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I have tickets to see them, looking forward to it very much.

"Kathryn wanted to play the Northumbrian Pipes" A great player she is, too. An interesting story on the Northumbrian Pipes, forgive me if I've posted it before: a notable piper named John Peacock, from Morpeth, is known for having produced the very first volume of published music for the pipes (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peacock_%28piper%29); the Northumbrian Pipers Society has reproduced the volume, and original copies are sought after by collectors. A good friend of mine - Tom Caisley, now resident in Bedlington - owns not just an original copy, but THE original, hand-written manuscript from which the printed versions were taken. His father obtained it - how and why is lost in history - and left it to Tom on the explicit instructions that the Society, with whom he apparently had issues, were on no account to get their hands on it. For this reason, it will most likely never be put up for sale; it is a truly interesting document which I have had the pleasure of handling.

The increasing popularity of Virtual Private Networks is testament to the lax security offered by even the most secure systems. It may be worth investigating.

Maggie, This is an increasing problem, and one that we can do little about. I had one from my brother's account the other day which, even weirder, featured a link that appeared to be to one of my clients. Generally, if an email only contains a link, you should delete it.

The problem with a subject as utterly emotive as this one is that now, a century later, we have inevitably lost a great deal of the context in which it took place. I'm in complete agreement with the fact that she carried out a reckless,ill-thought out and dangerous act that endangered not just her life but that of others, and that the suffragettes had indulged in some pretty dirty tactics, but - and this applies to terrorists and campaigners today - the major fact to consider is that, while we can sit back and say 'they should have done it this way' they - quite clearly - had good reason to believe that the route they took was the one that would get them the results they sought. Why they believed that, and why some believe that what we see as reckless and ill-thought out acts are valid today, is what we should be focusing on.

A Catholic boy in confession says, "Bless me Father, I have sinned, I masturbated while thinking about my sister." "That's a disgrace," said the priest, "especially when you have two gorgeous brothers."

"I went to a seafood disco last week and pulled a muscle." spat my tea out reading that one, brilliant. "Two fat blokes in a pub, one says to the other 'Your round.' The other one says 'So are you, you fat bastard!'" I have actually used this retort, to mixed effect.

I didn't say it was, i said it may be. I have not researched the matter. It's worth remembering that, compared to Christianity for instance, Islam is a relatively 'young' religion. Up until medieval times - and perhaps later - it was not unusual in this country for a man to take a very young bride; it is only in quite recent times that the practice has been outlawed. My comment was meant with this historical relativity in mind.

There is a worrying underlying trend in the media to highlight acts of muslim extremism; of course, where it is the core of an incident such as this it needs to be part of the story, but the vein portrayed is that of 'Islam is evil'; it's not, it's no more evil that Christianity, for example. I have been appalled - and still am - at some of the comments on my Facebook news feed and other social networking sites. It appears to me that many people lose control of their intelligence when faced with stuff like this (and all respect to those on here, I am not talking about you!) I even resorted to telling a long time friend of mine to go elsewhere in the pub last night, such was his misguided and uninformed rhetoric. Why this outpouring of hatred towards an entire race/religion? Are we condemning every white person after the murder of that little girl recently? Or any other murders committed by non-muslims? Have we, just over half a century later, already forgotten what happened to the Jews under the Nazis? What needs to happen is that the tolerant, sensible muslims who practice a religion based on peace, rather than those who go to the extremes of suppression. need to speak out, stand up, and we - or rather the government and powers that be - need to get fully behind them. As the adage says, birds of a feather flock together: a truly smooth multi-cultural society is unlikely ever to exist - there will always be those who harbour resentment, historical or racial - but we are, in fact, doing a pretty good job. Before I sign off, a couple of things: someone condemned the entire Muslim race to my face last night as perverts who sleep with 12 year old girls. In their own countries they may do, and it may be legal. He was, I might add, very surprised to be told that, in Spain - for example - the age of consent is 13. Also, the famous Enoch Powell 'Rivers of Blood' speech is being touted as an 'I told you so' item:it's nothing of the sort. He wasn't talking of incidents like this, but warning of the formation of ghettos and the potential problems of excessive immigration. Anyone believing he declared the streets would become 'rivers of blood' because of these has clearly not read or heard the speech, or is ignorant. My tolerance levels - usually very high - are at an all time low. Good day to you all, and enjoy The Big Event!

I think it's time to reflect on the fact that these two men were extremists; the majority of muslims are decent law-abiding people. tarring all with the same brush is wrong, as would be boycotting muslim-run shops. I can understand people mistrusting muslims as they have been the perpetrators o some heinous crimes - after all my mother still detests the Germans and the Japanese - but there is a danger of over-reaction when such vicious attacks come to light. let's take a step back, and consider that the Islamic Council roundly condemned the incident yesterday.

Search engines are an interesting phenomenon. The problem with those that promise keep things private is that they are not quite telling the truth. I'm sure you're aware that there is no such thing as true privacy on the internet these days, even if you use a VPN. The second problem is that businesses are quite happy for information to be harvested, analysed and shared by Google; smaller search engines who do not offer this advantage - and it is an advantage commercially as it helps target the right sort of customer - are of no interest to those with products and services to sell. Bear in mind that 95% of online transactions begin with a search engine, and 95% of those are Google searches. The future is, I'm afraid, Google-led.

John, Fantastic stuff, thank you very much! I'm very interested in the military hideouts, and whether any evidence of them still exists. Incidentally, when I lived on Hollymount Terrace - before the houses were built on the green - an archaeological dig took place there as permission had been give for building to go ahead. I believe the team were from Newcastle University. They uncovered evidence of buildings that they told me were 'older than had previously thought existed in the region'. This was probably some ten years ago, I have no idea if the results were published but it would be interesting to find out more.

Erm scratch that request John, a quick Google shows me it's the bridge that is, embarrassingly, a few yards from my house......

Hi John, which is the Willow Bridge? I'minterested in investigating!

I find cemeteries to be hugely interestign places. I recently moved from Bedlington to Choppington and have spent some time browsing that over the road (St Paul's) and it is truly fascinating.

Interesting stuff, but I'm sure its' not a takeaway food outlet these days!!

You sure about this Merlin? I have a current account debit card with LLoyds-TSB and it can be used in any Switch ATM, free of charge?

Now that's odd. A meeting was convened at Table 25 at around 1.15 yesterday; the subjects under discussion are, of course, top secret, but I can tell you we had nothing to do with hailstones.

Excellent stuff! Great to see, and fun to do.

Malcolm, Excellent! So great to see youngsters getting involved and giving it their all; well done to all! Look forward to more.

I have an original signed copy of that, believe it or not.

Indeed I am, it's pickin up slowly; 8pm Monday night, a quid to enter, a good laugh to be had.

At Work St James' park. watched it unfoled on the telly on the concourse.

I KNOW THIS!!!!!! They're all women.

Robens was, sadly, a mancunian. My father knew him well.