Yes, Friends, have YOU got a dog in YOUR life? Some days it seems like they're taking over, doesn't it, seemingly, and I humbly submit page 94 of today's Onion News in my plea - just 3 "doggy" stories on one page alone, would you believe!
my wife Lois and me - a recent picture
And Lois and I are more than happy to help out, no doubt about that - and we've practised a few simple "doggy jokes" and some comedic "doggy songs" to play on the family's piano, which should keep their dogs - Sika and Bjorn - amused, not to mention the family's cats Dumbledore and Otto, plus their tank of tropical fish, all of whom have the most infectious sense of humour, would you believe!
It'll be our second visit to Churt today, because before all the football "shenanigans" begins this afternoon, there's the little matter of Ali's birthday "Colin The Caterpillar Cake", and birthday presents and cards to hand over at 10:30 am this morning.
Our little Ali - 51 years of age! And Lois and I always say that you know you're old, when your 'children' are getting to be middle aged! Yikes!!!
It seems like only yesterday that our 'little' Alison was born - awwwww!!!!
flashback to 1975, and Lois showing the first sign of her 'bump',
in the tiny back yard of our first ever house, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,
the bump that was to become our first child, Alison - awww!!!! ....
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.... and, a few months later, the first picture of our first child, Alison - awwwww!!!!
(above) 1976, first summer holiday, and (below) 1980 - first bike!
Happy days!!!
Awwww!!!! And it seems like only yesterday !!!!!
But back to today! And here are some pictures of us, this Saturday afternoon, entertaining the family's dogs (and cats and tropical fish) (!), in the family's absence - see pictures below.
When it's time for us to go, veteran cat Dumbledore doesn't seem to want us to leave, and stages a protest by settling himself down under our car in the front yard. Lois has to coax him out, so that we can drive back home to bed in Liphook, for a much-delayed "statutory nap-time".
Poor Dumbledore!!!!
(above) Lois kicking balls for our daughter Alison and family's 2 dogs
Sika and Bjorn, in the parched back garden of their home in Churt, Surrey,
and (below left) us enjoying another cup of tea and piece of cake,
with (below, right) family cat Dumbledore, staging a protest under our car (!)
Meanwhile Alison and family are watching Spurs beat German club Hoffenheim 3-0, largely thanks to the efforts of their teenage signing Mike 'Mikey' Moore, the club's exciting no.47 shirt (!).
our daughter Alison, with husband Edward, and their 3 teenage kids
(left to right) Rosalind (18), Josie (19) and Isaac (16) at Spurs'
White Hart Lane stadium this afternoon, where they beat German club
Hoffenheim 3-0, with 2 goals from Mike 'Mikey' Moore (right)
Overall, however, for Lois and me, it's a day haunted by memories of our dear daughter Alison, born in 1975 in a heatwave similar to this year's, plus memories of her childhood, her schooling, and sending her off eventually to university in Cardiff, where she was to meet her future husband Edward, so that's all good!
Bettany's premise, in this fascinating two-part series, is that 'civilisation' didn't start with the development of agriculture, as was once thought.
But for our entertainment tonight, however, we go even further back in time, 12,000 years back, to be vague (!), with the second programme in TV historian Bettany Hughes' latest series about the Dawn of Civilisation itself, would you believe!
Further back, even hunter-gatherers had started to come together in cities, a stage in humanity's progress which certainly wasn't the traditional image of the hunter-gatherer. And it happened first, as far as we know, in Karahantepe, in today's Turkey, 12000 years ago, so 7000 years before the Pyramids, in fact, soon after the end of the last Ice Age, which is totally mad!
One circular structure is 28m in diameter, or 92ft, which is completely crazy.
And also found there, only last year, is the world's oldest known rectangular room, with good old 'four walls' as its key element (!).
Great idea, guys! Kudos !!!!
And as Bettany comments, that large circular building would have been capable of holding 400 people. It was the stage in human development when people were really learning to live together, and new concepts in social rules would have become necessary, perhaps for the first time ever.
Yes, they were still hunter-gatherers, and didn't know how to grow their food, but there's evidence that, in those crazy, far-off neolithic times, groups of hunters would lure sometimes large numbers of animals, particularly gazelles, into "traps" - funnelling into pre-constructed cul-de-sacs, so job done, food tonight for all the town!
Fascinating stuff, isn't it!
[If you say so! - Ed]
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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