Saturday September 5th 2026 "Friends, are YOU struggling to fill your so-called "free time" - it's a laugh a minute isn't it haha!!!!"

Yes, Friends, are YOU struggling to fill your so-called "free time", and to do it safely? It's a problem for many people in their leisure-affected hours, isn't it!

And if you don't believe me, take a glance at the headlines in this morning's Onion News, if you want "chapter and verse" !!!!!

What madness, isn't it!!! 

But for me and my wife Lois reading these stories in the sometimes-bustling and simultaneously-leafy little town of Liphook, Hampshire, it brings an ironic smile or two to our lips, as the two of us, dubbed Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple, duly fight our way through the crowds thronging the Saturday street market in nearby Petersfield this morning, no question about that!!!

The truth is that anxieties about 'how to fill our free time' isn't normally a luxury that Lois and I have, unfortunately! We should be so lucky, to be frank!!!

"Busy busy busy" - that's the order of the day, almost every day, and we struggle to find any free time at all, to be frank! Neighbours have described our little Honda Jazz as "slipping in and out of our driveway all day 'like a yoyo'" to quote their memorable phrase!

And this morning is a typical example of our frenetic life-style (!), as we shop in Petersfield, somehow finding time to stop for a quick cake'n'coffee at the walk-in coffee morning organised by Lois's church at its Winton House drop-in centre, before taking Lois's hearing-aids into the local Specsavers for "routine maintenance", and taking time to stop at the local CookShop to buy some ready meals for next weekend - we simply don't have time to prepare many of our meals any more, which is mad, given that we're both 80, although undoubtedly both "marvellous for our age" (!).

To top it all, you'll even find us 'hard at it' on the kitchen table too, later on, doing preparation for the next meeting of the local U3A group "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers", which we both belong to, "for our sins" (!!!!). 

(above) us this morning, somehow finding time to "drop in" at Lois's church's

"drop-in centre" [no pun intended!!!], for a quick coffee'n'cake - and (below)

us this afternoon, still "hard at it" doing our homework for Monday's

meeting of the U3A "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" group, of which

we're both members - "for our sins" (!!!!!). What madness, isn't it !!!!!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Our big news today, however, is that after our Monday Latin lesson is over, i.e. as of 2:30pm Monday, Lois and I will suddenly find ourselves with three completely free days, would you believe!!! I know that this will sound totally incredible to anybody who knows us (!), but having previously earmarked Tuesday to Friday on our calendar this week with a pithy "Visit Lois's cousin Brian and family in Bournemouth", we get a text and a phone-call from Brian's wife Ruth asking us to put the visit off till maybe October: Ruth is currently suffering from leg problems, which are currently being treated, but a later visit will be more convenient for various reasons, so fair enough!

Lois was a 13-year-old bridesmaid at Brian and Ruth's wedding back in 1959, and 7 years ago we visited Bournemouth for the couple's diamond wedding. Happy days!!!!

(left) flashback to August 2019: Lois (leftmost) on diamond wedding day for Lois's cousin

Brian and Brian's wife Ruth, and (right) flash-even-further-back to the couple's

original wedding in 1959, where a 13-year-old Lois was a bridesmaid

So, suddenly finding ourselves totally free for 3 days, what will Lois and I do to "improve the shining hour" (!). Watch this space - we live in exciting times!!!!!

[I predict: later risings, earlier bed-times, more TV, and longer afternoons in bed for 'statutory nap-times' - but we'll see! - Ed]

20:00 Always looking for a chance to show our neighbours that Lois and I can relax on occasion, we've been spreading the word that tonight we'll definitely be not only "staying in" tonight, but also tuning into a re-run of Monty Python stalwart Michael Palin's mould-breaking, and revelatory, 1980 documentary "Confessions of a Trainspotter" on BBC4, which is something we've been very much looking forward to, to put it mildly!

The programme opens with an absolute downright "shocker" - Palin's first frank admission of his childhood addiction to jotting down, in a precious little "diary", the numbers of steam trains he manages to get sightings of, together with dates, times etc. What madness!!!!

In the following sequence, where Palin describes how he first fell into his sick habit, as an impressionable teenager, the BBC has obscured his face in a perhaps futile attempt to protect his identity:

Disgusting, isn't it !!!!!

Lois and I, however, can't help admiring Palin for his frankness and his willingness to finally "come clean" about his addiction after all these years. After all, in the last few decades, Palin wasn't the only man to fall victim to "trainspotter's disease", as it's been dubbed, and we hear from many other such addicts in tonight's programme, such as this outwardly respectable-looking, bespectacled middle-aged man hiding a dreadful secret:

It's sick, isn't it! And this second man, also middle-aged and superficially respectable, explains that he even carries a tape-recorder with him when he travels by train, would you believe - disgusting, isn't it!!!

Stomach-churning, isn't it! And, not for the first time, mine and Lois's reaction is to say, "It's their poor wives we feel sorry for !!!!!"

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

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Friday September 4th 2026 "Are YOU sitting on a train reading this? Look around you for the tell-tale signs!!!"

Yes, Friends, are YOU sitting on a train, as you read these words? It's worth taking a look around you for the tell-tale signs: things flying fast "on the move" outside the window, while you're just sitting still - that's Yours Truly's personal "numero uno" "litmus" test, that's for sure !!!!!

 Certainly train travel is becoming more and more popular, according to the press. Just look at these headlines from this morning's Onion News, if you don't believe me!!!!!

