barclaycon

Yes. The attempts to re-create railways scenes from days gone by are always laughable. Their attention to detail is very poor. For example, how many times have you seen concrete sleepers on what was supposed to be a Victorian railway? The engines always look immaculately clean as well. They assume that if they just use a heritage railway - any heritage railway, that will be OK. Having said that, I did enjoy the 2 part thing on BBC 1 about the Great Train Robbery.

The centre of Derby is truly dreadful. Up towards Friargate isn't bad, but what is supposed to be the centre of town is awful. A perfect example of bad town planning. Bizarre looking box-type buildings and office blocks that don't appear to be occupied. I remember when they shut the old bus station to replace it with that 'office block'. For about 2 years it was utter chaos getting in and out of Derby because they'd also decided to re-model the traffic system at the same time as closing the bus station. The Eagle Centre was always dreadful and they've obviously tried to modernise with the

Couldn't have said it better myself Rob ! Pixie: I don't think the proposed £50 million face lift is going to restore Broadmarsh to anything like its early years. First of all, people don't have the disposable income that they did then. Shoppers aren't prefering the internet just because of convenience - cost is a major factor. Secondly, the shop rents and business rates are so excessive now that retailers aren't queuing up to get in there. Even if they did, they would have to charge absurdly high prices. Thirdly - getting there. Driving in is a nightmare and very costly. Parking is a jok

I'll second that. Apparently they are going to spend £50 million to try and tart it up. More money down the drain.

The Poundland phonemenon seems to be based on the old adage of "pile 'em high - sell 'em cheap". In other words making a small profit on something is sufficient if they are going sell loads. And in a recession (yes, we are still in a recession!) they are definitely going to clean up. But you have to be careful that you are not being misled by buying things that seems cheap, only to find that the quantity is small, or the quality is not that good. I think shoppers now, out of necessity, are very canny and go to various different places instead of just doing a big weekly shop (which is what

One could spend an entire afternoon in the Co-Op Store on Parliament Street. It was an impressive and inviting place. My Dad took us for a meal once in the top floor restaurant. It was very posh! My memory of the store is that it was always busy and full of people. We left Nottingham in the late 70's and when I came back to visit years later I was so shocked to see the building almost derelict. Just stood and stared at the place. Hard to believe that such a popular store had declined to such an extent that they'd had to close it. As for Broadmarsh... I'm told that it's mostly boarded up a

The Sunday papers and news bulletins are still full of this farce whereby ex Co-Op chairman Paul Flowers was caught buying Coke, Meth and Ketamine. It turns out that this guy, who was in a position of great responsibility, had no financial experience whatsoever! How the hell did he end up in charge of a bank holding billions of pounds of people's money ? He was also a Labour member of Bradford Council and a member of the industry and finance board for Labour. Clearly he knew how to work the system. Appearing before a committee of MPs earlier this month, Mr Flowers appeared to have "no gras

I've never been a fan of Terry Wogan, to me he is the epitome of someone who's made a little go a very long way. But I really can't stand seeing him on 'Children In Need' - coming across as Mr. Charitable. I don't know about now, but he used to get paid £10,000 every time he did the show - the only celebrity to do so. In 2006 this 'anomaly' was brought to light that he'd received a fee all these years. At the time he was on £800,000 a year working on Radio 2, and he'd even had the nerve to write an article in the Sunday Telegraph about overpaid presenters. He was heavily criticised when hi

Like most things. The Co-Op is just a name now. The heritage means nothing. All the ethical stuff is meaningless when the bank lies about the state of their finances and then gets bought out by a hedge fund.

Co-Ops are really expensive. You're paying over the odds for the convenience of having a local store open till late. On a side note, the Co-Op used to be everywhere - not just shops. They had lots of land in Nottingham. I played football for CWS Colts. A Co-Op football team. They had a load of football pitches in Lenton opposite the Three Wheatsheaves pub. Long since built over. I also worked one summer for the Co-Op electrical servicing department at Oakdale Road, Carlton.

