Griff9of13

The only gyms anywhere reasonably close to the hotel I use are the membership type.

Yes, me too. But I'm finding it difficult as I'm working away from home Monday - Friday ATM. I can't justify forking out the sort of money for a hotel that includes a gym. I have begun a series of moderate exercises in the hotel bedroom though; sit ups and press ups. And I have also had a couple of goes out on a "Sadiq Cycle" last week. Very modest stuff I know, but got to start somewhere.

That's very sudden, she was still working just before Christmas and she's not that old, just 51.

We're working our way through the entire Inside No 9 back catalogue over the holiday period as they're all on the iPlayer. Brilliant stuff even though I've seen them all before at least once. Just finished "La Couchette".

Which is often.

The only thing I made a point of watching yesterday was the Upstart Crow Christmas special. Glad I did. Probably get slated for it, but our main viewing of the day was Love Actually on Netflix. I know it's deeply uncool to say so, but I think it's a really good film; well written and well acted.

Off to see them at the end of the month. I've never managed to catch them before so really looking forward to it.

On Gold right now, the first ever episode of Dad's Army - exactly 50 years to the day and minute since it was originally aired.

We watched the last two episodes last night. Excellent stuff. Two things stood out: How attitudes to homosexually have changed (for the better) in a relatively short time from being illegal when I was a kid to where we are now. The power of the establishment. It makes you wonder just how much has changed when it comes to the miss-deeds of the rich and powerful.

I've always been a big fan of his, but I couldn't really tell you why. Like you say, it's just a bloke meandering around talking, and yes using some big words but in this latest one he used some pretty short ones as well! Thanks for the link, I will have to check it out.

I had to take Mrs Griff9of13 for winter driving lessons last year after she put her car in a ditch on an icy road. She didn't know any of those things, especially not breaking while cornering; hence ending up in a ditch.

I don't just drive a 4wd, I drive a Land Rover. I've currently got a Discovery 3 which I use for my business; the floor space in the back is 6'x4', big enough for most of my materials and I can fit 3m lengths of timber in if I fold down the passenger seat. It's really a van that is also a 7 seat luxury saloon. They really are incredible machines. I've driven mine in deep snow and off road through thigh deep water and up muddy tracks that you would have had difficulty walking up without dropping to your hands and knees.

I have Pirelli Scorpion Zero ATs fitted which cope fine with most conditions. If I lived somewhere with regular snow I'd invest in winter tyres, but at around £600 - £800 for a set of 4 I'm not prepared to pay out for a snowfall that may happen once every 5 years or so.

Yep. Pretty much what happened here this morning; a couple of cm of wet slush and the roads were gridlocked in every direction. Folks round here are totally clueless when it comes to driving in what way laughably minimal as far as adversely affecting a car's traction. Some were inching along at below 10mph in conditions, in terms of grip, no worse than heavy rain as the traffic churned up the snow that was on top of well gritted roads immediately. The speediest part of my journey was when I took the narrow back roads that fortunately all but two others were to frit to drive down.

Don't see you getting stuck if those are your wheels.

Blizzard conditions here on Merseyside this morning. How will we cope.

I think I picked it up from Jiffy's Twitter feed a few days ago.

This coming Sunday on BBC 2 Wales at 19.00 (Sky channel 971 for those of us not living in Wales), The Rugby Codebreakers, the story of the players "going north". It promises to be a full and frank account of the issues and reasons for the migration.

Pretty much the same here on the north west coast. How will we cope?

Just catching up with this today. One observation, in Bradford wouldn't they be weaving wool (or possibly even alpaca in Saltaire) and not cotton?

I heard one of the best review lines ever on the radio yesterday: "this is one of the ten films to die before you see".

I know someone who used to work for him. I doubt her opinions of him would be broadcastable!

Until car manufacturers can 100% guarantee the accuracy of speedometers then there's no way that the 10% buffer can be scrapped without swamping the legal system with challenges.

Nothing to worry about if last night's is anything to go by; yet another brilliantly funny and original episode.

I have been. It was almost worth being laid up in bed for days with flu over the Christmas period for; one of the things that kept me going. Stand outs, this time round, "A Quiet Night In" and "Cold Comfort", but there's not really a bad one.