Friday January 30th - Saturday January 31st 2026 "Do YOU fancy a date with a sea-man or woman? Well, try this approach!"

Yes, Friends, do YOU fancy a date - and maybe more (!) - with a seaman or woman, perhaps somebody far out to whatever sea lies in YOUR "neck of the woods"?

It's a common secret desire of many of us, isn't it, and if you're still using the likes of "Tinder" or other dating apps, it's time to stop all that "malarkey", like many younger women are doing these days, and "get with it"! Onion News has more.....

Poor sailors lost at sea!!!!

Reading the Onion story this morning, however, brings a wistful smile to the faces of my wife Lois and me, as we "squelch" our way round part of King Charles III's shiny new, but very mud-affected (!), "UK coastal path", to put it mildly! And what a good job we've got our boots on, because we find ourselves negotiating said path, with its shiny new wooden signposts, looking wistfully out to sea, on the English Channel coast at Hayling Island, Hampshire this Saturday morning, 27 miles south of our home in semi-bucolic Liphook, which is nice!

my wife Lois and me this Saturday morning, having fun doing

"60 minutes of squelching", along a bit of the King's shiny new "UK Coastal Path" 

on the English Channel coast, at Hayling Island, Hampshire this Saturday morning

As a history buff, I'm always in my element looking wistfully at the English Channel, not because I'm looking for a date (see Onion story above!), but because I always fall to imagining that bold Ancient Greek mariner Pytheas of Massalia, who sailed his way past these shores on his game-changing voyage of discovery to northern Europe and the Arctic back in 325 BC, almost exactly 2,350 years ago. 

Kudos, Pytheas - what a guy! And, by the way, hail to thee, you kept us out of war, needless to say !!!!

In short, today's little "squelch" along a bit of the English Channel coast is a satisfying, and peaceful, end to a two-day break for Lois and me. 

And it's such a pity that this break was not for a happier reason, because we came here yesterday (Friday) primarily to attend the funeral of one of Lois's fellow church-members, dear Roger Jones, at nearby Emsworth. Roger died a few weeks ago, just 5 months short of what would have been his 90th birthday.

A busy man, always smiling, and a good organiser, one of the things we were hearing all the time about Roger yesterday (Friday), was that it seemed odd that he wasn't there, organising his own funeral, because, despite his age, he was the guy who organised most of the church's events.

It was only 3 months before Roger's sad death, that he organised a church members' trip to Chawton House, Alton, Hampshire, the house owned by writer Jane Austen's brother Edward, the house where she did a lot of her writing.

flashback to September: (left) Lois and me, about to start the long walk up the driveway

of Jane Austen's brother Edward's house, and (right) the scene at the doorway,

with Roger, in the bright blue shirt, marshalling our little group for the visit

And for Lois and me, the memory of that wonderful trip that Roger organised, aged 89, and just 3 months before his death, is very much in our minds as we hear the deservedly glowing words spoken about him at his funeral on Friday.

flashback to Friday: Lois and I check in at our B&B, and have Friday lunch 

and Saturday breakfast there. It turns out to be a very pink-themed, and 

women-heavy haunt, the kind of place you'd bring your little princess of a daughter

for a pink-themed birthday treat - you know the kind of place!

At the post-funeral tea for the 90 or so guests, held next door to our B&B, we share a table with noted archaeologist Grahame, friend of TV's Alice Roberts and Raksha Dave and others. Grahame tells us that it was Roger Jones' father Jack, who first sparked his interest in archaeology: Jack used to take the young Grahame to see local excavations on Sunday afternoons after the Sunday Morning Meeting. And on an adjoining table, Lois is pleased and surprised to spot her cousin Brian's eldest son David with his wife, who had arrived for the funeral from their home in Southampton.

the post-funeral tea, at a private room in a nearby restaurant: we share our

table with fellow history buff and noted local archaeologist Grahame,

friend of TV's Alice Roberts and Raksha Dave and others; at an adjoining table

we spotted David, son of Lois's cousin Brian, which was a nice surprise

So, rest in peace, Roger !

Life goes on, however. And after waking up in our B&B bedroom on this Saturday morning, we have a nice catch-up chat with our daughter Sarah, who lives 9000 miles away in Perth, Australia with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica.

waking up in our pink-themed B&B bedroom this Saturday morning, we have a nice

whatsapp "catch-up" call with our daughter Sarah and twins in Perth, Australia

It's a bit of a fraught weekend for the family, because the twins will be starting "big school" on Monday, at a private Anglican school in their northern Perth suburb. The girls attended an "induction day" at the school yesterday (Friday), where they met their so-called "pastoral group leader and fellow pastoral group members" (or some-such nonsense!)

It's so scorchingly tropical over there in Perth, that it's "just too hot to do anything", Sarah says, and she and the girls have an electric fan blowing non-stop (see picture above), while husband Francis is outside laying more turf!!!

flashback to August: (rightmost) our son-in-law Francis starting to lay turf

on the family's enormous front garden in a northern suburb of Perth, Australia

Poor Francis !!!!!!  But what a crazy planet we live on !!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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