Monday January 3rd 2022

12:00 Lois and I have a naughty morning again - during our walk round the local football field, we rashly order a piece of cherry and almond cake from Monika, the Whiskers Coffee Stand's Polish waitress, a slice of cake which thereby becomes today's "naughty nibble". We decide to share it to halve the calories, however.

today's "naughty nibble" - Monika's cherry and almond cake:

go on have a bite yourself haha!

Monika says she and her partner, who's also Polish, had a quiet New Year's Eve. Although New Year is a big thing in Poland, she never used to relish it, she tells us. And this year it was just a glass of wine at midnight, and after that they just went to bed, which makes sense to me!

It's pretty quiet on the football field today, 3 or 4 dog-walkers and that's all. But things liven up when the old codgers turn up with their soccer kit and start kicking the ball around in the netball court, which is nice. They're always quite enthusiastic, even if they're not that skilful or lithe. I can't see any of them going professional, that's for sure! My god!!!

the local old codgers turn up for their weekly soccer practice 

in the netball court - what madness !!!!!

14:00 Lois's main job today will be making the icing for our belated 8-inch Christmas cake. She couldn't get any royal icing from the local Budgens, so she's hoping to make it herself.

The cake so far is just got marzipan on it, so the big step is still to come. Although it's just going to be us seeing it and we'll be mostly just eating it, so no real pressure, just Lois's pride in her own cake-making skills being at stake haha!

I showcase the 8 inch cake, with its current marzipan coating

See? Simples !!!!

16:30 My big job today is to start looking for the next Danish text for the U3A Danish group, which Lois and I run, the only one of its kind in the UK.

We're getting near the end of our current crime novel, and Lois and I have been wondering whether we ought to go for a book of short stories for our next project. 

The problem is that the group takes so long to get through a full novel - our current novel is 300 pages long, but we only ever manage to read about 5 pages at each meeting, basically because there's just too much chat and nattering - and in English: I can't get them to focus! What a crazy world we live in !!!!

I know the group prefers Danish books that are a bit racy, without being outright disgusting, so I've got to avoid choosing something that's too tame, that's for sure. I think I may have found a likely book - it's stories about a mixed group of gardeners, both men and women, who gather over an out-of-town allotment just beyond Copenhagen's western suburbs. And everybody knows that gardeners like to get up to all sorts of capers at weekends - this could be the perfect project, so (green) fingers crossed haha!

short stories of fun and games on Danish allotments

The English title is "Small Gardens Big Dreams", which says it all, I think. [No it doesn't! - Ed]

Yes, I think short stories are definitely the answer. A novel of 300 pages takes 60 meetings to finish, which equates to 120 weeks, so by the time we're halfway through the book, most of us have forgotten what happened at the beginning of it - you do the maths!

What madness! This book of short stories based on a mixed group of green-fingered Copenhageners sounds just right to me. But we'll see.

I expect they'll grumble whatever I choose! 

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

20:00 We watch some TV, the much-awaited Christmas edition of "Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing", presented by retired comedians Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.

Who knew that salmon are rare creatures in English rivers? There are plenty in Scottish rivers, and I assumed it would be the same down here, but apparently not.

For this trip Bob and Paul travel right up north to the River Tees in Northumberland, to see if they can bag an English salmon. Paul gets a trout and a salmon early on, but poor old Bob has to wait till the last reel haha to get his salmon, but it's a big one.

However, the high point of the show for Lois and me is to see the show's annual awards to the staff who've yet again been working so hard on the series. 

Bob, who judges all the awards, came in for a certain amount of criticism last year for awarding all the trophies to himself, except for two: (1) best newcomer and (2) best personality awards, both of which Bob assigned to his talking dog Ted, who accompanies the boys on their fishing trips.

