well, wouldn't you if you had the chance?
When Lois and I see film and TV versions of 'Tom Jones', one of the first ever novels written in the English language, it's fascinating for us, now living in Malvern, to see all the scenes that take place in the little local town of Upton-on-Severn, just a few miles from us - the town were we do our weekly supermarket 'shop'.
In tonight's episodes, however, it's the medium-to-highly sensual aristocratic Lady Bellaston, who's the focus of Tom's affections.
So maybe a 2-star review? "Medium-to-good, but could do better" might be the review's "headline" on Tripadvisor, perhaps?
12:10 When we get to the surgery this morning, however, amazingly, we park without difficulty, and we find that luckily this autumn the whole exercise seems to have been organised much more efficiently, with about three rooms being operated concurrently. And there's no waiting at all - on arrival at the Health Centre building, we're immediately ushered into one of the rooms with, inside, just a clinician and an assistant who's recording the information on a desktop.
Lois gets "jabbed" first, and then the assistant beckons me with an erroneous "Francis, is it?", which allows me to come out with one of my much-loved, and memorable, bon mots to Lois - "Haha, Lois, have you got a secret life you haven't been telling me about?", to general (if subdued) laughter. Oh, the old ones are always the best, aren't they, to put it mildly!
As usual, we're both given a choice of arms: I pick my left arm, as I'm right-handed, but Lois picks left for the first jab and right for the second. Although she's mainly left-handed, she's also a bit ambidextrous, and she prefers to do some jobs with her right hand, an ability which has so often proved useful.
Her ability to squeeze liquid out of anything you care to mention is legendary - on wash-day, for instance. "I wring both ways", is how she jokingly (and modestly, may I add!) refers to it.
What a woman I married !!!
flashback to September: Lois hanging out the washing
in the tiny back garden of our home in Malvern
18:00 Lois and I are on the most almighty "diet jag" at the moment, and we've discovered venison as a meat choice - it's really incredibly low in fat - you would not BELIEVE!
venison - incredibly low fat, we've discovered
So that's dinner "sorted", which is nice!
And how nice, also, to see a bit of Scottish Gaelic on the box - something we don't remember seeing before.
with a lovely bit of Scottish Gaelic on the box, which is nice!
20:00 We go to bed on episodes 3 and 4 of the ITV production of Tom Jones, based on the 18th century novel by Henry Fielding.
And especially when we see "that scene" - you know, the one in the inn, where Tom beds Mrs Waters, or should I say, Mrs Waters beds Tom, after a sensual chicken-bone-gnawing dinner scene by candlelight.
Flashback to August 2019: We visit the White Horse Inn
at Upton, where Tom Jones in the famous novel was
seduced by the mysterious "Mrs. Waters".
Yes, everybody who saw the 1963 version with Albert Finney as Tom, seems to remember the "medium-to-highly" sensual dinner-for-two scene which was said to have taken place under candlelight at a room in one of the town's inns.
the medium-to-highly sensual dinner-for-two scene at an Upton Inn
- from the 1963 film of the novel, starring Albert Finney as Jones
And in her review of Tom's proficiency, with her elaborate 18th century hair-do slightly awry, she's careful to list the good points as well as the bad, which is nice!
I wonder.....!
And Lois and I speculate about whether Lady Bellaston's elaborate hair-do may have got a bit squashed during the shenanigans in bed with Tom. At least she took off her bunch of white head-feathers, which must have made it a bit more comfortable for her (and for Tom!).
flashback to earlier in the evening - Lady Bellaston with her
full complement of head-feathers, seen here in conversation with Lord Fellamar
But what a crazy world they lived in, back in the 18th century!
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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