Monday June 22nd 2026 "Those crazy 'Scandies', eh! Can't keep 'em out of the headlines, can we!!!!"

Yes, Friends, those "Scandis", what will they do next !!!!! 

And love 'em or hate 'em, we can't seem to keep them out of the headlines, can we!!!! And today's Onion News is a case in point, if proof were needed! 

Just look at these 'doozies', just from the day's early editions!!!

It's sheer madness, isn't it, all this "Scandi-mania" !!!!!!

But reading these stories here in semi-welcoming Liphook, Hampshire this morning certainly brings a wan smile to the lips of me and my wife Lois - no doubt about that!!!!

my wife Lois and me - recent pictures

And there's a special reason for our 'wan-like' excitement today, and one which is a total coincidence, as it happens!

Rushed off our feet as always, even though we've actually been retired for over 20 years, would you believe (!), as well as getting our house ready for the imminent arrival of our little Australian family - daughter Sarah, husband Francis, and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica - we've somehow today got to find time to study a bit of Danish, which is totally mad!!!!

me and Lois practising our Danish today, as if we've got

nothing else to do - what madness, isn't it !!!!!!

And the reason for this mayhem is all because the fortnightly online meeting of the local U3A "Intermediate Danish for Old Codgers" group, which Lois and I run jointly, "for our sins" (!), is coming up really fast, with another meeting looming on Thursday afternoon, would you believe!!!!

Little did we realise, when we retired, what seems like a lifetime ago, way back in March 2006, that our feet would literally never touch the ground again, and that's the way it's been ever since!!!!

flashback to March 2006 - my 60th birthday, and also the day 

Lois and I both retired: little did we know, then, what was in store for us!!!!

Learning Intermediate Danish is, however, a bit of a distraction today from our main task, which is getting our house ready for the imminent arrival of our daughter Sarah and family, who'll be flying into London's Heathrow Airport in a few days' time, to spend 3 weeks with us, which is mad too!

And today, we put the finishing touches to our so-called "guest bedrooms", 'hoovering' and installing folding beds and putting sheets on them, the way people like to have them - but you know very well the kind of ''malarkey' that all that entails, I'm sure!

me showcasing the some of the work we do today in an effort to "sleep" 4 extra bodies 

in our little house in semi-attractive Liphook, Hampshire - it's total madness!!!!!

We also brush a sentimental tear out of our eyes, as we also spend some time today assembling our twin granddaughters' favourite stuffed toys in the room the twins are going to sleep in, which is nice!

the twins' favourite old stuffed toys, including 'Black-and-white Cat' and 

the more mobile Rover the Dog and Buckles the Unicorn (left), getting excited already,

at the prospect of seeing the twins again in a few days time - awwwww!!!

Yes, awwwww!!!!!!

Also, Lois and I are starting to train ourselves how we'll have to behave when we've got our 4 Australian guests in the house, which isn't as straightforward as you might suppose. Normally it's just the two of us here, rattling around this house like peas in a drum, and 'in each other's pockets' 24/7, with all the informality of dress that that allows for (!). 

From next week Lois says we've got to be wearing our dressing-gowns when we visit the bathroom several times a night, as we do, as fully-paid-up  old codgers (!), and also wear them when we get up early in the morning at the crack of dawn, at an hour when saner, and younger, people are still snoring away fast asleep!!!! Luckily, however, Lois got me a shiny-new lightweight dressing-gown for one of my Father's Day presents yesterday, so that's all good!!!! 

(left) me today modelling my shiny-new dressing gown, and (right) 

flashback to yesterday, when a delighted Yours Truly first discovers, and

showcases, his welcome Father's Day 'treasure trove' of gifts (!)

What madness isn't it!!!  

But it was certainly a special day for me on yesterday's Father's Day, being pampered and cosseted all day by Lois, and, by coincidence, today is a special day for our daughter Sarah herself, 9000 miles away in the northern suburbs of Perth, Australia, because it's her 49th birthday, which is mad!

You really know you're old when your children hit middle-age, as Lois and I always say!!!

[Give it a rest, Colin! - Ed]

our daughter Sarah sends us these pictures today, of (left) herself with 

one of her twin daughters, Lily, and (right) her array of birthday cards

Memories, memories! I still remember, as if it were yesterday, the day back in 1977, when I brought Lois and little baby Sarah back from the St Pauls Maternity Hospital in Cheltenham, in our old Morris Minor, and later, when we took these photos, in our tiny back yard, of Sarah, and also of her 20-month-old big sister Alison, and also of Lois's dear late mum Ruth, who had come to help us out, bless her!!!

flashback to 1977: after I brought Lois and our new-born 2nd daughter Sarah

home from hospital, and we took our first pictures of her in our tiny back yard,

with big sister Alison and Lois's mum Ruth, who had come to help us out - awww!!!!

