December 29th 2025 "Have YOU ever wished you were a blonde Swedish scientist on skis? Well, join the club!"

Yes, are YOU doing it again? I mean, wishing you were a blonde Swedish scientist, skiing down some snowy slope?! Possibly it's the world's oldest fantasy, and most of us can put our hands up, or should I say "rack our hands up" [Swedish: räcka upp handen] and admit to that one (!).

For girls growing up in the UK in particular, however, it's always traditionally seemed like a step too far, something of a "male preserve", so it's nice to see the new initiative to redress the balance, as reported in today's Onion News.

It's living the dream, isn't it [Swedish: att leva drömmen]!

And for my wife Lois and me, reading about the SVEN initiative in bed this morning, our minds are  already travelling, in spirit, over a thousand miles to the north-east, where our elder daughter Alison and her family - husband Edward and their 3 teenage offspring: Josie (19), Rosalind (17) and Isaac (15) - have just started a week's holiday at a Swedish ski resort of Åre.

Their holiday is only just starting. They jetted off on Sunday evening from  London's Gatwick Airport, landing at Trondheim, Norway, before embarking on a hair-raising taxi ride through a fierce snow-storm to their Swedish ski resort hotel, arriving at 3 o'clock in the morning, would you believe!

What madness !!!

Pictures from Ali are limited so far - we suspect that most of her photos will be of the hotel coffee lounge or, alternatively, of the view from the hotel windows. She's a daughter after my own heart, and not a fan of skiing, to put it mildly, but, by contrast, she does knows all about how to enjoy herself with a nice hot coffee and her laptop, or with something to read, or relaxing in the hotel's heated swimming pool, while Edward and the kids are out in the freezing-cold weather, "hitting the slopes" (!).

But we'll see !!!!!

(top left) the view from Ali's table in the hotel coffee lounge, and (top right) the view

from Edward's and her hotel room, and (below) the view from the hotel's

heated swimming pool - with all this, what need to go outside and face the cold - brrrr!!!!

Yours Truly did try skiing once, back in 1971 at the tender age of 24, during my student year in Japan, and I decided there and then, that it wasn't really me - call me a "wuss" if you want to, but I know what I like and what I don't like, that's for sure!!!

My body language says it all, I think!!!! Flashback to January 1971, me with my Japanese 

student friends Tetsu and Hiro, with me unwillingly "hitting the slopes" during my student year

And there couldn't be more of a contrast between what our daughter Alison is doing up in Sweden at the moment, and what our other daughter, Sarah, is doing this week. She and husband Francis, and their 12-year-old twin daughters Lily and Sarah, live in the northern suburbs of Perth, Australia, where the temperature hit 104F (40C) on Christmas Day. 

Currently, Sarah's family is spending a couple of weeks 350 miles to the south, on Australia's Southern Ocean coast, where it's a bit cooler than Perth itself, but not a lot (!).

Phew, what a scorcher !!!!!

Alison's family up in Sweden is at latitude 60 degrees north, while Sarah's family is at 34 degrees south. 

Lois and I are a bit in-between, here in Liphook, at 51 degrees north, but we make the best of it today, with a nice bracing walk in the morning going round the "hallowed turf" of failing East Hampshire Premier League Senior Division soccer club Liphook United - manager the perennially ashen-faced Ron Knee (59) - followed by a visit to our podiatrist Zoe in nearby Grayshott, climaxing in an afternoon in bed with our electric blanket turned up to max, which is nice!

Well, you're only old once, aren't you haha !!!!!

our day this Monday - a bracing walk over failing soccer club Liphook United's

"hallowed turf", followed by a visit to Zoe and Kathy's podiatrist clinic at Grayshott

And that's how you do it, when you're 79 going on 80 haha !!!!

But we're nothing if not perfectly "balanced" (!), [I'd like some evidence of that please, Colin! - Ed] Lois and I, and we end another very physical day with a bit of mental stimulation on the couch watching our favourite TV quiz, "Only Connect", which tests lateral thinking.

Can YOU work out the connection between these 4 seemingly unrelated "things"?

I think you've guessed the connection already, unless I'm very much mistaken!

Yes, of course, these are all couples who are buried together - a no-brainer if ever we saw one !!!! And here, presenter Victoria Coren-Mitchell fills in with a few background notes.

Yes, yuck indeed!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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