jonny777

What I don't understand about the Allardyce debacle, is that on appointment he said it was his dream job and something that he had wanted to do in football for decades. Now if that was really true, why start talking to dodgy agents and clients from overseas who he had never met before; rather than get on with the job he always wanted and make unlimited trips to clubs looking at the form of potential England players? To do what he did makes him an idiot. However, if he lied about the 'dream job' bit and was just on the make, that makes him a greedy liar. Either way, how come the FA appointments committee's research and questions, whilst going through the selection process, were not able to weed out a candidate who was either an idiot or a greedy liar?

Yes the snow shots always seem to have a wonderful and unique atmosphere. I feel cold just looking at C4297. I really like the grainy-ness due to the low light levels, but that is just my personal weirdness.

Newspaper 'stings' always worry me; mainly for the real motives behind them. If your face doesn't fit, and you speak your mind to certain influential folk who are used only to "yes men", they will find ways to get you out.

Oh dear. I am becoming rather concerned at the deterioration of public service standards on certain parts of the privatised railway, especially as the expensive glossy blurb they are always coming up with, tell us that they are 100% committed to the total customer experience - or some similar 'management-speak'.

Good morning all. Back from my hols. At least most of the bad weather held off until I returned from the Welsh Marches/Offas Dyke exploration. I was tempted by the Tornado meets FS week at the SVR but given that the travel tickets and parking options had all been sold months before the event, plus I am the only one in our family with any interest in railways, I gave it a miss. Did anyone go? While I was away, the wasps discovered my grapes - and with hindsight it might have been better to have consumed the grapes before I left or taken them with me. But only about 10% seem to have been sucked dry and it is always best to let nature have a few. The rest taste lovely and sweet.

Lovely.

THE best thing about commuting to Cardiff was retirement. I didn't have to pay the bridge toll after giving up the rail attempt, my carbon footprint fell by 75%, I had no delays, and I didn't get regular insults (in Welsh and English) during the evening from p1ssheads on Cardiff station and trains to Newport, just because I was wearing a suit.

Well, the thunder came and went; with a few big spots of rain. The Ocado delivery was delayed by 60 minutes due to bad weather further west, and the beer bottling was completed in record time, mainly because I used some litre bottles which I gained purely by accident. First calculations suggest that this brew could be at least 8%. A litre of 8% beer in December, seems like just the thing. Especially as I have 20 litres

Good morning. Warm and sunny here already, but I see signs of lumpy cloud (technical term) on the horizon, and thunderstorms may be an afternoon hazard. A spider has taken up residence between the onions that my senior manager set out on the utility room window sill to dry. I am not keen on spiders, but it is not too large so I am leaving it alone for the time being. I suppose that it's future size may depend on how many flies it catches. A ham and mushroom omelette is beckoning before the Ocado delivery van arrives, and afterwards beer bottling will commence.

That list from June 1979 doesn't seem very much for an open day. In fact I think I have seen more there on a normal weekend.

Don't expect much forecast accuracy when the weather comes from the south. The computer has always had trouble with that direction, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it is something to do with the vast amount of potential heat energy which can drift northwards in these situations. If you add to that the extra warm and moist air brought north by the occasional ex-tropical storm drifting in our direction at this time of year, it is a wonder that anything/anyone can forecast further than the next few hours with confidence on the accuracy.

I can't. I am due to go away soon and don't want to leave it for another 10 days with no one at home.

Morning, and what a decidedly dull one it is. However, it is not cold and my outside thermometer reads 19C. However, if it gets much darker I will need the light on to the read the paper. The brewing Santa's Winter Warmer is still bubbling away slowly, and this is its 13th day of fermentation. I dont really want to open the lid and test the sp. gravity because a few fruit flies have been noted in the vicinity and I don't want them ruining 23 litres of potential festive anaesthetic. I spray the flies with the sanitiser I use on the hygrometer, and that seems to give them the message. Bottling day has been put back yet further.

I have tried to read up on grapevines, and they are not the simplest of plants to cultivate successfully. It seems they will only fruit on stems that appear early in the season from old wood. This seems to be the point of pruning them, and training certain stems laterally in order to get as many fruit bearing shoots the following year. I tend to prune the fruiting stems after one or two sets of flowers appear in the spring, in order to allow the plant to divert as much energy into the fruit an not into large numbers of new leafy stems which will just go everywhere. Whether this is a correct strategy, I'm not sure; but hopefully someone with greener fingers than I will point us all in the right direction.

Wow, they are doing well. Mine are not up to that standard, but my grape vine is not that old - and is in a container. I have most of the vine covered in netting, but wasps seem to have found a few that the net does not quite reach. I wonder if this means the grapes are now ripe enough to pick, but I would like to leave them until the end of the month if the weather isn't too bad. However, I don't want the wasps to have the lot. Decisions, decisions...

