St Landrew

Yes, I can see myself buying a newspaper such as The Sun, can't you..?

I've been looking at webcams to try to see the extent of the snow. But that view says it all. Excellent pic.

Not strictly true. He told Burnley's Chairman that Bolton and Celtic are the only clubs he would leave them for. Might seem a bit obvious, but it makes sense when you consider Bolton were the only English club Coyle played for. That's the connection.

Don't know if this will be interesting to all older people who frequent here, but BBC Radio 4 trasmitted a play called The Killing of the TSR2 today. I still haven't heard it, but plan to. So just in case someone wants to listen to it, here's a link to the play: The Killing of the TSR2

From that photo..? Why would I do that..? :confused:

Not enough SNOW in them, MB. Now if you had taken photos of the open stretches of The Common, no doubt you'd be a celebrity by now.

I also believe this to be the true reason. However, your reference to Southampton Dockers makes it seem [to me] as if you believe the term has only come about in the last 100-150 years. Whereas, I believe it hails from the time when the french would regularly invade the town through the seaport. Apologies, if I misunderstood. I think I read somewhere [sorry, can't find it on the net, atm] that Sotonians would identify foreign strangers by calling out Monsieur, and if they got a reaction or answer in french, then the person was possibly/probably going to be french - something you certainly wouldn't want to be in England at the time. Although it seems a bit simple and obvious that this could happen, it is also entirely plausible for the time. Of course, the Monsieur [pronounced Müsh-ure, if there is any doubt: note the umlaut over the letter U to change the Mush pronunciation from Mushroom] would undoubtedly have been shortened to Moosh or Müsh as often happens with names or regularly used words, over time. So Mush wasn't a term of endearment or mateyness in the beginning, but something one would call a person if you didn't know their name, e.g. a stranger. It later became a general term for person. Anyway, that's my understanding of the term.

Oh I didn't know that. There's a Trivial Pursuit question lurking in there. Having never been a Star Wars fan, I obviously don't know the details. But that little fact is worth filing.

Oh I see. Well George Lucas could do as he liked. He had no reference to adhere to. We keep coming back to this book thing. I'm afraid The Two Towers wasn't written by Michael Crichton, with an eye on the screenplay, otherwise no doubt it would have been lightweight and trashy. It was written by an academic who layered it with legend upon legend. Something that the film alone couldn't possibly convey. but as I said before, can't fault PJ for trying, and you certainly can't watch the first and last of the three films and get away with it. Although apparently, according to the stats, a proportion of cinema goers did. Of course, I've been doing Tolkien a bit of a disservice all this time. He did end TTTs with a bit of a bang. He let Shelob the spider bump off Frodo. Something PJ couldn't let himself do.

If you are alluding to Star Wars and its sister films, I never liked that shoot-em-up series.

The Two Towers This one is the weaker film for me. I suppose a story that has no beginning and no end, and is all middle was always going to be weaker than the other two. I'm sure it's no accident that this one took less at the box office than the other two episodes. I have to admit I'm not a fan of characters constantly proclaiming their allegiance, bravery, stoically going to war, and knocking seven bells out of the enemy. I occasionally like them to sit down and have a cup of tea and a chat. Well in TTTs it just doesn't get a chance to happen, because the whole film is setting the scene for the end game in the third film, and as a result it suffers. Funny thing is, it's still a great book story, but just an above average film, because the layers from the book are just not there. Can't fault the effort though.

I don't know about awful, but it is greatly simplified, and does sound a bit iffy up against the book. There's a great lot of wheels-within-wheels hidden in Tolkien's words. A lot of which is beyond the scope of the film. Little bits I've mentioned before are also left out of the other films too, and it leads to an over-simplification of the story. There are tales of ancient adventures, and references that are not even hinted at in the films, and these have to be glossed over with direct dialogue. As to Frodo, he is merely the faltering spearhead of a great push to destroy the ring and overthrow Sauron. His role is one of great suffering, and he gets weaker as the ring takes control. I don't think Wood puts in too bad a performance. If truth be known, from the book, I always thought Frodo quite brave, if weak. But from the radio, as played by Ian Holm, I always thought him a bit self centred, and weak. The one who really shows bravery is Sam Gamgee. In the book and radio drama, he's quite the hero. In the film he doesn't seem to be quite as necessary. As Frodo says, he'd have never had got through it without Sam by his side. The wizard Gandalf is really the main protagonist. Everyone else essentially does his bidding. Read the book and see what you think of Wood's performance then.

