A very busy, almost hectic, week! Weather’s been good, especially at the end of the week when we’ve had lovely blue skies, sunshine and moderately decent temperatures. There is one individual in our household who does occasionally “complain” about how hot it is. And, just to be clear, that’s neither Daisy nor me.
On Sunday we celebrated Penny’s most recent birthday and it was a day full of treats and adventures and an unexpected surprise. Nick, Lucy and Annabelle had organised an outing so they collected us and whisked us off to Woodstock for a very pleasant lunch at Brotherton’s Bistro. Lunch came with an unexpected bonus – if Nick & Lucy had organised this, we would have been very impressed but it was one of those fortuitous events. As we sat waiting for our meals to arrive, a woman popped her head through the open door, glanced around and announced (to her friend) that this wasn’t the place she was looking for. Penny had seen this and, as the woman disappeared to find her intended destination, shouted, “Sue!” For it was our very dear friend, Sue Heap whom we haven’t seen for years. She is an illustrator and author of children’s books and a dear, dear friend. She was with a friend and they were looking for the coffee shop next door. After hugs and mutual exclamations of how serendipitous an encounter this was, we all made vows to get together (in a more formal and structured way) soon!
After lunch we made our way into the grounds of Blenheim Palace and rolled up for the afternoon performance of Gifford’s Circus which was excellent – just a one-ring circus but lots of fun. Thankfully, they no longer use animals in their acts apart from four little ponies who cantered into the ring and performed a series of choreographed trotting movements around the ring. (Even that gave me some pause as they were compelled to perform, of course, for our enjoyment but, compared to way things used to be, this was trivial). The rest of the acts were a lot of fun – a trapeze artist, a couple of young women who contorted themselves through various rings while suspended fifty feet above the arena, tumblers from Abyssinia and, of course, a clown. All in all, a splendid day out. Indeed, we’ve made arrangements to take Jessie when it returns to our area at the beginning of next month.
Monday, we made our way over to Adam and Ava’s to join Jessie’s birthday celebrations (she and Penny, of course, share the same birthday). She had four friends over and there was, as you can imagine, lots of shrieking and running about. Adam and Ava have four Chinese students staying with them for the half term holiday and they were great about joining in. Penny had retrieved a play parachute out of the deep storage as well as making a birthday cake. A grand day out and a very happy seven-year-old.
Tuesday evening, we took ourselves off to the Warwick Arts Centre (again) to see Good, a National Theatre Live screening at the cinema. It stars David Tennant as a “good” man in 1930s Germany.
Tennant plays John Halder, a university professor who decides, in spite of having a Jewish best friend and colleague, to join the Party in order to ensure his continued success. As the play progresses, you watch his descent as he becomes less and less “good” by default – by not voicing his opposition and/or taking a stand against the Nazis, he becomes complicit in their actions. Very powerful and David Tenant was excellent, as were the rest of the cast.
Wednesday, we visited a very dear friend – I’ve mentioned Indrani before – she was Penny’s first head of department in Penny’s teaching career and remains a very dear friend all these years later. We took her out to lunch at the Olive Tree in Bedford which was recommended to us by her daughter and which was very good indeed. A Turkish restaurant with friendly staff and excellent food with magnificently generous portions – just my sort of place.
Thursday we were off again! This time to Lower Slaughter in the Cotswolds to an art exhibition. Lower (and Upper) Slaughter are wonderfully beautiful Cotswold villages, probably the sort of place most people imagine when they think of a lovely, picturesque English village. As well as being a splendid place to visit, the art exhibition featured some work by a very good friend of ours, someone whom we haven’t seen in probably ten years or so. So, as well as enjoying a quick romp around the exhibition, we adjourned for lunch to the Slaughters Country Inn were Gwyneth (the artist), her husband Giles and his brother Phil joined us. Phil and Giles grew up in Radway and have known Penny nearly her whole life. We don’t get together as often as we should and, of course, have now vowed to be better at doing so.
After lunch we walked Daisy along the river between the two villages, a lovely stroll which Daisy thoroughly enjoyed, especially as she had been abandoned so many times and left to her own devices during the week.
Nick, Lucy and Annabelle borrowed the campervan over the weekend for an expedition to Dorset on the south coast. The weather has been glorious and, from the photos, it seems like they’ve had a good time.
This coming week is the 50th anniversary of my graduation from Yale. I won’t be attending. It doesn’t seem possible that it is all those years ago but there you are. I have to confess; I have relatively few happy memories of my time at Yale – mostly it was something to get through. Challenging, to be sure but, on the whole, I never really felt “at home” there. Like so many things, however, if I had the time again, I would aim to take better advantage of all the opportunities it offered.
YCNMIU
There has been quite a fuss this week about the upcoming Covid enquiry. This was set up (exceedingly reluctantly) by Boris when he was still PM and it was carefully structured in such a way that its report would not be concluded until after the next election – we wouldn’t want the voting public to be aware of how utterly useless and incompetent the government was in keeping people safe. So, you can imagine the government’s discomfiture when the chair has demanded access to the former PM’s What’s App messages as well as his diaries and notes taken by civil servants during meetings. Leaving aside the tainted logic of using unofficial means of communication (i.e., What’s App) instead of their official email accounts, the current Prime Minister and his advisers have belatedly realised that these messages, diaries and notebooks, if made available in full, would illustrate what an absolute shitshow had been going on. (And, remember, Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer during this whole fiasco and has been roundly criticised for (a) refusing to fund payments for those forced to isolate during the pandemic meaning that those who could not afford to miss up to two weeks’ of work would continue to go to work and infect more people and (b) coming up with the Eat Out to Help Out shambles which encouraged folks to eat out and mix with one another thus causing a spike in the number of Covid cases).
So, the government is now saying that the inquiry can only see redacted messages so that the government can eliminate “irrelevant” material. The inquiry, meanwhile, continues to demand the unredacted messages and the Chair of the enquiry will determine what is relevant. In an unprecedented move, the government has now sought a judicial review to determine whether the enquiry can demand access to all the evidence. So, you really could not make this up – the government establishes an enquiry and then goes to court to stop the enquiry having access to the evidence. Led by donkeys has never been so apt.
The splendid weather has brought on the garden – some photos of the least bad parts.
And finally, Jessie produced the following portrait of Ms Playchute as a birthday present. Honestly, Penny says it’s like looking in a mirror.
And finally, finally Happy Birthday to our wonderful daughter-in-law Ava (yesterday). Many happy returns.
We’re away (again) this coming weekend so you may be lucky and avoid all contamination with the Moreton Pinkney Picayune. You’re welcome.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg