Danskcolin: Thursday July 24th 2025 "Do YOU know a "vintage", ageing person who likes a vintage ageing railway excursion? Most of us do, I think you'll find!"

Yes, most of us know a "vintage", ageing person who likes a ride on a "vintage", ageing railway, don't we! And my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois, ourselves having turned 79, would you believe, are no exception to that rule, to put it mildly!!!

And we're not alone, to judge from this morning's Onion News for East Hampshire (printed edition) - check out page 94, if you don't believe me !!!!

It's a worrying prospect isn't it! And Lois and I, who've been ageing retirees ourselves since 2006 and so can claim to "have experience" in this sector of the economy, we're doing our best to alleviate the problems by not often going out of our house here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, except for the occasional walk in nearby leafy Radford Park, so I think we can claim to be "doing our bit" for the environment, don't you (!).

[I'll be the judge of that, Colin! - Ed]

me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois pictured here

on a recent walk through nearby, leafy Radford Park, Liphook

But let me put my cards on the table at this point! [I wish you wouldn't keep doing that, Colin! - Ed]

Although normally living a quiet life in each other's pockets 24/7, Lois and I have recently been enjoying a (friendly) invasion by our daughter Sarah, her husband Francis, and their 11-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica. They flew in from Perth, Australia last week for a short UK stay, both for pleasure and for business: Sarah still works online as an accountant for a firm in Evesham UK, as well as working full-time for a firm in Perth - so busy, busy, busy!!!

flashback to July 12th: we welcome our daughter Sarah (right) and

family after their gruelling 18-hour non-stop flight from Perth, Australia

Our visitors are very keen to see London during their trip: the kids have never experienced it, and Sarah and Francis want to give them a taste of it during their stay with us.

To be honest, Lois and I aren't that keen to go to London, what with its crowds and complicated, extremely busy transport system etc etc, and we find the prospect a bit terrifying. However, in the last month I've spent a lot of time on the computer putting together a day-trip package for us all 6 of us to do, including a reasonable dose of tourism and sightseeing.

The plan is (1) a hour's train journey from Liphook into London's Waterloo Railway Station, (2) a ride on the London Eye, (3) an open-top sightseeing bus tour round Central London, (4) a Thames sightseeing river cruise, ending with (5) another train journey home to Liphook. And I try to get hold of as many passenger tickets in advance as I can, to minimise queueing etc.

me showcasing some of the bus and train tickets I've managed

to acquire in advance to minimise queueing on our day trip to London

Planning the day really proves to be quite a headache however.

The information available on the web is really quite confusing and often fails to tell me the details I want, so I'm expecting the day to go horribly wrong at some point or other, but surprisingly it doesn't do that, and when we get to London, everything goes more or less according to a plan.

Who would have thought it?!!!!

flashback to early this morning: 8:45am and we arrive at Liphook's quiet,

almost deserted railway station and, somewhat nervously, find a bench on the platform

to wait for our 8:51 train to London's Waterloo Railway Station

My main takeaways from the day's experience?

(1) London is a real shock to the system for Lois and me, accustomed to a quiet life in quiet towns: the sheer numbers of people thronging around us most of the day, almost all "foreigners" (!) - not just the other tourists, but the friendly guys manning the transport system and tourist attractions etc - a huge number of them being either, seemingly, East Europeans, or immigrants from the UK's former colonies in Asia or the Caribbean.

(2) Despite everything, a lovely, happy atmosphere with enormous crowds having fun and just enjoying themselves, both in the early sunshine, and, just as much, during the later rain, and not a policeman in sight the whole day.