Friday October 30th 2026 "You read it here first - yes, it's time to put a little something by for Christmas 2027 haha!!!!

Yes, Friends, I know you've got your "cookie jar" of savings for this coming Christmas, but have you started one, to run in parallel, for Christmas 2027 or Christmas 2028? If not, you'd better "get with it", before everybody else starts doing it - just saying !!!! 

And with "thriftiness" the order of the day, even market leading tabloid Onion News has today debuted its new Friday cut-out-and-throw-away "Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish Colour Supplement", which comes free with every issue, so just the "ticket" for the paper's more budget-conscious readers - no pun intended!!!  

And to save you time, here's "Colin's Pick of the Dooziest", as per usual !!!!

 

Awwww!!!! 

Perhaps a bit "OTT", isn't it (!), but these stories - and others in a similar vein - bring a glimpse of a brief smile to the faces of me and my wife Lois today, here in semi-lovely Liphook, Hampshire as we take our near-daily walk over the "hallowed turf" of local soccer heroes Liphook United, to put it mildly!

my wife Lois and me, pictured today on our near-daily walk

over the "hallowed turf" of local soccer heroes, Liphook United

We're spending much of today studying disaffected Roman aristocrat, Catiline, who tried to overthrow the Roman Republic in a failed "coup", back in 63BC, as part of our homework for Monday's meeting of the local U3A "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" class, of which we're both members, "for our sins" (!!!)

us today studying Roman historian Sallust's account of a failed coup in 63BC,

when disgruntled aristocrat Catiline tried, and failed, to overthrow the Roman Republic

It turns out that Roman aristocrat Catiline, in his attempts to stage a "coup", relied heavily on the backing of a large number of Roman "brigands", who'd amassed large quantities of loot, but had then wasted it on a lot of unwise purchases, perhaps "splurging" it on overpriced "luxury items", without waiting for the January sales, maybe? Flashy "sports chariots" perhaps [Latin: curri athletici] ? 

Or plastic surgery even? After all, down the centuries, brigands have been notorious for their generally unprepossessing features (!).

Many local brigands might have suffered from the so-called "Roman Nose", and perhaps would have wanted to go for something more aesthetically pleasing and attractive, although perhaps, at the same time, "paying through the nose for it" - no pun intended!!!! at the premises of some recommended plastic surgeon [Latin: chirurgus plasticus] maybe ?

(left) a typical Roman nose (Latin: nasus Romanus) and (right) a typical plastic surgeon, 

seen here at work on somebody from his lucrative "ugly brigand" customer-base

I wonder.....!!!!

We're not given the details, but one thing's for sure: "brigands" have historically been notoriously poor at managing money, and it isn't clear what part the brigands' wives played in this debacle. In those crazy pre-feminist days, were they seduced by some expensive jewellery items or perfumes? Or overpriced fur coats maybe? I think we should be told, don't you?

Here's the relevant passage in Roman historian Sallust's account of Catiline's failed "coup" attempt:

And here's my English translation, which might be helpful, if you're not fully fluent in Intermediate Latin, that is (!).

[Catiline's supporters included] brigands of every kind, of which there were a great number in that region.... whose self-indulgence and overspending meant that they had nothing left of the great amount of loot [that they had acquired from their professional brigandry work].

But what a crazy world they lived in, back in those far-off days!!!

[That's enough whimsy! - Ed]

For Lois and me, however, our Latin homework today, is a bit of a distraction from our main obsession, which is to track the progress of our 16-year-old grandson Isaac, who's just come to the end of a 10-day study trip to China, in company with a bunch of fellow Mandarin-Chinese students from his high school here in Liphook. 

The young scamps!!!! 

In these pictures, Isaac in the one in the sun-glasses in the first photo:

flashback to last week: pictures from our 16-year-old grandson's study trip

to South China, with a group of fellow-students from our local high-school 

here in Liphook, all studying Mandarin Chinese for one of their A-Levels

All things must come to an end, however, and Isaac's group of young "scallies" are heading home today, on a South China Airlines flight from some crazy place called "Guangzou", which Lois and I had never heard of (!), due to land at London's Heathrow Airport in the early evening, in time for Isaac to sit down with his mum and dad - our daughter Alison and husband Edward - and watch tonight's TV "Celebrity Traitors" final, or some-such nonsense!!!

Isaac's mum, our daughter Alison, had texted me early today - at 6:13 am, would you believe (!) - to tell us that his plane had taken off. And by 11:14 am the plane had cleared Mongolia and was over Russia, somewhere between so-called "Tomsk" and "Novosibirsk". And by the end of the afternoon, when Lois and I were just staggering out of bed at the end of "statutory nap-time", the plane was crossing the Danish-German border region, which is totally mad!!!

And by 6:30 pm, when we were eating our "tea" - a collection of leftovers, or, in other words, "a bits-and-pieces meal", as we've dubbed it (!), Isaac had arrived, and was getting on the school bus taking him back to Liphook, where his mum and dad would have been picking him up and taking him home to nearby Headley.

Lois and me tonight, enjoying a "bits-and-pieces" tea, as the plane carrying

our grandson Isaac and his group home from China, lands at London's Heathrow Airport

Lois and I have provisionally invited Isaac, together with his mum and dad Alison and Edward, to have tea with us here on Sunday evening, so that we can hear more about the young scamp's Oriental Adventures, although fully aware that he may be feeling a bit jaded after his experiences and the long flight, and also preparing for school on Monday, maybe? 

I remember how I myself felt back in 1971, totally exhausted, after my 14 hour flight, with a stop at Moscow, at the end of my study trip - a year at a university in Tokyo, to be met, thankfully (!), by Lois and my then 13-year-old "baby sister", Jill; also by my dear late Dad, who drove us all home to Oxford. 

And I think you can see the exhaustion, together with the relief, on my face, to put it mildly!!!!

(left) 1971: the photo I took from the plane near the end of my Tokyo to London flight, with first

sighting of the River Thames at London, and (right) me, exhausted, but very happy

to be greeted by Lois, with my 'baby sister' Jill, and my dad, who whisked us all home to Oxford

Happy days!!!!

21:00 And later, an Instagram post reveals, that, yet again (!), Lois and I have missed out on the Grandparents' Day bingo at the school in the northern suburbs of Perth, Australia, where two of our  other grandchildren attend, our other daughter Sarah's 13-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica.

the annual Grandparents Day bingo at the school in Perth, Australia,

where 2 of our other grandchildren, our daughter Sarah's 13-year-old

twins Lily and Jessica

I'd have sent our regrets to the school principal, Mr Pree, who took a turn at being this year's bingo-caller at the event (see picture above!), but I think Adrian knows how much Lois and I are so "snowed under" with our busy to-do-lists at the moment, so hopefully he'll forgive us. 

Next year perhaps!!!

[That's enough grandchildren news! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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