Wednesday January 21st 2026 "Decoded! Another 'secret message' from an iconic 1970's rock band!"

Yes, Friends, another 'secret message', hidden in a vintage recording from an iconic 1970's rock band, has been decoded, after lying undiscovered for 50 years, thanks to a massive super-computer. Surely this must be the dawning of the so-called "Age of Aquarius", predicted for so long !!!! 

Onion News has more......

Kudos, those hard-working decoders! Those guys who've managed to reveal the secret purpose behind the album after only 5 decades, which must be a record in itself - no pun intended!!!!

And reading the Onion story this morning, here in partly-bucolic Liphook, Hampshire, brings a bedraggled smile to the lips of my wife Lois and me, tinged perhaps with more than an ounce of regret, regret that Ozzy's "instructions" weren't available to music-lovers at the time, maybe resulting in more than a few albums being cast aside by puzzled fans, maybe?

I wonder....!!!

my wife Lois and me - some recent pictures

And the reason for the smile? Well, we're expecting a visit this morning from our 50-year-old daughter Alison, whose son Isaac (15) was rocking last night with his band New Horizon, playing a gig at the iconic "Drummond" venue in nearby Guildford, just over the county line in Surrey. Though it was "a vile evening" in terms of weather, Ali tells us, Isaac's boy-girl band got a good reception from a packed crowd in the pub, a promising omen for the upcoming local "Battle of the Bands", which will be another milestone  hopefully, on their journey to stardom, fingers crossed!!!

(left) our daughter Alison (50) drops by from her home in nearby Churt, Surrey, 

this morning for a "catch-up", and (right) Alison's son Isaac (15) singing his band's 

version of McFly's 2004 hit "Five Colours In Her Hair" last night at a Guildford pub 

To qualify for the local Battle of the Bands, the group has to come up with a self-penned song, and Nicole one of the band's 2 female guitarists has come with a real "doozy", Ali tells us.

Go Nicole! And go Isaac!  

And the news brings back to my mind my own song-writing career in the iconic "1980 to 2010" years, when my writing was probably at its sharpest. Although none of my songs was "picked up" by a nationally-known rock band, I feel that they nevertheless had a "subliminal" influence on the rock scene, much like Ozzy Osbourne's finally-decoded "secret messages" might have done, maybe. 

I wonder....!

flashback to the early 1980's and possibly my most productive years

as a young dad and songwriter: seen here in our living-room in

Columbia Md USA, able to shatter the glass in a patio door (left) from 3ft away,

with the sheer power of my voice. What a guy! What a voice!

Remember my haunting rock ballad "It's a Lonely Life for a Frog [When Your Best Friend is Ice Cream]"? Or my iconic rock anthem "Baton Betty, Duran Duran"? Or my unashamed "crowd-pleaser", "GB Liners - a Rumdummy Rumdummy Rummy-doo-wah" ? 

My obvious influences - the Fisher-Price Camper Set action green 'frog' figure, the iconic Old Maid "Baton Betty" card, 1980's pop sensation Duran Duran, and top UK removal firm GB Liners - were pretty eclectic at that time, to put it mildly, but none the worse for that, bringing a much-needed freshness, hopefully, to the notoriously hide-bound world of UK rock music!

flashback to some of my major influences as a young-to-youngish song-writer:

the Fisher Price camper set action figures, and Old Maid's iconic "2 - Baton Betty" card

Happy days!!!!

Apart from our daughter Ali's visit this morning, this Wednesday is a bit of a quiet day for Lois and me. The weather continues to be "vile" - wet and windy, and also chilly, with a high of just 49F (9.5C) so no chance of venturing outdoors for our daily walk today, which is a pity, and the outlook isn't much better. 

Oh dear!!!! 

What a crazy country we live in !!!!

In this kind of weather, what can I do but put my dreams of becoming a major song-writer back in their box, at least for this year!

Maybe 2027 will be my "break-out year" - sigh !!!!!!!

21:00 And somebody else "had her dreams put back in a box", long ago, as we discover watching the third programme in Alice Roberts' new series of "Digging for Britain", the series which gives an overview of some of the most iconic archaeological excavations carried out in the UK over the last 12 months. In tonight's programme, Alice is surveying sites in the south of England.

