Wednesday January 17th 2024

Everybody's getting that "burned-out" feeling these days, aren't they. Even retired folks like Lois and me, although not so much us, actually, to be frank. But everybody else, yes with a capital Y - it's part of the modern world isn't it.

Even our local erotic bakers are feeling it, of all people.

NORTH PIDDLE, WORCESTERSHIRE —Erotic baker Kevin Nageli has experienced a decline in the quality of his work following a recent phase of burnout, sources emanating from [North Piddle’s erotic bakery] "Naughty Bites" said on Monday.

"I feel bad saying it, but Kevin's really in a slump," said Hal DiPrima, Nageli's long-time friend and business partner. " What am I going to tell those demanding local "hen night women”, here in North Piddle ?"

three of the senior cakemakers at "Naughty Bites",

North Piddle's leading erotic bakery, here tactfully

hide some of Kevin's saucier creations from the past!

"Naughty Bites" is a three-time winner of North Piddle Newsletter's "Best Place To Browse When You're Feeling Peckish" award, due in large part to the precision that once defined a Nageli erotic cake, with its trademark display reading "Make A Wish And Blow!"

"The erotic bakery business is detail-oriented," stresses DiPrimo, "but even I used to be amazed by the way Kevin would spend three hours a day on the tiniest naughty detail. Looking at him now, you’d never know it."

 "As you get older, sometimes the things that practically defined your life when you were younger become less important," Nageli said. " These days, all I want to do is finish my business as quickly as possible so I can go away, smoke a cigarette, and relax in front of the TV. But try telling that to my wife. Or my hen night customers."

Nageli has even begun to design cakes without erotic content, such as a rectangular, two-layer cake he decorates to resemble a hardcover copy of the bestselling book Henry Kissinger’s “Six Studies in World Strategy”.

Nageli's business partner said he was "dismayed" by the baker's "post-sexual period". "I cannot sell a cake shaped like a Henry Kissinger book in an erotic bakery," DiPrima said. 

What madness it all is, isn't it !!!

But burn-out is everywhere these days, isn't it. 

"burnout" - are YOU suffering from it?

And a lot of all this burnout must be the result of overdependence on web-browsing and social media, mustn't it.

Have you noticed how much even today's cats are getting more and more technically "savvy" ? It's certainly true of "Black-and-white Cat", that favourite stuffed toy, the one that mine and Lois's twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica love playing with whenever they visit us.

The local press is full of such stories these days isn't it - here's one I saw recently, about one of that growing number of internet-aware "techno cats", who happens to be living locally, in the lovely Worcestershire village of Bell End.

And almost every day it seems we hear about videos of "cute people doing the craziest things "going viral" amongst the growing "tech-savvy" cat community in this area.

Last weekend, when our daughter Sarah and her twin daughters were staying with us, they left us on Sunday morning with Black-and-White Cat seemingly too absorbed in his laptop to say goodbye even, which was a shame!

flashback to last Sunday - our daughter Sarah, all packed up

and ready to go, can't persuade Black-and-White cat

to look up from his laptop to say goodbye even,

which was a bit sad, to put it mildly!

Sarah and the twins finally left us on Sunday afternoon to go back to their temporary rental home in Alcester, Warwickshire, but they were obviously worried about "B&WC" (Black-and-White-Cat") maybe getting "burnt out" from his obsessive web-surfing.

To put their minds at ease on Monday we sent them this update on the situation, and Sarah sent us a quick reply, which was nice!

Sadly, today, I have to report that "B&WC" is back at his desk, hard at work once more, swapping "cute people-clips" with his madcap cat buddies.

"business as usual" - the scene this morning in Black-and-White Cat's

so-called "office" - a.k.a. our Guest Bedroom 3

But that's the modern world isn't it, and we've just got to find a way to live with it and work with it, and take advantage of its positive side. But whoever thought of designing social media for cats has got a lot to answer for, haven't they.

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

20:00 Lois and I try to stave off any fears of personal burnouts by "getting back to nature" tonight, with this evening's programme in the new "Winterwatch" series on BBC2, the series of programmes that examines the state of wildlife in the UK, with live contributions from a team of presenters in all parts of the UK. 

Who knew that the male hen-harrier and the female hen-harrier look so different from each other that for a long time they were thought to be two different species.

What madness!!!!

The female looks quite different as regards colour and pretty much everything else really, and she's a third bigger than the male. When species do this, it's called "sexual dimorphism" - bet you didn't know that!

here's a typical male hen-harrier on the left...

..and a typical female hen-harrier on the right

Species with this "sexual dimorphism" have a couple of advantages over other types of birds. First, it's easier for both sexes to spot a potential mate. 

And secondly, because the young males look like females until they fully mature, they don't get picked on by adult males looking to eliminate any "rivals".

See? It's all starting to make a crazy kind of sense now, isn't it!

And who new about the so-called "Portuguese Man-o'-War, surely the craziest creature in the sea. ANd presenter Chris Packham tonight helpfully disentangles the creature's many independent body-parts.

It's got a 6-inch (15cm) "sail" on top to attract the wind, and its got muscles to put up that sail when it wants to.

Underneath you have all the creature's gastric zooids, all independent animals, but they can only exist when "hooked up" to the sail bit on top. These are the feeding part of the system.

Then you've got the dactylozooids, the tentacles, again all independent animals. They grow to a massive length of 33ft (10m). These are covered with stinging cells, which will catch little fish, "concertina" them, and bring them up to the gastrozooids above.

Lastly we have the reproductive zooids, the gonozooids, that mate with the gonozooids of another Portuguese man-o'-war of the opposite sex.

Here's what a real one looks like:

And do you know their tentacles can still sting you, even after they're dead. 

What bastards !!!!

Confused? Well, thank your lucky stars that people aren't organised like this. You'd certainly have to be what they call "a team player", don't you, which wouldn't suit everybody.

What a crazy planet we live on !!!!

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