{"id":18067,"date":"2024-03-09T22:29:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T22:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=18067"},"modified":"2024-03-09T22:29:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T22:29:52","slug":"saturday-9th-march-2024-guess-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/?p=18067","title":{"rendered":"Saturday 9th March 2024 – GUESS WHO \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

… forgot to switch his alarm back on last night?<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that Bane of Britain was up to his usual tricks.<\/p>\n

But what was so surprising was that I awoke at 07:35. None of this stuff that we experienced last weekend. And I was wide awake too – to such an extent that I was actually up quite quickly. And that’s even more surprising.<\/p>\n

First thing that I did was to check the blood pressure. 16.7\/9.4. and don’t ask me what it was last night because I forgot to take it.<\/p>\n

But next time that I go to the hospital I’ll be taking my blood pressure machine with me. The figures at the hospital are nothing like the ones that I’ve been recording here. They are much more normal. So I wonder if there’s a fault in my machine or I’m not using it correctly.<\/p>\n

If we can compare readings when I go back, that might help. And so will a little practical instruction. It’s not actually very likely that things will be worse here than at the hospital – that is, in respect of anything that’s likely to adversely affect my blood pressure <\/p>\n

But fancy forgetting to record it last night. It was actually quite a relaxing late evening watching the football highlights from the games that took place. Nothing really exciting, except that TNS continued their monotonous, relentless march by stuffing second placed Connah’s Quay 5-1 – at the Quay’s home ground.<\/p>\n

As I have said before … "and on many occasions too" – ed<\/em> … I’d be really proud of TNS’s achievements in the domestic game in Wales if only they would transfer some of that form to the European games that they play. But regularly and consistently (or should I say “monotonously and relentlessly”?) they are knocked out in the first round.<\/p>\n

Wouldn’t it be nice if they could make it to the group stages of a European competition some time soon, and give us all something about which we can cheer? I mentioned the other day that depressing, dismal game in Sweden where we had to sit through 90 minutes of tactical ineptitude by a manager who is out of his depth at this level of competition.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I digress … "again" – ed<\/em> … <\/p>\n

In the kitchen I collected the medication together and shovelled it in, piles of it. And it’s going to be even worse on Monday after my cleaner has been to the chemist’s with the new prescription. As if I don’t already have enough stuff in here.<\/p>\n

But I’m glad that it’s the cleaner who goes to the chemist’s these days. I’m too embarrassed after the last incident that we had.<\/p>\n

That time, I’d been to buy a pack of condoms. "What would you like?"<\/em><\/strong> she asked. "Ordinary? Or the new washable ones?"<\/em><\/strong>
\n"I’ll try the new washable ones"<\/em><\/strong> I said.
\nA week later, I went back to the chemists
\n"Can I have another pack of condoms, please?"<\/em><\/strong>
\n"What happened about the washable ones you had last week?"<\/em><\/strong> she asked
\n"Well, I’ve had this rather offensive letter from the laundry"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Having taken my medicine I went to make the bread for the weekend. And I forgot that it wasn’t Friday and that I wasn’t here, so I made three bread rolls as usual. So anyone who says that I don’t even have a clue what day it is is actually quite correct. <\/p>\n

John Bongiovi TELLS THE DAY BY THE BOTTLES THAT (HE) DRINKS<\/a> but I tell the days by the medication that I take, I reckon.<\/p>\n

The bread still isn’t rising as well as it ought to, even though I’ve now moved on to a new type of flour. However, it wasn’t the abject failure of a couple of weeks ago and I suppose that we can be thankful for that<\/p>\n

I tried baking it for slightly less time too, and that seemed to make a difference. But of course my oven is very much hit and miss so I can’t say with any certainty that it will be like that next week.<\/p>\n

But anyway, it made a really nice toasted cheese sandwich, which was the name of the game anyway.<\/p>\n

And that reminds me – me waxing lyrical about air fryers combined with a special offer on sale at LeClerc means that Rosemary has now joined the little air fryer community. As I have said before … "and on many occasions too" – ed<\/em> … I’d be lost without my air fryer.<\/p>\n

Next stop was to transcribe the dictaphone notes, not that there were all that many. There was a cute little girl at school who for some unknown reason seemed to attach herself to me, not that I minded particularly because I never did much at school except roam around. She caught me one day coming out of the school canteen. I asked her how she was. She wouldn’t say at first but in the end said that she’d failed her exam which I thought was something of a shame so I gave her a few encouraging words. Then she told me that she’d failed another one too so I didn’t think that things were going too well for her so I tried to boost her morale a little but I could see that she was rather sad. Then she asked, out of the blue, “do you want to be a GE?” which is the first level of work as a British diplomat in the Foreign Service. I asked why and it turned out that there was a meeting for schoolkids to hear a talk given by someone in the Foreign Service about careers with them. I thought to myself “I have to do something after I finish my exams, haven’t I?” so I said “yes, OK, I’ll come with you. I’ll be your invitee”. She said “you’re my second”. I asked “who’s the first?”, fearing the worst. And sure enough she mentioned the name of a student with whom I didn’t get on at all, who I thought was completely and utterly pretentious etc. She said “I’ve invited him”. I sighed and said “ohh well, OK” and said that I’d go with her to make her feel better. At least if she had two people coming with her it would do her some good in her exams which aren’t going too well anyway.<\/p>\n