Bob's talking dog, Ted, who last year scooped the 2020

"Best newcomer" and "Best personality" awards

But will the award- ceremony be a bit more "inclusive" this year, as Lois and I hope? It turns out that the ceremony this year is going to be much pared down, with only two categories spotlighted, "Show 2021 Employee of the Year", and "2021 Best Bankside Caterer".

The award ceremony is pleasantly low-key taking place in an otherwise empty bar-room near Blyth, Northumberland.

It turns out that the "2021 Employee of the Year" award goes to Ted, Bob's talking dog, which is a nice surprise. Lois and I were rooting for Ted all year long.

In another surprise, Paul is disappointed again this year when he just misses out on the other major award , "2021 Best Bankside Caterer", which goes instead to Gloucestershire Angling Fanatic Charlie Cooper from the "This Country" sitcom series.

And in another surprise, Charlie Cooper steps out of the shadows to receive his award in person in the quiet bar, after a 6-hour drive from his home in Gloucestershire.

Lois and I aren't sure, but this is what Google thinks could have been three possible routes Charlie could have taken to drive from Cirencester to Blyth, Northumberland, to pick up the award in person:

A nice end to the evening, for everybody except Paul, who goes away without a prize yet again. However I'm going to let that one slide, because Lois and I are both so pleased to see Ted in particular scoop another award to add to his haul of two for 2020. Well done, Ted!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!

Sunday January 2nd 2022

16:00 Lois and I on the sofa look back on today as it looks so far - admittedly quiet. 

Lois took part in her sect's two meetings on zoom, at 10:45 am and 12:30 pm, and found out about more COVID victims amongst sect-members: a young couple Sam and Lexi and their 6-month-old son Levi have all got COVID. But Lois says young babies can usually cope well with viruses, because they get a miscellanous "immunities" welcome pack from their mother when they're in the womb, a package which is kept topped up if the mother is also breastfeeding, which is a nice start in life, to put it mildly!

babies get a "welcome pack" of immunities from their mother

And elderly sect-member Ursula, who was in Cheltenham General Hospital last week being treated for pneumonia, must have picked up COVID there. Now she's been transferred to Gloucester Royal Hospital, where she has a room on her own. Oh dear, it must be that very infectious omicron variant, we're guessing.

flashback to December 8th: Lois and i visit Ursula in her Churchdown home

Lois and I review the day so far from our sofa. 

I myself haven't achieved much again. I did go through the so-called List A of the exercises which Connor, my NHS physio, has scheduled for me today.

I also emailed members of the U3A Danish group which Lois and I run - the only such group in the UK. We're getting towards the end of our current Danish crime novel, and I need the go-ahead to choose our next book. Decisions, decisions!!!!

16:30 I look at my smartphone. 

Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, has emailed me alerting me to an article in the Observer newspaper which offers new hope for a change of government in Hungary. 

The country's dictatorial-leaning Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of the Fidesz Party has been expecting to be challenged by a left-wing candidate in the coming spring elections - what he hasn't been expecting is a challenge from a right-winger like Péter, and what's crucial, someone who's committed to basic democratic principles, which will make a refreshing change. 

Deal with that one, Viktor !!!!

The candidate concerned is Péter Márki-Zay - crazy name, crazy guy! And "MZP", as he is known, is dismissive of Orbán's much-vaunted defence of Christianity. He points out that he himself has been a church-going Christian since communist times, when Orbán was still a member of the Communist Youth Movement.

MZP says he used to vote for Orbán's Fidesz party but he hasn't done so since 2010. “I just became more and more upset with their populism, their betrayal of western values … and the corruption mostly,” he told the Observer. “Orbán has changed, not me.”

flashback to me on my first visit to Hungary in 1994: 

an advert for the Fidesz party (above and behind me to the left), 

at a time when Fidesz were still "the good guys"

18:00 We eat the rest of our CookShop "Christmas dinner" meal for 2. It indicates how sparingly Lois and I eat these days that we can make this ready-meal stretch to two evenings, which is nice.

