Danskcolin: Wednesday April 30th 2025 "What do YOU wear under YOUR 'hoodie' if that's not too personal a question (!) haha!"

Have you heard about the new Nike sports bra? It seems like half the local women are now wearing them, under their hoodies, to mooch round the shops, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, at least, where I live with my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois! [How do YOU know what they're wearing under their hoodies, Colin (!) - Ed].

I've often suggested to Lois that she wear a sports bra of some description when we go out for our daily walk (we've both retirees with nothing much to do!), seeing as how she goes at around, like, a billion miles an hour, with poor Yours Truly trying his best, desperately, to keep up with her. My goodness, yes!

"Do keep up, Colin!" is what Lois seems to be saying, noticing that

I've quickly fallen behind again, as we take our daily

"old codger" walk through nearby Radford Park, Liphook

Me, I don't need a sports bra, given the fact that my top, personal-best "shambling rate" is only approx 1 mph (!), but I do like a nice hoodie, I have to say! It's one of my weaknesses.

And with the temperature tipped to top a scorching 77F (25C) today here in East Hampshire, I decide to "debut" (in 2025 terms!) my stylish "Your Margaret River Region" hoodie that I bought in 2018 on our last trip to Perth, Western Australia to see our daughter Sarah and family.

with temperatures tipped to top 77F (25C) today here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire,

I decide to debut (in 2025 terms!) my stylish and iconic "Your Margaret River Region"

hoodie that I bought in 2018 on our last trip to Australia to see our daughter Sarah and family

flashback to 2018 and Gnarabup WA, where the Indian Ocean meets

the Southern Ocean: I sit at one of a seaside café's outside tables in my

then shiny new 'Your Margaret River Region' hoodie, with our daughter Sarah,

son-in-law Francis, and our twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica - awww!!!!

And there's plenty for Lois and me to talk about on our walk, when I can catch her (!), and later, in bed this afternoon for "nap-time", where she's easier to 'buttonhole' (!).

Topic number one on the agenda is my news that Linkedin, the professional careerists' website is at last suggesting a better class of person for me to "network" with.

I made the mistake recently, just for a joke, of classifying myself as "Idiot" in the "about me" section of top social media site Facebook, where you're supposed to put your "poncey" job title or something similar. And I called myself an "idiot" mainly to annoy, and draw attention to, the self-aggrandising labels that others were applying to themselves, like Professor So-Called Albert Einstein calling himself a so-called "world class physicist" (Facebook) or "the genius who revolutionised physics" (Linkedin).

Albert Einstein's self-important 'Linkedin' "About Me" page

I ask you !!!!

And that's why I called himself "idiot" on my Facebook profile, as a gently "leg-pull", and a reminder to some of our fellow-social-networks users perhaps to not always take themselves too seriously. Obviously, however, the guys at Linkedin must monitor Facebook entries as part of their duties, but I can't imagine how they find the time - what a crazy world we live in!

And for days now, Linkedin advisers have been suggesting that I start "networking" with other 'professionals' who've called themselves "idiots" (whether for a joke or for serious, isn't clear as yet (!)), including a cinema manager called Pete in Cinderford, Gloucestershire of all places (!).

It's been a bit of a nightmare few days, if I'm honest, but I think Linkedin review staff must have been checking my blog posts and realised that I'm not really an "idiot", and that my new "profile" was all very much "tongue-in-cheek", because this morning I've started to get networking suggestions that are definitely more "my bag".

Yes, "underwriting effectiveness managers" are definitely more my class of 'networkee', so I must waste no time in "hooking up" with Mike, that's for sure, and hopefully more of these suggestions will follow, so watch this space!

[Is that all you two "noggins" have done today, Colin, a morning walk and an afternoon in bed checking your Linkedin messages? - Ed]

Well, seeing as how you're asking, we would say, "Absolutely not!". Because when we eventually struggled out of bed, around 4pm or so, we also taste-test, with our rhubarb, a new Icelandic yoghurt called skyr, that we saw recently being 'debuted' for a British audience on the iconic Hairy Biker show.

[You smug lazy bastards, Colin ! - Ed]

Well we're both watching our weight at the moment, and me in particular, because I've got my annual review and blood test coming up tomorrow at our doctor's surgery. I did their online survey today in preparation, and at least my BMI (body mass index) is okay - everything else may be falling apart, and probably is, haha!

(left) me showcasing my "rhubarb'n'skyr" as the afternoon sun

streams through our blinds, and (right) my online BMI test-results

21:00 We go to bed on Michael Portillo again - he's a bit "lumpy" but you get used to that after a while (!). Michael is in Essex this week on his "Great British Railway Adventures",

Tonight Michael visits Maldon, Essex, the site of a great battle in the 10th century between the defending Anglo-Saxons and a huge army of marauding Vikings, as he talks to Maldon-native, who is also the town's ex-mayor.

The Vikings landed on an island on the muddy inlet here, an island normally cut off from the mainland, but connected to the mainland by a causeway at low tide. As the tide receded the Vikings saw their chance, and started to take the causeway towards the mainland where the defending Anglo-Saxons had assembled, under their leader Byrhtnoth.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, they had to cross the causeway in single file, which made them "sitting ducks" for the Anglo-Saxons waiting at the other side to "pick them off", and chop them down one by one, so the initial skirmishes were looking bad for the Vikings' prospects, to put it mildly.

Then the fighting took an unexpected turn, as the ex-mayor explains.

The Anglo-Saxons had obviously already formulated, or at least embraced the later English concept of "fair play", and must have known even then, even before the game of cricket was invented, as to what was "cricket" and what wasn't, which is nice to know!

Unfortunately for Byrhtnoth, the Anglo-Saxon leader, however "nice guys don't win battles", and that's how it ended up going at the Battle of Maldon, sadly! And later, the king, Æthelfred, had to pick up the bill for it all, which must have been galling, to put it mildly!!!!