Paul

Shhhhhhh, dont tell everyone but the Parish Council do provide a free car park in Horning at the parish hall. You can walk down Mill Loke and come out by t he staithe or cross the playing field to the footpath that comes out by the New Inn. Just don't tell everyone ....

Give Andy Banner at Freedom a call on (01603) 858453, I would think they'll be able to help. http://www.freedomboatingholidays.co.uk/check-vacancy.php?startdate=15%2F02%2F2019&enddate=17%2F02%2F2019&people=2&dogs=0

We visited the now defunct tea rooms and post office and found it charming, really liked it. There was something very fishy about the raft of bad reviews which suddenly appeared on the internet. These bad reviews only started appearing after a rival tea room opened in the village. I shall leave you to draw your own conclusions.

could have been worse ......

Nothing wrong with popular beliefs now and then, some of them are popular for good reason. I'm certainly not going to disagree with your other point though. Clever marketing teams are very good at telling we, the gullible consumer what we need and what we should buy, and even how we should buy it sometimes. I-phones are a perfect example of that. Apple's marketeers were very clever ar creating a fashion brand which imposed great peer pressure on people to be seen with an Iphone. If consumers made informed choices about smart phones Apple would never sell one.

As did I, but the posts above make me wonder quite what for. I always thought something akin to Bristols, though it has been suggested it's more like your Zachary Scotts.

Sorry but I'm still not accepting the argument that the Supermarket is at fault. Leicester market has gone downhill since redvelopment by the city council but head west along the M69 and you'll get to Nuneaton which has a thriving street market. 100 plus Traditional stalls clad in blue and white tarps along the pedstrianised "high street" selling all the market staples plus lots more. Keep going down the M69 you'll get to Coventry, another thriving market, this time indoor. Neither are particularly effected by tourism and both have a wide variety of supermarkets from all the main candidates. The other thing they both have is ample parking at reasonable price right in the town / city centre. Supermarkets are not new, the forst one in the town where I live opened in the early 1950's. By 1960 there were three. By 1970 there were five. The market thrived well into the early years of this century, until the district council made the market car park pay and display. Then it went downhill. Now it is almost dead and thetown council are contemplating demolishing it to build housing on the site. Blaming Supermarkets is far too simplistic. I'm sure there are lots of socio-economic reasons but at the top of that list is we, the great consumer, and our personal preference, which quite simply is changing. There are lots of reasons for that. One would be the change in the social climate. In the heyday of markets, selling fresh food, lots of married women were home makers. They would shop more than once a week, they were home during the daytime to prepare fresh vegetable every day, to make a pie, roast or whatever. Those days are gone, massively inflated house prices and our ever growing need for possessions most families now have two working parents. The value of time has risen faster even than the value of property. People want ready prepped or partially prepped food, theysimply don't have all afternoon to prepare dinner anymore. At the least they want to shop where they can get everything they need in one place. That's not the supermarket's fault, they are simply pandering to what we, the consumer wants.

I have to agree that the game did have a good flow to it, though I think that was more down to him missing a number of infringments (from both teams, before anyone accuses me of bias), then any plan of the referees. If he did turn a blind eye deliberatley then well done him. There are so many finicky rules around the tackle and the breakdown that have been introduced over the last decade or so to allow a more flowing game, but which have had the opposite effect as all they do is create more stoppages. Good rugby is a balance between competition for the ball, great running lines, good tackling and game management. It is what, in my eyes at least, makes Union so much more interesting then Rugby League. I appreciate of you are a fan of Rugby League you will think differently. That's fine, each to his own. I dread seeing Wayne Barnes or JP Doyle assigned to our premiership matches, I know it's not going to be a good game before the whistle blows, and think of them as bad referees when in fact, the truth may be the opposite. They pick up the offences which many miss and you get a stop start game. I stand by the offisde calls though. There's nothing new to the offside rule and if it is not enforced it closes down space in midfield and denies the opposition the chance to create running lines and that happened to England at least half a dozen times in the first half, and a couple in the second. England overcame it by great line speed and clever passing which is to their credit.

I think it's a little unrealistic to compare our markets with those of the continent, at least those in France and Belgium which I have visited. They are more like what we would call a "farmers market", selling locally produced goods but at a premium, sometimes very premium price. That said I fully agree that our markets are in decline. Our local market in Leicester has been voted best in Britain many times, twice in the last three or four years but it is not a patch on what it was. Sadly I find much the same for Norwich and have to agree with Vaughan and Chameleon. Not worth the trudge up the hill from the river anymore. I'm not sure that blaming Supermarkets is quite correct, affter all they have Supermarkets in France too.

England played very well. They seemed to have got control of the stupid infringements, especially around the break down which have plagued them for the last couple of years, were better disciplined in defence and clinical in attack. The return of Tuilagi and the Vunipola's was huge. I'm not sure about the refereeing though. Ireland were persistantly a yard, sometimes two offside. I'm not sure you can blame that on the ref, there are so many laws in the modern game his attention is focused on the ruck. Touch judges, or as we should call them "assistant referees" have to take responsibility for stamping this out. We see it week in / week out in the premiership.

Cas ..... would that be Castleford. They play that girly version of tag rugby don't they? I went to a Rugby League game once. I asked the person who took me why they had gone to uncontested scrums, she looked at me gone out?

Is Janet Anne going on about her thruppenny bits again?

I tend to find the more someone needs to rant, or use profanity to make a point, the weaker their argument is. Sadly, informed or unbiased fact on the closed season is very hard to find. Studies by pro angling groups suggest abolishing the closed season would have no impact on fish health and stocks. Those by anti angling groups suggest exactly the opposite. As with most things in life you could give the same "expert" the same "facts" and get any number of different outcomes depending on where the funding is coming from. Got to say I agree with Peter, there are plenty of opportunities to fish away from the rivers for the three months of the closed season. There is no good reason that I can see for any change.

They could come up with a design that looks slightly less like a bus

You want to try towing a 24 foot twin axle carvan down there, never again

He did indeed, in the golden era of the catchphrase. Green was Paula Yates' father of course, who married Bob Geldof, so their daughter Peaches grandfather.

So who said "It's make your mind up time, yes indeed folks, and I mean that most sincerely" .... answers on the back of a postcard ......

Old Time Music Hall, Wheeltappers and Shunters.......... I remember them well.

Am I the only person who thinks all these "Strictly no talent bake me out of here on ice" are just cheap TV fodder created by the witless and aimed at the mindless? I remember when weekend evening used to be primetime, with well made quality programmes. Now it's all staged "reality" junk.

to my mind Rib Eye is the best beef roasting joint .....

Just finished as much as I'm doing tonight. Iced the cake, good old fashioned Mary Berry Royal Icing. Yule log is made, just needs dusting. Black Forest Trifle has reached custard stage, Traffic Light Trifle has made it to Blancmange. To the bakers in the morning for fresh dinner roles, then make the chocolate mousse for the BFT, Gammon in the oven at lunchtime so it's still warm and juicy to serve. Two quiches to make, probably broccoli and smoked salmon and a goats cheese and caramelised red onion. Sausage rolls have been bought, which is a very poor effort on my part, but hey, life's not all about being in the kitchen. The rest of the week will be eating leftovers then down to Devonshire for a week next Saturday.

And sorry, meant to end with the baked bean debate .......NOOOOOO! Baked beans are the spawn of satan. They infest an english breakfast in seemingly every establishment nowadays. they are fit only for topping toast when there is absolutley nothing else in the house, but must be adorned by a knob of butter and good sprinkling of decent sharp cheddar.

We are always out for Christmas Day so we do our Christmas Lunch on the Sunday before. So today it was Turkey for us but like Ian we go for a crown nowadays, albeit a largish bronze as they seem to cook better than smaller or white crowns. When it comes to roasting joints of any kind I find the larger the joint the better it cooks. Otherwise, all very traditional, roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Sprouts, sausage meat balls, herb stuffing and pigs in blankets. Christmas Pud and Brandy Sauce for afters. We'll have Elaine's family for tea tomorrow so the remains of the Turkey plus a Gammon joint will take centre place then. Christmas Day will be lunch at the inlaws then Boxing Day we always have something a bit different. When I ordered the Turkey this year the butcher was offering half price whole Australian Wagyu briskets so we shall be having Tafelspitz, assuming I can find something big enough to get a six kilo cow shoulder, three kilos of chopped carrot, parsnip and potato and five litres of stock into. I'm sure one of my old homebrew boilers will be up to the job. We'll then be eating boiled beef for most of January!

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Oh dear Marshman, is your argument really so weak that you have to descend to such a level of exageration? Nobody is suggesting anything more than arresting the continued decline in clearance and perhaps restoring some of that which has been lost in recent years. I appreciate that there is a growing pressure group whose sole aim is to end navigation on the Upper Thurne. I firmly believe that the winter restrictions trying to be imposed are the thin end of a wedge which ends with a chain across the span of Potter Heigham Bridge and no entry signs adorning the stonework. I wish I could claim any confidence in the Broads Authority to resist such an outcome but I cannot. It is therefore up to boating organistions and communities to voice the opposition. Of the 63 Broads in Norfolk and Suffolk which I can think of only 16 are open to navigation of any kind. I don't think it's unreasonable to protect that number, and to expect the Broads Authority to do so.