Tuesday February 3rd 2026 "It's a big day today, but only if you're a woman haha!"

"Women's groups" - don't you love 'em! Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em, some men say! 

But today, women's groups are celebrating all over the world, because N.O.W. (the National Organisation for Women), often called the "mother of all women's groups", (and also "father of all women's groups" as we must add in these enlightened, "woke to woke-ish" times (!)) is passing a significant milestone.

It's in all today's papers, but Onion News has the best picture, so I've "gisted" their version here for you - so read on, but do let me know if I've left anything important out - postcards only, of course !!!!

And reading the story this morning in our print edition of the paper brings a tear to the eyes of me and my wife Lois, here in semi-pasteurised Liphook, Hampshire, to put it mildly!

my wife Lois and me - some recent pictures

Not only is Lois's very own "women's group" - her church's "sisters' group" - holding their monthly online  meeting this morning, which is appropriate, but also we're both wondering how long before the N.O.W., now 39, will be celebrating the birth of its first grandchildren: well, at 39, it could just happen!!!!

[No it couldn't! - Ed]

For Lois and me, now at the grand old age of 79, would you believe, "that ship sailed" a long time ago (!). The very day we both retired, back in March 2006, we got a call from our elder daughter Alison, to say that she was pregnant with her first child, Josie, born in August that year.

flashback to March 2006: my 60th birthday, and the day we both retired -

I take the opportunity to "dandle" Lois on my knee, little knowing that 

we were soon to become grandparents, would you believe!!!

And just a few months ago, that very first grandchild of ours, Josie, now 19, started her 3 year maths degree course at Durham University.

flashback to October 2025: our daughter Alison and husband Ed

settle Josie (19) into her room at Durham University

And this morning, we get news from our second ever grandchild - Rosalind (17) has been offered a place at Durham too, subject to her getting good A-Level results in the summer, of course. If she accepts she'll be doing a degree in International Relations and Spanish, which sounds pretty "meaty" (!), or should I say pretty "carnoso" !!!!  [Please don't ! - Ed].

flashback to April 2025: Alison's little family, including Rosalind (leftmost) 

joins Lois and me for an old-fashioned Sunday roast lunch, which is nice!

Rosalind has already got an offer from Bath to do something similar there, so it'll be interesting to see whether she chooses Bath - easier to get to from here, just "zipping" along the M4 - or whether she opts to go with Durham, like her "big sis". Or would the two girls just "cramp each other's style"? Some pros and cons there, aren't there - and again, your postcard suggestions welcome haha!

Meanwhile, this is a big week also for our other daughter Sarah, and her 12-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica, "down under", in Perth, Western Australia. The reason? Well, it's because yesterday was the twins' first day at "Big School" - a private Anglican grammar school near their home in Perth's northern suburbs.

our younger daughter, Sarah (48), and our twin granddaughters

Jessica (left) and Lily, "chilling" (literally!) by a big electric fan 

at their home in a northern suburb of Perth, Australia, last weekend, on the eve

of their first day at "big school", a local private Anglican establishment

This morning, Sarah texts Lois and me, to say that the girls were pretty nervous about their first day at "big school" yesterday but seem more relaxed today, although obviously tired. Lois and I are waiting expectantly for the first pictures of the girls in their shiny-new orange-and-blue uniforms, so watch this space!

a typical "sandwich course" (!) at the twins' new school in Perth, Australia

14:30 Today is also a bit of a big day for Yours Truly, I might add, because at exactly 2:30pm I leap out of our bed (!) to take delivery of my shiny new Habitat thermos flask from Argos.

"What's so special about that, Colin?", I hear you cry! Well, it's a really big deal for me, because I always take a flask of hot green tea up to bed with me at night, not to cuddle or to keep me warm (!), but simply with the plan of pouring myself a healthy green tea in the morning, to start my day off with a "bang". But it's a quiet bang, might I add. I don't want to wake the neighbours haha! 

(left) I showcase my shiny new thermos flask from Argos, and (right)

my first cup of green tea made in the new flask - yum yum!

As you can see from the above picture, I've won the "Best Grandad Ever" award again this year, which, I must say, came as a complete surprise again. I didn't even know I'd been nominated, can you believe!!!!

And, needless to say, I'm always careful to "wet" the tea-bags at exactly when the pre-boiled water has cooled down to the right temperature - between about 160 and 170F (70-80C) so that the leaves don't scorch and turn bitter. You know it makes sense!!!!

[Is that all you two 'noggins' have done today, Colin - interrupted 'statutory nap-time' to take delivery of a thermos flask from Argos? - Ed]

Well, in my defence, it has been raining pretty much all day, but on the sofa this evening, we catch the first programme in Alice Roberts' new TV series about the legend of the Holy Grail and its mythicala connection with England, which is fascinating.

The rich Jewish businessman, Joseph of Arimathea, a secret Christian, who is said to have collected Christ's blood in a goblet (the holy grail) at the cross, later brought the grail to the Isle of Wight of all places, at least according to local legend.

Well, surprise surprise!

The idea behind the myth is that Joseph was mixed up in the tin trade, and that this was the origin of his wealth. Tin was a rare commodity, useful to the Romans because it was used in the manufacture of bronze, and one of the few places known for its tin in the ancient world was the English county of Cornwall. 

The theory is that the tin was mined in Cornwall, and then brought to the Isle of Wight for transport to the Continent, because the width of the stormy old English Channel was narrower there, making the sea journey to the Continent shorter, and therefore less hazardous.

It was all hokum, needless to say, designed to increase "pilgrim footfall" at local abbeys and shrines across the south of England. Nevertheless it's a reminder of what a big part that Cornish tin played in British history. It was basically only to get the tin that the Romans thought it was worth coming here and including us in their empire.

I don't think the Romans would ever have come to Britain for the weather, do you haha!!!!

Here's what it's been doing today, raining with a high of only 41F (5C) keeping Lois and me inside the house again, and in each other's pockets, "for our sins" (!!!!). Yet despite what was almost the wettest January since records began, there's still a local hosepipe ban!

What a crazy country we live in !!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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