mercuryg

No accusations; came from a very well informed source... It was always inevitable; any new place opening will experience the same. When you put the toilets with doors out of the view of the bar staff you're offering an invitation.

Of course we haven't all got the same taste; your preference for the bar at which the local drug dealers have chosen to do their business - nicely tucked away upstairs and out of sight - is your prerogative! I prefer a pub where I know the regulars!

You're saying I should put my house on a gee gee called Red Trout?

I have to agree with supporting the local shops and think Tesco is a blight on the town. Odd, though, how people are not so quick to support the local pubs and seem eager to flock to the new mighty all powerful superstore of pubs that has opened at the top of the street.....

Further to the recent discussion about the Gardener's I was party to an argument in the Grapes yesterday regarding the Tankerville Arms. Know where it was and all that, and have viewed the pics on here, but the questions I have been asked to find the answers for are a) when did it finally close and when was it knocked down/destroyed? Hoping there are some kindly folk with good memories!

Couldn't resist it mate.

It is frightfully tatty, but I agree, it's a good result. Diane has a talent for picking great staff. She ought to keep her car keys in a safe place though.....

That's cos nobody likes you where you live. Seriously, though, it's not that good that i would travel to eat there. If anywhere is going to benefit I would guess it's going to be the place next door. The Grapes and Sun haven't changed, and the Tavern has just chopped its daytime hours. Mind you, nobody ever went in there in the day anyway. One good thing to come out of all this is that the brewery have bowed to the pressur eof competition and are giving the Grapes a full make-over in the new year.

That's precisely what I believe is happening. I must say, however, that it's not as if food hasn't been available in Bedlington before the Lion opened. What I'm saying is that the clientele in there are not 'drinkers'. We who like to sup regularly are not the ones who cause trouble. We also like somewhere with a bit of character, a regular clientele, where we can amble at the bar and natter away to our hearts delight. The Lion is pretty and nicely done, but it doesn't offer me any of that. I've been in for a burger, had a few pints there on my travels, and like it very much, but I'm very happy to see that the pubs down the street are not losing their regular trade. Contrary to what many believed, they are not gaining any either.

I doubt it. I think they're people who simply haven't been going out for a drink in Bedlington, going there to see what all the fuss is about. It's a pleasant place, without a doubt, but I can se no attraction in travelling there from the surrounding towns.

I don't think there were (are) many who are insistent on causing trouble, just a number of people who over indulge on cheap booze. That's what happens when you sell it at those prices, and it will continue that way. To be honest, most of those in there on Friday and Saturdays are not people I recognise, so I have no idea where they came from!

Apart from the moveable wing, the rest of the above doesn't come into play until 2013; next two years will still be V8's. You missed the most important change - the team orders ban is scrapped. That's nothing. In 1986 a 1.5ltr BMW in-line four cylinder engine in the Bennetton of Gerhard Berger registered a flash reading of 5.5bar during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. There was no dynamometer available that could measure beyond 1000bhp, which these engines were routinely topping, but engine builder Heine Mader calculated that 5.5bar was between 1300 and 1400bhp. See www.updatef1.com for all the latest F1 news, views and some wonderful editorial.....

Something to do with less regulations I would think, Monsta.

Indeed, Andy, my friend tells me it was a scam totally unconnected with the one being hoaxed right now. The other guy I can't get hold of for info. iGlobal, or someone of that ilk, call me regularly. I tell them politely not to bother.

Interesting. I wonder how they're doing it, then, because a friend of mine in Cheshire has been ripped off of upwards of £100, although not the £315 mentioned.

I already know two people who have been victims of this.

Not quite Andy, but I can see why this might have become corrupted in time. A 'Nail', as in the momument you refer to, was common in market towns of the time and it is believed that 'pay on the nail' came about because these crosses/monuments were where the bartering took place. Quite why they became known as a nail is lost in time, but it is suggested that traders would nail their wares to them. There are few left, hence Bedlington's is a bit of a rarity in being so complete. The Boris Karloff story is a brilliant one; never heard that before! On the history note, I have a couple of letters from a Richard Young of the Ironworks posted to a solicitor in Alnwick in 1850; any ancestors of Young who can give me some further information on who he was?

Well done Merlin; great to see all that effort come good.

That's excellent, and again I appreciate the charitable aspect. I'm simply looking for that little something that makes Freemasonry worthwhile (not that I could take part, of course, having no belief in a Supreme Being, although nobody would ever know......)

What I'm trying to say is that these 'answers' are surely available without the need to join an organisation such as the Masons. So is the oppotunity to be charitable and serve others. I understand that, to some, it is an attractive proposition, but still cannot see how many will view either, or any, of the reasons for masonry so far given as an incentive to join. Respect to your husband, and to mickypotts above, and I hope there is renewed interest in what is a traditional and long lived organisation. I am just bewildered as to why anyone, in this day and age, would choose to seek out a Mason, and to get support for joining, and to go through the rituals, and to commit to a financial outlay, when everything that they will get is clearly available in everyday life. After all, we all have friends who will listen in confidence should we require; each of us can make charitable contributiosn should we want to; there are plenty places to go for merriment and meeting with like-minded people. That something special, that over-riding attraction, is eluding me.

Does it? Does it really offer answers to 'mysteries' that are not available elsewhere? Forgive me for being flippant - I must say this is a very interesting subject and a thread I am enjoying - but I really can't see how a Freemason of even the highest standing would know the answer to questions such as 'Is this all there is? Is man here for a purpose? What (if anything) lies beyond this life?' If there were answers to those questions, we can be quite certain that whoever discovered them would make a lot of money telling us all! The social scene sounds excellent, but surely there is more to being a Freemason than being part fo a charitable club where you can amuse yourself away from the wife? I mean, until very recently (and still in some places) you could do that at the local CIU club! You have clearly gathered that I'm questioning the very worth of becoming a mason; there has to be something in it of benefit beyond that which can be found elsewhere, and as a man of sound mind and a little intelligence I can't believe it's the promise of answers to the 'mysteries' you speak of!

With the amount of snow falling each day I don't think a gritter is going to be a lot of use. We need snow ploughs.

This is where we differ. Personally, a Christian - as in someone of that religion - who doesn't believe in Jesus can't really exist. I'm not at all religious, but have no doubt the man existed. A freemason who doesn't believe in a Supreme Being is an altogether simpler concept. The question I am asking here is this: if someone joins the Masons and declares a belief in a Supreme Being falsely (and I don't doubt there are many, I think they will likely make up a good proportion of the numbers as they do other clubs and societies) why has he done so? What is it that would inspire someone to make such a fundamentally dishonest statement in order to become a member of the Freemasons? It can't be so that they can contribute to charity, as everyone is free to do that, and let's face it, few will join for the traditional rituals, so what is it? What is the benefit of being a Freemason? Malcolm - thanks for those pics, interesting stuff.

Lazy sod. You come on here all pumped up asking for people to play and then decide you can't be arsed? What sort of a man are you?

Indeed, that's what I find hard to believe - that anyone would be amazed at Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, Catholics etc getting along together without rancour. It happens all the time. Despite the popular Daily Mail depiction of inter-religious rivalry it is unusual. The problems are exclusively related to a minority of extremists - among Christians as among Muslims and others - and these would not be those who become Freemasons and mingle with other creeds and religions. I am still at odds, however, with the Supreme Being angle, and it bothers me to some degree. I admire the charitable aspects of the Freemasons, and may like to play a part in that (although, as said before, one doesn't need to join a society to be charitable) and I like the picture your husband paints of a Gentlemans club with ritual, but to join, assuming I was able to persuade them to have me, I would have to falsely claim an allegiance to a Supreme Being. I wouldn't be the only Freemason who had done thus, no doubt. Given that I cannot believe all Freemasons actually do believe in a Supreme Being I am concerned at a lack of honesty in their intentions. I still don't know why anyone would join, to be honest.