dellboypete

How strange! I booked a hotel in Paris yesterday (Versailles to be precise). We have stayed there quite a lot as my daughter lives there - needed a hotel for the weekend after next (clash with brum away sadly). Lastminute do these "Secret hotels" but with a bit of googling you can usually guess which one - I saved over 100 quid booking this one, its a top 4* for two nights compared to the usual lastminute, latebookers etc, and over 200 on the hotel website. I have used these sites for hotels throughout Europe and the Middle East and saved a packet. It's always worth checking the hotel websites directly as they often have good special offers.

I love Happy Endings!! My son is getting married on the 28th April in Cornwall. He is a mad Saints fan too and it was a big decision for him to plan the wedding on the last day of the season! However, what better wedding present than promotion having already been achieved!!

Bought my wife a kindle when they came out and we were very impressed. Then got her an ipad2 and the kindl became redundant so I sarted using it (complete with pink leather cover!) and love it (not the cover). I travel alot and have have found it brilliant especially as you can download pdf's so I can take a chunk of work on it too. I also have the kindle app on my iphone which is really handy if I get stuck in a pub (for example) with nothing to read. I find it fantasic that the iphone and kindle sync with each other so they know how far you have got in a book on either device!

On train back from Derby (handy mother in law for all midlands and north games!) Really enjoyable game and well deserved win. Few plus points: 1: thought Morgan was again really good and what an outstanding goal. He could do that regularly if he had the confidence. Him and Cork were my outstanding players. 2: What about Martin? When he came in earlier in the season I had a few doubts. But what a difference a few games make. He is beginning to look confident. 3: excellent support as usual ( including those guys in row W trying to get the atmosphere going - I was on Y just behind. 4: meeting Eric, as in Arabia, outside the station. I'd been in the Fellows pub before and after and missed him. Excellent pub by the way. Eric - hope mrs EoA recovers soon!!

Hi Eric, got me confused (as usual) - you here or there? I'll be visiting the http://www.fellowsmortonandclayton.co.uk/ as recommended by Ex Ringwood Saint in the other thread (it's close to the station and I'll be getting train from in-laws) If you're not here - hope you are enjoying your winter! (just to make you jealous we spent xmas/n year skiing in france - best skiing for years.

My sister was a teacher (now retired) at a primary school in Shirley during the 75th anniversary of the sinking. Like many schools in soton they did lots of projects and I still remember her telling us how surprised she was how many of the children in her school (and probably other schools in the area too) were related to people lost on the Titanic. In her class alone about 75% of the kids were descended in some way. OK, Shirley has always been a traditional area for dock and ship crew, but it's an amazingly high percentage. Even as recently as 25 years ago, the parents of most of her class (who obviously lived in the Shirley area) worked in the docks, on ships or associated businesses

Hmmmm - mrs dbp birthday weekend - any decent spas around there?

We parked in the station car park last time - (relegation from Championship) - it was cheap(ish) and handy for city centre pubs and the ground

I bought a Bosch cordless multifunction tool before Christmas - a bit pricey but this has got to be one the most useful bits of kit I have ever bought. I was looking for something to grind out grout in a shower and the guy in the shop showed me this, demonstrated it (that's how to sell something) and I was hooked. It does so much more than grind out grout!! It also cuts wood, metal in the tightest of corners

I bought my Kamasa socket set in the old tool & army surplus shop down St Mary's Street when I got my first motorbike in the late '60's. It's still going (athough some sockets are worn out) - pity it's AF and not metric!

and it's close to the station!

and 20p off a pint with a CAMRA card!!

I can confirm this statement!

I took some fotos just after KO and the place looks almost deserted - can't believe there were 9000. My comment was that I dont think I have been in such a small crowd in such a big stadium before. I was surprised how many saints fans were there too - I was only expecting 5 or 600 at the most. My first time to the Ricoh - and apart from the location (which was not as bad as I had been led to believe) I thought it is a pretty good stadium

I spent a couple of years working in northern Norway a few years ago and I seem to remember that even Norway has run out of suitable sites for more cost efficient hydroelectric plant

What happened to the Albion Band?

I'm a non-ST and have been to 6 of the 8 aways so far (Plus palace). I didn't get a ST as over the season I know I would be unable to make it economic - I can't do mid-weeks and also travel abroad on work from time to time. However, I agree with some posters here that anyone who is/was prepared to fork out money upfront before the season starts for a ST deserves to get priority. I'm disappointed I couldn't get a ticket for Bristol, but not angry. Good luck to the ST holders. A colleague is a Chelsea ST holder and they have a loyalty points scheme based on buying tickets to away games and especially those "don't want to see" champions league and league cup games. This is then taken into account for the "Must see" champions league semis (haha!) facup semis etc.

My views too - really think our away form has bee inconsistent - so if we started dropping points at home we need to pick them up away from home to compensate. Also haveto agree with Turkish about the next 3 away games - I'd settle for 7 out of 9 points Of course I also believe that the other teams in the race are going to drop needless points here and there as well - so it will be close all the way to the end.

Ha ha! You clearly haven't been on the trains in Poland then! I go there regularly and getting a train can be the proverbial pain. To be fair they are upgrading the Warsaw to Poznan and Warsaw to Gdansk lines - but from what I've seen they'll be lucky to be finished by next summer. I was at a meeting in Gdansk a couple of weeks ago and a colleague got the train up from Warsaw and it took over 5 hours! They are also having problems finishing the motorway upgrades - but they should be good when they have finished (the Poznan to Warsaw motorway suddenly finishes in the middle of nowhere at the moment). The best trip was last winter from Torun (N Poland) to Warsaw. It was -20, blowing a blizzard, and the heating broke down on the train, which then started literally freezing to a halt. A 3 hour trip turned into a 5 hour plus one. Having said all that, Poland is a great country, friendly and with beer around a £1 a pint who's complaining.

Went there for Saints rearranged (due to ML passing on RIP) match last year. Have to say it's potentially one of the better stadia in England. Comfy seats(!) and I liked the open mezzanine type level that looks out over the pitch.

just had a look - pretty good to be fair, but for DC it's the total football that has to win it

Fairly long walk then Eric?

Hmm, probably was very difficult to get real ale in those days when shankley made his famous quote - The big four brewers were buying up all the small brewers and shutting them down e.g. Strongs of Romsey had been bought by Whitbreads and turned into a bottling plant - sacrelidge!

Their away form isn't too brilliant - W2 D1 L4 F10 A13 GD3 Wins at Brizzle C & p***** draw at Millwall So they don't look too good away to me

Highlight of the evening for me was the real Eagle before and at half-time. Awesome bird. Have to agree with some and disagree with others on here: 1. Could and should have wrapped it up in the first half = Palace weren't in it for the first 20 mins 2. Strike force was toothless overall - Forte looked lost at times 3. relatively impressed with Ward-prowse and Reeves 4. nice to see Lee B back - looked woefully short of match fitness which is understandable. He got a great reception 5. Morgan was left with too much to do in midfield - but I still rate him as a class act 6. SRD tried to do too much - I thought he showed some class at times though 7. It was pretty obvious that CP took the game slightly more seriously than NA - the backbone of their side were regular starters in the championship, not that that showed in the first half (or for much of the second) 8. Credit to the blokes in the flat hats behind us who started loads of the singing - how do they manage to keep going all the time!!! On the train back from the game (relatively local for me) was chatting to Palace fans who didn't believe me that we had 9 or 10 changes from our regular starting 11 and that our key player was still out injured Learnt somethings from this game - get the train from Selhurst and not Thornton Heath if you want to get on it after the game!