Sunday May 24th 2026 "Are YOU in the 'wrong' job? Maybe you're just in the 'wrong' universe haha!!!"

Yes, Friends, do YOU ever think you're maybe in the QUOTE UNQUOTE 'wrong' job? Well, maybe it's time to widen your horizons haha!!!!

There's a good example in this morning's Onion News for East Hampshire, but it's a bit hidden. So 'thumb' your way through YOUR copy, to page 94, would you believe, and do it now haha!!!

Kudos, that man!!!! 

And reading Whalen's story this morning, here in semi-tropical Liphook, Hampshire brings an ironic smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois, that's for sure!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

We're smiling because, by a total coincidence, we've got our regular Sunday zoom call at 1:30pm today with our daughter Sarah and her 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, 9000 miles away at their home in the northern suburbs of Perth, Australia, and the kids are big Harry Potter fans, just like Whalen in that Onion News story. 

So much so, that they've put in yet another special request (!) for their upcoming holiday, when they arrive next month in the UK, which Lois and I are so looking forward to. They don't just want to visit like, a billion museums - more probably! And they don't just want to go on the London Eye, and do a river cruise along the Thames and, like a billion other things! They also want to somehow fit in a visit to the Harry Potter World at the Warner Bros studios, at Watford, just north of London. 

What madness!!!!

Their poor old Granny and Poppa - a.k.a. "us"! - are certainly going to need our afternoon naps with all that going on during the family's visit, so we've somehow got to "re-work" our planned schedule for the trip. We're hoping we can squeeze all that frantic 'visiting' into the mornings of their upcoming stay, so it all gets done by 1pm each day, which will give Lois and me a chance to get into bed for a bit - no question about that!!!

The twins have been busy making a huge artificial skin, such as are made in nature by some species of spiders and caterpillars. They say it's all part of one of their so-called 'scientific' experiments - the little monkeys!!! 

a typical 'web' made by some species of spiders or caterpillars

And during our zoom call I half-jokingly suggest that the twins can bring the 'skin' with them to Britain, so that they can lay it over Lois and me when we're in bed in the afternoons for 'statutory nap-time', to ensure maximum peace and quiet, at least for a couple of hours each day !!!

our weekly Sunday catch-up call with our little Australian family in Perth, with 

(bottom right) a piece of the artificial 'skin' the twins are producing, which will

certainly come in handy to throw over their 'aged grandparients' [sic] during 'nap time' (!)

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

As you may have guessed, Lois and I aren't exactly doing a lot during the current heat-wave, just 'hunkering down' in the house till it's all over (!). This particular crazy heat-wave came a bit out of the blue (no pun intended!!!!). To think that, just 6 days ago, last Monday featured highs in the 50's F (about 13C), whereas today, Sunday, there's going to be a high of 88F (31C) - it's total lunacy!!!!!

What a crazy country we live in !!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

And many's the time today that Lois and I have wished we could just find some way of feeling cooler, without going to the extremes that American Independence hero Benjamin Franklin went to, while staying in London back in the 1770's - that's for sure! 

Yes, Franklin knew how to stay cool, as Lois and I find out tonight in the first part of historian Lucy Worsley's new TV documentary series about America's War of Independence, just 250 years ago this coming July 4th, would you believe!!!

Yes, in one of the surprising little snippets that Lucy comes up with in this programme, is all about American scientist Benjamin Franklin, who, before the Revolution, lived in London for 16 years between 1757 and 1775. And despite his love of Britain, he was, however, one of the big American heroes, and to prove it, he's still pictured today on the US hundred dollar bill.

In tonight's programme, presenter Lucy goes to see Franklin's house in Craven Street, and describes his somewhat eccentric morning routine.

What madness! But Franklin loved to just let the London air 'wash over him', and he wasn't going to miss out on that! Luckily the authorities didn't mind such things in those far-off crazy days, and Franklin wasn't reported or arrested for his antics. And the rest is history, with America eventually able to secure its independence, with Franklin's help, which was nice!

And it's the snippets about the personalities that makes this programme so fascinating tonight, Lois and I think. 

Lois and I didn't know, for example, that King George III had a real thirst for knowledge - and for knowledge about everything in the world, as Lucy explains when she visits the King's private observatory in Richmond, Surrey.

These were exciting times for the King, because Britain had just beaten France in the Seven Years War, and had acquired vast swathes of territory in North America as a result.

Lois and I didn't know that the King personally ordered the purchase of 300 books about his North American colonies, so that he could read about subjects ranging from their individual tax laws to the kind of birds you could hear singing in Massachusetts, which was mad! 

What madness!!!! 

And in those crazy, far-off days, before Amazon's online service had been established, it must have been quite a chore for him (or maybe his servants (!)) to order them all by post, hoping that the delivery guy would be able to find the address of his observatory in Richmond, with no close neighbours around to take them in, if he were out for the day, for example!

[That's enough whimsy! - Ed]

George certainly liked to study, and he liked to be well-informed. Lucy tells us that the King had a huge collection of maps which he kept at Richmond. 

What a great pity the internet hadn't been invented yet, because the King would have been a big fan, and Queen Charlotte would have been saying to him, "You're on that thing all day and all night, George!".

And on the plus side, the lack of Internet probably gave the couple more time together - hence their somehow finding the time to conceive 13 children, which was a bonus, to put it mildly!

And tonight's programme, finally, doesn't blame the King for the American Revolution but instead puts the focus on the King's politically short-sighted ministers.

