SimonM

And yet the big supermarkets have now said specifically they will not accept payment by cheque...They can do this of course because cheques are not legal tender...

I think on the overwhelming balance of probabilities (one cannot be certain obviously: in this life there are only three certainties - death, taxes and the hijacking of EDF threads by the terminally unamusing :))) the moon landing cannot have been a hoax and must really have happened. My reasoning is simple. A hoax would have needed a large number of conspirators/participants and they'd have long ago been queueing up to write the book or sell the story of what really happened...But there's been nary a sniff of one. Although we do now know that JFK was a womaniser whose father plotted with the mafia to buy the 1960 election - both revelations unthinkable in the 60's when JFK was seen as the young god cut down in his prime - and we can be reasonably certain Marilyn Monroe was murdered, of the moon landing not one illicit photo of the film set where it "happened" or a memoir from the grandson of the guy who supplied the "genuine" moon rocks.....

I am still languishing here in Switzerland for another week. We stayed at the same place a year ago and then the local press were full of the news that Liverpool FC were staying at the Victoria-Jungrau hotel along the lake in Interlaken for their pre-season training. This was to involve everyone cyclcing a mile or so to a local ground for the training and a few untaxing friendlies against the likes of Luzern FC. Anyway I don't think they're at Interlaken this year but they have certainly been playing friendlies in Vienna and Switzerland. Today's local paper carried a story about the Liverpool supporter who pushed a railway porter in the path of a train in Thun (2 lakes along from here) because he did not like the way he spoke to him. Fortunately the guy got out of the way in time and the "suppoerter", despite attempting to flee by train (!!!!) was captured. I was a little sad that a scouser who had travelled so far to watch his heroes play in a friendly at St Gallen had so depressingly conformed to the stereotype except.....this Liverpool supporter was actually a Swiss guy from Thun. Hmmmm. So I am now wondering if the mentality of a football club supporter becomes a little more....volatile, shall we say, the further away he/she is based geographically from the club. Are people living a short bus ride from Anfield or Old Trafford more serene than the....livelier specimens exiled In London, for example? So if you're Swiss and support Liverpool you're pretty far gone, and I just don't want to contemplate the Manchester Utd supporters based in Japan...

I remember thinking that when Sheffield United were relegated to the old third division. Then we fell through to the 4th!

I think Austin's even got a plug in one of John Le Carre's novels - or maybe it was Graham Greene or Len Deighton: literary Peckham eh?!

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the death of John Lennon - as shocking to me at the time as being told JFK was dead as I left a schoolboy chess match... Elvis was not such a shock - he'd been in decline for ages after all.

You ask me, the quality of furniture in ED has gone to hell in a handcart since dear old Austin's closed! Now that was a shop!

Well it's been raining this afternoon in Switzerland dammit... And I think Boycott got taken to Old Trafford one day by Michael Parkinson, another Barnsley F.C. apostate who was lured by the siren call of Best, Law et al... SimonM (helpful bunny)

I see Sheffield Utd v Newcastle Utd is also going to be live on Sky in November (I think). Looks like Newcastle are going to get far more live coverage as a championship club than they ever did in the Premier. Wonder if Shearer will still be boss by then??

I don't like to mention Vaughan because not only was he born in Manchester, as you say, but he also supportss the *wrong* Sheffield football club...:)

Brearley and Gower are of course famous Yorkshiremen<< I did say "usually" - you just named the only two non-Yorkshire captains to have won the Ashes durring a 75 year period. And even Gower needed the assistance of the great Sir Geoffrey! B) But I take it all back anyway. Clearly our stout English lads are going to give the colonial upstarts a sound thrashing, and thus far, in a move of Machiavellian cunning worthy of Brearley himself, have begun by lulling them into a false sense of security... And PGC dear....you can get Toblerones all over ED! Although the "Mousse au Toblerone" favoured in some restaurants around here is a bit special! :))

As I sit here, with a fine view of Lake Brienz, and log on to the EDF courtsy of my nice new Swisscom dongle, I feel as a smug Yorkshireman (ignores cries of "Is there any other kind?!") I should remind you all that England usually only wins the Ashes when captained by a Yorkshireman. This season looks unlikely to break this pattern. De haut en bas pronouncement ends.

>>Newcastle being in the first two games of the season is just the way its worked out and its down to the BBC for choosing those matches to screen first.<< But if the Beeb are showing only 10 games they really should be spreading it about a bit. As it is, already we know at least 5 champpionship teams will not get a live showing on the free, terrestrial channel at all.

Middlesbrough v Sheffield United live on Sky on Friday 7th August. Looks like, as last season, we play a newly-relegated team in the televised opener. Last season we lost to Brum 1-0 with a goal in the 93rd minute....a 0-0 draw would have given us the automatic promotion spot! Sky are also showing the Utd v Wendies game live in September....

Yeah...how stupid is that? Newcastle in both the first 2 games?!

10 is better than nothing...but with 24 clubs in all that means there's no guarantee every club will be shown even once... Hope they show 1 of the Sheffield derby games though! The rumour that Beckford is going to Sheffield United, with Billy Sharp going the other way, refuses to die....although the valuation of Billy at ?2 million in this proposed deal does not lend the tale much credibility...:))

>>Never heard that, good one<< Agreed! Cannot wait to use it myself now!

I think Wolves will need to start early!

For the record you don't get preached at in any way whatsoever at the "Bread of Life" cafe. It is cheap and cheerful, spacious and accessible: sells coffee in cafetieres and excellent, basic hot meals. It does not open at weekends though IIRC

Perhaps it was the way you landed out of the sky under an umbrella???

I thought this had to be a conference about voluntary euthanasia, and was getting quite enthusiastic, so imagine my disappointment...

I knew that Norwood thrust would draw blood! >:D

Alleyn Road, being literally the wrong side of the tracks, is practically Norwood-borders is it not? B) So much of Court Lane has no off-street parking and it is practically a main road. Some of the houses look quite....compact...The quieter streets running off it look far more charming.

>>Simon, your cats hate being stroked? Do they permit any interaction whatsoever? << They allow themselves to be fed bits of tandoori chicken off a Domino's pizza: and to be scratched behind the ears or under the chin.

>>You're doing-down sensible and trustworthy 14 year-olds everywhere.<< Yep. Good for building their character though. How do you know a 14 year old you have not met won't bring her mates round for a party? I'd hate to return home from holiday to find teenage vomit (and worse) all over the Axminster. As she's only 14 I cannot even sue her for breach of contract. And our cats hate being stroked.....And the insurance company would laugh at me for trusting house keys and burglar alarm code with a child who probably has 14 year old boy-mates who carry knives and do drugs and that... I read your prospectus with interest all the same, and will put you down as 1st reserve should our current arrangements ever fall through...How are you at giving a cat a pill by the way?:))