Sunday October 25th 2026 "Do YOUR friends secretly admire you for being 'good with worms' ?"

Yes, Friends, some of us have "got it", most haven't, sadly! And it's the ability to 'get up close and personal with the worms in your garden or house' that I'm talking about, as if you didn't know (!).

Well, it's October and 'worms' are big news again this year as they begin to 'bed down' for winter in your flower and vegetable beds - no pun intended!!!! Even Onion News is bringing out specially extended versions of its popular but brief, 3-page "pull-out" Worm News Colour Supplement, which speaks volumes!!! 

And here's "Colin's pick" of today's "dooziest of the dooziest" (!!!) of this week's "worm surprise blockbuster" stories, to put it mildly(!).

It's all a bit mad, if I'm honest! 

But these stories (and a thousand others!) at least bring a hint of a cheeky grin to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-attractive Liphook, Hampshire - and, believe me, there are no lingering doubts about that, that's for sure!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

And we're laughing because today, Steve, are American brother-in-law, has sent us first news of the date and place of next year's World Worm Charming Championships, to take place, on June 26th 2027, near Nantwich Cheshire, UK.

Demand for competitor tickets is bound to be strong, so, if you're planning to "throw your hat in the ring", book your place now! That's my advice!!!

Needless to say, Lois and I would dearly love to be there next June in Nantwich with our fellow worm-charmers - and Lois is said to be able to "charm the pants off any worm within charming distance", although not many people know that! However, looking at my diary, I just can't see how we'll be able to spare the time to compete: that particular Saturday in June is already "choc-a-bloc" with other duties and responsibilities, sad to say !!!!

Look at our diary for today, if you want proof: and I'll send you the 20-page file on request !!!!

09:00 Today starts badly for us, however, because, for possibly the first time ever, we forgot, last night, to put our clocks back an hour to so-called "British Winter Time" (BWT) as we dub the system that carries the more "official", but less colourful, label of what scientists call "Greenwich Mean Time.", which is mad!!! 

the sorry picture of European time-zones: sadly, only Portugal,

often dubbed "Britain's oldest ally", keeps in step with us, which is a pity!

Back in 2004, when Lois and I were still working, believe it or not (!), we had a crazy holiday in London, somehow finding the time to visit Greenwich, just to check out, for ourselves, just how "mean" Greenwich Mean Time was!!!! 

And not many people know that Greenwich, also, boasts the world's oldest shop, would you believe, as we discovered!

flashback to 2004: Lois and I visit Greenwich, on the Thames: (left) the pier, and (right)

me, clowning around, as per usual, in front of "the world's oldest shop", which is mad!

In Perth, Western Australia, however, where our daughter Sarah lives, with husband Francis and their 13-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, they don't go in for any of this crazy clock-changing "malarkey", so we send Sarah a hasty text to rearrange the time of our weekly catch-up zoom call with them.

Here's a map, which should explain everything! And it also pinpoints some of Australia's most iconic "corners". What a great idea! Possibly they're all "accident black spots", so very helpful to highlight these in advance. Motorists, beware!!!!

Why don't we have these so-called "corners" in the UK? (Andy Burnham please note haha!!!). 

Even Australia's so-called "Surveyor-General" has got his own personal one, but I suppose he's in the perfect job to "nobble" one of those for himself, arguably (!). But to this simple blogger, it smacks of corruption at the highest level, excuse me for saying that haha!!!!

09:30 Our zoom call with our daughter Sarah takes place, and it's a real "doozy", which is nice! 

The twins have half-finished their 2026 Halloween costumes that they're going to be trick-or-treating in, this year: they're going as huge jellyfish, with costumes made out of those transparent umbrellas, to which they'll be attaching various 'dangly' things to represent the tentacles etc. 

Although only half-finished, the costumes are modelled for us this morning by Sarah, while the twins are working on their next week "stats test", or some-such nonsense - the young scamps !!!!

our weekly "catch up" zoom call today with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia:

here Sarah models our twin granddaughters' half-finished Halloween costumes:

they'll be going as giant jellyfish - the young scamps!!!!

Eventually the twins tear themselves away from their 'stats' homework (!), and chat to us openly about their hopes and dreams for next Saturday - which is Halloween Night, of course.

Wisely, in our view, they've chosen residents of nearby suburb Eglinton as their "victims", eschewing their own immediate neighbourhood. 

"The houses here are too far apart and the driveways too long", they reason, and that makes perfect sense to Lois and me. After all, maximising the "tonnage of chocolates per square yard" (the dreaded TCPSY factor) is an important "life skill", as well as excellent preparation for their next week's stats test, Lois and I say!!!!

our 13-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica take a quick

break from their "stats" homework, to tell us their 2026 "trick or treat" strategy

The twins also got top marks in their class's recent "Japanese syllabary" test, which is nice to hear!

10:00 Our zoom call with Western Australia ends. 

