Sunday,

so off to the Robins Nest for our midday meal,

we had arranged to meet Slim Jim and Russ who is visiting from the States there,

Jim brought over his latest watch to show us, he loves collecting watches, it was a leopard skin, white diamond encrusted strap, pink diamond surround solid gold Rolex, all in the best possible taste, he had bought it under instructions from a friend in the US, not quiet my cup of tea, but then life would be boring if we all liked the same thing

Russ then arrived so it was time for food, in years past his brother Mark calls over as well, but this year it was not to be, but a big Hi! to Mark from all of us,

Slim Jim opted for the roast chicken,

Diana had Thai food with boiled rice,

a self portrait with Diana holding the camera,

'Cheers!' from me, I chose the beef madras, Russ went with the carvery, soup and a selection of roast meats with seasonal vegetables, after ice cream we chatted about the appalling situation in Japan, nature can be so cruel,

then home, Diana's sunflowers are starting to look nice as the flowers open,

also one of the new hibiscus had a nice flower,

we pottered about the house in the afternoon, till it was time for our evening meal, along to the soup stall on Third Road,

whilst that was being prepared I took a stroll along to the plant shop at the end of the row of shops,

they mainly have smaller orchids on display,

with more than a few garden ornaments,

before these PC times we find ourselves in I would have used the bingo callers cry of, 'two fat ladies,' 88 if you are into bingo here are some other famous calls like Legs Eleven and Clickerty Click: 66, while others refer to the way the numbers look: Two little ducks: 22 or there are the rhyming pairs: Pick and Mix 26, Man Alive 5, Made in Heaven 67 and the significant age numbers: Dancing Queen 17, Key to the Door 21, the unimaginative Four and Seven 47, the mathematical: Six dozen 72, from the sublime: One more time 79 to the ridiculous: Dirty Gertie 30 and the simply inexplicable: More than Eleven 37, Was she worth it? 56 (apparently the cost of a wedding licence in the old days),

but I digress, back to pick up Diana and home for our evening meal,

after a medicinal red wine feet up for Knowing, the world as we know it is about to end, in the fall of 1959, for a time capsule, students draw pictures of life as they imagine it will be in 50 years, Lucinda, an odd child who hears voices, swiftly writes a long string of numbers, when the capsule is opened the numbers spell out what will happen next, it is a case of knowing, superb special effects,

I have often seen small parts of The Sopranos, but never more than a few moments, in truth it did not really appeal to me based on the few moments I viewed it, but Nick has very kindly lent us the full series, so we watched the first four episodes, it is a look at the life of fictional Mafia Capo Tony Soprano, with aggression, it is an adult drama with adult language and extreme violence, I really enjoyed it! a bit slow in places, but as this was the first few episodes I am hoping it will get better as the show progress,

to round the evening off Magic Majestic from the New Tricks team, they investigates a bizarre case from ten years before where a hypnotized woman subsequently killed her husband, although the woman, Katie Briers, was found not guilty the magician in question, Billy Carse, had his career ruined, Carse is now dead but as Jack examines the script used to hypnotize the woman, he realises Billy could not have wrote it, then for us off to bed.