And finally, Lucy compares the Revolution to a break-up of a personal relationship. And this was how Thomas Jefferson saw it too. In his first draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson talked of 'regret', and 'roads not taken'.

Awwwww!!!!

Benjamin Franklin and his colleagues, however, thought that Jefferson's words were far too sentimental, and cut this bit out for the final draft, which was a pity!

Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Saturday May 23rd 2026 "Do YOUR family and staff still respect you, no matter what you do?"

Yes, Friends, are your staff,  or your family, happy to still respect you, no matter what you decide to do? 

And I ask that question because it's easy to lose that respect by poor decision-making, isn't it, as happened to local manager Robert Crawford recently, according to this morning's Onion News - did you see the pictures? They're better than a thousand words, or better than 300 or so, anyway!!!!

Poor Crawford !!!!!

And reading about Crawford's poor decision-making in the 'wardrobe department' certainly brings a wry-ish smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, to put it mildly!

With the temperatures in Liphook again due to pass the 80F mark - 82F or 28C to be precise, we've made the possibly rash decision to 'dust off' our own shorts for the first time this year, the shorts we've selected to do today's 'poncing about' in (!). And unlike old man Crawford (see Onion story above) we're not afraid of losing our 'clout' with each other: as partners in an 'equal marriage' we don't need to exercise discipline over each other in the same way, and here in this house at least, it's "Liberty Hall", which is nice!

[Who do you think you're kidding, Colin? I always go to Lois if I want a decision! - Ed]

us today, 'poncing about' in our shorts for the first time this year,

thanks to a sudden heatwave hitting South East England, which is nice!

Not only that, but we've decided, for the duration of the heatwave, to just keep the duvet cover over us at night, or in the afternoon for 'statutory nap-time', so that's all good!!!!

It's crazy weather for May, that's for sure, but then we live in a crazy country, don't we, even if it takes one of our friends from 'The Continent' - my Hungarian penfriend Tunde - to make Lois and me fully aware of just how crazy we Brits really are! To 'see ourselves as others see us' can be a bit of a wake-up call sometimes! Look at this shocking story from Hungarian news website telex.hu, and if you're British, and, also, fluent in Intermediate Hungarian (!), better go a deep red in the face!!!!

According to the article, the City of London still has to pay an annual rent to the King, a rent dating back over 800 years to the year 1211, whereby the city has to make a payment to the King's "Remembrancer" (the oldest judicial office in the country), a payment consisting of a blunt pruning knife and a sharp axe, plus 6 jumbo horse-shoes, and 61 nails (see picture above!). Apparently our so-called 'Parliament' hasn't yet found time to repeal the old laws that require this.

What madness!!!!!

the so-called 'Ceremony of the Quit Rents' (left) as it looked in the 13th century,

and (right) how it has looked in more recent times - what madness, isn't it!!!

This ancient ceremony, called the Ceremony of the Quit Rents', has somehow managed to keep going after 800 years, even though nobody knows any more the location of the two areas that the rent applies to: a blacksmith's workshop and a piece of marshland, believed to be somewhere in Shropshire, a county literally 'miles away', somewhere near the Welsh border. 

What a truly crazy country we live in !!!!

And don't think for one moment that that craziness was confined to the 13th century, as Lois and I find out tonight when we settle down on the sofa - still sporting our shorts, which, after another hard day of 'poncing about' (!), are now looking distinctly more crumpled!!!!

us this evening, still sporting our shorts, after another day of hard 'poncing about' (!)

And we're on the sofa to watch the latest 'celebrity travelogue' programme by former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo, "Great Continental Railway Journeys", in which tonight, confusingly, Michael is on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

Lois and I didn't know just how many times Corsica has been invaded by outsiders: the Greeks in the 6th century BC, then the Etruscans and Carthaginians, then the Romans and the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Lombards, the Moors, until the Pope gave the island to the Italian city of Pisa for 200 years, and then the Italian city of Genoa took over for 500 years. But this chequered history has toughened the islanders no end, and built up a culture of resistance, we hear.

Also, Lois and I hadn't heard of Corsican hero and patriot, Pasquale Paoli, who studied at the University of Naples before returning to Corsica and writing the world's first modern democratic constitution. Sovereignty was to lie with the people of the island, with due 'separation of powers'. Paoli's constitution was then approved by a vote by all adult Corsicans, including the women. And the constitution lasted for 14 years, until 1769, when the French invaded, and put a stop to it - what madness!!!! 

Paoli had to seek refuge in London, where he remained for 20 years, before returning to Corsica to organise resistance against the French, eventually having to 'lock horns' with the new French Emperor, Napoleon Buonaparte.

In the end, Paoli had to ask Britain for help, and the British responded by sending in the Navy, as this local Corsican historian explains to Michael:

So for those two years, before the next French invasion, the British monarch, George III, was also King of Corsica, and the kingdom's democratically-elected parliament used to meet in a chapel in the island's then capital of Bastia. This 'Brotherhood Chapel' had an organ, on which the MPs could hear the playing of 'God Save The King'. 

George III never attended any of the parliament's sessions, but his presence was symbolised by an empty throne, which was a nice idea!

the 'Brotherhood Chapel' in Bastia, where the Anglo-Corsican parliament

used to meet, complete with organ for playing 'God Save The King'

and an empty throne to symbolise the presence of George III - what madness!!!!

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

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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