Danskcolin: Friday November 24th 2023

It's Day 2 of our "long weekend", partly "teen-sitting" our 3 teenage grandchildren in Headley, Hampshire on Saturday and Sunday. Our daughter Alison and husband Ed fly off tomorrow morning to Berlin to spend a couple of days socialising with some of the couples who they were friends with in Copenhagen during their 6 years in the city - 2012 till 2018.

Ali and Ed will already have left for Gatwick Airport by the time Lois and I struggle out of bed tomorrow morning. And they may have to defrost their car before they drive away. Tonight temperatures will go below freezing for the first time in the approach to the coming winter, down to 31 F (-0.6C) by 6 am tomorrow morning - brrrr!!!!

And Lois and I may need to defrost our little Honda tomorrow morning too, as we've been detailed to take Josie to Haslemere to do one of her tutoring sessions.

Should we bring it into the house, like the local Wallace family did recently on Onion News? Well, Lois doesn't think that Ali and Ed would like that particularly, but another time, well, maybe!

BELL END Worcs —In anticipation of significant snow accumulation and frigid temperatures brought on by a massive winter storm, the Wallace family reportedly decided to let their cars come inside the house Monday to keep warm during the blizzard.

“Usually we just keep them outside, but seeing them sitting out there in the snow and freezing cold just broke our hearts, so my husband and I decided to bring the SUV and sedan inside to get toasty,” said Elizabeth Wallace before rubbing the ice-cold hood of their beloved 11-year-old Pontiac G6 to help warm it up.

“Even after idling in the kitchen for a while, they both still seemed chilly, so we let them come right up next to the fire for a while, which seemed to help. I hope they understand that this is just for tonight.”

At press time, the family was irritated after noticing their 2012 Toyota Highlander had tracked mud all over the carpet.

Awwwwww!!!! Such a life-affirming story!

Unfortunately, one of the things about staying in Ali and Ed's house is that, apart from in summer, and sometimes even in summer too, the rooms, being all massive and draughty, get REALLY REALLY REALLY freezing cold, compared to our cosy little house in Malvern. We're all right at night, because we've got hot water bottles, and also it's a narrower bed than we're used to: it's only a standard 4' 6" double, and so it heats up really quickly,

the bed we sleep in, when we're staying with Ali and Ed

So nighttime is all right, but the evenings can be a bit of a challenge, so we think we might go out today and get Lois some extra knitwear. I myself wear two sweaters in the evenings, and I always bring a special "night vest" to wear under my pyjamas at night.

So we'll get Lois some more sweaters today, that's a must.

And Ed has a job for us to do today as well.

Ed, a hotshot legal advisor for some of the UK's railway companies, is going to be "working like stink" from home today, trying to "clear his in-tray" before the big trip tomorrow morning.

Ed's up to his eyes in it today, so Lois and I are happy to help him out by picking up 9 of his business-y shirts from the dry-cleaners in Grayshott. And somehow we manage to hang them up above the back doors inside our tiny little Honda Jazz without dropping them in the mud, which is fortunate.

pleased with our work of picking up 9 of our son-in-law Ed's

hundreds of "business-grade smart" shirts, we prepare to drive back to Headley

"Only nine?" I hear you cry. "Nine is 'easy-peasy!'" Well you're right really. The last occasion when we were recruited to be Ed's "shirt-monkeys" we had to collect 13 of the buggers and get them all back to his bedroom without creasing them. Remember that malarkey back in July?

flashback to July: I stand and take a picture (see reflection in car window),

as Lois struggles with some of Ed's 13 shirts -

it looks like I'm not helping, but I do my bit as well [not shown]

we stuff Ed's 13 dry-cleaned shirts onto the plastic "rails"

above the 2 back doors of our tiny Honda Jazz - what madness !!!!

we hang Ed's shirts up in "bunches" on the wardrobe doors

Ed more and more is wearing white shirts, as he climbs the ladder of success, but he sometimes varies the colours, as you'll see from the above picture - nothing too garish, needless to say.

Lois and I aren't sure whether he has a set rota, like that guy in the news the other day. We've found that if somebody has a shirt rota, it's easy to "crack" it, after maybe a year or two of observations: also keep a daily record of your colleagues' shirt colours, that's my advice, speaking as an ex-professional code-breaker!

LOWER WICK, WORCS—Awestruck by the sight of their long-time colleague struggling out of his jacket and adjusting his cuffs, co-workers found themselves agog Monday as data analyst Drew Terrell introduced a new shirt into his wardrobe rotation.

“Oh, my God, he got a new shirt,” said Terrell’s cubicle neighbuor Kelly Brennan, accurately summing up the sentiments of her office-mates, all of whom could be seen murmuring and nodding amongst themselves due to the article of clothing.

“Tell me you’ve seen Drew’s shirt? Come on, scoot over so you can get a better look. See? He is wearing it now. Powder blue.”

At press time, sources confirmed Terrell’s colleagues would be disappointed later in the week when the data analyst arrived for work in one of his old and previously worn shirts.

[That's enough shirts! - Ed]

11:00 Apart from picking up the shirts, Lois buys a couple of sweaters in Peacock's, Bordon, and we do dry runs of some of the trips we've got to do ferrying grandchildren around when Ali and Ed are away. Ali's printed out some helpful notes, which is nice!

14:00 We go upstairs for our afternoon lie-down, but before we get started Lois 'models' for me the two sweaters she bought this morning in Peacock's.

Stylish or what!

Today is also our first chance to talk to Ed, and he tells us a bit about his experience meeting the Duke of Edinburgh (a.k.a. Prince Edward) a week or so back. Ed was invited to meet the prince because of his involvement in the national Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme - a scheme, operated in conjunction with schools, which involves challenging young people to achieve goals in sporting endeavours or other fields of endurance or self-development.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, founded by

the late Prince Philip in 1956

Ed says that it's the Duke's job on these occasions to go along a line of people shaking hands with each one, asking each person one question that he's thought up in advance, and then making some general comment like "Keep up the good work" or "Great to meet you!" or something similar.

Well, fair enough, Lois and I think - realistically speaking the Duke can't be expected to do much more than that, can he. And it's still a thrill to meet a royal face to face, so that's all good!

18:30 While I "teen-sit" Rosalind and Isaac, Lois goes out with Ali and Ed for this evening's concert at the school near Guildford which Josie has been attending since the start of the autumn term. Josie is playing clarinet in the school orchestra.

It's a special day at Josie's school - it's the annual St Catherine's Day, and former students from all over the world have been gathering just outside Guildford, Surrey, for the big day, the whole shenanigans being celebrated also on social media, which is nice.