Well, what a week it’s been. We had a great time last weekend with our friends on the south coast, we enjoyed a Circus on a Stage with Annabelle and Jessie, the Moreton Pinkney Big Breakfast ensured that I would not go hungry and, undoubtedly most importantly, the UK electorate finally turfed out the Tories after fourteen years of wanton destruction, from Brexit to the NHS to education to foul-smelling, shit-infused rivers and beaches to the highest level of taxation in seventy years and the poorest level of public services I’ve ever seen. You could not make up just how bad they were. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
We had an absolutely splendid, if somewhat exhausting, time last weekend. The rest of the week’s been pretty busy too! We were down on the south coast with friends and, as well as the usual ample eating and drinking opportunities, we had a couple of excellent outings.
The drive down on the Friday lunchtime was, sadly, a miserable journey. Almost as soon as we got on the M40 at Banbury we started seeing signs that the motorway was closed between junctions 4 and 5, i.e., around High Wycombe. The satnav directed us off the motorway at the Wheatley/Thame exit and we then weaved our way through the beautiful Chiltern Hills for an hour or so, eventually rejoining the motorway just below the closure. It turns out there had been a serious accident on the northbound carriageway but both directions were closed to allow the Air Ambulance to land and get the injured to hospital.
One “amusing” little diversion as we wandered through the Chilterns was an opportunity to drive through a charming little village with the delightful name of Bryant’s Bottom. Not sure the hour’s detour was worth it just for the excitement of going into and then out of Bryant’s Bottom but it kept me amused for a few moments. Who the heck was Bryant and what is it about his/her bottom which warrants having a whole village named after it?
On Saturday we made our way along the coast to Chichester, a lovely little seaside town which Penny and I had previously never visited. First stop was the Pallant Gallery which had an exhibition of Still Life paintings from the late 19th century to the present. The exhibition was entitled, The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain and had a very interesting mix of paintings. When I think of still life the picture I have in my mind is usually some sort of variation on the bowl of fruit on a table. There were a number in that vein but there were also some eclectic examples which were very interesting. It’s on until October so, if you find yourself in Chichester with a couple of hours to spare . . .
From there we meandered along to the Chichester Minerva Theatre for the afternoon’s performance of Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker. It was excellent. Penny had studied the play at college but I had never read nor seen it so it was new to me. The Minerva is a smallish theatre so it was a very intimate setting for a very powerful play. And, the performances were excellent. Absolutely marvellous.
Back to Sue and Stuart’s to freshen ourselves up, just in time to stroll up to the village High Street for dinner at Morley’s which was excellent. How lucky to have a number of exceedingly nice restaurants in one’s village. I wonder what it would be like to have even one.
On Sunday morning we awoke soon after the crack of dawn, grabbed a quick coffee, gave everyone a “good-bye” hug and set off up the motorway for home. We had an important date with two lovely young women.
The drive home was blissful in comparison to the journey down. The answer, if you are forced to use the M25 (London Orbital), is to drive on a Sunday morning between 8.00 and 10.00.
We had to rush home because we had arranged months ago to take Annabelle and Jessie to a show at the Derngate Theatre in Northampton, sort of a circus on a stage. We arrived home to a boisterous welcome by one very excited golden retriever followed, in a somewhat more restrained fashion, by Adam and Ava, Ava’s folks and Jessie and Julieta who had kindly been staying in our place and looking after Daisy while we were away. Nick brought Annabelle over and there was just time for a quick chat and coffee before we were off again – to Cirque, a circus musical performed by a group of singers and dancers, alongside the more traditional circus acts of fire-juggling, crossbow shooting, trapeze-type routines, etc. The “clown” interludes were played out by a very good mime who dragged two members of the audience up on to the stage for a couple of very funny sketches. Good entertainment and Jessie was standing on her seat, waving her arms, while she sang along during the finale.
We’ve had a couple of young men in the house all week – they are in the process of replacing all our sash windows at the front of the house with double-glazed equivalents. The old windows were fairly rotten in places and, of course, only single-glazed so not very energy nor noise efficient. They’re doing a marvellous job so far and expect to be finished by the end of this week. Hopefully, this might be the last “major” job we need to do.
And so, to the election result on Friday which was simply marvellous.
Apart from the number of “rats” who had already announced that they were abandoning the sinking ship that is the Tory party, there were some splendid moments as some of the “big beasts” of the party lost their seats. The two most satisfying for me were Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of the principal architects of Brexit, losing his seat followed closely by she who still holds the title for the shortest-serving Prime Minister in history, Liz Truss. Outlasted by a lettuce, you will remember. So, she now holds the record for the shortest-serving Prime Minister but also the first former Prime Minister to lose their seat at the subsequent election in 200 years. What achievements! I wish they could have found a candidate whose surname was “Lettuce” but I guess that was too much to hope for.
Sadly, although the malevolent Tory who previously represented our constituency jumped ship a week or so before the election, we are still represented by a Tory. A monkey with a blue rosette. So pleased, though, that so many of our friends and relations are now represented by either a Labour or Liberal Democrat MP. There’s a huge shit-hole to dig the country out of but perhaps we can stop the rot, at least.
I attended the inaugural Moreton Pinkney Big Breakfast yesterday which was excellent – I am always willing to do my part for just about anything which involves eating.
As most of you know, I am quite a follower of baseball. I was reading the LA Times “On This Day in Sports” on Monday and ran across the following:
1859 — Amherst defeats Williams 73-32 in the first intercollegiate baseball game. The game is played by Massachusetts Rules, a wide-open form of the sport commonly known as roundball and Amherst wins by reaching the pre-established score of 65 runs. Amherst exceeds the 65-run limit during a 10-run 26th inning.
Los Angeles Times, On This Day in Sports, 1 July
26 innings to reach a score of 65 runs? At their current rate of run production (over the last 20 games or so) it would take the Dodgers 12 games to score 65 runs which, at the present average time per game, would take about 31 1/2 hours. Hmm, not sure I’d fancy sitting in Dodger Stadium for more than 30 hours – I’ll need to bring a sleeping bag.
Ran across this the other day which seemed quite familiar. How do they keep getting these images of Penny and me?
And finally, a few recent photos of the flowering flowers in Ms Penelope’s Garden. It is stunning, if only the sun would shine.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg