St Landrew

Just seen the Bourdais-Massa incident again, this time fully awake. What was Bourdais meant to do..? He wasn't a lapped car, in fact he was in front of Massa on the track..! And he gets the penalty for having Massa run into him. And the Hamilton penalty is just ridiculous. He overran the corner, and out braked himself. Big deal. Drivers do that all the time, but if they don't hit anybody, they don't get penalised for it, whether they hold up another driver or not. I didn't see Hamilton hit anybody, but I saw Massa hit two cars, and got punished for one, and got rewarded for the other. I have nothing against Ferrari, or any other manufacturer. Tbh, I couldn't care less. What I don't like is blatant biased decision making, and this is it. The Fix is most definitely in again.

I think you mean Club team and National team. Unless George has been quietly managing the Rest Of The World team without me knowing it.

I loved the time travel. Always have, ever since reading H.G.Wells The Time Machine. I found that the change from isolated, but linked stories, to one storyline flowing through an entire [the 3rd] series was probably the limit for occasional dip in, dip out viewers. They couldn't understand why situations were as the were, because they had never seen key previous episodes, and hence the audience drop off, and the heave-ho decision. I'm sure if one sees the 3rd series episodes one after another in correct order, they'ed be bloody good. But who, but the most dedicated of viewers are going to do that..? Well, now I've got them all sorted, probably me..! DS9 never quite did it for me, although it was fun. Perhaps because there was no Enterprise ship around. It was a bit too Babylon 5 for my liking, and that was simply awful IMO.

Why did she change her name then..? EDIT: Ah, the character's original name..Doh..!

Yeah, didn't you know..? He'd just got to the end of the start-finish straight on his first lap, when the race ended, making him 16th..!

Can't argue with any of these choices. I was extremely vocal, as I have never been since, against the appointment of Steve Wigley. I couldn't believe the stupidity of his promotion, and Lowe's lame reasons for doing so. Nothing against SW at all, he was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Rupert's total ignorance of what was required was incredibly revealing though. Once again, it was SFC falling foul to the cheap option. They had done just that in Paul Sturrock, but he was getting some excellent performances from the players. The games mentioned before at Eastlands and Molineux, were amongst the best away performances I've seen from a modern Saints team. Although I opposed his appointment, I realised Sturrock knew what he was doing. His appointment may have lacked ambition, but his sacking was a terrible decision. I would also add the injury to Michael Svensson as well. It's entirely possible we may have still been a well-run-Premiership-club, as everyone kept calling us, if Svensson hadn't become badly injured. Certainly, these 3 incidents were the key factors, for me.

Funnily enough, I realise this is the only incident I saw LIVE this morning. I woke up around 6.30am and decided to get a glass of water, then remembered the race was going on, so I turned on the TV. Immediately, I saw Bourdais coming out of the pits and Massa coming down the straight. Bourdais was ahead, and out of the pit lane lines, when Massa came alongside around the corner, squeezing Bourdais, and they lightly touched, throwing Massa into a spin. Both the ITV commentators immediately said it was Massa's own silly fault. I turned the TV off and went back to bed thinking... I bet if anyone gets punished, it'll be the other guy. It's very difficult to remain open minded about F1. BTW, well done Alonso, and congratulations Ponty.

I'm listening to Radio 4's Afternoon Play from last Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. It's HMS Surprise, which is from Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. Everyone has seen Master & Commander, with Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, and this is the 2nd book. Great stuff too. And in this case, I'm 99.9% sure I can give you a link to the first episode without breaking any forum rules or laws: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00drz1k It starts about a couple of minutes in. You've got until Wednesday next to listen to it. Or record it for later, like I did.

That's easy Robsk. TNG set itself up to be the premier ST series back then. It was going to send out a moral statement with every episode. What actually happened was that it lost every last sense of real ST humour, and the acting was downright stiff and wooden, made worse by Patrick Stewart's slightly stagey peformances. And when they tried to bring back the humour, it lost its credibility. Don't get me wrong though, a strong episode of TNG is good ST entertainment, usually involving Data a lot. Have to say that I liked it a lot when it first appeared. It's only watching the odd repeat over the years that it appears so stiff. Voyager didn't take itself quite so seriously, even though the premise was that the ship was in an extreme scenario. The writing and acting are better IMO, and the ST humour came back ever so slightly, with the Doctor. This is where Enterprise scores highly for me. It's much more like TOS, but in an up-to-date presentation. Plus, being set as a prequel to all of ST too, it allows the Enterprise crew to make gaffs, and they don't know all the answers yet. So they get themselves into some quirky situations. And of course, Jolene Blalock is quite a draw too, as was Jeri Ryan in Voyager.