And just look at Sarah's little face in that second picture above, doing a confused 'stare-to-camera' like a real pro!!!

Happy days!!!!!

20:00 After another exhausting day, with nothing on 'the box' except football and repeats of documentaries which we've already watched, Lois and I decide to relax with some more bingeing on the BBC3 re-run of Canadian sitcom "Schitt's Creek", which is a welcome 'oasis' from all the 'tat' (!!!!).

[For heaven's sake, Colin! - Ed]

In the series, a wealthy family - a couple Johnny and Moira with two grown-up children David and Alexis - are forced to leave their billionaire mansion, after being cheated of all their money by some crooked accountant or other. 

Luckily the father, Johnny, had bought a small rural town some years ago, 'as a joke' present for his son, David, so the family, now down on their luck, can at least seek low-cost refuge in the town that they own anyway (!), and they manage to book two poky rooms on a long-term rental, at the local sleazy, run-down motel, in run-down, backwoods town, Schitt's Creek.

In this key scene tonight, Moira the mother, a former daytime TV soap-star, tries to earn the family some desperately needed cash by taking a part in the shooting of a TV ad for fruit wine from a local winery.

As an old pro, Moira's performance is still sparkling, although marred, at times, by the obvious stress she is going through, which is a bit sad. Oh dear!!!!

Oh dear, Moira has said "glacé", when she meant to say 'glass', which is sad, considering what an old 'pro' she used to be, before she became 'washed-up', to put it mildly! 

But there's worse to come, would you believe!

Did YOU spot Moira's mistake in that sequence? 

Yes, you're right of course, Moira said 'flute line' when the script called for 'fruit wine' - it's an easy mistake to make, maybe, but still a bit sad when you know Moira's illustrious, star-studded back-story!

Take 3! 

Oops! Time for 'Take 4', but maybe let Moira go back to her motel for a bit of a lie-down, and maybe try again tomorrow, do you think?

Poor Moira !!!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Sunday June 21st 2026 "After a thousand years, are YOU still Viking-crazy?!!!!"

Yes, Friends, it's a thousand years since the Vikings last ruled Britain! And yet we still can't get enough of them, can we!

They're even casting their hilarious shadow over the current World Cup - did YOU see those amusing pictures of Norway's team taken before the tournament began?

Even Norway's national football team finds time to do

a bit of dressing-up before their first game!

And stories about the Vikings and their legacy continue to dominate the world's press on an almost daily basis - did you see today's Onion News?

It's madness, isn't it! But reading the Onion stories today, here in semi-aquatic Liphook, Hampshire, brings a vapid glimmer of a smile to the face of me and my wife Lois, that's for sure!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

We're laughing because, by complete coincidence, a book about Viking hero Olaf Haraldsson is the star present in the array of Father's Day gifts that I've received from Lois this morning, which is mad!

It's kind of appropriate, however, as a gift for me, because, a few years ago, my sister Jill sent results of her DNA test to the ancestry.com website, and discovered that she, and by implication I myself, are 2% Norwegian, through our father, who was 4% Norwegian, which is weird! But check my maths, won't you,  just to be on the safe side haha!

And Olaf Haraldsson is a real man's Viking, or a real Viking's Viking, should I say! In recent years, there's been a determined attempt to "soften" the Vikings' "ruthless" image, saying that they were just farmers really, forced to leave Scandinavia by population growth, and they didn't mean any harm, would you believe, which is totally crazy!

Well Olaf wasn't that kind of a 'nice' Viking, and tales of his pillaging and ruthless "derring-do" make refreshing reading in these increasingly "woke" times - that's for sure! A busy pillager since his teenage years, and devotee of the Viking goddess Freyja, goddess of copulation and witchcraft, whilst in England, the "busy busy" Olaf somehow found time to destroy London Bridge, as well as annihilating a string of English towns, including Oxford, which was a bit cheeky!

some illustrations from the book on busy Viking, Olaf Haraldsson, that I receive as a

Father's Day gift from Lois today: (left) the man himself, and (right) one of his

inspirations, the Viking goddess Freyja, "goddess of copulation and witchcraft" (!)

What a crazy world they lived in, in those far-off days!!!

To sum today up, I can exclusively reveal, that I have a great Father's Day with enjoying presents from Lois and from our elder daughter Alison, who lives 10 miles away just over the county line in Churt, Surrey. 

Yours Truly's Father's Day gifts today - (left) from Lois, the Olaf book, some of my

"fave" chocolates and a lightweight dressing-gown, and (right) from our daughter 

Alison, some high-end biscuits and two varieties of specialty green tea - yum yum!