If there is one thing we do well in this country, it's electrical fittings. The modern day 3-pin mains plug is a masterpiece of design both in functionality and safety. Same with light fittings and switches etc. All conservatively rated and solidly made. It's only when you go to France or Italy or many other EU countries that you realise how flimsy and flakey their electrical installation can be. In fact I would go so far as to say that some of them are downright lethal. I've had shocks many a time trying to get a lamp or the TV to work in French hotels! Our mains plugs have big brass squ

Just as a matter of interest, does anyone remember when they didn't change the clocks one year for daylight saving? I remember it very well. Going to school in the dark. It was very strange and rather dangerous. Nobody liked it and I wasn't suprised when they went back to the original system and haven't changed it since.

Graham Stark was a big mate of Peter Sellers and was always popping up in Sellers' films like The Pink Panther. (Same with David Lodge - also one of Sellers' close friends). 91 is a pretty good innings..... RIP

Yes that's right it was 47 years. 21st. October 1966. Even Pirate radio broadcast news of the disaster at the time. It's worth checking the Wiki entry about this terrible occurance. It was totally the National Coal Board's fault for tipping on what were clearly marked springs. The chairman of the NCB at the time Lord Robens came in for extreme criticism for his failure to act, his reluctance for the NCB to take any blame, and for taking money from the public disaster relief fund to remove the remaining tips above Aberfan. Such was the Labour government's embarressment about this that in 1

Yep. That's a good one!

I've caught up with this thread rather late, so I may be repeating stuff that's already been posted. The things our parents said frequently didn't make any sense and it was only the tone of their voice that told you the intention. I vividly remember: 'I'll make you laugh on the other side of your face' (if you didn't have the appropriate look whilst being chastised). 'Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry for' 'Blood and sand !!' (obviously some kind of exclamation - never worked out the meaning) Somebody mentioned 'Sh1t with sugar on'. My mum used to say that a lot - usually in

Limey wrote: I must admit that I have never found this to be the case. In fact, it would seem to be the exact opposite. Soft water gives you a much better cup of tea. Hard water gives you lots of stuff floating on the top. Best cup of tea I ever had was at a studio near Bath. When I asked them what brand it was, they said PG Tips. It was the water that made it taste nice. Where I live now the water quality is not so good. In fact we had a case of Cryptosporidium some years back and couldn't drink the water for a few days. Since that time they seem to have increased the amount of chlorin

Supermarket's don't care. Automated check outs are just a means to saying 'put your money in here, pack your stuff, now piss off'

Everybody hates them. It's indicative of business in the 21st Century. Treat the customer with utter contempt.

Yeah well at the risk of being deleted again, I'm sure that's very little comfort to Pixie.

I sent basfordred a PM and also posted here that maybe we should be mindful of Pixie's post. Both disappeared.

It would seem that posts in this thread have been deleted. That is very sad indeed. It indicates that either you can't stand your view being challenged, or you don't want people to participate.

I don't need to google about drug cartels in Mexico. I'm basing my view on personal experience having seen some of my personal heroes flush their talent down the drain and even die. I've heard all about 'experiments' in places like Portugal and the semi-legalisation of cannabis in Holland. It doesn't tell the whole story. The handing out of free syringes in Portugal didn't lessen the problem, and the 'brown cafe' situation in places like Amsterdam became so serious that it had to be scaled back. Drug use will only be lessened by exposing it for what it is; a complete folly. A way of mess

Stabo - Stapleford Ayna - Heanor t' toppaahse - White Lion (Bramcote)

None of that criminal behaviour would stop after legalisation. There is now a kind of creeping liberalisation whereby more and more previously 'unacceptable' behaviour is becoming acceptable. That's when society begins to break down. Police saying that's there's nothing they can do about it. Idiotic decisions by people like Blunkett to go soft on cannabis - calling it Class C when modern day skunk is more like Class A (unlike the 'jazz woodbines' that he probably smoked at university). That whole shambles resulted in a massive increase in kids using dope and in Police not bothering to do