Friday June 20th 2025 "Dear reader, are you "in the club"?.... only in the nicest possible way, I mean !!!!"

We all like to belong to some club or other, don't we, even if it's decidedly a bit "naff" - go on, admit it! 

And my medium-to-hard-pressed wife Lois has been looking around. here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire for something or other to "become a part of", and I try to help her out whenever I can, as you can guess if you know me (!).

me with my medium-to-hard-pressed wife Lois: a recent picture

Take, for example, Lois's latest whim for joining the locally-famous "East-Hampshire Organisation for Women Women Women" (E-OWWW!), which has been making all the headlines in Onion News recently, with another avoidance of a milestone birthday having come up just this week, by coincidence!

And 'E--OWWW!' is a natural for Lois, don't you think - a no-brainer, but first we've got to get over another hurdle - fulfilling one of Yours Truly's "fad" notions, this time for getting accepted into membership of the local U3A "Old Codgers" Intermediate Latin group, fronted by retired Latin teacher Joe. 

a typical meeting of Haslemere Old Codgers U3A,

with the person who looks most like Old Joe circled in white

Today's the date of our "interview" with 'Old Joe', so, having spent the week "mugging up" on our Intermediate Latin grammar, this morning, despite the current heatwave we decide to shower and comb our hair, before dressing up in our smartest, most stylish of clothes to make the climb up to Joe's residence,  in a block of upscale, high-end, gated retirement flats at the top of Holy Cross Hill in nearby Haslemere, just over the county line, in Surrey. 

(left) flashback to earlier this week - despite the current intense heatwave, 

we "sweat our way" through Wheelock's 300-page "Intermediate Latin" course,

before dressing up in our most stylish of outfits to face the terrors

of a gruelling interview in the 'lair' of local retired schoolteacher Joe  

In the end, all our revision of irregular Intermediate Latin verbs this week proves to make no difference, because it turns out that as long as you can read, afford the £10 registration fee and "can go to the toilet by yourself", then basically "You're in!".  

What madness, isn't it !!!! 

However, 'Old Joe', like the retired schoolteacher he is, turns out also to be a bit of a stickler for his so-called (as far as Lois and I can see, completely made-up) so-called "rules", we won't be allowed to start attending the group's meetings until the start of what Joe calls "next term", i.e. September, if you please!!!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

flashback to last September - local "old codgers" queue up

outside Haslemere Town Hall to pay their £10'es to

join Joe's U3A Intermediate Latin group

12:15 Lois and I "escape" (!) from Old Joe's gated apartment complex - luckily Joe thoughtfully escorts us out and presses the exit key pad for us, so we don't have to dig a tunnel, as we had feared (!).

When we get home, finally, we can strip off, with the temperature now rising into the low 80's F, and we don't do much then for the rest of the day, although another call from our estate-agent, Lee, interrupts statutory afternoon nap time, which is annoying, although happily Lee's got some good news for us for a change (!).

(left) with the temperature now at 82F (28C) we haven't been in bed for 5 minutes 

this afternoon before Lois's Huawei starts beeping like crazy under the bedclothes: 

it's another call from our estate agent Lee, back in Malvern, Worcestershire, 

this time with some good news, which is nice!

Let me put my cards on the table at this point - or should I say bedside table (!). 

Lois and I have been living in our current home in Liphook, Hampshire for 6 months now, but our old house in Malvern, Worcestershire still hasn't been sold - which is annoying, because we're currently paying council tax to two councils: not just East Hampshire, but also Malvern Hills, which is sheer madness !!!!

(left, and centre) our old home in Malvern, Worcestershire, still unsold,

and (right) our current home in Liphook, Hampshire

Now, however, Lee tells us this afternoon that a local young Malvern couple, Sophie and her current-"squeeze" George, apparently "love" our old house in Malvern and have made an offer on it - they're first-time buyers, so there's no "chain". And they've got a mortgage approved by their building society, and each of them has been promised a contribution from their respective parents, which is sweet - awwwww!!!

And Lois and I have to wipe a tear from our eye, when we imagine the young couple joyfully getting the keys to their first ever house, and George carrying Sophie over the threshold into it (or maybe Sophie carrying George over the threshold into it (!)), with two sets of dewy-eyed parents looking on, maybe.

Awwww! Although Lee says he'll try and squeeze an extra £5000 from them first, if he can, thus boosting his estate agency's "cut". He's all heart haha!!!

In mine and Lois's day, however, you couldn't even get an offer of a mortgage from a building society if you weren't properly married. As I remember, we even had to bring our marriage certificate into the office to be double-checked, if you please, and we even had to "certify" that Lois wasn't pregnant !!!! 

Get married, get a house, and then and only then, get pregnant - "them's the rules", people used to say! What a madness it was, wasn't it !!!!!

flashback to 1976: Lois and me, proud owners of the little terraced house

in Cheltenham (left) that we had bought in 1974: only then did we dare to 

have a baby - little Alison, just 1 year old in these 1976 pictures - awwwwwww!!!!

Calling somebody your "current squeeze" wouldn't have cut any ice with a building society back then, that's for sure, in case "current squeeze" ran out on you, or "current squeeze" had a baby and had to quit her job, and the house had to be sold, possibly at a loss to the building society.

What a crazy world we lived in, back in those far-off, mad, 1970's ! 

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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