Yes, Friends, are YOU struggling to fill your so-called "free time", and to do it safely? It's a problem for many people in their leisure-affected hours, isn't it!
And if you don't believe me, take a glance at the headlines in this morning's Onion News, if you want "chapter and verse" !!!!!
But for me and my wife Lois reading these stories in the sometimes-bustling and simultaneously-leafy little town of Liphook, Hampshire, it brings an ironic smile or two to our lips, as the two of us, dubbed Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple, duly fight our way through the crowds thronging the Saturday street market in nearby Petersfield this morning, no question about that!!!
The truth is that anxieties about 'how to fill our free time' isn't normally a luxury that Lois and I have, unfortunately! We should be so lucky, to be frank!!!
"Busy busy busy" - that's the order of the day, almost every day, and we struggle to find any free time at all, to be frank! Neighbours have described our little Honda Jazz as "slipping in and out of our driveway all day 'like a yoyo'" to quote their memorable phrase!
The programme opens with an absolute downright "shocker" - Palin's first frank admission of his childhood addiction to jotting down, in a precious little "diary", the numbers of steam trains he manages to get sightings of, together with dates, times etc. What madness!!!!
Disgusting, isn't it !!!!!
It's sick, isn't it! And this second man, also middle-aged and superficially respectable, explains that he even carries a tape-recorder with him when he travels by train, would you believe - disgusting, isn't it!!!
Stomach-churning, isn't it! And, not for the first time, mine and Lois's reaction is to say, "It's their poor wives we feel sorry for !!!!!"
And this morning is a typical example of our frenetic life-style (!), as we shop in Petersfield, somehow finding time to stop for a quick cake'n'coffee at the walk-in coffee morning organised by Lois's church at its Winton House drop-in centre, before taking Lois's hearing-aids into the local Specsavers for "routine maintenance", and taking time to stop at the local CookShop to buy some ready meals for next weekend - we simply don't have time to prepare many of our meals any more, which is mad, given that we're both 80, although undoubtedly both "marvellous for our age" (!).
To top it all, you'll even find us 'hard at it' on the kitchen table too, later on, doing preparation for the next meeting of the local U3A group "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers", which we both belong to, "for our sins" (!!!!).
(above) us this morning, somehow finding time to "drop in" at Lois's church's
"drop-in centre" [no pun intended!!!], for a quick coffee'n'cake - and (below)
us this afternoon, still "hard at it" doing our homework for Monday's
meeting of the U3A "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" group, of which
we're both members - "for our sins" (!!!!!). What madness, isn't it !!!!!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
Our big news today, however, is that after our Monday Latin lesson is over, i.e. as of 2:30pm Monday, Lois and I will suddenly find ourselves with three completely free days, would you believe!!! I know that this will sound totally incredible to anybody who knows us (!), but having previously earmarked Tuesday to Friday on our calendar this week with a pithy "Visit Lois's cousin Brian and family in Bournemouth", we get a text and a phone-call from Brian's wife Ruth asking us to put the visit off till maybe October: Ruth is currently suffering from leg problems, which are currently being treated, but a later visit will be more convenient for various reasons, so fair enough!
Lois was a 13-year-old bridesmaid at Brian and Ruth's wedding back in 1959, and 7 years ago we visited Bournemouth for the couple's diamond wedding. Happy days!!!!
(left) flashback to August 2019: Lois (leftmost) on diamond wedding day for Lois's cousin
Brian and Brian's wife Ruth, and (right) flash-even-further-back to the couple's
original wedding in 1959, where a 13-year-old Lois was a bridesmaid
So, suddenly finding ourselves totally free for 3 days, what will Lois and I do to "improve the shining hour" (!). Watch this space - we live in exciting times!!!!!
[I predict: later risings, earlier bed-times, more TV, and longer afternoons in bed for 'statutory nap-times' - but we'll see! - Ed]
20:00 Always looking for a chance to show our neighbours that Lois and I can relax on occasion, we've been spreading the word that tonight we'll definitely be not only "staying in" tonight, but also tuning into a re-run of Monty Python stalwart Michael Palin's mould-breaking, and revelatory, 1980 documentary "Confessions of a Trainspotter" on BBC4, which is something we've been very much looking forward to, to put it mildly!
In the following sequence, where Palin describes how he first fell into his sick habit, as an impressionable teenager, the BBC has obscured his face in a perhaps futile attempt to protect his identity:
Lois and I, however, can't help admiring Palin for his frankness and his willingness to finally "come clean" about his addiction after all these years. After all, in the last few decades, Palin wasn't the only man to fall victim to "trainspotter's disease", as it's been dubbed, and we hear from many other such addicts in tonight's programme, such as this outwardly respectable-looking, bespectacled middle-aged man hiding a dreadful secret:
But what a sick world we live in !!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!!!
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