28 February 2016

What a great week! Tolerably decent weather, an enjoyable outing to the old people’s matinee at the cinema and a horde of workmen descending on Framington House to move a couple of Penelope’s Projects along a bit.

The weather has turned cold but, in compensation, the skies for much of the week have been clear and bright and blue. The weather front dividing the country into two last weekend slowly slid southward during the week so that we too got to enjoy the Arctic blasts – Thursday morning even brought a little dusting of snow as if someone had sprinkled a bit of powdered sugar over the Green. And, because the sun was bright it even gave the appearance of being warm (which it wasn’t but you know how easily fooled some people are) – Penelope took the sunshine as an excuse to continue hacking and chopping the overgrowth outside.

Last Sunday we enjoyed a most magnificent day with Nick, Lucy and Annabelle. The weather was fresh but otherwise grand and the spring flowers are beginning to make their appearance well and truly known. After a splendid lunch we set off on a stroll around the village including down one muddy track that Bubble thought was fantastic, laden as it was with deep, muddy puddles, each of which required inspecting first hand. Only one or two were deeper than the top of her Wellington boots.

On Wednesday morning Ms Playchute and I took ourselves off to the Banbury fleapit to catch the “Silver Matinee” showing of Brooklyn, a film recommended by one of our friends which we had missed the first time round. Both Penelope and I felt it was a “sweet” film, not in any sickly way but just a gentle story of a young woman who emigrates from Ireland to the United States in the early 1950s. She has no prospects in a depressed Ireland and, with the help of her parish priest, secures sponsorship and a job in New York. As she gets settled she meets and falls in love with an Italian man and they secretly marry before she returns to Ireland briefly when her older sister dies. This time round there are new and exciting prospects for her in Ireland but she is now much more worldly-wise and ultimately returns to New York to re-join her husband and make her new life in the new world.

Saoirse Ronan plays the lead character, Eilis, with a gentle sweetness and does a terrific job and both Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters are excellent in supporting roles with moderately convincing Irish accents – isn’t it a wonder how often good actors can carry off decent accents other than their own?

Brooklyn is a sweet, gentle film about a young woman who discovers happiness, love and life in the New World.

I was somewhat surprised to find the Silver Matinee so popular although why I should imagine that I am the only one who has the sense to take advantage of these opportunities is beyond me. Fortunately, I had pre-booked our tickets so we didn’t have to wait in the queue but once we got inside the place was packed. Instead of our usual preferred seats at the back in the middle, we had to settle for seats at the side about half way towards the front. Still, it didn’t hinder our enjoyment in any way. With the cinema packed with old timers (and we were amongst the youngest present) we did notice a few snores as some of the audience found the comfortable seats and the darkness too conducive to a good morning nap. The lady in front of me was off within about thirty seconds of the lights going down.

On Thursday we had our own invasion, a gaggle of workmen arrived to carry out a couple of tasks. The first to arrive were the lads who were here to carry out an overhaul of our sash windows. The house has lovely sash windows at the front that we were very keen to restore to their former glory as well as making somewhat more energy efficient. Within an hour or so the upstairs windows had been removed (even the bits which had been painted shut over many years). All the loose paint was removed, a couple of small sections of rotting wood were excavated and new wood spliced in, draught excluder strips installed, the window frames and weights balanced and then everything put back together again. Not only do they look great and slide effortlessly up and down, but also we no longer have mini-jet streams howling through the gaps. They returned on Friday to attend to the two downstairs windows in the lounge and will be back on Monday to see to the one in the Snug.

The other task completed on Thursday was the final electrical work necessary in our bedroom so that we could arrange to have the new carpet laid following Penelope’s magnificent redecoration job. The tasks we needed doing required access to the wiring underneath the floorboards in our bedroom and we had been chasing our usual electrician for three weeks to try and get him to come back and complete the task. For whatever reason, he seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth and we received no response to our increasingly frantic e-mails and phone calls. Even a traditional letter delivered by snail mail elicited no response. So, our carpenter recommended an alternative, a splendid young man who came within a few days of our making contact and who did a magnificent job. We now have a porch light and a more sensible arrangement of light switches in the entrance hall. There’s a lot more to do but it looks like he’s got the rest of the business.

After a few false starts (the carpet Penelope had ordered hadn’t arrived by its due date) on Friday evening (7.00 pm!) the carpet layers arrived and within a matter of moments our bedroom was fully transformed. I spent much of Saturday re-erecting our bed and moving stuff out of the Guest Wing and back into our newly refurbished and redecorated master bedroom. There are still several thousand projects to complete but this feels like a significant step has been completed.

Now that the European Referendum campaign is well under way, we have thoroughly enjoyed the sight of the Conservatives tearing themselves apart. The loony right is all for getting out as quickly as possible to stop smelly foreigners from coming to live and work in Britain. (No suggestion, mind you, that all the Brits who have emigrated to France and Spain and other parts of Europe should be compelled to come back to the UK, you will be surprised to know). The comments you hear most regularly are that we need to stop the “flood” of migrants coming to the UK and that being in the European Union somehow makes us more vulnerable to Paris-style terrorist attacks. The economic and business case for leaving the EU surprisingly is not being made to any significant extent (by the “Outers” at least), probably because it’s much easier to blame everything on migrants.

The other interesting development has been the way in which the Conservatives who have ambitions to succeed Cameron have positioned themselves. Having for many months been seen to be leaning toward supporting the Remain campaign, a couple of leadership contenders, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, suddenly aligned themselves with the Out campaign. I guess they reckon that Out has the advantage at the moment and, if the UK does indeed vote to leave, Cameron will be toast. Gove and Johnson, having supported the Out campaign will then, naturally, be thrust (reluctantly, of course) into leadership campaigns to succeed him. If the country votes to Remain I guess they’ll be toast, but that would be no bad thing.

I had a nice note from our local MP who waited at least thirty seconds after Cameron published the details of his negotiations to inform us that “reluctantly’ she would be voting to leave – so much for giving the proposals a detailed and thoughtful analysis before making an informed decision.

I’ve run into so many other interesting titbits over the past week or so that I almost don’t know where to begin or which to include. Why don’t we start with the story of the $40,000 toilet that was built for the private and personal use of a Thai princess on a royal visit to Cambodia? Even better? It seems that during her visit, she never used it. It now is to be converted into an office space because, of course, no mere mortal could possibly be allowed to use a “Royal Commode”.

And, how about this time-lapse taken from the International Space Station as it passed over the UK. If you look carefully you can just about spot us outside our front door waving frantically.

And then there are the winning photographs from the World Press Photo competition for 2016:

And finally, it’s the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin and Google has put together a fascinating “tour” of the city, narrated by Colin Farrell, using old photographs and video overlaid on modern photographs. Enjoy.

Love to you all,

Greg