Saturday May 23rd 2026 "Do YOUR family and staff still respect you, no matter what you do?"

Yes, Friends, are your staff,  or your family, happy to still respect you, no matter what you decide to do? 

And I ask that question because it's easy to lose that respect by poor decision-making, isn't it, as happened to local manager Robert Crawford recently, according to this morning's Onion News - did you see the pictures? They're better than a thousand words, or better than 300 or so, anyway!!!!

Poor Crawford !!!!!

And reading about Crawford's poor decision-making in the 'wardrobe department' certainly brings a wry-ish smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, to put it mildly!

With the temperatures in Liphook again due to pass the 80F mark - 82F or 28C to be precise, we've made the possibly rash decision to 'dust off' our own shorts for the first time this year, the shorts we've selected to do today's 'poncing about' in (!). And unlike old man Crawford (see Onion story above) we're not afraid of losing our 'clout' with each other: as partners in an 'equal marriage' we don't need to exercise discipline over each other in the same way, and here in this house at least, it's "Liberty Hall", which is nice!

[Who do you think you're kidding, Colin? I always go to Lois if I want a decision! - Ed]

us today, 'poncing about' in our shorts for the first time this year,

thanks to a sudden heatwave hitting South East England, which is nice!

Not only that, but we've decided, for the duration of the heatwave, to just keep the duvet cover over us at night, or in the afternoon for 'statutory nap-time', so that's all good!!!!

It's crazy weather for May, that's for sure, but then we live in a crazy country, don't we, even if it takes one of our friends from 'The Continent' - my Hungarian penfriend Tunde - to make Lois and me fully aware of just how crazy we Brits really are! To 'see ourselves as others see us' can be a bit of a wake-up call sometimes! Look at this shocking story from Hungarian news website telex.hu, and if you're British, and, also, fluent in Intermediate Hungarian (!), better go a deep red in the face!!!!

According to the article, the City of London still has to pay an annual rent to the King, a rent dating back over 800 years to the year 1211, whereby the city has to make a payment to the King's "Remembrancer" (the oldest judicial office in the country), a payment consisting of a blunt pruning knife and a sharp axe, plus 6 jumbo horse-shoes, and 61 nails (see picture above!). Apparently our so-called 'Parliament' hasn't yet found time to repeal the old laws that require this.

What madness!!!!!

the so-called 'Ceremony of the Quit Rents' (left) as it looked in the 13th century,

and (right) how it has looked in more recent times - what madness, isn't it!!!

This ancient ceremony, called the Ceremony of the Quit Rents', has somehow managed to keep going after 800 years, even though nobody knows any more the location of the two areas that the rent applies to: a blacksmith's workshop and a piece of marshland, believed to be somewhere in Shropshire, a county literally 'miles away', somewhere near the Welsh border. 

What a truly crazy country we live in !!!!

And don't think for one moment that that craziness was confined to the 13th century, as Lois and I find out tonight when we settle down on the sofa - still sporting our shorts, which, after another hard day of 'poncing about' (!), are now looking distinctly more crumpled!!!!

us this evening, still sporting our shorts, after another day of hard 'poncing about' (!)

And we're on the sofa to watch the latest 'celebrity travelogue' programme by former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo, "Great Continental Railway Journeys", in which tonight, confusingly, Michael is on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

Lois and I didn't know just how many times Corsica has been invaded by outsiders: the Greeks in the 6th century BC, then the Etruscans and Carthaginians, then the Romans and the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Lombards, the Moors, until the Pope gave the island to the Italian city of Pisa for 200 years, and then the Italian city of Genoa took over for 500 years. But this chequered history has toughened the islanders no end, and built up a culture of resistance, we hear.

Also, Lois and I hadn't heard of Corsican hero and patriot, Pasquale Paoli, who studied at the University of Naples before returning to Corsica and writing the world's first modern democratic constitution. Sovereignty was to lie with the people of the island, with due 'separation of powers'. Paoli's constitution was then approved by a vote by all adult Corsicans, including the women. And the constitution lasted for 14 years, until 1769, when the French invaded, and put a stop to it - what madness!!!! 

Paoli had to seek refuge in London, where he remained for 20 years, before returning to Corsica to organise resistance against the French, eventually having to 'lock horns' with the new French Emperor, Napoleon Buonaparte.

In the end, Paoli had to ask Britain for help, and the British responded by sending in the Navy, as this local Corsican historian explains to Michael:

So for those two years, before the next French invasion, the British monarch, George III, was also King of Corsica, and the kingdom's democratically-elected parliament used to meet in a chapel in the island's then capital of Bastia. This 'Brotherhood Chapel' had an organ, on which the MPs could hear the playing of 'God Save The King'. 

George III never attended any of the parliament's sessions, but his presence was symbolised by an empty throne, which was a nice idea!

the 'Brotherhood Chapel' in Bastia, where the Anglo-Corsican parliament

used to meet, complete with organ for playing 'God Save The King'

and an empty throne to symbolise the presence of George III - what madness!!!!

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

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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