Yes, dear Reader, are you "good with your hands", and (ultimate proof) can you change a light-bult without calling out paramedics to "stand by" in case of accidents? Or do you sometimes badly need the services of a handyman, but aren't quite sure where to get details of somebody reliable?
After all, not everybody can do all the D-I-Y jobs that present themselves in their homes on a more-than-daily basis, can they - be fair!! And our education system these days is doing its best, but there are certainly limits even there (!). Did you see this story in this morning's Onion News (East Hampshire print edition)?
And getting the right professional handyman is a big issue in the minds of myself and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois right now, because, just 3-4 weeks ago, we moved into a 1970's detached house in Liphook, Hampshire. To us the 1970's seem "modern" but you do the maths - it's 50 years ago now, incredibly, and even houses as "modern" as that are starting to show signs of needing serious maintenance, that's for sure!
20:30 We get ready for bed on the couch, watching a documentary about the Loch Ness Monster.
We find the programme a bit disappointing on the whole - despite the Radio Times' promises of academic comments, it turns out to be surprising light on the "science" side, preferring to present just a catalogue of people who are convinced they've seen the monster, interspersed with people who are sceptics.
Luckily, just 5 miles away, lives our 49-year-old daughter Alison, with her husband. hotshot lawyer Ed, and their three teenage offspring.Ali and Ed drop by to to see us this afternoon, which gives Lois and me an opportunitiy to ask them for their advice about trustworthy local tradesmen and handymen.
flashback to January 19th: Lois and I (far right) treat our daughter Ali,
plus husband Ed and their 3 teenage offspring to lunch at local pub
The Deers Hut to thank them for all their work helping us move in
And Ali and Ed's visit to us this afternoon offers proof, if proof were needed, that Lois and I are now being "officially looked after by the next generation", which is reassuring, seeing that we were only recently diagnosed as being "clinically old". So good timing haha!
flashback to December 2023: my medium-to-long-suffering wife
Lois and me, recently diagnosed as "clinically old"
Ali and Ed take a look this afternoon at some of our electrical gizmos and extension lead set-ups in our house, and remove all of our "block adaptors", which we've used for years, but which are now apparently considered a fire hazard - presumably because they're not always "fused".
What madness !!!!
I showcase one of our 3-way block adaptors, now apparently
considered a potential fire hazard, perhaps because they're
not always fused (?) - this one is, however.
On the other side of the coin, however, Ed says he's impressed by the fact that Lois and I were able to manage a walk this week up the steep sides of the local Holly Hill and onto Weaver Down at the top. Ed in his spare time does projects with local young people who go camping in the wilds and engage in challenging physical activities, with the aim of qualifying for various Duke of Edinburgh awards - gold, silver and bronze.
flashback to yesterday: Lois and I climb the steep slopes of Holly Hill
and onto the top of Weaver's Down, where we meet a friendly dinosaur,
as you do! Don't worry it's not a live one haha!
And, Ed says, Weaver's Down is a favourite local terrain for these youngsters to try out their skills and test their endurance. Which makes Lois and me think - is a Duke of Edinburgh award something that Lois and I should be aiming for in our old age? Maybe it isn't too late, after all!
I wonder.... !!!!
It's been a soggy and windy (40mph plus) old day here for Lois and me, here in our new home in Liphook, that's for sure, and we haven't even been out of the house, let alone done anything remotely challenging. Lois was hoping to attend her first-ever Sunday morning meeting at her church's nearest affiliate, in nearby Petersfield today, but due to the weather, she decides to stay indoors and instead connect online with the meeting at her old church in Tewkesbury, which is the area of Gloucestershire we've just moved away from.
When Lois does eventually try out the Petersfield meeting, perhaps next Sunday, it'll be a bit daunting for her, because she doesn't know any of the church-members there. So she wants to be fully prepared mentally beforehand for the challenge, the way we introverts always do, to put it mildly (!). It's all a madness, but there you have it. We are what we are is the bottom line, isn't it.
It's a 90-minute documentary, for heaven's sake. Why isn't there time for a proper scientific treatment of the mechanics and probabilities of long-extinct species such as plesiosaurs or similar supposedly miraculously surviving into the 21st century" or, proper discussion of the psychology of why people like to come up with stories that are obviously untrue, but which they become convinced are "gospel"?
I think we should be told, don't you?
There's some interesting little flashes, however. Like the "monster" that seemed, in 2016, to be the ultimate proof of Nessie's existence, but which later turned out to be a prop left over after the filming of the 1969 film "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" - oops! What madness !!!!
(left) the prop of "Nessie" used in the 1969 film "The Private
Life of Sherlock Holmes" and (right) its "rediscovery" in 2016
There's also the photograph of a giant flipper, produced in 1975 by wealthy American cryptozoologist Robert Rines, which was convincing enough to be "endorsed" by naturalist and wildlife artist Sir Peter Scott, son of "Scott of the Antarctic", but which was later discovered to have been "digitally enhanced". What madness (again)!
There's some private amusement in this story, however, for crossword buffs like Lois and me, because Rines's "monster", which had been dubbed Nessiteras Rhombopteryx by palaeontologists, was later discovered to be an anagram of "monster hoax by Sir Peter S."
Naturalist and wildlife artist Sir Peter Scott's representation of
"nessiteras rhomopteryx" on the basis of the "flipper"
photographed by cryptozoologist Robert Rines
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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