StephenFord

Well, there we are - Fynger appeared as if by magic. How does that work then? Did somebody polish a lamp or something? !!!

Winter 1962/63 timetable, the sum total of Sunday trains on the far north line was the 11.35 Lairg to Inverness. Nothing at all on the Kyle line.

Re #39 - Michael, I am shocked! - Don't you realise how un-PC "golly" is these days? It has terrible racist conotations...etc. etc.

Re #29 - too true. I don't know if they start texting while the lights are on red (or maybe get their knitting out). Then suddenly there is a hoot from behind and they look up, see the empty road in front of them, and start to ponder "Now where on earth did I put the gear lever?" Never mind these "Think once, think twice, think bike" signs by the side of the road. What we need is "Don't multi-task when driving!"

Every silver lining has a cloud, Carni !

I couldn't possibly comment !

Pardon?

Re #26 - Agreed. Same with the folk offering to take up my fabled "accident" and "PPI" cases. They already claim to know about these things (even though I don't) so why bother wasting my time - just send me the cheque and I'll cash it.

Across the road from St Faith's in the Google picture is the shop at the corner of Bathley Street and Mundella Road where my dad and his parents lived in the 1920s. It was a sweet shop in those days, and known as 144 Bathley Street, although it appears to be listed as 81 Mundella Road now. My grandparents were married at St Faith's on 8 April 1913. My grandmother's address on the marriage certificate was shown as 37 Beauvale Road.

Ah well, if this topic disappears, at least Fynger has told us in advance where he'll park it !

Love it! - I really asked for that...

My mum used to polish my shoes every morning while I was eating my breakfast, before going to school. (I know - I should be ashamed of myself!) I don't polish my shoes every day, but I do make a point of doing them in preparation for Sunday. I had an uncle who was in the RAF during the war. He followed military standards in shoe cleaning - removing the laces before polishing them, and also cleaned the soles prior to polishing across the instep (but not the rest of the sole, as it made them too slippery on smooth surfaces).

How can you be sure they were the same ones - did you ring them? !

You're right Lizzie - it drives me insanitary !!!!

Oh, and by the way, seize is another that defies the I before e rule.

Then there is the confusion between I and me - especially when talking about two people including oneself (he said carefully!) - thus : "My wife and I are going shopping." [not my wife and me] BUT "They sent my wife and me a card." [not my wife and I] How to tell? Try it without the other person. You wouldn't say "Me am going shopping..." nor would you say "They sent I a card..." Of course, there is a grammatical reason too!

Here's another - we're instead of were (another example of aberrant apostrophe syndrome) - and were isn't the same as where either !

In a similar line, I remember a bloke at Derby carriage works, who had been off sick. When he returned to work the foreman asked him what was the trouble. He replied "Hardening of the architraves."

Compo - re #219 - also PROSTRATE when they mean PROSTATE !

Tomlinson - re-#217 - you forgot to add "...whether I need it or not!"

When we moved to Long Eaton in 1954, our 1930s semi had an outside toilet and coal house, just a step across from the back door. (The intervening space was roofed over, but not enclosed at the ends. There was also a light outside the back door, but not in the loo itself. (This was remedied with an adaptor and flex, threaded through a hole drilled in the top frame of the door - enough to give "elfin safety" heart flutters. The smell of the lavatory (at least in Winter) was the residual paraffin fumes, from the little lamp that burned to prevent the pipes from freezing. (It also made it just abo

Bubblewrap (nothing to do with the ROF!) in the mid 50s the 7.35 Nottingham - Bristol was quite often an un-rebuilt Patriot (turn and turn about with Jubilees and Black 5s - and occasional rebuilt Patriots, of which 45536 "Private W Wood, VC" was one that sticks in my mind.)

Re #40 (re #38) - Lizzie - he meant "use" not "sue" - I also get knotted fingers when typing fast sometimes !

But that's part of Murphy's law isn't it? - The other queue always moved faster!

Very much agreed! I would contend that if a sign cannot be seen (or not seen until it is too late) then it cannot be enforced either. I also get cross with road signs that obstruct direction boards. Surely there must be some proper standard for their layout?