Halleluiah! It’s the best weekend of the year (at least in the UK – I think our American friends and family have to wait until next week). Daylight Savings has come to an end – we’ve had that glorious extra hour of sleep this morning. Halleluiah indeed!
I ran across an article in the Guardian yesterday explaining the origins of Day Light Savings Time. News to me.
It’s been a tolerably tolerable week, I guess. The weather’s not been great (i.e., we’ve had a fair bit of rain and it’s been blowy and overcast) but we’ve managed to keep smiling (mainly). Having said that, Friday was a lovely day with bright blue skies (mainly) with some sunshine.
As I wrote last time, Nick and I went to Wembley last Sunday to catch an American football game between my hometown Rams and the Jacksonville Jaguars prefaced by an excellent lunch at Masalchi by Atul Kochhar just outside the stadium. Although we were seated in the nosebleed section, we were at least near the 50-yard line so were able to get a decent overview of the action.
As we meandered around before the match it became obvious that we were well under-dressed for the occasion.
The game itself was not the most competitive I’ve ever seen. The Rams trotted out 35 – 7 winners and for most of the game the Jaguars couldn’t get anything going. They looked jet-lagged and lethargic and were pretty much ineffective. Still, it was a fun day out.
We had a delivery of heating oil on Monday. You can see how sad our lives are that we can get excited about an oil delivery! Normally, when we order oil, I make a note asking them to phone me the day before they’re going to deliver just to ensure that someone will be at home. When they phone, they tell us that delivery will take place tomorrow. When I ask if it’s likely to be in the morning or in the afternoon they say “Yes, either in the morning or afternoon.” Exceedingly helpful.
Clearly, they’ve upped their game since our last order – this time I got a text which said, “Your order BF1339 placed with Bedford Fuels Ltd on 06/10/2025 has an estimated delivery time of 11:38 am on 20/10/2025.” I was somewhat bemused by the very precise ETA. The fact that they arrived at about 1.30 pm is beside the point.
Wednesday evening Lady Penelope and I went off to the theatre in Stratford to see the RSC’s latest production of Measure for Measure. It was excellent. Difficult to find any fault with it. If you’re not up to speed with the plot, have a quick read of a synopsis.
The play is all about misogyny and hypocrisy and the double-standards that some powerful men use to dominate and abuse women. The performance starts with a film montage of current public figures who have at one time or another been “alleged” to have abused women – Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein, Prince Andrew and, of course, our all-time favourite Donald Trump, all appear on a large screen alongside their denials and the audio or visual “proof” of their offences. “Grab them by the p****!”
It revolves around an ancient law forbidding sex before marriage which has recently been re-instated by Angelo (deputising for the “absent” Duke). Claudio gets his fiancé pregnant and is arrested and sentenced to death. His sister, Isabella, is persuaded to plead for her brother’s life and Angelo offers to spare Claudio’s life if she will sleep with him. However, she is about to become a nun and so refuses in order to protect her chastity. Eventually, the Duke returns, arranges some subterfuge, Claudio is saved and astonishingly, the Duke has fallen in love with Isabella! What are the chances of that? He proposes marriage to her but the play ends without any confirmation that she will or won’t marry him. In this production she runs up a set of stairs at the back of the stage and throws herself off into oblivion, rather like Thelma and Louise driving off the edge of the canyon.
Absolutely excellent!
We’ve had some lovely photos from Ava of Juju’s days in nursery school. She seems to be enjoying herself and it undoubtedly will help her with her Chinese. One interesting thing I noticed, in a couple of the photos you can see the worksheet they are using – in English. These kids, in a Chinese nursery, are learning English from the age of three.
And finally, I ran across the Comedy Wildlife Awards in the Guardian this week. Enjoy.
And, I think that’s about it for this week. Penny is very excited about the upcoming Garden Club Witches Coven at the end of the week. Let’s hope the weather is dry.
And finally, finally – what is the correct etiquette when your hairdresser or barber makes a complete shambles of your haircut and leaves you with a bald patch on your skull which tends to suggest recent brain surgery? Asking for a friend.
And finally, finally, finally it is six years ago today that my mother died. I miss her every day and try to remember to say “Good morning” to her each morning. Mostly I remember so I hope she’ll forgive me on those days I forget.
In these curious times, I am reminded of a conversation she and I had in the spring of 2016. The primaries for the presidential election were in full swing and I “jokingly” asked her if Trump was her man. She looked at me as if I had lost my mind. “No,” she said quietly and simply. “He’s crazy!”
My mother was a solid Republican the whole of her adult life. She was unabashedly conservative (slightly to the right of Genghis Kahn, I used to joke), on first name terms with George W and always voted the straight Republican ticket. Yet, even then she recognised that Trump was an idiot, a liar and a racist misogynist, a narcissist with an outsized ego whose only interest was his own self-aggrandisement. She later confided to my sister that, for the first time since she was old enough to vote, she had not cast a vote in the Presidential election. She couldn’t bring herself to vote for Hillary – that was clearly a step too far. But she couldn’t bring herself to vote for Trump even though he was the Republican nominee. And, as with so many things, she was absolutely right.
Meanwhile, keep breathing, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees – we need all the pollinators we can get.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg