Friday June 19th 2026 "Everybody's on the move at the moment! Where are YOU heading out today !!!!"

Yes, seemingly, everybody's on the move just at the moment, and on some kind of so-called 'trip' or other! And if you want to be 'on trend', you'd better get up off your backside and join the throng - do it now!!!!

It's all over this morning's papers! Everybody's going somewhere, either just locally or even internationally! Take a look at your copy of Onion News, if you want 'chapter and verse' !!!!!! 

And these stories of people 'on the move' bring a faint air of a smile to me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-attractive Liphook, Hampshire - no doubt about that!

me and my wife Lois, pictured today on our sofa in Liphook, Hampshire

And this current mania for 'moving about' is even affecting our own family this week, would you believe! 

Our daughter Alison (50) and her long-term husband Edward, our son-in-law, are today travelling 300 miles from their home in Churt, Surrey, all the way up to Durham, near the Scottish border, to spend a few days with their elder daughter Josie (19), who's just about to finish the first year of her maths degree course. 

Alison and Edward are going to be bringing home all Josie's bulky belongings for the summer vacation. Josie herself is going to be staying a few more days up north, but she'll be able to bring her remaining possessions herself in a suitcase, so that's all good!

(above) the route that proud parents Alison and Edward are taking today

to spend a few days with elder daughter Josie (19), before bringing home

the bulk of her possessions for the summer vacation, and (below) flashback

to September 2025, when Josie first arrived at Durham for her maths course

Busy busy busy!!! And while Alison and Edward are away up north, it'll be up to my wife and Lois and me to keep a friendly, grandparental eye on the couple's two other offspring, Rosalind (17) and Isaac (15), and ferry them about if necessary, starting today, which is mad!

Yes, today Lois and I are going to be having to 'get off our backsides' (!) and give those two young rascals (!) Rosalind and Isaac a spot of lunch today here at our lovely Liphook home after their tennis lessons, and drive them back home to Churt. And tomorrow we'll be picking them up at Churt and taking them into nearby shopping mecca Haslemere - Isaac has a rehearsal for the next music-and-dramatic arts production of "Nine To Five - the Musical", and Rosalind has a hair appointment with her stylist at Eden's, so it's going to be 'all go' for Lois and me for the next couple of days - no question about that!!!!

(above, left) the family home at Churt, Surrey and (above, right) my wife Lois

with those two rascals our grandchildren Isaac (15) and Rosalind (17);

and (below, left) 9-to-5 The Musical, for which Isaac will be rehearsing tomorrow

and (below, right) the Eden Hair Salon, where Rosalind has an appointment

What madness !!!! And for Lois and me, it's going to be a busy couple of days, that's for sure!

[Is that all you two 'noggins' have done today, Colin, made lunch for your grandchildren and taken them back home to Churt? - Ed]

Absolutely not, seeing as how you're asking! 

We've actually been 'rushed off our feet' preparing for the visit later this month of our other daughter Sarah, with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica, who'll be 'jetting in' from Perth, Australia to spend 3 weeks with us, so, as far as Lois and I are concerned, it's "no peace for the wicked" yet again haha!!!! 

So today, in anticipation of their arrival in 11 days' time, there's me finishing off mowing the lawn while also somehow finding time to fit an extra bed into our so-called "home office", not to mention us planning day trips for our little Australian family to mighty London, the hub of the British Commonwealth, of which Australia is just one part, which is mad too!!! 

flashback  to July 2025: my wife Lois, with our daughter Sarah

Sarah's husband Francis and their 12-year-old twin daughters

Lily and Jessica on their last trip to the UK

And Lois and I are having to do all this preparation work today, despite the sudden current heatwave, with temperatures of 80 degrees F (27C) which is crazy !!!! I've even decided to break out my stylish shorts [not shown], would you believe!!!!

