Pride2

Things have moved along. There's been another ball (at Nertherfield), and a proposal of marriage. I can't help but get the feeling there will be more of both of these things before the book is finished.

Anyway, before getting too far ahead of myself, the key developments since last time really revolve around the introduction of new characters - Collins and Wickham.

Firstly Collins - it turns out that as a result of a rather arcane arrangement in Mr Bennet's will, his estate must be passed to a male heir, and so cannot go to any of his five daughters. Mr Collins, his nephew, now a clergyman under the patronage of a Lady Catherine de Bourgh (who we later discover by coincidence is Darcy's aunt) lives some distance away, and is not well thought of by Mrs Bennet due to what she considers to be his unfair claim on her husband's estate. Collins comes to visit, and turns out to be a bit of a wally. However, he has what he considers to be a cunning plan, namely to marry one of the daughters and thereby keep the estate more closely 'in the family'. Mrs Bennet thinks this a splendid idea and is won round. (On the whole we tend not to hear much about what Mr Bennet thinks.) Collins makes a fool of himself at the Netherfield dance, and then makes even more of a fool of himself when asking for Elizabeth's hand in marriage, thinking that she is being charming and coy, when she is flatly refusing his proposal.

And secondly Wickham - the younger Bennet sisters, Kitty and Lydia, are keen on a man in uniform, and like to go to town and chat up the soldiers who are based there. On one occasion they take Elizabeth along and she meets Wickham, recently arrived to join up. They spend the evening deep in conversation at her aunt and uncle's house, where it transpires that Wickham and Darcy have a long and complicated past. Apparently Wickham's Dad worked for Darcy's Dad, and Wickham and Darcy grew up together, almost like brothers. There was an understanding that Wickham was to be looked after by Darcy's father's will, but something went wrong, and now there is significant ill-feeling between the two, and we are left with the clear impression that it is all Darcy's fault. Anyone who is anyone is at the Netherfield ball, but Wickham is conspicuous by his absence, conveniently having business to attend to elsewhere. Darcy and Elizabeth dance together, but it is frosty. 

Pride

Included in my '100 book bucket list' poster is Pride and Prejudice. In fact, it seems to turn up pretty near the top of most of the '100 best book' lists, wherever you look. I doubt whether this is entirely Colin Firth's fault (although you can't help but wonder with some of the books on these types of lists whether they get a pretty spectacular boost from a solid film or TV tie in), and so I thought it was about time to give it a go.

To be clear, I've only just started, and am only a few chapters in. Fairly short chapters they are too - I thought that brief chapters was a Patterson-esque new invention for the modern page turner, but Austen packs 61 into P&P. Anyway, in the first five we've discovered that Bingley has moved in to Netherfield, and that this has excited the interests of the Bennet family who live nearby - first and foremost the interest of Mrs Bennet who has five daughters in need of a husband (Jane, Lizzy, Mary, Kitty & Lydia - I think - hard to keep track at this early stage). Sounds like Bingley is a decent enough chap, and has caught the eye of the eldest, Jane, who he danced with twice (golly!) at their first meeting. At the same event, we also meet Darcy for the first time, and he doesn't come across well at all. Whilst he is said to be a 'fine, tall person' with 'handsome features', he rather rapidly gets a comeuppance, and he is only 'looked at with great admiration for half the evening' until 'he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased, and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding , disagreeable countenance'.

The other striking thing, whether of the time, or of critical importance to young ladies seeking a partner, or whether for Austen herself, is that one of the first things we are told about both Bingley and Darcy is how much money they have got. In chapter 1, on finding out someone is moving to Netherfield, Mrs Bennet says it is a 'young man of large fortune', and no sooner have we found out that his name is Bingley and he is single, we are told 'four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!'. Similarly in chapter 3, three lines after seeing Darcy's name for the very first time, we discover that he has 'ten thousand a year'. Quite how this gets into circulation so quickly is a bit of a mystery, but maybe it was common at the time. Just for the record, and because it's hard to reckon with, I went to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, and £10,000 per year in 1812 (when P&P is set) is the same as just over £700,000 now. So, Darcy was a wealthy man indeed. I wonder where all that money came from? (Inheritance, empire, industrial revolution ...).

Anyway, more to follow ...

4yrs

WDW is gradually opening back up again. We've been keeping an eye on the news with interest from various social media streams that we follow, and it seems like reopening has been going smoothly, albeit to mixed reviews. Capacity is clearly significantly down, with low wait times for rides (although whether that is because people are choosing to stay away, time will tell), but the folks at Disney must feel that the timing is really unfortunate. Having set out their reopening plan some time back, no doubt they were determined to stick with it, but to have MK reopening on a day when new cases in the US were at a record high (over 60,000) with around a quarter of them in Florida, really didn't make for good PR.

Looking back, it is interesting to see, based on this post, that exactly four years ago, we had just arrived in Florida for the holiday to celebrate the end of Jake's GCSEs.  

Mirror

One of the big challenges about where we live is getting out the end of the drive. Whilst the speed limit has just reduced to 30 mph to the right, cars frequently come round the bend considerably faster, and you rather have to hope for the best when pulling away.

Nicky found a convex mirror online, and today we (with a neighbour's help) attached it to a lamppost on the other side of the road. Now we can see round corners, making for safer driving in the future.

Out

Amazing news - we've been out for a meal. I think that the last time we had a meal out of any significance was when we went to Hawksmoor in London (with Bec, Mark, Jake and Izzy) before going to see the Only Fools and Horses stage show. A quick check shows that was Saturday 7th March, so 125 days ago. That's quite a long gap!

This time it was just the two of us, and we went to Cafe Nucleus in Rochester, and had a lovely relaxing meal. They took our temperature on the way in, the staff were all wearing masks, and they'd spaced out the tables in their upstairs 'boardroom'. Other than that, it was all pretty normal, and the food was extremely nice. More importantly, it was great just to be out together for the evening!

Result

I refer back to this post from last month. After what in reality wasn't all that long a wait, but to those involved intimately probably felt like an eternity, the results are in, and let's just say that all is well, and I continue to be a very proud parent.

Matilda

I've read Matilda, inspired by the fact that it is on my '100 books bucket list' poster. Slightly surprisingly, I hadn't read it before. In fact, now that I come to think of it, I can only really bring to mind Charlie and Danny as racing certainties of Dahl children's books that I have read before. As I will happily go on at length about, Danny is one of my all time favourites, and I have read it several times. Sitting here typing this, I can very easily call to mind Danny, his father, their little caravan, and their adventure in the woods. Now there was a wonderful story.

So, how did I feel about Matilda? Well, it was ok. Maybe there's a certain risk to coming to children's books for the first time as an adult (although aren't the best ones supposed to work for all ages). For me, Matilda wasn't the star of the show, and nor was the villain of the piece Mrs Trunchbull. No, the hero by some distance was the lovely Miss Honey. Again, maybe this says more about the reader than the book. Perhaps it evoked memories of being every so slightly besotted with one's infant / junior school teachers as a little boy!

(This post is a bit of a cheat, as I had parked it for updating later, as it was Wednesdays' post, awaiting update later, and I didn't actually finish Matilda until Friday.)