Friday, January 19

We're on the midst of the early-January torpor when, every year, nothing much happens.  We still make our couple of trips each week to Launceston for various appointments and take the chance to catch up on our reading between times.  Jamie's ride-on mower broke down in mid-December and wasn't returned until last week, so there was the beginnings of a significant wilderness developing at Dilston.  Jamie put out a cry for help,so we spent a day giving him a hand.  I rode the mower while he and Marilyn raked up grass and carted it away for future burning.

There's a mis-conception that operating a ride-on mower is an easy job.  That may be so when tidying-up a carefully maintained football field, but struggling around a rough piece of ex-pasture land takes skill, dedication and endurance.

Over the last few days, we've watched the second series of The Crown on Netflix.  We enjoyed the first series but the second is outstanding.  Part of the attraction is that it is talking about our history, and people we think we know.  But, of course, our memories are flawed and we probably didn't have all the facts at the time, anyway.  They covered the Suez Crisis, the Independence Movement in Africa and the Kennedy Assassination, and showed them in a whole new light.

The class system was alive and well in Britain in the sixties.  The political class came from a very narrow group of people.  Since the 1700s there have been 56 prime ministers in the UK; 19 attended Eton College.  The latest is David Cameron, and another old Etonian, Boris Johnson, is waiting in the wings.  In any sensible society, Boris would be seen for the clown he is, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did eventually become PM.

Checking some details on the internet after the final episode, I came across a little questionnaire: Which cast member of The Crown are you?  We answered a few questions and discovered that I was most like Winston Churchill, and Marilyn was just like Princess Margaret.  I suppose they might have got one right by a fluke, but to get both right is remarkable.