(above, left) I get our lawnmower out to finish off mowing our lawn, and (above, right)

me showcasing the extra folding bed we've somehow managed to squeeze into our 'office';

(below, left) us on the sofa working out some day-trips for our little Australian family

to do when they're with us, and (below, right) me showcasing the torrid

temperatures we're working under - what madness!!!

Just look at the predicted high temperatures for today - see below! And next week the highs even reach 83F (28C) at one point, according to my phone, which is totally mad! 

What a crazy country we live in !!!!

And, as if to underline our country's craziness, if that were even needed (!), Lois and I relax this evening watching "The Phantom of the Open", the true story of Maurice Flitcroft, the middle-aged shipyard crane-operator from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, who somehow managed to be accepted as a contender in the 1976 British Open Golf Tournament, despite never having played a round of golf in his life.

What a madness it all was, wasn't it !!!!

In this scene, shipyard worker Maurice, played by Mark Rylance, is working on his application form for entry to the British Open, with the help of his long-suffering wife Jean (Sally Hawkins). Maurice is 'poncing about' trying on his new 'golfing hat' and looking at himself in the mirror, while Jean is trying to get him to concentrate on the British Open entry application form she's filling in for him.

In the end, the couple decide to put Maurice down on the form as a "professional", which means

they don't have to list his 'handicap', or 'handicaps'. And this decision by the couple was crucial in getting novice Maurice accepted as a competitor, because the administrators didn't think to check his credentials.

Maurice goes on to take part in the tournament, scoring a record score of 121 for the 18 holes, and, after the tournament, a reporter from The Sun newspaper visits the family home in Barrow to ask for Maurice's wife Jean's reactions.

Oops!!!!

Need I say more!!!!

[No! - Ed]

[Just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Thursday June 18th 2026 "Have YOU been up and down stairs all day today? Many of us have, to our cost!!!!"

Yes, Friends, think carefully! Have YOU been either up or down stairs (or both!!!) at some point in your day today?

Many of us have, seemingly, to read today's papers, that's for sure! Just take today's Onion News as your proof, randomly !!!!

What madness isn't it! Has the whole country gone stark, "stairing" mad (no pun intended!!!!) ???!!!

[Why did you say it then, Colin! - Ed]

But those headline, "staring" me and my wife Lois today (again, no pun intended!!!!) certainly give us something welcome to laugh at, here in partially-attractive Liphook, Hampshire, that's for sure!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

And the reason for our merriment today? 

Well, Lois, who's Oxfordshire born-and-bred is inclined to say "Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs!" when she's surprised or dumbfounded by something she sees or hears, and she always thought it was a purely Oxfordshire expression. Not true, apparently, according to the Oxford English Dictionary's Susie Dent in next week's "Radio Times" magazine - just turn to the puzzle pages, at the back of the magazine, IF YOU DARE!!!

"Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs!", to coin a phrase! 

So! It's not an Oxfordshire turn of phrase after all, and I make a mental note to remind Lois next time she says it, to pronounce it in an appropriate (but amusing!) regional accent, as a 'nod' to the phrase's historic roots (!).

And in what's yet another strange coincidence today, Lois and I are pretty tired out this afternoon, going upstairs to bed for 'statutory nap-time', after literally going up and down stairs all morning ourselves today, getting ready for the upcoming visit of our daughter Sarah and family arriving from Perth, Australia at the end of the month, that's for sure!!!!

flashback to July 2025: our lovely little 'Australian family' - our daughter

Sarah, husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica

To make it worse, this morning, I even had to actually get off the sofa (!) and  start mowing the lawn, also somehow finding time to pop out to the town's railway station to buy some tickets for our planned day trip to London with Sarah and family - what madness, isn't it!!! 

Busy, busy, busy!!!

(left) "Well, I'll go to the top of our stairs!", to coin a phrase (!) - the folding

beds we're using to supplement sleeping arrangements during Sarah and family's visit,

and (right) I have to get off my backside as Lois puts it (!) - only joking!!! - 

and mow not just our front lawn, but the tricky "side bit" by the road, which is mad!

