Yesterday started with a cup of tea in bed after the excitement of the previous day. Read a good chunk of Michael Palin's first volume of diaries - The Python Years. It made me want to re-visit some of the Python sketches.
I've always thought that John Cleese was the clever and the funny one, but watching The Spanish Inquisition sketch, the cheese sketch, the dead parrot sketch and many more I realised that the star was actually Palin. His timing is perfection and I loved watching the bit from the Life of Brian where Palin as an emperor who cannot say his Rs is talking about his friend Biggus Dickus whilst a load of centurions are trying not to snigger. Well it had me laughing out loud. It felt like the early 70s again.
Of course we always assume that whilst they were making Python they were all having a ball. Palin's diaries show that wasn't always the case. Being zany and ridiculous can be stressful and demanding. I am enjoying the diaries though as they cover a period that is very dear to me.
I don't think my own diaries are anywhere near as good - a load of waffle about my life. You know the kind of thing - Got up, had breakfast, did stuff, had lunch, had a senile snooze, did stuff, had tea, went to bed.
Actually my days are a little more stimulating than that. Yesterday for instance I did some gardening and went to the gym.
The gardening was tidying up a patch of ground opposite our house and as usual a number of songs went through my head. One usually morphs into another for no reason. Today Beg Steal or Borrow went into Georgie Girl (that was something working in my sub conscience as one song was by the New Seekers and the other by the Old Seekers - although they were just known as the Seekers). Those morphed into a few Eurovision songs including "Ding Ding Dong" which is probably because of the Eurovision link with Beg, Steal and Borrow. Then when I started on the gardening it was a Tom Waits song "In the Neighbourhood" which always seems apt to life in a village like Hethersett (in non lockdown times of course).
ell the eggs chase the bacon
Round the fryin' pan
And the whinin' dog pidgeons
By the steeple bell rope
And the dogs tipped the garbage pails
Over last night
And there's always construction work
Bothering you
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
In the neighborhood
Any of that ring a bell?
When it comes to gardening I'm a bit of a strange cove. I hate it when the brown gardening bin is anything other than full to the brim when it's collected every other Friday.
I also love hearing the bin lorry trundling down our road at 6.30 am when I'm still wrapped up warm in bed. It's the thought of me still asleep whilst those poor souls are working hard. I used to get the same feeling as a child when the milkman was delivering. Remember when the electric carts brought milk and other things to the doorstep? I particularly liked the orange squash which came in milk bottles.
Getting back to the bin lorries, I have a framed cartoon of two elderly people lying in bed. The man obviously can't sleep and the women says something along the lines of "I know you're excited but try to get some sleep, the sooner you get some sleep the sooner the bin men will come."
I also have a cartoon of a wife returning home to find her husband slumped in a chair and chaos all around:
"What's happened. Have we been burgled?" she asks.
"No," he replies "The grandchildren came round."
I find it very cathartic when the brown garden bin is emptied and we have a whole empty bin to fill up again.
* * *
Appearing in front of the TV cameras or on the radio can be very problematic - I know that well from many years doing it for the police. Sometimes the words won't come and sometimes you can say the stupidest things. Talking of which, how about these two.
Reporting on the Europa League Football Final between Manchester United and Villarreal, Paul Scholes gazed into his crystal ball and predicted the outcome of the game:
"Either side can win," he said.
Government minister Robert Jenrick came up with this one: "They can run for years or several years." No idea what he was talking about. I just mentally turn off as soon as I see a politician being interviewed.
* * *
Wrote a nice feature today for the local press on a charity for people aged 16 to 25 who have suffered bereavement. Take Our Hand looks at alternative ways of support other than counselling. I will be very pleased if my humble feature helps them in some small way.
* * *
My mate Keith Skipper (he of the all things Norfolk) puts some good Norfolk jokes on his Facebook page. Yesterday he came up with a challenge. This is what he wrote:
Here's a bit of fun to keep your mind meandering over the weekend. We all have favourite wireless programmes tucked away in the memory. Select a few - and give 'em a coat of Norfolk paint.
Perhaps you can come up with one to match where you live .. like Brooke at Bedtime.
Here are a few of my choices to get you going ..
* Round the Horning.
* Down Your Weybourne
* Mrs Bale's Diary
* Much Binding in the Marsham.
* Dick Barton Turf
My favourite of those submitted to date is Desert Island Diss.