Yes, Friends, camping out under the stars, maybe on a beach - what could be more exhilarating, especially if it's with your best buddies!!!! Just this morning, there was an inspirational story in today's local Onion News for East Hampshire - did you catch it?
These intrepid guys' story had me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois grinning with in acknowledgement and the pleasure of shared experiences this Sunday, here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, that's for sure!
me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois - a recent picture
We're doing our weekly Sunday morning zoom call today, with our 48-year-old daughter Sarah, who lives 9000 miles away in sunny Yanchep, just north of Perth, Australia with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. The twins have only 3 weeks more of primary school, before a whole two and a half months' break, prior to starting high school in February.
The guys are in high spirits, having just put up their Christmas tree, and now planning their Christmas camping trip down south to the enticingly-named Native Dog Beach in Bremer Bay on the Southern Ocean - where there'll be only sea between them and Antarctica!!!!
It's a 6-hour, 350-mile trip, so the family may decide to break the journey halfway, at the incredible, fossilised, Wave Rock, which is 2.7 billion years old - so, evidently, much older than Lois and me, to put it mildly, although we sometimes feel that old ourselves, if you catch us on a bad day haha!!!!
(left) the incredibly majestic 2.7 billion year old Wave Rock, which is on
our little Australian family's route south, and (right) the planned final
destination for their Christmas camping holiday - the lovely Bremer Bay
And here's the info that that nice Mr Google has given me this morning on the incredible Wave Rock:
Meanwhile poor Lois and I, back here in Liphook, Hampshire UK, have to "wrap up like Inuits" - (the word "eskimo" isn't PC any more, apparently (!!!)), just to scrape the ice off our car's windows before we can go anywhere, would you believe!!!!
flashback to last Wednesday - me (bottom left) scraping the ice
off our car's windows before we can drive anywhere - what madness!!!
What a crazy planet we live on !!!!
Anybody with any sense - unlike Lois and me - will have decided to get out of the UK at the moment and make for warmer climes. And when I drive Lois 10 miles south this morning to her church's Sunday Morning Meeting just outside Petersfield, we find that the meeting's arguably most famous member, respected archaeologist Grahame, is still on a so-called "dig" in Egypt, where it's reputedly much warmer than it is here in England, to put it mildly (no pun intended!!!!).
(above) Lois and me this morning, all wrapped up like Inuits (!) at her church's
Sunday Morning Meeting, and (below) flashback to August: respected archaeologist Grahame, him
with the red hair and the blue shirt and the big black bag, showing us and fellow church-members
around the ruins of the 2000-year old amphitheatre at the Roman town of Silchester, Hampshire
Grahame is on nodding terms with fellow archaeologists TV's Alice Roberts and TV's Raksha Dave. And who knows, possibly he's on more than nodding terms with them!!! Well he's a good-looking single guy, and remarkably fit considering he's now in his early 70's, so good luck to him, and more power to his elbow. And watch out Alice and Raksha, there's life in the old dog yet haha!!!
And, if you're reading these words, Grahame, you know I'm only kidding, don't you !!!! [I'm not laughing. I'll get you for this post, Colin, when I come back! - Grahame]
(left) Lois's fellow church-member Grahame, showing a group of
church members around the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester), and
(right) respected archaeologist and fellow-"ginger", TV's Alice Roberts, on a typical 'dig'
What's Grahame doing in Egypt exactly? Well, the church-members whom Lois and I consult this morning at the meeting aren't sure, but Grahame is a Roman specialist, so mine and Lois's money is on the 'dig' at Hermopolis Magna, an excavation that is currently uncovering the town's old Roman baths, 200 miles south of Cairo, and halfway between Cairo and the southern city of Luxor.
So watch this space!!!! [I can't wait! - Ed]
Yes, lucky old Grahame is probably having to keep the air conditioning on at his swanky Egyptian hotel, which is ironic, considering that Lois and I are having to keep our heating on, here in semi-freezing Liphook UK!!!
[You really don't understand geography, do you, Colin! - Ed]
Yes, you know you must be old, when these publishers don't consider it worthwhile to go back as far as Lois and I do - to 1946 to be precise, and have essentially decided to "write off" anybody born earlier than 1950.
Brrrr!!!! And if there's anything that the cold weather does to Lois and me, it's to make us want to "go bathroom", as we call it (!), even more than usual. Well, we are both 79 now, and counting, although, unquestionably, still very much "marvellous for our age" (!).
And we get an uncomfortable reminder, today, of just exactly how old we must be, when Lois sees an advert for a series of books featuring news stories and photos, for people born in particular years: 1950, 1951 etc, so that they can re-live the years of their youth (!).
What madness !!!!!
In this episode, Charlie and Daisy May are camping out, hoping to see a Scottish poltergeist, famed in local legend. At least they aren't having to sleep in a tent, however - they're staying tonight in a Scottish "bothy". And if you don't know what a bothy is, this is what that nice Mr Google has to say:
What that nice Mr Google isn't telling you about bothies, however, is that a lot of them don't have toilets, which is totally mad!!!!
Poor Daisy May !!!!!
At least, in our extreme old age (!), Lois and I, when we need to "go bathroom", have the comfort of fully-heated "facilities" here in Liphook. However, not everybody is as lucky, as we find out on tonight's final episode in the BBC2 reality ghost-hunting series, "Nightwatch", starring blondie Cotswold sibling pair, TV's Charlie and Daisy May Cooper.
This particular ghost-hunting expedition by the intrepid pair has been billed also as another chance for Charlie and Daisy May to "reconnect", after years when they didn't see each other much. And tonight we find them spending their evening in the bothy reminiscing about their childhood in the Cotswolds in the 1990s, and playing a quiet game of Jenga.
However, going outside in the dark to "have a wee" brings back bad memories for Daisy May in particular.
But we've all been there, haven't we, and when I say "been there" I don't just mean "been" [no pun intended!!!]. And when I say "there", I don't mean, necessarily, on that particular patch of nettles!!!!
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed, and don't forget to "go" before you "go" - no pun intended!!!!! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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