The little box I'm talking about, and which Alice is examining in the photo above, was found in the grave of a young woman in her twenties, after her skeleton had been unearthed from a newly-discovered, 2000-year-old Roman-period cemetery, outside the Cotswold village of Broadway, Worcestershire. 

The tiny box in the woman's grave was a unique find - a small, beautifully decorated, box made of bone, with a slide-opener that still works (!), but which was discovered to be pretty much empty, which is weird.

The tiny box, although empty, was found to be very greasy inside. And researchers speculate that it could have once contained some cream or ointment for the young woman to smear onto her aching limbs in the "afterlife"; examination of her skeleton has revealed that she must have suffered from severe inflammation.

Lois and I always find "grave goods" incredibly touching. Sometimes they're useful objects for "the journey", something medicinal, as here, or money to pay the "boatman" to take you to "the other side". Or maybe the deceased's favourite ornaments or jewellery in this life, to give them pleasure in the new one. Whatever was chosen to put in the grave, it must have been an agonising choice for their loved ones, the ones left behind to grieve over them.

Rest in peace, with your ointment to soothe you, Roman woman!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Tuesday January 20th 2026 "Want to look more 'businessy' at YOUR job today? Here are some ideas for you!!!! !?

Yes, Friends, the world of business is changing fast, that's for sure! And with that trend come new strategies for looking more 'business-y', like, and maybe catching the eyes of that vital "promotion board" along the way !!!!

Onion News has more:

My wife Lois and I, reading this story this morning here in semi-charming Liphook, Hampshire, find a curious, sideways, chuckle developing in what we call our "oral regions" (!), to put it mildly! And 

"Kudos, McGale!", is our cry, for at last bringing that notorious dinosaur of the local economy, Nexus Solutions, kicking and screaming into the 21st century !!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

And it's ironic that today, Lois and I will be dragging each other kicking and screaming not into the 21st century, but back into the 18th century, when we take our daily walk, which this morning takes us over lovely local beauty spot, the Devil's Punchbowl, a natural 1000ft crater deep in the Surrey hills, which is nice!

We're reminded also, when we stop for one of our many "little rests" (!), that wearing a "sailor-suit" didn't save the career of one poor sailor back in 1786, when he was robbed and murdered by 3 men at a lonely spot here. It lies just next to the muddy trackway that, in those crazy, far-off days was the main road between London and Portsmouth: the road that high admirals like Horatio Nelson once travelled on, on their journey to and from work, would you believe!!!

The three murderers of that poor sailor, whose name, even, isn't known, fled over the county line into Hampshire/West Sussex, but they were arrested when found trying to sell that poor sailor's clothes. They were brought back into Surrey on a "long-cart", and once back in Surrey, the three men were questioned by the  local JP (Justice of the Peace), James Fielding, who found that they indeed had a case to answer, and he committed them for trial at Kingston, where they were sentenced to be hanged.

flashback to this morning: Lois and I, on our daily walk over the Devil's Punchbowl

stop to read the signboard to the unknown sailor murdered here in 1786

The weird thing is that James Fielding, the JP who committed the murderers for trial, was not just a JP, but also a "Reverend" in the Church of England, and also, almost certainly, was a part-time highwayman himself. 

Kudos, James for your "multi-tasking" (!) but I guess it meant him pulling a lot of "all-nighters", which can't have been good for his health, to put it mildly!!

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

11:00 And after our walk, during which we were constantly fighting a bitterly cold south-easterly wind, it's nice for Lois and me to warm up with a coffee at the Devil's Punchbowl cafe, taking a table near to the cafe's roaring fire, and ordering cheese scones instead of pastries, would you believe! Well, with Lois's 2025 Christmas cake now completely devoured, today is "the first day of the rest of our lives", and marks the start of the obligatory "new year's diet" (!!!!), and not before time!!!

we warm up in the Devil's Puncbbowl cafe, taking a table next to the roaring fire,

and ordering cheese scones instead of doughnuts - yes, the New Year's Diet has begun haha!!!

13:00 Back home for a meagre lunch (!), Lois and I find there's plenty to talk about, as per usual (!!!). 

