Danskcolin: Thursday March 5th 2026 "Be afraid, be very afraid! We may need to "battle our demons" all over again

Be afraid, be very afraid, our local demon has suddenly become active again in our neighbourhood, after centuries of "dormantitude" - is that a word? [No! - Ed]

Just take a glance at the local Onion News for East Hampshire - page 94, if you want "chapter and verse" !!!

Poor Amaymon!!!!

And such a pity when the little guy seemed to have become what demonologists call "quiescent" over recent centuries, at least in East Hampshire - see these recent pictures:

top local demon Amaymon, seen here in happier times, in one of his 'quiescent' phases,

(left) feeding the pigeons in Radford Park, and (right) reading a library book

And as owners of a QUOTE 1970's detached house UNQUOTE, here in Liphook, reading this story brings a slight trace of an ironic shudder to the shoulders of me and my wife Lois, to put it mildly!

Certainly we don't want Amaymon coming and ruffling the shiny new curtain that we got installed today by "another old man from Hillary's Blinds" (!). Yes they sent poor old Bill again to do the job, as we discover !!!

Yours Truly relaxing on the sofa, while (background) "poor old Bill from Hillary's",

as we call him, huffs and puffs his way up and down step-ladders to install

a shiny new curtain on the patio doors in our kitchen-diner

Poor Bill !!!!!

And Bill's out of luck today, because it seems that when the builders built this house, back in the 1970's, they didn't build it quite straight, as Bill observes - he reckons they got it about a quarter of an inch "out of true", which means a slight discrepancy in the distance between the curtain and the floor. But Lois and I are nothing, if not polite (!), so we tell him not to worry - nobody's going to notice, we assure him!

Poor Bill (again) !!!!

And, several hours later, Lois and I are luxuriating in the new "cosy" feel of our kitchen-diner, thanks to Bill's work, so that's all good!

evening falls, and here we see Lois showcasing the shiny-new curtain in our

kitchen-diner, with its gap above the floor a quarter of an inch higher

on the left side, than on the right side [not shown]

Lois and I are feeling cosy today, not just on the outside, but on the inside too, which is nice!

A message from our daughter Alison who lives 10 miles away just over the county line in Churt, Surrey, has given us the glad news that we'll be "looked after" as regards UK Mother's Day on March 15th - she and her husband Edward plus 2 of their 3 teenage offspring will be treating us to a lunch at nearby restaurant the Links Tavern, the pub where Lois and I spent a fabulous "Burns Night" recently.

flashback to Burns Night in January: Lois and I have our annual Burns Night supper

to the "skirl" of the pipes, courtesy of a local Hampshire piper - see bottom right!

No word from Alison yet about any similar event being planned for my birthday, later in the month, incidentally, so I may have to start dropping hints soon - just saying!!!!

So, all in all, this Thursday has proved to be just one more "busy busy busy" day for Lois and me, just to summarise!!! [You lazy bastards, Colin! - Ed]

21:00 And certainly Lois and I are feeling super-cosy, with our curtains all neatly closed, by the time we fall exhausted onto the sofa to watch tonight's star documentary all about the Normans, to put it mildly!

And there are, literally, tons of interesting snippets in this first programme in the series tonight, which Lois and I didn't know about. We didn't know, for example, that William the Conqueror's great-great-great-grandfather was called Rollo, who obviously had a weight problem, to put it mildly - who knew!

The programme presenter, Professor Robert Bartlett waxes lyrical, justifiably, about what a unique, extraordinary, and very wonderful thing the Bayeux tapestry is. This is the tapestry that depicts the whole story of William's claim to the English throne, and his invasion of England, after the Anglo-Saxon leader Harold had taken the throne in William's place.

Also, if you look carefully at the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the Normans, under William the Conqueror invading England in 1066, you'll see that fashions were wildly different in England and Normandy. The English sported shoulder-length hair and moustaches, while the Normans favoured "short back and sides", and were clean-shaven.

Silly Harold, didn't he know that the short-haired guys always win? Reference the Cavaliers and the Roundheads in the English Civil War of the 17th century, if you want "chapter and verse" haha!!!!

Yes, hairstyles are important in battles, seemingly, but, surprisingly perhaps, other aspects of appearance don't always turn out to be so crucial....

...like getting your armour on properly, for instance.