johnh

The EU are in exactly the same position with the US over 'tech tax'. It's not just a UK issue.

Mike, I'm really surprised that you find other peoples misfortunes funny.

You're right there Palfy. One further story about that voyage was that my mates arranged for a record to be played over the ship's tannoy to celebrate my birthday. The next day, there was another birthday record played and it turned out to be the guy I had sat next to at school. I remembered that his birthday was the day after mine. There were over a thousand troops on board and he took some finding, but I did find him and we had a good chat. That was the last time I ever saw him. I schooled in Liverpool and we moved to Leeds in 1951.

Reading an article about the Suez Canal blockage. It said that ships may have to go round the Cape of Good Hope. I thought 'what's new'. In early 1957 the Suez Canal was still closed due to the Suez crisis. My troopship, returning from Singapore, had to go round the Cape. Took 42 days to get to Southampton and I had my 21st birthday in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

FIFA - License to print money. Scandal and fraud has been following them for decades.

Several Sheffield United players are in trouble over the Census form. Apparently, they declared themselves as 'footballers'.

The last two England rugby matches have involved French referees. I think they have to attend a meeting with Macron in the week before the game to get their 'orders'.

Just booked my first trip, in May, to Iceland. If all goes well, then will follow up with Asda in June and Tesco in July.

Agree with this and would also add that when we play the top teams in the division we seem to have the mental attitude that 'we can't win this one'. When we play our best, it seems to be against those sides who are a similar level to us. We know it's going to be hard but we have a chance of a win, so we work hard. It's a psychological problem which is down to the manager to sort out. The other (and major) problem is that we only have the bare bones of decent Premiership players. The bench is mostly Championship level players and we can't afford many injuries.

I give a 'thumb's up' and keep it up until I know they've seen it.

Thought Liverpool did well to hold Fulham to 0 - 1. Be fair, with all the injuries they have and no crowd on the Kop, everything is against them. You can't help laughing though.

Leeds hammered them tonight. 3 - 0 should have been five or six.

We are closing in on that time of the year when Her Indoors agrees with everything I suggest, I can do no wrong and am truly Lord of my Manor. 29th, 30th, 31st February,

I note that there is nothing from the Co-op?

So you don't think that anyone who has watched football all his life is capable of seeing when a player/s are playing crap and not putting a shift in. You appear to think that they are playing brilliant all the time even when they lose, at home, to a team who are likely to be relegated. That's delusional.

Don't accept your excuses for a diabolical performance. Four days for highly trained athletes is plenty of time to recover. (They did, after all, only play an extra 30 minutes). It was too many players not being arsed.

No excuses, they are full-time professional sportsmen. I once played a (semi-pro) Yorkshire League game on Saturday. A Leeds Sunday League game on Sunday morning and a West Riding County trial game on Sunday afternoon and put more effort in on Sunday afternoon than several of our lot and I wasn't getting paid!

Well, playing without a centre-forward went well. According to BBC live text an Everton player only touched the ball once in Fulham's penalty area in 45 minutes.

I had the Pfizer jab too and for a couple of days got a sharp pain if I touched where they injected. Then found I had a sore finger. (The oldies are the best!).

Steve, probably AK47's too?

Our weakness against a hard working team is our midfield, where there is no pace or work ethic. Leeds weakness is 'set pieces'. They have no height in their back four and the goalkeeper is slightly prone to mistakes from high crosses. Kean and Mina, particularly, should have a field day as long as we get good crosses into the box from set pieces.

A NICE DAY OUT AT THE SEASIDE. It was about 1946, the war was over. I was 10 and my brother a year older. Our 'gang' decided to have a day out in Formby near Liverpool. Formby was a paradise for children. Miles and miles of golden beaches with sand dunes and pine tree woods. About a dozen lads made the trip, ranging in age from 10 to about 16. Our Mum had agreed we could go, after a bit (lot) of persuasion, and we set off with our rucksack filled with sandwiches and a bottle of cream soda. We got the bus to Orrell station and then the electric train which ran between Liverpool and Southport. When we got off the train at Formby there was a walk of some two or three miles to get to the beach. First, we walked down the roads flanked by large expensive and posh houses. Then, the road was flanked by the thick fir tree woods and finally through the sand dunes to the beach. We started off by playing 'war games' in the sand dunes and after about an hour of this we flopped down on the hot dry sand to eat our sandwiches. After we had eaten our sandwiches we decided to out to the sea (Liverpool Bay). The sea was quite far out and we had to walk several hundred yards to reach it. No one had a swimming costume so we just paddled in the warm water (the Irish sea in summer is a lot warmer than the North sea) and caught small crabs. We had been there for about half an hour when we heard some men shouting and saw them waving their arms and beckoning us to come towards them. We then saw that we had been cut off by the tide. The channel between us and safety was about thirty yards wide and flowing very fast. The older boys ordered us all to link arms and with the oldest at each end and the youngest (including me) in the middle, we started to walk through the fast flowing water. I couldn't swim and was nervous of water, so was not best pleased. The water came up to my waist. We eventually reached safety and were given a good talking to by the men who explained how dangerous the tides could be. Chastened, we returned to the sand dunes where we had to dry our clothes. After a while, we perked up and one of the older boys said that he knew a place in the pine forest where the Army trained. True to his word, he found the place. It was a small valley. At one end were machine gun emplacements made out of logs. At the other end was a mound of sand from where the soldiers fired at the targets. The older boy instructed us to dig in the loose sand with our hands. After a while we had unearthed four or five live rounds of .303 rifle ammunition. The older boy said that he had found some on a previous trip and still had them hidden at home. He said that when we got back to Liverpool he would get the other bullets, open them up with a hacksaw to get the gunpowder and make a bomb. We all thought that this sounded like a sensible idea. When we got back to Liverpool, we congregated at the brick air raid shelter and the older boys went off to get the hacksaw and the other bullets. They returned, and also brought a small tin tobacco box which was going to 'house' the bomb. When all the bullets had been opened the gunpowder was put into the tin and a piece of tape (the fuse) was fed into the tin through a hole. The boys had also brought some matches and they lit the tape and we all ran for our lives. Nothing happened. It was lit again and again until we ran out of matches, but still no explosion. Finally, one of the older boys took the tin and poured the gunpowder down the nearest drain. Disappointed, we decided that it was time to go home for tea. We walked in the door and our Mum said 'did you have a nice day at the seaside?' We just said 'yes'. Some years ago when Mum was in her eighties, (like I am now!) my brother and I told her the whole story of our day out - but she refused to believe us!

Matt, the secret is, to learn how to limp so that you walk a bit easier and don't attract sympathetic looks.

Sadly, it will get worse!

One for CornishSteve Cornwall has been put into lockdown tier 5 as a load of pirates have returned to Cornwall and the Arr factor has gone through the roof.