(left) Liphook's tiny railway station, and (right) me brandishing tickets for our

planned day-trip to London to (literally!) "see the sights", would you believe!!!!

What madness, isn't it (again) !!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

And I expect you're thinking, "Golly, Lois and Colin, you'll surely be too exhausted this evening to do the puzzles in the back of next week's Radio Times!", but it you're thinking that, you'd be dead wrong, and what a fool you'll think you are when you read that we scored a stonking 8 out of 10 on presenter Clive Myrie's challenging "Mastermind" questions. 

Why not see how many of these 'doozies' YOU can do haha!!!!

And this evening, Lois even has the energy to cook a dish she's never made before, an iconic South African dish, the so-called 'bobotie'  - yum yum!!!

despite her exhaustion, my wife Lois somehow finds the time to

cook us a dish she's never made before - the iconic South African 'bobotie'

And feeling pleasantly refuelled, there's a 'springbok' in our step (South African, geddit!!!), as we 'step' to - where else? The foot of our stairs, of course! And then, we climb upstairs and get into bed again, which 'at the end of the day' is where we normally tend to finish up (!).

Will this do?

[Oh just go to sleep! - Ed]

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

Wednesday June 17th 2026 "Has soccer's World Cup started? Well, you wouldn't know it from the papers!!!"

Yes, Friends, you'll be forgiven for not even realising that soccer's prestigious "World Cup" even has started, across "the pond"! For some people, it's golf that's still trumping soccer, seemingly !!!

golf - an endlessly fascinating subject - for some people!!!!

And once again, today's papers are full of nothing but golf stories. Take this morning's Onion News for proof of that!!!!

What a crazy world we live in !!!

Fortunately, however, today's Onion News, or "Golf Gazette" as my wife Lois and I call it (!), brings a welcome, but vapid smile, to our faces this afternoon, here at our home in semi-attractive Liphook, Hampshire, to put it mildly!

me and my wife Lois, pictured this afternoon on our sofa

And we're trying hard to disguise our amusement because, by complete coincidence, in this week's Radio Times, Susie Dent of the Oxford English Dictionary, no less, is at last explaining the origin of many of those puzzling 'golf' expressions which are all over the papers again today, as per usual (!).

Fascinating stuff, isn't it!

Who knew? !!!!!

Well, who can blame Lois and me for having an easy day today, because we've just returned from a nice mini-break in the Oxford area, seeing our old friend Jen, and going to Lois's great niece Lauren's wedding to Eoine (pronounced Owen would you believe!). 

And now, despite feeling pleasantly exhausted after all the mayhem (!), we're having to adjust to our so-called 'normal life' again, stocking up with food and all that malarkey!!!! 

the scene in Liphook this morning, as Lois and I visit the local Sainsbury's

supermarket to 'stock up' on food, after our 4 day mini-break in Oxford

What madness, isn't it - but we've got to eat!!!!

[Is that all you two 'noggins' have done today, Colin? Done a bit of food shopping, and looked at the Susie Dent column in the Radio Times? - Ed]

Well, no, absolutely not, seeing as how you're asking! 

You see, already, with our Oxford 'mini-break' now over, the next big event on mine and Lois's busy social calendar is already beginning to 'loom dangerously on the horizon', to put it mildly! 

Busy, busy, busy! In just under two weeks' time, and moving perilously closer all the time, is a 3 week visit from our daughter Sarah, who lives in Perth, Australia with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, who'll be here on what we hope will be their annual visit to the UK. 

flashback to last July: Lois, with our daughter Sarah, plus Sarah's husband 

Francis, and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, on the banks of the Thames,

against a backdrop of 'the Mother of Parliaments' on the horizon

The family came here last July, partly funded by Sarah's so-called 'second job', would you believe!

