December 25th 2025 "As a young person, do YOU have multiple fears about growing old? Well, join the club!!! "

Yes Friends, do you, as a young person, have multiple fears about growing old, and being suddenly aware that you can no longer do the things you most want to do?

It's happening to that young woman that's all over the local papers this morning, and here's Onion News for East Hampshire "take" on the story  everybody's talking about this Christmas Day morning!

Poor Olivia!!!

It's a story that resonates with me and my wife Lois, in bed here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, as we "leaf" through the paper [no pun intended!!!] this Christmas Day morning, no doubt about that!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

As a young couple, we're approaching the New Year with multiple inner, unspoken fears, because 2026 will be the year that we both become officially 'old'. Yes, next year we're finally going to reach the ripe old age of 80 years would you believe! 

"Old before our time!" is how we're dubbing the coming bombshell next year (!) - but we realise it's our own fault,, for being born far too early, which is a pity!

flashback to the late 1940's: "born too early"- our tragic mistake!!!! (left) an early

picture of Lois with younger brother Andrew outside the family's "prefab" in Oxford,

and (right) me with my dear late parents Ken (32) and Hannah ("Nan"), (27), outside Dover

And today, on our 79th Christmas Day, Lois and I get multiple reminders of how we're getting "a bit old for it", to put it mildly!

First up, we get a "ride", courtesy of our 50-year-old daughter Alison, who picks us up at 11am sharp and whisks us away to her family home 10 miles away in Churt, Surrey, to spend the big day with her and her family - I no longer trust myself to drive in the dark along the crazy country roads of Hampshire and Surrey, narrow with so-called "passing places", full of potholes and with, like, a billion twists and turns - more probably (!), around which some crazy local is liable to come speeding at 60 mph in the opposite direction, like there's no tomorrow, and nobody else on the road! What madness !!!!

a typical narrow country lane in Hampshire/Surrey - what madness!!!!

And later, after the meal and the King's Speech, the family - Alison, husband Edward, and their 3 teenage offspring Josie (19), Rosalind (17), and Isaac (15), tiptoe tactfully away, leaving "granny and poppa", aka Lois and me, to doze off on the couch watching a TV retrospective on 1970's sitcom "Dad's Army". Finally around 6pm Alison tactfully (again!) drives Lois and me home, where we can doze off on our own couch watching a TV retrospective on 1980's sitcom "Ever Decreasing Circles".

Poor us !!!!!

 

we watch this year's King's Speech, before Alison and family

tiptoe tactfully away to let Lois and me doze on the couch

watching a TV retrospective on 1970's sitcom Dad's Army

- what madness (again) !!!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

Having said that, Lois and me have a super day - we only have naps when we're feeling really contented and fulfilled and, preferably, surrounded by our lovely family, conscious of just how lucky we are, to put it mildly!

First the delicious and plentiful Christmas meal, cooked by our son-in-law Edward, with some outside contributions, including Lois's Christmas Pudding - made from her grandma's 150-year-old Oxfordshire country recipe: yum yum!

Then we do the present unwrapping - and this year's "Star Present Award" goes to Edward's parents, who, thoughtfully, have sent him an HG headstone spray to stop his garden antique statuary going green, which is a nice touch! 

And Lois, in playful mood, asks Edward if she can borrow the spray to use on me, of all people!!! 

How we laugh!!! She's only joking, though, or is she? Your views welcome - postcards only haha !!!!

Here it is in close-up, this year's Christmas 2025 "gift of the year", from Edward's parents: new HG Spray. Get yours today - stocks are running out fast haha !!!!

For the man who has everything haha !!!!

Well, Yours Truly and Lois too (aka Mrs Yours Truly) may both be looking a bit green about the edges these days, but we show the youngsters a thing or two, when the games are brought out, that's for sure!

First up is "Mapominoes", where Lois and I predictably "wipe the board" with our younger relations, to make an extreme understatement !!!!! 