I'm sure he would have taken the old route, pre-dating the motorway and even the bypass, through Otterbourne and Chandler's Ford.

I don't believe it. The BBC News are putting on a Big Freeze Special programme tonight. What's the matter with this country..? A few flakes of snow, and suddenly it's man-the-pumps time. Actually, I'm guessing most people are as bored with the over-hype of news, by the media, as I am.

Looks like he may be a wee bit short of pace, but a cool finisher. Does he disappear when the game hots up though..?

Fellowship of the Ring Read the books as a teenager, and loved the BBC radio dramatisation, which I still have somewhere. Just decided to watch the first film again to see whether the old magic could be rekindled. Peter Jackson's version of the first book does grate occasionally, because it misses out fantastic little episodes like the Dark Wood, the Barrow-wights, and of course, old Tom Bombadil, which the BBC had also left out. Indeed Jackson practically followed the BBC adaptation's storyline, except where he chose to interchange a character here or there, i.e. Arwen coming to the aid of the injured Frodo, instead of Glorfindel. But it's a great film nonetheless, and an affectionate retelling. Make no bones about it though, as magnificent as it may be, the book is still better. You can't leave out Tom Bombadil and get away with it scot free. Incidentally, I always thought the Ralph Bakshi animated cartoon an immense disappointment [yes, he ran out of money, but it was poor in any case, IMO], and longed for someone to do the job properly. PJ certainly did that. When the film first appeared in the cinema, I went with a mate of mine, who professed to know all about Tolkien, and the trilogy. I suspected he actually didn't have much of a clue. Detailed Tolkien lore is not something you can bluff, as it is so spawling in its scope. So it came as little surprise when, at the end, he asked with all astonishment... is that it..? I suspect I might well be moving onto The Two Towers this evening.

The supermarkets say that they charge for bags in order to get the consumer to re-use old bags where possible. Now, I find that hard to believe, as they are not very strong [but we could talk about lightly loading the bags anyway] but conversely, how many people do you think would re-use their shopping bags if they were still free..? That charge apparently tips people over the edge into re-cycling. Personally, I think some bright individual in a marketing department realised that charging for bags need not make a company look bad, but actually seem responsible for the environment, and incidentally raise profits. The idea was so good, from all sides, that everyone adopted it.

Pretty much what we have here in the north part of Southampton. You can see the level on the tops of walls and posts. Just an inch or a tiny bit more, at most. Nothing to write home about.

I'm afraid you'll have to count me in as a Dinosaur Die-hard. I have no wish to see Pompey become extinct. But I have no wish to join forces either. We'll do it on our own, thank you.

Thanks for that Cloth Ears. I had my own Youtube account [cough] permanently removed [can't think why..?] and lost all my Saints stories and goals. So this has been a real tonic to see all those games. Wonder who Saints80to85 is..? He needs to keep posting up the memories if he has more.

Seems we're quite a little Radio 7 bunch. I listened to the first episode of The Further Adventures of Doctor Syn, on the Listen Again facility, and I liked it so much, I recorded all the episodes. This week they've started six more adventures. Wish I'd heard the original set a few weeks back. It's all read extremely well by Rufus Sewell. Superb voice.

Decades ago, my second eldest brother used to miss the last bus home to Southampton, from Winchester, so that he could be with his girlfriend just that little bit longer. Then he'd RUN HOME to St Winifred's Road in Shirley..! True love keeps you fit.

It's as if decisions don't mean anything anymore. Why punish anybody, if all that happens is that they get to overturn the ruling..? Personally, I believe this one should have stood. Nobody should be allowed to get away with cheating. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8440675.stm

Snow is not for driving in. Only very capable/professional drivers and very short journey drivers need apply. For the rest, it's a big snowball fight.

Hooray..! It is at last snowing nicely in Southampton, and looks like it is laying well. Hopefully, it'll stick around and actually be more than the usual excuse for snow that we normally get. When I can't tell the roads and paths from anything else, then I'll really love it.