Lucky old Yours Truly !!!!

There are no Father's Day gifts this morning, however, from our other daughter, Sarah, but that's to be expected - she lives in Perth, Australia, with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, and Australia has fixed its Father's Day in September, which is mad, but it will give me a lift when it comes, given how light the UK September is on 'special days' ! So watch this space!!!!

Lois and I actually talk to Sarah this morning via zoom, on our weekly 'catch-up call', and, of course, she herself has got a special day coming up tomorrow, her 49th birthday - yikes! You know you're getting old when your children hit middle-age, that's for sure! 

[What do you mean, "getting" old, Colin! - Ed]

And this morning, husband Francis was looking after the kids while Sarah went for a pre-birthday spa treatment session with her American friend Charissa at a local spa centre, the Swan Valley Retreat, which was nice. The place advertises a "wooden sauna" (whatever that means!), plunge pool, and jacuzzi etc - you know that kind of "malarkey" !!!!!

(above) us this lunchtime talking on zoom to our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia,

and (centre, below) the Swan Valley Retreat, where Sarah (bottom left) and her

American friend Charissa (bottom, right) enjoyed sauna, plunge pools and jacuzzis

- lucky them !!!!!

There isn't much chance to talk to our twin grandchildren today on this week's zoom call - they're getting ready for bed, it's 9pm in Perth, which is mad, and the twins are tired out, and getting ready for school tomorrow, their last week before the school term ends for their so-called 'winter holidays' - what madness, isn't it!!!

Those two little rascals have been busy working on their "portfolio projects", an expression that Lois and I had never heard of, so we had to look it up on google. And for their "projects", little Lily and Jessica, those clever little blighters (!) have been doing research into such topics as The Black Death in Europe, and World War II, not to mention the arrival of the Native Australians in Australia, which was 55,000 years ago, Jessica tells me, although it didn't "make the papers" at the time, seemingly! What madness, isn't it !!!

Yikes!!!!

We won't need zoom to talk to them soon, because Lois and I will be seeing Sarah and family in person in just over a week's time. The family will be flying into London for a 3-week "break" in the UK, something which Lois and I are hoping will be an annual event. They came here in July last year, so here's hoping!

flashback to July 2025: Lois and me with our delightful

12-year-old twin granddaughters on their last UK visit

Otherwise, for Lois and me, today is very much a day of "hunkering down", as the temperatures climb into the 80's Fahrenheit at the start of what's going to be a week-long heatwave, if not more. 

And Lois decides to join her church's Sunday Morning Meeting remotely this morning, to escape the heat of the journey and of the village hall near Petersfield, where services are held. 

(left) temperatures rising into the 80s F - they'll be in the 90's next week,

and (right) Lois in her "meeting hat" taking part in her church's Sunday Morning Meeting,

with the curtains closed, to keep out the sun and heat - what madness!!!!

And the rest of this Father's Day Lois gives the 'royal' treatment with an afternoon in bed for "statutory naptime ", and my favourite meal - shepherd's pie - for tea. What's not to like!!!

20:00 There's nothing much on the "telly" at the moment other than sports and repeats, so Lois and I decide to "binge watch" another episode of the Canadian sitcom "Schitt's Creek", which BBC3 are doing a re-run of at the moment, and which Lois and I had never heard of, or watched, at the time, so it's a good chance to catch up, that's for sure!

In the series, a wealthy family - a couple with two grown-up children - are turned out of their billionaire mansion, after being cheated of all their money by some crooked accountant or other. Luckily the father had bought a small rural town some years ago, 'as a joke' present for his son, so now, the family, down on their luck, can at least seek refuge in the town they own (!), and they manage to book two rooms on a long-term rental, at the local sleazy, run-down motel, in run-down, backwoods town, Schitt's Creek.

In this scene, pampered son David, who's been told by his dad that he has to find a job - his first ever - because of the family's reduced circumstances, decides to ask the motel receptionist Stevie, how he should go about finding a job in shabby, rural backwater, Schitt's Creek, so Stevie takes a look through the 'jobs vacant' column of the local paper, on David's behalf.

Stevie draws a blank here, evidently, but she's not giving up yet. She asks David if he has any other skills, or areas of expertise, and he replies that he's been told he has very good taste.

This job title - "bag boy at the grocery store" - mystifies the pampered David, however.

David remains cautious about the potential job, however, asking what it pays. Stevie isn't sure, but she guesses "minimum wage", which David assumes must be "about 40 to 45 dollars an hour?", as he comments.

Oh dear!!!!!

Yes, you see, Canada (and even Australia!) - they're both as crazy as the UK, seemingly, so don't look for relief by emigrating to either of those two superficially inviting destinations - just saying!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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