It's a version of dominoes but one in which you need a good knowledge of UK geography, a subject which, seemingly, they no longer teach kids at school. Each of the 200-odd cards illustrates one of the UK's counties: in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and you can only put a card down next to a neighbouring county. Simples, really, at least for two "old codgers" like Lois and me.

What a crazy country we live in !!!!

a game of "Mapominoes" - and the winners are (predictably) Lois and me, 

who know the UK's counties backwards, from our schooldays in the 1950's, would you believe!!!

And even during the later game which I call "Name That Tune", us old codgers show the youngsters a thing or two - I can't remember what the game's real name is, but you have to able to "name that tune" from the last 100 years of popular music and also, which is much harder, to have a rough idea of what year the song was first released. Oh yes, I've just remembered - the game's called "Hitster", which is appropriate (!).

It's a souped-up" modern game, however, because Alison has to use her mobile phone to play the tunes - the game, as well as involving cards and tokens, is partly on some sort of "app", or some-such nonsense (!). Nevertheless Edward, Lois and I, playing as a team, turn out to be the surprise winners, thanks to our combined long span of years listening on the radio to what my dear late father used to call "rubbish", and thanks also to Edward's aggressive "gamesmanship", taking advantage of our opponents' "snafus". 

Well, Edward is a hotshot London lawyer in real life, and he knows how to spot the smallest breach of the game's complicated rules, and with his jaunty "Objection, Your Honour!" style interruptions proving appealing [no pun intended!!!] to Judge Lois, many of Edward's so-called "objections" are "sustained", which is an enormous help, you would not believe (!).

So "Kudos, Edward !!!!"

 a typical lawyer's "objection" - those 'grammar police'

still making occasional arrests, seemingly!!!!

But also Kudos Lois and me !!! On the whole, I think (with a little help at times from lawyer Edward), Lois and I "acquit ourselves" marvellously - no pun intended!!!! 

[That's enough unfunny puns! - Ed]

And the takeaway, I think, if you read the transcripts (!), is that "Old Codgers Rule", even if we do need a squirt of new HG spray occasionally, just to stop us going green around the edges (!).

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to  bed - zzzzzzz!!!!

Wednesday December 24th 2025 "Is there a 'black sheep' in YOUR family? Bet it's YOU haha!!!"

Yes, Friends, is there a black sheep in YOUR family? And I bet it's you - at least if today's "splash" headlines in the local Onion News for East Hampshire are to be believed!

And what my wife Lois and I say, as we laugh over the story in bed this morning, here in our new home in semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, is... "Poor Mr and Mrs Kemble"!!! 

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

Yes, poor Mr and Mrs Kemble, finding themselves, perhaps gradually over the years, to be the "shepherds" of a whole flock of "black sheep", and "Kudos" to them for not "throwing in the towel" yonks ago!!!! And if you're saying to yourself, "I've read that story before!", you're probably right, because it's featured in the paper's popular "From the Archives" column near the bottom of page 94, would you believe!!!!

10:30 Lois and I first read that Onion News story many years ago, and that picture of young Anna Kemble, painting by herself at the campsite, comes back to us to haunt us this morning, as we talk to our dear younger daughter Sarah, 9000 miles away in Bremer Bay, Western Australia this morning, and we see pictures of her little family - husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.

It's already dark there would you believe, due to the 8-hour time difference with the UK, and the campsite is alive with children's voices still, we can tell from the little film that Sarah shoots for us. Let's hope all that "mayhem" dies down eventually and the family can get some much-needed sleep after their punishing 350-mile drive down there on Sunday from their home in Yanchep, in Perth's northern suburbs. 

What madness, isn't it !!!!

some "stills" from the video clip our daughter Sarah shoots for us today from

the family's campsite in Bremer Bay, W. Australia: (left) husband Francis's view

from his folding chair, and the cheery waves Lois and I receive from (centre) our 

12-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica, and (right) our son-in-law Francis

And Lois and I didn't know, until today, that the British Naval Officer, after whom Bremer Bay is named, was a local Hampshire lad, born just down the A3 from us, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, before going on to lead a crazy life in "the Queen's Navee", getting up to all sorts of crazy antics all over the world, being finally dying and, being buried, in 1850, in Plymouth, Devon.