The dessert is different, however - the lovely trifle that Lois made earlier this afternoon.

the second half of our CookShop Christmas ready meal for two

and afterwards Lois serves out two portions

of her delicious Christmas trifle - yum yum!

20:00 We watch some TV, the latest programme in the series "Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby", where the presenters, chef Monica Galetti and food writer Giles Coren, go to unusual hotels around the world and try their hand at some of the jobs the hotel staff do.

Lois and I are watching tonight mainly because the presenters are visiting a hotel inside the grounds of the Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, which we visited with our daughter Alison and her family when we visited them over there during their 6-year residence in the city.

the Nimb Hotel, Copenhagen

To be honest, we're a bit fed up with this series in general. As the blurb in the Radio Times suggests, there's a lot of repetition in the hotel worker tasks that Monica and Giles are asked to do. And although the hotels are in various locations around the world, the hotels themselves are not that different from each other inside, when it comes down to it. 

For this lack of individuality Lois and I blame the mega-rich people who can afford to stay in these places. Essentially they all want the same type of luxurious room, and the same type of food in the hotel restaurants, wherever they go. Only the views from the windows are really that different - what madness!!!!

It's interesting, however, to hear a bit about the history of the Tivoli amusement park, which is the world's second oldest. In the early 1800's, pleasure gardens were all the rage. In London, people were flocking to Vauxhall Gardens, and in Paris les Jardins de Tivoli. 

In 1843 a Danish architect called Georg Carstensen pointed out to the Danish king that "when the people are amusing themselves, they don't think about politics". So the king allowed Carstensen to build on some land around the city's moat. 

Tivoli Gardens in the early days

Carstensen also imported exotic influences from far-flung world cultures. The oldest surviving building from this era is his Chinese Peacock Theatre, built in 1874.

Carstensen's original Chinese Theatre (1874)

And who knew that 108 years after the park opened, Walt Disney himself visited, shortly before going off and building his own, his very own, Disneyworld in California? [I expect a lot of people knew that! - Ed]

 

Tivoli's liquorice shop: the Danes love liquorice - what madness!!!

Memories of mine and Lois's visit to Tivoli in May 2013

with our daughter Alison, her husband Ed, and

their 3 children: Josie, Rosalind and Isaac

(then aged 7, 5 and 3) - how young and little they look!!!!

Happy days !!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!

Saturday January 1st 2022

09:00 Our weekly zoom call with our daughter Sarah, who lives in Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 8-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.

She and Francis were planning to work on the family's boat this weekend, but their club, Nedlands, has installed a new launching ramp, which means that their boat and a lot of other members' boats can't easily be launched from it - the club are working on a solution, Sarah says, but it's all very frustrating.

flashback to October: the twins down at Nedlands Yacht Club

on the Swan River

Sarah says they've had 16 cases of COVID in Western Australia detected recently - a backpacker from Queensland slipped into the state just before the "hard border" was announced, and he managed to infect 15 other people. All of them have been rounded up and quarantined, however - they take a tough line in WA, that's for sure!

10:00 Later, Francis puts this charming picture of himself with the twins on social media.

Our other daughter, Alison, is staying down on the coast at Hill Head, for a couple of days, with their friends the Andersens. She put some charming beach pictures of the children up on social media.  

our daughter Alison, with Ed and their 3 children, travelled down

to the coast yesterday to spend a couple of days with their friends the Andersens

Josie, with (in the background) Isaac (11) and the

two Andersen boys Thomas and Olly

Josie (15)

Josie with Isaac

Rosalind (13)

11:00 Sadly, out of the blue, we get a very jarring phone-call, to put it mildly, from my old friend "Magyar" Mike, who's been learning Hungarian with me for nearly 29 years - my god! 

Mike and his wife, "Magyar" Mary, heard yesterday that their daughter Clare, who must be only in her 50's,  had just died. Apparently Clare had been suffering from breast cancer for about 10 years, but she had decided that she wanted to keep the illness a secret from her parents. As a result it was a huge shock to Mike and Mary when they got the news yesterday. 

