Wednesday January 21st 2026 "Decoded! Another 'secret message' from an iconic 1970's rock band!"

Yes, Friends, another 'secret message', hidden in a vintage recording from an iconic 1970's rock band, has been decoded, after lying undiscovered for 50 years, thanks to a massive super-computer. Surely this must be the dawning of the so-called "Age of Aquarius", predicted for so long !!!! 

Onion News has more......

Kudos, those hard-working decoders! Those guys who've managed to reveal the secret purpose behind the album after only 5 decades, which must be a record in itself - no pun intended!!!!

And reading the Onion story this morning, here in partly-bucolic Liphook, Hampshire, brings a bedraggled smile to the lips of my wife Lois and me, tinged perhaps with more than an ounce of regret, regret that Ozzy's "instructions" weren't available to music-lovers at the time, maybe resulting in more than a few albums being cast aside by puzzled fans, maybe?

I wonder....!!!

my wife Lois and me - some recent pictures

And the reason for the smile? Well, we're expecting a visit this morning from our 50-year-old daughter Alison, whose son Isaac (15) was rocking last night with his band New Horizon, playing a gig at the iconic "Drummond" venue in nearby Guildford, just over the county line in Surrey. Though it was "a vile evening" in terms of weather, Ali tells us, Isaac's boy-girl band got a good reception from a packed crowd in the pub, a promising omen for the upcoming local "Battle of the Bands", which will be another milestone  hopefully, on their journey to stardom, fingers crossed!!!

(left) our daughter Alison (50) drops by from her home in nearby Churt, Surrey, 

this morning for a "catch-up", and (right) Alison's son Isaac (15) singing his band's 

version of McFly's 2004 hit "Five Colours In Her Hair" last night at a Guildford pub 

To qualify for the local Battle of the Bands, the group has to come up with a self-penned song, and Nicole one of the band's 2 female guitarists has come with a real "doozy", Ali tells us.

Go Nicole! And go Isaac!  

And the news brings back to my mind my own song-writing career in the iconic "1980 to 2010" years, when my writing was probably at its sharpest. Although none of my songs was "picked up" by a nationally-known rock band, I feel that they nevertheless had a "subliminal" influence on the rock scene, much like Ozzy Osbourne's finally-decoded "secret messages" might have done, maybe. 

I wonder....!

flashback to the early 1980's and possibly my most productive years

as a young dad and songwriter: seen here in our living-room in

Columbia Md USA, able to shatter the glass in a patio door (left) from 3ft away,

with the sheer power of my voice. What a guy! What a voice!

Remember my haunting rock ballad "It's a Lonely Life for a Frog [When Your Best Friend is Ice Cream]"? Or my iconic rock anthem "Baton Betty, Duran Duran"? Or my unashamed "crowd-pleaser", "GB Liners - a Rumdummy Rumdummy Rummy-doo-wah" ? 

My obvious influences - the Fisher-Price Camper Set action green 'frog' figure, the iconic Old Maid "Baton Betty" card, 1980's pop sensation Duran Duran, and top UK removal firm GB Liners - were pretty eclectic at that time, to put it mildly, but none the worse for that, bringing a much-needed freshness, hopefully, to the notoriously hide-bound world of UK rock music!

flashback to some of my major influences as a young-to-youngish song-writer:

the Fisher Price camper set action figures, and Old Maid's iconic "2 - Baton Betty" card

Happy days!!!!

Apart from our daughter Ali's visit this morning, this Wednesday is a bit of a quiet day for Lois and me. The weather continues to be "vile" - wet and windy, and also chilly, with a high of just 49F (9.5C) so no chance of venturing outdoors for our daily walk today, which is a pity, and the outlook isn't much better. 

Oh dear!!!! 

What a crazy country we live in !!!!

In this kind of weather, what can I do but put my dreams of becoming a major song-writer back in their box, at least for this year!

Maybe 2027 will be my "break-out year" - sigh !!!!!!!

21:00 And somebody else "had her dreams put back in a box", long ago, as we discover watching the third programme in Alice Roberts' new series of "Digging for Britain", the series which gives an overview of some of the most iconic archaeological excavations carried out in the UK over the last 12 months. In tonight's programme, Alice is surveying sites in the south of England.

The little box I'm talking about, and which Alice is examining in the photo above, was found in the grave of a young woman in her twenties, after her skeleton had been unearthed from a newly-discovered, 2000-year-old Roman-period cemetery, outside the Cotswold village of Broadway, Worcestershire. 

The tiny box in the woman's grave was a unique find - a small, beautifully decorated, box made of bone, with a slide-opener that still works (!), but which was discovered to be pretty much empty, which is weird.

The tiny box, although empty, was found to be very greasy inside. And researchers speculate that it could have once contained some cream or ointment for the young woman to smear onto her aching limbs in the "afterlife"; examination of her skeleton has revealed that she must have suffered from severe inflammation.

Lois and I always find "grave goods" incredibly touching. Sometimes they're useful objects for "the journey", something medicinal, as here, or money to pay the "boatman" to take you to "the other side". Or maybe the deceased's favourite ornaments or jewellery in this life, to give them pleasure in the new one. Whatever was chosen to put in the grave, it must have been an agonising choice for their loved ones, the ones left behind to grieve over them.

Rest in peace, with your ointment to soothe you, Roman woman!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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