St Landrew

Historically, it actually caused a major problem for the Nazis. By the same token, the Dam Busters operation, which is another WWII film, taken in perhaps, slightly more serious vein, by the cinema, was a pretty big undertaking by the RAF, and caused much damage... ...which Germany recovered from within 3 months. NB: There's no way I'm attempting to cheapen anything here. It's just a bit of perspective.

That's true. I suppose it's good that people can keep their humour amongst a disastrous last 5 years. HNY to you MOG.

Cast away on a desert island Me and poor Crusoe are sharing the same fate Cast away on a desert island With Great Britain written on its name plate With my umbrella I go walking Through all the sands on a building site Across the shopping malls and motorways Birds from Heathrow fill the Night with people flying to escape Friday comforts me and says it's pay day Cast away on a desert island... The game and coconuts is plentiful You pick 'em right off of a supermarket shelf And all the man-eaters are parked away Down in garages While their selfish owners drinking to escape Lord of flies with c ocktails in his conch shell Don't rescue me, no This is my home sweet home dear Don't rescue me, no I am far from alone here Cast away on a desert island Me and one nation are sharing the same fate Cast away on a desert island With Great Britain written on its name plate Cast away on a desert island

If we keep a clean sheet I promise to look up from my work.

Hang on, I'll just see if I can find any magic in the FA Cup for Saints this season.... I'm just squinting my eyes... Let's get out the microscope... OK, perhaps the binoculars... Err nope, can't see any magic. Unless someone finds some peculiar magic and gets this team to start winning in the League [couldn't give a toss about the FA Cup, at present] then it's just a bad time for SFC, full stop. Man United..? I'd rather we played Bournemouth. At least we just might remember how to win, and get a good crowd/atmosphere.

Was going to write... bye bye Rudi, but nobody wants him at the price we'd let him go for, anyway. So perhaps we can have him just behind the striker where he always should have been.

I've always been a live-and-let-live type of person, but I draw the line at Great White Sharks. If the Japanese suddenly decided they were going to turn their attentions away from Whaling for scientific purposes [that's a good one] to Great White Sharking for scientific purposes, I think I'd be the last name on a petition.

I'm sorry, but hope has delivered f**k all in the last 5 years. Happy New Year, btw.

I'm just trying to think what bloody good the transfer window has done. Ever since it has been introduced, Saints have been on a dive, that's for sure, and I know why. Because Saints like to play brinkmanship with how little they can get away with spending. I know the same will go for other clubs too - nobody spends way over the odds; but Saints go as close as they dare. Well, of course, with a transfer window, if you've under-bought in quality, so to speak, you're buggered until the next window opens. And by then it can be too late. We do that a lot. You'd have thought we'd have learned by now.

Let me see... Hmm, the greatest scene change of all time perhaps..? Thighbone to Spacecraft in 250,000 years, give or take a split-second.

Hooray..! Someone who has totally and utterly embraced the idea and understanding of the polls. By my reckoning that's about 5 or 6 people who are onside.

I don't think there is any doubt that Painer wasn't the most popular teammate at Saints. But I've read about Saints from the 1950's, and the young Terry used to laugh about with his teammates, and was popular then. I think it was only by the time he'd been around a bit, and also been an established England player, that his popularity started to fall off. By then he had that touch of arrogance about him which, if you back up with superb playing skill, can annoy the hell out of people. That arrogance actually communicated itself to the crowd, and they would occasionally groan if he didn't do something special. But it was hardly his fault that he was a better player than others around him. Ted Bates had the highest opinion of him, which didn't help; and by the time Lawrie turned up, Painer thought he owned the place. There was only one solution to that - Hereford United.

It's not really a Happy New Year for anyone who is friendless, in poverty, ill or dying, or having to come to terms with the death of a loved one, or loved ones. But let's not make rash political points on this forum. If you want to have a serious debate about the Israel and Palestine conflict, then go to the Lounge. Not here, thanks.

Glad I heard that. Although we don't get talked about on the national media anywhere near as much as in the good old days [just 5 years ago], at least pundits and commentators like Alan Green are aware of where we've been, and where we are most certainly going. It may not cut much ice with a scouser, like Green, but he is infinitely more aware how much a club's success, or lack of it, means to a supporter, than RL. And that's something, at least.

Blimey, that's a turn up. Of course, if it ever did bother you, you could always save the important stuff, and just start a new g-mail in another name.

Yeah, it does sound a bit odd coming out of a NZer. Especially when the rest the rest of the sounds are typical Kiwi accent. I worked out a very simple system for NZ vowel sounds, when compared to British vowel sounds. So UK to NZ goes: A to E E to I I to U U to O So for simple words: Egg sounds like Igg; Apple sounds like Epple, Chips sound like Chups, and so on. I would never be nasty about it, it was always an affectionate mickey-take. Some of my happiest times were there, and I've never met a nasty NZer. Well that's not quite true, the ex-mother-in-law was a bit of a dag.

Have you tried a free ad in the Advertiser..? Do it online.

Ouch, not a nice way to go. Anyone who has seen that scene in the film, Dante's Peak, where the swimmers are almost boiled, will get an idea what it's like. Of course, you know I meant something around 35-40C. During the time I lived in NZ I wasn't hugely surprised by the temperature, having always taken an interest in NZ before I got there. Many people think, when they go, that it's going to be boiling hot, lots of the time. But its proximity to Antarctica, and its latitude, and otherwise relative isolation from land, means the temperatures are only a bit better than they are here in Southampton and the SW in UK. Unless you get up to Rotorua, Thames, the Coromandel, and NW of Auckland, of course. Frankly, I always found Christchurch a tad chilly..! And it was f**king freezing most of the time in Gore.

Zero in Southampton. Can't believe that. Popped my feeble flu-ridden head outside, and it wasn't exactly a cold blast.

Dear oh dear, high summer in Rotorua..! Go jump in one of the hot pools mate.

In which case I've time for a few whiskies. BTW, lunchtime..? At 8.30am [or 9.30 depending if your clocks are forward]

No, that's for next season. I mean before that.

Well if there was one thing about Terry Paine it was his incredible vision. What old phrase did Ted Bates used to say..?

Tbh, it's our own fault for not having enough quality at SFC. To be depending on other clubs players being allowed to stay on loan to you is a sign of real desperation. Where's the next lowest point we're going to sink to..?

Clever..!