ecuk268

Grew up in Romsey. My dad and uncle were regulars at The Dell and I persuaded them to take me when I was about 8 (it was against Port Vale in '58 ). Had a slight hiatus when I discovered girls but soon got my priorities right. Started taking my lad to reserve games when they were at The Dell, graduated to the first team and he was hooked and so joined the Junior Saints and has been going regularly for the last 20 years (he's not still in the Junior Saints). Could never support anyone else. I've seen many good and bad times but this season must be among the best especially now that the gap between the so-called big clubs and the rest is greater than it's ever been.

It doesn't get any better.... http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/boy-five-shoots-dead-ninemonthold-baby-brother-9989512.html

Chris Nicholl wasn't.

The pundits on the Sunday Supplement were saying what a good player he is. I don't care if Fraser Forster scores all of our goals as long as we keep on winning.

Saturday 24th at 3.00pm £12 for adults £7 for concessions £5 for U-17s General sale starts on Monday. Good to see a sensible pricing policy. Palace should bring down a good few so it should be a decent atmosphere.

Many people questioned where the 5 miniutes of stoppage time came from. This analysis shows that, if you're playing one of the so-called "big" teams there is likely to be more stoppage time given if the big team is losing (around 5 minutes) than if they're winning (about 3.5 minutes). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/11334258/Are-Premier-League-referees-biased-towards-the-big-clubs.html

Good report from Henry Winter in the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/11338636/Man-Utd-0-Southampton-1-match-report-Saints-remain-on-course-for-Champions-League-thanks-to-Dusan-Tadic.html

Mrs ecuk268 reckons this is the best one in town.

Isn't the easiest way to get one is donate a lot of cash to whichever party happens to be in power?

Years deaths by gunshot: USA: 10.3 per 100000 UK: 0.25 per 100000 Strangely enough, the largest category in both countries is suicide.

It would be good if players only fell over if they really couldn't stay on their feet. I heard Michael Owen commentating on BT Sport recently saying that, if there was contact, then then player "had the right to go down". No he hasn't. He should only go down if he can't do anything else. It seems increasingly common for players to fall over at the slightest touch and that makes it very difficult for referees to tell if the fall was genuine. Even TV replays can't be conclusive. I agree that blatant dives where there is obviously no contact should be more heavily punished although maybe Chelsea's constant whingeing yesterday had the opposite effect which caused the ref to not give them the penalty.

Got mine online last week. It just said "Updating Smartcard".

The saga drags on.... http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/23/coventry-city-wasps-ricoh-arena We were lucky to escape that lot.

From gas fitter's mate to Woodstock. RIP Joe.

Never had a problem with Virgin. Their broadband is excellent - 100Meg. Been dealing with BT at work for the last few weeks - absolute nightmare. They are very compartmentalised and they don't communicate.

Danny Higginbotham - offered his Cup Final medal to Frannie as he'd been there for his whole career.

We also relied on coal fires and had ice on the inside of the bedroom windows. Funnily enough, not having ever experienced central heating, I assumed that was normal and I think I built up a resistance to feeling cold. Even many decades later I still find it difficult to sleep in a warm bedroom.

A few Samantha jokes from the above: “Samantha has to nip out now with her new gentleman friend. Apparently, they've been working on the restoration of an old chest of drawers. Samantha is in charge of polishing, while he scrapes the varnish and wax off next to her." "Before I nip out with Samantha for a time honoured blow on the seafront..” "Samantha tells me it's time to let her whippet out.” "While Samantha nips out to enjoy a mouthful of Jacob's…” "So as Samantha heads off to the Highland games to admire the contestants in the caber competition, and perhaps have a go at tossing one or two herself..." “Samantha has to nip out now as she's got a new job working in the sound archive as the manager. It's her first day, so apparently she's going to give a speech in the back room and hand jobs out in the office."

The snow did start on Boxing Day. I remember going out with my Dad to take the dog for walk and it was really heavy. For weeks afterwards I can remember finding dead birds that had frozen overnight and fallen out of the trees. I was at Barton Peveril and, when the snow finally melted, there was a huge lake in the middle of the playing field which didn't go until Easter.

All kids should be taught basic cookery at school. It would show them that you don't have to spend a fortune to eat well. My skills are nothing fancy but I can manage most basic dishes - roast dinner, curry, chilli, shepherds pie and stuff like that. Also like doing fruit crumbles as they're so easy. Never had much luck with pastry but, luckily, Mrs ecuk268 is very good at that.

Don't know about where you're working, but here documentation is the last thing that gets done because everybody hates doing it. Now's your chance to get it done.

I often wonder if these people leave early from the cinema or theatre. If you have to get a last train or IOW ferry then fair enough but, if we all left early, who'd applaud the team off at the end? Strangely enough, at the Sunderland game when the result was in the bag quite early, it seemed to me that more people stayed to the end than is normally the case.

Exactly. This would be my definition as well.

Or companies pay less tax which they could if the benefit bill was reduced. Despite this governments demonisation of the unemployed, apart from pensions, the biggest portion of the benefits bill goes in tax credits to people in work. So the state is subsidising low wages and also subsidising private landlords through housing benefit. More social housing would reduce this problem with rents being ploughed back into building more. I'm old enough to remember Macmillan's Tory government boasting of how many council houses they were building. Then Thatcher sold them all off cheaply and prevented local authorities using that income to build more. I could quote the relevant statistics but I've got to get off to the match.

If he likes Tudor history: Thomas Cromwell : The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant by Tracy Borman Especially if he's read Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies" which were fictionalized accounts of Cromwell, this is a true portrait of the man taken from documents written at the time. He's quite a complex character rising from very humble beginnings to being one of Henry VIII's closest advisers. He was a devoted family man but could be extremely ruthless in carrying out his master's wishes, sending many people to execution. Instrumental in the break with Rome and the subsequent persecution of the Catholics, his great achievement was securing Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn.