Tuesday October 13th 2026 "Friends, have YOU become pregnant, in the MODERN way, I mean?!!! It's all done so differently now, isn't it!!!"

Yes, Friends, have YOU ever become pregnant in the MODERN way, you know, the way that everybody's talking about? If not, maybe it's time to "get with it" and just "do it" like all the young bucks and their 'squeezes' are doing it these days!!!

One thing's for certain, getting pregnant is changing, like everything else, seemingly. However, getting pregnant is still popular, and you just can't keep it out of the headlines, apparently, however hard you try!! 

Look at today's Onion News and their popular "Pregnancy News Supplement", if you don't believe me!!!!

All very heart-warming, certainly, but all a bit mad at the same time, isn't it (!). And in many cases highlighting the most difficult aspect of being pregnant: finding a name for the little "bundle of fun" that's going to "pop out" any day now, to judge by some of those pictures (see above!) to put it mildly!!!

And those stories featured above - not to mention all the others in today's Onion (!) - bring the merest hint of a grin, today, to the normally impassive faces of me and my wife Lois, here in semi-archaic Liphook, Hampshire - that's for sure!!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

As you probably know, Lois and I had two babies together back in the 1970's, and we recently made the decision to hold a special press conference, specifically to put a stop to all the seemingly endless speculation about when we were planning to have our third (!). 

Well, we are 80 now, so fair enough - that what we say! The press meeting hasn't happened yet, but full details will be given in due course so watch this space!

You see, we certainly don't want to find ourselves the subject of the popular Channel 4 reality show "22 Kids - And Counting!", shall we say, if I can put it like that? No disrespect to all of the amazing multi-spawning couples that "grace" the show every week, I want to stress !!!!

flashback to 1977: us showcasing our two offspring, Sarah and Alison,

inadvertently sparking speculation about a possible third on the horizon (?)

[Get on with it, the blog I mean! - Ed]

Certainly, one of the worries we would have over a potential third pregnancy for Lois would be, what to name the little scamp, if and when Lois eventually "popped" him, or her, as the case may be (!).

And this morning, as Lois and I sit in Liphook's iconic "Millennium Centre", with a bunch of other "old codgers", listening to a U3A talk on the History of Hampshire, we're astonished to hear about how Victorian nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, one  of our county's "adopted daughters", got her name - that's for sure!!!

(left) our local Liphook U3A organisation for local "old codgers", and

(right) us this morning listening to a talk on the history of our county, Hampshire

And we're amazed to hear, also, how very modern in their approach to pregnancy were Florence's parents, William Nightingale and his wife Frances, "Fanny" to her friends. 

Like the many people today who have their coffee "on the go" or "on the move" instead of sitting down for it in a cafe or restaurant, the Nightingales had their babies "on the go", during their "Grand Tour of Europe": the result being two lovely little daughters, which was nice!

(left) the typical "Grand Tour of Europe", so popular with moneyed couples

in Victorian Britain, showing approximate birthplaces of the Nightingale girls,

and (right), for comparison purposes, the modern mania for "coffee on the go"

And this "babies on the move" policy also solved the knotty problem of what to call the little scamps, after they "popped": why not use as inspiration the place where they were conceived and given birth to? It all seems so obvious in retrospect, doesn't it! 

Yes, that's how it came to be that the couple's first little daughter was dubbed Parthenope - which is the old Greek name for Naples; and "Florence" for the second one. It isn't rocket science, is it!!!

 

(left) William Nightingale and wife Fanny, and (right) two of the cities they visited

on their Grand Tour of Europe, spawning their 2 daughters "on the go"

And the couple certainly beat modern couple David and Victoria Beckham to the punch, the couple who famously became puzzled about what to call their first offspring, eventually going with "Brooklyn", where their child was reportedly conceived. 

But what madness, wasn't it !!!!

(left) footballer David Beckham and wife Victoria, a.k.a."Posh Spice"

of The Spice Girls, with baby Brooklyn, with (right) a map of

the area of New York where the little scamp was reportedly conceived (!)

And Lois and I, sitting in Liphook's Millennium Centre this morning with a bunch of other "old codgers", and after hearing this month's talk "The History of Hampshire in 10 Objects" by local history buff Tony Cross, Lois and I come away with the feeling that Tony's, section on Florence Nightingale and her experiences tending wounded and sick British soldiers in the Crimean War, was very much the highlight of Tony's talk, from our perspective. 

Who knew, for example, that Florence, apart from her heroic career in military hospitals, where she discovered that far more men died from poor sanitation than from their war-wounds, was also probably the first person in the world ever to use pie-charts and other visual aids, all as part of her subsequent long campaign for greater discipline and sanitation methods in the profession? 

