Friday August 7th 2026 "Friends, are YOU, secretly, extremely busy, but trying to look calm and collected all the time?"

Yes, Friends, are YOU secretly busy, but carefully crafting a way of looking calm and collected all the time? It can be hard work, can't it!

It's a common skill that many people have developed, however! They even wrote a song - remember Bing Crosby's "take" on it, "Busy Doing Nothing" ?????

And those lyrics are certainly on the minds, and tongues, of me and my wife Lois this morning, no doubt about that! 

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

Once dubbed by neighbours "Liphook's busiest retired couple", we've been forced, by other local residents, under the threat of court action (!), to take the not-such-impressive title of "Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple", which is a bit of a come-down, perhaps, but better than nothing, shall we say!!!!

"Busy busy busy!" - yes, that what we're thinking this morning, with another typically punishing to-do-list on our agenda. We've somehow got to drive to nearby Grayshott to buy a birthday present for our daughter Alison, who'll be turning 51 next week, and the we'll be going for a walk over the "hallowed but almost non-existing" turf of local soccer heroes Liphook United, while also somehow finding the time to grab a quick coffee and piece of cake at Grayshott's iconic Red Rose Tea-Room, would you believe!

we pick out some jewellery for our daughter Alison, who'll be turning 51 next week,

before grabbing a quick coffee-and-cake at the nearby Red Rose Tea Room, ending up

with a brisk walk over the "hallowed turf" of soccer heroes Liphook United - busy busy busy!!!!

Punishing or what haha!!!!

Grayshott is a charming small town, seemingly populated mainly by "old codgers", like ourselves, but also by well-heeled-looking younger people, busy executives going off to London each day, and their trim, well-coiffured, and gym-focussed wives, looking all fit and muscley in their shorts in this year's incredibly prolonged heatwave. What madness!

Yes, just look at those pictures above, illuminated by that perfect, if, in British terms, totally "unnatural",  blue sky, although also, unfortunately, showcasing the parched and non-existent "hallowed turf" that those poor soccer heroes Liphook United, will have to play on, when the football season starts next month - what madness, isn't it (again) !!!!

And our daughter Alison has herself gone on social media today to lament the state of the so-called "lawn tennis court" behind the family's crumbling 1870's Victorian mansion in nearby Headley, currently being renovated by builders.

Yes, we badly need a drop of rain in these parts, that's for sure! They're currently promising us a bit of rain on August 16th and August 19th, but Lois and I say, "We'll believe it when we see it!" - we've been disappointed before, this summer - many times!!!

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

And following this further manic morning (!), mine and Lois's oft-repeated comment applies 'in spades' (!), "How did we ever find the time to go to work, back in the day?!!!"

21:00 And today, now retired for 20 years, we get another reminder of those crazy times, when we actually worked for a living, as, after another afternoon in bed, we finally settle down on the couch to watch the last episode of  the current series of "The Undeclared War", all about the so-called "cyber war" between the nations, and featuring my former workplace, which is nostalgic, to put it mildly!!!

We personally haven't found this series terribly gripping - it's hard to produce a drama when most of the action is on computer screens, all manned by grim-faced people warning of disaster at every turn, but they've made as good a job as they can out of it - that's what we say, anyway!

The bad guys - Russians, Chinese etc - have introduced a malware kind of a "worm" into Western government computer systems, and in this scene, GCHQ boffins inform their US counterparts at NSA about what they believe to be the real target of this "worm".

Yikes! That does sound like something potentially serious, to put it mildly!

And the grim-faced boffins then add, "We believe the real target in this has been Taiwan. It could be interpreted that an attack is imminent". We then see their US counterpart acting quickly, in response, informing US General Perez and the Joint Chiefs of Staff directly via her computer.

The GCHQ boffins then have some further advice for the US authorities, in this grim footnote to their verbal report:

Oops (again) !!!!!   Yes, we Brits throw these 'humorous' understatements out without thinking, sometimes, don't we, and then our overseas friends will go and take them literally, of course! Luckily this particular American knows all about our funny little ways, which is nice!

But what a crazy country we live in !!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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