hamster

The Euro Electron Card? Aren't all bank accounts in effect multi-currency nowadays anyway? If I go to any cash machine in the World I think my balance can be shown in local currency. What with Globalisation too, we are basically just kidding ourselves that the we are seperate from others (in particualr Europe). Billions is made from us somewhere along the line for the 'priviledge' of thinking we are special but imho we most definitely are noe, we're a cash-cow, and as we are bottom of the financial food-chain, we pay. As for the EU, I quite like the idea.

We'd never have guessed.

To my parents, yes I agree. Bit late now though, the damage is done.

Were you ever brave enough to venture into 'Cat's Eyes' in the woods behind the war memorial? We virtualy lived in there as kids. Far too 'off topic' for this thread, not to mention this forum methinks. Suffice to say, I am beaming reading and writing on the forum over the past few weeks, quite literally just what the doctor ordered. You'll also be acquanted with the Gypsy community of the Medway area, I most certainlly am? mrs h being proper Chatham and the Grand-daughter of a bare-knuckle fighter. I've probably told people this before but the term 'Pikey' comes from the fact that Gypsies would pitch up on major 'turnpikes' genuine traders and fantastically loyal and protective of their 'own'. The major turnpike en-route from the Kent coast to London being an area of Watling Street now known as Luton Arches nowadays. It's at the bottom of Chatham Hill, not far from Ash Tree Lane. If you google 'Ash Tree Lane' you'll quite likely find some old photos of Gypsies parked up for the winter there, they used to pick fruit and hops when the seasons dictated and worked damned hard apparently. Chatham is full of Gypys families, known disaffectionately by ignorant locals a s diidicoi. The term 'come s from Dadica, which is also wher we get the word 'Dad' from, as it was originally an affectionate term for a family elder. Whilst I am on the subject,our Daughter got married a couple of years back and we discovered that if she had wanted, she could have had a proper gypsy marraige at the Wickham Horse Fair due to her lineage! How brilliant would that have been? You say you moved from Medway down to Egerton, that's qute near Horsmondon, another Gypsy 'stronghold and an extremely important traditional horse fair for the community which the police tried to ruin a couple of years back. The locals were up in arms apparently.

Sing Somethink Simple. What memories does it really evoke? Well this is a bit of a tough one to recount for me as will be revealed in a mo. It meant 'bath night', washing in your brother's and sister's wee. It meant washing your hair with fairy liquid, because shampoo was for the better off families. It meant 'have you done your homework'? It meant Swiss Roll and custard. It meant freezing cold winter nights huddled around the night storage heater that had concrete blocks in it (??) wearing/sharing a towel. It meant Mum burning a perfect iron sole-plate scald mark onto my cherry red schooll jumper. It meant Dad spitting on and polishing my school shoes up to a shine that would pass a parade ground inspection. He would sometimes use the back of a heated spoon (?). It meant all seven (Yes SEVEN) tortoises vying to be the closest to that same storage heater. ASll of their names began with an 'H' for some inexplicable reason. It meant some neighbour knocking on the door to tell Mum that Auntie Cyn (from Huddersfield) had phoned the callbox across the road and would be ringing back in 5 minutes to speak to her. Auntie Cyn lived in Fannymoor Lane, I loved that. It meant all this culminating in one fateful Sunday evening, an otherwise non-eventful evening apart from all of the above happening as it did almost every week of our young lives. When OOOOUUUUCCHHHH!!!! OUUUUUCCCHHHH!!!!!!!!! As I sat there in this blssful existence enjoying my Swiis Roll and custard, one of those little bastard tortoises - Hector - had crept under the threadbare towel that I had around me and decided that he was going to treat himself to a little snack. Yep, although they had had a feast of Dandelions he was still hungry. He took one look at what must have appeared to be in the darkness under that towel God knows what, opened his little mouth as wide as it would open and bit doan onto my 'tail'. OOOUUUUCCCHHHH!!! By golly, did my little foreskin sting for a while. It didn't make the situation any beter with Mum trying to calm me down to 'have a look'. Before anyone says it: No scar, NO RULE 1.

Bates. THREAD CLOSED

Sweeet of you Gaffer, surely worth a pint next time our paths cross.

I agree with you mate, Leeds are not dirty any more, they've had to learn to play a bit of football to succeed. Dubia Phil could put together a dirtier team imo. What dya reckon T9? Hope you're okay now btw? In all honesty, one thing that being in the lower echelons has taught me is that if there is one team that does deserve to be hated it is those plastic Maccy D's that we whipped last week. Everyone else (teams and fans alike) down here in Div 3 (and 4 for that matter) has fought for the right to play each other, and they (MKD) have absolutely no right to walk on the same turf as us, Leeds or anyone else (I'd even go as far as to include lowly Pompey too). Leeds yes, Pompey yes, but MK Dons? a definite NO imo. This league has more than anything else, taught me to respect other teams, even 'Dirty' Leeds. Anyway, the first time I set foot on the hallowed turf was when Saints played Leeds back in the play-off season, I do believe that we helped send them down with that win too. Anyone else remember this: Vain? Who? Me? Never.

Took me a minute to see what you were on about as I went straight in to the top link. How the doodah did you do that? (I thought I'd already had my 15 minutes at the Forum match).

Now that you mention it, I do recall him talking of having a 'Panther' at some point but it was well before my arrival on the scene. As a kid I just remember that he always had combinations. The only one that I actually do remember was the Ural Cossack though. I googled it and found that 750, I thought Dad's was a 500 though? The reason I remember it so well was the opposing twin cylinders. Passing him the spanners while he fixed it and tinkered about was great fun and taught me the basics of how an engine worked as all the parts were right there in front of you and not tucked away. He used to say it was his 'poor man's BMW', but to me he was the richest man on the street as not many down our street could afford cars even, and anyway, to my young mind cars were just metal boxes. We had real adventures just sitting in the sidecar pretending we were flying to the moon or anywhere our imaginations would take us. Our holidays started the moment Dad stood up from the seat and put all his weight down on that kickstart, it was even better when it didn't fire up first kick as he'd smile at us from beneath his gold and black cork-lined crash helmet and say something like 'just priming it, everyone ready now?" We would cheer, the dog would bark and we were off. My Dad likes to write fiction (for fun) and I often tell him that he should write stories about our childhood, growing up in those two houses knocked into one on that army estate in Brompton. Hoenstly SL, it was a fantastic time, and one reason it took me so long to properly settle down this way when we moved to be near Nanny 'Eastleigh' after he'd left the army. To avoid hogging the thread and getting too *cough* emotional *cough* I'm off to put the kettle on. PS I went back for a reccy 2 years ago with big Bruv and although I'm a bit vertically challenged, it was surprising how much everything had shrunk! I even climbed into one of the gardens and scrumped a couple of apples for old times sake, the same garden that I remember all those years ago knicking a set of combats from the washing line that were never going to fit either of us, so my brother sold them to a classmate. (Don't tell me Dad). This sign meant nothing to us little reprebates (sp): http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10503422 And this is where I first stood and watched Gills reserves play Watford reserves, and got chased by some school mates across 'The Great Lines' just cos I was wearing a hand-knitted black and orange wooly hat that Mum had made for me. Bastards: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10503779 It didn't have the executive boxes back in the 70's though.

Do you have a feeb with butshers then?

This does demonstrate just how well run our site is imo. There was a big dip when the subs were introduced, but i sense that it's found a decent level now and the fun is coming back. Yes there are big bust ups, but I think that we are starting to respect each other and realise that the fact that we all type from the soullless keyboards does not mean that WE are soulless. I know of so many heart rending stories of others on here and they make one realise that we are not just a load of strangers, we are a load of real people, leading real lives wit real feelings. The respect is creeping back and I for one like it here. Long live The Forum.

8/15 for the drop now Glad I got my tenner on early.

