Danskcolin: Wednesday October 15th 2025 "Security cameras - they can be a godsend in a crisis, can't they, to put it mildly!!!"

Yes, friends, those pesky "Security cameras" - everybody hates them, that's for sure. And yet they can be a godsend in a crisis, to put it mildly!

Especially when family members go missing, as this morning's Onion News for East Hampshire is making only too clear! Read it and weep haha !!!!

Poor Gardner!!!! But at least there's a happy ending, which gives a warm feeling inside Yours Truly this chilly October Wednesday, and also gets inside "Mrs Yours Truly", "Mrs YT", or my light-to-moderate wife Lois likes to be called these days (!).

me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois

- a (fairly) recent picture!!!

But a hearty "Kudos!", to those security cameras that tracked that "old codger" from his home in East Hampshire to our nearest star, the Sun! I believe his little "adventure" began when he took the wrong exit off the A3 just past Guildford, where so many local old codgers drivers come to grief - no names no packdrill haha !!!!!

And by coincidence Lois and I have decided to have a security camera - a video doorbell - installed at our current home in rural, semi-grassy Liphook, Hampshire. We get a visit this morning from retired police-officer Gary, of the Blue Lamp Trust. He has come to see us as a result of an incident a couple of weeks ago, when we were targeted by "rogue traders" wanting to kill off the weeds in our driveway for some exorbitant fee.

after an attempt by "rogue traders" to clear our driveway of weeds

for an exorbitant fee, we contacted the county police, who

sent an officer round to interview us, and get descriptions etc

Although we didn't fall for the men's ruse, when we contacted Hampshire police they later referred us to the Blue Lamp Trust, a charity that gives advice to local "old codgers" about security, fire safety etc, which is nice! During his visit Gary installs some new smoke detectors and takes an order for a video doorbell, that he or one of his colleagues will fit on our front door in due course.

Somebody obviously thinks that Lois and I are "vulnerable", which has come as a shock to us, as we've never thought of ourselves that way. After all, we're only 79 - surely people don't become "vulnerable" till they're at least 90, or even 100, maybe. Let's keep a sense of proportion here haha!!!

(top left) a typical Blue Lamp Trust guy and (top right) Gary who visits Lois and me today,

and (bottom left) one of Gary's brochures, and (bottom right) the new smoke alarm he fits

Allow me to put my cards on the table at this point [I wish you wouldn't keep doing that, Colin! - Ed].

Lois and I are feeling a bit "mithered" today, to be honest - there's too much going on!

Even our normal afternoon in bed is not as relaxed as usual, would you believe! Lois brings her phone up with her because we're expecting our local GP to call her about her back problems - in the event her GP doesn't ring till 6:30pm, when we're just having "tea" - what madness! And, also just when we're getting "comfy" in bed this afternoon, Royal Mail ring our current "old school" non-video-camera doorbell at around 3pm delivering some shiny new batteries for our radio in the kitchen, and Lois has to go down in her dressing gown to take the package from the guy.

What utter utter utter madness!!!

Lois brings her mobile with her to bed this afternoon,

but the expected call from our GP doesn't come till 6:30pm,

when we're just having our "tea" - what madness !!!!

Also we hear today from Sue, our solicitor. We moved to our current home in Liphook, Hampshire, just 9 months ago, in January, but we still haven't sold our former home in Malvern, Worcestershire. So,as so-called "multiple house-owners", having been charged double stamp tax when we bought our new house here, for 9 months we've also been paying two separate council taxes - one for Worcestershire and one for Hampshire, as well as paying double home insurance and, like, a billion other insurances for both properties - more probably!

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

(left and centre) our dear unsold former home in Malvern, Worcestershire,

and (right) our shiny new home in Liphook, Hampshire where we moved to in January

We hardly dare say it, however, but the sale of our old home to a young couple - their first ever house purchase - still seems to be moving slowly towards fruition, and today our solicitor Sue sends us the couple's final enquiries about the property, which will hopefully enable a completion date to be fixed. Lois and I have only got till the end of this year to claim back the excess stamp tax we paid as so-called "multiple house-owners" - what madness (again) !!!! [That's enough madness! - Ed]

21:00 And what better way to calm down, relax and get ready for bed, than to watch the latest programme in Alexander Armstrong's new series about pub walks with celebrities, this week with comedian Lenny Henry, whose parents moved to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950's as part of the so-called "Windrush Generation".

Lenny plus his 5 siblings, and their mother, came to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950's on board the British naval ship "HMT Empire Windrush", and have become known as the so-called "Windrush Generation".

What was, or is, the "Windrush Generation"?", I hear you cry!

And it's fascinating tonight to hear Lenny Henry talk about his childhood in Dudley, in nearby Warwickshire, getting used to his new surroundings.

"Facety????" - is that "feisty"? I think we should be told, don't you!

For this programme in the series,, Lenny and presenter Alexander Armstrong are strolling along the beautiful Wenlock Edge in Shropshire, which Alexander points out was a coral reef 400 million years ago with a subtropical Caribbean climate, and Lenny thinks his old Jamaican mum would have liked that idea.