Yes, Friends, are you one of the many people settling for a 'duvet day' today?
Well, you're in good company, according to this morning's Onion News!
Kudos, that man!
And reading this story today, here in semi-detached Liphook, Hampshire, brings a partly-twisted smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois - no question about that!
my wife Lois and me - a recent picture
No wonder we're amused, you see! Our half-cracked smiles this morning are all because, by a complete coincidence, we too are thinking about spending more time in bed, would you believe!
[Is that even possible, Colin? - Ed]
To be strictly accurate, however, we're hoping to be spending more time in a different bed, however, the one in our so-called 'guest room', at the back of the house, which, in the current heatwave, we're hoping will be, like, a billion times cooler - more probably! Although it's 6 inches narrower than our normal bed - it's only a standard double, at 4'6" - but we think we'll get a better night's sleep as long as we keep out of each other's way, let's say!
Watch this space to see how we get on tonight! [I can't wait! - Ed]
(left) us today on the sofa, making plans to combat the current heatwave by moving, tonight,
into (right) the slightly narrower bed in our so-called 'guest room' - what madness!
At the moment, the heatwave is dominating our thoughts, and this morning it also makes a mess of our so-called 'planned foray' into central Liphook, no doubt about that! Lois has an appointment at 10am this morning with her hair-stylist, "Iain with the extra 'i'" (!), and after that we've got to pop into the Co-op, because, would you believe it, we're getting through more salad items than usual, in our constant attempts to 'stay cool' (!).
our 'big plans' for the morning: (left) a trip into central Liphook for Lois's 10 am
appointment with her hair stylist, "Iain with extra 'i' " (!), and (right) the local Co-op
where we're hoping to replenish our stocks of salad items, with the heatwave continuing
What madness isn't it!
But all our QUOTE UNQUOTE 'big plans' for today come to nought as it happens. For starters, it's so hot in Liphook's iconic 'Haircraft' salon today, with its total lack of air-conditioning and seating unprotected from the sun, that Lois refuses to go ahead with her session with Iain, and instead we book another appointment for next week, when hopefully temperatures will have cooled a bit, let's say!
And, to top it all, when we pop into the Co-op to stock up on salad items and other summer essentials, we find the relevant shelves mainly empty, because the shop's freezer compartments apparently stopped working at the weekend, due to the intense heat, and, like, a billion tons of their stock - more probably! - had to be thrown away, and they're still waiting to be restocked later in the day, which is totally mad!
(left) Lois sitting in the chair waiting for Iain, her hair-stylist, to emerge from the back-room,
before she decides it's too hot in the salon today, and aborts the session, and (right), us in
the local Co-op staring at some of the empty shelves, due to a weekend freezer break-down
Talk about frustration!!!!!
[What a lot of fuss you make, Colin, don't you! - Ed]
And after that deeply traumatic morning (!), we decide to go to bed after lunch and have a bit of a 'duvet afternoon' to comfort ourselves and put the world to rights. Well wouldn't you, if you had the chance haha ?!!!!
[You do that anyway, Colin, though, don't you. Just saying! - Ed]
It's all part of the price Lois and I are paying, for having moved to semi-tropical South East England 17 months ago, to be near our daughter Alison, now that we're fully paid-up 'old codgers' (!).
flashback to January 2025: realising that we are now fully paid-up 'old codgers',
Lois and I decide to move to Liphook, Hampshire, to be near our daughter
Alison, seen here (right) helping Lois to unpack some of our kitchen stuff
If only we lived up north, where it's a bit cooler, like all those lucky people somewhere 'north of Watford', as they say!
And sweltering in our bed this afternoon, Lois and I can at least cool ourselves down a little bit by looking at pictures from 'icy' Stockport, Cheshire, featuring my sister Jill and her daughter Zoe's family: Zoe's husband Chris and the couple's charming toddler Conor. To hear the little chap singing his note-perfect version of "Row Row Row Your Boat" is a real 'breath of fresh air' which Lois and I certainly need - awwww!!!!
pictures from 'the frozen North' (!): my sister Jill with daughter Zoe, Zoe's husband Chris,
and happy little Conor, who sings 'Row Row Row Your Boat' for us - awwwwww!!!!!
Bless his little cotton socks !!!!!
Even diminutive celebrity travelogue presenter Susan Calman has escaped to the frozen north for her programme tonight, we notice, which is a bit of a coincidence, to put it mildly - she's apparently up in icy Leeds, in faraway Yorkshire, which is totally mad!
Lois and I didn't know that Leeds was almost the birth of modern cinema, threatening to totally eclipse even Hollywood, California, apparently, which was crazy!
Weirdly, it was in Leeds, Yorkshire, that Frenchman Louis Le Prince captured what are believed to be the world's oldest surviving moving pictures, from back in the late 19th century.
But why was Le Prince doing his pioneering cinematographic work in Leeds, of all places? It turns out that Le Prince came to Leeds, back in 1866, by pure chance, because of his friendship with a Yorkshireman and entrepreneur, John Robinson Whitley. And the Frenchman just happened to fall in love with John's sister Lizzie, and so he decided to stay. He married Lizzie in 1869.
the plaque in Leeds commemorating Le Prince's work
Weirdly, many years later, Le Prince mysteriously disappeared while travelling in France, and his body was never found. While waiting to travel to New York to premier his film work, he nipped across the Channel to France to visit his brother in Dijon. He boarded a train for Paris, but, after that, he was never seen again, and even his luggage was never recovered. He was declared 'dead' in 1897, and has now been, to some extent, 'airbrushed' out of history, it seems.
In tonight's TV programme, presenter Susan Calman visits an old cinema in Leeds. Incredibly, in the first quarter of the 20th century there were actually 88 cinemas in the town, offering the town's residents all kinds of escapist dramas, as well as news broadcasts keeping them up to date with, for example, what was going on at the front, during World War I.
Only one of those 88 cinemas now remains, "The Hyde Park", and tonight Susan talks to the manageress about the theatre's long history.
Apparently the gas lighting was originally secondary lighting, installed so that the cinema's management, in those far-off crazy times, could keep an eye on customers, to make sure that there was no 'hanky-panky' going on in the back row on a Saturday night.
Quite right too haha!
On the other hand, poor Susan!!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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