Nice machine, looks like a bike and probably sounded like a decent old Jap 2 stroke too. Hockley lights! The scene of my first encounter witha car's bumper. Was my fault for riding whilst tired. I suddenly realised that the traffic ahead had stopped so I slammed the anchors on ('anchors', another great word). Back wheel locked up and I skidded in a dead straight line gently coming to rest against the car in fronts bumper with a gentle thud. As I was already ****ting myself I just sat there, fet on the pegs ('pegs', another cracking word) and slowly, very slowly the bike and I fell sideways. Noone got hurt, no damage was caused to either bike nor car and I learnt a very valuable lesson. Okey Dokey, my 750? I am duty bound to my old man to include a combination as a way of thanking him/getting him back for all those happy hours squashed in the sidecar of one with my Mum, my 2 sisters, my little brother and our pet dog. Skate Bruv always got to ride pillion. Try to picture it; all seven of us plus Patch the dog off on our summer hols. Dad made a little fold down seat for my little brother that went down after the 2 girls had got in the back, Mum and me had squeezed in the front and the dog was thrown on the shelf at the front. Each of us had a carrier bag of clothes to last the whole holiday as we trundled down the A2 to stay with Nan in Deal. Happy times. I would love to pull up in front of Mum and dad's house tomorrow riding a Ural Cossack 750. You will not convince me that there is a bike on this planet that would put a bigger smile on my face. Over to you.

Could be a Vit C overdose. You think it's the OJ, but the OD could be from one of the many other food items in your pantry (what a brilliant word - I challenge everyone to use that word at least once before the weekend, you will be uplifted) that are high in Vit C.

I have a friend who referees. He reckons that he is owed about £50 for reffing a youth game for them.

Although it was a litle TIC, I wasn't actually suggesting defrauding the club nor wasting a seat. I would encourage Will to take a youngster if his GF isn't going, and should she decide to go then he could offer a lend of the kids ST to someone on here. Adde bonus that he also gains some much needed popularity points amongst fellow posters. See. There is a thin line between madness and genius and I can step across that line and back with grace, finesse and flair.

LOL @ Orient fans arguing about where to put visiting supporters. LOL Oh.

A Red one and a White would work on more levels I say.

Accept your point, but where else can someone reach such an audience when selling and find virtually anything on this planet for sale. Fees are steep for the work involved in running it, but nothing compares imo. I think that they should be made to split from PayPal but it'll never happen and I have noted too that they now have a finger in the Parcel2Go people. One day they will own the world.

Bath night, thanks for reminding me. I am the middle of 5 kids and MUM and Dad trying to be fair would alternate between the youngest and eldest having the first dip. I was always bathing in someones filth and these were the days when you really did get scum around the bath. I also remember that we would have massive catering boxes of cereal from the NAAFI (army brats), which would take forever to get through, by the time we'd get near to the bottom of the box we were desperate for a change. None of these fancy 'choco' cereals that we have nowadays. Anyway, you'd reach the last corn flake and eagerly await a crate of rice snaps the following day, but the amount of times that Dad would park his combination up and proudly carry in another box of bloody cornflakes traumatised me. I am sure he did it on purpose. Those massive boxes were brilliant though, they were turned into; castles, tanks, dens anything your yound mind could conjur up. Oh I love this reminiscing lark. I could go on forever. And to keep on topic, Gaffer, you mist remember the Ovaltinies surely?

If you are serious there is a chap who I work with who organises overnight stays in local haunted establishmants. They are out this weekend as it is hallowe'en, although he does stress that the dates are pretty insignificant to spirits in his experiences. I could pm you his facebook group but he doesn't like p***takers.

Anyone remember the flower seller woman down Queensway (opp Debenhams)? She had that pitch for donkey's ears ad I seem to recall that when she passed away it turned out that she was absolutely loaded. She used to get down the flower market really early to get the best blooms and I guess her overheads were zilch. We've always had good flower sellers in town for some reason, I always buy some of the chap in Above Bar for mrs h.

Sort of on this this subject, does everyone know that a Hampshire Hog is actually a lamb. FACT

People fro Portsmouth are NOT ****s. My brother is from Portsmouth and he is not a ****. Moist people from Portssmouth are ****s. hth