Tunde, my Hungarian penfriend has sent us news of one of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's millionaire buddies, Lorinc Meszaros, once a humble gas-fitter, who's climbed the ranks to become Hungary's richest man. In Hungary, one of Europe's poorest countries, Meszaros has got rich on multiple government construction contracts, and has now been dubbed one of the country's most powerful "oligarchs". 

And guess what? Meszaros went to school with Prime Minister Orban back in the day - surprise surprise!

Hungary's ex-gas fitter and now the country's richest man, 

seen here back in the day with childhood buddy Viktor Orban, 

now the country's Prime Minister

Lois and I are keen followers of the news, believe it or not (!), and we've noticed that many foreign countries these days are ruled by billionaires - President Donald Trump of the US is a prime example. 

However, we can't write Donald off as "just one more billionaire oligarch" (!), because he continues to surprise us with some of his unexpected, and somewhat endearing traits, like his passion for collecting other people's medals (!), like the Nobel Peace Prize recently won by Maria Machado, Venezuela's courageous opposition leader.

There must be a lot of similar unwanted "gongs" just lying around, idly, in drawers and cupboards around the world,  and I remark to Lois that, wouldn't it be a nice gesture for their owners to send these 'bits of metal' to Donald for his "collection", maybe!

I wonder....!

Lois tells me that in this week's Radio Times, there's a letter from a reader in praise of actress Sally Lindsay, TV's "Madame Blanc", who was obviously a bit embarrassed about receiving an MBE medal from King Charles recently. Sally has now decided to dedicate her medal to the UK's [struggling] working-class actors, who find it so hard to get parts when they're competing with actors who went to "poncy" private schools.

The Radio Times reader who wrote to the magazine, has noticed that in the new series of "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries", the lead role of sleuth Inspector Lynley is being played by Leo Suter, the privately-educated scion of a "business-people" family, while Lynley's working-class sidekick is being played by Sofia Barclay, the granddaughter of a billionaire (see picture above).

At a time when people the world over are trying to "placate" Donald using various subterfuges, wouldn't it be a nice gesture for actress Sally to give him her MBE medal for his collection? I'm sure Donald must be harbouring a grudge that King Charles has "overlooked" him, yet again, this time in favour of a humble TV actress, like Sally?

I wonder......!

19:00 Lois and I felt really good after our punishing walk in the bitter winds this morning, and it's clear that we got a real buzz from the exercise, as a lot of people do. 

However, we learn from this evening's first programme in the new BBC2 series of "Winterwatch" that animals like it too, which is interesting. Here lead presenter Chris Packham tells colleague Michaela Strachan (cute hat!!!) about an interesting experiment by Dutch scientists.

Scientists from the Netherlands conducted an experiment, Chris explains, leaving miniature "running wheels" out in the wild, and putting little bits of food by them, to act as bait.

No! Not just mice! The Dutch scientists found that passing frogs "gave it a go" too, and even slugs, although at a noticeably more 'laid-back' pace (!) - more like Yours Truly would, probably (!).

Eventually the scientists stopped leaving the bits of food by the equipment, but the little animals still kept coming back to have a go on the wheels, which is a surprise.

Lois says she's going to leave bits of food around in the garage, beside my exercise bike, to see if she can tempt me to take rides on it more often, so we'll see! Happy days !!!!

flashback to last summer: I take delivery of

my shiny-new exercise bike

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Monday January 19th 2026 "People are eating the weirdest things these days! Change is in the air!!"

Yes, Friends, "change is in the air" - no question! And people are eating the weirdest things these days, even local dads are "branching out", would you believe!!!!

This story was "all over" this morning's Onion News - see page 94 column 6 !!!!

Kudos, that dad!!!

And reading the story this morning in semi-wooded Liphook, Hampshire brings a bit of a zig-zag-shaped smile to the mouths of me and my wife Lois, to put it mildly!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

Lois is reading a story by Clare Finney in today's Telegraph, which claims that "jacket potatoes" are now suddenly the in-food for smart people, with "gourmet toppings" like caviar and cream, or "herring roe and dulse beurre blanc", whatever that is, when it's a home!!!!! 

Health warning: in London's Mayfair the caviar and cream version could set you back a cool £96 a head - what madness !!!!

Yes, what madness!!!! And how different to the simple jacket potato meals that Lois and I love, that just feature a sprinkling of grated cheese on top.

