Yes, Friends, do YOU dread baby-sitting a neighbour's child or maybe even your own grandchild? It isn't exactly "child's play" is it, as this story in this morning's local Onion News for East Hampshire, makes crystal clear!
Poor Rachel!!!! And let's hope she gets things back into shape before little Cameron and little Liam's parents get back from their evening out!!!
The Onion story, which was later picked up by some of the "nationals" and also even led the BBC's Six o'Clock News tonight, I notice (!), certainly brings a sympathetic and slightly bemused, smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this Saturday lunchtime, as we try to cope with an overgenerous "BLT" at the popular Darnley's eatery in nearby Haslemere, just over the county line in Surrey today, to put it mildly!!!!
my wife Lois and me, tackling an overgenerous 'BLT' at the popular
Darnley's eatery in nearby Haslemere, 10 miles away over
the county line, in Surrey, this morning
We're officially in Haslemere because we're "babysitting" our 15-year-old grandson Isaac this weekend, but we're not anticipating any "
won't put my pants back on" tantrums of the kind which catapulted poor local babysitter Rachel into the nation's headlines, that's for sure!!!! Isaac's parents and siblings are all 300 miles away up north for the weekend, visiting Isaac's older sister Josie at Durham University, where she's in the first year of her maths degree course.
(left) our daughter Alison and husband Edward, in Durham today, and (right)
Alison with their eldest offspring, Josie (19) - pictures they send back today
12:00 For us, the weekend has started peacefully enough, we reflect, as we sit and eat part of our BLT's this morning (we get them to "box up" the rest, which we can have for breakfast tomorrow - waste not, want not, as we always say!!!! We've already picked Isaac up from his home at 10:30am and delivered him safely to Haslemere Hall for his music-and-drama class under the auspices of LAMDA (London Academy of Musical and Dramatic Arts), where various ideas for their 2027 production are being "kicked around" - possibly "Nine to Five", a musical version of the 1980 Dolly Parton film.
Their 2026 production was the musical version of "Legally Blonde", in which Isaac played two roles, a Harvard law student as well as a "hunky", girl-pleasing, UPS delivery guy. Budding male actors are always heavily outnumbered by budding female actors in these amateur musical-and-dramatic efforts, that's for sure, which is nice for Isaac !!!!
flashback to February - (right) us, the proud grandparents watching Isaac (left, standing)
singing a song in the LAMDA production of Legally Blonde in the local Haslemere Hall
13:30 We pick Isaac up after his rehearsals, and take him back to the family's temporary home in nearby Churt, amidst acres of quiet woodland and the only neighbours are the occasional deer, which is nice! Lois and I are here now for the weekend, so we now spend some time unpacking our literally "billions of suitcases and bags" (!) that we somehow always find necessary to take with us (!).
Before leaving for Durham early this morning, our daughter Alison has got ready for us the bedroom with its massive emperor-size bed (7ft x 7ft) with ensuite bathroom that she shares with husband Ed, so we're hardly "slumming it", to put it mildly!!!!
Alison and Edward's 7 ft emperor-size bed, which Lois and I
will be borrowing for the weekend - it's got an en-suite bathroom
and a window overlooking acres of woodland, where deer run
Our "job" this weekend, will be to be temporarily "in charge", while Isaac gets on with doing revision for next week's GCSE "mock" exams, providing meals and kind-of keeping half an eye on the family's two dogs and two cats, as well as a tankful of tropical fish.
The fish are neatly "trapped" in their tank, and we don't see much of the cats except at feeding time, which is nice. And Sika, the older of the two dogs is no problem either - he's an "old man" now, happy to curl up in his basket: he's a bit like me, in other words, although I don't have a basket to do it in - an idea for Christmas present of me here, though, maybe?
I wonder....!
our grandson Isaac "marshalling" the family's menagerie
of two cats and two dogs, as they queue up, always on
the wrong side of any door they encounter - what madness !!!!!
