Ancient Egypt - it's a subject as topical today as it was thousands of years ago, isn't it, when Ancient Egypt was first 'inaugurated', and almost every day it seems, archaeologists are turning up this or that 'old relic' there!
And my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I are ourselves "old relics", not in faraway Egypt but right here in Liphook, Hampshire (!), and our status as "old relics" is particularly enhanced in a funny kind of a way, because we're also both "archaeology buffs", i.e. "old relics" interested in even older "relics" (!).
We like nothing more than going down (and up (!)) internet "rabbit-holes", often during our afternoon "nap-time sessions". And I sometimes think we spend almost as much time doing it as real archaeologists spend when they're going down and up actual rabbit-holes looking for this or that actual old relic (!).
Lois's Huawei starts beeping and immediately we're going down
and up rabbit-holes again in our search for (other!) old relics (!)
And yet - and yet - is this story real? A couple of clues: look at the "April 1" date on the date-line, and also, look at the page this story is on, in the Onion News print edition. Yes, it's page 94, the traditional place for Onion News's latest crop of one or other of their hard-working local journalists' humorous "takes" on our crazy world of today, the organ's so-called "Leave Time For A Smile" column, which often has Lois and me rocking with laughter.
Plus, isn't local archaeologist Whitson known for his media hoaxes too?
Mystery solved!
There are plenty of real stories around about archaeology, however, as we discover tonight seeing a re-run of one of "Whispering" Dan Cruikshank's "ancient" (2005!) Ancient Egypt specials on BBC4 - more on this later in the blog!
[Hold me back, I can't wait haha! - Ed]
15:30 It's a funny old day today for Lois and me, this Sunday, but also very satisfying, because we get into bed this afternoon having "seen" in a way we see not just our two daughters Alison and Sarah, but also all five of our dear grandchildren, three in the flesh and two thanks to the magic of the internet.
We see "in the flesh" Alison and Ed's three teenage offspring Josie (18), Rosalind (16) and Isaac (14) because we have lunch with the family today, who live only about 5 miles away from us, here in our new Liphook, Hampshire,
home. And before that, this morning, we saw, and chatted to, Sarah and Francis' 11-year-old twins, Lily and Jessica 9000 miles away in Perth, Australia.
flashback to 9 am this morning (5pm Western Australia time), we chat on whatsapp to
our daughter Sarah and our 11-year-old twin granddaughters, Lily and Jessica...
..and later Lois and I have a good old traditional British Sunday roast dinner, with
our daughter Alison (right), husband Ed (loading the dishwasher), and their 3 teenage
offspring (left to right) Isaac (14), Josie (18) and Rosalind (16)
And Lois and I don't need any "fake news" today because both sets of our "descendants" (!) have stacks of news to tell us about, as always, which is nice!
In far-away Australia, Lily and Jessica started school there this week, the family having moved from the UK late last year - it's the start of the school year over there in that crazy hemisphere, would you believe (!), yes, in February (!), and not only that, it's over 100 degrees F (40 degrees C). What madness! And the school is brand-new and hasn't even been finished yet - what madness (again)!
site of the twins' new school in Perth, Australia, Indian Ocean
in the background - and the school is still being built - what madness !!!!!
The twins are all of 3 days into their "summer term" now, and they have lots to tell us this morning about their new teacher, Mrs Blythe. More on that later in my upcoming blogs!
Meanwhile, of our so-called "British" descendants, the younger two - Rosalind (16) and Isaac (14), will be travelling with their parents next Sunday (start of half-term week) to the family's old stamping-ground of Copenhagen, Denmark. It's the city that the family spent 7 years 2012-2019, when Ed was working as a legal consultant for an international firm's Denmark office.
flashback to December 2106: Lois and I, on a visit to Copenhagen.
"babysit" our three "Danish" grandchildren, while Ali
and Ed are out of town on a trip - happy days !!!!
No, you see, Josie doesn't want to go to Denmark t his time around, and it's all because her A-Level exams are getting close and she wants to work on her revision. Ali and Ed have warned Lois and me that, when Josie comes to stay with us next week, we "won't see Josie other than at meal-times", which is fair enough - we know she's a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to exam revision, to put it mildly!
It'll still be nice to chat with her at meal-times, and it gives Lois and me a further chance to "get down with the kids" or at least "downer with the kids". Is "downer" the correct comparative form? [No! - Ed]
We're currently dusting off our shiny new "Right Said Fred" albums (still in their plastic sleeves and unopened!), which we understand are the "happening sounds" that kids today are mostly listening to these days.
My medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and me (left),
revelling in the prospect of "getting down with the kids" or "kid" anyway (!)
in our passion for "happening" group Right Said Fred (right - said Fred!)
"But Colin, what about Dan "Whispering Dan" Cruikshank's documentary on Egyptian Journeys that you promised to tell us about?", I hear you cry.
[Not me - I've already on my way to bed, 'jim-jams' on already! - Ed]
And it's only a few years ago now that ancient papyri were found, showing conclusively that Rameses III couldn't make a decision to save his life.
He had two official wives, as well as bunch of harems all over Egypt. plus a "travelling harem" of his "absolute top ten women", that went with him on his "business trips". All these were staffed by his "army" of "pseudo-wives", so there you have a problem straight off, i.e .who to sleep with tonight.
And not only that, but poor Rameses III couldn't make up his mind either, about which of his two official wives should have the honour of "carrying on the line" by making one of their sons his official successor.
Should it be Isis's son, or Tiye's son. for next Pharaoh? In the end, Rameses seems to have "come down on" Isis, and the rest is (ancient!) history.
Rameses III's two wives, Isis (left) and Tiye
- but which was better? I think we should be told!
If it had been me sitting on Rameses' throne, I would simply have written down the two women's good and bad points on a spare bit of papyrus, but there's no evidence that Rameses III ever did that. If he did, that particular scrap of papyrus seems to have been lost to posterity, which is a pity. A possible target for future excavations perhaps?
I wonder.....!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!!!
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