So exciting is our life during Lockdown that one of the highlights of yesterday was my husband shouting to me to come into the kitchen to see that, having left his glasses on the worktop next to the apple corer, he’d accidentally made Groucho Marks!
Regular readers of this blog may remember
that on November 13th I wrote about the
fun of playing conkers in my youth,
having first baked them in the oven to harden them.
My reminiscences provoked this outrage from Warwick Charlesworth
in Australia.
"It is not often that I am driven to rage
by anything you have written in your blogs
but I felt that you had gone way beyond
decency in your latest conker effort.
It was with horror that I discovered
you were an oven roaster.
That was sooooo cheating
I cannot believe you did such a thing.
The windowsill was allowed,
but ovens were for those who had to win at
all costs which I would never have thought
you would be.
It was always obvious at school
when someone had done the dirty
and artificially hardened their nut.
Of course it was always denied
but you don't get to be a "sixer"
without some sort of intervention.
I think my knuckles still have the scars
from others who couldn't get their aim right.
What a wonderful memory to revive though.
I had completely forgotten the humble conker
as it's not something you see here very much.
Just up the road from our house in Southend,
there was an old hospital, on the corner of Chalkwell avenue,
and it had the most magnificent tree
which always produced a wonderful crop
of those golden brown wonders.
To walk home from the bus stop
and find one always made a bad day so much better.
To then polish them until they glowed
was a boyhood delight, such simple pleasures
in such a less complicated time.
I shall give thought to forgiving you
I just hope all you opponents have".
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A great example of inventiveness during lockdown was this makeshift gym I noticed on the Duke of York steps leading down from Carlton House Terrace to The Mall.
Locked down in London 