Canny lass

POLAR PRIZE presented to Sting by the King of Sweden! What an honour! it's already being rumoured that the king will never wash his right hand ever again!

I don't know who named it but I think it's a very unfortunate choice, given the meaning of the word 'baedling'.

I can't turn my back for a minute! Who has had the affrontery to call me a big C in my absence?

Does this mean that you will be abandoning your role as singer and dancer?

I must be getting my Johnsons mixed up. Was Raffie not Ken & Eric's father? would Raffie have been Raymond Johnson's father?

I would also put Raffies death as being in the early 60s. I believe Eric and Ken were coming up to their teen years at the time.They certainly weren't toddlers as they would have been in the early fifties.

I can't remember ever seeing that. It was always Nurse Crow from Choppington, later Bedlington, who I saw. Did Petra work on the district?

Good detective work! Thanks.

... "cyek" there's another lovely example of that same sound changing characteristic which is so typical of the North East dialect.. The long 'ai' sound in cake and cavel becomes a short 'e' sound, as in egg. Then we stick a 'y' sound ( y as in yacht rather than y as in fairy). Lovely! Maybe the word went to Australia and then on to New Zealand before returning as dialect to England. That happened to the English word 'cake' which started out as Scandinavian 'kaka' and returned back to Scandinavia as 'keks'. Recycling at it's best! I did a search but can't find any trace of it as 'Queens English'. It only seems to have been a dialect word in Britain and only since the 18th century. Brian Cross, can you help? Have you heard the word 'cavel', or anything similar, anywhere down under?

Spot on HPW and in much more detail than I could have described it. Cyevlin was still actual at Netherton during the fifties. One little amendment, (in case anybody wants to look it up), the word is 'cavel' - with an e, not 'cavil' with an i but I dare say there was a fair bit of cavil going on as well. It's a dialect word and follows the typical sound changing characteristics of the North East dialect. Compare cavel/cyevil with table/tyebil or cable/cyebil. It came to Britain from New Zealand in the 1800's. I've no idea how or why. What a wonderful resource we have here with the likes of HPW and Vic to answer mining qestions!

That might even get me back to the cinema.

... and congratulations to the intellgent people of Bedlington. Democracy gives us the right to vote but when all's said and done, it's intelligence that lets us use that vote wisely! Well done Malcolm! Looking forward to seeing more improvements in Bedlington.

You heard what Foxy said! If you haven't already done it, NOW is the time to use your vote! Sitting on your backside moaning afterwards won't achieve anything. Malcolm puts many hours of his time every week into his work all he's asking for is a few minutes of your time!

Good luck, Malcolm and the rest of you - USE YOUR VOTE!!!!!!!!!!

Just testing to see if you're awake! You're right, of course. I saw "Station Street", "Cooperative" and the 'pointy' bit of the building and thought I knew where I was. I must get stronger specs and remember to take my medicine every morning.

Pleased to see it's still in use. My life-long passion for tap-dancing was kindled and nurtured on the second floor. It's amazing how the floorboards held with 50-60 youngsters giving it six nowt every Monday evening! Fish & chips before catching the Raisbecks home again. Those were the days.

Couldn't have put it better myself, Pete. Go for it Malcolm and get out there and vote the rest of you!!

"Good" is a bit of an understatement, Foxy. I think it looks fantastic!!

I sincerely hope you haven'ät been hit by this storm. We found ourselves without electricity and marooned for 5 days, unable to come out on any road after hurricane Gudrun in january 2005. Looking out of the window it looked as though we were living in the middle of a giant sized game of spillikins. It was a nightmare, even if we were well prepared for it. Here, it's quite common for families to switch off the electricity for a weekend 3 or 4 times a year and practice emergency routines. The BBQ comes in handy for preparing meals, Brian. Other tips i can give you from our experience: Keep a box containing the first available requirements in a place where you can easily find it in the dark. It should contain a torch, matches, batteries, candles,a hurricane lamp and a battery operated radio. Fill any empty space in the freezer with bedding. Duvets go well in chest freezers, pillows go well in upright freezers. Keep a stock of bottled water at home for drinking and cooking. Snow also works well if it's available. Know where your nearest source of river/stream/pond water is for flushing the toilet, a compost heap is a second best but a bit nippy with your drawers down in January! You can keep one decent sized room (approx 40 sq. metres) reasonably warm by keeping a dozen candles burning. If you're able to use your car, you'll be able to charge mobile telephones etc. Stock up with BBQ brickettes at the end of the summer season when they are cheap and you can use the BBQ to cook food during winter power cuts. Try to have a store of frozen/canned food that will last a week. You can have a half decent, warm shower standing in a plastic washing up bowl and using 2 litres of water heated on a fire/BBQ A plastic bottle filled with warm water makes a nice hot water bottle - and you can use the water again. Give it a bash! Try a weekend without electricity now and then. It's well worth the effort when the real thing unexpectedly comes a long.

Ha ha! Only when it's for 'medicinal' purposes.