Megan

I have been known to drink Lapsang Souchong and Tea, Earl Grey, Hot... both "without pollutants".

I normally have one mug of coffee in the morning, then spend the rest of the day drinking Orange & Mango squash (by the pint). Then evening comes and it's a pint, followed by red wine with dinner and sometimes a drop of Laphroaig afterwards.

In UK Churches, it is common to observe a 2-minute silence at 11am on the Sunday next after 11 November (unless 11 November is a Sunday, when that will do). There is a growing tendency to observe a 2-minute silence at 11am on 11 November whatever day it falls upon (in the University where I work they sound the fire alarm, having pre-announced that they will do so).

As for poppies, they seem to appear earlier and earlier every year. The BBC mandates that presenters wear them from mid-October, which is a bit ridiculous. I used to wear them only on 11 November and the following Sunday, but of late I have switched to small enamel pins which are worn year-round on my coat collar. That's quite separate from putting money in a collecting tin, which of course I do every year.

Possibly my greatest regret at being female is that I cannot play Santa! You, Mike, make an excellent one

Remember that you do not GIVE offence - someone else CHOOSES to take it. Their problem.

GRRR. You have made me feel hungry.

I read Churchill's History of WW2 when quite young (late teens, I think). The first volume was very self-serving, but it improved later on once it was dealing with the actual war and included other people who contributed to the war effort.

The key phrase is "tasked to carry out the will of the people" - whilst politicians may have ideas and should attempt to convince the electorate of their merits, they are hired to act on citizens' behalf. What did the citizens of the UK want during the 1930s?

History is always blighted by hindsight. We know what was to come and it is easy to say that things should have been done differently. Good historians dig down to find out what was known at the time and to whom, and what the 'will of the people' was... Did Chamberlain do what the citizens of the UK wished him to do, based on the information he and they had?

Congratulations to the winners and indeed all entrants who made judging so, so difficult (if pleasurable!).

Those pictures bring back memories... I think I must have seen that booklet at some time as a youngster. Which, given that my early passion for medals led to an interest in the uniforms they are worn on and that I lived in London until 1968 is not too surprising!

Fascinating stuff...

Never got that far. I actually applied to Cheshire Constabulary in 1984. As you recount, a long form to fill in accounting for every waking moment... then you had to go to the local police station to be weighed and measured! I reckon this was as much a test of 'bottle' as wanting to know your dimensions as they'd recently dropped height requirements. I certainly waited until there wasn't anyone else around before going up to the enquiry desk and telling the desk officer what I wanted.

Fate intervened. They lost my paperwork, & I had to fill it all out again. Then I got called for the physical tests, at the then training college in Crewe (it's flats now - and was originally an Ursuline Convent before the police had it).

Then they lost my paperwork again. I think that's when I gave up & took some other job... and eventually found my way into computing.

I doubt I'd have made a particularly good police officer anyway....

Thank you for all your hard work, Nick.

Tasty, but what will it cost?

And I am somewhere in between... at 52 my daughter is 15

But the hair is grey... we have 3 Megans in my church, and so when more than one of us is around in the same meeting, I refer to myself as 'the grey Megan' given that the other two are college students. The other folks try to be more polite, but get tangled up, so I shall probably get my way in the end...

The trick is to enjoy life, enjoy the folks around you, enjoy whatever it is you are doing.

I too need some improvement in the paycheck area, like I would like a job. Unemployment sucks, and job-hunting is a frustrating exercise in futility and wastes a heck of a lot of time.

Everything else is wonderful!

Everyone has their own reasons for liking or disliking a particular period, and there are several downchecks to contemporary Russian ODM.

Some folks don't like modern. Some do not like to have to come to grips with what is quite a challenging language (any one where you have to learn an alphabet as well as the words is that bit harder...). Some are daunted by the sheer number of pieces they're putting out.

Me, I already get by in Russian, am happy cataloguing away, and as interested in present-day as historical. But you know that already

Drat, came here to start a blog and got sidetracked. Now I have to go out... maybe later!