Friday April 17th 2026 "Have YOU got a 'big event' coming up? Well be sure to get a 'planner' if you want it to be perfect haha!"

Yes, Friends, if YOU have a 'big event' coming up - you know the sort I mean!!! - be sure to get a 'planner' to iron out some of other 'choke points' if that's not too much of a 'mixed metaphor'!!!

Local woman Maureen Crompton, who's getting married soon, is following the 'rule book' 'to the letter', that's for sure, at least according to this morning's Onion News - did you catch the story?

Poor Crompton !!!!

Still, it shouldn't take Crompton too long to find a replacementl a couple of shades lighter, and the story brings a semi-radiant smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, as we take our near-daily walk over nearby Old Man Lowsley's Farm, listening to the birdsong, and the 'wheeeeeee!' sound of passing overhead airliners - in this case the British Airways 10:46 am morning flight from Toulouse, France to London Heathrow, 11,000 feet above us, to put it mildly!

And we're laughing at Crompton's story, because, by total coincidence, we've had an invitation to attend the wedding of Lois's great-niece Lauren at the tiny village of Marsh Baldon, near Oxford, set for June, which will be nice!

We've watched (from afar!) "little Lauren" gradually grow up - the way children tend to do! - at her home in Barton, Oxford, over many years, and we've followed her progress through her years of teaching in Japan and finally hooking up with handsome beau, Eoin - he's a good-looking guy, and there's no need to worry that he'll be 'pencilled out' by any foolish wedding-planner due to 'unsightliness' that's for sure!!!!

Lois's great-niece Lauren through the years, (top left) with Lois and other 

family members many years ago, following Lauren's love affair with Japan etc, 

finally her 'hooking up' with beau Eoin (bottom right) in Barton, Oxford

So fingers crossed, Lois and I will be able to attend Lauren's wedding coming up in June, although it'll mean a longer car journey than we're used to, and by that time both Lois and I will have reached the grand old age of 80, would you believe, which is totally mad!!!!

Like Lauren, I myself spent a study year in Japan, but that was ages ago, back in 1970-71, about a year before Lois and I got married. And Lois came out to see me while I was over there, so she's got a 'feel' for what a crazy country it is, to put it mildly!

(flashback to 1971: Lois comes out to spend 2 weeks with me during my study year

in Japan - (top right) halfway up Mt Fuji, and (below) our weekend at a hillside retreat

By coincidence, celebrity train travelogue presenter and ex-cabinet minister Michael Portillo has been seeing Japan by train himself recently, and tonight Lois and I catch the fifth episode of his fascinating new 20-part series on BBC2, which is nice!

It's nostalgic for me tonight to see Michael in the Japanese Alps, where I spent a few days during my study year, with my Japanese student friends Tetsu and Hiro, back in the day. 

I even managed to get a pair of skis onto my feet, for the first and only time in my life! But I quickly realised that skiing was not for me, to put it mildly - as you can tell from my 'body language' perhaps!

flashback to 1971: me in the Japanese Alps trying on skis for the first (and only!)

time in my life, seen here with student pals Tetsu and Hiro

What madness, wasn't it !!!!!

In tonight's TV programme, however, Michael Portillo, while, at his age, wisely not trying to put on a pair of skates (!), also finds time to meet up with a woodblock expert who explains how it was this region where Japan's most famous artwork came about, septuagenarian Japanese artist Hokusai's 19th century masterpiece "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa".

The pictures shows massive volumes of water crashing over the coast at nearby Kanagawa. It's a picture that Lois and I like so much, that we had it put on one of our cushion covers, would you believe, which "speaks volumes" in itself - no pun intended !!!!

(left) Japanese artist Hokusai's "Great Wave" , and (right) I showcase

the cushion cover which Lois and I have, and which celebrates Hokusai's design

In the 1820's to 1830's, when Hokusai was in his 70's, he retired to the quiet mountain village of Obuse, in the Japanese Alps, and, there, he produced this famous masterpiece, an example of the 19th century Japanese fashion for "ukiyo-e" woodblock prints.

"Ukiyo-e" style artworks are now famous all over the world, but it's interesting that at the time, they were considered "vulgar" by the Japanese authorities, and the many prints of Hokusai's works were used as cheap 'packaging material' for the shipping of fragile or valuable objects, which is totally mad! 

There was an interesting by-product of this, however, because when Europeans started receiving packages from Japan, just like little toddlers do (!), they found the 'packaging' far more interesting than the gift itself (!). 

And this included European artists, who were delighted by this new Japanese artform of ukiyo-e, and later showed its influence in their works.

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

And for Lois and me, there was more evidence of just how crazy our world is, earlier in the day, when Lois's copy of "The Week" magazine "plopped" through our letter-box, with its digest of the week's most important news stories from home and abroad, to put it mildly!!!!

Lois and I "devour" her copy of "The Week" magazine, which "plopped" 

through our letterbox today, the magazine that gives a digest of the

most important news stories of the week, from home and abroad

And this week there's a fascinating snippet of the 'snafu' that occurred on the tiny Scottish island of Orkney, when the local Tesco Supermarket mishandled a simple order of bananas from the mainland.

This kind of 'snafu' seems to be something that people are particularly prone to on the Orkney Islands. A couple of years ago, Steve, our American brother-in-law, sent us this fascinating news snippet, after a shopkeeper on the Orkney Islands mistakenly ordered 80 cases of chocolate Easter eggs, instead of the just 80 eggs that he had intended to buy.

Oops!!!!!

Lois and I sympathise, however, because we've made many a snafu of that kind ourselves, when ordering groceries online. It's usually in the other direction, however, ordering far less than we actually wanted, due to some crazy misunderstanding or other - it's  all total madness, isn't it !!!

About a couple of years ago, I had intended to order one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of Brussels sprouts, but instead of one kilogram, I found just one single sprout when I opened up the bags that the supermarket had delivered to us. Lois realised the mistake instantly, and I ran out to catch the delivery guy in his van, before he disappeared. I managed to hand back what we were calling "the lonely sprout" to the delivery guy. 

And the supermarket later issued me with a refund of just 3p, so the system was working satisfactorily from the financial viewpoint at least! 

flashback to 2020: (left) Lois showcases our 'lonely sprout' that 

Sainsbury's had delivered, before I ran out to the van with it 

to hand it back to the delivery guy - what madness, wasn't it!!!!

And what a crazy world we live in (again) !!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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