Danskcolin: Monday March 3rd 2025 "Have YOU been annoying the god Thor recently? Well, shame on you if you have!"

Yes, readers, have YOU been annoying the god Thor recently? Most of us have, haven't we, probably often without necessarily realising it (!).

Thor (left), the "sensitive one" in the Norse-Germanic pantheon,

seen here with his medium-to-long-suffering wife Sif

Thor is known as "the sensitive one" in the Norse-Germanic pantheon, isn't he. And Lois and I thought of him this morning on our morning walk through local beauty spot the Devil's Punchbowl, a massive "crater" in the middle of the Surrey Hills.

This mysterious "hole" is said, according to local legend, to have been caused after a massive "barney" between Thor and the Devil, another sensitive "being". Thor and the Devil were at that time near neighbours, both living in Surrey at the time, and presumably paying council tax to the county council over in nearby Guildford.

[Council tax didn't come in till the 1970's, Colin. Do your homework!]

Lois this morning, on the rim of the massive "crater" in the Surrey Hills,

900 feet above sea-level, from which, on a clear day,

you can see the London skyline 38 miles to the north.

(left) an aerial view of the Devil's Punchbowl, a mysterious

crater in the middle of the Surrey Hills, and (right) us standing

where the land literally begins to "fall away" behind us

Opinion was divided about who was to blame for the "crater", Thor or the Devil. One group of locals reported that the crater was formed after the Devil hurled huge lumps of earth at his neighbour Thor, just to annoy him.

Poor Thor !!!!

Another group, however, claimed that it was Thor who hurled the lumps at the Devil, who was annoying Thor by jumping across the Devil's Jumps, three small hills a few miles away.

Lois and I have "sympathy for the Devil" on this one - it's annoying when the neighbours jumping across your Jumps - the clue's in the name - "The Devil's Jumps" (duhhh!), and they're obviously not for any old Tom, Dick or Harry to play on. So the jury is still out on that one.

the Devil's Jumps - three nearby hills about 400 ft above sea-level

It's a pity about the boring so-called modern "scientific" explanation for the Devil's Punchbowl, however: that it's the simple result of "erosion caused by spring water beneath the sandstone, causing the upper level to collapse". How boring can you get! Much more fun if it had been a meteorite or a comet what did it [sic] !!!

Incidentally I've got a health warning for you here, friends....

Don't be fooled by the lovely blue skies in some of our pictures. It's actually freezing cold, as you can tell from our hats and winter coats. You can't see them, but I myself am wearing three pullovers under my coat, just to be on the safe side (!).

blue skies this morning, but it's freezing cold, as you can tell from our coats etc!

How different it is, 9000 miles away in Perth, Australia, where the temperature's been over 100F (40C) in recent days, although it's cooler today, at only 82F (28C) as we found out earlier this morning during a whatsapp call with our daughter Sarah (47), who's living over there with husband Francis and their 11-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica.

Sarah, a chartered accountant, is always tired, bless her, but no surprise there, considering she's virtually doing two jobs. She's working for a company in Perth, whilst also still working for the company in Alcester, England - the company she was already working for when the family moved out to Australia last September.

The family need the extra money at the moment because they're trying to buy their first house over there. Completion date is in around 3 weeks' time, and Lois and I are hoping she'll be able to quit the English job after that, but we'll see. Oh dear!

Sarah says she typically relaxes by watching the Netflix pay TV channel. Australian TV is "rubbish" she says, if you live on the west coast. Most of the free channels time their programming to benefit viewers on the eastern side, where the bulk of the population live, and no adjustment is made for viewers on the western side of the country, which of course is in a totally different time zone.

"Australian TV is rubbish", Sarah says, if you live out on the west coast

The result is that "all the good programmes are over by 8pm", Sarah says. What utter utter utter madness !!!!! When Lois and I were living in the States in the early 1980's all the TV shows had different timings, adjusted for East Coast, Central, West Coast etc.

It's not exactly rocket science is it - be fair !!!!

Australian time-zones, compared to

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), London

What utter utter utter madness !!!!

21:00 We go to bed on this week's programme in the reality series "At Home With Katherine Ryan", everyday events at the home of UK-based Canadian stand-up comedienne Katherine Ryan, her husband the part-time professional Canadian golfer Bobby, and their 3 Anglo-Canadian children.

This week, Catherine, who's the family's main breadwinner, is trying to "take back control of her family" - husband Bobby and their 3 children. Although she says she typically comes across as "the dominant, mouthy one", she confesses that in reality she is constantly giving way to Bobby and the kids in her desire to make them happy.

In order to "take back control" she takes the unusual step of seeking advice from "Goddess Lola", who's a so-called "fin-dom", a profession that Lois and I had never heard of.

It involves posing as a "financial dominatrix", who goes on line with a "live streaming", insults her male followers and demands that they send her money. This gives the men, a.k.a. her "subs" (submissives), some sort of sexual thrill, seemingly.

Well, it seems from Lola's description that, if you're doing a live stream, you just have to sit there and talk in a dominating way in front of your webcam, and bully your male "subs" into sending you money. You can't see your "subs", however, or hear them - you just interact with them via a kind of "chat box" on your screen, Goddess Lola says.

We then see Katherine doing a initial practice live streaming on Goddess Lola's channel, to see how much money the male "subs" will send in. For Katherine it will be a good training for "taking control" in her own family, Lola suggests, setting boundaries, and "not hesitating to ask for what you want" of her husband and children.

Here's some of the session, where Goddess Lola introduces her "subs" to their new "fin-dom", Katherine, to be known as "Mistress Kat", who's "going to be humiliating you":

Time, now, to step up the humiliation: "You're so inadequate. You don't even deserve to be interacting with us in this way. but we've made a special exception for you because you're so pathetic, and we feel sorry for you!". Yikes !!!!

There is where "Mistress Kat" has to increase the sense of urgency, by enumerating some of the things she wants to spend the money on.

Disinfectant for the bathroom? Well, yes, that's a good start, it's a product Lois and I have to buy occasionally, so it's a need we fully understand. But is it humiliating enough for the poor "subs" to get their kicks off of? Maybe it's time to turn the screw a little further? And "Mistress Kat" then confesses, "I'm also hoping to buy a microscope, just so I can make out your balls! We are going to buy so much with all the money you're going to send!"

Ouch !!!!

The live streaming goes out as is, and a few days later the two women meet up again at a spa clinic. Katherine takes the opportunity to ask Goddess Lola how much money her clip pulled in, and she hears that, disappointingly, the clip made only $80 world-wide.

Goddess Lola has an explanation, however.