Thursday November 7th 2024 "Have YOU ever found it in your heart to help a struggling young go-getter?"

Here's a question and three-quarters for you, dear Readers! Yes, and it's a bit of a "toughie" of a question, especially if you're waking up in Malvern, in company with a few thousand others including me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois: not actually in our bed, obviously. At least I didn't notice you there, unless you were being a lot quieter than you usually are (!).

Malvern, Worcestershire on a typical cold, damp and misty November

morning, as seen from the lovely 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills

Well now, here's the thing - have YOU ever thought of sending money to a well-deserving younger person less fortunate than yourselves, perhaps a young go-getter who's maybe struggling to buy many of the things he or she needs, just to make his (or her) way in today's sometimes-to-occasionally cruel world?

A lot of us have, haven't we, and witness this heart-warming story from this morning's Onion News West Worcestershire print edition - thumb through to page 94: it'll be well worth the risk of thumb-muscle "repetitive strain injury", honest (!!!)

And it's nice to see rich people stepping up to enable a local man to make good in the dizzy heights of Central London isn't it. Also nice to see that Tilsbury has got not just a cosy duck-to-goose-feather parka, but also a nice mistress to keep him warm during those cold Central London winters, that's for sure!

Lots of great men, and even medium-to-great men, have felt the need of a mistress - have you noticed? 

[You don't say! - Ed]

Even the religious-minded CS Lewis, writer of the Narnia Chronicles, who went to school "in these here parts", as people say "in these here parts (!)"... yes, even CS "Jack" Lewis is rumoured to have "indulged", although the jury's officially still out on that one. 

CS "Jack" Lewis, religious-minded author of the Narnia 

Chronicles, as a young man: but did he have a mistress?

For decades "Jack" lived with his "older woman", Mrs Janie Moore, mother of his World War I buddy "Paddy" Moore. Janie was 26 years older than Lewis, and he had the habit of calling her "mother", which is odd. 

Did they share a bed? One of Lewis's first biographers hedged his bets in the book, putting the odds at no more than 50-50.

Some time afterwards, however, he wrote, "I have had to alter my opinion of Lewis's relationship with Mrs. Moore. In chapter eight of this book I wrote that I was uncertain about whether they were lovers. Now, after conversations with Mrs. Moore's daughter, Maureen, and a consideration of the way in which their bedrooms were arranged at The Kilns [their house in Headington, Oxford], I am quite certain that they were." 

CS "Jack" Lewis, pictured here on holiday with his "older woman",

Mrs Janie Moore (ringed), and her teenage daughter Maureen

"But why are you so interested in CS's love life, Colin?" I hear you cry. [Not me, I've already written this "post" off and gone on to some more important jobs! - Ed]

Well, seeing as how you're obviously very curious (!), this morning my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and me, on our daily walk, were having a look at the rugby pitches where young "CS" might have played during his schoolboy years, when he was a student at the prestigious local private boarding school, Malvern College.

(left) a recent rugby game at CS Lewis's old school Malvern College, 

and (right) the school rugby fields as they are today, deserted, 

all  quiet and peaceful, on this cold, damp November day 

You'll see the smirk on our faces from the above photo - and you're probably wondering what we're laughing about. [Again, not me! - Ed]

Well, seeing as you're (again!) obviously curious (!), in that picture, we're both laughing, beause we've just had a call on my mobile phone from our solicitor's office in London. It's to remind us that we're supposed to be doing a Microsoft Teams video chat with him this morning, so we have to hurry home. "Look at you, Colin!", Lois says to me, "You're speaking on your phone walking down the street, just like a young person!"

a typical younger person, speaking on his phone while

walking down a street in Lisbon, Portugal

Well, it's an important call, because Lois and I are planning to move from Malvern to Liphook, Hampshire, soon, to be nearer our elder daughter Alison and her family, who can "look after us" as we slip remorselessly into "incapable" old age (!). And we have to prove to our solicitor that we're not laundering money, and that we aren't terrorists, by waving our driving licenses at the computer screen, together with a gas bill from British Gas with our address on it, to prove that we live where we say we live.

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!

And next week, 3 different estate agents are going to be visiting us for a property appraisal, so we've got three separate estimates of our house's value before we put it on the market.

a typical property appraisal visit by an estate-agent's valuation expert:

Our chosen estate agent will then be photograph our house and its rooms, for marketing purposes. 

At the moment we're preparing for the taking of those photographs by spending a lot of time hiding some of the "clutter" that disfigures our rooms: under beds, in cupboards, in the shed, even in our car-boot, you name it. What madness, isn't it !!!!!

19:00 We unwind for bed with an interesting documentary on the Sky Arts channel about Fanny Mendelssohn, the composer's sister, who was herself a composer, although, as a woman, she was conscious that her works were destined to be generally ignored by the world of music critics etc.

Fanny's life in 19th century Berlin was dominated by the two men she most adored in the world, her husband Wilhelm and her brother Felix, the famous composer. She was just as fascinated by music as her famous brother, and she wrote at least 200 works, including works that were officially marked down to her brother Felix.

When Felix visited London in 1842 he got an invitation to Buckingham Palace. And Queen Victoria, as the programme says, "then the world's most powerful woman", who herself loved to sing, sang what she thought was one of Felix's best songs, "Italien" (Italy), but which was actually written by Fanny. It was a song into which Fanny had poured all her deepest emotions, the sheer irrepressible joy that she had felt in 1839 after fulfilling her lifetime's dream - to visit Italy.

A young Felix Mendelssohn plays to Queen Victoria & 

Prince Albert in Buckingham Palace, 1842.

Yes, Fanny was a deeply emotional woman, who lived to write the kind of music that expressed all her feelings - whether they were of excitement or of anger. However, according to the morals of the time, she was expected to confine herself to being a good wife and a good mother to her children. 

She loved to play music in the home she shared with Wilhelm in Berlin, but according to the prevailing view of a woman's role, she wasn't permitted to play any instrument other than the piano. Women didn't play the cello, because they weren't supposed to have anything between their legs; a wind instrument or brass instrument in a woman's mouth was also felt to be "too suggestive". Even the organ was banned to women, because they had to spread their legs a bit to use the pedals. What madness !!!!!

You might think the world has "grown up a bit" since then, but we're told in this programme that, even today, only 5% of all the music performed in the world has been composed by women.

What a crazy world we live in !!!! [You've done that one already! - Ed]

[Just go to bed THIS MINUTE, or I'll have to up your medication again! - Ed]

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