Yes, Sarah 'Two Jobs', as we call her (!), is doing a full-time accountancy job in Perth, while  somehow finding time to simultaneously still do her old accountancy job in Evesham UK. What madness, isn't it !!!!

another flashback to July 2025: Lois and me on a River Thames

sight-seeing cruise, here passing London's tallest building,

the Shard, which appears to grow out of Lois's head - what madness!!!

Ironically, in that picture above, our River Thames sightseeing cruise is just passing the 'pointy' building known as the Shard apparently growing out of Lois's head - not for real, it's just a trick of the camera!, I must stress!

[You don't say! - Ed]

The Shard is the tallest building not just in the UK, but also in the whole of Western Europe, would you believe, at just over 1000 ft high, which is totally mad! In Europe, only buildings in crazy Russia are taller, which kind of makes sense!!!

And during Sarah and family's upcoming trip to the UK, they want to go up the Shard with us, and see the view from the top, after, first, us all going for a lunch cruise on the river. They've asked me to plan the day in London, which I'm struggling with, to be frank. Well, I'm not a travel agent, so haven't got the training, but I'm doing my best!

[My sympathies are with the family, Colin, if you're the one doing the so-called 'planning'! - Ed]

the view from the Shard, Western Europe's tallest building

The lunch cruise finishes at 1:30pm at the Tower of London pier, and then we've got just 45 minutes to get to the Shard at London Bridge, which sounds doable, but what if the lunch cruise overruns? It turns out that if you arrive late at the Shard, they won't let you 'catch up', even by running up the stairs, so essentially you've wasted your money - no refunds!!!!!

Reportedly, to get to the top of the Shard not using the lift, you have to climb 2907 steps. And during the building of the Shard, an urban fox called Romeo famously climbed to the top - perhaps because the lift was full (?). 

What a crazy country we live in !!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Friday June 12th to Tuesday June 16th "The news is all about weddings these days, isn't it!"

Yes, Friends, have YOU noticed how the news is increasingly dominated by wedding stories and 'splashes'? Take today's Onion News as a prime example, and I think you'll see what I mean!

Just look at these headlines, which are totally mad !!!

Certainly, these days it takes something like a family wedding in Oxford to tempt my wife Lois and me to "get off our backsides for once" (as friends have been putting it!) and drive 80 miles from our home in semi-lovely Liphook, Hampshire to go to the wedding, and, at the same time, spend a few days with our old friends Jen and son Daniel in picturesque Kennington, near the River Thames, just outside Oxford, to put it mildly!!!!!

The journey is a whole 80 miles, which is far more than Lois and I tend to travel these days, now that we're fully paid-up "old codgers" (!). 

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

Our car isn't electric, but our own (personal) batteries quickly run out, and so, in order to break what most people would call this really rather insignificant 100-minute trip, needless to say, we say we have to "recharge our batteries" en route, with a slow lunch at wayside pub "The Tandem", no questions asked!!!!!

It's our equivalent of a personal EV charging station, if you'd like to put it that way, which we do !!!!!

an eighty-mile 'big trip' is a bit much for us these days, as fully paid-up

'old codgers', so we break the journey at a pub, to recharge 'our batteries'

We're greeted on arrival by our old friend Jen and son Daniel, who will be hosting us for the next 4 days, and it doesn't take long before Lois and I are falling into our usual bad habits on the sofa (!), with Lois reading a magazine, and me doing a crossword - well, we are both 80, you know, although we don't look it!!! 

[Let's take a vote on that one, Colin! - Ed]

(above) my wife Lois and me, quickly assuming our usual 'position' 

on our friend Jen's sofas, while (below) Jen and son Daniel set to work to

to feed us in the royal manner we've become accustomed to, here, which is nice!

Saturday June 13th

Next day dawns, the Saturday, the day of Lois's great-niece Lauren's wedding to beau Eoine (pronounced Owen - it's one of those weird Irish names (!)), with festivities starting at 3 pm in the garden behind Eoine's parents' lovely cottage in the village of Marsh Baldon. 

