For us, we do things differently. Over the years we have had rashes of engagements, weddings, christenings, children's weddings, births of grandchildren, and now we have reached the age of 70th birthday parties. Three in August! A good do at the Brick Wall at Sedlescombe, which was sufficiently close to home for us not to stay the night, and an equally good one at Rhinefield House in the depths of the New Forest. Fantastic location, but involved two overnights - one at the Haven Hotel at Sandbanks, which required another bank loan, and then at Rhinefield House, which was very pleasant. The third one was a tea party at a local vicarage, given by the daughter of a Rotary friend who is herself the vicar. Not so much debauchery on that occasion.
Met old Cayman friends at the Trout at Tadpole Bridge in Oxfordshire later in the month. Tony and Jenny Grey, Dick and Jan Richardson, and Alex and Jill Wood. We seemed to drink a lot of wine, but it was a hot day, so it was only rosé, and all the nicer for that. It has taken some time to work out how to include a "é" in this piece of text, by the way. The following day we made a mistake, and bought tickets for a live Acker Bilk concert. Past his sell-by date, I am afraid. The Humphrey Lyttelton band the following Saturday was much better. Humph died a while ago, but the band lives on, and has never been afraid to include new talent, and the performance was excellent.
If you want to see Shakespeare well done, get to a performance by the Lord Chamberlain's Men - a travelling group who do it very well indeed. Macbeth is currently on offer, usually for one or two nights only at each venue. The programme had an interesting comparison between the politics and methods of the ruler in 16th century Scotland, and those of modern Syria.
Healthwise all was quiet last month, although I collected the monthly supply of tablets to keep the cholesterol and blood pressure under control, and the doctor had unannounced included a kit for monitoring blood sugar levels. I am not sure that it was meant for me, but I have an uneasy feeling that it was....
Finally:
A magician worked on a cruise ship.
The audience was different each week so the magician did the same
tricks over and over again.
There was only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows
each week and began to understand how the Magician did every trick.
Once he understood, he started shouting in the middle of the show,
"Look, It's not the same hat!", or,
"Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!", or,
"Hey, why are all the cards the ace of spades?".
The magician was furious but couldn't do anything.
It was, after all, the Captain's' parrot.
Then one stormy night on the Pacific, the ship unfortunately sank,
drowning almost all who were on board.
The magician luckily found himself on a piece of wood floating in
the middle of the sea, as fate would have it ... with the parrot.
They stared at each other with hatred, but did not utter a word.
This went on for a day, then 2 days, and then 3 days.
Finally on the 4th day, the parrot could not hold back any longer
and said....
"OK, I give up. Where's the f***ing ship?".
Have a good one.
