Vic Patterson

This is too early!

Hi Brian, Would that be 1961? On 20-21 June 1961 the first non-stop UK - Australia flight was made by a Vulcan of 617 Squadron. The flight involved three aerial refuellings (FWIW I was in Wolongong 1994, nice museum!)

I remember the air shows very well as they "caused" me to join up in 1960! RAF boy entrant, Meteors, Hunters, Javelins, Vampires, Venoms, Anson, Shackletons and many US, Italian and French visitors, the highlights of my youth!

It must have been a great site to see! the very last airworthy one, I remember one flying over our car at zero feet in the Wooler area, almost scared the life out of us!

Good to hear it wasn't anything too serious! keep up the good work, it's certainly appreciated.

In the mid sixties my sister-in-law and family lived in Barrington Cottage, at that time it was an NCB house, they were told of the murder in that house.

3G, I don't know how the children are being killed with guns but just the fact that they are is disturbing, too many guns and not enough controls, laws need changing! my experience with Mr. Plod have normally been ok it is when the "senior" officers get involved or "policy states" it goes wrong! Malcolm, You have a valid point but as I said I don't know how many were involved, most police are not performing critical duties but are out doing routine jobs, surely these would be used in this situation and not necessarily replaced. Mental illness is not very often recognized in criminals, but is quite obviously the cause of their offences, again I believe the laws need changing, not all mental cases need locking away in institutions but treatment and controls can safeguard the public. Sounds like this guy should not have been released, but where should he have been kept? and how many others should be detained and for how long? I don't have those answers!

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't! how much public protection was needed? how many police were used (I have only seen and read snippets in our news) where is the extra cost incurred? overtime to the police? I don't know a lot about his case but keeping offenders in prison under the present laws is pretty difficult, early parole etc in meant for the majority of normal offenders, and it works! it is for the minority that the laws need changing, more discretion for the authorities is needed, repeat or serious offenders should be pounding rocks! While growing up, a caravan in Rothbury was our annual vacation, they were the best days of my youth! Cragside, the Thrum and the moors! I hope they don't get too much tourism publicity.

There is no such thing as an "obvious" toy gun. These are old stats but do show that too many kids are killed by guns, yes the police appeared to be heavy handed when they dealt with the 12 year olds (they are old enough to know what they were playing with) only a fool would wait until they found out if they were real or toy guns. Trust me, I'm a police man! There are a few bad apples everywhere! In a single year, 3,012 children and teens were killed by gunfire in the United States, according to the latest national data released in 2002. That is one child every three hours; eight children every day; and more than 50 children every week. And every year, at least 4 to 5 times as many kids and teens suffer from non-fatal firearm injuries. American children are more at risk from firearms than the children of any other industrialized nation. In one year, firearms killed no children in Japan, 19 in Great Britain, 57 in Germany, 109 in France, 153 in Canada, and 5,285 in the United States.

Threegee do I detect that you do not appreciate the efforts of the Northumbria Police! I believe carrying a gun cancels out mental illness! (risk to law enforcement and the general public) Just two police cars damaged, it mustn't be over yet!

Sounds like the "murder squad" at Northumbria Police are gearing up to commit another appropriately white-washed murder. Does anyone seriously believe that they are committed to a "safe arrest"? I'm sure they are committed to try and make a "safe arrest" but safe for the public and police! let's not hand him to such as the "Lockerbie" bleeding hearts!(let the sniper make the arrest!)

IMHO several of the players appeared to be a arrogant prima donnas who didn't give the effort they could and should have, that being said instead of tying the game 2-2 at half time they are 3-1 down this makes it a totally different game tactically. I would suggest the FA do as they did in 1926 and disassociate themselves from FIFA until the latest technology available is adopted, I believe FIFA need the FA (or England, Mexico and Ireland etc) more than the FA need FIFA! Take a look at Tennis, Cricket, Football and Hockey, those games have been greatly improved because of use of modern technology.

Ooops sorry for the typo!

Happy birthday Debora

As Mr. Darn suggests exchange batteries is a great solution, I have read of exchange power modules (but I think they were hydrogen for Vancouver transit) and battery technology is moving along fast. With regenerative braking and solar power to assist with the travel range it could become feasible, but anything less than 500 km isn't really practicable considering the terrain and weather.

Our next town is over 100 miles away!

Nice! coming to North America ..... next year!

2010 Ford Escape (yes I work in a prison!)

Happy Birthday Monsta, hope you have a great day

A very nice looking A eh! My brother and I restoring a model A 29' Murray (also a 20' model T Touring) we also run a 26' TT grain truck.

About time you both get together and discussed the issues! I'm sure face to face you could resolve the personal issues and even help overcome the "Youth Disorder" problem! (it's difficult being mad with someone your having a coffee or eating a meal with!)

Great...congratulations, looking forward to see some photo's!

I'm loosing a vehicle this week (wife's car declared salvage by insurance) and need another, I've been looking for over a month, I have gathered a stack of brochures, visited all the consumer websites, been to garages and kicked the tires. Do you go for style, comfort, practicality economy, resale value or what. Everyone has different advice and each one is has its own merits. For discussion purposes what do you look for in a car? (we don't get many European cars to pick from) can be SUV, Crossover, car or truck.

A class act Plymouth.