Yes, friends, do women hit on you just because you're enjoying a bit of Austen? And I'm speaking here primarily to my faithful readers of the 'male' persuasion, or for those who stick to the old he/him pronoun, for those of you of a more modern 'bent' (!).
Speaking personally, although by now at the advanced age of 79, would you believe, and living in grassy, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, I'm still a bit of a "tart magnet" (!) - hard to believe, I know! And I'm going to be relying on my light-to-moderate wife Lois to fend off the "tarts" from hitting on Yours Truly (!), if we do our planned trip next weekend to nearby Chawton House, owned by Jane Austen's brother, and featuring the cottage where Jane did a lot of her writing, which will be nice!
me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois - a recent picture -
me, still a bit of a "tart magnet" even at 79 (!), I rely on Lois to
fend off all the tarts trying to hit on me, would you believe! [No I wouldn't! - Ed]
It'll be a group visit, organised by Lois's church, and we get the final instructions this morning when I drive Lois to the Sunday Morning Meeting in nearby Petersfield, Hampshire. There's just a small cafe at Chawton, and we'll be on the "second sitting" for lunch, which is nice - we'll be able to get the "tourist bit" over first, have a baked potato in the cafe and then get home and go to bed for the afternoon, which will be nice!
(left) us at the Sunday Morning Meeting today, and (right)
the menu at the Jane Austen Tea-rooms where we'll be going next weekend
Yum yum !!!!
Today, Sunday, is a bit of a funny day for us both - before we visit Chawton House, we've somehow got to fit in a lightning trip to Bournemouth on the English Channel coast, to see Lois's cousin Brian, who's in a care home. So today we're starting to think about packing our two little mini-suitcases, and what we need to take, which is a bit of a struggle at our age - we always seem to leave something or other behind that we really really need - like our reading glasses or our vitamin pills or our house keys haha (!).
me today, trying to remember what we'll need
to pack for our lightning trip to Bournemouth
on the English Channel later this week
I'm doing my best to keep my brain function "in good nick", and to "feed" my rippling muscles haha (!). Every day I have a protein-rich nutritious breakfast of cereal, plus blueberries (a.k.a. the brain's little blue-black friends), a boiled egg and two pieces of wholemeal bread, all washed down with a cup of delicious green tea, and I think I'm doing the right thing, don't you?
And just today we get an email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, with news of the latest stateside research into brain health, suggesting that the effects of green tea are enhanced if you accompany it with some delicious B3 vitamins - they haven't figured out yet the best way to ingest your B3 but I know that eggs have got it in already, so I may be ahead of the curve for possibly the first time in my life (!).
Luckily mine and Lois's 5 grandchildren don't need to worry about their brain functions. It would certainly be a worry if they were worrying about it, to put it mildly! [Beautifully expressed, Colin! - Ed]
The eldest, Josie, has turned 19 today, and this autumn she'll be starting a maths degree course at Durham University, and our 12-year-old twin grandchildren in Australia, whom we speak to today on whatsapp, came first and second in their school's mental arithmetic finals this week.
(left) at a London "Sticks'n'Sushi", our petite eldest grandchild Josie, who has turned 19 today,
soon to start a maths degree course at Durham University, and (right) our 12-year-old
twin granddaughters in Australia, Lily and Jessica, who this week came 1st and 2nd
in their school's mental arithmetic finals, seen here with mum Sarah
More alarming than impressive to Lois and me, however, is the fact that the twins also came in first and second in their school's annual cross-country run.
Where did that come from, eh? Not from my family or Lois's family, that's for sure! And does it challenge the whole idea of DNA, and genetics?
I wonder....!
In this week's run, Lily and Jessica not only beat all the other girls but even caught up with all the boys, who had started a minute earlier - what madness !!!
Pictures of the twins' latest epic run have yet to come in - dad Francis is having trouble with downloading them or uploading them from his camera, or some-such nonsense! Lois and I don't really understand what the problem is, although he tries to explain it to us on whatsapp this morning - what we call his "son-in-law-splaining" (!).
So for now, all we've got are our pictures of that earlier epic run by the twins a few years ago, when Lily realised half way through the race that she'd forgotten to put her hat on - de rigeur for the more sensible Australian kids, racing under that fierce sun and in baking heat. Despite that disadvantage, she managed to pick up her hat and fight her way through the 'pack' to finish third.
Will this do? I think Lois and I need another 'lie-down' (!).
[Oh, just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!
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