Friday June 5tth 2026 "Us 'old people' are getting younger all the time! Have YOU noticed!!!"

 Yes, Friends, take a look at YOUR elderly friends and relatives! Aren't they marvellous! And doing the most astonishing things! Just look at today's Onion News, and try NOT to look at the somewhat churlish comments from the paper's lightning survey of readers' views at the same time!!!

Meeowwwww!!!! Just jealous aren't they!!!! And reading the Onion News story this morning, here in semi-transparent Liphook, Hampshire, brings a delighted smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois, no question about that!!!!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

Why are we laughing? Well, the clue is in the story's 'dateline' - June 5th 2026 - which is exactly 80 years after Lois "popped" triumphantly into this world in the the maternity wing of the Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford!

Yes, she's 80 years young today, which is something to celebrate, to put it mildly!

Tonight, we've been invited, by our daughter Alison and family to a celebratory oriental meal at the Miso Asia restaurant in nearby Petersfield, but before then Lois has chosen to look round the Rural Life Centre at nearby Tilford this morning, so it's going to be busy busy busy!!! But that's what life is like these days for us 'active seniors', so get used to it, before YOU get to 80, that's my advice!!!!

At Tilford, a special treat for Lois will be to look over an ancient relic, and I'm not talking about me, here haha!!! Lois spent the first 8 years or so of her life living in one of those post-war "prefabs", designed to solve the housing crisis that faced bombed-out Britain in the years following 1945. 

some early pictures of Lois around 1950 or thereabouts: (left) on the swing

outside her family's pre-fab, and (right) ringed, 'chewing the fat' and generally

'putting the post-WW2 world to rights', with some of her little friends - awwwwww!!!!

Lois has got such a good memory, compared to me, and she still vividly remembers the floor-plan of her parents' prefab in north Oxford, and it's with a faraway look in her eye that, with me following closely behind, she sees this 'restored' one at Tilford this morning, kitted out with furniture and appliances from the time, that's for sure!

Lois and I this morning at the Tilford Rural Life Centre, looking at restored 'prefab'

(prefabricated house) of the kind developed to solve the post-WW2 housing crisis

Other stuff at the centre commemorates the stationing in this area of our brave Canadian allies, who came to the aid of the 'mother country' in 1914 and again in 1939. It also commemorates the housing here of the brave Polish servicemen and also of the brave Polish families of refugees, who fled their homeland, either escaping the Nazis before 1945, or the Communists, after 1945.

an exhibit commemorating the Tweedsmuir Camp, where Polish 

refugee families fleeing communism were housed after 1945 -

a photo of one of these families is displayed in this window

Earlier, during World War II, after Poland was invaded and occupied by the Nazis, the Polish armed forces chose to continue the fight from Britain, and the exhibit commemorates their presence, also, in this area.

The exhibition makes a valiant attempt to illustrate graphically the activities of the Polish Armed Forces on the Allied side during the war, but it confuses Lois and me no end, even though we're both self-confessed 'history buffs' (!). But see if you can understand it!

It baffles us, we have to confess !!!!!

The happy result of the Polish refugees and servicemen settling in this area after the war, and after all the painful experiences that they had to go through, was that many young Polish children grew up here, and were educated at local schools. Many of their children and grandchildren are still around living in this part of Surrey today.

Fascinating stuff !

After strolling around the exhibition, and having a look at the quaint old signs and the amusing models of 19th to 20th century sheep etc (!), Lois and I have a celebratory birthday lunch at the centre's cafe and then go home for a well-earned celebratory afternoon in bed for 'celebratory nap-time', which is nice!

17:00 We struggle out of bed, because we're going to be picked up at 6pm by our son-in-law Edward, and whisked off to nearby Petersfield, where Edward is treating us to an oriental birthday meal, with our daughter Alison, and two of their 3 teenage kids, Rosalind (17) and Isaac (15) - Josie (19) being away up north on her first-year maths degree course at Durham University.

The restaurant on this Friday evening is absolutely 'rammed' as young people say today, and we think the waiter's astonishment to learn that Lois is as old as 80 is perfectly genuine - his best guess is "seventy maybe?" , the one that's the nearest to the mark, which is a nice touch!

20:30 Then, as a final surprise, when Alison drops Lois and me off at our home in Liphook, there's a bunch of flowers waiting for us on the doorstep, courtesy of our daughter Sarah, who lives in Perth, Australia with husband Francis and their 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. This is in addition to the set of 'scents' and 'smellies' that Lois received from Sarah by Royal Mail earlier today.

a nice bunch of flowers, sent by our other daughter Sarah,

which is waiting for us on our doorstep when we arrive home tonight

By coincidence, Sarah and Francis are also celebrating today, because it's their wedding anniversary, and the whole family went for dinner tonight in Perth's skyscraper revolving restaurant, the restaurant where, back in 2016, by another coincidence, Lois and I celebrated Lois's 70th birthday.

You do the maths haha!!!!

Will this do?

[Yes, yes, you can go to bed now! - Ed]

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