ecuk268

As the pirates picked up about £600000 in ransom money, they'll obviously keep doing it.

There's an offer on Family Railcards at the moment. 10% reduction brings it down to £23.40. A couple of trips and it's more than paid for itself. http://www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk/online

Pretty good summary of yesterday's events: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/britain-backs-middle-class-children-who-want-the-moon-on-a-stick-201011103243/

Those of us who lived through the wilderness years of Branfo*t are well acquainted with being tortured.

So where exactly do they grow the tea in Yorkshire?

Doesn't seem to have stopped the executives of the FTSE 100 companies averaging a 55% pay rise this year. And bear in mind it's 55% of quite a large amount.

They're perceived as a single-issue party, so they'll always be on the fringes. Despite his opposition to Europe it didn't stop Mr Farage claiming £2m expenses over 10 years on top of his £64k salary.

Judging by their electoral performance, not many people think so. Candidates standing: 570 Candidates elected: 0 If he was a football manager, he'd be sacked.

Who defines what is correct? What if they change their mind? How would we know?

You must have a very limited diet. No coffee, tea, potatoes, pasta, pizza, rice, dairy products from Holstein cows, any spices, the list is endless.

As the awful Mel from Wednesday's Apprentice might say: If you say I don't speak proper, you'll be retributed.

I'd fourth this. Live just up the road and go there regularly. Not cheap but good quality. They're in the National Sausage Championships again this year.

Interesting snippet on the news last night. The UK defence budget is around £10bn and is administered by 25000 civil servants. The Israeli defence budget is £9bn and is administered by 400 civil servants. Over manning???

Go back to '81 when Keith Speed the Navy Minister resigned in protest of the biggest cuts to the Navy ever by Thatcher. HMS Invincible was about to be flogged off to the Aussies when the Falklands happened and we were scratching around for merchant ships to transport troops and equipment. What are these expensive lumps of steel going to do for 10 years until they get their aircraft. They can't use Harriers as they're being scrapped too.

I get phone TV and broadband from Virgin and have had few problems. Broadband is around 8 to 9 Mbs and my V+ box works fine. My Sky Sports channels started breaking up at the weekend. Phoned them on Sunday and the engineer came yesterday and sorted it out. Maybe I've been lucky.

Get yourself a decent workshop manual and a good toolkit. A lot of stuff (disk pads, oil changes etc) is straightforward and you can save a packet. I started off many years ago with an old banger and couldn't afford garages so learnt to do it myself. Avoid Kwik Fit like the plague. If you live in Southampton, Pete King in Shirley does a good job but don't get talking about the Saints 'cause you'll be there all day.

Recently had a get-together with some old mates that I've known since school. We've all just passed the big 60 and we're all still earning decent money including one bloke who sold his business and retired at 57. We all get £250 Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes as well as Senior ticket rates at SMS. Why?? I might appreciate it in 5 years time when the pension kicks in so why don't these things start at 65?

Of course it couldn't be the case that the MI5 and MI6 are having to justify the many millions that they cost with the spending cuts looming? What better way than convincing us that we're all in great danger.

I believe that Jimmy Case fell foul of the breathalyser.

It's all about how you bring them up. Shouldn't ever need to hit them - tone of voice should be sufficient. I'm sure that we can all remember from school that there were some teachers who could control a class without even raising their voice, whilst others could shout their heads off to no effect. It's all about quite self-assertion.

Very small confined spaces. How people can go potholing and crawl through 1 foot high passages is beyond me. Give me wide open spaces.

Why do women have small feet? So they can stand closer to the sink.

Got a good reception from Radio Solent sat in the car in Honfleur in Normandy. You can usually get Solent right along the French coast up to Calais.

Had half a ton of coal delivered last week. Spent an hour this morning sawing some logs and now have a nice roaring fire.

Blood, Sweat and Treason - Henry Olonga The Zimbabwean cricketer started wearing a black armband during games to protest against the Mugabe regime (as did Andy Flower). He was then informed that Mugabe had given orders for his death. So he and Andy wisely decided to come to the UK.