Tuesday March 11th 2025 "Chilly today, isn't it, around Betty Mundy's Bottom anyway (!)"

Were YOU surprised by the sudden chilly north winds this morning? Well, I'm not surprised - and locally the wind has been fair whistling round Betty Mundy's Bottom (!), according to reports in the local Onion News's print edition for East Hampshire (!).

But before you put pen to postcard and write me an angry "What do we pay our council tax for?" postcard, let me reassure you - the story above was a spoof item, from the paper's "Leave Time For A Smile" column - somewhere towards the bottom right (no pun intended!) of p.94, if you can "thumb" your way through all the rubbish to get to it (!).

There was a grain of truth in it, however - the weather did turn noticeably colder this morning, didn't it - and here  the figures don't lie, incidentally! Yes, it was certainly "nippy", "brisk" and a bit "crisp", not just around Betty Mundy's Bottom (!), but actually in all areas of East Hampshire. 

Did you see the shock figures? Yes, incredibly, temperatures were down from highs of around 66F (19C) on Sunday to highs of only 48F (9C) today.

What a crazy planet we live on !!!

I myself just didn't see the forecast, would you believe! And foolishly I decide to leave the house having taken "my slightly lighter coat option", for the first time this year, a decision I'm soon regretting when Lois and I go for our morning walk today over the former Lowsley Farm, just outside Liphook.

"Ne'er cast a clout till May be out!" the old adage says, so I can't blame anybody but myself for this "snafu" ! Wise old adage foolishly ignored !!!!  

[You are a crazy old wag, Colin! - Ed

Lois and I walk over the former Lowsley Farm this morning,

with Lois sensibly dressed, and me shivering in my slightly lighter "spring jacket"

In the distance in that second photo you'll see the hill known as Weavers Down, now topped by the famous radio mast, where 2,000 years ago, Roman chariots used to thunder over the heights, on the 40-mile road that the Romans built, linking Chichester with Silchester, formerly capitals of ancient British tribes, the Regni and the Atrebates respectively. 

How those poor Romans, with their Mediterranean origins, must have shivered sometimes in the brutal British climate! Stories of Roman Britain's notoriously bad weather, even in those crazy, far-off days were "legion" - no pun intended (!).

a typical Roman soldier, used to Mediterranean temperatures,

 finding himself having to face the rigours of the British winter

Speaking personally, I blame the current sudden downturn in the weather on this week's Cheltenham Races, and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, over there in Gloucestershire. 

For 50 years (1972-2022) Lois and I lived less than a mile from Cheltenham Race Course, and we couldn't help noticing how frequently some extraordinary bad weather, including late snowfalls, seemed to disrupt the normal weather patterns in what we used to call "Gold Cup Week", which takes place every year in mid-March.

Even in the years when the weather was kinder, Lois and I always felt like prisoners in our own home during Gold Cup Week, with all the streets and roads outside our house gridlocked by traffic, as racing enthusiasts from all over Britain and Ireland flooded into the town, clogging the local roads during the day, and crowding out the local pubs in the evenings.

flashback to March 2018: with local roads "gridlocked" by the race traffic, 

(left) Lois and I skulk at home in a state of siege during the day, and, in the evenings 

we find ourselves crowded out of the local pubs, such as The Royal Oak (right),

by the throngs. of race-goers. What a madness it all was !!!!!!

Total nightmare! Now, however, living, as we do, since last month, 100 miles away from Cheltenham, in semi-rural Liphook, Hampshire, we can afford to laugh at the stories today already starting to come out of Race Week as reported in "Gloucestershire Live".

Even a sex therapist has been wheeled out in the local press today ("Gloucestershire Live" again!), to explain "why people in the Cotswolds have so much sex". What madness (again) !!!!

[That's enough Cheltenham Race Week stories! - Ed]

At least over here in semi-rural Liphook, Hampshire, people haven't got time to feel bored. There's more than enough going on to keep people's minds off sex, thank you very much! 

And there's some good news here too - the bathroom wall-cabinet Lois and I ordered off of Ebay for our downstairs loo, is definitely going to be delivered to us here in Liphook on Thursday, and is definitely not going to be sent to our old address, as Lois and I had feared, which is a big relief! 

[Thank goodness (!). At least I'll be able to sleep easy tonight (!) - Ed]

the stylish bathroom wall-cabinet I ordered this week off of Ebay

Having just moved into this house 2 months ago, there are a ton of things we need to buy to make our house the way we like it. However, this week, within seconds of ordering this stylish bathroom cabinet off Ebay, I realised to my horror, that I hadn't changed our address yet on the Ebay website, although I'd changed it on, like, a billion other websites - more than a billion, probably. 

Somehow, however, Ebay had "slipped through the net", and still had our old address on their files. 

So I realised, to my horror, that this stylish wall-cabinet was going to be delivered to our old (and still empty) house in Malvern, Worcestershire, destined to languish on our old front doorstep, getting rained on etc etc.

On realising my "snafu", I had immediately cancelled the order, only to be told that "you can't cancel yet, it's too early, try again later", and then, on 'trying again later', literally only five minutes later, I was told in effect, "Sorry it's too late to cancel: this item has already been posted". What madness!

Luckily I had not given up at this point. I had decided to send an urgent plea to the company, and they agreed to change the address on the package after all - so Ebay appears to have been lying when we were told that the package had already been posted - just saying!

So, happy ending!

[Thank goodness, at least I can sleep easy tonight (!) - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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