bridge too far

Has he been innoculated against feline leukaemia, Bridgey? One of my cats exhibited similar symptoms and that was the cause. Mind you, she was pretty ancient. Fingers crossed it's not that - good luck

We had significant snow in 1970. I have reason to remember this well.

However, the sad and sorry fact is that there is more 'culture' in Portsmouth than Southampton. It pains me to say it, but it's true (I mean in the 'arts' sense)

This I like

Some of my favourites courtesy of Oscar Wilde: 'Work is the curse of the drinking classes' 'I can resist anything but temptation' 'Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects' And two of my favourites from Dorothy Parker: 'You can't teach an old dogma new tricks' 'Women and elephants never forget'

How about 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'?

Doubt it - I had to clear up HIS mess to make space for my empty box

Perfume. I left the empty box of my favourite on Mr TF's bedside table. Hopefully he'll get the hint although I may have been a bit too subtle.

It's lucky for her the trial wasn't in the US. She would have been executed.

I wonder what this latest 'short term loan' is secured against?

I thought the law had been changed recently so that agency workers who worked on one contract for a lengthy time (don't know what would classify as that) were in fact deemed to be employed by the company contracting with the agency and entitled to the same conditions as 'permanent' employees. But it's certainly true about holidays. Even agency workers are entitled to 28 days paid holiday a year (EU regulations I believe). DSM would know more I think.

What did you really expect from a bunch of blokes

Easy, JB - easy I thought the PFA WAS their union :confused:

I remember hearing on the BBC in the past day or so that there's no such thing as a digital aerial and that conventional ones work just fine. In fact, there are a lot of people being conned into buying 'digital' aerials when there's no need.

I would vote for Jessica Ennis (because I think it's awesome to adapt to a serious injury by changing her takeoff foot for the jumping events) but I also think Beth Tweddle deserves to be in serious contention too. That girl has done more singlehandedly to raise the profile of Gymnastics in this country to the extent that we are serious contenders for more world medals in addition to the ones that she and her fellow gymnasts have already won.

What a shame I missed that - probably because I've only just taken you off 'ignore'. It must have been a very short list, however. I have one point too - from Ponty - for something so insignificant I can't remember my sin.

We got our TV from Richer Sounds in Cheltenham. They were excellent and very competitive.

A wry smile escaped my lips

Mr TF says there's some talk of Nigel Pearson :shock: Can't see it myself.

Based on truth, I've read. Sunday's episode made me appreciate how much the law has moved on in terms of equality of treatment and freedom of speech. Anything that Alun Armstrong is in is usually excellent IMO.

:shock: My secret's out!

The best trick is to not watch adverts. Simples

I'm sorry you haven't addressed the fact that many employees, both public and private sector cannot afford to contribute to pension schemes. It would be an interesting exercise to work out if it's more cost efficient to pay a decent state pension by clawing back the tax reliefs on contributory pension schemes. To return to my salient point - public sector workers can only retire early on health grounds (this is why nurses can retire early as their backs are often buggered). And they cannot draw any contributory pensions until they are of pensionable age. It is simply not true that they can draw their contributory (or indeed state) pensions early. I know this because I work in the public sector.

Unless, of course, the employee is an executive (e.g. a top of the tree banker like dear old Sir Fred Goodwin). I bet the cost to the employers in such cases far outweighs the cost of any public sector scheme. I wonder who pays for that? The 'customer' do you suppose? In any event, we all pick up the tab in the end. If employees, whether private or public sector, cannot afford to pay in to a pension scheme, they invariably get pension credits when they do eventually retire. Who pays for that I wonder.

Every so often we get this myth about public sector workers and their pensions, don't we :smt102 Perhaps we should examine the truth instead. Public sector workers contribute towards their pensions in the same way as private sector workers contribute towards theirs. Often, in the private sector, the employer makes a contribution as is the case with the public sector. A public sector worker generally cannot retire at 60 unless s/he is a doctor or nurse or female - that is the state retirement age. The pension is calculated on number of years' service x final salary, although this is now changing, certainly in the NHS. An average public sector wage is about £16K. After 20 years' service, a public sector worker earning the average public sector wage will receive about £2K a year pension. But of course most public sector workers are female and, if they've had children, will not have accrued 20 years' service. And, as the pension scheme is voluntary, they often cannot afford pension contributions on such low wages. So most will work until the state retirement age, and beyond if they can. I hope that the myth is finally put to bed - once and for all. FFS! Oh and they don't get 6 weeks' leave either, unless they've been working in the sector for a good number of years.