Foxy

Based on our experience I'd suggest: 1) go early and get jnr. ised to flying 2) night flight are best with kids - travel when they'd ordinarily sleep and, guess what, they do 3) early on on parenthood you'll be rushed off your feet. Go all inclusive resort style 4) trust me, long Gail is cheaper for point 3 5) Caribbean is your best bet for a resort 6) if you don't want a resort S Africa 1 million times more ban friendly than S Europe 7) if your misses is on maternity leave think about Xmas away - you can do a month off (2 weeks either side of anew Year) without busting either years' leave allowance. S Africa best for that too Hope that helps. BTW my best daddy holiday tip is this - until 2nd birthday kids fly free. After that they pay bit grt own seats. BUT if you're away FOR second birthday you get best if both worlds. As we found out to our advantage taking mini-Fox to Antigua for her second bday

They do that. I went to their stadium when working in Istanbul and it was very, very noisy. Quite an experience.

Did you score an overhead kick at Dean Court, Mr 9. You really must tell us about it some time.

Let's be honest guys. For foreigners the only city in this country that's a draw is London. The rest are seen as provincial and, in many cases, drizzly dumps. Manchester, for example.

Sadly this bit is very much the case. It would appear that the big fallout from Mandela's passing will be an unseemly scrabble for his financial and political legacy from family and politicos (including our own rabble) alike.

Sound an OK job, that. Must brush up the CV.

Funnily I was not much enamoured of 'The Big Match' as a kid, although in those pre-Sky days any footy you could get was essential viewing. Nowadays, however, it's tired punditry and dated format has a great deal of nostalgic charm - much like the footy of the era. For those who didn't catch the mauling of Citeh it's all available for about a month after broadcast on ITV Player.

Yeah, quite a buzz. You have to watch the seasons before picking Simons Town or Gaansbaai. There's a lot of debate as to whether chumming to attract the sharks is a good idea from an ecological or safety perspective but I haven't seen much hard evidence either way.

Tourist Cape Town is absolutely fine from a security perspective, as would be pretty much anywhere you'd want to visit. My parents live half the year in the area and mum thinks nothing of popping out alone for a pint of milk at night. The overwhelming majority of crime in the Cape is within the sprawling informal settlements of the Cape Flats where you'd really have no reason to go. South Africa is a brilliant holiday destination and you really oughtn't allow security concerns to put you off any more that in would in New York or LA. As I mentioned in my earlier post I am there a lot and I'd be happy to give you any information you need if you're thinking of heading down. PM me if you have questions.

Some interestingly one eyed views all round here. Starting with the OP lets remember that the article come from the Daily Mail and is based around interviews in the Afrikaaner separatist bubble that is Kleinfontein. Speaking as someone whose parents live half the year just outside Cape Town and who has made perhaps 50 business and holiday trips to Cape Town and Joburg in the past ten years I'm struggling to identify with this vision of besieged whites huddling in their fortified compounds while, outside, the AK47 blacks rampage around in a post apocalyptic orgy of rape, murder and (for all I know) queue jumping. It just isn't that way. Sadly South Africa does have a lamentable rate of violent crime, social imbalance. endemic AIDS and all the rest of it. But unsurprisingly in a wildly unequal society this tends to be found in the most disadvantaged communities. And they ain't the ones populated by Europeans. I've, as mentioned, spent a lot of time down there and, whether in Sandton or Soweto, Newlands or Nyanga never received anything but the warmest welcome or felt remotely unsafe. The only crime I, or my family have experienced there was when I was dumb enough to leave my mobile in my shoe on the beach and go swimming and to get a beer. I came back and it was gone. Tell me that wouldn't have happened in Weymouth or Bournemouth. I've found South Africa, for the most part, a country embracing its new identity. Go to a bar in Camps Bay, the V&A or Sandton and you'll see young people of every background relaxing, comfortable in their mixed groups. This is all fact based on my own observations. Now, I suspect that if you move into less fortunate corners of ZA society - whites whose previously privileged position, artificially maintained under the old regime, or blacks whose poverty and lack of access to education, healthcare and the means to secure these things may well find it easy to see the New South Africa as being for the advantage of a fortunate few, very possibly those who don't look like they do. In such circumstances there is always going to be an audience for the views of extremists and bigots, be they Terreblanche, Julius Malema or Nick Griffin, but this isn't the majority view down there. And even if there was a big groundswell of political support for an anti-white message South Africa just isn't like Zimbabwe. The whites account for about a quarter of the population and by and large control the economy - unlike Zim where a 2% minority, mostly farmers. Could be marginalised. So to answer the question, no, I don't see an end to White South Africa, whatever that is. With the passing of Mandela we will see the loss of. Totemic leader and considerable moral authority. It'll feel odd not to know the old man is there. But life will go on. Regarding the man himself, it's dead easy to over simplify. He was a huge figure and revolutionary leader who overcame one of the great social and political injustices of our era, and managed to avoid a bloodbath in the aftermath. Against that it does have to be remembered that it was Mandela who, in face of opposition from other major figures in the ANC, took the decision to make the struggle an armed one. Was this decision justified? Does the end warrant the means? Is it acceptable to take arms against tyranny? For me Mandela is one of the great heroes of our times, his cause just, his victory one to inspire us all. That doesn't mean that it is wrong to question his ideas and actions. But on the whole you only need to compare what he leaves behind to what he fought to change to see that what he (and others) fought for made for a better, if imperfect, South Africa.

Steve Grant, friend of the stars.