However, strangely, as Lois and I discover today on Google, Western Australia and [the whole of] China are on exactly the same time-zone year-round, which is weird, especially when you think of the vastness of China, even including Taiwan, which is mad, because it's, like, way out in the Pacific Ocean according to our maps!!!!

And this weird fact is of more than just academic interest to Lois and me, because one of our other grandchildren, Isaac (16), is actually in China at the moment, on a school trip with a handful of his classmates, all planning to take Mandarin Chinese as one of their 3 A-Level subjects, with possibly a degree in Mandarin to maybe follow that - who knows! 

Isaac is the son of our other daughter Alison and husband Edward, and he attends the local high school here in Liphook.

flashback to August: our grandson Isaac's classmates

celebrating their GCSE results at the local high school

Isaac and his little group flew off from London's Heathrow Airport on Monday, arriving in some mad place in southern China called Xiamen or some-such nonsense (!), on either Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday) depending on your time-zone (!)), and today he sends us his first pictures, the young scamp (!) 

Isaac's the one in the weird glasses in picture #1, by the way!

Lois and I feel strangely comforted, seeing these pictures, by the way, and are especially gratified to see in picture #3 (above), that the Chinese have thought of putting instructions in English on "how to take the elevator" - another "life-skill", that sadly has been squeezed off the curriculum in many of our cash-strapped schools and colleges. Andy Burnham please note haha !!!!

How useful and accurate these instructions are, however, is open to some doubt, in our view, when we see the following set of pictures, where, in picture #2, Isaac and one of his buddies have obviously decided, "Oh let's just take the stairs!" and then, later, clearly regretted their decision, which was a pity.

Poor Isaac !!!!

[That's enough grandchildren news! - Ed]

And I remember how confused I felt, when I first stepped out onto the streets of Tokyo for my study-year in Japan. Despite having a degree in Japanese, and having read, like, a billion, books from Japanese medieval classic literature, I still felt utterly bewildered seeing those forests of Japanese signs for the first time. 

Oh dear!!!!

flashback to 1970-1971: (left) me, on arrival in Tokyo, utterly confused by all the Japanese signs

that confronted me, and (right) Lois on her trip out to stay with me in March 1971

But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Saturday October 24th 2026 "Friends, are YOU on 'prescription drugs' currently? Well, don't worry - it's become a bit of an epidemic!!!"

Yes, Friends, are YOU on prescription drugs currently?

Many of us are, aren't we - in fact, it's become a bit of an 'epidemic' - no pun intended !!!!

Onion News has recently debuted their bright-and-breezy "Your Prescription Drugs Tonight" mini-pull-out colour supplement - did you pull YOURS out, I wonder!!!!

Just look at these "doozies" from this, their first-ever issue !!!!!

These stories - and, like, a billion others like them, in the same vein (again, no pun intended!!!) bring the ghost of a smile to the face of me and my wife Lois, here in semi-digestible Liphook, Hampshire - no question about that!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

We're laughing because we spend much of the morning, getting ready for next Thursday's online meeting of the local U3A "Intermediate Danish for Old Codgers" group, which we manage, "for our sins" (!!!!).

Our little group is currently reading a Danish murder mystery, Anna Grue's "Judaskysset" ("The Judas Kiss"), all about a young Danish "romance scammer", Jay, who's been wheedling his way into bed with a succession of menopausal Danish women, before wheedling his way into their bank accounts.

The young scamp!!!!

(left) Danish crime-writer Anna Grue, and her whodunnit "Judaskysset" 

(The Judas Kiss) and (right) a typical Danish menopausal woman 

with a typical young-to-youngish "romance scammer"

Jay is basically a very self-centred man, prone to roll over and  'steal the bedclothes' off his menopausal victims whenever he's "finished with them", and when this happens, these women's so-called "hot flushes" have been coming in handy for them, on more than one occasion (!), And this always gives a giggle to our little language group, which, by coincidence, consists of predominantly menopausal women also, which is nice!

Today, Lois and I have been preparing "vocab lists" for the online meeting next week. 

Our little group has got to the part of the story where the police are onto Jay. And they've been taking the opportunity to search his hotel room, while the young scamp is away "on a break" from his exhausting work (!), taking time off somewhere in some vast Danish forest or other, which should restore him to his usual vigour (!), with any luck!

And, failing that, the young scamp has got some pills he can take, as detectives find when they search his hotel room, so that's a comfort !!!!

in this passage, Danish detective Flemming searches through

romance scammer Jay's hotel room, finding some suspicious

tablets [Danish: tabletter], some white and some blue

Poor Jay. With all his aging female scam-victims to deal with, like many of us, he's plainly suffering from overwork !!!!!

He's not the only one! Lois and I also have work to do, trying to "keep up with him", to put it mildly, writing out, and emailing off (to our group), extensive Danish-English vocabulary lists, like nobody's business!!!!

