Yes, Friends, do YOU know a clever student? Or even a stupid one? Well, don't worry, October's just around the corner, and they'll all soon be disappearing, saying they're off to college, but we just have to take their word for THAT haha !!!!
And our UK press is suddenly bulging with 'college' stories and 'student' stories - have you noticed? There are even a couple of "doozies" in today's Onion News, if you want proof !!!!
But these seasonal college stories bring a smile of recognition to the faces of me and my wife Lois today, here in semi-attractive Liphook, Hampshire - you can take that for 'granted' !!! [You don't say! - Ed]
my wife Lois and me - a recent picture
And those semi-ghostly "smiles of recognition" on our mouths probably have something to do with the two eldest of our 5 grandchildren, who are both on their way to college this very weekend, including Rosalind (18), who's being taken up to UCL London today by her mum and dad - our daughter Alison and husband Edward - to start her 4-year International Relations degree course.
All this what-we-call "to-ing and fro-ing" is all far too much for Lois and me !!!! Dubbed by our neighbours 'possibly Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple', we've got more than enough 'frantic activity' in our own home lives, without having to keep track of it on a more 'national' basis, thank you very much!!!!
Stop the world - we want to get off !!!!!!
(left) our daughter Alison takes this picture early today, as she and husband Edward drive
their "middle" offspring Rosalind (inset) into London to set her up in her student bedsit,
and (right) Edward relaxing in her room before the journey home to Headley, Hampshire
And - believe it or not - tomorrow (Sunday) Edward will be on the move again would you believe (!), travelling with our eldest granddaughter Josie (20) on the 300 miles journey north, up to Durham, for the start of the 2nd year of her maths degree course!
Doesn't anybody stay exactly where they are, any more ?????
flashback to August: our daughter Alison (seen in mirror) and husband Edward take Josie
for a preliminary look at what's going to be her new flat-share for the 2nd year
of her maths degree course at Durham, setting her up with all her "essentials"
Busy busy busy!!!! But wait, there's more!!!
As soon as our son-in-law Edward has set Josie up in her new flat-share in Durham tomorrow, he'll be taking the train down to Liverpool for a crazy few days in Liverpool, which is mad!
Edward, who's on the board of one of the UK's many railway companies, will be attending this year's Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, dropping in at many of the associated "fringe" events, hoping to catch the eye of new premier Andy Burnham's Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, and to do a bit of discreet 'lobbying', as he calls it (!).
You young scamp, Edward !!!!
(left) UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham arriving in Liverpool today with Dutch-born wife
Marie-France van Heel for next week's annual Labour Party Conference,
and (right) Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, whom our son-in-law Edward [inset]
is hoping to catch the eye of, and do some discreet lobbying with - the young scamp !!!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
But let me put my cards on the table at this point! [I wish you wouldn't keep doing that, Colin! - Ed]
It's no wonder that Lois and I get a little confused, sometimes, by our crazy modern world! You see, we both turned 80 this year, although we look much younger, more like half what our official age is, in cold, hard figures, or so our neighbours tell us!
[?????? - I want signed statements to that effect, before I let you put that obviously made-up claim in print again, Colin! - Ed]
flashback to earlier this year: (left) Lois in June showcasing a birthday bouquet,
and (right) me in March, showcasing a half-eaten vegetable spring roll - yum yum !!!!
And that's why both Lois and I, as a pair of fully-paid up "old codgers" are eagerly awaiting the start of octogenarian radio presenter Michael Rosen's new BBC Radio 4 series, "Seven Ages of Man", starting tonight.
We're both hoping to get some so-called "insights" into so-called "old age" from "fellow-sufferers" (!), which would be nice!
And Michael's first guest tonight is none other than former Monty Python star, Michael Palin, who's 83, and has now started a new career as one of the UK's billion or more "celebrity travelogue" presenters, which is mad!!!!!
(top left) BBC radio presenter and former actor Michael Rosen, and (below, left)
former Monty Python star and celebrity travelogue presenter Michael Palin
Presenter Rosen, a former actor who's just turned 80 himself, and his guest Palin, who's 83, both agree that turning 80 has meant a glorious sense of "liberation". At last they can ditch their typical male "competition mania", the crazy desire to outperform the other men in their respective circles.
When you're in your 80's, people stop asking you what you're aiming for, and what your objectives are, and you can just switch off and enjoy yourself, Palin says. And he confesses that, at last, he feels a bit marginalised, but in a good way, so can just pursue whatever he wants to pursue, whether it impresses other men or not! And he shares with us some of his more recent pursuits, including learning to make pickled cucumbers as nice as his mum used to do for him, which is heart-warming!
Michael Palin's mum and dad, outside their home in Sheffield, Yorkshire
Early in Palin's career, as one of 20 to 20 scriptwriters for the David Frost show - almost all men, of course (!) - there was tremendous competition to write the funniest gags. As one of the Pythons, Palin constantly felt the need to come up with more laugh ideas than the others, at the routine pre-programme "table-read sessions".
David Frost with his gag-writers, and Palin in the back row, second from right
This "toxic masculinity" was never really Palin's "bag", however, and he constantly made fun of it, with, for example, with his Python song "I'm a Lumberjack":
And this dumping of male competitiveness also helps Palin in his more recent, late-blossoming career as a "celebrity travelogue" presenter, he says. No longer needing to exude the fact that he's a man, and so "has all the answers", he is better able to get his interviewees to reveal more about themselves, he says, so that's all good!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment