Have YOU ever lost sight of your spouse or partner and gone into a panic? A lot of us have, haven't we, and then felt a bit silly afterwards, if we're honest!
It happens even to celebs, apparently, according to the latest fascinating episode in the More4 Channel's series on the legendary Orient Express, that once ran from London to Istanbul. Obviously, if you lost them on the train itself, you suspected they've been murdered, didn't you, and then you found them in the restaurant car, innocently munching on a large bowl of caviar - it's been known to happen hasn't it, to put it mildly!
"My wife's disappeared!" "Have you seen my husband" - "I think they might have been murdered!" - typical panic calls to staff on the Orient Express in the 1930's (!)
Many Orient Express travellers used to stop off in hotels en route from London to Istanbul, tonight's programme tells us. And if you were rich enough and stayed in a fancy enough hotel, you might even lose them in the bed or, at least, in the room somewhere (!).
It happened to film director Alfred Hitchcock in the 1930's, according to the concierge at Vienna's Imperial Hotel.
We see a number of famous names, travellers on the Orient Express, who signed the visitor's book, including film star Charlie Chaplin and film director Alfred Hitchcock
Phew! Poor Hitchcock!
It's something that rarely happens to my light-to-moderate wife Lois and me, i.e. that we lose track of each other - living here in rural, semi-grassy Liphook, Hampshire, we often say that we live in each other's pockets 24/7.
It doesn't bother me - I always enjoy being in Lois's pockets, and let's hope it's mutual (!).
Today's a case in point: a visit to Lois's stylist Anna at Liphook Haircraft where we get complimentary coffee and biscuits, followed by a walk in the drizzly mist over the "rec" - the recreation ground where mighty amateur football team Liphook United play all their key East Hampshire Division 4 home matches (!). And then we finish up with an afternoon in bed for "nap time"[not shown] - what's not to like haha!
me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois - "in each other's pockets 24/7" (!)
Unfortunately, unlike Lois and me, couples travelling on the Orient Express who stopped off in Budapest, Hungary, couldn't stay in each other's pockets when they visited the famous Szechenyi Thermal Baths in the city. Men and women were strictly segregated, and it was only when the Communists took over after World War II that mixed bathing was legalised.
At last Orient Express couples could wallow together in the hot-tub style temperatures without wondering whether their spouse or partner had been murdered somewhere, which was a comfort, to put it mildly!
So you can't say the Communists didn't do anything for Hungary, which is nice to know!
There's a famous scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian film, where a group of discontented anti-Roman rebels complain about their Roman rulers, asking "What have the Romans ever done for us?"
Let me put my cards on the table at this point. [I wish you wouldn't keep doing that, Colin! - Ed]
Lois and I try to keep up with events in Hungary - it's one of our favourite countries over in Europe. We visited the country several times back in the 1990s and 2000s, and got to make some good friends there.
flashback to the late 1990s, and mine and Lois's first visit to Hungary as a couple:
(top) Lois at the sculpture park near Siklós and (bottom) me at Siofók
And according to Tünde, who's my Hungarian penfriend, there's a bit of a furore in Hungary at the moment, because the country's ruling Fidesz party, through its sister organisation NEM, the National Resistance Movement, is making unauthorised use of that Life of Brian scene, overdubbing it with a "What has Fidesz ever done for us?" rant, followed by a listing of all the alleged benefits that Hungarians allegedly owe to the Fidesz Government's 15 years of rule.
Fun fact: last year the Fidesz Government, which Steve, our American brother-in-law, tells us is currently trailing the opposition Tisza party by 10 points, was voted Europe's most corrupt regime.
What madness !!!!
But what a crazy world we live in!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment