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Thanks Maggie, I was quite honoured as the room was pretty much full later on, you never know how many genuine friends you have until you offer them food!!!!

Maggie, thank you very much for dropping in to see me yesterday, I now realise how ignorant I was in not inviting you and your husband to stay for a drink! I shall make up for it in future. Also, thanks for the CD and for the extremely timely present - a pencil sharpener! Spot on for a fanatic! Great to meet you, and hope to again before long.

I'm sure 3G will be pleased to hear I am '92% UKIP'!

"....magic for the likes of the British museum and the imperial war museum..." Difficult to match in that respect

Adam! You're in danger of inciting the 'get your coat' clause.....

A number of years ago one of Mick's helmets, that he'd worn - I think - on a then record lap of the IoM course, was sold for charity on the island. My father bought it, and my brother used to wear it while riding his bikes. He still has it, along with one of Hailwood's, and a couple of others.

If anyone fancies a celebratory pint I'll be in the back room at the Monkey, 1pm on today....just look for the grey haired geezer with specs.

Mick likes bananas!

He is,I remember meeting him when I was a kid, most likely at Oulton Park I think. Those were the days when Journo's worked from the pub, and bike racers were real men!

This topic got me reminiscing about my late Dad (George Turnbull), and a few Google searches brought up an interview with the great Jim Redman, a name I'm sure Foxy will be familiar with. There's a typical quote in an interview with him about trying to dissuade Mike Hailwood from riding on The Mountain; those who know me will recognise a similar trait in me: "....Then we walked into the Douglas Head pub and George Turnbull, who was always in the pub, never anywhere else, and wrote the best race reports, said; 'Here they come; the living legends.'" Remarkable.

Who be that, Foxy? My recognition of bike racers stops at Phil Read and Mick Grant!

"Visits to London are fine for a while but living there must be a challenge" It's a wonderful city,full of history and interest, but I couldn't live there - or, in fact, in any city.

A number of years ago a friend of mine spent some time in the USA and managed to convince some girls he met that the UK had a serious alligator/crocodile problem, and that there were frequent hold-ups on the M1 as they used it to migrate from London to Birmingham.

"I think Keswick has a pencil museum." Indeed it does, and it is hailed in the book as 'probably the most important pencil museum in the world... "Writing a book on how to sharpen the pencil is quite a task." Yes indeed, and to fill 218 pages, each of which is as funny as the previous, is even more so. Seriously, it's very, very funny, and well worth a read.

Haha you're right sym! It's always two!

HPW, I'm afraid I would have been a mod! Always loved The Who!! Back on the subject, I love this county, and the immediate area I live in. I've been here 22 years now, having been brought up in a VERY affluent part of Cheshire (Dad was a journo on the Telegraph in Manchester). Most of the people down there were wealthy; we were simply ordinary. I came back here because I always considered it my home, my family having originated here, and I have never regretted it. The people are great - I'm fortunate to have a fantastic set of neighbours and to live in a very wonderful place - and count myself lucky I have the coast within a few minutes reach, stunning open countryside equally near, and one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the country a short bus ride away. Give me this place over anywhere.

"Cafe Racer" I never knew where that phrase came from! Thanks for enlightening me, it makes much more sense now!!

I have been gifted a wonderful book by a good friend, and it turns out to be the best book I have read in a long, long time. In fact, it's better even than the recently acquired 'Crap Taxidermy' - a head-turner in every way - and even outstrips 'Haggard Hawks and Paltry Poltroons', a thorough treatise on the origins of words. No, the winner is a fine tome named 'How to Sharpen Pencils' by David Rees, and it is simply astonishing in its breadth. So far I have learned the merits of different types of pencil sharpener (electric ones are evil and must be destroyed) and the injuries that can be sustained if exposed to incorrectly sharpened pencils. Also, I now know the correct warm-up exercises that must be carried out pre-sharpening. It is, I have to say, a masterpiece. And it makes a point.

Too late I'm afraid!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone, much appreciated! For anyone passing by, I'm having a little bash in the back room of teh Monkey, this Sunday 1pm on, all welcome.

Thank you one and all!

Thanks! Half way to a hundred, Maggie, it's my 50th!

...."I can not find anywhere in the Bible that describes angel with wings.....I somtimes think that a lot of the early artists are to blame for this picture that we have in our minds that angels have wings...." I thought the same, on both counts, but I quote from a site named 'Christiananswers.net' where I found the following: "some special angels do (seraphims), but not most. Some Bible passages picture angels with wings (Isaiah 6:2,6). Other verses talk about angels flying, and we assume that the wings would be useful for that flight (Daniel 9:21). However, I suspect that angels can move around without having to depend on wings. Most references to angels in the Bible say nothing about wings, and in passages like Genesis 18-19, it is certain that no wings were visible." I would agree with you on the subject of art influencing thinking; as I touched on elsewhere, fairies - elemental spirits - were never pictured with wings before the heavily-romanticised Victorian era. Try finding a picture of one without wings now!

"Depends on which bible though doesn't it merc?" It does; however, if we are taking the 'traditional' bible as we read it today (taking on board Pete's correct comments about censorship) the answer is three, as given. If we include the apocrypha - books not officially recognised as being part of the canonical genre - then even then the answer is four: I can't remember whether it's Raphael or Uriel who gets a mention there. I find the whole bible debate to be extremely interesting. "the theory of men in feathery wings remain in my mind to be complete misinterpretations,of what actually happened,in biblical times,by peasants,[or even intelligent people],who would never have been able to understand what they were witnessing" This is certainly extremely feasible, and most likely explains quite a lot of the odd and unfamiliar descriptions in the bible. "....the big bang that happened,billions of years ago,that created our universe.....I definately don't accept that theory!" Now there's an interesting comment, HPW! While it may sound fantastical, what other likely explanations for the creation of something as vast and incredible as the universe can there be? It's a theory because it remains unproven; it cannot be proven because we are not party to important elements that were supposedly responsible for it. It is s subject way, way to advanced and complex for me!

Come on lads let's csll it quits and get back to the chat? We're all meant to be mates on here.