Saturday March 21st 2026 "Friends, why not take a ride on a bus today? It's more fun than you think!!!!"

Yes, Friends, why not take a nostalgic ride on a bus today?!!! It can be "very fun", as young people say today (!), if you believe this morning's local Onion News for East Hampshire, that is! See page 94! 

Poor sweaty, kneeling-man!!!! 

However, reading that Onion story this morning, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, not a million miles away from Basingstoke, might I add (!), brings a semi-precious smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois as we take our near-daily walk, which today takes us over the green pastures of nearby Old Man Lowsley's Farm, just outside town, to put it mildly!

flashback to this morning: under blue skies, but battling a chilly wind, 

my wife Lois and me on our near-daily, mud-affected walk, amongst 

the saplings and mega-puddles (!) of nearby Old Man Lowsley's Farm

The Onion story is certainly amusing in its own right, but it's also a timely reminder to us, next time we're running for a bus, to take our shiny-new kneeler with us, you know, the one we bought recently at nearby Rake Garden Centre, to aid Lois in her almost daily gardening work in our tiny front- and back-gardens? 

It's quite a "high-tech" kneeler, as kneelers go, and has a range of two possible positions - sound familiar? And it takes us a bit of head-scratching to work out how you move easily, and seamlessly, from Position A (kneeling) to Position B (sitting).

The multi-lingual instructions look complicated at first, till we realise that, in order to change from Position A to position B, you just have to turn the whole device upside down, which is something even two "old codgers" like Lois and me can manage, albeit with a lot of huffing and puffing (!).

flashback to earlier this week: Lois reading a typically 

complicated, micro-font, and multi-lingual, set of instructions

So "simples" after all, which is a relief!

But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

In sum, quite a busy morning for us, "unpacking" (literally!) yet another hi-tech device to add to our "armoury" (!),  as well as somehow managing to somehow (again!) fit in our near-daily walk, would you believe! Yes, once more it's been "busy busy busy" without a break, and so it's particularly nice to spend the whole afternoon in bed for "statutory nap-time", which is a bit of a life-saver, to put it mildly!

[You lazy so-and-so's, Colin! - Ed]

20:00 And this evening, as we finally get to fully relax on the sofa in front of "the box", there's a sweet reminder of a simpler times, when life wasn't just one long process of trying to understand one high-tech device after another - happy days!!!

Yes, it's our weekly Saturday night "wallow in nostalgia", with a re-run of a 1970's edition of "The Good Old Days", the series which recreated the old-time world of the Edwardian music hall.

And as a couple of "old codgers", one particular sweet old song takes our fancy tonight - Mike Reid's "When I Leave The World Behind", about a poor but happy man, realising how lucky he is, compared to the millionaire who's weighed down with care approaching "the final curtain".

                                 "I haven't any gold, to leave when I grow old, somehow it's passed me by...

                                I'm very poor, but still, I'll leave a precious will...."

                                "...I'll leave sunshine to the flowers, I'll leave the springtime to the trees...

                                And to the old folk I'll leave a memory of a baby upon their knees..."

Poor Mike - awwww, bless him haha!!!!!

As a keen vegetable-growers, however, Lois and I give the award for Mike's best song tonight to the old classic "Oh What A Beauty!".

                                

They don't write songs like that any more, do they! [Something to be grateful for there, then! - Ed]

flashback to September 2020: Lois and me enjoying a bit of home-grown marrow

and beans with our minced beef and baked potato - yum yum!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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