catmag

That puts me in mind of our own manc-mag who fell asleep at the wheel driving back from a game and only woke up when he smashed into the central reservation on the A1. Luckily he's still here to tell the tale. I've no such drama, personally. The only thing I came close to was the IRA bombing in Manchester. I'd passed through the city centre about half an hour before the bomb went off on my way to my boyfriend's house. I remember hearing some kind of explosion as I got off the bus at his place about 7 miles away but only found out what had happened when my parents finally got in touch with me after various panicked calls to the nurses home I lived in at the time. The closest and most surreal experiences I've been party to is that of my cousin in the US. She works for American Express and was based in WTC at the time of the 9/11 attacks. She was meant to be at work that day but called in absent as her husband and 3 children all had a vomiting bug. Her husband, dad and brother all worked for United Airlines, Her husband was off sick, her brother was on a training thing in Dallas and her dad was piloting a plane from Boston Logan to Tokyo and was queued up on the runway at Logan when the first plane hit and he was turned back.

I sent a parcel over there a few weeks ago - standard first class via the post office and it got there in 6 days. Not sure what it's like sending stuff in the other direction though, but a month seems excessive.

This. I thought he was in his 80's when I was a kid! RIP though

Hasn't that got the permanently unfunny Miranda in it?

I prefer 'sensitive to meteorological extremes' (and really loud thunder)

Thanks to the super-duper mega glazing at work I managed to watch it without being totally freaked by the thunder. It was quite surreal the way the sky was completely purple with each lightning flash.

Hard as nails When we had the storm earlier today, one of mine managed to open one of the divan drawers under the bairns bed, climb in it and hide there until I was convinced she'd jumped out of the window and run away.

I'm watching from the 4th floor at work. Shitting myself as I'm phobic when it comes to thunder but the lightning is mental. That rain was mad too..

A slightly more imposing figure too Liam Brodie (GBR) about to start his 2nd round match soon if any of you working peeps want something to listen to.

The bairn has just wangled himself an extra 45mins after his bedtime as he started asking about the tennis scoring system. I was particularly proud when he got the tie-break principle on first explanation

Poor bastard. He'll freeze come Christmas

What's he protesting about? Loving this weather btw. I should definitely have been born in the Mediterranean. The cats and their fur coats, however, are huffing about like a pair of asthmatic pensioners

The fake hair thing man! What was that about and how did he keep in in place??

There are no words.

I don't mind watching Tsonga actually Yes, he's got a huge serve but he moves around well for a huge bloke and has some pretty nifty touches aswell. I found Sampras to be unwatchable, personally - bored me senseless. Much preferred Agassi, who at least showed a bit of emotion when he played. I find Federer and Djokovic to be as robotic as the Roomba.

Sampras played like that the whole of his career. It's not a new thing.

Hills always has amazing, spot-on rants. The Putin ones are spectacular

My friends were flown home yesterday and this is what he said.. " I hate to say it but Sky News have painted the most accurate picture. What we saw was the gunman walking (I initially thought he was running but my memory was jogged) on the beach past our hotel. I saw another man with a pistol that turns out to be security who's guns didn't work. There were many local people following him on the beach unharmed as he was only after tourists. When we fled our room due to gunshots that sounded very close, he was on the road alongside us having tiles thrown at him from above and spraying gunfire at the police and the man on the roof who threw the tiles. Then he was killed by them on the side road adjacent and just along from where we were. The people who say he was in our hotel are mistaken. We saw him on the beach walk past our hotel, he then was alongside our hotel, he never got on site."

You kidding? You've missed his numerous references to Sunday dinner needing at least 2 types of potatoes on it?

The 6-year old who is more sensible that I've ever been or will ever be. We were out in the middle of Newcastle tonight at a family friend's party. At about 10pm he gave a huge audible sigh and said "Mammy, It's time for ET to go home..." This is along with recent pearls of wisdom which includes "That rollercoaster is a little bit too fast, too dangerous and I was worried. I don't think you should go on any more..." By the time he's 16 I'm not going to be allowed out of the house and wouldn't dare come home late. Really not sure where I got him from...

My friend is on holiday there and saw/heard this from his hotel balcony. The police shot one of the terrorists dead outside of his hotel reception. They're safe but shaken.

On another Twitter note, Aldo Zilli has just started following me too. Random.

It always strikes me at funerals that people never get to see or hear the number of people/lovely things that attend/are said about them. Shame we don't do more of it for the people we care about whilst they're here to hear it. RIP Ray