ValuerJim

Thanks for that. I reckon I'll try Freecycle and Gumtree.

I'm about to refit my bathroom, and have a 1980s Sorrento Blue three piece suite which will be skipped. If anyone out there is into retro and is able to pick it up from Greater Manchester they are welcome to it.

That would be in the same block as Steve Clarke's wallpaper shop, and the shop that sold Meccano, Dinkies, and Hornby.

Do you think the medals look rather large, a bit like the chocolate coins we got as kids for Christmas stocking fillers?

He??? Do you mean She?

We were clearing out our cupboards last weekend when I came across my dad's christening mug from 1906. I'm not sure whether or not I and my sisters were ever christened and, if we were, it's had no lasting effect, but none of my three kids or other family members of their generation have been christened, and I can't think of any friends' children who have been. It seems to have become just a minority social occasion. Is the tradition dying out?

It was quite the opposite for me, Jill. Between the ages of 14 and 16 or so, every other Sunday night meant a trip by bus to my Gran's in Hucknall. My grandfather died soon after I was born. He was a railway engine driver out in Ceylon, and the pair of them lived the colonial life with a bungalow and servants. The stories she told, and the photographs she pulled out, were always the same. I can almost recite some of the stories, and I have several of the photographs, including one of my dad from around 1916 in his sailor's suit. He died in 1988, at 82. Mum died in 2012 at 97, two weeks after

Sounds good, Ian. Is there a decent golf course on Parrot Cay island?

Too much information, Blondie . My grandad was at it three times a week at 80. Trouble was he lived at 78.

We were having this discussion the other week. If all the slugs in the world disappeared overnight, what would be the consequences for the planet? And wasps? We couldn't come to a firm conclusion, so just went back to downing our pints.

71 in October. Still got all my original joints in reasonable working order, and don't take any pills or medication. Just keeping my fingers crossed and my mind active.

Here's another one you might know, Fly. Hope Cove, just along from Salcombe, in south Devon.

That's a coincidence, Lizzie. We stay with friends who also have a cottage in Thwaite. The cottage doesn't have a back door but, if it did, the Pennine Way goes right past it.

Here's one you might know, Fly. Taken last weekend. In Muker, Swaledale.

Llanbedrog is on the south coast of the Lyn Peninsula, between Pwllheli and Abersoch, in north west Wales. The beach is owned by the National Trust, and has a bar restaurant at its western end, overlooked by the 'Tin Man' up on Llanbedrog Head. If you don't know it, you've a treat in store.

And how about W B Yeats? An Irish airman foresees his deathI know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan's poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this lif

Yet more Betjeman, but in a lighter vein: The Executive I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner; I have a Slimline brief-case and I use the firm's Cortina. In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill The maîtres d'hôtel all know me well, and let me sign the bill. You ask me what it is I do. Well, actually, you know, I'm partly a liaison man, and partly P.R.O. Essentially, I integrate the current export drive And basically I'm viable from ten o'clock till five. For vital off-the-record work - that's talking transport-wise - I've a scarlet Aston-Martin - and does s

Well, I'll be buggered Bubblewrap! Does it have EU PDO status, like Stilton and Cornish Pasties? Mum, dad, and grandma loved it but we kids gave it a wide berth.

Stick with it. There's only two more to go, and it can't get any worse, can it? Every cloud has a silver lining, though. I watched it on IPlayer, and found a series of 21 classic railway films from the BBC archives. You've probably seen them all before but so what?

Is Colwick cheese still available?

I've not seen a silverfish since I was a child. They used to be regular residents behind our fireplace and dad would squash them on the hearth. All great fun.

Pictures can lie, Carni. Does anyone remember the 'white buildings', which were off Cinderhill Road. As kids we were told that it was a German owned factory which closed down during the second war. By the time we discovered them - around 1960 - they were derelict. We used to play in the reeds under the arches of the railway viaduct.

More Betjeman. Oh little body, do not die. The soul looks out through wide blue eyes So questioningly into mine, That my tormented soul replies "Oh little body, do not die You hold the soul that talks to me, Although our conversation be As wordless as the windy sky." So looked my father at the last, Right in my soul before he died, Though words we spoke went heedless past As London traffic-roar outside. And now the same blue eyes I see Look through me from a little son, So questioningly, so searchingly That youthfulness and age are one. My father looked at me and died Before my soul made fu

Another one of Mrs Merton's classic lines. To George Best. 'If you hadn't done all that running round playing football would you have been as thirsty?'