MakemineVanilla

I always knew it, you're the Noel Coward of Barry Island!

I've heard a lot of positive reviews of Ledaig 18 and it surprised many who never thought such good stuff could be produced by the Tobermory distillery.

I was cynical about the fanfare surrounding the Villa contigent getting the call, but had a good knowing laugh when I saw Southgate's line-up.

There was a piece on the BBC/football page, where Andros Townsend describes Konsa as "having everything", but you have to search for it now.

Time flies but Captain Sensible prevails!

Do you still have the MX5?

He's been so consistent for so long, that I have to admit, that I have tended to take him for granted. An England cap would be a just and well deserved reward.

He had looked lethargic for both Leicester and for Villa, and so yesterday I kept thinking 'bloody hell, is that the same bloke?'. Praise where it is due, he was excellent - I loved the block-tackle which started a Villa attack. While Villa have a busy programme, when JJ returns, I am sure Emery will rotate them.

Tielmans is playing great and is exactly the right guy to play behind Digne whose defensive game is not his forte.

The photograph reminds me of something I failed to take into account, and that is the amazing affection ordinary people had for the King, during that era. They may have hated the owners and the government but for reasons beyond my understanding, they thought of the monarch as someone who understood and sympathised with their problems. One of the many interesting things in Juliet Gardiner's book about the 1930s, was that during the depression the suffering was not equally spread across the country, and that places like the Midlands were not as badly affected as the likes of Wales and Scotland. The government did their best to persuade those in the worst affected areas to move to where the prospects of employment were much better, but those who took up the offers mostly returned home after a short while because they couldn't bear to be away from their families. I suspect that the close-knit famlilies as depicted in How Green Was My Valley, weren't as exaggerated as cynics like me assumed.

What always surprises me is how bellicose the British nation was in the early years of the 20th Century, and how the propaganda of the second half of the century, has presented it otherwise. Having just fought the Second Boer War, and having enjoyed a "turkey shoot" at Omdurman, the popularity of books like The Riddle of the Sands suggest that the nation was contemplating a confrontation with a recently united Germany (1870), well before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. According to The Bantams, the main motivation of those men demanding to be allowed to serve (one even travelled from South America), was the dishonour of being considered not being man enough to serve, an anxiety which was cynically exploited by the white-feather campaign. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori! I am surprised that after the Government had shown their willingness to use the military against them, that their patriotism survived.

Most books about Churchill are hagiographies which have created a cult, where every PM wants to emulate Churchill's military adventures, whether they be Thatcher, Blair or Boris. Churchill was to play the villain all over again, when he returned to the gold standard and the miners had their wages cut and their hours increased, which led to the General Strike. What amazed me, on reading The Bantams by Sydney Allinson, is that so many Welsh miners, who were too short to be soldiers in the Great War, campaigned for the right to serve, in a war which some historians claim Churchill was responsible for starting. The best book I've read about the struggle of coal miners and their dilemmas, was Zola's Germinal.

There's no doubt about his technical ability but his decision-making needs to get better, and I think he needs to give himself a tad more time in front of goal. Having watched the two Milan clubs last season, which was always a bit frantic, I think he just has to adapt to the tempo of the English game. Better luck might help him along too.

Tie A Yellow Ribbon would be both appropriate and easily adaptable!

I blame the parents!

I have always liked the idea of white poppies, which suggest that you might want to think beyond all the jingoism.

Tolkien fans might want to put this on their Christmas list, which I'm told is very good: The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Tolkien’s World by Antony Cummins

But was he pissed at the time?

If I remember rightly, some ancient Roman wrote something about children being a pain and that every generation being worse than the last. I can't say I am that keen on kids myself but that might be because my oxtocin levels are in decline. As I once heard a wise old woman say, she loved her kids but didn't like them much.

Training children to be able to eat things they don't like is very important if they are to succeed in life, as turning your nose up at what is served at a dinner party, is a serious a faux pas. When Thatcher was unable to eat the Saumagen (sow's stomach) ordered especially by Chancellor Kohl, she proved she was a shopkeeper's daughter.

They are obviously desperate to be considered good people, and that means their biggest dread is to be thought a bad parent; what could be worse? Figures of authority like the government always provoke transference, so the last thing they would want is to be seen as a cruel authoritarian parent who won't let the kid have pudding until they've eaten their meat. Spring and Port Wine fashion. So they are easily manipulated. What they don't realise is that their kids will blame them anyway, no matter what they do. Larkin fashion!

I always thought Freud had got it wrong with his obsession with potty-training, I think that most power struggles between child and parent happen at the dinner-table. When your boy goes out into the world he'll be free to try stuff without the pressures of parental anxiety and annoyance.

I knew a lady once, who always said so, and used to get her supply from M&S; no expense spared.

Trans fat?