Friendly chat

I'm in the Flying Standard, for a jar, but might have a bite in Italia.

Oooo we are in the same obit Helen. I had sausage, bacon, fried tomatoes, 2 eggs, mushrooms and one round of fried bread. I didn't have any baked beans as there were none in the pantry - for lunch. I was in the mood for a good lunch. I usually only have fruit at lunchtime but I gave way today.

I stayed in the Flying Standard & enjoyed an apple crumble with ice cream Boooootifuel.

Now I am drooling. A favourite for us Shepherds but with fresh cream.

Very sad, a new series of fissures have opened up in Iceland but this time next to the town of Grindavik. There was a daring rescue of construction vehicles, that had been trying to build an embankment to protect the town but the rift chopped through it. The rift is still moving closer to the town. Fortunately everyone was evacuated (for the second time) and apart from one poor guy who was lost in a crevasse a few days ago, there have been no deaths. Video both live and the hours since the eruption started here.

Don't forget to shop around for insurance if you haven't for a while (they now often give you a good deal 2 years in a row to lure you into a false sense of security). My cheapest quote was half the renewal quote.

I often keep an eye on auctions for Coventry pictures. Coming on Wednesday there is this lot. The one that caught my eye was an old photo on the left of photo 2. The pub on the right is the Eagle and Child Inn. Unfortunately the photo is of the Shambles York, not Fleet Street (which had a pub of that name) or Butcher Row that the photo resembles. The lesson is that auctioneers don't always know what they're selling.

Might be of interest to someone Lot 411 in this auction is for old Coventry Bees programs and Lot 558 is for an Autograph book of 50's / 60's Speedway stars

On the net this morning. Coventry has been named on a list as one of the 'most depressing places' to live in the UK. People were asked to rank towns and cities on the ilivehere.co.uk website based on how awful they were to live in. The site ranked the top 50 worst places to live in England, with Coventry and Birmingham making the top 40. Coventry was ranked 17th, whereas neighbouring city Birmingham was ranked 14th. Any thoughts ??

Worst or best are hard to define and depend upon what people want out of life. People want good facilities but don't want the taxes or the population needed to support them. The sheer numbers of people are getting us down. The number of massive warehouses, traffic, noise, pollution. Pretty places resent the tourists and the winter dead period. They resent the lack of jobs and affordable housing for their kids. Ugly places resent the ugliness. Warrington didn't feature on either list because it's just too boring to have an opinion about it.

Good afternoon & pull up a chair, Most folks have their idyllic living notions in their minds, whether they are journalists, residents or visitors. I live where I do because I like it. No, there's no soft island breezes, or the sound of the breakers hitting the sea wall. You should have heard the language from my friends living in Portreath, when I told them about my beautiful cod & chips from Venus costing £6, when they had just paid £17 for theirs. Oh, I've got my dental appointment in a bit. "What's that they asked? I said folk who look after my teeth, just seven minutes walk away from my home. The jury inside of my head has already reached its verdict.

January is my least favourite month. Christmas is over. The weather is bad... very bad this year. The Herbert archives are shut for a large part of the month. The tax form is due. I never make New Year resolutions in January because I need too much consolation. What's your least favourite month?

Helen, I have advocated for years for the removal of January from the calendar for the same reasons as yourself. I have only received resistance to the idea from one person, my daughter. I suspect that is because she was born in January and does not want to miss birthday presents

I long had the theory that humans were a few generations away from being able to hibernate through the winter when we discovered fire. Funnily enough, a few years ago they discovered that we do have the hibernation gene but it is turned off. Only central heating prevents me from turning it back on by will power alone. Brrrrrr.

I find keeping warm relatively easy as the cold does not bother me that much. Its keeping dry that I find a real pain.