Canny lass

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas .... Hope it's a good one for everybody! Merry Christmas All.

Your commitment to the people of Bedlington and their interests is admirable. I don't know where you get the energy from! Hope your 'man-flu' is on the mend.

Well done, even if I think Wilf's a bit early with his new year 'carry oot'! I know that China will love this and it'll be interesting to see how some of the others react. I'll let you know.

Well, that's a NE loss and a Lincolnshire gain!

You couldn't manage a bit of snow on the pit heap, could you? It would look quite 'Alpine'. Do that and I guarantee that I will have this card in 18 different countries before Christmas. PS I think Wilf could put in an appearance as well. He's quite Christmassy!

Have you deserted the NE permanently, Merc? I'm always last to get to know anything!

Sounds like us! I just discovered my age group – SEENAGER (senior teenager). I now have everything that I wanted as a teenager. It just came 50-60 years late! I don’t have to go to school or work. I get an allowance every month. I have my own place. I decide at what hour I come home. I have a driving license and I have my own car. I have ID that gets me into drinking establishments. The people I knock about with are not scared of getting pregnant. In fact, they’re not scared of anything. And, I don’t have acne so life is pretty good! If you are a seenager, you will feel much more intelligent having read this. The brains of older people are slow. That’s because they hold so much information inside their heads. Contrary to popular belief, people do NOT decline mentally with age. It just takes them longer to recall things due to this vast amount of information that has to be sifted through. Scientists believe that this excess of information may also account for the hearing loss suffered by some seenagers. It causes a lot of pressure on the inner ear apparently. Also, older peole often go to another room to collect something and when they get there they stand about wondering what they came for. Many (uninformed) people attribute this to memory loss. NONSENSE! It is NOT a memory problem. It’s nature’s way of making seenagers get the exercise they need. So there! I have other people to send this too, but right now I’m having difficulty recalling their names. Please forward this to your friends – they may be my friends too.

Oh I hope not! We love you just the way you are!

This year, due to a 33% increase in overseas postage, the cost of posting a Christmas card is now approx £2.45. That price increase will put our postage bill at a little under £250. Now, I may have an unusually long Christmas card list due to having friends all over the world (a side-effect of the careers we both chose). I may also think it's nice to receive a card and I may like to think that my cards are received with the same sentiments. However, I also like to think that I'm loved and thought about at times other than Christmas, without the need for a card which expresses that sentiment and I hope my friends think likewise. Given the state of the world today with wars, natural disasters and widespread hunger, we think that this postage money can be put to use in better ways. The postal companies are rich enough. For this reason, we have decided to stop sending Christmas cards, at least by post - e-mail is ok - and use half the postage cost to purchase life-saving gifts to give somebody else a bit of Christmas joy. This year we are buying food and warmth (things we take for granted not only at Christmas but all year round) in the form of nut paste to save children all over the world from malnutrition and some hats and gloves to keep Syrian children warm. We are urging as many of our friends as possible to do likewise so, as I think of all of you as my friends, I'm asking you to consider joining me in this venture. You can find life-saving gifts to suit every pocket at: http://market.unicef.org.uk/inspired-gifts/ Think twice before lining the pockets of the Royal Mail. There are plenty of children without a coat, let alone a coat with pockets to line!!

You could put a couple of quid on that for me as well.

My dear Pilgrim, misunderstand me correctly. I didn't mean to imply that an interest in geological surveys was in anyway sad. I was simply commenting on the size of the document - and, as far as myself is concerned, the depth of previous knowledge required to read it. I did look at the 'pictures' though.

That’s a very kind offer but only recently I received some back-numbers from a friend in England – a friend with impeccable taste in reading material, I might add. The experience of once again burying my head in their pages transported me back to my younger days where I rediscovered my former self – so much so that I once again have a subscription to this wonderful piece of literature.

..... and I thought that I lead a sheltered life!!

Pleased to hear it! I thought that maybe 'Bedexit' (from Northumberland) was underway.

I'm sure this will make totally riveting reading for Vic and HPW. I'll stick to Private Eye and wait for the synopsis! Interesting to see the extent of the area worked at Netherton Colliery though. BIG!

“Tenants will not be affected adversely by these changes and all current programmes and projects will continue.” Does this not include Bedlington?

Something similar was clubbed through here a couple of months ago. (Comes into force January 2019). However, all that glistens is not gold. Certainly, we won't be paying £240 a year in licence fees but we will be paying a new 'public service tax'. This will be payable by ALL people over the age of 18 years who have an income above a certain level (currently set at £13,000 pa). It's reckoned that about 70% will pay the full whack - estimated to be £130 pa. - while approx. 20% will pay a reduced amount and 10% will pay nothing at all. Single parent families come out as winners while your average family of '2 working adults with 2½ children' comes out slightly worse off with a public servicee tax bill of £260 pa. The broadcasting service remains unchanged.

I wasn't imagining my visits then! I would have been 5 or 6 years old at that time. That's certainly the 'Virol' jar I remember but looking at those photos I now think it was maybe a manufacturer's name rather than the name of the product. I can't imagine bone marrow tasting like sticky toffee - not even in my wildest dreams! They must have made several different products.

was the Alma still open (as a food office) in the early fifties? I have vague recollections of going there with my older sister to get National dried milk - in a blue and white tin, cod-liver oil, a foul tasting orange juice concentrate and a wonderful malt 'extract' sold in earthenware jars. I think it was called 'Virol'.

Have you tried moving your armchair nearer the stove?

Have you tried shortening the chain to the kitchen stove? She's obviously being allowed to move too far away from it.

I must be a bad lass then, cos I get thet message as well!

Well, there is a well known butcher's shop just a stones throw away and they sell excellent pies. Just saying.

I wa tempted to ask if it was any relation to Sweeney - but I thought better of it.

Feedback: No more problems here! Thanks again.