December 25th 2025 "As a young person, do YOU have multiple fears about growing old? Well, join the club!!! "

Yes Friends, do you, as a young person, have multiple fears about growing old, and being suddenly aware that you can no longer do the things you most want to do?

It's happening to that young woman that's all over the local papers this morning, and here's Onion News for East Hampshire "take" on the story  everybody's talking about this Christmas Day morning!

Poor Olivia!!!

It's a story that resonates with me and my wife Lois, in bed here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, as we "leaf" through the paper [no pun intended!!!] this Christmas Day morning, no doubt about that!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

As a young couple, we're approaching the New Year with multiple inner, unspoken fears, because 2026 will be the year that we both become officially 'old'. Yes, next year we're finally going to reach the ripe old age of 80 years would you believe! 

"Old before our time!" is how we're dubbing the coming bombshell next year (!) - but we realise it's our own fault,, for being born far too early, which is a pity!

flashback to the late 1940's: "born too early"- our tragic mistake!!!! (left) an early

picture of Lois with younger brother Andrew outside the family's "prefab" in Oxford,

and (right) me with my dear late parents Ken (32) and Hannah ("Nan"), (27), outside Dover

And today, on our 79th Christmas Day, Lois and I get multiple reminders of how we're getting "a bit old for it", to put it mildly!

First up, we get a "ride", courtesy of our 50-year-old daughter Alison, who picks us up at 11am sharp and whisks us away to her family home 10 miles away in Churt, Surrey, to spend the big day with her and her family - I no longer trust myself to drive in the dark along the crazy country roads of Hampshire and Surrey, narrow with so-called "passing places", full of potholes and with, like, a billion twists and turns - more probably (!), around which some crazy local is liable to come speeding at 60 mph in the opposite direction, like there's no tomorrow, and nobody else on the road! What madness !!!!

a typical narrow country lane in Hampshire/Surrey - what madness!!!!

And later, after the meal and the King's Speech, the family - Alison, husband Edward, and their 3 teenage offspring Josie (19), Rosalind (17), and Isaac (15), tiptoe tactfully away, leaving "granny and poppa", aka Lois and me, to doze off on the couch watching a TV retrospective on 1970's sitcom "Dad's Army". Finally around 6pm Alison tactfully (again!) drives Lois and me home, where we can doze off on our own couch watching a TV retrospective on 1980's sitcom "Ever Decreasing Circles".

Poor us !!!!!

 

we watch this year's King's Speech, before Alison and family

tiptoe tactfully away to let Lois and me doze on the couch

watching a TV retrospective on 1970's sitcom Dad's Army

- what madness (again) !!!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

Having said that, Lois and me have a super day - we only have naps when we're feeling really contented and fulfilled and, preferably, surrounded by our lovely family, conscious of just how lucky we are, to put it mildly!

First the delicious and plentiful Christmas meal, cooked by our son-in-law Edward, with some outside contributions, including Lois's Christmas Pudding - made from her grandma's 150-year-old Oxfordshire country recipe: yum yum!

Then we do the present unwrapping - and this year's "Star Present Award" goes to Edward's parents, who, thoughtfully, have sent him an HG headstone spray to stop his garden antique statuary going green, which is a nice touch! 

And Lois, in playful mood, asks Edward if she can borrow the spray to use on me, of all people!!! 

How we laugh!!! She's only joking, though, or is she? Your views welcome - postcards only haha !!!!

Here it is in close-up, this year's Christmas 2025 "gift of the year", from Edward's parents: new HG Spray. Get yours today - stocks are running out fast haha !!!!

For the man who has everything haha !!!!

Well, Yours Truly and Lois too (aka Mrs Yours Truly) may both be looking a bit green about the edges these days, but we show the youngsters a thing or two, when the games are brought out, that's for sure!

First up is "Mapominoes", where Lois and I predictably "wipe the board" with our younger relations, to make an extreme understatement !!!!! 

It's a version of dominoes but one in which you need a good knowledge of UK geography, a subject which, seemingly, they no longer teach kids at school. Each of the 200-odd cards illustrates one of the UK's counties: in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and you can only put a card down next to a neighbouring county. Simples, really, at least for two "old codgers" like Lois and me.

What a crazy country we live in !!!!

a game of "Mapominoes" - and the winners are (predictably) Lois and me, 

who know the UK's counties backwards, from our schooldays in the 1950's, would you believe!!!

And even during the later game which I call "Name That Tune", us old codgers show the youngsters a thing or two - I can't remember what the game's real name is, but you have to able to "name that tune" from the last 100 years of popular music and also, which is much harder, to have a rough idea of what year the song was first released. Oh yes, I've just remembered - the game's called "Hitster", which is appropriate (!).

It's a souped-up" modern game, however, because Alison has to use her mobile phone to play the tunes - the game, as well as involving cards and tokens, is partly on some sort of "app", or some-such nonsense (!). Nevertheless Edward, Lois and I, playing as a team, turn out to be the surprise winners, thanks to our combined long span of years listening on the radio to what my dear late father used to call "rubbish", and thanks also to Edward's aggressive "gamesmanship", taking advantage of our opponents' "snafus". 

Well, Edward is a hotshot London lawyer in real life, and he knows how to spot the smallest breach of the game's complicated rules, and with his jaunty "Objection, Your Honour!" style interruptions proving appealing [no pun intended!!!] to Judge Lois, many of Edward's so-called "objections" are "sustained", which is an enormous help, you would not believe (!).

So "Kudos, Edward !!!!"

 a typical lawyer's "objection" - those 'grammar police'

still making occasional arrests, seemingly!!!!

But also Kudos Lois and me !!! On the whole, I think (with a little help at times from lawyer Edward), Lois and I "acquit ourselves" marvellously - no pun intended!!!! 

[That's enough unfunny puns! - Ed]

And the takeaway, I think, if you read the transcripts (!), is that "Old Codgers Rule", even if we do need a squirt of new HG spray occasionally, just to stop us going green around the edges (!).

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to  bed - zzzzzzz!!!!