January 2008 Archives

Jump up and down and wave someone else's knickers in the air.

Ladette to Lady is back - and it's pants. Or, in the language of the frustrated old broads trying to teach female lager louts how to behave proper, it was young gentlemen's undergarments.

Are you sick of filling your paper recycling bin with all the junk mail you get?

It does not have to be that way. You can stop junk mail in its tracks.

MOTOGP pilot Chris Vermeulen has announced he will run the famous 'number seven' plate this year in a tribute to his hero Barry Sheene.

The hat-wearing Aussie will become the first Suzuki rider to run with the number since Sheene himself, finally having been able to snaffle it from the departed Carlos Checa.

For Vermin, it is the ultimate tribute to his mentor and the late great star of the 500ccGP era, and again it throws up the peculiarity that is numbers in bike racing.

Here is the news - and this is Ian Robson reviewing it.
Bong - News at Ten is back. Bong - Trevor McDonald is the newsreader once more.
Bong - Couldn't they get someone else?

McDonald is past his sell-by date and it is only the presence of his co-presenter Julia Etchingham that makes News at Ten half-watchable.

FOR quite some time a dedicated group of martial artists in the region have been working hard to raise cash for Cancer Research UK.

They do this not for the glory but because they want to make a difference – and as such they are unsung heroes.

The foremost of these unselfish and caring guys is Sensei Peter Seth who spends most of the year organising the North’s biggest martial art showcase, the Marfest International Martial Arts Festival held annually in Sunderland.

My wife sent me a text message the other day to tell me she thought I was a "jazz hit". That's nice, I thought.

A slight exaggeration, mind you. Because although I play the guitar - and even own a semi-acoustic Ibanez that's perfect for jazz - I'm really more of a determined strummer than a virtuoso performer.

I receive a lot of emails asking where certain things can be taken to be recycled.

It is easy enough to ring your local council or to check their website to see what waste they take into their household waste recycling sites.

But, how do you find out about all the sites in supermarkets and car parks.

There was something disturbing about the Wire in the Blood special starring Geordie favourite Robson Green.

Something to do with scenes of gratuitous violence against women and children. This series, always near the knuckle, has finally crossed the boundary.

I was grave hopping on the Gone Too Soon website the other day.
That might strike you as a somewhat morbid thing to do, but I was merely curious I assure you.

I can't quite explain why. . .although I suspect it had something to do with turning 49 the other day and the fact that I'm now contemplating my own mortality along with my navel.

By the time you read this over 6 million real Christmas trees will have been bought in the UK, that is about nine thousand tonnes of trees.

Once they are taken down, where do they all go?

Only 750,000 of the real trees sold in 2006 were recycled, most go to landfill unless you take action to prevent it.