SimonM

The reports about the Johnson sale also mention that Portsmouth still owe Liverpool ?7 million for Crouch, so presumably this will be off-set? Nice of West Ham to loan Sears to Crystal Palace...they must imagine they owe Neil Warnock something obviously: cannot imagine why....B)

>>Good luck to her. It's exactly the kind of thing enterprising 14 year-olds should be doing, not grown men and women - who ought to be out driving lorries / mining coal etc<< It's a slippery slope when you start to criticise the way people make a living. I'd not want a 14 year old doing this task for me - she'd have neither the expertise nor the authority to spot a genuine illness and call a vet, nor indeed deal with, say, a burglary. We used to have the neighbours feed the cats when away, which was fine until one of them needed medication twice a day (the cats not the neighbours muhahaha)and, again, I'd not want a 14 year old doing it. She'd be far better out being pushed up chimneys or whatever...And anyway exactly what needs to be done with recycling boxes and wheelie bins if we're away? :))

Fair enough I suppose...but I still think watching Rodney win the League Cup Final for them was a bit special! :)) On another subject: Ken Bates (for it is he) says Leeds have had no firm offer for Beckford. So how many have they really had? They'll not get a penny for him in 12 months...

Have QPR ever even come within a shadow of magnificence since those glorious Rod-nee days?!

>>Professional dog-walker. ?10/hour. This also seems to be the going rate for having someone come round to your house once a day, open a tin of cat food and give your cat 'a bit of a stroke'.<< Er no...the rate for cats is per visit not per hour. And a good person does more than give the cat a bit of a stroke. He or she will water plants, re-fill birdfeeders, groom the cat if necessary etc etc, and in my experience is worth every penny.

I went to Upton Park once. It was a league cup game. West Ham thrashed us (Sheffield Utd) 5-0 and we were lucky to get nil....(This was in the days of Pop Robson...)

The Championship gets harder and harder to predict. The opening day looks interesting - WBA v Newcastle & Boro v Sheff Utd IIRC, but then its 46 games to the end of the season, and last year the final automatic promotion place was not settled until after that 46th game. I don't think Boro or Newcastle will do it next season - despite the parachute payments bouncing straight back up after a relegation seems to be getting harder. Brum did it only by the skin of their teeth last season. I hope it is Sheffield United this time round - but that means hanging on to Naughton & Kilgalon as well as finding a decent striker....

>>The sunday sun eh Simon? Think they've just reprinted that one from last year. It must be a slow week. Can't see Torres playing for another English club. If he goes it'll be abroad.<< Oh I gave it zero credibility...I was just desperate to get something about football in here! :))

>>Thought she still lived there<< She does. I was aiming sarcasm at the OP :))

I see the News of the World reckons Chelsea are going to bid ?50million for Torres and Liverpool's hard-pressed owners may be tempted....It is probably all tosh but oh dear!

Grrr....I am still trying to catch a sight of the cormorant...now there's a kestrel to look out for too?! Whereabouts was this?

I go Victoria/Park Lane etc, but avoid Edgeware Road by driving East of it up Abbey road & through West Hampstead But if I am driving to Yorkshire I prefer Blackwall/M11/A1(M) these days.

>>and the Jerk festival in Horniman Gardens at the beginning of August << Resist....resist!!

Copy of a reply I got today from the Council re the bridge in the Japanese Garden re your enquiry about the above. A repair has been commissioned and we are hopeful that it will be completed in the next month. As I'm sure you can appreciate it is a skilled job and we also need to source the correct materials, thus the realitively long time frame. kind regards, Paula Johnston Peckham Area Parks Manager

I was reliably informed by one of the Peckham Rye crows that his grandad did a song and dance in that♠ fillum...

Three people stabbed...three arrested...mention of wine being nicked....I think that's about all the real facts actually known. And yet why do I feel crushed by a stampede of hobby horses or suffocated by a raging sandstorm of sweeping generalisations (delete whichever absurd metaphor irritates more). People who profer the mildest criticism of modern airport "security" measures are asked if they are "anti police" The poor old Guardian is not only now somewhere between the Anarchists' Cookbook and "Mein Kampf" as loastheome literature but is also a term of abuse. Weird

You might not suffer from it - just everyone else in a 50 yard radius! :))

Yes! Mr Rochester

Ah. I had been hoping to get out of it by not actually giving the answer you see? :) Would-be bigamist and wife abuser, arsonist victim and yet, apparently, something of a catch.

Oh God...well ok then it's "Kim"....

Yep...Liverpool & Sheffield United...practically indistinguishable >:D

whispers......"begins with a K right"? :)

...and when did she move out of the Herne Hill house she's lived in for about 30 years??

Hmmm....Sheffield Utd v Port Vale - exactly the same as last year!

Two major pluses for Blackbird:- (1) It opens on Mondays when Cafe 2050 is closed (2) The brownies are glorious...