Friday June 26th 2026 "Cars - we can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em! Sad, isn't it haha!!!!"

Yes, Friends, admit it! Where would YOU be without YOUR car? Waiting in some sad bus queue, probably!

Certainly news about cars continues to dominate the headlines, doesn't it! Today's Onion News is all the proof you need of that statement !!!! 

It's all madness, yes! But, you know, in a way it kind of makes sense, in this crazy old world of ours, if that makes sense - no pun intended!!!!!

And today's Onion News headlines, again fixated on the 'car phenomenon', ironically, bring some welcome relief to the taut lower-faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-welcoming Liphook, Hampshire. No doubt about that!!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

We're laughing, because, by total coincidence, it's big day today for our own little 12-year-old Honda Jazz. Yes, it's the little gal's annual 'appointment with destiny' - her annual service, and MOT test, and also the only day in the year when she gets to get cleaned, the little rascal!

my wife Lois - almost literally 'all over' our little

Honda Jazz after it's 2023 clean

Luckily, in the current heatwave, we had paid extra to have the car collected from our doorstep and after its little service and MOT test, delivered back to us later today by John from the Honda Yeoman dealership, which saves us a hot trip, and enables us to 'hunker down' inside the house, on what we're hoping will be the last 'super-hot' day of the heatwave - tomorrow is forecast to be just 'very hot', which will come as a relief, to put it mildly!

flashback to last summer, when Lois and I took our 'little gal' in, in person, for the MOT,

to the Yeoman Honda dealership in nearby Churt, over the county line in Surrey

No hot outings for Lois and me this year, which is nice! And the excitement even brings an slight air of tension to our afternoon in bed - will John be ringing our doorbell before 'statutory nap-time' is all 'done and dusted'? Fortunately John seems to understand our priorities, because he doesn't deliver the car to our home until around 5pm, to general relief, which is nice !!!!

Initially congratulating ourselves, over dinner, because our little gal has passed her MOT test, the euphoria turns a little sour later, when Yeoman's emails us with her so-called "health-report", and there is much anger!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

It's still 2 days to go before the big event of our year - the visit of our dear daughter Sarah, with husband Francis, and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, flying into London's Heathrow Airport at the crack of dawn on Monday for what's becoming their annual 3-week stay with us.

flashback to July 2025, and the last visit here of our daughter Sarah

and family from their home in Perth, Western Australia

Luckily the weather is forecast to cool down substantially by then, so fingers crossed!!!!

Yes, it's only a couple of days to go, now, till Sarah and family arrive, and, although it's too hot today to do any more cleaning and hoovering, Lois and I somehow find the time (and energy!) to order, like, a billion food-items (more probably!), to be delivered tomorrow by online supermarket Ocado, as well as, like, a billion ready meals from Cook.

What utter madness isn't it !!!!

And the twins' 'army' of stuffed toys seem to be feeling the excitement. And in guest bedroom 3, where the twins will be sleeping, the tension is palpable, especially when it comes to the more mobile Buckles the Unicorn and dog-on-wheels Rover !!! Awwww, bless them !!!!!

the tension is palpable among the twins' former 'stuffed toys',

gathered together in Bedroom 3, where the twins will be sleeping - awwww!!!!

Awwww!!!!!

21:00 And there's more tension in the air tonight, in Canadian sitcom "Schitt's Creek", which Lois and I have been binge-watching since the start of the World Cup - you know, the one about the billionaire family down on their luck - parents Johnny and Moira, with grown up, pampered kids David and Alexis, all four of them suddenly forced to live in 2 shabby rooms in a seedy backwoods motel in a ramshackle town called Schitt's Creek.

We've now progressed, with our binge-watching, all the way to Series 2 Episode 2, would you believe, and we're still up to our ears (and eyes) with it, shall I say!!!!

Although the once-billionaire Rose family appear to be finally adjusting to their new life in a shabby backwoods motel, the show's writers brilliantly give hints of the continued underlying tension, just below the surface, even after a couple of weeks of living in this ramshackle Schitt's Creek motel.

Like in tonight's episode, for example, where, in a key scene, pampered son David is helping his mother Moira cook what she claims is her 'old family enchilada recipe' for the family's weekly 'family dinner'.

It seems a simple enough step in the recipe, but the show's writers brilliantly show David's continued unease at the process.

And here's the point where Moira's own frustration begins to 'bubble up', a bit like the pot itself - and the irony isn't lost on the show's writers, to put it mildly!

And now Moira, finding herself on the back foot at this point, tries to spell it out slowly, for David's benefit!

Oh dear - things are starting to get heated - a bit like the pot, as the writers brilliantly illustrate with the occasional close-up of what son David is trying to stir, but without much success!!!

At this point, David tears off his apron and storms out of the kitchen, and Moira is left hanging, uncertain how to proceed!

What will happen to the bubbling enchiladas in the pot!

