Sunday June 28th 2026 "No matter how hot you may feel, there's always somebody feeling hotter than you haha!!!"

Yes, Friends, no matter how hot you're feeling in this current heatwave, you'll find that there's always somebody in the world feeling hotter than you do, which is a comfort!!!

And if proof were needed, I get an email today from my Hungarian penfriend Tunde, which makes my wife Lois and me suddenly feeling much cooler, here in semi-tropical Liphook, Hampshire UK - no doubt about that!!!!

(left) flashback to 2008: Tunde, with Lois and me, in Bath, on her visit to the UK,

and (right) the forecast for temperatures in Tunde's native city of Budapest - yikes!!!!

Can this be? Is it 40C (104F) in Budapest today? 

Hot as they may be feeling in Hungary today, it doesn't stop the Hungarians' talent for incisive political reporting, as evidenced by this article which Tunde includes in her email. The article points out that the apparent turmoil in 10, Downing Street, is belied by the continuity provided by Larry, the office cat, who has seen 7 Prime Ministers come and go, which is a comforting thought!

Awwwww!!!!!

For Lois and me, today is a day of anticipation as we await the imminent arrival from Perth, Australia of our daughter Sarah, with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica. We're also carrying out last minute tidying up in house and garden, and monitoring their plane's progress across this dangerous world of ours! 

flashback to July 2025 and the family's last visit to the UK

However, amidst all the turmoil today, Lois and I also somehow find time to attend the Sunday Morning Meeting at Lois's church outside nearby Petersfield, which is a welcome respite from all the work in the house!

Busy busy busy!!!!

So watch this space!!!!

And in the meantime, just one little thought - is the following picture perhaps the answer to the UK's current political problems?

I wonder.....!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!! 

Saturday June 27th 2026 "Time to visit YOUR local theme-park, and do go early to avoid the rush!!!"

Yes, Friends, time to visit your local theme-park, before it gets too busy! With all the stories in the press about them at the moment, there's sure to be a crowd trying to get there before YOU do, so "get your skates on" haha!

Theme parks are all over the papers today - have you noticed? Just look at these headlines from Onion News this morning!!!

And reading the stories bring a particularly maniacal, if faint, grin to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in partially-friendly Liphook, Hampshire - that's for sure!

me and my wife Lois, relaxing on the sofa this morning

And our somewhat sardonic smiles have been occasioned because, by complete coincidence, our daughter Alison (50), together with husband Edward (51) and their 3 teenage kids - Josie (19), Rosalind (18) and Isaac (15),  currently holidaying in their old stamping-ground of Denmark, have chosen today, of all days, to visit Tivoli, Copenhagen's favourite amusement park, on what's turning out to be Denmark's hottest day on record - yes, its hottest day ever ever ever!  [All right, we get the point! - Ed]

"Phew what a scorcher!"," or "Pyha, sikke en braendende stemning",  as they say in Denmark!!!!!

And if you want any further proof of global warming, take a look at these pictures of the family at Tivoli Amusement Park from just a mere 13 years ago, when my wife Lois and I also joined them, complete with coats, sweaters etc, which seems a bit eccentric today, to put it mildly!!!!

flashback to 2013 - Lois and I visit Tivoli in the company of our daughter

Alison and family, accoutred in hats, coats, sweaters - you name it!

"Case proven, and no further questions, Your Honour", I think, is the phrase you're currently searching for haha!

09:00 Meanwhile, here in Liphook, Hampshire, Lois and I find ourselves stuck in the house this morning waiting for deliveries, would you believe!

With our other daughter Sarah, with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, due to fly from Perth, Australia into London's Heathrow Airport on Monday for a 3-week stay here, Lois and I have taken the precaution of putting in a mammoth order of grocery items from Ocado online supermarket and a bumper order of ready meals from Cook in Haslemere, so find ourselves listening for the doorbell in a mixture of supressed tension and excited anticipation, which is weird!!!

What madness, isn't it!!!

And let's hope we can even find room for all this stuff in our fridge and freezer - that's the big worry haha!!!!! Luckily, at least the temperature is set to get more back to normal over the next couple of days, which is a relief, if that makes sense!!!!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

And in our sitting-room this morning, there is also much simmering anger, after the BBC chooses to start showing matches this coming week from this year's Wimbledon Tennis Tournament, before they've even finished soccer's World Cup, which seems crazy!!!!

Wake up, BBC! That's just too much sport, even for the dedicated fans, not just for the general public, we suspect, but your views welcome - postcards only !!!!!

the BBC decides to start Wimbledon before the World Cup is finished, which is crazy !!!!

It's utter utter utter madness, I tell you !!!!

20:00 To restore some sanity to our world, and to get away from the World Cup at the same time (!), Lois and I decide to do some more binge-watching of Canadian sitcom "Schitt's Creek" - the story of a billionaire couple, Johnny and Moira Rose, suddenly down on their luck, who have to leave their billionaire mansion, and move, together with their grown-up son and daughter, into 2 shabby rooms of a ramshackle motel in a rundown town way out in the backwoods.

Poor Rose family !!!!!

Amidst all the misery of their new ramshackle home, the Rose Family has at least been befriended by the town's seedy mayor Roland and his bubbly wife Jocelyn, which is currently perhaps the only bright spot in their punishing new daily lives, so that's all good! 

In tonight's episode, however, the two couples come into competition with each other, both competing to buy a luxury mattress, still in its packaging, that comes up in the sale of a local old lady's estate.

scene at the auction: Moira Rose (left) finds herself bidding for

a luxury mattress, in competition with the mayor's wife Jocelyn (right),

to the annoyance of Moira's husband Johnny (centre)

Mayor Roland and his wife Jocelyn end up winning the mattress at the auction, but later Roland visits the disappointed Johnny Rose that same night, offering to sell the mattress on to him and Moira, for a mere $50, which is a snip. 

