Monday September 14th 2026 "Deadlines, eh! They're there to be ignored basically, aren't they!! "

Yes, Friends, so-called "deadlines", eh! They're there to be ignored, basically, aren't they! Especially the so-called "final" ones!!! And yet it seems like every day there's a new one laid down, if we're to believe the press! Here's what my today's copy of Onion News is telling us, would you believe!!!

What rubbish isn't it!!!! However, all these "headlines about deadlines" (!) certainly bring a smile to the cheeks of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-attractive Liphook, Hampshire, no question about that!!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

Deadlines missed can sometimes cause problems, however, as our daughter Alison (51) knows to her cost, and "in spades" (!).  Alison and her family - husband Edward (51), and offspring Josie (20), Rosalind (18) and Isaac (16) - were supposed to be quitting their rental home this week and moving back into their 'real' home', a crumbling Victorian mansion which has been in the hands of builders who have been engaged in a renovation job on the ageing property for the last 18 months.

Well, the family has "quitted" [sic!] their rental home okay, which has been sold to new owners - no problem there. However, their builders won't let them back into their 'real' home yet, because it's "not safe", as yet - what madness!! So the family are technically "homeless", and are spending a horrible time at the moment, partly living in a shepherd's hut in their mansion's 7.5 acre grounds, and farming their offspring out to Lois and me, so we pair of "old codgers" have had a nice surprise being asked to temporarily accommodate three cheery, chatty young scamps, which has blown some of the cobwebs off us, to put it mildly!

What madness!!!! And it's fortunate that the family has at least managed the occasional 'treat' to brighten up their lives, escaping to Oxford at the weekend to see a concert by "happening band" Arctic Monkeys' very own tribute band, the "Antarctic Monkeys", which has helped to ease some of the family's pain, the poor things!!!! See this post (below, right) that Alison put on social media this weekend...

(left) builders refusing to let the family back into their crumbling Victorian

mansion, with a cheery wave and a "Sorry, it's health and safety, mate, innit!",

and (right) poor Alison's post last night on social media - what madness, isn't it!!!!

Poor Alison-and-family!!!!!

Lois and I have done what little we can to help the family, temporarily having Josie, Rosalind and Isaac to sleep in our house and providing evening meals for the whole family, when they arrive at ours in the evenings, totally exhausted, typically. But what a crazy world we live in!!!!

flashback to last night: (left to right) Josie, Isaac, Rosalind,

Lois, Alison, Edward and Yours Truly on the dessert course

- what madness!!!!!

And today, what was going to be a "one off" evening meal looks like being extended to probably the next two evenings as well, since the family still can't eat in their own dining room, which is mad, and by evening they're totally exhausted anyway from spending their whole days moving stuff, packing stuff and unpacking stuff - yikes!!!!! 

For Lois and me, meanwhile, the crisis means some "emergency shopping trips" to stock up our larder, now that we suddenly find ourselves feeding a family of five with pleasantly huge, and healthy, appetites, and not just feeding ourselves - the scrawny couple of scraggy "old codgers" (!), that we are, to put it mildly!!!! 

And hence, this morning, Lois and I find ourselves nipping round to the local "Co-op" again to stock up with more 'supplies' for tonight, before taking a rehabilitatory - is that a word? [No! - Ed] - yes, before taking a rehabilitatory walk over the 'hallowed turf' of local Hampshire Premier League soccer giants Liphook United, and checking on team selection for next Saturday, which is nice!

(above) we pop to the local Coop this morning to stock up on food to feed

our daughter Alison's family of five tonight, before taking a calming walk

over the 'hallowed turf' of local soccer giants Liphook United, stopping at the

team's dilapidated "clubhouse" to check team selection for Saturday, which is nice!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!   [You've done that one once already, Colin! - Ed]

For us, however, the nice part of Alison's "family crisis" is that "old codgers" Lois and I get to spend our evenings with our three chatty and cheery grandkids, after their exhausted mum and dad have left to go home to their meagre shepherd's hut around 7pm each night, where the family's 2 dogs are waiting patiently for their arrival, which is touching!

flashback to early August: our daughter Alison and family take delivery 

of their charming shepherd's hut, seen sited in their extensive 7.5 acre grounds,

and (right) family dog Sika making himself at home there. Poor Sika !!!!

18:00 Alison's totally exhausted family ring our doorbell and gratefully 'fall on' the food that Lois and I have prepared for them - and, by the end of it, we have 7 empty plates, which is nice to see!

Lois and me this evening, treating our exhausted daughter Alison and her exhausted

family to an evening meal of chicken breast, potatoes and peas - yum yum!

And later tonight, while Josie and Isaac are up in their rooms doing their college and school homework, Lois and I get the chance to entertain Rosalind, who doesn't have any homework, which is a blessing: she'll be starting at UCL (University College, London) in a couple of weeks' time to begin her 4-year degree course in International Politics,  so for the moment, at least, she's a "lady of leisure". 

flashback to June: our granddaughter Rosalind

celebrating her 18th birthday on holiday in Majorca

Tonight we decide to let Rosalind listen to some old audio tapes of her own "mummy" Alison, as an 8-year-old little girl, recorded during our 3 years in the States between 1982 and 1985, tapes which we discovered today in an old drawer - awwwww!!!!! 

What fun for all three of us, especially when we hear 8-year-old Alison's "American accent" - how we laugh!!!! We also hear excerpts from some of the school concerts that we recorded at the our two daughters' American primary school, Dasher Green. Happy times!!!!

(above) flashback to 1984: Lois and me, with our two daughters Alison (9) and Sarah (7)

touring the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and (right) me, cool as a cucumber,

driving our All-American car, with the steering wheel on the 'wrong' side (!)

and (below) some of the tapes we recorded of our daughters 'speaking American',

and tapes recorded at their primary school, Dasher Green, Columbia Md

Also, we listen tonight to some amusing, but slightly more embarrassing (!), tapes of Lois and me larking about and playing our guitars together before we got married, including time from my study year in Japan, when Lois came over to stay with me - yikes, was it all more than 55 years ago?????!!!!

(above, left) flashback to 1970: the first ever picture of Lois and me together, in a rented cottage in Shropshire, and (above right) us in 1971, when Lois came to visit me during my study year in Japan 1970-1971, and (below) some of my slightly embarrassing audio tapes (!) from those times

Happy days!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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