17-00 Teatime. Scent of muffins and vague tension in the air.
17-01 Unfortunately, I was right about Jane – off all things, she's now trying to convince James to let her go to some JAZZ party to hear a popular composer (OMG, as if she doesn't know that the very word 'jazz" makes her father furious!!!)
17-05 Just as I thought – James is already out of patience (not that patience had ever been his strong point…)
17-06 Jane already in tears, shouting she'll go pleading to all authorities possible, including His Majesty, and perhaps also the League of Nations, in order to have her own way.
17-08 Cheri, what is that you are saying? So it was me who had always been overindulgent towards the children??? Perhaps, you also think me to be not a very good mother ???!!!
17-09 Had it been true, mon capitaine, I loathe to mention it, but you'd have still been searching, as ever, for a certain Wonder Boy on a non-existent island (playing a sort of silly Tom&Jerry role game) instead of having a row with your family….in MY flat, by the way….
17-10 Sorry, darling, I didn't mean it…(OK, didn't mean all of it!).
17-12 James grumbles he forgives me as a Christian and is now stirring the porridge with a somewhat morose expression.
17-13 Mary Anne is solving the dilemma whether to cry or not, while Michael is making his best to have the look of being absorbed in his homework.
17-14 Having heard a final decided "No" Jane furiously throws a random package onto the wall and storms out of the kitchen towards the nursery.
17-15 Rice all over the kitchen floor.
17-20 All family members (except for Jane) are crawling on their knees picking up the precious product.
17-21 James mutters from under the table that to be the head of this crazy family, a man must be either a saint or (at least) at once deaf, blind and dumb.
17-25 Oh, yes, dear Auntie, we did forget to lock the door. Again.
17-26 No, Auntie, we are NOT making a rice plantation here!
17-27 Oh, but your hair is soaking…is it raining that hard out?
17-28 MICHAEL GEORGE STUART!!!!!!!PREPARE TO MEET THY DOOM!!!!!
17-29 And don't dare to tell me it was all Mary Anne's doing!!!!
17-30 Yes, Auntie, we ARE glad to see you… Oh, please, don't sit….
17-31… down on this chair (Um…Mary Anne has evidently been here…and forgottten about her pot completely…)
17-32 Had to lend Aunt Millicent one of my skirts.
17-38 Brimstone and Gall, get out! (No, Auntie, James just suggested the turtles left the kitchen…)
Doing needlework. Aunt Millicentinterrogating Michaelabout his future career plans. (Sonny, don't you dare tell her you wish to be a pirate like Daddy!)
Michael answers he wishes to become the Duke of Monmouth, and later on, perhaps, the Prince of Wales (if he's lucky enough)….
Aunt Millicent was, to put it mildly, impressed. (James, our boy does make progress in history, but still, you'd better pay more attention to his exact sciences…)
17-45 Jane finally makes her appearance. Dressed and made up as a cabaret singer from the" Jekyll & Hyde" musical (what was her name? Lucy? Oh, but why does it always have something to do with Lucy???)
17-46 A dumb show.
17-47 Aunt Millicent faints, landing, unfortunately, on Gall.
17-48 Trying to save Gall from under Aunt's body
17-49 Fussing over Aunt , all of us, except for James, who, with a stoic look, is dragging a loudly protesting Jane into the bathroom)
17-50 Auntie still unconscious.. Oh, my goodness, what are we to do???
17-55 James comes in with athe pistol which has been hanging on the study wall for almost sixteen years, and shoots upwards
17-56 Aunt Millicent jumps up at once, screaming: "Oh, Lord save us, the Germans are already in London!!!"
17-57 General mayhem.
17-58 John appears on the threshold and is speechless, stunned by our merry Bedlam (No wonder, having only one child, and a very proper girl, too!)
17-59 On hisway to the kitchenJohn eventually steps on the leftovers of Mary Anne's apple and has a big fall…
18-00 James lifts him, explaining by the way that we have long ago ceased to care about what our neighbours say or think…
18-01 All of us are fixing the kitchen.
18-30 Having dinner at last! (Even Nan, Brimstone and Gall, despite their numerous transgressions). James and Auntie are peacefully discussing the Lake Poets.
19-30 An evening of wonders, indeed – James and Jane playing Hershwin's "Summertime" (three-hands and a harpsichord), I'm singing Clara's part…
19-40 A burst of applause after recovery from a minor shock
19-50 John solemnly promises to take all of us out to cinema tomorrow. As if Charlie Chaplin were more funny than our small family gatherings!
20-00 Auntie takes her leave (and taking Jane's copy of "Phantom of the Opera" with her, in order to get to know modern culture better)
20-30 James takes Mary Anne, who is already asleep, to her bed. Other children drink their milk, say their prayers, go to bathroom and fall on their beds earlier than I manage to open the story book…
21-00 Darling please, the nursery window should ALWAYS be open….
21-05 …but not ours…
21-15 Yes,my love,to live with you is really an Awfully Big Adventure…
21-20 I mean it!
21-21 May Lord bless us all and let us see the day to come…
21-25. Coming,mon capitaine…
21-35 Brimstone and Gall! WHAT IS THIS LETTUCE DOING UNDER OUR PILLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE REST IS SILENCEFINITA LA COMEDIA