Lois and me trying, in vain (!), to control a typical rowdy

online meeting of our "Intermediate Danish for Old Codgers" group

Lois and I have been self-confessed "medium grade addicts" of the Intermediate Danish language for nearly 15 years, since our daughter Alison and family moved to Copenhagen in 2012. We picked up a smattering of the language during that time, and are eager to spread knowledge of Intermediate Danish to our new friends and neighbours here in Liphook, since moving to the town back in January 2025 - a move that seems a lifetime ago to us now, believe it or not!!!

It's just been non-stop, 24 / 7 !!!!! No wonder our new neighbours have dubbed us "possibly Liphook's busiest-looking couple", a charge we have to hold up our hands to, no question about that!!!!

flashback to 2013: Lois and me at the visitor centre, at the Viking Ship burial

ground at Ladby, Denmark, larking about, dressing up as Vikings - always great fun!

And yes, today is already turning into another frantic "busy busy busy" day for Lois and me, which should come as not surprise to my regular readers, to put it mildly!!!!

We were up at the crack of dawn today (8:30am, would you believe!!!) to get ready for old "curtain guy" Bill from Hillary's Blinds, who's coming to measure us us for a brand new set of curtains - not for us to wear (!), but for our living-room window, which should stop our nosy neighbours seeing some of the crazy things Lois and I get up to, in the evenings especially!!!!

[Watching you watching the "telly", do you mean? - Ed]

We always feel sorry for poor Bill, who's obviously at retirement age, and probably wants to quit soon, but he seems to manage okay, which is nice!

Flashback to March: Yours Truly relaxing on the sofa, while (background)  "Bill 

from Hillary's", as we call him, makes

his way up and down step-ladders to install

a shiny new curtain on the patio doors in our kitchen-diner

Poor Bill !!!!!

14:00 At last it's afternoon! Bill has gone home, and we've had lunch, so finally Lois and I can relax in bed for "statutory nap-time", with the latest named storm, "Storm Boelo" (if you please - what kind of a name is that ???!!! - answers on a postcard!!!), beating against our bedroom window, which is mad! 

A re-run of yesterday afternoon, in other words, when we had to cope with "Storm Austen", if you please!!!!!

this afternoon's crazy weather, Storm Boelo if you please (!), winds of 46 mph

disturbing our "statutory naptime" for the second day running, which is mad!!!

Apart from ourselves, it's the organiser's of our town's so-called "carnival" that we feel most sorry for !!! 

It's the last full weekend before Halloween, so a lot of people are watching the weather forecasts, that's for sure!!!!

Poor organisers !!!!!

However, kudos also to Google's wonderful AI chatbots for their helpful comments (see graphic above, rights, ringed), on "the key reasons for all the cancellations", which Lois and I found particularly enlightening.

But what a crazy country we live in !!!!!

And the "key question" for us (!) remains unanswered! Retired now for 20 years, we wonder, "How did we ever find the time to go to work, back in the day?" !!!! And again, YOUR suggestions would be helpful. And, again, postcards only, please, if you'd be so kind !!!!!

20:00 Thoughts of the ship burial that Lois and I visited in Denmark back in 2013 tonight, as we tune in to Bettany Hughes latest fascinating Channel 4 documentary, "Secrets of the Viking Ship".

A total of 41 Viking bodies were dug up at Salme, Estonia in 2008, almost certainly buried by their comrades, after a battle with the locals. 

Yikes!!!

And DNA evidence and collagen traces in these poor men's teeth, have pinpointed the exact valley in Sweden, the Malaren Valley, where the men were born and grew up, which is weird! 

And an amazing fifteen of the men's ships have even been found buried there with them too, which is mad, one of them being 50ft long (16m) ! They're the earliest Viking ships that have ever been found.

The campaign that led to the men's deaths in Estonia may even have been written about. The Ynglinga Saga, an 800-year-old Swedish saga, tells of a failed Viking expedition to Estonia, in which a Swedish king, Yngvar took part, a king who, according to legend, came from the Malaren Valley. And one of the bodies found at Selme was clearly a very high status individual, so maybe he was Yngvar, although the jury's still out on that one!

The Ynglinga Saga is a peculiar mix of myth and history. Written in the late 12th century to early13th century it begins with tales of the god Odin, father of Thor and king of the Viking gods. 

Later chapters, however, are more factual, which is fortunate!!!! The saga tells the story of King Yngvar going out raiding. It describes how he travelled to "Estland" (Estonia), and the saga tells about his battles with the Estonians.

 

Dating-wise the findings are sensational to historians.Whether kING Yngvar was one of the victims or not, all the bodies found at Selme died at some point between 770 and 775 AD, so pre-dating the attack on the island of Lindisfarne, Northumberland, off the north east coast of England. 

The Lindisfarne attacks were previously thought to be the official start of the Viking Age, with the attack there by Vikings in 793AD.

 

So this new evidence from Estonia of even earlier attacks must be bad news, we suspect, for the gift shops of Lindisfarne - no question about that!!!!

Poor gift-shop owners !!!!!

But what a crazy world we live in !!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go back to bed! - Ed]

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