98th Entry Halton Apprentices

The headline TV news yesterday said: “57 UK troops wounded in action in the first two weeks of July”. Here is my take on that sobering new statistic.
Paratrooper Ben Parkinson ( pictured above with footballer John Terry), lives not 10 minutes walk from my house in Doncaster. We often see him in the local area with his Mum or [...]

The Times is a respected piece of newsprint - usually; certainly better that many others that court big circulation and a more ‘liberal’ approach to truth and reality.
Today’s Times [22.55h 30/6/2009] reports at some length on the recent bombs at the Guadia Civil barracks about 20 miles from Palma where I live.
Here’s a couple of [...]

There is much coverage of - and derision about - the Met Office’s ridiculous forecast for this year’s summer in UK. A barbecue summer they predicted.  But, unless I am missing something, not one of the articles I have read or watched on the TV makes the link between the lack of precision on these [...]

We hear a lot about politicians and the daft decisions they make. For a change, I would like to talk about the less well known decisions the services themselves have made during the ongoing fiasco of helicopter shortages in Afghanistan. I’m afraid it doesn’t make good reading.
Its difficult to know where to start with this web of intrigue. So let [...]

Recently discovered, in an old box, are these further somewhat faded pictures of the Rothman’s Teams activities of thirty years ago. We had progressed in the tour from Sudan and Egypt to Cyprus, Rhodes and now Greece.
At one of the display sites, on one of the Greek Islands, we had an overnight stay. We arrived [...]

Hi Guys
We have been asked by Mike and Co to try to come with something that will steer the web site more towards an interactive mode and away from a simple blog site. It occurred to me that when this whole matter started up last year and a reunion mentioned a spider’s web of interaction [...]

The article below highlights the sort of topic I am involved with at a national level wearing my ’Magistrates’ hat. I attended a meeting in London on Thursday which focused on this and other similar areas of concern. The article below (which I have shortened) appeared in the ‘Times’ on Saturday and follows on, to some extent, from the justice related issues [...]

Sometimes when you have a stressful day or week, you need some silliness to break up the day.
Here is your dose.
The following is an excerpt from a children’s book, “Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants”, by Dav Pilkey. The evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names…
Use the first letter of your [...]

Air shows are taking place all over the country and yesterday saw the hundredth anniversary of the cross channel flight of Louis Bleriot.
How many of you knew the very first Air Show in England took place in Doncaster. My adopted home town is more well known for mining, the building of famous steam trains like the Mallard, [...]

The cuttle fish, cousins to the giant squid rampaging about Florida Jane mentioned earlier, gather off the East coast of OZ every year to mate and provide endless fun when diving amongst them as they tend to follow you about sometimes getting a little too amourous! 

The Port Jackson sharks also congregate to mate and the photo [...]