Friday October 10th 2025 "Parents don't despair - that 'useless' kid of yours will make good some day!"

Parents! Once a parent, always a parent - often a thankless task, and so all the more heart-warming when all our hard work over the years starts to pay off, to put it mildly!

Did you see one such story in this morning's local Onion News for East Hampshire? If you missed it, here's the story, slightly edited for content, and if you want "chapter and verse" then turn to page 94 in your print copy - and for your thumb it'll be well worth the "slog", no question!  

Kudos, "Doctor" Cliff !!!!

Here in our busy home in grassy, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, the story brings a warm glow to the cheeks of me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois this morning, that's for sure!

my light-to-moderate wife Lois and me - a recent picture

Lois needs to speak to somebody about her periodic back issues. And she'd settle for TV soap star heartthrob Brett Green's attentions any day of the week [see Onion story above!], believe you me! 

However, wiser counsels prevail, I can exclusively reveal, and after some fruitless local shopping at a charity shop for Lois's elusive "next jumper", we decide to drop in at our local doctor's surgery to book a phone appointment with a real doctor in 5 days' time - well, she did tell the receptionist that it wasn't urgent, so fair enough!

(top) we strike out on Lois's "next jumper", because we're not sure that orange

is her colour - your views welcome! - but (bottom) we manage to get Lois a doctor's 

telephone appointment in 5 days' time, so all is not lost (!!!!)

We strike out on finding a new jumper, by the way, and we have to hurry home anyway, because I get a text to say that our new heating engineer Tyler is on his way from Basingstoke to service our gas boiler. Annoying because we've been looking forward to another nice peaceful afternoon in bed and we have to wait till 2:30pm (would you believe!) to get started on it. Busy busy busy!

(left) Tyler, our new gas heating engineer, (centre) a typical gas boiler,

and (right) an indication of Tyler's company's catchment area, in case

YOUR old boiler is in urgent need of a service (!)

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Yes, another "stressful" day (!), and tonight we're glad to be able to "unwind" on the sofa while team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop take the week apart on the comedy news quiz show "Have I Got News For You", which is nice.

On tonight's programme, there's a story from presenter Steph McGovern's neck of the woods - Durham, which is nice! And it's all about local county councillor Tony Hewitt (ringed in picture below):

This week, Hewitt averted a cheating scandal involving his wife Rita, who is apparently an expert in local competitions where you grow spectacular flowers or vegetables. However, this week Tony was told that Rita would not be allowed to compete in the local flower show, because he was a county councillor, and it was the council that judged the show. 

So Tony resigned from the council, to let his wife shine. Kudos, Tony !!!!

Team captain Ian Hislop wants to know how Rita got on in the competition this year.

And can YOU guess the missing word or words in this headline  from the week's news, all about Tory grandee Michael Gove?

However, Paul Merton's suggestion of "a pudding" turns out to be very wide of the mark.

Have you guessed the right answer? Yes, I see you're 'bang on the button' again (!)....

What a crazy country we live in !!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh, just go to bed! - Ed]

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