And, in the morning, to calm our 'pre-wedding guest nerves' (!), Jen takes us for a nice walk along the River Thames near her house, which is soothing.

to calm our nerves before this afternoon's wedding, our old friend Jen

takes Lois and me for a lovely walk along the River Thames near her house

15:00 The wedding begins - it's quite a big 'do', kind of Anglo-Irish, and groom Eoine's family are here in full force, although not quite as numerous as that of the lovely bride, Lois's great-niece Lauren.

For me personally there's some awkwardness at the beginning, when I discover that, by accident, I've chosen to wear the same colour suit as the groom - a light-to-lightish grey - but I think I get away with it! 

Judge for yourselves, however - and if you agree, let me know - postcards only, as usual!

I think, however, that, among the hundred or so guests, Lois and I certainly get the prize for the most stylish outfits, but again, you can judge that for yourselves - pictures cannot lie!!!!

Lauren and Eoine's story couldn't really be more touching. In their mid-teens back at high school, during science lessons, they were assigned adjacent desks completely by chance, and they just 'clicked' immediately and tried to sit next to each other in other classes too, from that day on. 

After graduating, they went their separate ways, and Lauren left the UK for a couple of years, to teach English at a provincial high school in Japan, and it was only by chance, on Lauren's return to the UK, that she and Eoine happened to bump into each other, both describing the feeling, when they met again, as one of 'coming home'.

This is where Lois and I have a lot of things in common with bride and groom, not just that 'coming home' feeling with each other, but also because I myself spent a student year in Japan 1970-1971, and while I was there, Lois came to stay with me for a couple of weeks. And Lauren and Eoine have agreed to visit us soon at our home in Liphook, to swap stories (and photos) of our respective times in Japan, compare 'souvenir chopsticks' and examine the other souvenir Japanese 'tat', that I've got in a drawer somewhere (!), and all that malarkey (!). 

Should be enormous fun haha !!!!

flashback to 1971: me and Lois in Japan, (top left) at Lake Kawaguchi

near Tokyo, (top right) halfway up Mt.Fuji, and (below) us in kimonos 

at our holiday villa, with Lois doing her version of the 'tea ceremony' (!)

Happy days !!!!!

Sunday June 14th

On the Sunday, we attend the Sunday Morning Meeting organised by Lois and Jen's church in Oxford, a meeting being held, not in their usual church building, because it's currently being renovated, but in a room they church has hired in a local community centre. 

The building is used for services by a number of different denominations, and, while Lois's church is fairly restrained and traditional when it comes to style of music and hymns etc, the church that meets on the floor immediately above is much more flamboyant, to put it mildly, and Jen says they often stamp their feet in time to the singing, and really 'put a lot into it'. Today, however, the worship going on upstairs proves to be relatively moderate, which is a relief!

(top left) Lois showcases a poster advertising the church meeting on the floor above,

and (top right, and below) Lois and Jen's church 'in session' 

with Jen's daughter Naomi (right) on violin 

Monday 15th June

Yes, already it's Monday, our last day here, but just time for another 90-minute walk with Jen along the Thames, which is nice! With the weekend over, Jen's son Daniel has gone into work today, at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. 

Jen and Daniel have really spoiled us during our visit, with lots of nice chat and lovely meals, not forgetting Dan's 9pm 'specials' - hot chocolate with a jam tart or chocolate biscuit.

Yum yum - what's not to like haha!!!

And that's the way you do it! 

So remember, next time you're invited to a wedding near Oxford, why not stay at your nearest friend's house? Not at Jen's, obviously, unless you happen to know her, of course - no casual callers, or 'on speccers', thank you very much, Jen has asked me to make clear !!!!!

(left) the photo that Jen's son Dan took of us three 'old codgers'

on our last evening, and (right) me starting to pack to go home tomorrow

Tuesday June 16th

We go home. And - uh - that's it!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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