Kudos, 'Baldy' haha !!!!

But what a crazy world they lived in, back in those far-off times !!!!!

11:00 For Lois and me this morning, a day of "tying up loose ends" is beginning, having our weekly shower, checking the tyres on our little car, and making some last-minute extra jam-tarts and mince-pies ["not a success", Lois says (!)], wrapping our presents to each other [not shown] - you know the sort of thing!

 a last-minute Christmas Eve batch of jam tarts and mince pies etc, 

which Lois dubs "not a success" - wrong sort of flour apparently (!)

What madness !!!!! [That's enough madness! - Ed]

The pressure is off Lois and me a bit today, because, from 11 am tomorrow, our other daughter Alison, will be coming by to "whisk us away" to her home 10 miles away in Churt, just over the county line in Surrey, where we'll spend a traditionally lovely merry Christmas Day with Alison's family - husband Edward and their 3 teenage kids, Josie (19), Rosalind (17) and Isaac (15).

our daughter Alison with husband Edward and their 3 teenage kids

- a recent picture

It'll be a traditional Christmas turkey-with-all-the-trimmings meal tomorrow, cooked by Edward, followed by an afternoon of present-unwrapping by the Christmas tree - "as in days of yore". And Lois and I can still vividly remember Christmas Days in the 1950's and 1960's, gathered round the tree on Christmas Day afternoon, with our parents and siblings, although no pictures survive: in those crazy days we had to go outdoors if we wanted to take photos, unless you had some sort of fancy flash-bulbs, ,which was a pity!

These two photos are from our daughter Alison's first-ever Christmas, back in 1975, at my parents' home in Headington, Oxford, featuring my dear sister Jill and my dear late brother Steve - dig that crazy hair !!!! And not to forget my parents' crazy spaniel Luke, who insisted on being photographed with the group - dig those crazy eyes!!!!

And much later from the 1990's here's a Christmas Day dinner picture featuring  my dear late parents and Kathy my dear late sister, who had flown here from the States for the holidays, with American husband Steve : my parents being younger then than Lois and I are now, at Christmas 2025 - yikes !!!!!

Those 'golden, happy olden days of yore' eh !!!! Yes, happy times!!!!

And not to forget mine and Lois's craziest Christmas ever, in 1981, when we were preparing to pack up and move to the States for 3 years. Our younger daughter Sarah (4) somehow got a bad eye infection and had to spend a week in hospital over Christmas, and Lois and I took turns to spend the night there with her.

flashback to Christmas 1981: (top) our younger daughter Sarah (4) somehow got

a bad eye infection and had to spend Christmas in hospital, and (below) 

happily out of hospital, and back home, seen here by our Christmas tree with her sister Alison (6)

We won't forget that Christmas, that's for sure!

And no Christmas Eve is ever complete without seeing the annual awards for the "Gone Fishing" angling programme, the series presented by angling enthusiasts and media celebs Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer. 

And after some more fishing expeditions in the rivers of Devon and Cornwall, the mood quietens for the evening's supper at a local restaurant, where anticipation is on the rise, ahead of the series' annual awards ceremony, presided over by Bob himself:

First up is the series' prestigious "Employee of the Year" award, which, again this year, Bob has awarded to himself:

Next up is the series' final award, the even more prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award:

So fair enough, Lois and I think! And that's one achievement we've had ourselves, which is a comfort!

Ted gets his own little crown, which is a nice touch, we feel!

It's becoming clear, by this point, however, that Bob's co-presenter Paul is going to be walking away from the ceremony empty-handed again. And there's a bit of an ugly scene, when Paul walks out of the restaurant in protest:

A pity that Ted decides to eat his crown later, but, as for Paul, doesn't he know that nobody loves a sore loser - it isn't exactly rocket science is it !

the scene later, when Ted can be seen eating his "Lifetime Achievement Award"

a small crown, in the gutter outside the restaurant 

Poor Paul !!!!! Better luck next year haha !!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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