And how different to the jacket potatoes of Victorian times, when they first became popular, and street hawkers modified metal cans into ovens and they became a popular street food, writes Neil Buttery, the aptly named food historian. They were filling, and cheap, and if you carried them home in your jacket potatoes they kept you warm on a cold winter's night, which is one theory as to how "jacket potatoes" got their name.

Neil writes: “It took a couple of hundred years for us [Brits] to get our heads around potatoes, after they first came across the Atlantic in the Colombian Exchange" [What that? - Ed]. 

"Then we went crazy,” Buttery continues. "Potatoes fast became the UK’s most popular crop; at one point there were so many sold, that London's Kings Cross Station had a "potato depot". Then, as now, jacket potatoes offered exceptional value. They provide more energy per acre than any other crop." [my italics]. 

Well at least it's nice to know that Lois and I are getting properly "fuelled up" on this, one of our fave "go to" lunch dishes, that's for sure!

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

13:00 It's lunchtime, and today is already proving a quiet but productive day for Lois and me. Rain has been threatening all morning, so we take our daily walk over local soccer giants Liphook United's "hallowed turf" - it's the best choice if there's a threat of rain, because we're never more than 5 minutes from our car. Makes sense to us!

We check the latest "player ratings" from the club's sponsors, local construction firm Puma Engineering: mysteriously somebody has been trying to erase the name of the team's exciting no.16 shirt, Hadley, the substitute now a mere 4 pairs of boots away from getting a chance to "strut his stuff", in the event of 4 better players getting injured or sent off. What's going on - I think we should be told don't you!!!

And Lois has had a good morning, sewing up the rips in her favourite nightie, and also re-sizing her kilt for Burns Night this coming weekend. The kilt famously "fell off her" last Burns Night, after she had lost half a stone in one of our crazy, periodic, marital diets - what madness (again) !!!!

(left) Lois sewing up some of the rips in her favourite nightie - her altered kilt is also

clearly visible over the back of our shiny new IKEA "Bingsta" armchair, and (right)

Lois's kilt in happier times, pictured on her here before it finally famously

"fell off her" on Burns Night 2024 due to her reduced waist-size - what madness (again) !!!!!

21:00 We go to bed on the first programme in the new series of "Our [Yorkshire] Farm Next Door", starring the now separated couple, Amanda and Clive Owen, on the More4 channel.

Lois and I speculate endlessly on what went wrong with Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda and farmer Clive's marriage - we think we must have missed the episode when the marriage went "belly up". if looking for a new "squeeze", we think Amanda could do worse than, maybe, consider handsome Dan, her equally passionate "window and door fitter". Dan is a bit of a self-confessed perfectionist, who's passionate about making Amanda's windows and doors fit "good'n'snug", as he says! Of course, he may be already "spoken for". 

"Handsome Dan" - Amanda's new window-fitter: would he make her

a suitable new "squeeze", now that husband Clive has moved out?

I wonder.....!

Obviously husband Clive is a bit too old, now, for the passionate Amanda, but the couple did produce 9 children together, so the marriage can't have been "all fighting and nothing else", to put it mildly!!!

Poor Clive !!!!

We like best the bits where Amanda delves into the farm's background. Like us, she seems to be a bit of a history buff. She's got hold of the diary of Yorkshire farmer Anthony Clarkson who owned the farm in the early 19th century. The diary tells how Anthony, as a young man, got together with the neighbour girl "Mally", who had caught his eye. 

After her parents died, when she was only 15, Mally came to live in Anthony's house as a servant. 

In this sequence, Amanda's teenage daughter Raven (?) listens, while her mum reads her extracts from Anthony's diary, where he talks about his burgeoning affair with servant-girl Mally, which began on New Year's Eve 1817.

And Anthony must have been a fast mover: because just 3 days later, things were obviously beginning to get serious for Anthony and Mally the Maid, to put it mildly!!!

Amanda and daughter Raven assume that Anthony "got lucky" with Mally, and that "sweethearting" meant that they had sex, but Lois thinks that given the era, Anthony and Mally may have just kissed and cuddled. On the other hand, the two youngsters were living in the countryside, where life has traditionally always been a bit more on the "earthy side": and the sight of farmyard animals "carrying on" in the mating season would have been something young people in the countryside would have grown up with.

I wonder....!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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