Wednesday November 19th 2025 "Have YOU ever stayed in an airbnb with a really considerate owner?"

Yes, Friends, have YOU ever stayed in an airbnb - not just an ordinary one, but one that 'boasts' a considerate owner, alongside all the usual paraphernalia and 'mod cons' ????!

If not, make a note of this local airbnb-guy's details: Mark King - remember the name! And maybe book with him next time round - you'll be glad you did, that's for sure !!!! Here's his story, direct from this morning's local Onion News, in case you missed it!!!!

Kudos, King, there, the guy who's famously "all heart"! 

And this morning, the story brings a wicked grin to the 'chops' of me and my wife Lois as we sip our tea at the house of another local airbnb owner-to-be, area man Peter, one of Lois's fellow church-members, who's a bit of a wheeler-dealer. Currently Peter's got already got a business hiring out classic "roadsters" and another business providing "ground penetrating radar" equipment to local builders. Not content with that, he's now converting an old barn on his property as his first airbnb, which is nice.

just two of Peter's "Cherished Roadsters" that he hires out to local punters

Lois and I spend the afternoon in Peter's house, with Peter, his wife Ruth, and another couple - Maurice and Betty, all members of Lois's church, sipping tea with them and sampling two plates of shop-bought mince-pies. And Yours Truly goes and makes a pig of himself, taking 4 out of the 16 on offer, which is more than my share, and rather naughty, into the bargain!

Well, you do the maths!!!!!

[You greedy swine, Colin! - Ed]

Yum yum!!! 

Yes, the first mince-pies of the season, and suddenly it's beginning to look like Christmas, with our first snow-shower of the winter coming this morning here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire. I take several video clips which I send to our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia, just so she can see what's she missing down there on the shores of the Indian Ocean, with its seemingly endless supply of nice weather. 

Poor them!!!!!

(left) the 3 video-clips I send our daughter Sarah in Australia, proudly celebrating

our first show-showers of the season, and (right) Sarah's 12-year-old twin

daughters, Lily and Jessica, swimming this week in the warm waters of Gingin

Aquatic Centre, just north of Perth, Western Australia

Which weather-scene would YOU choose, if you had the choice - it's a 'no-brainer', isn't it!

And I bet Sarah and family will be just green with envy when they get my snow-shower video clips on whatsapp! But the difference in weather conditions is simply staggering isn't it - so much more Christmassy here, to put it mildly, or should I say "to put it stormily" (no pun intended!!!!).

But what a crazy planet we live on !!!!!!

[Get on with it! - Ed]

To be honest, Lois and I are feeling slightly aggrieved today, slightly envious of all our grandchildren: our daughter Sarah's twins are out enjoying Perth's summer sunshine, and our other daughter Alison's kids are also having a jolly good time - and just over the county line in Surrey, our granddaughter Rosalind's school is even hosting the Queen today, would you believe!

No fair !!!!!

By contrast, Lois and I are having a frustrating day (apart from the mince pies, needless to say!): we moved here to our lovely new home in Liphook, Hampshire, in January, but our old home in Malvern, Worcestershire, has remained vacant, unloved and unsold these past 11 months.

(left, centre) our former home in Malvern, Worcestershire, left vacant and unloved

these last 11 months, and (right) our new home in Liphook, Hampshire

Yes, our dear old house, unsold sob sob! 

That is, unsold until now, fingers crossed. A nice young couple, Sophie and George, want to buy it as their first ever house, and today we were supposed to be exchanging contracts on the deal. Our solicitor, Sue, however, wasn't in work today, apparently, so the exchange didn't happen. Why wasn't somebody else at Sue's firm detailed to act for her? I think we should be told, don't you! 

Let's put our personal "woes" aside however, and rejoice in the way that Queen Camilla has, through her hard work and kindness, been accepted and taken to the nation's hearts, despite the efforts of our awful national press! 

flashback to 1993: the phone-call where Charles cringingly

told Camilla that he'd like to be "reincarnated as her tampon"

I must say, Lois and I have been "rooting" for Camilla all along, so the news of today's visit to our granddaughter Rosalind's school is especially gratifying for us, to put it mildly!!

Queen Camilla visiting our granddaughter Rosalind's school today

It means a lot to Lois and me to have as our heads of state a couple so patently decent and honest, and also a government that may make mistakes and we may not agree with everything they do, but who are fundamentally decent and honest too. How many peoples in today's world can say they've got what we've got in the UK?

flashback: it's June 17th  2023, it's 11 am, and Lois and I settle down to watch 

Charles and Camilla's first Trooping the Colour in Charles' own right

and (below) the royal party on the balcony of Buckingham Palace#

watching the RAF Red Arrows flypast

Happy days!!!

Being a queen has never been easy, however, as we learn tonight from another fascinating programme in Channel 5's series "Secrets of the Royal Palaces".

Queen Caroline, who had the bad luck to be chosen to marry George IV wasn't so lucky, and he wasn't nearly as nice as King Charles, to put it mildly, as historian Kate Williams explains:

There were several red flags for the relationship, starting from the couple's very first meeting:

George, however, put the blame for the wedding night disaster solely on his wife's shoulders, which was not very gallant of him, let's say!

And the royal couple had quite different ideas about how Queen Caroline should spend her time.

Well, "Kudos Caroline!" - that's what Lois and I say! We'd both probably have done the same, we think, if we'd been married to George IV, in my case assuming that my preferred pronoun had been 'she', needless to say - but what madness !!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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