Hello all. I am probably going to annoy everyone, but from a very young age I have always hated the Last Night Of The Proms. I can't remember why, but it may have something to do with being forced to watch it as a child while my parents sang very loudly to various tunes. Similarly, my hatred of church services has originated the same way. However, I have no such hatred of Handel's Messiah even though every Christmas as a young child I was handed a thick copy of sheet music and forced to listen to the BBC Radio version, while my parents sang the soprano and tenor parts. I will go to my grave knowing everything about 'I Know That My Redeemer Liveth'. Didn't every 6 year old spend Christmas this way in the 1950s?

I find it sad that only 100 have survived out of the hundreds of thousands which were built; but I suppose being open and of steel construction they were prime candidates for rapid corrosion. I think it is rather a shame that our 'heritage' lines cannot each muster up a decent number of 16 tonners for some shunting demonstrations on gala days.

Good morning. Dull and miserable here, with low cloud and drizzle. 16mm of rain overnight, which should please the slugs. Outdoor activities suspended for the day, and will have to amuse myself watching the stand-off between our resident robin and next door's black cat. Although at lunchtime, for a bit of mild amusement there will be the Manchester football derby.

Here is a nice pair at Euston. 87006 and 86258 28th November 1983

I believe at one point in the 1960s, there were two combines published per year. I have a Summer 1962 and a Winter 62/63 edition, but I presume things were happening so quickly on the loco front that whole classes would have vanished in 12 months. The seemingly "never-ending" increase in the numbers for Brush Type 4s was also an eye opener for us spotters in that era. We knew they couldn't go beyond D1999 but didn't expect them to get that far. So, when they did and then started back at D1100 we were left open-mouthed...

Yes, thanks. I had added some dark spraymalt to it as well, at the beginning - and a Mangrove Jacks high alcohol yeast. I tested the brew yesterday and the SG was down to 1014 and still bubbling away nicely, so I am hoping it will turn out alright.

Hello, from a bright and breezy (but noticeably cooler) Zummerzet. The brain appears to be a little reluctant to function after a few more bottles of home brew yesterday, but granddaughter is expected at any time and she only has two settings - mayhem and asleep - which will be a good cure for my current lethargy.

That is what really annoys me about humid air on the coast. The day starts sunny, the inland temperature rises quickly and sets up the sea breeze which then blows onshore and brings in the sea fog. Having lived on the Welsh coast for a number of years, the thing which always amazes me about sea fog is how thick it can be. I could have half of my garden in fog and the other half clear, which is difficult for non-coasties to understand. In order for them to appreciate the problem, here is a photo I took at Cardiff Airport many years ago. Edited to add that within 5 minutes the aircraft in the foreground would not be visible.

Good morning. It's a lovely sunny morning here in cider country. Lets hope it remains that way. I was intrigued by some unusual noises from the garden, but my curiosity was satisfied when all of a sudden a large ginger cat jumped onto the the barbecue by the back window ( which I had opened earlier ). It poked its nose inside the window and had a good sniff, but suddenly noticed me sitting and staring at it; then decided quiet retreat was probably the best option and jumped back onto the lawn, much to the consternation of the local robin and starling populations. I suspect a couple of my tomato plants now have blight, and these are ones close to the greenhouse. My thoughts are that maybe the containers they are planted in remain in the shadow of the greenhouse for much longer during the day than the ones further away, and therefore stay cold and damp longer, thus allowing the virus/bacteria to thrive.

This reminds me of the short time that I spent in a wheelchair after breaking my leg, when aged 8. Because the fracture was both bones above the ankle, the doctors did not want me to add any pressure on the leg for a few weeks afterwards and I was instructed not to try and do any movement until they had x-rayed the setting and once it looked ok they would give me a "walking plaster" afterwards. It may have been pinned for the 6 days that I was in hospital, but I dont remember any pinning once I had been allowed home, just a large plaster which came up to the top of my knee. They provided me with a wheelchair. To make matters worse (my parents must have *loved* me!!), five days after leaving hospital we moved house and this meant starting at a new school where I knew no one. Around the house I had quickly learned to hop short distances on my "good" leg, and so I was not completely immobile, but the school was half a mile away so my mother pushed me there in a wheelchair. It was bad enough with all the parents staring and ushering their children clear of me, but when the entire playground came to a sudden halt and just stared in my direction the stress was too much and I just burst into tears; so much so that my mother pushed me home again after speaking to one of the staff, and I had another day off. The next day, I had been primed to ignore all the gawping and was delivered into the school hall for assembly in the wheelchair. I was amazed at the attitude of the teachers. Nothing was too much trouble for them, they pushed me around the classroom, found me pencils, crayons, exercise books. I had never been treated like that before by any teachers, and I couldn't believe my luck. However later that afternoon, while the teacher had left the room for a short time and we had been told to get on with some work, the end of my pencil broke and realising that the sharpener was on a bench only a few yards from me, I hopped over to it and was standing there on one foot when the teacher returned. Obviously the staff had not understood that I could move short distances when required; and from that point on their whole demeanour changed. There was no more "let me do that for you", or "I'll push you there"; it was back to normal. I was left under no illusions that if I wanted something, I had to get it myself or go without. Still, it was great while it lasted.