4901

The manager of Real Salt Lake - Major League Soccer (USA) - made this remarkably astute and profound comment yesterday. "I just think goals change games," head coach Pablo Mastroeni said.

Tigerburnie - You mention your Rugby club (presumably your first team) played the second team of Moseley. Who were you playing for - a west midlands club? Our first team - Dixonians - played Moseley first, our second their third, and our third their "development" team. The Moseley captain was on old-timer and the rest were very young and good.

Are there similar injuries in Rugby League? Do the rules of the 13-a-side version allow for more open play? I admit not watched League for many years.

On the Public Broadcasting System in the US on 21 April, there was a short piece on the increased cost of coal for preserved lines in England as a consequence of Putin invading the Ukraine. https://video.thinktv.org/video/war-in-ukraine-threatens-britain-s-historic-steam-engines-1682118091/

We used to get lots of scam calls about the computer. I started answering them in French and they would hang up. Seems to have worked, although I did it to a legitimate fund-raiser by mistake and he replied in French.

Rocker Shovel wrote: "You obviously realise that football and rugby are different games." But some of the holding looks like a cross between rugby and ballroom dancing. When is holding a foul and when is it not a foul?

The line is part of the area it delineates.

Here in the USA, I haven't watched much football for a long time but decided to watch some World Cup matches. The Wales vs. USA match looked like the typical long-ball matches we get in the US professional leagues with four passes strung together being an achievement. I watched the England vs USA match and was horrified at the England performance. Long balls to midfield headed back and forth. I even changed an important appointment to watch - big mistake. Canada were more entertaining and skilled. It seemed that Grealish ( vs. USA) was the only England player likely to do anything inspiring or unusual and he seems very restrained compared with his Villa days. (Being an expat Brummie, I have followed the Villa since the 1950s.) How much does the manager control the precise movements of the players these days? Are the players scared of the managers? What would you do to get the England players more fired-up and enthusiastic?

A few years ago, we were on an assignment in Cheshire. On the first day we drove from Northwich to Knutsford passing Peover. At the office we found out it is pronounced Peever. Don't blame them, but they are quite posh around Knutsford.

Sounds like you have mastered the essence of the current economy.

Back in the 1950s my parents listened to "Round Britain Quiz" with its panel of remarkable brains. The only question I ever got completely correct was "What do the following have in common, apart from being dogs - bulldogs, terriers, and greyhounds?" The panel flailed around until the question master put the out of their misery.

I went to the Prospect of Whitby pub in Wapping in the 1960s and took the line south as far as Wapping but never through the tunnel. In those days steam-hauled goods trains also used the line. Not sure if it is true but people waiting for the underground train got a big shock when a steam loco came through. Did the goods trains run during Underground hours of operation?

La Bete Humaine is a remarkable piece of filming on a locomotive. Highly recommended even if he Guardian didn't rate it.

I live in Utah, USA and this morning a "pest" control person came to the front door and said he was working on pest control in the area. He tried to sell his monthly eradication services and I told him we didn't have any problems. He then said there is an earwig in the flowers by the front door. I said we don't have problems with insects - they are important for the environment. He looked at me as though I was mad. He left.

Media people and police in the States saying multiple when a specific number could be mentioned or words like lots, a few, or several could be used.

Nearly 25 % of people tested in our county (in Utah USA) yesterday were breakthrough cases (already vaccinated). What is going on? Not wearing masks and letting the guard down? No booster jabs? Is this the situation in the UK? An hour ago we drove past the local testing station and there were over 80 cars queuing on the main street waiting to turn into the testing centre's car park and perhaps another 50 cars in the car park! At least some are getting tested. Stay safe everyone.

I've thought about using recordings such as Peter Handford's on a stereo system under the layout that works with a timetable.

Look after your health - adequate sleep, healthy food, exercise. Having social contacts is vital to one' outlook on life. Keep in touch with family. A wonderful advantage of retirement is if you stay up late or are really tired, sleep some more. Keep a to-do list and plan your week so you don't just get up and think what should I do today. And you can always put off something to another day and not feel guilty. Have things to look forward to. Read the books you have never got round to reading. Serving others (even the community) makes for a good day. Keep your mind occupied. Take further education courses. (My wife took a course in micro-biology and when the pandemic struck, she was able to understand the scientific advice and weed-out the myths.) No TV before 5 pm except for Saturday, in my case. Have fun.

Check Iain Rice's Mainlines in Modest Spaces, p. 35 for a strain stacker fiddle yard.

A couple of years ago we took a long-awaited holiday in France, starting in Paris. There, it seemed that nearly everyone avoided eye and verbal contact except in shops where people were remarkably helpful. On the last day of the holiday we were in Aigues Mortes in the Camargue and my wife was buying a skirt. I mentioned in French to the young woman helping that I understood the French spoken in the south much better than I did in Paris. She replied, "Mais ici, on parle." But here, we SPEAK. I accomplished many "bucket list" items on that holiday including riding the TGV (from Paris to Lyon) and a bonus was a ride on the Chemin de Fer de Vivarais, hauled by a massive mallet through magnificent countryside. In the 1950s, I was on an exchange program (Birmingham and Lyon schools) and we travelled to Newhaven and caught the night Channel packet to Dieppe. The SNCF loco was a steamer and a couple of us went to the front of the train and I was shocked to find a glass door rather than a blanked-off corridor connection. We saw the fireman on the tender pulling coal forward and then it was almost other-worldly when the firebox was opened and the fire reflected off the steam. I wish I knew what class of engine it was but the tender was a low one. Must watched for ages. After Rouen, the sky lightened and watched the smoke draft across the Seine valley. Happy memories.

I have just spotted this subject. Here are a few books that help with New Street: *New Street Remembered, Donald J. Smith *London Midland Steam in the Midlands, Michael Mensing. Several of his photos feature New Street and trains to and from it *Birmingham New Street, Richard Foster, 3 Vols and the magazine - British Railways Illustrated, June-July 1993 has an article on New Street Station

I'd like to see Georgian terrace backs. Bilteezi sold one and Scalescenes could do a more 3-D model. So useful for modelling approaches to town and city stations and tall enough to be an excellent backdrop.

Keep that man around. We might need him again.