Tuesday July 21st 2026 "Wondering why scientists aren't finding any fossils these days? Well, wonder no more!!!"

Yes, Friends, have YOU ever wondered why scientists aren't "turning up" fossils any more, seemingly?

Well, wonder no more, because, according to today's Onion News,  it seems some of these scientists are just "sitting on them" - and let's just hope, for the scientists' sake,  that they're not the "pointy" kind haha!!!

Kudos, that man! And it looks like Terrell's chance discovery could prove to be something of a game-changer for palaeontology - so watch this space!!!!

And reading Terrell's story today, here in partially-picturesque Liphook, Hampshire, brings a near-radiant smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois, history buffs extraordinaires(!), that's for sure! 

Like Terrell, we too are taking a little walk of discovery of our own today, not through any dusty old museum, but over the "hallowed turf" of local soccer heroes Liphook United, who once again have avoided relegation from the East Hampshire Premier League to the lowly "burial ground" of East Hampshire Division One", a daring feat which is becoming a bit of an annual 'fixture' of its own - no pun intended!!!!

And what we discover is another possible game-changer: lots of bits of mysterious plastic sheeting over certain parts of the club's "hallowed turf", which is mad! Laid by aliens perhaps? But your views welcome - postcards only, needless to say !!!!

the mysterious pieces of plastic sheeting, seemingly marking 

the quickest route to Liphook United's club bar, sheeting which has 

been laid - by aliens???? - during our recent 3 week absence 

And today is also a bit of a celebration, from our viewpoint, because it's our first "walk of discovery" together for about 3 weeks, would you believe, due partly to the heatwave, but also due to the recent 3-week visit of our daughter Sarah and family from Perth, Australia, which, while being totally joyous, kicked our previous routine life "out of the park", if you'll forgive yet another soccer metaphor!

[That's enough soccer! - Ed]

flashback to July 2nd - Lois and I visit the top of London's "Shard",

the tallest building in Western Europe, together with our daughter

Sarah and her family: (left to right) Sarah, me, our twin granddaughters

Lily and Jessica, Lois, and our son-in-law Francis

What madness it all is, isn't it !!!!

Famously one of Liphook's busiest couples, Lois and I also somehow find time today to get Lois's hair cut and styled by Lois's athletic stylist Anna, and also to get Lois's blood its annual test at our local surgery, somehow managing also to "squeeze in" another afternoon in bed, in between, would you believe!

Busy busy busy!!!!

our busy day - a haircut for Lois from her stylist Anna, with me in the "husband chair",

and a visit to our local NHS surgery for Lois's annual blood test - what madness!

Yes, it's "all go" today, once again!  What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

As Lois and I, retired now for 20 years, always say to ourselves - "How did we ever find the time to go to work, back in the day?!!!!"

And to try and answer that question, we decide tonight to watch a new series about my old workplace, "The Undeclared War", even though it turns out not to be ideal pre-bedtime viewing, to put it mildly!

And star of the series Simon Pegg, when asked by the Radio Times "Have you ever been allowed inside the real GCHQ?", answers, "Several times. They have been really accommodating. I grew up near Cheltenham, my school was about 5 miles away from GCHQ, so we knew we were in the hot zone for a nuclear attack - which, in the mid-1980's was always going to happen 'tomorrow'. So it's a moment of circularity in my life that I've ended up making a show about it". 

Tonight, I can't resist googling Pegg, and I discover that yes indeed, the young Simon did indeed attend the seemingly unremarkable Brockworth Comprehensive School in the 1980's, just down the road between Cheltenham and Gloucester:

(left, centre) film-star Simon Pegg as a young boy, and (right)

Brockworth Comprehensive School, officially opened in 1972.

Awwww, bless his little short trousers haha !!!!!

Lois and I watch most of tonight's first episode, and we both agree that, to us, it's all quite dull stuff, with lots of excited voices shouting about cyber warfare and malware, sandbox computers and other jargon etc etc, which we suppose will enthral some people - but what madness! I don't think that Lois and I are going to bother watching the rest of the series - call us intellectual snobs if you like haha!!! 

In this scene Simon Pegg's character gets told by a staffer that they've discovered some Russian malware targeting the White House. He then gets 'on the blower' to the Director of Cybersecurity Operations at NSA, GCHQ's US sister agency, to break the bad news:

And on an "authenticity" note, I notice that Simon Pegg and his staff consistently talk about "the NSA", when in the real GCHQ it's simply known office-wide as "NSA", without the definite article - and I don't think it's breaking the Official Secrets Act to reveal that fact, whether exclusively or otherwise haha!

staff portrayed in the series refer erroneously to "the NSA" (!),

using the definite article, which is a bit jarring to Yours Truly!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to "the bed"! - Ed]

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