Danskcolin: Sunday October 4th 2026 "Australia - still hanging on, down there, right at the bottom of our planet!!!!"

Yes, Friends, Australia - it's still "hanging on in there" at the very bottom of our planet, somewhat precariously perhaps, but one thing's for sure - you just can't keep Australia out of the papers! Look at today's "doozies" from Onion News's special "Australia Supplement", as proof of my, admittedly, some would say, rather wild statement!!!

Oops !!! I always thought it was a bit "dicey" trying to play tennis in Australia with all that sky underneath you - what madness!!!!

However, today's ration of whacky, "down under" stories certainly bring a remorseful gleam to the eyes of me and my wife Lois there this morning, here in semi-conductive Liphook, Hampshire - no question about that !!!!!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

We're very much stuck in the house again today, because poor Lois put her back out on Thursday night, so it's cheering, at lunchtime, to take our weekly Sunday video catch-up call with our daughter Sarah, who lives in Perth, Australia with husband Francis and their 13-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, and to hear about what they've been up to.

And, true to form, our "Aussie" grandchildren have been out again this weekend with their friends, north of Perth, at some place called Allara (?), swinging between the trees - the young scamps!!!

Allara - it's kind of a weird name, isn't it, but it means 'sunlight' in the tongue of the indigenous Mooro tribe of the Whaddjuk-Noongar people, who made it their home 40,000 years ago, apparently, so fair enough!

The Mooro tribe believe that the swamp there, at Allara, was created from the blood and meat of a crocodile's tail, after it walked back to the Swann River following a fight with a shark, which sounds unlikely, but then the Mooros ought to know - they were there first, long before the Brits arrived and started building their British-style bungalows (!), so, once again, "fair do's" and "fair play to the Mooros" haha !!!!

(above, left) Lois and me talking today to our little "Australian" family - our daughter

Sarah and 13-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, and (above, right) our two grandchildren

with their close friends Samara and Djanna, climbing trees in nearby Allara (below)

And it's nice for Lois and me to see pictures of those two young daredevils, our grandchildren, climbing trees, and generally "larking about", especially now that we ourselves are stuck indoors still!

However, Lois and I are hoping that we'll soon be "larking about" again ourselves, although whether we'll be swinging between the tree-tops, here in semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, or just "swinging from the chandeliers" (!), remains to be seen! It might not be advisable at our advanced age, but we'll see! Lois is on less strong medication today, which is a good sign - exchanging the stronger "ibuprofen" for the milder "paracetamol" option.

flashback to yesterday: me showcasing Lois's latest box of ibuprofen pain-killers

Yesterday Lois was very much shuffling about the house in nightie and dressing gown, and having to put up with the meals I prepared for us both, but today she's got dressed as normal. I think the deterrent of maybe another day of "cuisine Colin-style" has acted as a powerful incentive (!). And she's definitely much more mobile today than she was yesterday, so fingers crossed!!!!

Nevertheless, we don't yet know if Lois will be fit enough to go to our fortnightly Latin class tomorrow (Monday) - we're both members of local retired schoolteacher Joe's U3A "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" group, "for our sins" (!). However, we're hoping for the best, and we spend some time today doing the homework, just in case, which makes for a nice diversion!

us today, doing our homework for our Latin class tomorrow with (left)

poor Lois in her iconic IKEA "Bingsta" armchair, where she's been

taking all her meals since putting her back out on Thursday night

It's also cheering for us today to get the latest pictures from my niece Lucy, who's been on her honeymoon with wife Rosanna, since their wedding in Ipswich a couple of weeks ago.

We've seen pictures of the pair already in Brussels and Vienna, and today we see them frolicking in Rotterdam, Holland on the final leg of their trip, the young scamps!

the latest pictures of my niece Lucy, with blonde wife Rosanna, who are currently on

a Eurorail honeymoon, taking in Brussels, Vienna and now Rotterdam (above)

But "Why Rotterdam, Colin?", I hear you cry!

Well, seeing as how you're interested, it's at least partly to do with Rosanna's background. She's of mixed Anglo-American heritage, with an English mother and an American father, who are currently living in the state of Missouri. And Rosanna traces the American side of her family back to a Germanic immigrant called Johann, who left Rotterdam on September 24th 1751, travelling to the then British colonies in North America.

The ship was called the Neptune, with captain John Mason, carrying 284 passengers, travelling across the Atlantic to the Americas, after a final stop at Cowes, Isle of Wight, just down the road from us here in Liphook, which is weird! Here's the original record of the voyage, in English and German:

And by coincidence, tonight, while watching the latest programme in the current series of the Antiques Roadshow, we hear about a more recent traveller, who in a way, made a similar kind of a journey - from Germany via Belgium: first to London, and then to America.

You may have heard of him - Albert Einstein! Ring any bells? (!)

"Antiques Roadshow" is the weekly BBC1 Sunday night series presented by Fiona Bruce, in which members of the public come along, to some local stately home or castle, bringing family heirlooms and other relics from their attics etc, to have them commented on, and valued, by experts in the field.

In tonight's episode, from Caerphilly Castle in South Wales, one local couple has presented programme expert Justin Croft with a tattered envelope which intrigues him, and he's just got to look inside it, the young rascal (!).

On closer inspection, the envelope is found to contain a letter from Albert Einstein, in German, addressed to a Mrs Varney of Earls Court, London, which is weird!

It turns out to be a personal, thank-you letter from Einstein to the local man's great-aunt, who ran a boarding-house in Earls Court, London, thanking her for his stay there, on his way to the States. The boarding-house was effectively a "safe house", the man says, during the risky time when Einstein was transiting from Belgium to the US, to take up a job offer from Princeton University.

And as programme expert Justin Croft comments, this was an important moment, not just in Einstein's career but historically as well. In 1933 Einstein was escaping from the Nazis, aware that, essentially, there was a price on his head, and that he could never go back to Germany. And en route to America, while in London, Einstein made a passionate speech at the Albert Hall, with other scientists and politicians, underlining to the public and to the Government, the threat to the free world posed by the Nazis.

Einstein had also been to see Winston Churchill, then out of office, to impress on Churchill that something had to be done about the threat from Germany. And the letter brought along by a local man to tonight's Antiques Roadshow also makes special mention of a sympathetic British MP, a Cdr Locker-Lampson, who had been instrumental in helping Einstein to escape from Germany.

So why has this local man from Caerphilly in South Wales got this letter from Einstein in his possession?

Well, it turns out that Cdr Locker-Hampson MP, who had helped Einstein escape, had a housekeeper, who was this local Caerphilly man's great-aunt - the "Mrs Varney" that the letter is addressed to. And the letter has, since, just been handed down in the man's family, but has never been published. But what a gem!

And, incidentally, what a woman that Mrs Varney herself was too, the housekeeper, to put it mildly! She didn't come up with any relativity theories, but she was a real mean "biker chick", and she could certainly "rock" the traditional biker "gear", even back in the 1930's, which was an unexpected twist!