No, not the ol' ship, but the last series Paramount tried on us. I must admit, I didn't think it was that brilliant when it was first broadcast on CH4, and they didn't seem that keen either. My lack of enthusiasm may or may not have something to do with with the fact that the BBC had been the de facto spritual home of Star Trek in the UK up until then, and I just couldn't get my head around the adverts. In fact, that may have a lot to do with it, thinking about it, as I loathe ad-break-laden commercial TV generally. But I recorded those episodes in any case, and recently, I've been piecing them together, to edit out the bloody adverts, and watch them properly again. And I'm surprised. In fact, I can't believe the Americans gave it the heave ho. It's bloody good. It's way better than TNG and DS9, and it's as good as Voyager and TOS, but in its own way. Actually, I'm a bit sad they won't be making any more. Am I alone in thinking this..?

Not long now. Let's get these last races over and done with. No more adverts: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2008/09/29/bbcs-2009-f1-team-will-be-legard-brundle-coulthard-humphrey-and-mckenzie/ I might even start properly enjoying F1 again.

Just seen qualifying. Not bad entertainment at all. Well done Hamilton. Now for the win tomorrow.

Super attitude. My Mum is 93, and she and her twin sister are still going strong. She gets a bit forgetful, but loves being involved in conversation, and enjoys a good laugh. Her hips play her up quite badly at times, but there's no talking of dying. She isn't scared of it, rather than being apprehensive of the unknown. Me..? I recently turned 50 and I'm a stone overweight. I could do with shedding the extra pounds, as it would allow me to feel a bit more energetic. I could start now for next summer - now there's a positive thought..! I obviously think about dying more than I used to when I was in my youth, but it doesn't fascinate me. Sure, I'm scared a bit. But that's because I want to do a few special things in my life, and be fit enough, before I get too old. If anything, I'd like to be able to determine when I've had enough, and not linger. My Dad died at 85, and so 35 more years would do me just fine.

Never mind. Blacklight Power is just around the corner. Then the oil companies, M.E. can go... Don't know what the C of the E is going to do without his tax income though.

Well the companies buy their oil in big batches, which then must be used up. So you have the contemporary retail price not reflecting the barrel price. And which is why the price takes so long to go down. But it's true, the price appears to go up at the merest sniff of a barrel increase. That's when the real profits are made. Of course, the Chancellor of the Exchequer wins in every which way.

Nice one.

Yeah, same here.

I don't want a motorbike. I want to stay warm in the winter..! Well now you can: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v9-hMlN19NE&NR=1 Who wants one..?

Whatever anyone's opinion of Lowe/Wilde's choice of footballing philosophy at St Mary's, at the moment JP is doing as well as anyone could, given the resources at his disposal. Being almost totally constructed from inexperienced young players, and older players who are knocking on the door of their use-by date [let's leave Svensson out of that debate though], he has very little to choose from, player wise, that he can depend upon. I'm very much undecided whether Saints should be going down this road, but there's no denying a few things: 1. This is the cheapest, perhaps only sustainable route; a very well trodden path by SFC. 2. The team play some truly excellent flowing football at times. 3. I couldn't see anyone doing better than JP, given the circumstances. 4. Without major a investment/takeover, we appear to be stuck with this philosophy. Yes, there are glaring problems which will take time to solve. But there's no point in jumping ship [because we can't anyway], or summing up JP's performance until it is absolutely beyond doubt that he cannot improve the team's position any more. In which case, there would need to be a philosophy change again - which appears to be impossible, given the circumstances. So it's up to us to either be positive, or to view the scenario as if we stuck between a rock and a hard place.

No, as it happens, I do too. The French do it every time they crap though. The Bidet..?

Depends whether you are enjoying it a little too excessively,I would of thought MB. This bottom of the barrel scraping regarding your chosen new thread subject matter is beginning to take on epic proportions. Where will it all lead, I ask myself..?

Yeah, I find the blanket coverage of the law to be, frankly, pathetic. Take West Quay Road. There are times during the evening, when this dual carriageway could take isolated traffic at 40mph with ease, because of the traffic there, that is so sparse. But no, we have to crawl along at 30mph. Several years back, when I was newly back in town, after living in Kent, I pottered down this empty road at around 10pm, at [apparently] 36mph. I was caught by the speed camera, and had 3 points added. For the resources and time it consumed, someone could have looked at the context, intention, and realised there was very little in the way of law breaking during the incident. I should have made the 3 points worthwhile, and wheelied up the road.

Another memeber of the newly discovered microwaving bacon fan club.

That's right saint stevo. Do your upmost to ruin the thread. Here's a link for Marco's perfect bacon sandwich: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article4296369.ece

I'm just the messenger. It's Marco Pierre White's idea. Admittedly though, it's not the worst culinery one I've ever come across. And if you really microwave the bacon to death, it does become crisp. But by then it has long got past it's best flavour and texture. Heavily salted bacon becomes crisp much easier, and is the better for it. IMO, lightly salted bacon is better left moist and juicy. BTW, I love some of the obvious enthusiasm in these posts. Le god, I'm salivating..!