Thursday September 17th 2026 "Farewells - are they something we can now say goodbye to? I wonder....!"

Yes, Friends, everybody's saying goodbye to somebody today, all over the world, and our poor press has trouble sometimes chronicling them all, although they make a good effort! Here are some of Onion News's featured examples, if you want proof!!!

And that's just two of their 'goodbye' stories in this morning's edition, but you'll have to get your own print edition and turn to page 94 if you want the "Full Monty" !

And all these sudden 'goodbyes' are bringing a teary smudge to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-translucent Liphook, Hampshire - no question about that!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

For us, today is a whole series of 'farewells', as our three grandkids Josie (20), Rosalind (18), and Isaac (16) make what we're calling "a phased withdrawal" from our house, after a week of staying with us, while builders have been working on the renovation of their own home, a crumbling Victorian mansion in nearby Headley.

And today, those 3 young scamps' own dear bedrooms over in Headley are finally labelled "fit for human habitation" by the builders, meaning that the poor things can finally sleep in their own beds tonight, after a week of "roughing it" with us, which must be a huge relief to them, the poor mites !!!!!

phase one: after a "scratch lunch" of scrambled egg with us, our daughter

Alison takes Josie's things (and Josie herself (!)) home in her car,

signally the end to Josie's week-long nightmare of a stay with her grandparents (!)

phase 2: our daughter Alison collects Rosalind's things and Isaac's things

and takes them back to their crumbling Victorian mansion, so they can at last

sleep in their own beds tonight, which must be a huge relief, to put it mildly!!!

These last 7 days must have been a nightmare to our 3 young grandkids, that's for sure, listening to mine and Lois's endless stories about 'the good old days' before smartphones and digital watches etc (!). 

Poor grandkids!!!!

And for Lois and me, who, for the last 7 days, have certainly "had the cobwebs blown off us a bit" (in Lois's words!), we can now sit and watch our 'old codger' TV programmes in the evenings, just the two of us, with all those "cobwebs" starting to spread over us again, just like in a 1950's horror film - remember those wonderful days before smartphones and digital watches etc??? 

[And you can stop that 'old codger' talk right now! - Ed]

Have I ever shown you some of those marvellous pictures we've each got of ourselves circa 1950?

flashback to circa 1950: (left) Lois on a swing outside her parents'

post-war prefab in Oxford, and (right) me with my dear late mum and 

my dear late baby sister Kathy in front of our house in Dover - happy days!!!

[Final warning! - Ed]

16:00 And now, today, finally left on our own after our grandkids' departure, Lois and I have to rapidly change gear yet again, and get ready for the weekend celebrations of my dear great niece Lucy's wedding to her Anglo-American fiancee Rosanna in Ipswich. 

(left) flashback to May - Lois and me at Ipswich's leading Turkish restaurant,

with my sister Jill (rightmost), and Lucy and Rosanna; and (right)

the happy couple at a recent pre-wedding celebration, which is nice!

A big event, which Lois and I have both been looking forward to for a few months now - travelling to Ipswich tomorrow (Friday), checking in at our hotel by the harbourfront, going to the pre-wedding dinner, then attending the wedding itself on Saturday, followed by the reception etc etc, coming back home to Liphook on Sunday.

And hopefully there'll also be a chance to meet some other members of Rosanna's Anglo-American family.

So, once again it's busy busy busy!!!!

No wonder our neighbours have dubbed us "possibly Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple" - they're not wrong there, and "in spades" !!!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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