Danskcolin: Saturday January 3rd 2026 "So, not every species goes all dewy-eyed over koalas, seemingly!"

Yes, Friends, next time you see a koala, or a cute puppy, never forget that not every creature in the world immediately goes "Awwwww!!!", like you and I probably do!

The story was page 94 news (!) in this morning's Onion News for East Hampshire, if you care to take a look!

Awww!!! People, yes, a lot of them aren't very nice, are they! But who or what, in creation, would want to annoy baby pandas, koala bears and very small puppies!!!

And the Onion News story brings a extra dose of "dew" to the eyes of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, as we break out some of the calendars that friends and relatives have lavished on us for Christmas. Yes, we've at last noticed that our existing wall-calendars only go up to December 31st 2025, which is a pity! [You dozy buggers! - Ed]

Luckily Lois has two cousins in Australia, Stephen in Adelaide and Sylvia in Melbourne, and they never fail to come up trumps every Christmas, with some cute Australian animal pictures, which is heart-warming!

Nice too, for the reason that Lois hasn't had a chance for 12 months now to showcase her "koala face", which is nice!

our two shiny-new Australian calendars, which we broke out, somewhat belatedly (!)

this morning: Adelaide has gone for August, and Melbourne's gone for February

to showcase their koala pictures, so we turn to those first of course!

So at last, some fresh "koala face" pictures to add to our collection, one that we've been assembling over the years, and which we intend eventually to bequeath to the nation, if it behaves itself!

Just feast your eyes on these doozies (!). First up is Lois herself when we visited Victoria back in 2016, then (2) we have Sheldon from the French edition of the Big Bang Theory sitcom, then (3) Maggie Thatcher's former cabinet minister Michael Portillo, and (4) finally, as a surprise entry, offering us an irresistible "twist" on the usual standard koala "fare", we have an actual koala bear showing us his "Portillo face".

flashback to happier times: (1) Lois on our holiday in Victoria back in 2016,

(2) UCLA scientist Sheldon in the French version of the Big Bang Theory sitcom,

(3) Ex-cabinet minister Michael Portillo showing us his "koala face" and

(4) a brief glimpse of a koala bear's "Portillo face", which is a nice "twist" (!)

Awwww!!!!

At least those koala pictures warm Lois and me up a bit, because the temperatures in Liphook today are once more only in the 30s (F) with a high of only 37F (2.7C). Brrrr!!!! So nothing for it, but to "hunker down" inside the house, and keep the heating on all day. Lois, however, is brave enough to pop out of the house just for 5 minutes to rescue some spinach from our little vegetable garden, before it perishes from all this chilliness !!!!

(left) the temperatures and wind-speed yesterday afternoon and this morning

here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, and (right) Lois risks life and limb

dashing out to our veggie garden to rescue some "frozen" spinach (!)

Poor spinach !!!!!!!

Like yesterday, we've decided to stay in again all day today. Well we are both 79, Baby Boomers, born absolute "decades" ago, back in 1946 - you do the maths!!!!

Yikes !!!! And there are a lot of us still about, to judge from a graphic sent us today by Steve, our American brother-in-law, giving the breakdown of the US population by generation:

(1) The Silent Generation (aged 80 and above, in 2025) - 13.7 million

(2) The Baby Boomers (61 to 79) - 64.5 million

(3) Generation X (45-60) - 65.4 million

(4) Millennials (29 to 44) - 74.1 million

(5) Generation Z (13 to 28) - 71.2 million

(6) Generation Alpha (0-12) - 51.2 million

And, as regards the Millennials, Steve comments, reasonably enough: "Why didn't they just call them Generation Y", with Steve here taking the opportunity to include one of his classic puns (!). Geddit?

It's lucky that Lois and I, while we still had the energy (!), had the foresight to (be-)get ourselves a couple of daughters, Alison (50) and Sarah (48), whom we can sit back and enjoy life through (!).

[That's enough exclamation marks in brackets (!) - Ed]

And more news and pictures come in today from our elder daughter Alison, who's currently on holiday at a ski resort in northern Sweden, with husband Edward and their 3 teenage offspring Josie (19), Rosalind (17) and Isaac (15).

There's evidence too, however, that skiing holidays aren't all smooth sailing, or should I say "smooth skiing" (!). [No! - Ed]

Oops! flashback to earlier today, when (right) somebody - we're not sure

whether it was our daughter Alison, or one of her 2 daughters -

came a spectacular cropper on the ice today (!)

Yes, "accidents will happen", even during relatively safe sports like skiing and snowboarding, seemingly! Oops !!!!

And there are more stats on "accidents" in the Christmas edition of the comedy science quiz, QI XL, which we watch this evening.

Who knew, that in CS Lewis's classic book for children, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", the most dangerous word in the title is "Wardrobe", more dangerous apparently than lions and witches, because children could become trapped in wardrobes, would you believe.

Lewis had dedicated his book to his young acquaintance Lucy Barfield, whose mother Maud, was extremely worried that children reading the book might go looking for Narnia in their parents' wardrobe, and then get stuck in it. So he was persuaded to include in the book what must be one of the earliest modern 'health warnings', as presenter Sandi Toksvig explains.

It was also possibly the first fully-documented, case of "health and safety gone mad", perhaps. Let me know - postcards only !!!!!

Lois and I didn't know, either, that Britain is facing an "accident crisis". The country now loses 10 times more working days from domestic accidents as it does from strikes. And while driving accidents have significantly reduced in the past 20 years, but pretty much all other accidents have increased.

Falls are by far the biggest culprit, due to the ageing population: step forward Lois and Colin and all the other Boomers !!! And round about now, at Christmas / New Year, turns out to be one of the most dangerous times of year, according to the National Accident Helpline:

What madness !!!!

One thing that's relatively safe to do at Christmas, you'd think, would be to sit around singing that jolly old carol "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly".

But who knew the original saucy Welsh lyrics to this tune, originally written in Wales to celebrate New Year's Day?