Sunday March 9th 2025 "Do you dread Election Days? A lot of us do, don't we!"

Yes, Friends, do you dread queuing up to cast your vote on Election Day? Most of us do, don't we, with the some-would-say dishonourable exception of Yours Truly, who takes the lazy way out and always votes by post - it's not exactly rocket science, though, is it - duhhhh!!!!

The queues can be terrible if you happen to go at the wrong time. I think the world record was in Wisconsin USA in 2020, when the average wait was a mind-boggling 3 years 10 months, and many voters only just got their vote in, a matter of mere a few days before the next election started: all a bit of a madness, wasn't it!

Onion News had more...

I remember reading the story at the time, and also the comments of a "legion" of political commentators to the effect that the decision, made in 1978 after the test case of "The State Versus Comedian Jackie Mason" - i.e. that that decision, to make the only-existing official state pen the sole legal writing utensil for casting votes in the state - was a bad one, and with hindsight that view has been more than vindicated.

But hey, hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it - be fair !! These things happen!!! We're only human!!! [That statement doesn't apply to you, Colin! - Ed]

09:00 Whatever, I couldn't help thinking about that 2020 (no pun intended!!!) Wisconsin debacle this morning, while my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I were speaking via whatsapp to our 47-year-old daughter Sarah.

Since last September, Sarah has been living 9000 miles away from us, over in Perth, Australia, with her husband Francis and their delightful11-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.

Lois and I have a whatsapp video call this morning with our 47-year-old

daughter Sarah and our 11-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica,

who live 9000 miles away from us, in Perth, Western Australia

Yesterday was Election Day in the state, and in Australia voting is compulsory - Lois and I have no idea why, and nor have Sarah and Francis: they've only been in the country less than 6 months, since moving out from England last September. They only know that if you don't vote you can be fined $1000 (Australian), which they say is a good enough reason to go out and do it, and I see their point.

But what madness!!!!

In order to cast their votes Sarah and Francis had to queue for a whole hour, in direct sunlight and temperatures around 81F (27C) - what utter utter utter madness! Lois and I ask Sarah if there were any old codgers like her and me in the queue, and she says, "Oh yes, plenty of those!". She didn't say if anybody had dropped dead while queuing - let's hope they at least would have kept the death toll down to single figures, at the very least!

And because of the 8-hour time difference, by the way, Lois and I find out just a few hours later, in the preliminary results, that the election was another landslide victory for Roger Cook's Labor Party. I guess some of the more remote constituencies hadn't declared yet, or their votes were still on their way into Perth by camel or by Flying Doctor biplane - the mind boggles!

Lois and I have no idea what the issues were, and we don't think Sarah and Francis have either, at this stage, so we don't know how they decided who to vote for. Let's hope they split their vote 50-50 so as not to start a trend !!!!

Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it!  [If you say so! - Ed]

10:30 After our call to Australia, I drive Lois the eleven miles south from our home in Liphook, Hampshire, to her church in Petersfield, so that she can attend the church's Sunday Morning Meeting in one of the local village halls. We sit at the back, next to Ruth Somebody, confident that Lois will be able to hear the service perfectly today, even from the back of the hall, because she's got her shiny new hearing-aids in. 

"Yes, Lois has got her ears in today (!)", as I jokingly remark to others in attendance this morning.

By coincidence, the preacher's remarks this morning revolve around the Apostle Paul's mysterious throw-away comment about having a "thorn in [my] flesh: a messenger of Satan to torment me, lest I should be exalted above measure". In Paul's case, it's thought that the "thorn in his flesh" may have been defective vision - there are other suggestions in the New Testament that possibly point to that also -  a defect which Paul accepted as a warning from God to stay humble and not 'get above himself', which makes sense to us.

Lois's church's Sunday Morning Meeting this morning: (right) we sit at the back

next to Ruth Somebody, confident that Lois will be able to hear the preacher

because she's "got her ears in", as I call it - a.k.a. her shiny new hearing-aids (!)

Lois's fellow church-member, archaeologist Graham, is sitting at the back also, but on the other side of the hall, and he tells us after the meeting that he couldn't hear half of what the president and this week's visiting preacher were saying, which was a pity. 

Lois and Graham, as two church-members both with mildly defective hearing, have quite a lot in common, and I'm happy that they have a chance after the meeting to exchange what I call "deaf-talk", and I don't feel at all excluded - I'm all heart haha!

So-called "deaf culture" can sometimes be a bit excluding, however, even for deaf people themselves. Do you remember this story [source: Onion News again], which came out of Columbia, Maryland USA - an old "stamping ground" of mine and Lois's: we lived there for 3 years in the early 1980's?

I'm not as rigid on the issue as Deeds obviously is (see above story), and I don't mind at all that Graham and Lois can totally get into "deaf issues" this morning, so don't get me wrong, there's nobody more glad about that than me, that's for sure!

Due to "deaf issues", however, there's no time today, for me to ask archaeologist Graham about the area's Roman Road, so this will have to wait till next Sunday perhaps. I'm eager to hear about the best place to see this 2000-year-old, 40-mile roadway, which once linked the capitals of two Ancient British tribes in the south of England: Chichester, Sussex and Silchester, Hampshire. Chichester was once the capital of the Regni tribe, and Silchester, the capital of the mighty Atrebates tribe.

the ancient British tribes of pre-Roman Britain

some of the major 'country towns' of southern Britain in Roman times

Incredibly this old Roman road from Chichester to Silchester was completely unknown to modern historians until it was discovered in the late 1940's. What madness!!!

Speaking personally, there's almost nothing I like better than to wander a bit of some old Roman road, and imagine the chariots etc thundering along them. And archaeologist Graham, who's talking "deaf issues (!)" to Lois this morning, is a friend of TV's Mike Parker Pearson, and also of TV's Mark Horton, both regular contributors to the old Channel 4 archaeological series "Time Team", so Graham should have all the 'gen' (!), to put it mildly, when I can get a word with him, that is (!).

only 4 miles of this 40-mile, 2000-year-old Roman road are still in use today

The road goes over Weavers Down, where Lois and I have already gone for walks, since moving to Liphook, Hampshire on January 3rd. 

The road, mainly in long, straight sections which was the Roman style (as any fule kno [sic] (!)) passes in a north-westerly direction close to the modern village of Milland, and then over the hill at Weavers Down and then down over the Army's Training Areas at Longmoor Camp where they're currently training Ukrainians - hence our map's warning of "Danger Area" - yikes!

the old Roman Road can be seen passing in a north-westerly direction, near today's village 

of Milland (ringed, right), and crossing Weavers Down, and past today's Longmoor Camp 

(also ringed, left), where the Army has been training tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers

flashback to January: as newcomers to the area, Lois and I climb the steep 

slopes of Holly Hill and onto the top of Weaver's Down, where we meet 

a friendly dinosaur, as you do! Don't worry it's not a live one haha!

Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it!

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!