One thing's for sure - mine and Lois's eyes will be glued to the screen tomorrow evening,  to see how the finished 'dish' eventually turns out. Chekhov, Tolstoy etc, eat your hearts out (but not on enchiladas haha!!!!!)

Fabulous stuff, though, isn't it! 

[If you say so! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Thursday June 25th 2026m "Have YOU resigned YOUR job yet? Well, do it quick, before somebody else does it for you haha!!!!"

Yes, Friends, it's time for you to resign your job, or lose "face". Everybody's doing it, according to the press! Plus, you KNOW you're rubbish at the job, anyway, so what's holding you up haha!!!!

And you'll feel so much better, after you "take the plunge", no question about that!

And if you believe today's Onion News, you won't be the only one!!!! Just turn to page 94 !!!!

It's resignation season, seemingly, and the "I quit" stories are certainly bringing an ironic smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, no doubt about that!!!!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

We're laughing for a very good reason, because, by total coincidence, the latest copy of political magazine has just "plopped" through our letterbox, with what must surely be a prediction of the dire prospects for a prominent UK Prime Minister-in-Waiting.

Yes, step forward Mr Andy Burnham MP! But just for a minute or so haha!!!!

So it's "Hello Andy" and it's "Goodbye Andy", it appears, and Lois and I aren't too displeased - we never liked the guy anyway, so that's all good!!!!

Perhaps, we're just in a sour mood, unusually for us, probably because of the continuing hot weather, which is annoying, to put it mildly - no pun intended!!!!!

Yours Truly today, trying to keep cool with my shiny-new 'mini-fan'

which I'm using a bit like my electric shaver. What madness!!!

If only we were in Denmark, is what Lois and I are saying today, where our daughter Alison and family - husband Edward and their 3 teenage kids - jetted off to from London's Heathrow airport on a nostalgic mini-break to the Copenhagen, the city where the family spent 7 years from 2012 to 2019. It's all right for some!!!!

Today, our dear granddaughter Rosalind will be celebrating her 18th birthday, which seems incredible, but not when we remember she was also born this day in 2008. You do the maths haha!

Copenhagen is loads cooler than Liphook - just look at "the numbers" !!!!

(left) temperatures yesterday and today in Liphook, and (right) in Copenhagen

And this morning, Alison sends us these delightful pictures from the family's hotel window in Copenhagen, plus, later, a photo of our granddaughter Rosalind celebrating her 18th birthday at (we believe) the Sticks'n'Sushi in suburban Lyngby, which is nice!

pictures sent us today by our daughter Alison, with (bottom right)

our deaf granddaughter Rosalind, celebrating her 18th birthday

Awwww!!!!!

No such luck with the weather for Lois and me, here in Liphook, Hampshire, but we're doing our best, and Lois was up unusually early this morning, before 7:30am, determined to plant out her runner beans, who've been practically screaming to be taken out of the house and put into something wet, the little 'rascals' !!!!!

Awww!!!!

The thing about heatwaves seems to me to be that, basically, is that people talk about them, but nobody does anything about them, which is mad! So I guess we're just stuck with them (?). Lois and I only feel good if we've got a fan blowing in our faces, but there's no "silver bullet", is there, other than, in the morning, looking forward to getting back into bed in the afternoon, then, in the evening, looking forward to get back into bed again when it's bed-time. 

What madness !!!!!

And the bad news is that there's still a couple of days to go before the temperatures are forecast to be coming down a bit, which is annoying!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

20:00 Excitement mounts this evening, however, with some key developments in Schitt's Creek, the Canadian drama that Lois and I are currently 'bingeing' on, just until the World Cup finishes !!!!

The billionaire Rose family - parents Johnny and Moira and their kids David and Alexis - recently down on their luck, after most of their fortune disappears, are on the brink of selling their last town - the run-down Schitt's Creek - and escaping back to the good life, in bustling New York. 

Now read on haha!!!!

In tonight's episode, with the family on the brink of selling their last town - Schitt's Creek - the family's pampered son David decides to 'jump the gun', borrowing the Mayor's truck and heading off for the good life, in New York, without even waiting for the deal to be signed. 

On his way north, however, David runs out of petrol, but is lucky enough to fall in with a 17th-century Amish family, who take him in. And, as soon as his parents find out about his whereabouts, the family set off in their car to travel over there to pick him up.

In this scene, after the arrival of his parents and his sister Alexis at the remote 17th century Pennsylvanian Amish homestead, David waxes lyrical to them about Amish maiden Miriam's home-made butter:

Poor David!!!! He loves Miriam's butter, which he says is as good as the butter he tasted at the Ritz in Paris. But he does love his 'lie-ins' in the morning, that's for sure!!!!

And David's parents are lavish in their praise of the simple Amish couple who have cherished their son so carefully over the 3-day period. The kindly old Amish couple, however, won't accept a word of thanks about it, which is heart-warming!

Awwww -that's so sweet !!!!

Fabulous stuff isn't it !!!!!

[If you say so, Colin! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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