dog

Just seen that he's suffering from cancer and doesn't have the greatest percentages in his favour. I remember him being nothing more than useful for Liverpool and then thoroughly entertaining on el dia despues Good luck to a liver of life

Who's the trialist?

Nice to see David Brent out of retirement and doing ads for the Tories.

Tactical voting It's getting closer to rubbishagedon. I'm currently up in the North West where Brexit dominates the election surveys Many people considering putting a peg on their nose to vote for their Brexit beliefs rather than their political ones Would/could/should you? Or is it a sign that, no matter who wins the election, politics is broken?

We're at the vanguard of the ban on heading

I live in Nottingham. It's going crackers at the moment. New dog (rescue hound) has been with us for a week and has spent every evening cowering in different corners of the house as yet more uber bangers rattle the windows of NG9. Bonfires stink out the locality since most of them are damp collections of rotten wood with late autumn barbecue oil squirted on to try and get them going. Mushy peas? Mushy peas? The Italians invented pizza, curry from India, the poles do wonders with dumplings, the Chinese have (well) Chinese food. And all that Nottingham and its shire has done is invent mushy peas. And they are proud of it. I mention gingerbread, sage Derby and Bakewell tart and they shrug and add mint sauce to their peas. Can we do a definitive list of how Derbyshire offerings to civilization are superior to those from the other side of the M1?

Movember is small potatoes I've given up on all personal hygiene for the month

Just driven up to Inverness on some very ill lit roads. Reminded me of the worst road I've been on, which was one of those hairpin winders in the canaries where I didn't know what was coming next. What is your worst to drive on? Derbyshire/ UK/ overseas?

Help your missus to stay sane. Lot of pressure on women to do the'right' thing Both mine were caesarian section due to complications. My missus couldn't express milk but that didn't stop the leche mafia from being extremely judgemental, including bringing round a pumping system to 'encourage' her Now, my missus is a lot brighter than me but found this so intimidating that she strapped herself in despite there being nothing there Luckily my mother in law (Polish, don't mess) said that the situation was ridiculous and the baby went straight on to the bottle .....(after 48 hours of tears and self recriminations, not to mention a very hungry baby) One happy baby resulted (now at Manchester doing Physics), one relieved wife and one group of hacked off leche Mafiosi who gave me a right rollicking when I returned their wretched milking kit You know what, I didn't care. I should have done it earlier Lesson learned. Keep balance. Don't go faddy. Look after the ones who need you by keeping the faddistas away

Collecting different types of points these days

I work with them directly I'm aware of the ongoing discourses on social justice as part of my work in teacher education My wife has an international reputation for her work with refugees No-one has the knowledge about all matters refugees because the data is unavailable, them being refugees I sound like Graham Lister

Is anyone knowledgeable about all things immigration?

I wasn't going to day anything but the level of lack of information was grinding at me So, refugees I have worked with some for the last couple of years. The stories they tell are horrific I do drama games with them and have to adopt the games as some have lost limbs or digits due to torture I currently work with Syrians, Afghans, Yemenis and Eritreans Most have fled civil wars in which many family members have been killed or 'disappeared' by one side or the other Unlike most European nations there is little direction from government (compare with Sweden for example) The ones I work with are teenagers. They all want to work here. One from last year taught himself well enough to get an A level in s subject that English schools wouldn't teach him Most schools refuse to have them on their books due to the way that performativity measures such as progress 8 count against them Want to know why they make dangerous journeys? Easy. If they didn't they'd be dead

You were excited to receive an email

Just to let you know that Jess passed away a few minutes ago. She had gone downhill rapidly today and we took her to the vets. She was surrounded by love as she went