Yes, Friends, did you know that being a spy has its compensations, perhaps in the way of a free drink, or two, even, from a charming companion ?
1980's rock band Was Not Was sang a lovely song about it once, long ago!
And it's a song very much on the lips of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in sunny Liphook, Hampshire, as we prepare for a day out, which is nice!
me and my wife Lois - a recent picture
We're preparing to spend the day in nearby Alresford, with fellow-members of Lois's church, and it's a town that, back in the day, played host to "spies in spades", to put it mildly!
Your own little town probably has, like, a bank, a park, a church, a railway station, perhaps, but here's the million-dollar question:
Has your town got a spy ring "dead drop" facility, for use by local spy rings???!!!!!
Well, Alresford has, which was "handy for some", back in the day, no question about that !!!!
Yes, back in the 1950's, Harry Houghton, one member of the so-called Portland Spy Ring, which sent some of Britain's naval secrets to Russia, used Alresford's Public Toilets as a "dead drop", hiding documents in the toilet cisterns for collection, and then, later, collecting the feedback there from his Russian masters.
What madness, wasn't it! But they caught old Harry eventually, and he got 15 years in jail for it, which is what the judge and jury decided was appropriate, so fair enough!
However, Lois and I are here in Alresford primarily for a social event in the calendar of Lois's church, arriving at Chief Elder Richard's house around 10am, which has meant a 24-mile drive, and so it's been yet another early start for us. Yikes! no peace for the wicked haha !!!!
(left) a 24-mile drive this morning brings Lois and me to a social event (right)
for her fellow-church-members at the house of Chief Elder Richard (standing),
and other members, including noted archaeologist Grahame (extreme left)
We all sit and chat for an hour or so, over tea and cakes, in Richard's back garden, with other church-members, including noted archaeologist Grahame (extreme left in the picture above), who, true to form, is avoiding anything too crunchy on the 'cake plate', he says, because of his teeth issues. As he never tires of reminding us, the BBC refused to pay for him to have his teeth fixed, although they had no compunction about paying out for Grahame's colleagues: TV's Professor Alice Roberts, also TV's Raksha Dave - what madness!!!
(left) flashback to August 2025: noted archaeologist Grahame takes us and a group of church-members
around Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester): the BBC refused to pay for Grahame's dental work, Grahame says, although they paid for rival archaeologist Prof Alice Roberts (right) to get her teeth done
- see her lovely smile-to-camera, as she digs up a Roman villa at Kettering!
11:30 After the mid-morning tea-and-cake today, most of the company set off for a walk around Alresford in the baking heat, arriving back 2 hours later looking decidedly the worse for wear, to put it mildly!
Luckily Lois and I opt to pass on the walk up and down Arlesford's very hilly streets, judging the temperature to be too high for comfort, and also seduced by the alternative option of working on the puzzles that Richard and wife Glenys had prepared for attendees - we can't resist a good puzzle!
Here are two of them - see below. See how many YOU can do haha!
For question 12, we can only think of "foxglove", but are gloves particularly used at weddings? Your help needed here - postcards only !!!!!
It turns out to be a good decision to stay indoors and work on the puzzles, in the cool of Richard and Glenys's fan-cooled sitting-room with fellow "old codger" Maurice, because Lois and I finish the puzzles super-early, and, as a reward, Glenys offers to take all three of us on a whistle-stop tour of Alresford in her air-conditioned car, which is nice!
This is the life! While other church members struggle through the town on foot, up and
down all the hills etc (!), Lois and I, plus fellow "old codger" Maurice, get a nice
tour in Glenys's fully-air-conditioned car, which is like a breath of fresh air haha!
The three of us even stop for a short stroll by the River Arle, delighting in the ducks and the lovely pike and trout that we see just below the surface in the clear waters of the stream, and somehow even finding time to look over a rare example of one of Britain's few remaining fulling mills, an unbelievably pretty 13th century thatched building, on a little bridge over the river, which is nice!
Lois and I, plus fellow "old codger" Maurice, take a gentle stroll
by the waters of the River Arles, delighting in the ducks and the pike etc,
and looking round a rare example of a fulling mill, which is nice!
"Fulling" was part of the medieval cloth-making process: woven woollen cloth was cleaned, thickened and strengthened, often using water-powered industrial processes, long before the coming of electricity.
Fascinating stuff, isn't it!
[If you say so! - Ed]
14:30 After a lovely lunch, also provided by Richard and Glenys, Lois and I make a swift exit, getting home in time for a nice afternoon in bed, so all is not lost haha!
21:00 At last a chance to relax on the couch and watch the final episode in the fascinating "odd couple" travelogue series, "Oti and Richard's South African Odyssey", featuring TV vicar Richard Coles and his crazy South African bosom-pal, Oti.
It's always a pleasure to watch Oti and Richard together - such an amusing couple, two complete opposites: Oti, the fun-loving and extrovert native of South Africa, and TV vicar Richard, a typically buttoned-up British introvert. And yet the pair somehow seem to hit it off.
And it's so nice also to see the very positive picture that the series has drawn of South Africa, a picture which Richard, as a veteran of the UK's anti-apartheid movement back in the day, finds particularly pleasing.
In tonight's episode, Oti is trying some typically death-defying stunts off Africa's highest bridge, although she is passing on the bungee jump for health reasons, as she explains in this scene:
Ewwww!!! And I think Lois and I agree that that wouldn't be at all pleasant. Good call, Oti !!!!
Oti, however, standing on Africa's highest bridge, is not willing to be cheated of her white-knuckle experience today, and gets herself kitted out to do a zip-line plunge off the edge. And as she says, as staff fit her up with all the ropes etc, "this is the part where people stop talking to you, and it gets really nerve-racking."
Richard, watching her from the viewing platform with a nice cup of tea, is having white-knuckle dilemmas of his own, however.
And let's hope he survives his own British-style "white knuckle" experience intact, and in one piece, if only for his parishioners' sake haha!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!!
