Did you read about poor Tim in the Onion News this morning? Like many, he's had to phone into work to explain his unexpected absence. Maybe YOU did the same - there's a lot of it going around at the moment!
And reading the story here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire this chilly morning puts me and my wife Lois in a bit of a quandary, would you believe!
me and my wife Lois - a recent picture
We ourselves, like poor Tim (see Onion story above) are intending to 'hunker down' at home today, for the third day running, but, as we've been officially retired for nearly 20 years, we're uncertain who to ring to explain our absence from our usual walks over places like Radford Park, Liphook United's "hallowed turf", or Old Man Lowsley's Farm etc.
Somebody must be missing our mysterious absence, if it's only the ducks in the duck pond!
Who we gonna call haha !!!!!!
flashback to us in happier times: walking through nearby leafy Radford Park last August
with my younger sister Jill (67), checking out the ducks on the duckpond
There's actually more we can do in the house today than there is outdoors, however, so the "inclement weather" is playing to our strengths, which is nice. And we feel very "warmed up" straight off the bat, talking on whatsapp for our regular Sunday morning "catch-up" with our daughter Sarah, who lives 9000 miles away in Perth, Western Australia, with husband Francis and 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.
On Christmas Day, Western Australia was officially the hottest place on earth, would you believe, with temperatures of 104F (40C). Yikes !!!!!
Sarah and family have just returned from a 2-week camping holiday on Australia's south coast - at Bremer Bay on the Southern Ocean, and poor Sarah has to start back at work tomorrow, not just in Perth but also - online - in Evesham UK. What utter utter utter madness, isn't it !!!!
Yes, she's earning her unofficial moniker of "Sarah Two Jobs", that's for sure! But the family will need the extra cash when the girls start secondary school in February at private Anglican school St James High School. Sarah and Francis have had to shell out already for the uniforms, books, etc and now they've got to buy the girls some so-called "MacBooks" each, or some-such nonsense, whatever those are when they're at home !!!!
the school principal, Adrian Pree, with some of the school's students
All that warm sunshine they're having down there has certainly warmed Lois and me up considerably, which is nice!!!
Later today, however, we're considerably "chilled" again, and not completely in a good way (!), by new photos and texts from our other daughter Alison, currently on holiday in northern Sweden, with husband Edward and their 3 teenage offspring: Josie (19), Rosalind (17) and Isaac (15). They'll be flying back late today, however, although they're coming back tonight on the afternoon flight from Trondheim, just over the border in Norway. Brrrrr!!!!!
The temperature in Trondheim today has 'boasted' a "cool" 14F (-10C) as its so-called "high", would you believe.
An alternative explanation came from the US, however, as Kenneth explains here:
What a crazy planet we live on !!!!!
And luckily there's lots on "the box" this evening to keep Lois and me "moderated", at strictly room-temperature, so that's all good!
Yes, this evening there's a fascinating look-back at the great snows of the winter 1962/3, starts us shivering again, which is a pity! Lois and I both remember that winter well - the worst in the UK for 200 years, when we struggled to get to school through all the snow. We were both just 16 - poor us!!!!
flashback to 1963: me and Lois at 16 - awwwww, bless us !!!!
And how nice to see again veteran news-broadcasters Cliff Michelmore, Derek Hart and Kenneth Allsopp all reporting on the so-called "Big Freeze", back in 1963, when they too were in the prime of their youth.
In tonight's TV documentary from 1963, here's the late Kenneth Allsopp illustrating the cause of the Big Freeze, using some surprisingly primitive, and flimsy, so-called "visual aids" (!!!). Well it was over 60 years ago, so fair enough perhaps!!!!
For the UK, however, some thought the problems we were experiencing that winter stemmed from the fact that we Brits weren't wearing enough clothes. The wife of the then Minister of Power, Richard Wood, came on TV to give the public a lesson or two on suitable winterwear.
Here, veteran broadcaster the late Derek Hart recalls, rather sniffily perhaps, Mrs Wood's surprise intervention.
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!
