Danskcolin: Sunday January 25th 2026 "Do YOU ever feel 'under pressure' at YOUR workplace? It's a common problem, that's for sure!"

Yes, Friends, do YOU ever feel 'under pressure' at YOUR workplace? It's a problem that maybe isn't just confined to you, if this morning's Onion News is to be believed! Read the paper's front-page splash this morning, if you don't believe me !!!!!

Poor Gaither!!!!!

And reading Gaither's "sob-story" (!) in this morning's paper brings a bit of a "sideways-on" smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois, here in 75%-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, no question of that !!!!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

However, despite our quiet chuckle, as a couple of self-confessed "old codgers", we have no idea what those websites are that Gaither finds so fruitful - Boing Boing, and "all that jazz" (!).

But one word from the Onion story strikes a definite chord with us this Sunday morning - I think it's an E minor (!), with "E for Exhausted" - the word "exhausted" is something we know all about this morning, to put it mildly! Now comfortably retired for nearly 20 years, would you believe (!), we are annoyed with ourselves yesterday by committing that old "chestnut", the rooky retiree's most basic error: that of scheduling two appointments on the same day. Were we crazy or what?!!!!

flashback to our "crazy" day yesterday: rushing to catch a concert in the morning, and

then, with almost no break (!), taking in a Burns Night Supper at a local tavern

- what madness !!!!

Yes, what madness!! And we're feeling the effects this morning, with a somewhat "jerky" start to the day, after all yesterday's frenetic engagements!

Sunday morning is always a bit mad for us anyway, because at 9:30am (yes, 9:30am!!!) we have a weekly catch-up call with our daughter Sarah and family, 9000 miles away in Perth, Australia. And then we have to drive almost 10 miles south along the manic A3, to Lois's church's Sunday Morning Meeting outside Petersfield, not getting home till it's practically lunchtime, would you believe!!!!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

our crazy Sunday morning: a 9:30am zoom "catch-up" call with our daughter Sarah

and family in Perth, Australia, followed by the Sunday Morning Meeting at Lois's church

On the plus side, however, it is lovely to chat to Sarah and family about their week, which is hardly less pressured than ours, astonishingly. Sarah is still doing her two jobs simultaneously, one in Perth, and, online, her old job in Evesham UK, and her 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica have been busy getting ready to start "big school" in a week's time: getting their new uniforms and all their new books and stationery, and helping mum to sew or stick name-tags on everything that moves (!), while our son-in-law has been laying turf on their massive front-lawn.

flashback to August: while Lois and I talk on whatsapp to our daughter Sarah and

the twins, our son-in-law Francis is outside starting to relay the family's huge lawn

- poor Francis !!!!!

Yes, even "down under" it's a crazy old world there too, would you believe !!!!

Fortunately they're all on a 3-day weekend currently, because it's Australia Day on Monday. However, annoyingly for Sarah, her UK job doesn't recognise that particular holiday, so it's business as usual there - what madness (again) !!!! And with the annual UK tax-deadline of Jan 31st looming, Sarah won't have much time to put her feet up, it seems. The family has nevertheless managed to schedule an afternoon picnic tomorrow on a blanket down in Gloucester Park, on the south side of the Swan River, followed by the traditional fireworks, which will be nice!

And, back here in Liphook, Hampshire UK, even more work is piling up for Lois, who, ever anxious to "pull her weight", bless her, decides to volunteer at the church this morning to go on the "sisters" rota for "preparing the emblems" (the bread and wine) for the Sunday morning meeting. It'll only be about 4 times a year, she stresses to me, but it'll mean an earlier start for us. She'll have to be at the meeting-room by 10:30am instead of the more "civilised" 11am, our currently "allegedly easier" deadline, but one which we struggle to achieve even now, unsurprisingly!

There's sure to be complete mayhem, but more on that later! Watch this space!!!

[I can't wait! - Ed]

19:00 Luckily, when night falls, Lois and I at last get a bit of relief on the sofa, watching this week's edition of Countryfile, a programme often "written off" as "deadly dull" by critics, but it's a particularly fascinating edition tonight based around the Menai Bridge, which links mainland Wales, at the town of Bangor, to the island of Anglesey.

Lois and I had never really thought about what an amazing bridge the Menai Bridge is - constructed as a suspension bridge by Thomas Telford, back in January 1826, so two hundred years ago this month. Nobody in the world had ever built anything remotely like this - just look at those massive arches!!! It was a complete sensation at the time, and people travelled from all over the world just to see it.

And Telford himself was a man of very humble origins, we hear tonight.

To Lois and me, it has always been a bit of a surprise that such a massive bridge was thought necessary, linking Wales to a, frankly, insignificant-seeming, rural island like Anglesey, but, as we hear tonight, the island was important, firstly just for its farming and especially for its cattle - the famed "Welsh Blacks", prized for their beef, milk and plough-pulling skills.

Principally, however, the island was important for its sea-links to Ireland, then all still part of the UK, needless to say. Holyhead to Dublin by ferry is a mere 3 hours. And one of the UK's most important roads, the A5, based on the Roman Watling Street, links London to Anglesey.

Britain's ferry links to Northern Ireland, and to the Republic

Lois and I learn lots of fascinating things about the bridge tonight. We hear, for example, that it had to be its spectacular height, with a clearance of 100ft, so that tall-masted sailing-ships could sail under it. It was originally designed for horse-drawn traffic, and so in 1938, with war looming on the Continent, the Government far-sightedly decided to restructure it and strengthen it so that it could carry long columns of military vehicles.

And as far as Anglesey's Welsh Black cattle were concerned, until the bridge was opened in 1826, cattle had to swim the notoriously treacherous straits to get to the other side, would you believe, and this was a very big deal: 15,000 cattle a year had to make the journey, back in those crazy, far-off days!!!

The area's cattle farmers were very conservative back in those days, however, and it took a lot of persuading to get them to use "that there new-fangled bridge thing". The turning-point was when Telford persuaded the Royal Mail to send their carriers over it, and eventually the farmers "got the point", which was nice!

Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it!

And no surprise that Lois and I are singing one of our favourite songs as we get into bed, "Daytrip to Bangor", by folk group Fiddler's Dram.