Sunday January 11th 2026 "Is YOUR phone the most valuable thing in YOUR house?"

Yes, Friends, is YOUR phone, or your laptop maybe the most valuable thing in YOUR house?

It's comforting to know that even laptops have a "shelf life", as today's Onion News makes clear!!! 

Kudos, Shepard !!!

And how reassuring to know that laptops, like people, are "only human", and eventuallly they reach that stage when they can be treated a little more "cavalierly" - is that a word? [No! - Ed].

My wife Lois and I, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, certainly feel that we've definitely reached that comfortable stage of life. We're both a bit "dog-eared" perhaps, and can, without worrying unduly, lightly toss each other around in the house, although only onto soft surfaces, "like a couch or something" to quote Shepard - see the Onion story above (!). 

me and my wife Lois - at 79, both a bit "dog-eared" now,

to put it mildly !!!!

We also feel we can leave each other unattended for a few minutes while we pop to the toilet, so that's all good (!).

New laptops can be expensive, however, and easy to damage if you're not careful, as we learn this morning from our Sunday morning weekly "catch-up" zoom call with our daughter Sarah, 9000 miles away in Perth, Australia.

our weekly Sunday morning "catch-up" call with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia

Sarah and husband Francis have been forking out a lot of money recently, because their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica are preparing to start secondary school at the start of February. It's a private Anglican school, and so there's not just the cost of the school uniforms, but also the cost of text-books, stationery etc. 

And Sarah tells us today that they've also had to buy the girls each a so-called "MacBook", or some-such nonsense, whatever that is when it's at home!

our twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica showcase for us their shiny-new

"MacBooks" , whatever those are when they're at home !!!!

The twins have been warned by their parents to take good care of these so-called "MacBooks", and not to damage them before term starts in February, on pain of the loss of several years' pocket money, to put it mildly!!!

It's hot in Perth, as usual. And I tell the twins that when Lois and I are talking to them on zoom, I try to sit as close to our laptop screen as possible, with a dab of sun-cream on my face, hoping to "catch a little tan" from the sun coming in through their windows, which raises a little giggle from the twins, as well as a sympathetic sigh - poor old Granny and Poppa, back in cold, wet England !!!!

flashback to November: our twin granddaughters enjoying a morning at the pool

with dad Francis, before cooling down with ice-creams on the patio: awwwww!!!!

Phew, what a scorcher !!!!!

Certainly there's no sun going to be coming through mine and Lois's windows here in Liphook, Hampshire today, that's for sure!!!! A big storm has been forecast and we're going to stay indoors again, and Lois will take part in her church in Petersfield's weekly Sunday Morning Meeting online, like last Sunday, when we were about to be "snowed in". As it turns out today's storm is delayed, and doesn't arrive till the afternoon, so we could have taken the 10-mile drive south to Petersfield without problems.  But then, that's the British weather for you, isn't it - unlike the Australian weather, it's totally unpredictable, seemingly (!).

What a crazy country we live in !!!!!

And I don't think Lois and I got much than a very superficial indirect tan from our zoom call to Perth this morning, but whatever brownness we got, we try to "top it up" this evening, with a Sky Arts Channel retrospective on Sean Connery's James Bond films, many of which were set in the Caribbean and other hot places.

And in a few seconds it's "Bye bye bikini top" for another Bond actress - oh dear, what madness !!! 

Bond's "way with women" is not without its critics, however, as this documentary makes clear.

The films, however, portray all this as being okay, partly by making them light-hearted, and humorous, even.

So it's refreshing, later this evening, to see a medal for a real-life, and perhaps more wholesome, British agent, on tonight's edition of the Antiques Roadshow.

Step forward Mary the Pigeon!

During World War I, more than 16 million animals were put into service, from horses to dogs, but it wasn't till World War II that their service was officially recognised. And in 1943, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) inaugurated a medal to honour animal bravery.

And tonight, two women bring along a medal handed down to them by their grandfather, and have it examined by the programme's military memorabilia expert Mark Smith

Mary was originally a racing pigeon, but when war came, Mary, along with the other pigeons from Grandad's pigeon loft, was enlisted in the "Pigeon Service", to be airlifted and dropped behind enemy lines in France on numerous occasions. 

And whenever the French Resistance had collected vital intelligence on the occupying Germans, they used Mary and her fellow pigeons to carry the information safely to Grandad's loft, and Grandad used to pass the messages on to the authorities in London.

Mary went on several missions, and was on more than occasion, shot at by the occupying Germans, or attacked by the hawks that the Germans used to train, specifically to intercept them.  

Eventually Mary was wounded once too often, and had to be retired from service, but she lived out a happy, and well-earned, retirement in old Grandad's loft, which was nice.

Although admiring Mary's persistence, Lois and I think that another medal should probably have gone to Grandad himself. A humble boot-maker, and used to sewing things, it was Grandad who sewed up Mary's wounds, and even made her a neat leather collar to keep Mary's neck up while she recuperated, bless him!.

The biggest surprise for the two women on the show tonight, however, is to learn that Mary's extremely rare PDSA medal is actually worth £30,000 in today's market.

And for Lois and me, a heart-warming end to our day, that's for sure.

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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