And in the era before computers, she couldn't just "press a button" and say "hey presto job done!", to put it mildly! Presumably her "stats "displays, like this one showing the different causes of death in the war would have had to be drawn and "coloured in" by hand. Imagine doing that!

And our lecturer this morning, stressed how much, in her youth, Florence had been educated far above the level normally considered adequate for young women of the period - hence her grasp of statistics, and later, when we look at her long campaign to improve the effectiveness of Britain's nursing profession and for improved sanitation generally.

It's interesting that Florence was great friends with another campaigner Herbert Spencer, but the two  differed greatly in their approach. Florence was a big enthusiast for action by government and local authorities to improve sanitation and hygiene. Her friend Spencer, on the other hand, as a laissez-faire libertarian, opposed action by the state, regarding it as an attack on individual freedom, and a disruption to the natural process of Darwinian evolution, i.e. (presumably!) killing all the 'insanitary' people off (if that makes sense! [No! - Ed], while nevertheless favouring action by the individual to improve his or her own personal hygiene. 

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

(left) Florence Nightingale, whose experiences tending wounded and sick British soldiers

during the Crimean War, led her to campaign for state action to improve hygiene standards,

and (right) her friend Herbert Spencer, who believed it was up to the individual 

to improve his or her personal hygiene standards, regarding state action as a threat to liberty

12:45 Tony's fascinating lecture ends, after a mad gallop through the county's history, starting with 40 million years ago, when the county's many finds of shellfish fossils date from, not to mention shark's teeth found here, from when the whole area was covered by ocean, which was totally mad! 

And lecturer Tony also takes in, along the way, the probable assassination of William II in the New Forest in 1100 AD: the perpetrator was unknown, and so he may be still at large, although may never now be found, sadly! Plus all about the many things that have happened in Southampton, in the south of the county: the port where the Titanic sailed from, and the factory where they made the iconic Spitfire fighter that saved the country from the Nazis in 1940. 

All good stuff!!!

flashback to 1100 AD: William II ("William Rufus") is assassinated 

in the New Forest - the perpetrator may now never be found, which is a pity!

Tony's lecture ends, slightly over schedule, at 12:45pm. And as the other local "old codgers" drift pleasantly if a little aimlessly (!), out of the lecture room to enjoy a cup of coffee and a biscuit provided by volunteers in the building's foyer, poor Lois and I have to skip the coffee and rush out into the drizzly Liphook air, would you believe! 

But it's for a nice reason, because we've arranged to meet our dear daughter Alison (51), for lunch at Liphook's newest cafe, the delightfully named "The Moon & Cous".

Lois and me today, taking lunch at Liphook's newest cafe, The Moon & Cous,

with our daughter Alison (51), who lives in nearby Headley

Ali is partly seeking refuge from builders who've been working for the last 18 months, would you believe, renovating her family's crumbling Victorian mansion, work that's now way beyond schedule, which is mad! Today the builders have advised her that she would maybe like to "eat out", because they're "installing some sort of complicated lighting in her kitchen", warning her that they couldn't guarantee her safety if she decided to make her lunch there (!). 

What madness (again!) !!!!

At least, as of last month, the family are now back in their house again, after weeks when they were confined to a poky "shepherd's hut" in the mansion's 7.5 acre grounds, so that's progress of a sort! However, the builders warn that there are still, like, a billion small tasks - more probably! - that still remain to be finished off, which is crazy!

(left) builders at the crumbling Victorian mansion in Headley, which is home 

to our daughter Alison, plus husband Edward and their 3 kids, and (right) 

the shepherd's hut in the 7.5 acre grounds, where the family has had to retreat to, 

periodically, if only to escape the constant hammering (!). What madness!!!!

Lois and I are currently very much looking forward to next Sunday, because Alison and family have invited us to lunch there. Being Sunday, the builders will not be around, and Lois and I will, hopefully get our first look at the insides of the extensively renovated house, since we saw their furniture being carted out by movers to be put into storage, way back in April 2025, would you believe!

flashback to April 2025: Lois and I call at our daughter Alison's crumbling

Victorian mansion to watch movers empty the entire house of contents and furniture,

taking it all off to storage units: (left) Lois and Alison in the former entrance hall,

and (right) Alison herself, being "photobombed" by one of her friendly "movers"

- what madness!!!!!

And there you have it - the "headlines" from mine and Lois's day, here on "just another crazy Tuesday in Liphook" (!).

So-called "Onion News", eat your heart out haha!

But what a crazy world we live in !!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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