Danskcolin: Wednesday November 27th 2024 "Have YOU achieved YOUR perfect work-life balance yet haha!?"

This is another rather personal question for you, Friends, but in the circumstances, I make no apology for it [Why not?! - Ed]

And here's the thing.... Have YOU achieved your ideal work-life balance?

And if you haven't, take a leaf out of the book of local man Sam Morrison, who lives not too far away from me, in the lovely Worcestershire village of Upton Snodsbury. Did you see the story in this morning's Onion News (West Worcestershire edition), I wonder? It certainly caught my eye and the eye of my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois, even though it was "hidden away a bit", on page 94, would you believe!!! Local Onion Editor please note!

And if you don't live in West Worcestershire, don't worry - the story has been making headlines all over the world, as you can imagine. See these two examples from the Continent, but they're just the tip of the iceberg: the full total has come in as "legion" (and that's official!), which is nice for poor Sam!

Just two of the "legion" of headlines that local Upton Snodsbury man

Samuel Morrison has been making across Europe and the world

Let's hope Sam gets lots of offers to open supermarkets in Upton Snodsbury as a result of his sudden "exposure" (!!!!). Or just one ordinary shop would be an improvement - there isn't a single one there at the moment, would you believe? What madness, isn't it!!!

Upton Snodsbury in the Parish of Wychavon. Isn't it time

for somebody to open a shop there? I think we should be told!

Even if Sam falls back into obscurity when all the "hoo-hah" over his Onion News headlines get overlaid by other "biggies", at least he's got his yoga to fall back on, when the flood of his unpaid bills becomes a veritable "torrent", which is a nice thought!

So on balance, a good day for Sam, and it's another mainly good day for Lois and me today also, even though Lois decides to skip her online yoga tonight, as something we do today has made her back a bit achy - we're not sure what it was, but we're kicking a couple of ideas around currently. We're pleased overall, however, because our weight is still staying on track.

I showcase our weight records for this month

We've both lost a couple of pounds this month, and I'm now down at 10 stone 1lb 4 oz (about 64 kg), and Lois is at 9 stone 7lbs (about 60 kg).

In American, that's 141 lbs 4 oz for me, and 133 lbs for Lois, because they don't use stones over there. As US musician Alan Sherman explained on his visit to the UK in the 1960's: "Britain is a much older country than the US, and the British have had time to standardize their stones", which makes sense to me, but your comments welcome, as always! (Postcards only, needless to say!)

The US is probably gearing up for the big Thanksgiving Day holiday tomorrow. Lois and I lived in the States ourselves between 1982 and 1985, and we remember with nostalgia our last Thanksgiving dinner there, which was in November 1984, exactly 40 years ago this month.

And there's an amusing bit of whimsy of a cartoon in today's Onion News, although the Sam Morrison story (see above) has pushed it way way back in the print edition - page 95 or thereabouts. Keep on thumbing - you'll get to it eventually!

Yes, what if the Pilgrims had been "woke" - would they have rejected the local Native Americans' offer of an inviting-looking "Turkey Dinner"?

I wonder....!!!!

flashback 40 years to November 1984: mine and Lois's last

American Thanksgiving dinner during our 3-year stay in the US:

(left to right) our daughter Sarah (7), me and Lois (38), our other

daughter Alison (9) and my dear late sister Kathy (36) - happy days !!!!

Has it really been forty years? How time flies! [Get on with it! - Ed]

our day today: 6 monthly check-up at our dentist's, followed by a walk

past premises of the medium-to-top-secret Government contractor Qinetiq,

and then past rugby pitches of Malvern College, author CS "Narnia" Lewis's

alma mater, finishing up in bed for afternoon "nap-time" - poor us !!!!!

20:00 We get ready for bed with another relaxing re-run of the inventive old 1984's sitcom "'Allo 'Allo", based on the adventures of French café-owner René during the German occupation of France during World War II.

There's something a bit different in tonight's episode, because René and his wife Edith have been given a welcome temporary relief from German-occupied France with an unexpected off-season 2 day break in London. The RAF had landed a plane in a field outside René's café with a mission to pick up two downed British pilots, but instead, they picked up René and his wife Edith by mistake.

The short trip to London was not without its problems for the French couple, however, as René explains in this scene.

Luckily, René is soon comforted by a passionate welcome-home embrace from one of his café's waitresses, Yvette, who is René's current "squeeze".

Stuff like that just never gets old, does it!

The main storyline in tonight's episode is the local Germans' desire to revive the town's old newspaper and fill it with stories about how the French peasants are thrilled to have their village occupied by such a loveable bunch of Germans (!).

Here René discusses plans for the newspaper with local undertaker Lt Grüber of the German unit stationed in the village, and Alphonse, the local undertaker, who used to be a press photographer. In this scene Alphonse gives the other two men the benefit of his former experiences as a pressman: