It’s been a (reasonably) good week. Thankfully, the sweltering heat of last week has dissipated but we are still in need some (more) rain. There have been deluges in other parts of the country and even some steady more moderate rain in some parts but we’ve seen almost nothing. We’ve had a few light, brief overnight sprinkles and it gently rained for an hour or so on Thursday afternoon but still not enough to penetrate the rock-hard ground. Quelle merde!
Last Friday would have been my father’s 99th birthday. He left us a few years ago but we think of him and miss him every day. Happy Birthday Dad.
The notion that this would have been his 100th year on this planet got me thinking about the “oldest” person I’ve ever known, i.e., people I have met and can remember clearly. My father’s father was born in 1886 (allegedly – there is considerable mystery about much of his background, including where and when he was born). He was the oldest of my grandparents, all of whom were still living when I was a boy and I can remember all of them very well.
Only one of my great-grandparents was still living when I was young, my mother’s maternal grandmother, Sallie Wilson. She was born in 1874 and I remember her and her second husband Joe Cooney with great affection. We used to gather often at her home in San Marino for family occasions – I was fifteen when she died. However, her sister Betty was older still, born in 1869. We visited her a few times for family gatherings and again, I remember her reasonably well. (I’m sure I wasn’t aware that she was my great-grandmother’s sister and I probably didn’t give a second thought about visiting this “old woman’s” home. I just remember having fun playing with my cousins. I also have to confess I can’t remember whether it was her or my great-grandmother who I was reluctant to kiss – there were several long, dark hairs growing out of her chin, whichever one it was. Perhaps they both shared that particular feature, so off-putting to a five-year-old). I guess she is the “oldest” person I can remember. Intriguing (to me, at least) that I can remember someone born 153 years ago! Penny wins the prize in our household, however – she remembers visiting her great grandfather Joseph Keen (her mother’s maternal grandfather) from time to time as a youngster; he was born in 1867!
We had a lovely day out on Sunday – we visited Little Compton Manor Gardens which was open as part of the National Garden Scheme for charity. The Manor House itself dates from the 11th century and is very impressive, although it was not open. The gardens were laid out largely in the 1930s and are lovely. The fallow deer park indeed has fallow deer and there is a rock garden, a wildflower meadow, a Japanese garden, several lovely “rooms” each with their own predominant colour, an orchard and, of course, a tennis court, an outdoor swimming pool and a gigantic croquet lawn. The weather was pleasant enough, albeit a bit warm and “sticky” and we spent a happy hour and a half or so wandering about. Daisy had to be on the lead the whole time, of course, but she was exceptionally well behaved, much to our delight and astonishment. She was desperate to meet and greet all the other canines present, naturally, but as she was restrained there was no bounding and jumping, just a gentle “hello” and mutual inspectorial sniff.
After a coffee and cake, we set off for a walk around some of the surrounding countryside which was lovely. Little Compton is in the Cotswolds so there were hills with outstanding views to climb where Daisy could roam free and let off a bit of steam.
We had the pleasure of entertaining Jessie for a couple of nights this week. Adam and Ava had to drive to Manchester for a visa appointment early on Tuesday and she, Jessie, needed delivering to a holiday activity in Northampton. They (Adam, Ava and the family) are planning to go to Majorca (I think – or perhaps it’s the Canary Islands – who knows? Somewhere warm and sunny) in the October half term and Ava needs to have a visa to allow her to travel to the EU. For once this isn’t a Brexit “benefit”; the Chinese have always needed a visa to travel in Europe but at least once there they can travel anywhere in the EU. Of course, they need a separate visa to visit the UK because the British don’t trust those smelly European foreigners to perform all the necessary checks on folks who want to visit the UK and spend money here. Even though they live considerably closer to London, the online booking system insisted that they needed to go to Manchester for Ava’s appointment so off to Manchester they went.
Adam dropped Jessie over on Monday evening and we decided, on the spur of the moment, to pop into Banbury to see the new Minions film – the Rise of Gru. This was on at The Light, the new multi-screen cinema and entertainment complex which has just opened in town. Hmm, with Cineworld considering filing for bankruptcy, the backers of this new entertainment complex in Banbury must be “delighted” with the outlook for the cinema industry. The work on this new complex started just before the pandemic but now, of course, cinema attendance has fallen like a stone. We made up three of the twelve people in the audience. I imagine the big blockbusters do better than this but the situation is looking pretty dire for the industry. And, now that we have a huge cost of living crisis, folks aren’t going to have much disposable income in any event.
The film was “OK” I guess although Jessie found it a bit loud and parts of it a bit scary. Still, she enjoyed it on the whole and the wheelbarrow-sized serving of popcorn she had was sufficient compensation on its own.
YCNMIU – I’ve written a couple of times over the past few weeks about the appalling state of our privatised water boards – CEOs and shareholders extracting billions while leaks in the network are rampant and raw sewage is regularly discharged into rivers and the sea. I ran across an article in the Guardian on Monday which suggests that the situation regarding sewage discharges may be even worse than we think it is.
The water companies monitor their dumping of sewage by using Event Duration Monitors (EDMs) which record the frequency and timespan of spills. Data from the Environment Agency, however, shows that 1,802 of the EDMs installed by the water companies provided information less than 90% of the time, possibly/probably missing some incidents. Even better, 1,717 storm overflows did not have a monitor installed at all! You could not make it up.
And, on Wednesday there was another article in the Guardian estimating that, at the current pace of repairs, it will take 2,000 years for the water companies to stop all the leaks and repair the Victorian infrastructure. Whilst they are distributing billions annually to shareholders and their executives, they are repairing and replacing about 0.05% of the pipe network each year. You really, really could not make it up.
And finally, why not a photo of a young Daisy enjoying a walk around the Edgcote estate?
And finally, finally, I ran across this somewhere and thought it was tolerably amusing. It’s very familiar so perhaps I’ve used it already?
For my wife’s birthday I bought her a map of the world and told her she could throw a dart at it and we would go wherever it landed. I am pleased to announce that in October we will be spending two weeks by the fuckin’ skirting board!
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