Nobody wants to outlive their children, that's for sure. Mike and Mary had been told that Clare was seriously ill, and they travelled over to Hertfordshire a few days ago to spend some time with her. But they were completely unaware of the true cause of her illness.

Clare was Mike and Mary's only child. She leaves behind a husband, Charles, and two sons, Stephen and Adam. Mike has sent me a picture of the two grandsons, taken last Sunday afternoon, I'm guessing this was during Mike and Mary's flying visit.

Clare's sons, Adam (left) and Stephen

Mike's call and sad news takes Lois and me by surprise, to put it mildly. We try to think of some words of comfort, but it isn't easy, especially when taken unawares, on the spur of the moment. We say that at least Clare died knowing our two sons were both firmly established in their careers, both professionals: Stephen a lawyer and Adam a veterinarian, even though Clare hadn't been able to see either of them marry, which is sad.

flashback to 2014: (left to right) "Magyar" Mike, grandson Stephen now

a lawyer, and Mike's wife "Magyar" Mary, in the Czech Republic

11:30 A "happy new year" text from my sister Gill, who lives in Cambridge with her handicapped husband Peter and their handicapped daughter Lucy. Gill, who's suffering currently from a frozen shoulder, says that their newly-installed live-in carer proved to be a disappointment. However a replacement carer is expected from Tuesday, so fingers crossed!

12:00 We drive over to our friends Mari-Ann and Alf's house with a belated Christmas present, a calendar of pictures painted by Lois's second cousin, artist Peter Barker.

flashback to 2016: Lois with her second cousin, artist Peter Barker,

during our visit to his gallery near Uppingham

13:00 Recently Lois and I travelled 100 miles down to Hampshire to spend a few days over Christmas with our daughter Alison, her husband Ed and their 3 children, also with Ed's parents.

flashback to Christmas Day 2021 - we eat Christmas dinner

with Ali and Ed, their 3 children, and Ed's parents

Right up to the last moment we didn't know whether the Government would impose new curbs on socialising in England, and so we weren't 100% sure that this visit to Ali and Ed's would go ahead. As insurance we ordered a Christmas dinner for two from Cook Shop, and we stuffed it all into the freezer.

Now it's time to cash in on our prudence, get the good stuff out of the freezer and make use of it! And what can I say except "yum yum!" ?

for this meal, timing is of the essence...

the starter, brie and cranberry soufflé....

...and the turkey-based main course, with mince pies to follow as dessert

Who's to say we can't have two Christmas dinners this year haha!

We actually ordered this Cookshop dinner-for-two ready-meal way back in October. How's that for foresight haha (again) !!!!

Hurrah!

20:00 We watch some TV, the third in a special Christmas series of one of our favourite TV quizzes, Only Connect, which tests lateral thinking.

Presenter Victoria Coren-Mitchell introduces a special "cold weather"

edition of one of our favourite TV quizzes, Only Connect

Lois and I have definitely been getting the feeling, this week, that our brains aren't as quick and smart as they used to be. On the other hand, the teams taking part in this special Christmas series are probably some of the better teams that have taken part in the show over the years, so maybe that explains our failure to get many answers that the teams don't get - oh dear!

Tonight we have to wait till near the end of the show to get an answer the teams miss, in the second of the "connecting walls".

This is the solution:

The top row elements (dark blue) are things named after famous battles. The second row elements (green) are all the names of young animals with a different first letter (joey, kitten, puppy, calf). The third row elements are items of clothing to keep you warm in cold weather.

The fourth row (light blue) is the connection that Lois and I have identified, but which the team can't work out: in fact they're all words that can be followed by "box": "voice box", "glove box", "hat box" and "boom box". 

See? Simples!!!

22:00 We go to bed, trying desperately to persuade ourselves that "we've still got it". 

Oh dear !!!!!!!

Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!