Yes, Friends, if you've never stayed in an Airbnb, you won't perhaps know that half the fun is falling over [perhaps literally!!!] things that previous guests have left behind, and which somehow have escaped being "hoovered up" or "sanitised" by the owners!!!!
But when it happens, you never forget it, do you! It stays with you for life!
Back of the net !!!!!
One lucky Airbnb guest was "all over" the middle pages of today's Onion News for East Hampshire - have you opened YOUR print edition yet, I wonder !!!!! If not there's a holiday treat in store for you on page 94, so pick it up off YOUR doormat - and no ifs, ans or buts!!! Do it NOW!!!!
Poor Roth !!!!
But Roth's "feel-good" story brings a cheeky smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois in bed this morning, here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, as the true extent of Roth's good fortune slowly begins to sink in with us!
my wife Lois and me - recent pictures
And it's a very timely story, because all over Hampshire, we're guessing that couples are "breaking out" their Christmas jigsaw puzzles, as the excitement over other gifts begins to wane, and tabletops are being cleared ready for the "official" start of Holiday Season Phase II - "Finding that Jigsaw Puzzle that we got given this year" (!), in our case a thoughtful Jane Austen-themed present from our dear elder daughter Alison.
(left) my wife Lois showcases a handy guide to what the jigsaw will
look like, when complete, and (right) the handy sheet introducing
many of Austen's most unforgettable characters
It's all so very appropriate for mine and Lois's first ever Christmas in Hampshire. We moved into our house here, just down the road from Austen's little cottage(s), almost exactly a year ago - on January 3rd 2025. [You don't say! - Ed]
And, by as early as 4:30 pm this Sunday, would you believe, as you can see in the pictures above, Lois has already sorted out the pieces into three piles: the corners, the edges and the rest, so it'll be "full steam ahead" tomorrow, that's for sure. So watch this space !!!
[Is that all you two 'noggins' have done today, Colin - sorted out a jigsaw puzzle pieces into three piles? - Ed]
Well, seeing as you ask, "Absolutely not!!!". We've had quite a busy day, actually. This morning we drove to Lois's church for the Sunday Morning Meeting in a village hall outside Petersfield. The hall was freezing as usual - brrrr!!!! Luckily, as a precaution, I had donned a third pullover to add to the two I already wear routinely (!), so that was all good !!!!
(left) a recent Sunday Morning Meeting of Lois's church, with noted archaeologist member
Grahame stooping to talk to church elder Richard's wife Glynis, and (right)
a frozen Yours Truly and wife Lois shivering in our coats, scarves, and multiple sweaters (!)
We sit by noted Hampshire archaeologist Grahame, who, as usual, has a sob story about his "rogue" tooth, which keeps falling out - he was in the dentist chair, yet again, just yesterday, the day after Boxing Day, as his dentist "shoved it back in again", as Grahame puts it. And he reminds us about how the BBC is still refusing to pay for his treatment, despite having paid for similar work inside the mouth of rival archaeologist, TV's Prof. Alice Roberts.
Another sad case of BBC "ageism", we suspect!
(left) flashback to August when noted archaeologist Grahame takes us and a group of
other church-members around Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester), and (right) rival archaeologist
TV's Prof Alice Roberts - see her lovely smile-to-camera, as she digs up a Roman villa at Kettering
Poor Grahame!!!!
18:00 Time for a lovely pork roast dinner followed by Christmas pudding with custard - yum yum! - and a look at this week's Antiques Roadshow.
We can't eat it on the dining-table in our kitchen-diner, however, which is now officially "jigsaw territory" (!), so, as an emergency measure, we set up our plastic round garden-table in the living-room, nonchalantly throwing an old tablecloth over it, as if it were the easiest thing in the world, having already checked the table rigorously for spiders and other wildlife (!).
"Exiled" from our kitchen-diner dining-table by the Jane Austen jigsaw,
we install a romantic ex-garden-table-for-two in the living-room corner,
sticking a tablecloth on it, as if it were the easiest thing in the world,
having already checked it rigorously for spiders and other wildlife (!)
It's another good example of mine and Lois's supreme "
adaptability" - we're both old codgers, and we've seen something of life in our previous 79 years, would you believe (!), and we're ready as always to change our sitting positions when necessary, however deep-seated those positions may be -
no pun intended !!!We're a couple of self-confessed old "boomers", that's for sure, and we were both brought up fairly strictly by today's standards.
flashback to the late 1940's: us in the "Ration Book Years" - (left) me with my little
sister Kathy, and (right) Lois in the garden of her parents' "prefab" - the prefabricated
housing extensively used as a quick solution to the housing shortage after World War II
Life may have been hard, but our upbringing in the 1940's and 1950's toughened us both up - that's for sure!
And in tonight's Antiques Roadshow, there's a nice example of those days, when presenter Fiona Bruce talks to the series' long-standing pottery expert John Sandon, who's been discharging that role for 40 years.
Back in 1985, Sandon actually took over that job from his father Henry, who had been the show's pottery expert for the previous 6 years, starting in 1979. So it's been very much "a family affair", to put it mildly!
Tonight, Henry tells presenter Fiona Bruce how his father Henry prepared him for the role of pottery expert in the family's back garden in Worcester, digging up broken pieces of old pottery and sticking them together again, using whatever, in the 1960's, passed as the equivalent of today's "super-glue" (!).
Henry didn't however, limit this activity to the family's back-garden. He used to take young John for walks in Worcester city centre, and do the same things, or similar, there, would you believe.
Poor John!!!!
What madness !!!! And in a way, lowering young John into a hole dug by workmen is perhaps uncomfortably reminiscent of Victorian days when they used to send small boys up chimneys to clean away the accumulated layers of soot (!).
And there's a deeper question here, isn't there. Should we expect small boys to do jobs we're not prepared to do ourselves?
I wonder....!
Still life was hard back then in the 1960's, and those early experiences obviously had an enduring influence on young John, and made him the tough, no-nonsense antique-pottery-expert he is today, which is a worthwhile outcome, to put it mildly!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!!
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