soubriquet

How about North Africa? I had a great day out on corn snow at an empty Jbel Toubkal. About 50 km south of Marrakesh.

Ian Drury. I used to know the sax player (taught me everything I know).

Don't have a drink problem, 'cept when I can't get a drink... (Tom Waits)

Thanks very much me jane, check your pm's, and enjoy your holiday Igloo: I think the political system was modelled on Prussia, not the UK. No-one would copy the UK because we don't have a formal constitution, rather a collection of precedent and legal rulings. Tyneside and doubtless Glasgow would have connections through shipbuilding and railways. I'd expect a Lancashire cotton connection. I'm interested in Japanese manufacturing in South Wales.

If you decide to learn to ski, then take lessons. It took me a couple of sessions to get the skis to turn and stop, and about a week to develop a decent stem turn and to get my weight in the right place. That's all you need to be able to get up and down the mountain. That investment has given me 30 years (and counting) of mountain delight. If you ski, you fall. Don't forget to have fun.

Thanks Ocean.

Ponting a hypocrite: Kiwis From correspondents in Auckland, New Zealand September 3, 2005 RICKY Ponting's Ashes substitution fielder blast has struck its rawest nerve across the Tasman where the Australian cricketers have been pilloried as supreme hypocrites. Ponting's comments that England's consistent use of county substitutes was disgraceful and against the spirit of the game has New Zealanders' eyes rolling and blood boiling. The country's biggest daily newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, and television news reports have taken aim at the besieged captain for a "tiresome r

Lord of the flies was fiction. This is reality. God, Guns and Guts made America Great. Lets keep it there. Not here.

I've been asked to give a public talk on cultural relations between Japan and the UK. After a day scratching around, I haven't come up with much. I know something of the history of Meiji Japanese travelling to Tyneside to learn about ships, and Nissan building its factory at Washington, but it's a bit thin. Any suggestions? Cheers

It's moving into Uranus

A picnic in the French Pyrenees. Bread, pate, some cheese and salami. A nice bottle of red, of course.

From Iwate. Nice coastline. I was there for a swim last week. Hows the skiing?

I've skied twice in Italy, near Sestriere, and once in the Dolomites. Both times the snow was good, dry, cold and plentiful. Sestriere was special though, because we had a couple of big overnight dumps followed by sunny days, with acres of space and not many people. It was the only time I ever really got a grip in deep powder, but at times I was in the zone.

That shouldn't be a problem.

A ski bike. Great stuff. Can it be converted into a canoe, and what do you do about chafing of the inner thighs?

Poor Australia my arse. I spent 15 years between Kalgoorlie and Mt Isa, via Newman and Broken Hill being lectured by Aussies, Kiwis and Jaapies, on why the Poms are no good at rugby or cricket. I'm enjoying this.

Never been, but a delta levee is a very bad place to build a city. By their nature, deltas compact.

Yep. Australia need a win to retain the ashes, England just the draw. It kept me up till two last night, what a finish.

Here's the correct quote: "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells." Sorry, it's a long time since I sat in class lea

It turned here last week. Tonight we have an autumn mist. "Now is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.." (Keats)

Well, Australia are going to have to fight for a draw this time. Shame about the rain on Thursday, spoilt England's momentum. Still, regardless of the outcome, Australia have been outplayed and made to fight for the first time in 16 years. How's the feeling in India Rahul?

Ditto. I like cheese, but once was enough.

It's worth looking at the survival rates for low level bomb/torpedo raids. The aircrews (both sides) who flew these missions were under no illusion that they were likely to return. Kamikaze removed some uncertainty, but not much.

I doubt very much if a 10V difference will hurt your stuff. I'd go with the 110V transformer. Good electronics are amazingly tolerant of voltage differences, but I'm not responsible if they cook

Not figs, but tomatos. There is some lovley stuff coming off the family farm now. Father-out-law has grown a variety that looks like those Italian domestic tomatos. Large, flat and ugly with blotchy skin, often split, but with sublime texture and flavour.