Here's another personal question for you, friends (Sorry!).
Have you seen that recent film in the Hobbit series (The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey) ? Most of us have, by now, haven't we, although not me or my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois, we have to hold up our collective hands and admit our failings" in this department, for once (!).
And here's the thing - Lois and I re both 78, but "marvellous for our ages", according to neighbours. But we have enough issue coping with reality these days, when we're not in bed that is (!), trying to remember if we've put our empty milk bottles out on Sunday and Wednesday evenings etc, without wanting to get involved in desperate fights against evil dragons and that sort of malarkey, to put it mildly!
Our dragon-fighting days are over, that's for sure - that's what our neighbours tell us, anyway!!!!
flashback to December 2023: me and my medium-to-long-suffering
wife Lois. Although "marvellous for our (combined) ages, of 156 (!)", our
neighbours tell us that our dragon-fighting days are over. "No fair!!!!!"
Well, we may have certainly hung up our dragon-fighting swords and put our magic rings in a drawer somewhere, so neighbours may have a point there (!).
However we've noticed that this 2012 film about the Hobbit will be on TV next week on the "Crinklies Channel" (channel 94 on Freeview), and we rather like the sound of it. Our copy of Radio Times magazine has a special feature on it in this week's issue, which quotes extensively from the original 2012 review that came out in Onion News all those years ago.
Yes, it sounds like, at long last, Jackson has managed to come up with a Hobbit film that resonates with Lois and me, and kind of speaks to us, so let's go for it - that's what we say! So look out for our own review, right here in this blog, later this week.
[I don't think I'll bother! - Ed]
And Bilbo forgetting to pack his toiletries bag - what a coincidence! That's one of our "specialties" too!
Remember when Lois forgot to pack a toothbrush for our first ever trip to Europe on Eurostar, and she had to buy an expensive gold one on the train because that's all they had in stock: we've still got it by the way, so I suppose it's paid back our "investment" after, like, 30 years haha! [I can't think how I've come to forget that "bombshell story" (!) - Ed]
flashback to March 1992: Lois on the balcony of our
little hotel room in Montmartre, Paris
Happy days!
Anyway, Lois and I are very much looking forward to seeing this newish film on TV this week, while also thinking about poor Bilbo, on our morning walk today.
Because today, we're rambling through the grounds of local prestigious private boarding school Malvern College, in the lee of the 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills. This is the school where Narnia author CS Lewis went to school here with his brother Warren.
And of course, "CS" and Warren loved nothing better than going for walks on the top of the Malvern Hills, with their great buddy JRR Tolkien, inventor of the Hobbit.
us this morning rambling past the rugby pitches at Malvern College
where CS Lewis and his brother Warren went to school in the 1910's
to the side of us, the premises of top-secret Ministry of Defence
contractor Qinetiq, and behind us the lovely 700-million-year-old
Malvern Hills, where CS Lewis, his brother Warren, and their friend
JRR Tolkien loved to roam in their younger days
Lois and I have always had a soft spot for this trio - "CS", Warren and "JRR", because of their
unsynchronised approach to walking. Not to boast, but this lack of "synchronicity" was a problem
we once had
ourselves, but one that we've managed to overcome - call us smug if you like haha, or even "smaug" if you must haha!!!
Let me explain!!!! [I can't wait! - Ed]
"Tollers", i.e. Tolkien, liked to stroll and look at things. And that's me to a T.
the young JRR Tolkein - like me, "JRR"
liked to stroll and look at things on his walks.
The Lewis brothers, however, "CS" and Warren, liked to clock up the miles in as short a time as possible. And that's always been Lois's style too.
"CS" and his brother Warren, seen here with their bikes - when rambling over
the Malvern Hills, however, their friends called them "ruthless walkers"
Look at these quotes....
" 'Tollers' [i.e. Tolkien] fitted easily into our routine and I think he enjoyed himself. His one fault
turned out to be that he wouldn't trot at our pace in harness; he will keep
going all day on a walk, but to him, with his botanical and entomological
interests, a walk, no matter what its length, is what we would call an extended
stroll, while he calls us "ruthless walkers". ( from Warren's "Brothers and Friends")
Or this "doozy!....
"You
should have seen Jack [i.e. "CS"] trying to walk with J.R.R. Tolkien! Once Jack got started
a bomb could not have stopped him and the more he walked, the more energy he
had for a good argument. Now Tolkien was just the opposite. If he had something
to say, he wanted you to stop so he could look you in the face. So on they
would go, Jack charging ahead and Tolkien pulling at him, trying to get him to
stop – back and forth, back and forth. What a scene!" (from their friend George Sayer's "Walking with CS Lewis").
Flashback to my blog of December 2018, in which I published this picture and wrote these words:
Happy days!
[No improvement in your blog style over the last 6 years, I see! - Ed]
And I'm happy to report that Lois and I have now synchronised out walking speeds, as well as synchronising a bunch of other things we do that I won't tell you about, including the ordering of repeat-prescriptions for our statins (!). [Thanks for that little favour, at least! - Ed]
See you tomorrow!!!
Byeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
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