Yes, Friends, do YOUR clothes feel "all wrong" on you this morning? Well, if you're a woman, you're not alone, according to this morning's Onion News, so remember, it's not you, it's your clothes that are the problem, which is reassuring to a degree!
my wife Lois and me - some recent pictures
We're here in Petersfield, ostensibly to pick up an atlas Lois ordered in Waterstones, also to buy a few Cookshop ready-meals, and finally some stick-on picture hangings from the hardware store. However, as we pass by the local outlet of legwear specialists Moshulu, Lois can't resist just looking in, to see if they have the right sort of tights she needs, and bingo! She's in luck, which is nice!
us today, with Lois shopping for legwear in the Petersfield branch of Moshulu's
Lois is in luck because they've got her favourite tights in small size, and not just medium. She's lost a lot of weight since adopting a low-sugar diet some months ago, and she's anxious to avoid what we call "the Nora Batty effect".
We're of course referencing the beloved character of Nora in the long-running Yorkshire sitcom "Last of the Summer Wine". Nora Batty, played by veteran actress Kathy Staff, was known for her "wrinkly stockings". Remember these iconic scenes from the show? I think you do, painful though it may be !!!!
Nora Batty (Kathy Staff) in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine
11:00 And it's 11 o'clock by the time Lois and I come home, armed with our purchases, and hoping for a quiet afternoon in bed after all the hurly-burly of a morning in Petersfield, which is what passes for a "shopping mecca" here in the wilds of East Hampshire (!).
Coming home, a bit emotionally "battered and bruised" (!) by the fleshpots of Petersfield, we are entertained by thoughts of the even fleshier fleshpots (!) of London, because last November, my younger sister Jill, who lives in Petersfield, was in a swanky Glitch nightclub in the capital, hearing one of her monologues, "A Nice Cup of Tea" being acted out by a "happening" feminist group, the Yellow Coat Theatre.
flashback to November: (left) my younger sister Jill (67) outside the swanky
London nightclub where one of her monologues is "on the bill", and (right)
Jill waiting for the performance to start, sitting with her Anglo-American
soon-to-be daughter-in-law Rosanna - the wedding has been fixed for September
Jill last night sent me a video clip of the performance, and we discuss it during a phone call this afternoon, which is nice. The monologue showcases a really fresh and original scenario of a woman who has just died and is waiting in the "waiting-room of the afterlife", i.e.. waiting to be "called in", and meanwhile looking down on her nearest and dearests' clumsy efforts to deal with what's happened, so amusing and poignant at the same time.
(above) Jill's monologue being performed, and (bottom right) Jill with
members of the feminist Yellow Coat Theatre Company
And in our whatsapp video call this afternoon, Jill talks about some of her writing heroes and inspirations, referencing, in particular, Yorkshire writer Alan Bennett and his famous "Talking Heads" series of monologues.
Kudos, Jill! I could never begin to write that kind of stuff, to put it mildly!!!
Apart from that, this Tuesday does prove to be a pretty quiet day for us, but it ends with a culinary triumph, when Lois heroically manages to produce us both some delicious pancakes for Pancake Day, despite all the efforts of her new-style flour and our kitchen's new-style induction hobs to sabotage her endeavours !!!!
Yes, those pancakes !!!! We moved into our current house in Liphook just over a year ago, and we still haven't really got the hang of its "ultra-modern" induction hub, to put it mildly! [What do you mean 'we', Colin, you lazy bastard! - Ed]
"Just give us our old gas-rings back!", that's what we say!!!!
(left) us tonight feasting on our induction-hob-affected pancakes for Pancake Day,
and (right) flashback to October 2024: Lois viewing the hob for the first time,
with some puzzlement (!), in the company of our daughter Alison and local estate agent Richard
21:00 Yes, to my shame, I have to admit that it's Lois who does almost all the cooking in our house, with the exception of my small "palette" of signature dishes, such as my flagship "poached egg surprise", needless to say!
But who makes the pancakes in Tony Bair's household? To find out the answers to this and other questions, Lois and I go to bed on the fascinating first programme in a 3-part series about Tony Blair on Channel 4. Remember him haha ?!
Now, clearly showing signs of ageing (he's 72), Blair must surely have known that former friends, colleagues, relatives etc would be giving their candid, uncensored views about him, and their experiences of him, and that Channel 4 would be putting the programme out, without him being given the chance to persuade them to edit it, and to cut out "the less flattering bits" ????
Also fascinating tonight is to see the clips where the then, as yet un-disgraced, senior Labour politician Peter Mandelson pops up from time to time, giving his "take" on Blair's various qualities or lack of them (!).
What madness !!!!
Tonight, Labour MP Claire Short sums up Blair's qualities. "Tony always was a smoothie. His weakness was the lack of deep thinking, and knowledge of history." And she adds that Tony always wanted to be a big thinker, but that "that's not what he is".
Claire Short, Labour MP, standing next to Tony Blair the day
in 1994 when he was elected leader of the Labour Party
Would Claire Blaire, Tony's wife, have made a better Labour leader than her husband?
Claire had a lot of qualities that Tony lacked, according to Mandelson. And "It was Cherie, who was, in a sense, the 'Labour Party animal', something which Tony clearly wasn't". And Mandelson notes that Cherie "took the profound and difficult decision to step back, and to be Tony's support".
Fascinating stuff, isn't it, and there'll be more to come in the two remaining programmes in the series, that's for sure!
And as for Mandelson, now embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, by coincidence today we receive an email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, quoting the commentator Politico's summary of the crisis that Mandelson is causing for another Labour Prime Minister, poor Sir Keir Starmer at the moment. Politico gives this summary:
Fascinating stuff, isn't it, and there'll be more to come in the two remaining programmes in the series, that's for sure!
And as for Mandelson, now embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, by coincidence today we receive an email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, quoting the commentator Politico's summary of the crisis that Mandelson is causing for another Labour Prime Minister, poor Sir Keir Starmer at the moment. Politico gives this summary:
flashback: Peter Mandelson chatting with his "best pal" Jeffrey Epstein
Politico notes the following, however, "Full disclosure: I have known Peter Mandelson for many
years. I have always found him intelligent and entertaining company. His emails
to Epstein show, at best, shockingly poor judgment. But the more consequential
lapse in judgment was Starmer’s, for hiring him.
From the point of view of British politics, Starmer’s error appeared to provide the perfect justification for Labour members of Parliament to do something they were already itching to do - to replace the prime minister.
Poor Keir !!!!!
And if you're a Prime Minister, it shows that Mandelson, even if not mad, or bad, is certainly "dangerous to know", to put it mildly!!!
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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