Yes, friends, has YOUR neighbourhood been getting a bit 'run-down' recently? Well, a lot of neighbourhoods have, of late, haven't they!
But wait - there's hope - witness the big story in this morning's local Onion News - did you spot it, a bit "hidden away" on page 94? If you DID miss it, look no further for the full details, which are repeated right here for your convenient delight: and, while you're about it, "feast your eyes" on the heart-warming picture!
me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois - a recent picture
The local area concerned in that Onion News report wasn't named, but Lois and I suspect it was Basingstoke's once notorious Warrendale district, which, because of its somewhat "seedy" reputation, has been "off-limits" to us for 9 months, since we first moved to our current home in nearby rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire.
Well, Lois and I deserve to bask a little tonight, after another light-to-moderately busy day, once again acting as part-time "chauffeurs" (!) for our 50-year-old daughter Alison, picking her up from her home in nearby Churt, just over the county line in Surrey, so that she can then drive her newly-serviced second car home - all of which we do.
Ali's husband Edward, an executive with Transport UK, has been spending a couple of days up north in Liverpool, "schmoozing" Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and/or her officials at fringe events during this year's Labour Party Conference, but today he's back in London for yet more meetings (!).
But have no fear - it's "off-limits" to us no more, that's for sure!
However, "Why the chuckle, Colin?", I hear you cry! Well, Lois and I are funding a similar "beautification" to our own dear open-plan-living-room-kitchen-diner today - not that it's littered with hypodermic needles, I hasten to add, at least not on a weekday haha !!!
flashback to a previous evening, Lois and me braving
the evening chill in what's been dubbed the "open-plan hell" of
our enormous living-room-kitchen-diner - what madness !!!
Yes, today's the day that our long-awaited shiny new curtain-style room-divider is being installed by Hillary's, neatly dividing our living-room area from our kitchen-diner-area, and so keeping Lois and me snug and warm as we huddle on the couch in the evenings watching some rubbish or other on the "telly".
But we shudder no longer - becaue now Lois and I can bask in relatively light-to-medium clothing here in the evenings, and it's all thanks to the warmth of our shiny new curtain, which is nice!
me tonight, basking in the warmth of our shiny new
curtain-style room-divider - nice !!!!!
But not before we enjoy a cup of coffee with her in Churt, fending off her adorable two dogs Sika and Bjørn, and learning the latest news about her hotshot lawyer husband Edward, and their 3 teenage kids, and what they've been getting up to, the young scallywags !!!
flashback to this morning: Lois and I enjoy a delicious cup of coffee
and biscuits at our 50-year-old daughter Alison's house in Churt, Surrey
Ali and Edward's eldest, Josie (19) has been settling in at her college at Durham University, and Ali shows us this social media picture of all this year's college "newbies", in which she identifies Josie simply by the back of her head, the way only true mums can!
Josie is starting a 3-to-4 year degree course in Maths this month, with subsidiary subject Mandarin Chinese. And this morning, Ali tells us also that Josie's younger brother Isaac (15) who will be taking his GCSE in Mandarin next year, may also be taking the step of studying A-Levels actually in China itself - what madness!!!
a social media picture of this year's "freshers" including a slight glimpse of part of
our granddaughter Josie (19) (ringed) at her college at Durham University
flashback to Saturday: our daughter Alison and her husband Edward
settle Josie into her room at Durham University
Isaac has already been to China once already, in July last year - see part of Isaac's head below in (left) the social media picture of him (ringed) and his classmates on the bus to Heathrow, and (right) arriving in Tianjin or somewhere like that (!).
flashback to July 2024: our grandson Isaac (left) on the bus to London's
Heathrow Airport, and (right) with his whole group arriving in Tianjin, China
Oh dear! For Ali herself, 2026 could be a really "empty nest syndrome" year with a vengeance. Her husband Edward is often away on business, Josie will be 300 miles to the north in Durham, Rosalind (18) will also be at uni by then - who knows where, and Isaac may well be in China - poor Ali !!!!! At least she'll have the family's two dogs, two cats and a tankful of tropical fish for company!
But what a crazy world we live in!!!!
20:00 In a crazy world, it's nice for Lois and me to be able to see something warm and comforting on the telly tonight - a retrospective on the career of bank manager-turned-actor-turned-funny-man Ronnie Barker, he of the famous "fork handle" sketch, and others of a similar "ilk" (!).
Lois and I didn't realise that even in the early 1950's radio was still the big medium for would-be comedians, not TV, as one of Ronnie's friend actress Eileen Atkins explains:
In the 1960's, however, it was on TV that Ronnie first became famous, however, after becoming a regular on David Frost's TV shows in the 1960's, where Ronnie featured regularly in sketches also featuring actress Sheila Steafel, plus the other Ronnie - Ronnie Corbett, and the as-yet unknown John Cleese.
Cleese was normally stereotyped as the upper-class type in the show's sketches, with Ronnie Corbett normally playing the cloth-capped "pleb". Ronnie Barker, however, could do both types with ease, as colleagues recall.
Or as in this sketch, where he played his all-time favourite character, the news-reader.
Tremendous fun, wasn't it!
Their sketches which used to go out completely live - something which Ronnie was totally calm about, but which scared the living daylights out of fellow-newcomer Cleese, as Sheila recalls tonight:
Like many comic actors, however, he never felt comfortable as himself, and always wanted to "hide" behind some character or other's persona. He always appeared "in character", keeping his own personality a complete mystery.
Take this sketch where he plays an optician, giving patient Ronnie Corbett an eye test:
[If you say so! - Ed]
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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