At the end of the day, it gets dark.

Either my council tax or my utility bills.

That’s a bit harsh. When I say someone is envious as opposed to jealous, I am trying to convey a particular meaning. It doesn’t bother me if someone uses the terms interchangeably as I can usually work out what they mean, but I do like my communication to be as clear as possible.

Well done on that semi-colon: really pushing my buttons!

Abberant apostrophes (and missing ones).

Sentences that miss out words for no reason: e.g. “A couple things” vs. “A couple of things”.

Confusing envy and jealousy.

The above is a personal list; I don’t get judgemental about others’ grammar but I do cringe internally.

A Webbox treat stick.

Well, I certainly told him!

I remember sitting in the bar of the Post Hotel, Lake Louise Village with a glass of Dalwhinnie, listening to the pianist play the Jurassic Park theme just to see if anyone would recognise it. I was overwhelmed by the realisation that I was living one of my dreams to visit Western Canada, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I admit I cried.

Also, what a wonderful hotel! I’d recommend it in a heartbeat.

Thank you for the insight.

So why hasn’t someone salvaged the gold coins yet? Seems odd, and the article offers no answer.

Nigel Farage in the UK.

We allowed a young Arab man to stay with us over Christmas. He’d spent a year in our town aged 8 and had returned aged 21 to revisit his old school friends, most of whom had forgotten him and didn’t trust his unsolicited FB messages. He arrived on Christmas Eve and was staying in a B&B when we agreed to meet him in a coffee shop. Needless to say, he ended up living at our place for a fortnight before he went home. Over the next decade, he popped over for a visit every few years and we went to Egypt a couple of times. Sadly he was born with a congenital heart defect and died a while ago now, leaving a wife and daughter. We are still in contact with his family.

Back in 2022, we nearly agreed to host a Ukrainian refugee (there’s a Government scheme to arrange this) but we were downsizing to a different part of the UK and so it became unfeasible.

My brother-in-law lived with us for 6 months after his divorce 20 years or so ago. That period was quite trying.

South London, UK: doner meat and chips. Optional lettuce, onions and burger sauce.

I had Monty Python’s ‘Matching Tie And Hankerchief’ which had two side As.

I didn’t think it through that much.

Not at all. It’s all down to one’s personal view of what is ‘bad’, plus they’re the first things that came to mind!

The coffee is luke warm and the doughnuts are stale. It’s always windy and slightly too cold for comfort but not cold enough to put the heating on. Your bum itches.

Why were you sent here? See below.

Pride: you bragged about the size of your investments to your poorer relatives.

Greed: you shoplifted from a small ‘Mom & Pop’ store (stealing stuff from a chain store doesn’t count).

Wrath: you were rude to the waitress because of a small error in your order.

Lust: you propositioned your spouse’s younger sibling (and got turned down).

Envy: you keyed your neighbour’s new car.

Gluttony: you ate the last slice of pizza and drank the last beer.

Sloth: you never got out of bed before 11:00 a.m. at the weekend.

We watched ‘Black Doves’ on Netflix and it was excellent: drama, humour, a decent mystery and excellent acting. Hoping there’ll be a second series.

Also, and as always, I’ve dipped back into my favourite episodes of DARK, also on Netflix. Still my favourite show of all time and the best thing I’ve seen on TV in the last 50 years.

Lots of side trips available to places such as Upper and Lower Dicker (East Sussex), Scratchy Bottom (Dorset) and Minge Lane (Worcestershire).

I remember in the GM series, she always ended the books on a cliffhanger, which may have been a brilliant marketing ploy but was simultaneously terrifying.