The main problem for Lois and me is the younger of the two dogs, Bjorn, who, for the first couple of hours is "all over us", although eventually he seems to realise that we're just a couple of "old codgers", and not worth getting too "worked up" over, which is something of a relief, to put it mildly!
(left) Lois giving the two dogs "a good talking-to", and (right) Lois
with the now elderly Sika - poor Sika !!!!!!!
(left) Lois with young Bjorn, finally calmed down, and (right) me with Otto the Cat
Isaac himself is no trouble at all, just getting on with his school revision work. He's very easy to chat to, also, but we don't need to make special efforts to entertain or amuse him. At our advanced age (!), there's absolutely nothing that Lois and I can do to entertain or amuse a normal 15-year-old boy - and quite right too! - so we can just get on with entertaining and amusing each other in our semi-palatial "suite", which is nice!
Two of our other grandchildren, the ones in Australia, are a bit younger, however, and we can sometimes raise a smile with them still, which is gratifying! And next morning, Sunday, Lois and I get up early for our weekly "catch-up" whatsapp call with our other daughter Sarah, who lives 9000 miles away, in Perth, Australia, with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.
our 12-year-old twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessica
in the garden of the family home in Perth, Australia
The twins last month started "big school", a private Anglican grammar school in one of the city's northern suburbs, and they've already started learning Japanese, which is something I can help them with, "for my sins", having studied the language myself a "mere" 60 years ago (!).
flashback to last Sunday: one of our weekly whatsapp "catch-up" calls
with our daughter Sarah, and granddaughters Lily and Jessica, in Perth, Australia
The twins are complaining today that the Japanese word for "pleased to meet you" - yoroshiku - is nothing like its English equivalent, and so quite difficult to memorise.
I explain that this kind of thing is a drawback with Japanese, and, that, by contrast, the French equivalent word "enchanté" sounds a bit like the English word "enchanted", and so comes more readily to mind. However, their feeling is that to say you're enchanted, when you meet somebody new, is a bit "over the top", and I can see their point!
To provide a quick-fix solution to the problem, I then suggest that, if they're ever introduced to somebody in France, they should qualify their excitement, and say "un peu enchanté" (literally I'm slightly enchanted to meet you), which they agree is probably more realistic, so fair play to them!
10:00 Leaving Isaac to his own devices for the rest of the weekend, I drive Lois 17 miles down the A3 trunk road to Petersfield, Hampshire, so she can take part in her church's Sunday Morning Meeting. And after the meeting, we stay on, with many of the church-members, for the monthly "shared lunch" where members bring along a plate or dish or two, to contribute to the meal.
It's a special "shared lunch" this month, partly to celebrate the 90th near-birthday of church-member Myrtle, who had the bad luck to be born on February 29th 1926, which is a classic! Only gets a real birthday every 4 years, which is a pity!
Myrtle, at the head of the table, with her 90th birthday cake,
summoning up the "puff" to blow out the candles!!!!
Poor Myrtle!!!
It's ironic to me, that these shared lunches at the church are the only time I get to eat some really "sinful" food, which is ironic! When we're at home, Lois has to keep to a low-sugar diet for health reasons, and as she's the meal-provider 99% of the time (to my shame!), it means that effectively, I myself am on a low-sugar diet too, which is certainly to my ultimate good, but can be a bit frustrating at times, to put it mildly!!!!
When it's shared-lunch Sunday, however, I finally get to gorge myself on cakes, chocolate, meringues galore, with "lashings" of cream - yum yum!!! And after the lunch, feeling properly "stuffed" (!), I drive Lois home to Liphook, for an afternoon in our own dear bed, something which we need, if just to recover from all the excitement - well, we are 79 you know, although incredibly, still "marvellous for our age", according to "reports" at least haha !!!!!!
the monthly "shared lunch" after the Sunday Morning meeting - my only chance
in the month to eat some really "sinful" food, which is ironic!!!
What madness isn't it!!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