But "what can be wrong with it?", Johnny wonders. In this key scene from the unfolding drama, Mayor Roland gives a candid explanation:

Oh dear! 

Poor Johnny and Moira! But tune in tomorrow, to discover how they get on with the shiny, "only-used-once" mattress. Maybe the old folks can still show their younger friends a thing or two along the way!

But we'll have to see! Watch this space !!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Friday June 26th 2026 "Cars - we can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em! Sad, isn't it haha!!!!"

Yes, Friends, admit it! Where would YOU be without YOUR car? Waiting in some sad bus queue, probably!

Certainly news about cars continues to dominate the headlines, doesn't it! Today's Onion News is all the proof you need of that statement !!!! 

It's all madness, yes! But, you know, in a way it kind of makes sense, in this crazy old world of ours, if that makes sense - no pun intended!!!!!

And today's Onion News headlines, again fixated on the 'car phenomenon', ironically, bring some welcome relief to the taut lower-faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-welcoming Liphook, Hampshire. No doubt about that!!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

We're laughing, because, by total coincidence, it's big day today for our own little 12-year-old Honda Jazz. Yes, it's the little gal's annual 'appointment with destiny' - her annual service, and MOT test, and also the only day in the year when she gets to get cleaned, the little rascal!

my wife Lois - almost literally 'all over' our little

Honda Jazz after it's 2023 clean

Luckily, in the current heatwave, we had paid extra to have the car collected from our doorstep and after its little service and MOT test, delivered back to us later today by John from the Honda Yeoman dealership, which saves us a hot trip, and enables us to 'hunker down' inside the house, on what we're hoping will be the last 'super-hot' day of the heatwave - tomorrow is forecast to be just 'very hot', which will come as a relief, to put it mildly!

flashback to last summer, when Lois and I took our 'little gal' in, in person, for the MOT,

to the Yeoman Honda dealership in nearby Churt, over the county line in Surrey

No hot outings for Lois and me this year, which is nice! And the excitement even brings an slight air of tension to our afternoon in bed - will John be ringing our doorbell before 'statutory nap-time' is all 'done and dusted'? Fortunately John seems to understand our priorities, because he doesn't deliver the car to our home until around 5pm, to general relief, which is nice !!!!

Initially congratulating ourselves, over dinner, because our little gal has passed her MOT test, the euphoria turns a little sour later, when Yeoman's emails us with her so-called "health-report", and there is much anger!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

It's still 2 days to go before the big event of our year - the visit of our dear daughter Sarah, with husband Francis, and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, flying into London's Heathrow Airport at the crack of dawn on Monday for what's becoming their annual 3-week stay with us.

flashback to July 2025, and the last visit here of our daughter Sarah

and family from their home in Perth, Western Australia

Luckily the weather is forecast to cool down substantially by then, so fingers crossed!!!!

Yes, it's only a couple of days to go, now, till Sarah and family arrive, and, although it's too hot today to do any more cleaning and hoovering, Lois and I somehow find the time (and energy!) to order, like, a billion food-items (more probably!), to be delivered tomorrow by online supermarket Ocado, as well as, like, a billion ready meals from Cook.

What utter madness isn't it !!!!

And the twins' 'army' of stuffed toys seem to be feeling the excitement. And in guest bedroom 3, where the twins will be sleeping, the tension is palpable, especially when it comes to the more mobile Buckles the Unicorn and dog-on-wheels Rover !!! Awwww, bless them !!!!!

the tension is palpable among the twins' former 'stuffed toys',

gathered together in Bedroom 3, where the twins will be sleeping - awwww!!!!

Awwww!!!!!

21:00 And there's more tension in the air tonight, in Canadian sitcom "Schitt's Creek", which Lois and I have been binge-watching since the start of the World Cup - you know, the one about the billionaire family down on their luck - parents Johnny and Moira, with grown up, pampered kids David and Alexis, all four of them suddenly forced to live in 2 shabby rooms in a seedy backwoods motel in a ramshackle town called Schitt's Creek.

We've now progressed, with our binge-watching, all the way to Series 2 Episode 2, would you believe, and we're still up to our ears (and eyes) with it, shall I say!!!!

Although the once-billionaire Rose family appear to be finally adjusting to their new life in a shabby backwoods motel, the show's writers brilliantly give hints of the continued underlying tension, just below the surface, even after a couple of weeks of living in this ramshackle Schitt's Creek motel.

Like in tonight's episode, for example, where, in a key scene, pampered son David is helping his mother Moira cook what she claims is her 'old family enchilada recipe' for the family's weekly 'family dinner'.

It seems a simple enough step in the recipe, but the show's writers brilliantly show David's continued unease at the process.

And here's the point where Moira's own frustration begins to 'bubble up', a bit like the pot itself - and the irony isn't lost on the show's writers, to put it mildly!

And now Moira, finding herself on the back foot at this point, tries to spell it out slowly, for David's benefit!

Oh dear - things are starting to get heated - a bit like the pot, as the writers brilliantly illustrate with the occasional close-up of what son David is trying to stir, but without much success!!!

At this point, David tears off his apron and storms out of the kitchen, and Moira is left hanging, uncertain how to proceed!

What will happen to the bubbling enchiladas in the pot!

One thing's for sure - mine and Lois's eyes will be glued to the screen tomorrow evening,  to see how the finished 'dish' eventually turns out. Chekhov, Tolstoy etc, eat your hearts out (but not on enchiladas haha!!!!!)

Fabulous stuff, though, isn't it! 

[If you say so! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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