Ah, but saying Scottish football was ok actually wouldn't have worked from a humour perspective. Similarly, I haven't got a mate called Victor Wanyama.

42, living in Caversham, Berkshire. Born Wokingham into a family from Southampton. Can't remember my first home game but it was with my grandfather, aged about 4 (me not him) and my incredibly posh great aunt, who astonished by by yelling constant abuse at the ref and gave me a bun at half time. It was said great aunt who gave me the earliest toy I can remember, a strange red and white striped plastic device which looked like the love child of toilet brush and a concertina. I was encouraged by my parents to amuse visiting saints-supporting relatives to make the bloody thing squeak and lisp 'Up the Thaints'. These days a combination of an excessive business travel schedule and daddy duty means I make it to less games than I would like. However I'm proud to report that after taking my daughter to her first game this season so can add a second entry: Hannah, 6 born Reading, brought up so far in Caversham. Supported Saints all my life and was sung to sleep with OWTSGMI from day one. First home game v West Ham 2013, 1-1. Wildly excited and am told was the first person Daddy had ever seen stand up and start dancing along each time the crowd broke into song. First away game - not yet but it will probably come if we draw Reading or Wycombe in the cup.

42, living in Caversham, Berkshire. Born Wokingham into a family from Southampton. Can't remember my first home game but it was with my grandfather, aged about 4 (me not him) and my incredibly posh great aunt, who astonished by by yelling constant abuse at the ref and gave me a bun at half time. It was said great aunt who gave me the earliest toy I can remember, a strange red and white striped plastic device which looked like the love child of toilet brush and a concertina. I was encouraged by my parents to amuse visiting saints-supporting relatives to make the bloody think squeak and lisp 'Up the Thaints'. These days a combination of an excessive business travel schedule and daddy duty means I make it to less games than I would like. However I'm proud to report that after taking my daughter to her first game this season so can add a second entry: Hannah, 6 born Reading, brought up so far in Caversham. Supported Saints all my life and was sung to sleep with OWTSGMI from day one. First home game v West Ham 2013, 1-1. Wildly excited and am told was the first person Daddy had ever seen stand up and start dancing along each time the crowd broke into song. First away game - not yet but it will probably come if we draw Reading or Wycombe in the cup.

I have a mate called Gary Hooper and, despite his own views to the contrary, he's no more than a pub player. Probably good enough for Scottish football though.

I'm not sure I believe that.

I remember going to a game with my uncle as an 11- or 12- year old and standing on the Milton Rd end for a game against Arsenal. Some away fans were standing next to us and when their team scored they leapt up in the air, only for the chap standing on the other side of them to calmly splat his pie into on of said Gooners' grinning face. Chicken and mushroom, it looked like. Does that count?

Thanks chaps. Nice array of views. I'm too tight to buy new, so am thinking 12 months old - let someone else eat the lion's share of depreciation. It looks like I can get as good a price as anywhere from hertz car sales knocking out their ex hire cars. What's the thinking there?

To this I would add a similar question. I am about to buy a boring dad-mobile (year old estate car) and wondered what m'learned colleagues would suggest. I've looked at Mondeo, Insignia, Passat, Audi A4 etc and come to the conclusion they're all pretty similar to my untutored eye and that you seem to pay a premium for a German makers badge, which I'd rather not do. What would people out there suggest?

I suffer the self same thing once in a while. It was 20 years ago almost to the day that I was seeing fit to focus on beer, girls and sport rather than cramming for my pending business and politics finals. At the time I was pretty damned confident that my having not seen fit to attend a lecture in 18 months wouldn't effect my nailed on Desmond, but every now and then I wake up in a cold sweat unsure if I misjudged it. Scary, but given my time again I'd still not drag myself out of bed for 0900 to listen to someone droning on about accountancy, change management or whatever it was.

I find it completely bizarre that this is even a subject for discussion. If two people want to be together surely they have the right to have that recognised. For a touching and hilarious take on the subject check this speech in the NZ parliament on the subject:

We stayed a fair way along, at the Hyatt in Ronkonkoma, mostly because it was a decent price and had a nice pool. It's a little way from the station but they had a shuttle and as a family base it worked well. Somewhere like Port Jeff or Sayville is a nicer spot but would have cost a lot more. One thing that worked well for us was that we only picked up our hire car after a couple of days there. We didn't need it one day one, when we just flaked round the pool and day 2-3 when we trained it into town. I hopped off the train at JFK on the way back on day 3. Saved a few quid and got to use the car to get round LI before we headed elsewhere.

It's certainly no bad thing to stay a little way out if your kids are small. We went over with our 6 year old last summer and stayed out on Long Island, meaning we could nip into Manhattan on the train but mix it up with a bit of beach and pool, which is no bad thing for the little folk, especially in summer when the city gets hot and humid.

As previously mentioned I will be taking my 6 year old daughter to her first game this afternoon. Well, Mrs F has instructed me to ask you all to refrain from using naughty words that might harm our little angel's tender sensibilities. thanks. Oh, and to help you out in this regard I have listed below a few acceptable curses you might like to substitute for the more usual naughties: Knave Blackguard Sugar Dang Heck Buttocks Glutes Sugar Dash it Odds Bodkins gadzooks Well, at least I tried

Likewise, very excited to be taking my six-year-old daughter for her SMS debut with a friend doing the same for his young sons. Hope the small folk don't get a crick in their necks from following the trajectory of some of the WH balls forward. 2-1 Saints would do nicely but the additional concern that the little lady enjoys it means I am pretty nervous