Danskcolin: Tuesday January 27th 2026 "Do you hate a cheerful voice first thing in the morning? Well, join the club!!!"

Yes, Friends, it's something almost all of us can admit to! There's nothing worse, early in the morning, than somebody who's determined to be cheerful, that's for sure !!!!

It's the big story in today's Onion News for East Hampshire - a sign that the phenomenon is being recognised at last. And maybe the bigwigs in the NHS will eventually decide to do something about it, although I'm not holding my breath!!!!

Poor Wilson !!!!!

And, reading the Onion story this morning here in semi-picturesque Liphook, Hampshire brings an oddly warped smile to the lips of me and my wife Lois - no question!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

We both tend to agree with Wilson (see Onion story above!), that the colour orange on a cereal box is the most annoying colour early in the morning. But spare a thought for Lois and me, because today, we've got orange all day, and not just "in our face" (metaphorically!) but also "up our nostrils", to put it mildly!

Yes, today is the day that Lois will be putting the finishing touches to her first batch of 2026 marmalade, which is a big deal for me, going as it does on my morning toast every single day of the year, and sometimes even on my afternoon toast if I'm feeling in the mood !!!!

Lois's day finishing off her first batch of her 2026 vintage marmalade,

seven 1 lb jars of it, resulting in (bottom right) my afternoon toast for today: yum yum!

How does she do it?

I have no idea how she does it, despite watching her every January with growing desire (for the end result haha!), but today she's finishes up with seven 1 lb jars of the stuff, which is the main thing. And there are still Seville oranges in the larder, so weathermen say there'll be more to come at some point, fingers crossed!!!!

It's a good end to a day, which, I have to say, started badly! No time to linger in bed because Lois had booked a 9:30 am hair appointment with her local stylist Anna, and because of all the rain we've been having, Lois and I have to "squelch" through the mud in the carpark of local East Hampshire Premier League relegation-hopefuls Liphook United, to get to Anna's salon, which is a challenge and a half, believe you me!!!

we park our car in the Liphook United carpark, before having

a 5 minute "squelch" through the mud to get to the Hair Craft salon,

where Lois has a 9:30 appointment with stylist Anna this morning

"United", as the team is known locally, in their desperate desire to avoid relegation to the lowly East Hampshire Champions League, have started trying to recruit new players as young as 15 months, mainly, perhaps to give the squad "a kick in the backside" (no pun intended!!!!), leading to the inevitable accusations of "cradle-robbing".

Admittedly, the squad, together with club manager, ashen-faced Ron Knee (59), are always looking over their collective shoulders for fear of deadly local rivals 'Whitehill & Bordon' scooping up the raw young local "toddlers" from under their noses, so we'll see. Watch this space!

after a five-minute "squelch" in the car-park next to local soccer heroes

Liphook United's "hallowed turf", we finally make it to Anna's hair salon for Lois's "trim"

What madness !!!!

But there's even more craziness going on in Hungary today, according to an email from Steve, our American brother-in-law.

Lois and I take a special interest in Hungarian news, having visited the country several times in the 1990's and 2000's when I was trying (fairly unsuccessfully, I might add!) to learn the language.

flashback to 1994: me (centre), aged 48, on my first ever trip to Hungary, seen here

in the southern town of Pecs, with local friend Istvan and Istvan's son Marty

Steve says that a local political "prank" party in Hungary has been sticking toilet brushes on monuments dedicated to Hungary's most famous gypsy musicians. It was all done to protest against what's been widely dubbed "a racist speech", made recently by the country's Transport Minister Janos Lazar. It's reported that, in his speech, Lazar dubbed the country's Roma minority a "labour reserve", who could be called on to do the jobs that the average Hungarian doesn't like to do, such as cleaning train lavatories.

Kudos, those pranksters!

A bit unconventional, perhaps, but it's driven the point home, as well as giving it a good old scrub around the sides, that's for sure! And the best part is that no statues (and no toilet brushes!) were harmed in the staging of the protest, which was a nice touch!

20:00 Searching for an "island of sanity" in this crazy world (see stories above!), Lois and I settle down on the couch to watch this week's programme in the Channel 4 series "What Not To Eat".

And as lovers of bread and toast (with or without marmalade!!!!) Lois and I were astonished to hear that 25 million slices of bread are thrown away daily in the UK. Fortunately, tonight, grim-faced presenter Tim Spector shows us how to help cut down on that waste, while at the same time making those carbs healthier for us, which can't be bad!

So what to do about it?

This question is especially of interest to Lois, who for a few months last year was diagnosed as pre-Type 2 diabetes, before she scrambled out of the danger zone by a combination of determined exercise and sensible eating.

There's one little trick you can do with bread, Spector says. Stick a few slices into a little plastic bag, and pop the bag in the freezer. And magically, next day, when you take the bread out to maybe toast it, it's going to give you a 40% less of a sugar spike than it would have done the day before.

Why? Because it's not the same bread any more!

Who knew!!!!!

And you can also do things to improve the healthiness of other starchy carbs such as pasta and potatoes, and even white rice. All you do is to take these and cook them, and then simply store them, just in the fridge, overnight.