tonyXIII

No, you're not. You are right to be sceptical. If you do decide to contact him, go slowly and carefully. You've no idea what he's been up to or what sort of friends he has made. I think you should make an effort (he has reached out to you), but be careful. Are you sure it is him or could someone else have got hold of his phone or even stolen his identity? Definitely reach out to him, but meet him on neutral ground first. Be careful and good luck.

I understand the collective angst over this weekend's Premier League results. As Salford Red Devils fan, I can even sympathise with the "Not them again" sentiment - believe me, I am sick of Saints or Wigan hoovering up the trophies. However, I am also a Man City fan and, as such, I really would like to see them win a unique 4th title on the trot. Next year, I won't care. If Klopp were staying, I'd be happy to see him lift the title as, for many years, he was the only one to rise to City's challenge. Now he is leaving, I would prefer to see Arteta win it as a "City Old Boy". However, this season is far from over. Liverpool and Arsenal have to focus on their remaining games, win them and hope City slip up. They cannot affect City's results, but they still have control over their own results. Hope. Never lose hope. (Just lose a couple more games this season. )

We'll have to agree to disagree here and leave it. We both think that the North (and all the other regions) needs investment in infrastructure and we probably agree that much of the previous money has been mis-spent, we just disagree on what the money should be spent on.

Which doesn't affect my point at all.

Sorry gingerjon, but I'm with Red Willow on this one. Besides, I think you are underestimating the draw of London. To lots of foreigners, England begins and ends with London. If the government can't afford to finish HS2, how could they justify building a new OT, or Anfield or Etihad or Villa Park or St James Park. The North needs proper investment, not vanity projects for wealthy people.

Dubbin and leather studs nailed onto the soles. Oh, the memories! Thanks for that. Good luck with the move.

I thought RPN was mostly used in Texas Instruments calculators, not Hewlett Packard. Of course, I am probably wrong.

If I were you, I'd still take my boots with me next time I go. Just in case.

Good luck with the recovery, Spidey. Best wishes.

Shocked to read about this. R.I.P. Malcolm. A Salford legend.

It's strange. The format worked brilliantly in America for years (decades?), yet it just doesn't feel right for a UK audience. Perhaps it needs a less 'high-brow' presenter, such as Stephen Mulhearn?

Only just seen this. Apologies. The order is BODMAS or PEMDAS. The first operation to do is Brackets or Parentheses, then it's Exponents or Indices. I'm not sure why BODMAS has an O. Then, you do Multiplication and Division, which have equal priority, followed by Addition and Subtraction, which also have equal priority. In the event of equal priority, you work from left to right, but this is the final priority and only comes into play AFTER everything else. So, 8-8x8+8. As Padge has pointed out, the first operation is multiplication - 8x8 equals 64 - this leaves you with 8-64+8 which are equal priority so work from left to right ( 8-64 equals -56 ) and then -56 + 8 comes to -48. So, Padge gets 10 out of 10 and a gold star, as does JohnM for pointing out that, in this sequence and others, there are implied brackets round the multiplication and division operators so he also gets 10 out of 10 and a gold star. (As does anyone else who got it right. I've better things to do than read the whole thread.) Happy New Year to everyone, regardless of your mathematical prowess.

Back onto books. "Halfway" by B.E.Jones. A decent ending, but a somewhat slow and definitely confusing start. Too many switches between storylines means you don't really get a sense of who is who until well into the book. The ending is interesting and has a couple of twists to the tale. I think the author was trying to set up one of the twists right from the start by giving one of the characters a name which makes you think 'man', but is later revealed to be a woman. It's a neat trick, but here it's a bit laboured. On the whole, a good story and a decent read, but it could, and should, have been even better.

Okay, I've finished the book, so here's the review. A good read, fast-paced and it was difficult to suss the villain until the last 40 pages. Short chapters means there are ample opportunities to break from the story and catch some shut-eye. The lead cop duo are an interesting pair - one slightly older has converted to Islam and needs to unfurl her prayer mat regularly, the other younger one has abandoned her Islamic faith and revels in excessive booze and sex, but there is a deep reason for this. As I said, an interesting pair. My one criticism is the regular introduction of new characters and bizarre ones at that. It made the storyline hard to follow as I was constantly asking myself, "Who is this one?" Apart from that, I enjoyed it. If you like detective thrillers, you'll enjoy it, too. On to the next book!

Hello Mr Coyne (Tony), it’s always being on my mind to thank you for taking an interest in my development whilst I was at Caedmon School. I had potential and wasted this whilst at school, didn’t really have good family role models and also fell in with the wrong crowd. However, it all turned out good in the end. I’m the Divisional Head of Safety for ******** Homes and very actively involved in raising funds for several charities. Thank you for your help and guidance in my youth. Graham ******** Coincidentally, I received the above via fbmessenger today. A beautiful "thank you" from a pupil of mine forty years ago. Such memories (this isn't the only one) give me my very own warm glow of satisfaction. (Some redactions to preserve his privacy)