OLD DIARY 1

ROGER & FRANS PAGES

OLD DIARY ENTRY
WEEK ENDING 20th APRIL 2008

MY WEEK

The weather has been marginally improving this week, we managed a bit of gardening and I even had a go at mowing the lawn when I got home early on Tuesday. I visited Northampton and Cambridge several times this week - on Wednesday I visited both on the same day ! I also managed a half days holiday to take my Mum shopping. She has been out a couple of times since she broke her arm several months ago, but on Thursday we drove all the way to the Galleria at Hatfield. Not because it is a superlative shopping experience (it isn't); but because they have free rental electric buggies for elderly/disabled people. After causing havoc by running over peoples toes and trying to drive around a toy shop which clearly wasn't designed for wheelchairs, we returned home through the countryside of Wheathampstead , St Paul's Walden, Preston and Hitchin - the area Mum grew up in during the nineteen thirties and forties. It was nice to hear her reminisce.

Frans back has been quite bad this week, so I spent most of the first half of the weekend house cleaning and being totally domestic in preparation for Sunday, when we expected guests. She is scheduled for another cortisone injection next week so hopefully it will be much better soon.

Fran, Chrissy and Stephanie

Fran, Steph, Chrissy, Keith, George, Roger

Way back in the early sixties when we were both still at school, Stephanie and I were friends. When she left school she went on to the local Letchworth College and fell in with two other girls - Chrissy and Fran. I think they were probably all three of them a bit weird, which is why they ended up as such good friends. Chrissy went on to marry Keith Jenkins and Fran went on to marry me - but in those heady days of 1967/1968, before anyone got committed to anyone else, they were all wayward girls together and they all have birthdays in April. So Sunday was a sort of birthday reunion thing when the girls brought their fella's to our house and we had a long long long lunch and did a lot of reminiscing. In fact it lasted nearly seven hours !
The food was great (the girls were all at catering college together, so anything less than perfect would have attracted comment, criticism and possibly bloodshed.) and the wine was excellent - we managed to polish off two bottles of Cava, three bottles of excellent 1998 Gran Reserva Rioja, and a bottle of Chardonnay just for fun.
Keith and I had known each other since the sixties and although George was new to the clan he fitted in really well. All too soon the afternoon and early evening were over and our guests had to return to their various corners of the Country. Not a very adventurous weekend for a change, but really relaxing and with excellent company.

THE WORLD'S WEEK

Drug Raid Bolton, England - Police smashed their way through the front window of a suburban house at dawn in a drugs raid. Sadly it was the wrong house - the middle aged lady who lived there quickly confessed to aspirin and Prozac, but not the crack cocaine and marijuana which our boys in blue had expected. Meanwhile, a few doors down the street a lot of very urgent clearing up was going on while the police realised their mistake.

Vive La France Oh Merde! Les cochons Anglais détruisez notre langue ! It's that Eurovision time again, and this year the French entry by Sebastien Tellier has got our cross-channel cousins hot under their collars because it is being performed in a foreign language ! The song, Divine, is to be sung in English - primarily because the French have at last noticed that every winning song is in that language (even though the English aren't allowed to win whatever language they sing in). However the French people are disgusted. They cannot conceive that any French person would let the side down by not speaking the mother tongue! The truth is that the French are very precious about their language because up until about 150 years ago they didn't have one! Post revolution in the nineteenth century there were hundreds of different languages across the vast area now known as France. A lot of effort went into amalgamating and creating a state with a single language - and even to make it the "diplomatic language of the World" for a brief time. It was a trauma for the people and they don't like to be reminded that they wasted their time by choosing the wrong one - had they chosen English they could have had that elusive Eurovision trophy years ago ! .

National Chiropractor Week Every dog has its day, but apparently Chiropractors get a whole week ! Sadly you've missed it because apparently it was last week. I trust that my friend Steve (who has recently qualified in this particular sect of witch-doctory) knows all about it and can give a good account at the next Pay Day Curry gathering. Perhaps more surprisingly, I also learned that herbs and plants get their own weeks. Last week was allegedly National Ragwort Week. Oh Joy, I wonder when Deadly Nightshade week is ? .

Roger 20/04/08