Tuesday October 6th 2026 "Design first, THEN build - and always do it in that order, that's Colin's 'message of the day' !!!!"

Yes, Friends, one thing I've learned in my admittedly ''medium-to-longish" life is: design first, THEN build. If you do it the other way round it's bound to end in tears !!!!!

And "design" - good or bad - is always going to be 'news', isn't it! Take this morning's Onion News, and turn to page 94 in YOUR print edition if you want "chapter and verse", to put it mildly !!!!!

And that third-and-last example is a particularly dire example of a poor design, and thank goodness NASA engineers spoke up in time before, literally, like, billions of dollars was spent on young 6-year-old Bradley's "creation", even if did win the competition in this month's "Beano" comic, if you please (!). 

And this, even though the magazine had promised that the design would be guaranteed the honour of being the centre-point of NASA's next mission, apparently, mad though that may seem!

Six-year-olds Bradley Koenig and best friend Joshua, pictured here

working on their prize-winning spaceship design

Unfortunately, however, veteran NASA flight director Raymond Fletcher had some harsh words to say about the project, when he spoke to reporters at yesterday's press conference, claiming that young Bradley's proposed design was a QUOTE UNQUOTE "deathtrap". 

At last - thank goodness (!) - somebody's bringing a dose of reality to the fantasy-dominated world of space planning, and not before time!!!

However, these Onion stories - and others in the same vein, would you believe (!)  - bring a sardonic smile to the normally passive faces of me and my wife Lois, here in semi-idyllic Liphook, Hampshire this morning - no question about that!!!

my wife Lois and me - a recent picture

Certainly Lois and I are no strangers to the perils of "poor design", that's for sure! And this lunchtime, when the nice young engineer from local heating company HeatOn in nearby Basingstoke calls to give our central heating boiler its annual service, he finds that, for 30 minutes, he can't get the door of our boiler open, even, which is total madness!!!

Lois and I moved into this house back in January 2025, and we've gradually come to realise that our kitchen was designed mainly for its streamlined 'look', rather than its practicality in some instances, and as part of this, our gas central heating boiler had been crammed into a wall cupboard with little space for manoeuvre on either side.

flashback to October 2024: we first look round what was to be our new home,

in the company of our daughter Alison and young estate agent Richard

And this design 'snafu' was purely in the interests of the 'look' of the thing! Another case of 'sleekness' trumping 'practicality', which is sheer lunacy!

(left) the advert put out by our boiler servicing company HeatOn, and (right) my wife

Lois showcasing our boiler, "crazily crammed into a poky cupboard", as Lois puts it!!!

Our engineer from HeatOn, however, is today determined not to be beaten by boiler's design snafu, and, after some frantic calls to head office in Basingstoke, he calmly pulls a step-ladder out of his van, so he can reach more easily and get more "leverage", and eventually he manages to get the boiler door open, so that he can get on with his work, which is a relief!

10:30 It's half past ten, and today (Tuesday) is already turning into another crazy day for Lois and me, to put it mildly! 

And certainly somebody else round here is "determined not to be beaten", just like that young heating engineer from nearby Basingstoke, which is good! Step forward, my wife Lois, no less !!!!

 

Lois is currently suffering with back strain after a crazy night last week, but she's determined to take part, as normal, in her church's monthly online "Sisters Group Meeting" for female members of the meeting this morning. Eventually we decide that she should log on the meeting in our living-room, seated in her iconically super-comfortable IKEA "Bingsta" armchair with the tall back and the handy arm-rests. 

flashback to 2024, when we first purchased out iconic IKEA "Bingsta" armchair,

and Lois and I fought each other to have the pleasure of sitting in it, would you believe !!!

This morning, therefore, I bring the laptop down from our upstairs "home office", and I also give Lois a second side-table as a convenient additional "resource", to store her reference books, pills, tissues, earwax-removers, and also her favourite "Cotton Traders" Catalogue, entitled "Knit's Time to Bundle Up", full of alluring ideas for warm, but stylish, clothing for this coming winter, so she's all set and ready to go, which is nice!!!!

Let's hope that, whatever Lois decides to buy from the catalogue, it's designed well, unlike our central heating boiler (!), and that it's easy to get on and get off in a hurry, preferably without the need for a stepladder, for example, which would be more convenient !!!!

(left) Lois this morning, safely installed in our super-comfortable IKEA "Bingsta"

armchair, with TWO side-tables (!), accommodating all her "stuff", 

including the latest Cotton Traders Catalogue (ringed), and (right)

Yours Truly showcasing the current catalogue full of ideas for winter-wear

Well, we ARE into October now, so it's high time to think about kitting ourselves out for the cold weather to come, which will be even more of a shock than usual after our heatwave-plagued summer, that's for sure!!!!

some of Cotton Traders' latest designs - are YOU tempted by any of these "doozies" ?!!!!

So, suddenly, it's "Winter draws on!", in the words of the old joke!!!

20:00 Yes, all in all, today has been another crazy old day, coping with actual or potential "design faults", both with central heating arrangements and cardigans (!), so Lois and I decide to cap it all off with another crazy evening, listening to more of those crazy words catalogued in BBC Radio 4's "Unspeakable" series, hosted by comedian Phil Wang, and Susie Dent of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Certainly the English language has more than its fair share of "design faults", that's for sure!!!

Yes, English words are quite a problem, aren't they. First there's finding the right word, and then learning how to pronounce them correctly, as Lois and I discovered earlier today from our Facebook feed. 

Even menu choices can be problematic!

Getting the pronunciation right, however is just the first stage. Then, you have to get the spelling right, which is annoying!

In tonight's programme, comedienne Stevie Martin wants to ban EITHER the word  'stationary' (meaning "motionless") OR the word 'stationery' (meaning "pens, writing paper, envelopes etc"). Stevie says she doesn't mind which one of them goes, as long as there's only one of them left, and Lois and I can sympathise with this view!

comedienne Stevie Martin: wants to ban EITHER the word

"stationary" OR the word "stationery"

But how did our language get in this position, with these two words being pronounced the same, but spelt differently and meaning something different? It's just more madness, really, isn't it !!!

Susie Dent of the Oxford English Dictionary explains, however, that both these 2 words come from the Latin word "stationarius" which means 'standing'. Hundreds of years ago, booksellers tended to have a regular 'spot', where they would sell from, in contrast to the more itinerant sellers, who would move around, so booksellers were stationary - they stayed still. Later, however, booksellers started to sell pens, paper etc, but they continued to be called "stationers", and, finally, the language then extended that to 'stationery', for the things that these sellers sold, but giving it a slightly different spelling, to make it more obvious, at least in writing.

Susie Dent of the Oxford English Dictionary,

explains the origin of this notorious spelling 'snafu' in the English language

"Were these the only sellers who stayed in one place, while all the other merchants kept moving around?", objects Susie's co-presenter, Phil Wang, quite logically, Lois and I think,  "...for example, a butcher running round with sausages, carrying his little tables, and setting them up wherever there was a crowd?". 

Well, yes, apparently so, says Susie. Booksellers however, seemingly couldn't be bothered with that sort of "malarkey", but unfortunately in their lack of concern, they left us today with one of our bigger spelling problems to somehow try to cope with.

[That's enough crazy words! - Ed]

Fascinating stuff!

What madness!! And who knew???!!!!

What a crazy language we speak !!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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