Danskcolin: Saturday January 27th 2023

Wow, what a day this is turning out to be, and not just for Lois and me. It's the only full day of our daughter Sarah's stay here with her 10-year-old twins, and it's a humdinger of a day to put it mildly!

I expect you read the shock news about favourite stuffed toy Black-and-White-Cat's - "Cats-R-Me" - business suddenly being discovered to be in financial trouble, did you? It was all over Onion News (local Worcestershire section colour supplement) this morning wasn't it.

Black-and-White-Cat, seen here in

happier times, when his business

Cats-R-Me seemed to have a bright future

Well, things move fast today, I can now exclusively reveal - first Black-and-White-Cat brings in a business partner, Bluebell Mouse, and then the whole firm is bought out by local fat-cat Teddy Bear-business man "Hoppy Bear". So the firm remains in local hands, which is cause for celebration, we all think.

The smiles on the faces in this next photo tell the story here, I think.

Major share-holders our daughter Sarah, and grandchildren Jessica (left) and Lily (right) celebrate, as Black-and-White-Cat and new business-partner Bluebell Mouse are photographed by the local press working hard at their laptops (bottom right) while fat-cat new owner Hoppy Bear keeps a genial eye on proceedings and makes sure that there's no "goofing off". That's what I call a happy ending.

Major shareholders Sarah and the twins pose for photographers

while Black-and-White-Cat and Bluebell Mouse work their firm

out of financial "rough waters" under the genial eye

of new boss, local "fat cat" Hoppy Bear (bottom left)

The late morning Onion News local headlines duly pick up this genuinely feel-good story:

There's a slightly sour note, however, when some of the reasons why Cats-R-Me was in trouble are revealed later in the day. A close-up of some of the paperwork on the desk above reveal the shocking truth. Black-and-White-Cat had spent a whopping $30 (Australian) on ice-creams from Amazon yesterday, while the troubled firm was literally "leeching money".

What madness!!!!

[That's enough whimsy! - Ed]

With Cats-R-Me on an apparently now "unassailable firm footing" in Hoppy Bear's words, we can do the next job on the list - to visit the County Library on Graham Road to get some more books out for the twins, those most voracious of readers, and allow them to "let off steam" with a little go on the play equipment at the adjacent playground.

the County Library on Graham Road

JD - "job done" - and I think we can all feel a sense of satisfaction for the part each of us played in the financial rescue drama of this morning. Even you, dear reader - you helped just by lending your emotional support, which was a life-saver at times, let me tell YOU!

16:00 In the afternoon we play another round of the popular detective board-game Cluedo on the kitchen table.

we play popular board-game Cluedo on the kitchen table

Lois and I have owned this "Cluedo" board-game set ever since Sarah herself was roughly the same age as the twins are now, in the late 1980's, with her sister Alison only a couple of years older. And I think that the game's age shows up beyond reasonable doubt in the sorry, and deeply shocking, state of some of the so-called "equipment".

Amongst the murder weapons a sorry piece of string substitutes for the long-lost "rope", and a tiny safety-pin substitutes for the long-lost "dagger". And amongst the pieces, a blue Lego brick has to substitute for the long-lost "Mrs Peacock".

What a madness it is, isn't it!

the shocking state of the "equipment" for this 40-year-old

Cluedo Board Game set: amongst the murder weapons,

a piece of string substitutes for the lost "rope", and a safety pin

for the lost "dagger", whilst among the piece, a blue

Lego brick has to take on the part of "Mrs Peacock"

- what a madness it all is !!!!

Now here's a question for you. What age do your children or grandchildren have to be in order to for you to "trounce" them at a board-game without seeming to be another "Competitive" Dad Simon Day in the BBC 1990's series "The Fast Show" or "The Brilliant Show", as it's known abroad?

Answers required this time - on a postcard as usual - because I'm hoping to do a proper sociology-professor-standard survey. I'll need a decent sample size to put it mildly, and your help will be vital. Please drop whatever you're doing and respond now if it's not too much trouble !!!

flashback to the 1990's: Competitive Dad Simon Day

engaged in "trials of strength" with his young family

Well, here's why I ask. Not seeming to be Competitive Dad, I generally "switch off" mentally while playing with youngsters, assuming that this will help me to lose gracefully without investing a lot of pointless cerebral effort and allow me to concentrate on the part I like, which is the family banter.

But today - warning: confidential information coming up! - by a fluke I actually would have won the game this afternoon. My tatty "Detective Notes" slip of paper (see below), used and re-used dozens of times over the last 40 years, reveals beyond reasonable doubt, that I correctly identify the murderer as Rev. Green, murder weapon as the candlestick, and the murder locale as the hall.

my actual "Detective Notes" from this afternoon's game of Cluedo,

correctly identifying Rev Green, the candlestick and the hall.

With the murder details fully recovered in my mind, however, I make a split-second decision not to take advantage of my successful crime-busting. I can see that my 10-year-old granddaughter Jessica has also worked out the details of this horrible murder by Rev. Green and is about to reveal them.

When I see Jessica's eagerness, I decide to "throw the game" and make a pointless move of my character - Mrs White - out of the hall, enabling Jessica to take the honours, and gain the glory.

I deliberately "throw the game", allowing

my 10-year-old granddaughter Jessica

(above) to win the game and get the honours

Was I right? When a child reaches a certain age, I think, parents and grandparents have to give up on "encouraging them by letting them win", and start seriously on the process of "teaching them that sometimes you lose" not just in board games but in life generally, and that you've got to learn to accept your loss, and "move on".

I wonder..... !!!!!!

Answers please. And don't 'forget' haha !!!!!

18:00 After the game, when I'm putting it away, I realise what a storehouse of potential data there are here for sociologists and board-game-buffs alike.

From the used-and-reused "Detective Notes" from 40 years of playing the game, a researcher could easily find out how many times the various characters - Rev. Green, Mrs White, Mrs Peacock etc have committed murders, what their favourite weapon was and what the most frequent locales were for the murders.

I wonder..... !!!!

Watch this space !!!!!!

some of our 'multiple-ly' used and reused

"Detective Notes" going back 40 years

Fun fact: when Lois and I were living in the States 1982-1985 we had a second-hand version of this board game which was already falling apart. We had picked it up at a local yard-sale. In the US it's called just "Clue" - whereas the British name reflects a pun on the name of the very basic board-game of Ludo. Maybe Ludo was never that popular a game over there?

But here's the thing - in the US, Rev. Green is referred to as plain "Mr Green" - does that reflect a distaste over there for associating a "man of the cloth" with dastardly murders? I think we should be told, don't you?

the many faces of US actor Vince McMahon, who plays

serial killer Mr Green in the hit movie version "Clue" (1985)

20:00 We spend the evening watching the original film version of the Arthur Ransome novel for children, Swallows and Amazon, which Sarah picked up second-hand on Amazon the other day.

This tale of children boating in the Lake District in the 1930's, is another thing that our own two daughters enjoyed when they were growing up. Lois and I had this film on VHS in those far-off, crazy days.

And the original book by Arthur Ransome is one that both Lois and I read ourselves back in the 1950's, when we were about the twins' age.

Happy days !!!!

"Cats-R-Me" staffers Black-and-White-Cat and Bluebell Mouse

with new owner Hoppy Bear, stop work for the day and

join us on the couch for the film's climax, which is nice

The twins themselves have read the original Arthur Ransome book from the 1930's, and it's also nostalgic for them to see the film, because back in September the whole family visited Lake Coniston in the English Lake District, and went on a boat trip round the lake, seeing the island where the children in the story set up their camp.