Saturday December 9th 2023

10:00 Lois and I are sitting around waiting for the expected "friendly invasion"  of our little home, when bingo - there's a joyful ring at the door and the much-missed lively chatter of 10-year-olds. Yes, our quiet house is suddenly echoing with laughter, which is nice!

The explanation? Yes, you've guessed it! Our daughter Sarah with our twin grandchildren Lily and Jessica arrive for the weekend, but they disappear almost at once, to the County Library with their tons of books, borrowed on Lois's library card - and see if YOU can spot the "odd-book-out" in these helpful lists emailed to us this week by library staff: 

Yes, you've spotted it - admittedly I may have helped a little maybe by ringing the book that stands out in this list - "William Shakespeare" by Anthony Holden?

Poor Lois!!!!  This is the only book in the list, of the dozens taken out with her library card, that was meant for her, and not for the twins, and I think she's read about 10 pages of it so far, since taking the book out a couple of weeks back.

Lois's library book that she's only read

about 10 pages of, over a period of 2-3 weeks

- what madness !!!!

Since downsizing to this new-build home in Malvern at the end of October 2022, the things that Lois and I have lost above everything else - apart from numerous household items that disappeared in transit or which we have stored in mysterious places - is.... the time and place to concentrate on something quietly.

So bear this in mind if you're thinking of downsizing . If you're in your 20s, this will maybe be in about the year 2060, or thereabouts, but if you're already in your 60's, say, it could be next year, so watch out!

an artist's impression of life in the 2060's

with cities floating in the sky and all that malarkey

Why is this? Why can't we concentrate on things quietly any more? Well, we've moved into a smaller house, for a start, so Lois and I find we're literally "in each other's pockets" 24/7. 

[Really? "Literally"????!!! - Ed]

Most of the day we're within inches of each other, whether it's in bed, on the couch, at the dinner-table, or in the car. This is partly because we're living in a smaller house, but that's not the whole story - we're in our late 70's, so we're also less able to function independently and we're constantly having to work as a 2-person team if we want to accomplish the simplest thing. What a madness it all is!!!

the simple road-sign that strikes terror

into the heart of every family motorist - yikes !!!!

For example, Lois doesn't really like driving any more, and so it's me that drives her places now. And on the other hand, I myself am more and more grateful for her "second pair of eyes" when we're driving around, watching out for "slow lorries" and all that kind of malarkey. So if we go out in the car anywhere at all, whether it's something Lois has got to do, or whether it's something I've got to do it's always a 2-person job. 

It's also very nice, though, being in each other's - shall-I-say "pockets"? - and I have to admit that. It's just that it's that much harder to get through the occasional serious library book, and I expect you can see why.

11:00 With the twins now suddenly filling our house with their constant chat and laughter, the whole day begins to pass by in a flash, as anticipated, with the twins decorating our little downsized Christmas tree and doing more of their art work on our little dining-table in the kitchen.

Sarah and Lois showcase our little downsized Christmas tree

that the twins have just decorated - some of the decorations

are home-made ones made by Sarah herself in the 1980's

the twins' home-made Christmas cards

13:30 An email comes in from Steve, our American brother-in-law, recording another basic law of the universe, the third one that he's documented officially this week - his research into the universe is really "taking off" now, which is so nice to see.

This is the kind of thing you can do when you're retired if you're really determined, and it's a salutary lesson to Lois and me, who since retiring in 2006, have so far failed to record or document any laws of the universe. "Could do better" was a comment made by one of my grammar school teachers to me back in the early 1960's - a remark that stung me at the time, and which I've never really stopped feeling bitter about. But I'm going to try and use that as a spur to greater things, so maybe it'll end up being a turning-point after all these years of mediocre performance.

Did YOU know about Betteridge's law? 

According to Wikipedia...

And respected BBC journalist Andrew Marr said something to the same effect in 2004...

This is a good result, by anybody's standards - "Don't bother reading this bit" is a marvellous life-saver. I think we're all busy, especially if we're retired, like Lois and me - "busier than ever", I think is the phrase. So Betteridge's Law is something of a godsend to busy people like you and me!

But to be serious for a moment, there's an obvious implication here for the law of libel, as Wikipedia points out.

An 1883 story in "New York World" about a local jewellery store that was trying to stop one of its  female employees from flirting with passers-by, seemed to be pointing the finger at one particular shop assistant, by the use of its headline "Was it Peppermint Mary?". 

a typical edition of "New York World", the newspaper

that ran the "Was It Peppermint Mary" story on another occasion

In 1913, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma made a landmark judgment, in Spencer v. Minnick, that "A man cannot libel another by the publication of language the meaning and damaging effect of which is clear to all men, and where the identity of the person meant cannot be doubted, and then escape liability through the use of a question mark."

I'm not sure, however, whether this judgment applies to the UK as well, but I think we should be told. Laws passed by the UK Parliament before 1776 are still valid in Oklahoma, but I'm not sure there is any reciprocity here. Let me know, if you happen to be a "legal eagle" won't you!

17:00 We sit down to watch a new dramatization of one of Enid Blyton's children's classic stories written in the 1940's about "the Famous Five" - four kids and a dog who solve mysteries and send lot of dastardly villains to jail. 

It's been updated and "jazzed up" for modern audiences, but I'm going to let that one slide for now, because it's still perfect cosy viewing for a winter's evening.

our five crime-busting heroes - Dick, Julian, Anne and George,

plus Timmy the Dog needless to say. Poor Timmy!!!!

20:00 It's 8 o'clock and time for a brisk walk round the neighbourhood to see the Christmas decorations that some of our neighbours have put up.

Brrrr !!!!!

21:00 The twins go to bed, and Lois and Sarah go upstairs to read the twins a bit more of their current bedtime story Wind in the Willows.

I settle down on the couch and watch this week's edition of the comedy news quiz "Have I Got News For You" on BBC1.

One news item featured was the story of a World War II unexploded German bomb that had lain almost unnoticed in a couple's garden in South Wales for over 4 decades, until a passing police constable happened to noticed it there a couple of days ago.

When the bomb's true identity was realised recently, the householders, Mr and Mrs Edwards  were persuaded by the local council, for health-and-safety purposes, to put up a warning sign to alert visitors or passers-by to the danger.

The householder said, "I used to clean my garden spade on it, by knocking the spade against it, to get the mud off". She thought it was a garden ornament.

But there's a serious point here, and it starts me thinking - our back-garden is pretty much devoid of ornaments as yet. Is this an idea for us? We're talking back-garden, so no nosey police constable is likely to spot an unexploded bomb there, and it would certainly "liven things up" and be a good talking-point at dinner parties.

I wonder.....!!!

flashback to earlier this week - our back garden,

just waiting for some suitable ornaments to liven it up.

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