98th Entry Halton Apprentices

 
The Doncaster Lord Mayor is getting more publicity by the day. The Daily Mail  today features a lengthy article about his reign so far. The comments (250 when I last looked) are also worth a read. I have yet to find a negative remark. I only hope he has some measure of success. But whatever the [...]

I hope that title grabbed your attention. My story today is about a famous Doncastrian you should get to know. His name is Thomas Crapper. He was born in the district of Thorne, Doncaster in 1836. He started his plumbing career at the age of 14 and our very own Mr Crapper patented nine different plumbing [...]

I watched a wildlife programme the other evening on the TV (Wildest Dreams) and part of the documentary covered the capture and release of a Cheetah. The narrator remarked how rare these beautiful creatures are and how difficult it is to photograph them. I reflected on how lucky I have been to get up close [...]

I wonder how many of you are fans of the TV series Top Gear starring presenter Jeremy Clarkson? I have to confess I am not a fan but my son in law and grandson are avid viewers of the programme. Jeremy is a Doncaster lad, born and bred, and attended the same school as my [...]

Sing a song of Parliament,
Pockets full of cash,
Fraudulently claiming
And adding to their stash;
With their ploy discovered
They said they’ll give it back.
If you or I had done the same
We’d promptly get the sack.
Sing a song of freebies,
Snouts all in the trough.
Giving back their ill-got gains
Is just not good enough.
Sponging off our earnings
With a likely tale,
If working [...]

I have been waiting to learn more about the Chinook that was brought down in Sangin, Afghanistan but the shutters are  well and truly down on that incident. So to wrap the story up for now here are my final ramblings on the matter.
Remember our leader Gordy announcing the success of Operation ‘Panther’s Claw’ on 27th [...]

 
John Prescott has landed his most bizarre job yet -   professor of climate change at a Chinese university. Prezza starts his new role at Xiamen University on the south east coast of the country where he will give lectures on global warming. I wouldn’t want to be the Chinese interpreter thats for sure!
The honour is seen [...]

I asked the boss to tell me
Why our house is such a mess.
She asked if I’d been ‘computering’,
And I had to answer ‘yes.’
She told me to get off my backside,
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up…
The smudges on my mouse.
I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick….
I was just admiring my [...]

An interesting statistic on the Iraq engagement.
Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, here’s a sobering statistic:
There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths.
That gives a firearm death rate of [...]

The RAF has lost its first Chinook to enemy fire in Afghanistan a few miles North of Sangin. The ’wokka’ was brought down by a combination of RPG and small arms fire. Fortunately, the crew were all recovered safely and unhurt. This incident follows the recent loss of a Mi-26 and Mi-8 by Taliban fire. Bringing [...]