There seem to have been a few cute young girls attaching themselves to me during the course of the last few nights. I’ve no idea what’s going on here. I wish it had really been like that when I was at school.<\/p>\n

And I wish that I knew who they were, so that I could see if it’s the same girl coming back, or a different girl each time. I’m intrigued to see how this serial ends, as I’m sure that you are. Doubtless though, one of my family will come along and shove le baton dans la rue<\/em> at a crucial moment.<\/p>\n

Like my brother, for example, who was “teacher’s pet” at school
\n… "Why? Did teacher like him?" – ed<\/em> …
\nNo – she kept him in a cage at the back of class.<\/p>\n

But really – could you imagine me in the Diplomatic Service? It wouldn’t have been a shoe that I’d banged on the table as Nikita Khrushchev is alleged to have done, it would have been the heads of a few of the delegates.<\/p>\n

It’s all very well these leaders pronouncing wars and all of that, but they aren’t the ones who have to fight them. It’s always the young and the poor. As the Communist Party once said about the First World War, “a bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each end”.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, if someone wants to start a war, there should be vote. And all those who vote in favour should be given a rifle and tin hat and sent to the Front to fight it while everyone else stays at home. <\/p>\n

Next on the agenda was the football. Y Bala v Caernarfon.<\/p>\n

Two teams challenging for fourth place but it didn’t look much like it. The gale-force wind had something to say about the standard of play, I suppose, but in all honesty it will be one those games that will be forgotten quite quickly.<\/p>\n

There was a good crowd there, as there always is when Caernarfon play, but I think that they were probably expecting more for their money than a tame, lacklustre 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n

The rest of the day, apart from 10 minutes when I was away with the fairies, was spent chopping up sound tracks. Only about 30 or 40 hours remain before I can start to attack the stuff that the Shrewsbury Folk Festival sent me at the start of the year. <\/p>\n

And I shudder to think of how much there is to do there. I’ve told you before … "and on many occasions too" – ed<\/em> … that i’m far too busy to die<\/p>\n

Tea was baked potato with salad and one of the breaded quorn fillets that I like. And my home-made mayonnaise from the other week is still keeping on going. The garlic in there hasn’t dissolved the bottle, despite how muc I put in it. I really should put somewhat less in there than I do.<\/p>\n

So having finished my notes, I’ll wait for it to go quite than do my dictating. Two programmes that need re-dictating and a third that I prepared last week. It’ll all be a right mess when I finish<\/p>\n

Tomorrow there’s an alarm call – 11:00, which might be late for some but it’s early for me on a Sunday. I always stay up quite late because it’s only when the streets are perfectly quiet that I can dictate the notes properly<\/p>\n

And then there’s pizza dough to make, and anything else that I can think of. I’ve not made any biscuits for ages, have I? Chocolate biscuits are always good but it’s been years since I’ve made any oat and honey ones. I might think about that.<\/p>\n

Right now though I’m going to relax for a little while and find something interesting to read, like that friend of mine who read all of these horrifying reports on the effects of smoking.
\n"They frightened me so much that I gave up"<\/em><\/strong> he said
\n"Gave up smoking?"<\/em><\/strong> I asked
\n"No"<\/em><\/strong> he replied. "Reading"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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… forgot to switch his alarm back on last night? It goes without saying that Bane of Britain was up to his usual tricks. But what was so surprising was that I awoke at 07:35. None of this stuff that we experienced last weekend. And I was wide awake too – to such an extent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,4507,1616,8571,7876],"tags":[1235,3350,15824,13133,8292,3325,1302,212,2560,5287,12264,5565,8581,13592,1217,15826,7891,3351,9354,15825,6322],"class_list":["post-18067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dream","category-eric-hall-2","category-france","category-granville","category-place-darmes","tag-baked-potatoes","tag-bala-town","tag-bon-jovi","tag-bouquet-granvillais","tag-caernarfon-town","tag-connahs-quay-nomads","tag-crash-out","tag-dream","tag-eric-hall","tag-football","tag-forgot-alarm","tag-france","tag-granville","tag-home-made-bread","tag-jd-cymru-premier-league","tag-nikita-hrushchev","tag-place-darmes","tag-tns","tag-vegan-salad","tag-wanted-dead-or-alive","tag-www-youtube-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18068,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067\/revisions\/18068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesguis.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}