Danskcolin: Saturday August 22nd 2026 "Friends, are YOU postponing something that could make you famous?"

Yes, Friends, are YOU currently "putting off" something that potentially could put you in the history books?

We've all done it, haven't we, and there's almost a national epidemic of "postponements" and cries of "Next week, maybe!", if we're to believe today's edition of Onion News - turn to page 94, if you want "chapter and verse", as they say !!!!

And the stories bring a bit of a one-sided smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, to put it mildly!!!!

me and my wife Lois - recent pictures

And if your answer to my question is a cheery, "Yes, Colin, I AM currently postponing something that could put me in the history books!", my advice is to start on it pretty soon, because it can't be done in 5 minutes, to put it mildly! And if you're a bit tied up at the moment, PLEASE PLEASE promise me you'll do it as soon as the summer holiday is over and the kids all go back to school - don't put it off any longer than that!!!!

Lois and I are laughing, because we've been reminded today of one of the great "postponers" of history. Step forward Trojan hero, Aeneas, who, after the Trojan War ended badly for his people, set off into the Mediterranean with some of his Trojan buddies, with a mission to found a great new city (Rome) and the world's soon-to-be-greatest empire (the Roman Empire).

Trojan hero Aeneas, leaving the ruins of his defeated city,

on a mission to found the city of Rome and a great empire

However, Aeneas was one of history's "great postponers", because, en route to founding the city of Rome, Aeneas somehow found time, along the way, to spend a "wasted" year in Carthage on the North African coast, more or less just going to bed every night with Dido, the beautiful Queen of Carthage, would you believe!

What madness, wasn't it !!!!

Aeneas's tortuous route from the defeated city of Troy, on a mission

to found the city of Rome, but with a protracted delay in Carthage along the way

to pursue one of Aeneas's subsidiary interests - what madness !!!!!

And Aeneas and Dido's notorious, year-long, affair was all later written up by Roman author Virgil, in his classic "Aeneid Book II", a copy of which, quite coincidentally, "plops" through mine and Lois's letter-box today, which is a nice surprise!

(left) Yours Truly today, showcasing my shiny-new copy of Virgil's Aeneid Book II,

and (right) Trojan hero Aeneas getting up-close-and-personal with Dido,

Queen of Carthage, who he decided was a better deal than founding a great city!!!!

The arrival of this book in our post today, however, is in some ways, a bit of a blow to Lois and me, because we'd forgotten that, one of our current study-courses - Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers - is due to re-start in a couple of weeks time, adding yet another heavy demand to our time, to put it mildly!

flashback to last winter: our teacher Joe taking one of our classes in his

critically-acclaimed "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" course,

for the benefit of his mainly female students, informally dubbed "Joe's harem" (!)

I've been told that Lois and I have been dubbed by neighbours as "possibly Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple", which is mad! But certainly today just underlines our local "moniker", as we perform another of our punishing 4000-step walks this morning. Still officially "recuperating" from our enforced idleness during the heat waves, we today once more revisit the "hallowed turf" of local soccer heroes Liphook United, and watch a scratch team of juniors playing a warm-up game in front of a small but enthusiastic "crowd" of casual observers (!).

Yes, with the season just beginning, Liphook is slowly but surely, becoming "soccer crazy" once more, no doubt about that!!!

Lois and me on one of our challenging 4000-step walks over the "hallowed turf"

of local soccer heroes Liphook United, where we stop to watch a junior

warm-up game played out in front of a small but enthusiastic crowd (!)

Even our customary afternoon-in-bed is slightly curtailed - we have to manage with only 3 hours of it today, would you believe (!) - but for a nice reason! Our dear 51-year-old daughter Alison is dropping by at 5:30pm to give us back the red curtains Lois and I bought for our house in America back in the early 1980s, and which we loaned Alison some time ago, for some reason which I can't remember!

She and husband Edward have been clearing out the garage of their temporary rental home in nearby Churt, in preparation for moving back next month into their real home - a crumbling Victorian mansion built by one of Queen Victoria's admirals, a mansion which, for the last 18 months or so has been in the hands of builders carrying out a large-scale refurbishment job.

the crumbling Victorian mansion owned by our daughter Alison and husband Edward,

which, for 18 months, has been in the hands of builders doing a massive refurbishment

From the recent pictures of the property (see above), it's hard to believe that the building will actually be ready for Alison and Edward and their 3 teenage kids to move back into by mid-September, but the builders say it'll be "mostly done" (?). Luckily, just in case, Ali and Edward have installed a "shepherd's hut" in their extensive grounds that they can sleep temporarily, in case of any last-minute "hiccups".

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

(left) Alison dropping in to see us today, and (right) the temporary

"shepherd's hut", where the family will sleep if their mansion isn't quite ready (!)

But let's hope, with all the "postponement fever" going around at the moment, that Alison's builders nevertheless aren't tempted to put back the completion date again. And let's hope that the family will be able to move back into their mansion on schedule in mid-September. Fingers crossed!

However, what of Harry and Meghan moving back to the UK soon, apparently so that Meghan can play a prestigious role in some mysterious TV series that hasn't been named (!).

Lois and I thought that the Sussexes had just been messing around in the US, having a good time, like Dido and Aeneas, but we were wrong.

We weren't aware, that, according to a text today from Steve, our American brother-in-law, not only that money may be the main factor, but also that Harry and Meghan have actually been "crusaders" all this time, promoting good causes during their time in the States - what madness, isn't it!