And these stories bring a peculiarly twisted smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-bucolic Liphook, Hampshire as we tramp the "hallowed turf" of local soccer heroes Liphook United on our near-daily morning walk, that's for sure!!!!

my wife Lois and me, having a quiet giggle over the latest train news,

as we tramp the "hallowed turf" of local soccer heroes Liphook United

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

We mustn't laugh at the train industry, however, because for our lawyer son-in-law Edward, who's a director of a regional train company with potential business interests overseas, trains are very much his "bread-and-butter", and he's even flying to Boston USA in a week's time to hopefully close a "big money deal", so we'll see! 

(left) our lawyer son-in-law Edward with our daughter Alison, both dressed up to the nines

for a recent Railway Ball in London, and (right) Lois waving to one of Edward's trains,

the "Hereford-to-Worcester Flyer", as Lois and I have dubbed it, just to encourage

the driver through the Malvern Marshes, which was a nice touch - but what madness!!!!!

By total coincidence, Lois and I will be seeing Edward and Alison later this month, because they've kindly agreed to "chauffeur" us to the wedding of my niece Lucy to her Anglo-American fiancee Rosanna at Ipswich, an occasion to which we've all been invited. 

And it'll certainly add a touch of glamour to our arrival in Ipswich to step out of Edward's car, hopefully in full view of all the other wedding guests, no question about that!

flashback to May: (left) Lois and me at Ipswich's leading Turkish restaurant,

with my sister Jill (rightmost), and Lucy and Rosanna and (right)

the happy couple at another recent "upscale" celebration, which is nice!

So all ye photographers among the expected crowds of guests and onlookers, get ye all your cameras ready for the money-shot, as Lois and step regally out of Edward's car!!!!

And Lois and I know all about "turning on the glamour" for big occasions - witness our "get-up" for a recent Millennium Night at "The Clocktower", one of upscale town Cheltenham's leading night-spots!!!!

flashback to December 1999: Lois and me, "dressed up to the nines" for a

playfully mis-spelt "Millenium Eve" dinner at an upscale Cheltenham 'watering-hole',

dubbed "Millenium [sic!] at the Clocktower" by the pub's management (!)

Happy days!!!!

We find out today, Friday, however, that Lois and I unfortunately won't be able to stay for the post-wedding 'brunch' on the morning after the wedding, which is a pity, but it's for a very good, and also rather semi-glamorous, reason. You see, our son-in-law Edward has to fly to Boston USA later that day for that potential "big money deal" mentioned above, and that's one of the penalties you pay for "living the high life" - no pun intended!!! 

Busy busy busy!!!!!

Don't think, however, that Lois and I are becoming a bit "hoity-toity" ourselves, perhaps, and no longer willing to mix with our Liphook neighbours and treat them almost as our equals - far from it!!! And this morning, if you had rung our doorbell, you might have peeped through the window and seen us hard "at it" on the kitchen table, mugging up on our "Latin homework", in preparation for a local class, would you believe!!!

Lois and me this Friday morning, hard at it on the kitchen table, with a pile

 of dictionaries and reference works, doing our "Latin homework" (!), which is mad!

Yes, in addition to our many upscale glamorous activities, "for our sins" (!) Lois and I also somehow find time to be members of the local U3A "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" group, led by a former schoolteacher and local man, Joe. And our group's first meeting of the new term has been scheduled for Monday, and so in the next couple of days Lois and I have got 10 sentences to translate from English into Latin, and those sentences, as we always say, "won't translate themselves", to put it mildly - hence our mild panic today!!!

flashback to last winter-spring: former schoolteacher Joe explaining some point of

Latin grammar to our little group of mainly female students, known as Joe's Harem,

all members of Joe's local U3A "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" group

Dubbed by neighbours "possibly Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple", Lois and I are certainly earning that accolade "in spades" today - that's for sure!!!!!

[Is that all you two 'noggins' have done today, Colin - translated 10 sentences into Latin? - Ed]

Well, no, seeing as how you're obviously interested (!). The answer to your question is "No, with a capital 'N'", this time at least !!!! 

And it's quite a very definite "no" to your question today, I must stress, because, also today, we somehow find time, not only to spend another afternoon in bed, recharging our batteries, but also later in the evening we find ourselves showing what's been dubbed "our surprising, delightfully lighter side" (!).

Yes, you've probably guessed already! We're watching with (we suspect) millions of our fellow compatriots, the first episode of a new TV series on the More4 channel, "Sandi's Ireland: A Literary Journey", presented by the UK's favourite Dane, Sandi Toksvig, which is nice!

 

For Lois and me, one of our favourite poets is WB Yeats, and it's nice for us this evening to see Sandi journey to remote Sligo on Ireland's Atlantic coast, where Yeats would work on his poems, so many of which seemed to unlock the meaning of life and to speak to his readers' souls, in the words of Sandi's friend, the present-day Irish novelist Marion Keyes.

We hear about Yeats' extraordinarily quiet life, his quiet days in Sligo - no noise, no radio or TV, just the sights and sounds of nature to inspire him: mostly the sounds, rather than the sights, because Yeats suffered all his life with poor eyesight, but somehow managing without glasses. He was, however, passionate about the need for Ireland to gain independence from Britain, and this uncomfortably shy man with his poor sight campaigned for that independence in the only way he could - through his poems. 

Also, Lois and I didn't realise the extent of the poverty in which Yeats lived for most of his life. 

In 1923, the year after Irish independence, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, with the international cultural world in a way, not just honouring Yeats and his poetry, but also welcoming Ireland as a new member of the world's family of nations, as Keyes says.

The financial value of the Nobel Prize, however, meant what was a great deal of money to the financially struggling Yeats and his family. When told the good news of the award by his friend Smillie on the Irish Times, Yeats is reported to have said "How much, Smillie? How much?" 

Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it!

Rest in peace, WB !!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!