Tuesday July 15th 2025 "Hurrah! At last they're cracking down on those 'working from home' skivers. And about time too !!!!"

Yes, working from home - it shouldn't be all "beer and skittles", should it, to put it mildly!!! 

And these days even the most laid-back of companies have started cracking down on employees who are simply taking advantage of the situation, and having, really, what you might call "a jolly good time at the company's expense". 

Just not right, is it!

And "The Daily Colin's Blog" responds with a hearty "Kudos, Stephenson!" for at last doing about some of these blatant freeloaders. Well done, that woman!!!

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

This week and next, my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I are hosting a 2 week visit by our lovely Australia-based daughter Sarah (48), who flew in to London's Heathrow Airport on Saturday, with husband Francis and their 11-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.

flashback to Saturday morning - 7:35am, and our plainly happy but exhausted

daughter Sarah (48) arrives at our house with her family, after a punishing

18-hour non-stop flight from Perth, Australia, and 40 hours without sleep. 

Sarah and family will be here in the UK for two weeks and a bit, mostly staying with Lois and me here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire.

For Sarah herself, this trip isn't 100% a holiday, it's partly a work trip. She is currently doing two accountancy jobs simultaneously - her new accountancy job in Perth, and (online) her old accountancy job in Evesham UK, and she'll be "touching base" with her Evesham colleagues later this week.

our daughter Sarah's two accountancy jobs, (left) her old one in Evesham, UK

where Sarah is pictured second from right, and (right) her new job in Perth, Australia

This also means that, while she's with us, Sarah will be doing some laptop work on our dining-table, spreading out all her papers etc, effectively turning our kitchen-diner into a "work space", which is a pity!

Also, she has borrowed mine and Lois's "good monitor" to attach to her laptop, and as a result I'm having to type this blog on our "really not good laptop", which is why it's going to be shorter than usual. 

[Thank heaven for that! - Ed]

me typing out my blog on our "really not good" laptop,

because Sarah's got our good stuff

Poor me !!!!!!

And that's also why my blog today is mostly a bunch of photos off my phone - but what super photos they are - they're almost "iconic", to put it mildly !!! 

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

So anyway, this Tuesday morning, with Sarah working on our dining-table, and her husband Francis disappearing off to the TK-MAX 30 miles away in Winchester to buy some shorts (as you do!), Lois and I find ourselves back in our old role of child-minders for our 11-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica, which is an unexpected (and delightful!) surprise for us, to put it mildly!

Until the family moved to Australia in  2015, we used to look after the twins, then about 2 years old, at our former home in Cheltenham, every Monday and Friday, while their mummy and daddy were at work.

flashback to 2014: Lois and I looked after the twins while their mummy and daddy

were at work, for 2 days every week - Mondays and Fridays

And this morning we have a lovely reminder of those times, giving the twins breakfast in our tiny back garden, before taking them to the nearby "rec" (recreation ground), here in Liphook, which we find to be delightfully deserted, apart from the occasional dog-walker or three. This allows the twins to go from play equipment to play equipment, and monopolise them to their heart's content, without any competition from other kids, which is nice! 

with their mum Sarah working from home on our kitchen dining-table, and their dad

Francis driving 30 miles to Winchester TK-MAX for a pair of shorts,

Lois and I give the twins breakfast before taking them to the almost deserted "rec"

Later we manage to tear Sarah away from her laptop, and Francis comes back from Winchester with a pair of shiny new shorts and some other things (!), and we spend the afternoon at our other daughter Alison's house, 5 miles or so away on the other side of the county line, in Churt, Surrey. 

It's just Alison and her daughter Rosalind there today, but it's a good chance for our Australian visitors to see Ali and Ed's temporary home and also to meet their two adorable dogs, Sika and Bjørn, as well as having a go at badminton in the family's extensive back garden. 

I mainly steer well clear of both the dogs and the badminton, needless to say! But even Lois joins in the badminton at one point - Kudos, Lois !!!!

I mainly steer clear of both the 2 adorable dogs and the badminton,

but Lois gamely takes the plunge and joins in eventually - Kudos, Lois !!!!

How's that for a 79-year-old "old codger" !!!

And that's the way you do it! 

There's a nice peaceful evening ahead - Francis offers to cook the dinner, picking up his chosen ingredients from the Liphook Sainsbury's. It's another of his "beef stroganoff with a twist" signature dishes, which we eat in the garden, as the dining-table is till a "work space" (!). After that, we watch another programme in the latest series of "The Apprentice UK" on the "telly", a series to which the whole family is addicted, and that's about it for today.

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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