Saturday 19 July 2003

I was going to do my ironing today, as my clothes have finally run the tortuous gauntlet that is our house's laundry system. It was in no way aided by the mechanical failing of our new washing machine, nor by the mechanical failings of our iron, which starting billowing smoke and dripping some brown, nasty liquid when I turned it on. Another day perhaps. I practised songs for church instead. Mum had selected two songs with a diminished chord in. I bet they were both Kendrick. I read some more of Isaiah and of Emma too.

We had an invite to tea today, and I think I would not be off the mark if I said that it was from Nigel and Jenny, and that their children are Jesse and Aimee. It was a bit unorganised; Nigel was nipping upstairs at various intervals to do plastering, but it was all good. A very friendly bunch. Their children are a handful though. We discussed various sibling rivalries, such as Dad, eye-for-an-eye stylee, hitting his sister with a baking tray, one of Jenny's brothers chasing t'other with a javelin in his underwear, and Jenny throwing scissors at on of them. They missed, but hung in the wall c.f. Robin Hood: Princo of Thieves. Jenny is South African, and they've lived over there for a bit. Medical differences in South Africa: They apparently deworm their children every six months as a matter of course, yet they apparently do not experience any trouble with nits. We had South African food and South African beer, and it was all very good.

Now I'm going to watch what's left of the Shakespeare documentary, and watch Macbeth, starring Gandalf and Queen Victoria on BBC Four.