This morning, I got up a little on the late side and was soon entertained by both my son who had popped around after his early morning swim and also by my domestic help who I had not seen for a couple of weeks now as she was not with us last week. We had a lot of entertaining conversations and I showed our domestic help, with a degree of pride, the pair of shorts that I had bought in Droitwich yesterday with a waist size that was absolutely right for me but may have been a trifle on the long side. After I had put these shorts on for the benefit of my domestic help, she burst out laughing and said that this was the funniest sight she had seem since the comedy program ‘It ain’t half hot, Mum’. Our domestic help indicated that my appearance reminded her of Don Estelle who was a British actor and singer best known for playing the diminutive Gunner, Lofty Sugden in the classic BBC sitcom. Alongside his booming tenor voice, he is fondly remembered for the 1975 novelty UK number-one hit ‘Whispering Grass,’ recorded in character with co-star Windsor Davies. Estelle served in the Royal Air Force before building a successful career in variety theatre and television. His portrayal of the pint-sized, oversized pith helmet-wearing Gunner Sugden made him a household name during the show’s run from 1974 to 1981. For those who cannot remember the character played by Don Estelle, his shorts were evidently too big and hung below his knees and re-defined the concept of bagginess. Our domestic help volunteered, in all seriousness to take the shorts I had only bought the day before and to donate them to a charity shop she was due to visit later on the day. I said that I would wear them for one week more when she could photograph me in these shorts (for her own amusement) and I thought I would wait and see the reaction was the same amongst my fellow Pilates class members next week after which I well have to abandon them. I made a quick visit to the High Street to pick up a copy of my daily newspaper and whilst on the High street I encountered two acquaintances who used to see Meg and myself in our frequent excursions to the Waitrose coffee shop. They knew of Meg’s demise and offered their sympathies and then carrying on my way, I also met two of my church friends who I may see again if I attend a concert in which one of them is playing next Saturday. I managed to change my optician appointment to a more suitable date and then made my way to the High Street branch of my bank which is fortunately still open for customers. I got out some living money from the in-branch ATM and as the one assistant in the branch was free managed to check with her both how much money I could withdraw in branch on any one day and had it increased by 50% which pleased me greatly.
After my Plates class, I met up with my American friend because we had decided to go to John Lewis in Solihull to have a final look at TVs and to make some final decisions whether to to delay our purchase until a further sales time. After we had partaken of some refreshment, we made our way to the TV department where we had to wait for at least half an hour if not more before we had to ask to receive the attentions of a sales assistant. We were eventually fortunate to receive some very useful advice for a very personable and efficient young American sales assistant who was excellent in every way. We had originally one make of TV and model in mind but found that there was a very good model of a LG (Lucky GoldStar) display model that was available and discounted by over a third from its original selling price but now one half of the price of the model that we thought might be purchased. So to cut a long story short, my friend and I decided to buy this display model and it will be delivered and installed next Tuesday but will still attract the legendary John Lewis 5 year warranty (slightly amended as it was a display model to have it completely repaired or the whole of our buying price refunded) Then we had a bit of a nightmare term locating our car in the John Lewis carpark. We knew that we had entered on the ground level and then gone up one level from the ground level but we had not fully appreciated that the car park actually had two levels below the level at which we had entered. Thus we were searching for a car park level that was actually four levels up rather than the two levels up which we had imagined but we eventually got it located in the end after some anxious moments.
We got home and relaxed a little and then I delivered my friend home and we started watching the football in our respective houses. France were playing Spain and many of us expected that this would be the type of game that should have graced the finals rather than the semi finals. In the event, Spain completely and unexpectedly completely dominated the match by winning the match 2:0 and so, deservedly, go to the finals to meet either England or Argentina. Amazingly, France only had about three shots on goal in the entire game whilst every single Spanish player appeared to give an exceptional performance, both as a team and also as a set of individual ball players. One would go as far to say that on this form, Spain looks unbeatable and whole of France will be licking their wounds and wondering why the French players all played so vey badly as if they had hardly turned up for the match. I am pleased that the football did not occupy too much of our attention this evening as I have an early start tomorrow morning to go on the Port Sunlight U3A coach trip. Whilst our attention has been diverted by footballing matters, there is quite a startling development in the Ann Widdecombe murder case. Ann Widdecombe was the victim of a targeted attack, says Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of counter terrorism policing saying police are working to understand the planning, preparation and motivation behind the attack. Officers have conducted extensive searches in connection with the investigation and police have a further warrant to detain the suspect, a 28-year-old white male, for up to seven days under the Terrorism Act. The suspect is being held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, as well as on suspicion of murder.