Yes, Friends, some of us have "got it", most haven't, sadly! And it's the ability to 'get up close and personal with the worms in your garden or house' that I'm talking about, as if you didn't know (!).
Well, it's October and 'worms' are big news again this year as they begin to 'bed down' for winter in your flower and vegetable beds - no pun intended!!!! Even Onion News is bringing out specially extended versions of its popular but brief, 3-page "pull-out" Worm News Colour Supplement, which speaks volumes!!!
And here's "Colin's pick" of today's "dooziest of the dooziest" (!!!) of this week's "worm surprise blockbuster" stories, to put it mildly(!).
But these stories (and a thousand others!) at least bring a hint of a cheeky grin to the faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-attractive Liphook, Hampshire - and, believe me, there are no lingering doubts about that, that's for sure!
And we're laughing because today, Steve, are American brother-in-law, has sent us first news of the date and place of next year's World Worm Charming Championships, to take place, on June 26th 2027, near Nantwich Cheshire, UK.
Needless to say, Lois and I would dearly love to be there next June in Nantwich with our fellow worm-charmers - and Lois is said to be able to "charm the pants off any worm within charming distance", although not many people know that! However, looking at my diary, I just can't see how we'll be able to spare the time to compete: that particular Saturday in June is already "choc-a-bloc" with other duties and responsibilities, sad to say !!!!
Why don't we have these so-called "corners" in the UK? (Andy Burnham please note haha!!!).
10:00 Our zoom call with Western Australia ends.
And this weird fact is of more than just academic interest to Lois and me, because one of our other grandchildren, Isaac (16), is actually in China at the moment, on a school trip with a handful of his classmates, all planning to take Mandarin Chinese as one of their 3 A-Level subjects, with possibly a degree in Mandarin to maybe follow that - who knows!
me and my wife Lois - a recent picture
Demand for competitor tickets is bound to be strong, so, if you're planning to "throw your hat in the ring", book your place now! That's my advice!!!
Look at our diary for today, if you want proof: and I'll send you the 20-page file on request !!!!
09:00 Today starts badly for us, however, because, for possibly the first time ever, we forgot, last night, to put our clocks back an hour to so-called "British Winter Time" (BWT) as we dub the system that carries the more "official", but less colourful, label of what scientists call "Greenwich Mean Time.", which is mad!!!
the sorry picture of European time-zones: sadly, only Portugal,
often dubbed "Britain's oldest ally", keeps in step with us, which is a pity!
Back in 2004, when Lois and I were still working, believe it or not (!), we had a crazy holiday in London, somehow finding the time to visit Greenwich, just to check out, for ourselves, just how "mean" Greenwich Mean Time was!!!!
And not many people know that Greenwich, also, boasts the world's oldest shop, would you believe, as we discovered!
flashback to 2004: Lois and I visit Greenwich, on the Thames: (left) the pier, and (right)
me, clowning around, as per usual, in front of "the world's oldest shop", which is mad!
In Perth, Western Australia, however, where our daughter Sarah lives, with husband Francis and their 13-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, they don't go in for any of this crazy clock-changing "malarkey", so we send Sarah a hasty text to rearrange the time of our weekly catch-up zoom call with them.
Here's a map, which should explain everything! And it also pinpoints some of Australia's most iconic "corners". What a great idea! Possibly they're all "accident black spots", so very helpful to highlight these in advance. Motorists, beware!!!!
Even Australia's so-called "Surveyor-General" has got his own personal one, but I suppose he's in the perfect job to "nobble" one of those for himself, arguably (!). But to this simple blogger, it smacks of corruption at the highest level, excuse me for saying that haha!!!!
09:30 Our zoom call with our daughter Sarah takes place, and it's a real "doozy", which is nice!
The twins have half-finished their 2026 Halloween costumes that they're going to be trick-or-treating in, this year: they're going as huge jellyfish, with costumes made out of those transparent umbrellas, to which they'll be attaching various 'dangly' things to represent the tentacles etc.
Although only half-finished, the costumes are modelled for us this morning by Sarah, while the twins are working on their next week "stats test", or some-such nonsense - the young scamps !!!!
Eventually the twins tear themselves away from their 'stats' homework (!), and chat to us openly about their hopes and dreams for next Saturday - which is Halloween Night, of course.
our weekly "catch up" zoom call today with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia:
here Sarah models our twin granddaughters' half-finished Halloween costumes:
they'll be going as giant jellyfish - the young scamps!!!!
Wisely, in our view, they've chosen residents of nearby suburb Eglinton as their "victims", eschewing their own immediate neighbourhood.
"The houses here are too far apart and the driveways too long", they reason, and that makes perfect sense to Lois and me. After all, maximising the "tonnage of chocolates per square yard" (the dreaded TCPSY factor) is an important "life skill", as well as excellent preparation for their next week's stats test, Lois and I say!!!!
our 13-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica take a quick
break from their "stats" homework, to tell us their 2026 "trick or treat" strategy
The twins also got top marks in their class's recent "Japanese syllabary" test, which is nice to hear!
However, strangely, as Lois and I discover today on Google, Western Australia and [the whole of] China are on exactly the same time-zone year-round, which is weird, especially when you think of the vastness of China, even including Taiwan, which is mad, because it's, like, way out in the Pacific Ocean according to our maps!!!!
Isaac is the son of our other daughter Alison and husband Edward, and he attends the local high school here in Liphook.
flashback to August: our grandson Isaac's classmates
celebrating their GCSE results at the local high school
Isaac and his little group flew off from London's Heathrow Airport on Monday, arriving in some mad place in southern China called Xiamen or some-such nonsense (!), on either Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday) depending on your time-zone (!)), and today he sends us his first pictures, the young scamp (!)
Isaac's the one in the weird glasses in picture #1, by the way!
Lois and I feel strangely comforted, seeing these pictures, by the way, and are especially gratified to see in picture #3 (above), that the Chinese have thought of putting instructions in English on "how to take the elevator" - another "life-skill", that sadly has been squeezed off the curriculum in many of our cash-strapped schools and colleges. Andy Burnham please note haha !!!!
How useful and accurate these instructions are, however, is open to some doubt, in our view, when we see the following set of pictures, where, in picture #2, Isaac and one of his buddies have obviously decided, "Oh let's just take the stairs!" and then, later, clearly regretted their decision, which was a pity.
Poor Isaac !!!!
[That's enough grandchildren news! - Ed]
And I remember how confused I felt, when I first stepped out onto the streets of Tokyo for my study-year in Japan. Despite having a degree in Japanese, and having read, like, a billion, books from Japanese medieval classic literature, I still felt utterly bewildered seeing those forests of Japanese signs for the first time.
Oh dear!!!!
flashback to 1970-1971: (left) me, on arrival in Tokyo, utterly confused by all the Japanese signs
that confronted me, and (right) Lois on her trip out to stay with me in March 1971
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!
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