Saturday July 26th 2025 "Are YOU lonely and looking for love? Well, the cure may be standing there on your dining-table, so just take a look!"

Did you see that heart-warming story about a lonely single daughter finding love at last, in this morning's Onion News for East Hampshire - everybody's talking about it in this "neck of the woods" (!)

Poor Anna !!!!

Let's hope that Mr Newman's-Salad-Dressing turns out to be Anna's "Mr Right" !

"Mr Newman Salad Dressing Bottle", seen here in close-up.

Could he be Lonely Anna's "Mr Right" ????

Did you notice that the guy donates all his old clothes to charity, which sounds like he's "worth a bob or two", to put it mildly!

And my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I wonder if we're looking at some of "Mr Right's" old clothes this morning as we browse the charity shops of Farnham, just over the county line in Surrey, with our daughter Sarah and her twin daughters Lily and Jessica!

me in the Farnham Sue Ryder charity shop this morning,

with my wife Lois; also with our daughter Sarah, pictured here looking

at some nick-nacks with Lily, one of her twin daughters

The twins are celebrating their 12th birthday today, and, when asked how they'd like to spend the day, they gave the somewhat surprising answer, maybe, that they'd "love to look round all the area's charity shops".

flashback to early this morning: our twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica begin their 

12th birthday celebrations by opening their cards and presents, watched by

their mum Sarah, and granny Lois at our home here in Liphook, Hampshire

The twins are an eccentric pair of young rascals to put it mildly! And currently they and their mum Sarah and dad Francis are staying with Lois and me here in Liphook, Hampshire, on a short visit from their home in Perth, Western Australia. 

The twins' favourite activity is looking round charity shops, and their favourite TV programme is "The Apprentice (Australia), closely followed by "The Apprentice (New Zealand)", and running those a close third is "The Apprentice UK", so we think those twins are definitely destined for great things - although what those "things" are, exactly, we're not 100% sure !!!

our (now, as of today!) 12-year-old twin granddaughters' two favourite shows:

The Apprentice (Australia) and The Apprentice (New Zealand) - also pictured

are contestants on the recent Celebrity version of "The Apprentice (Australia)"  series

What madness!!!

And after this morning's "ransacking" of Farnham's medium-to-hard-pressed charity shops the twins have made an unusual second request - to try some so-called "bubble tea", which Lois and I have never heard of, so all 5 of us drop into Farnham's iconic "Thai Bubble Tea Shop" to sample some. It turns out to be nothing like tea as old-codgers Lois and me know it - the bubbles are actually bubbles of tapioca, or some-such nonsense (!), if that makes sense, and it's very light and refreshing, so Lois and I are now officially "converts", which is nice! 

And we all leave the shop half an hour later, in a sunshine state of mind - the shop's motto, which is also nice!

us this morning in Farnham's iconic Thai Bubble Tea Shop

- motto "Sunshine State of Mind", which is nice!

After that, the twins' 12th birthday disappears in a welter of celebratory birthday eating. We meet up with our other daughter Alison and family, who live in nearby Headley, including Ali and Edward's son Isaac, who also has his birthday today - he's turned 15 -  for an evening at Liphook's only genuine Italian-owned-and-run pizza restaurant, with the evening topped off by a late-night slice of the birthday cake the twins had themselves tastefully decorated yesterday.

(top left) our 5 grandchildren play an impromptu game of "Uno", while waiting for their pizzas

to arrive, and (bottom) all 11 of us: (left to right) as we emerge from the restaurant 

And that's the way you do it!

Lois and I are feeling our age - we're 79 you know [Stop saying that, Colin! - Ed], and the visit of our "Australian" family has been so nice but at the same time so exhausting for us, you would not believe!

How we wish we could be 12 again, with our whole life ahead of us, possibly even including dreams of embarking on founding "The Apprentice" style start-ups etc. Unfortunately, when we both turned 12, back in 1958, the idea of "start-ups" or is it "starts-up"? - [No! - Ed] hadn't even started up yet (no pun intended !!!!!); 

flashback to 1958: (left) me aged 12, nursing my new-born sister Jill, with my 6-year-old

brother Steve looking over my shoulder, and (right) Steve with my sister Kathy (10)

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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