Yes, Friends, do YOU sometimes feel a bit "on edge" when Sean Connery drops by YOUR house? Well, you would, now, seeing as how he passed away in 2020 - rest in peace, Sean, by the way haha!!!!
However, there was a reminder this morning of those anxious days in this morning's Onion News, waiting for Sean's "knock on the door" (!), in the paper's popular "From the Archives" column - if you can thumb your way all the way back to page 94, that is! It'll be worth the possible slight-to-slightish damage to your thumb, I can assure you haha!!!!
Poor Sean!!!!!
However, reading the Onion story in bed this afternoon with my wife Lois, here in semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, brings a queer kind of twisted smile to our lips, because we've been reminded already today, that Scotland's big night, Robert Burns Night, is just 8 days away. We were having our lunch today with a pizza at the local Links Tavern and we just happened to see an advert for their special Burns Night supper.
Lois and me having lunch today at the local Links Tavern, where we
see an advert for the pub's Burns Night supper next weekend, which we sign up to
On a whim, we decide to sign up for the pub's Burns Night supper.
We usually celebrate Burns Night at home, just the two of us, but we're attracted by the promised presence in the pub, next weekend, of the St Andrews Pipe Band - a group of Scottish "ex-pats" based in nearby Hamble-le-Rice, near Southampton. [Hamble-le-Rice is an odd name for a village, but 'hamble' meant a river-bend in Anglo-Saxon, and "Le Rice" was Norman French for a rise, referencing the village's position on higher ground - but you knew that already, obviously haha!!!!]
flashback to June 2014: the local St Andrews pipe band travels to
Ouistreham in northern France for the 70th anniversary of D-Day
Yes, this local pipe band were across the English Channel in Ouistreham, Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. But did you know that Ouistreham was named by some Anglo-Saxons who, perhaps, got lost on the journey from Denmark to England, and decided to settle in Normandy instead - well, the weather's better down there isn't it haha!
This is just "by the way", but the Normandy town of Ouistreham has a special significance for Lois and me, because we had a lovely, super-relaxed holiday there, back in the autumn of 1996, 30 years ago, to mark our new-found "empty-nesthood". Both our daughters had now become officially "off our hands" and away at college, Alison at Cardiff and Sarah had just started at Lancaster.
flashback to 1996: our elder daughter Alison now at Cardiff University, where she'd already
met her future husband Edward, and our younger daughter Sarah settled in at Lancaster,
Lois and I have a lovely relaxed holiday in Ouistreham, Normandy
[That's enough place-names! - Ed]
14:00 With our £10 deposit for Burns Night paid at the bar, together with our order for our starters and mains, you can imagine that Lois is in a super-excited mood for this afternoon's "statutory nap-time", to put it mildly (!).
She checks first that she's still got her "Tartanista" Scottish kilt in our wardrobe - not a forgone conclusion, after our having moved home twice in 2 years, would you believe, which was total madness !!!! She remembers, however, that her kilt famously "fell off her" on Burns Night last year. We'd both been on a crazy diet, and lost half a stone each in a couple of months.
flashback to Burns Night 2024: Lois, seen here in happier times, in her 36" UK Size16 kilt,
preparing the haggis we'd ordered from Ocado (see right for full details of our shopping list!)
[All right, we get the point! - Ed]
Lois's kilt is UK size 16 for a 36-inch waist, which is now far too "roomy" for her, but this afternoon, after making plans to order her a shiny-new 34 inch one from Scotland, and hoping it can be delivered before next weekend, she realises that she can just "move the button" with a bit of her expert needlework skills, which often come in handy, and which is nice!
We try to stay trim, although we've both put on a few pounds with lots of naughty eating over Christmas. The new diet starts next week, by the way haha!
And this morning we took a bracing 4000-step walk, near the line of the old Roman Road, over Chapel Common, just over the county line in West Sussex, which is a new walk for us, in a new area.
flashback to this morning: we do a 4000-step walk over Chapel Common, a new area for us
"Chapel Common" takes its name from a nearby 800-year-old disused Anglican chapel, Tuxlith Chapel, which was recently rescued from ruin by "The Friends of Friendless Churches".
Awwww, bless !!! And, by the way, "Kudos, you guys!" and also, "Hail to thee, you kept us out of war!" haha !!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz!!!!
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