DEEJAYKEG

Godson's band's latest single - MIAMI - out on iTunes tomorrow. (He's the drummer btw.)

It does look like SOB has just cleared the restaurant with a kebab fart...

RIP Steve Strange of Visage who has died aged 55.

Now we know who your teenage idol was...

Looks a good deal on the flexible rate that allows cancellation up to 1pm on the day of booking in - just £24 more in your case. I have benefitted from this last month when illness forced a cancellation. If there is any doubt whatsoever I would recommend going for that rate. Personally, before I could commit, I have to engage in negotiation with the misses. I can get a return train fare for £69.50 which is fine and the travel time isn't at all bad - I'd be there mid-afternoon for early aperitifs. I just don't know if she'd wear a £500+ spend for a clan jolly. It looks good to me and may be the best chance I have of meeting up with some valued friends. So, please bear with me for the time being. I'm not getting any younger or fitter so I'd like to come and party with you all if I can!

The best laugh so far of 2015! Thank you for posting! (I have also sent my regards to the performer whose ideas I oppose with a passion. I find this so ironic!)

You and your Dad are already in my daily prayers, my friend. I'm a firm believer in the power of prayer, personally, so urge everyone just to take a minute in a quiet time and say a few words. It does work. Example: Almighty and Eternal God, You are the everlasting health of those who believe in You. Hear us for Your sick servant for whom we implore the aid of Your tender mercy, that being restored to bodily health, he may give thanks to You in Your Church. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

I just think it's great that the baby got to photobomb Dukoo!

That used to be my motto but then my wife insisted I stick to brunette when I married her!

If anyone would like to walk around Cologne for the next six months, they're most welcome - I won't be there!

2007, Altmarkt, Cologne, NRW, Germany. I don't photograph this well these days due to the worsening facial disfigurement. I keep a beer glass in front of the scar tissue as much as possible!

Not without precedent... http://youtu.be/QgOBfCrxS3U

It's a sad fact that, certainly in the cities, there has to be a security presence on the doors of some pubs. That, in itself, acts as a disincentive to go anywhere near them. Big brewery chains have also bought up many places turning them into clones - same menus featuring identical frozen reheated foods...ugh!

As I sit here with a glass of Fursty Ferret in front of me, I reflect on the pubs I used to drink in as a youngster that no longer exist. A pint of bitter then was 14p compared to around £3 today and, with many more pubs open, it was rare to walk into an empty one unless you were first in after the bolts dropped! Consumption of beer is down and falling further. I gather the young have turned their backs on alcohol as it isn't considered "cool". Certainly my lad didn't touch a case of cider I bought for him on our last boating holiday and just drank water! Along the canals, there are now many miles of waterway without a single pub surviving. Sometimes it is a matter of economics - not enough footfall to keep the lights on. Government drove the final nail into the coffins of a great many pubs by refusing to consider smoking rooms in pubs and banning tobacco smoking completely in licensed premises. Those that have survived have had to adapt to a hostile environment. Social attitudes to drinking and driving have changed behaviour. Personally, I don't find it much fun to drive out to a country pub and drink soft drinks but I wouldn't touch a single beer if I am behind the wheel. So, like many, I stay at home and drink bottled and canned ales. Perhaps the exceptions outside the big cities are the food pubs - those that serve quality grub in pleasant surroundings. We have one a few miles away. Even closer to home is a pub that was put up for sale in December 2013 and has just sold. We're hoping that will resemble its former self when it reopens and serve good food. It is a good thing that pubs are more family-friendly these days - a suitably licensed establishment will welcome kids with their parents until 9pm making family dinners possible. However, with a nostalgic feeling, it'd be nice to step into an old corner pub occasionally and have a few games of darts and bar billiards as one sipped a pint or several of "Shit and Scream" (that's what we used to call Shepherd Neame bitter in the 1970s due to its effects on the digestive system the following day!).

But then you went and burned yourself on the exhaust pipe?

Many congratulations to you both. That's a real milestone in any marriage. Enjoy your celebrations!

If you are talking about BT and the Home Hub, I am guessing you are in the UK. Whilst this is all Greek to me and I shan't be in a position to have such worries in the foreseeable future, being at the end of a 3.2km phone line, the link below may assist. Given the greatly larger number of FTTC users elsewhere, Google could be your more informative friend. http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2014/01/broadband-router-options-uk-fttc-isps-integrated-vdsl-modem.html

I just took a leaflet out of my mailbox, informing me that I can have sex at 73. I'm so happy, because I live at number 71. So it's not too far to walk home afterwards. And... it's the same side of the street. I don't even have to cross the road! ~~~~~ Answering machine message, "I am not available right now, but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes." ~~~~~ My wife and I had words, but I didn't get to use mine. ~~~~~ Frustration is trying to find your glasses without your glasses. ~~~~~ Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting . ~~~~~ The irony of life is that, by the time you're old enough to know your way around, you're not going anywhere. ~~~~~ God made man before woman so as to give him time to think of an answer for her first question. ~~~~~ I was always taught to respect my elders, but it keeps getting harder to find one. ~~~~~ Every morning is the dawn of a new error. ~~~~~ The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu, swine flu, regular flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to even consider taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?" ~~~~~ Aspire to inspire before you expire . ~~~~~

As it's an email address not a URL, that isn't surprising. It just indicates that your email client (if you use one rather than web mail) is not recognised as the default program for 'mailto' links. You can copy and paste it, deleting everything to the left of the colon if you wish. I've just sent him an e-card and will follow that up with a proper one should an address become available.

I watched this live on TV, on 30 January 1965, and had never seen colour footage (black and white TV sets in those days). As our country's greatest statesman, he still commands enormous respect from Britons even half a century after his death. He lived in my home county, Kent, and his home remains open to the public: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chartwell/

Seventy years ago today, soldiers of the Soviet Red Army liberated the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in Poland. Six million men, women and children were murdered during the Holocaust. Many were Jews, others homosexuals, socialists, artists or trade unionists. We must always remember this atrocity and never allow any section of our society to be the subject of hatred or persecution or made scapegoats for our problems. Never again!

Dear old Tithead will certainly be in my thoughts and prayers. If anyone manages to get a postal address to which a get well card could be mailed, please PM me. It'd also assist if his real name could be included as I don't know what the staff at the hospital would think of an envelope addressed to "Titty in the corner".