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15% off all Toffs gear for fathers day with the promo code "DAD15" http://www.toffs.com/

Clearly an Edwardian gentleman of some standing..thats a great pic I think grandad was attached to the 118th siege battery RGA, when I was looking at all this I'd half convinced myself that he must've been with one of the Scottish based batteries but its pretty certain he wasnt as (I think) the likes of the Inchkeith battery exisited before the war started and the 118th was raised speciffically for the Flanders punch up. Theres a book called "Intermittent Gunfire" which is the diary of a RGA officer from around that time, I got it for my old man but it seems to have disappeared from google...there appears to be a good few more on amazon though http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=node%3D271431&field-keywords=siege+battery&rh=n%3A271431%2Ck%3Asiege+battery

Yeah he died in 1979 aged 81. I remember him pretty clearly, but most of what I know about him comes from my old man. He seems to have talked a fair bit about the Western Front.He was in a siege battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery loading shells on to 9" Howitzers that sat on rails to make the huge recoil easier to control.Apprarently he like thousands of others lied to join up at 16 or 17. Him and his mate walked the 15 miles from their village in Berwickshire to the recruiting centre at Galashiels. He got to the front and the officer took one look at his young features and lead him back behind lines where he waited on tables at the officers mess at the battery HQ for 6 months until he was 18. He was good at this as he was brought up on large country estates as the son of a gamekeeper and so knew how to address the gentry correctly. He was behind the front line when he got injured at a chateau the officers used when they were withdrawn for a few days "r & r". There was supposedly a "gentlemans agreement" between the hun artillery and ours that this gaff wouldnt get targeted if we didnt aim at their place but they always sent one or two shells a week close by just to keep our lot on thier toes, it was one of these that got him. He had a long period of recuperation when he got back in various hospitals one of which was called Bangour in West Lothain. He and my old man were sat in a bar in Edinburgh sometime in the 70s where he got into conversation with an old woman sat at the bar. Turns out in her younger day she was a lady of extremely easy virtue ( ) and she and other women in the same trade were "encouraged" to spend time with the recuperating soldiers..she actually asked him "were you in Bangour after the war?" so Grandad must have made a distinct impression on her After all that, he was apparently scared of absoloutely nothing, theres stories of him killing rats with his bare hands, and he was exceedingly sceptical about the church after he returned, barely setting foot in one after his return which was unusual. I dont suppose he was much different to thousands of other lads who returned (as did his two brothers, one from Ireland where he was serving with the KOSB during the 1918 Easter rising in Dublin) but sat here 100 years on its pretty plain he personally and his generation in general were truly remarkable men. He's here with my nan, old man and auntie in the mid thirties:

Heard him on talksport earlier...his speech sounded slurred, which I think is pretty much par for the course pissed or not, but he did sound in good spirits tbh. However he knows what he he's up against I think, at one point he said "I don't know if I'll have a drink tomorrow or not" Poor fucker.

http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/ww1cemeteries/dickebuschnewmilitarycemetery.htm

The moon over Hume Castle, north of Kelso, last night... Apologies for this rather maudlin tale, but just out of shot is Hume Quarry, where my grandfather worked when he returned from WWI. Apparently the blood from the wounds he sustained to his legs after being caught by a shell at Dickebusch oozed out above his wellies...no social in those days..my grandmother used to have to clean him up every night after he returned from 10 hours of breaking stones. Anyway the snapper is Billy Fenwick and he's brilliant, specialising in the Borders and the Cheviots. He doesnt appear to have a website or a flickr stream, but this is his Facebook.. https://www.facebook.com/BillyFenwickPhotography?fref=photo

#ITK

Spoke to my mates missus at the weekend who works for Merlin here in Poole.....apparently this was in a very literal sense an accident waiting to happen..

I think its almost all futile tbh (including not going, it would appear theres always someone willing to take your seat) but thats not in any way a criticism of ashleyout.com or anyone else..we need a buyer to get rid of Ashley and nothing else will come close to getting rid of him.

Upgrade for next season....

I won't say where Mrs PL says you can shove your cons boycott Am a bit perturbed by this myself tbh...things have come and gone in my life but I think I've worn some type of converse off and on since I was about 8...

Voodoo Dolls were the poor man's Huggy Bear tbh Whats the fuckin deal here then?....do SD sell converse by the truckload or does he have shares in them?....am asking on behalf of Mrs PL obviously....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32958880 Watford appoint Quique Flores as their new manager; ex Real Madrid and Spanish international player, Europa and Super cup winner with Atletico in 2011. We appoint a scrote who was bullied as a player by Billy Whitehurst at York City and has been sacked from 5 of his 7 managers jobs. Turned us down twice but is now willing to cede most of his power in the transfer market to others and is more than willing to have Carver as first team coach. I'll say that again. Watford .

Wouldnt bother with the film.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/11581622/Gazza-film-is-the-ultimate-vanity-project.html

156 days since Pardew resigned. Would Ashley put up with this err "process" at SD? What a parcel of fuckin shit...

Theres a 27 stone yank former FIFA VP (Chuck Blazer??) who wore an FBI wire to meetings a couple of years back, they got to him due to his tax affairs being of the Ken Dodd variety. Think its him who's the actual "smoking gun/" of proof of real shit on Blatter and the rest of the thinly disguised fuckin gangsters running the global game. Am wondering if this puts Qatar or Russia at risk of losing their bids??..

Charles Kennedy dead at 55 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-32970337

About 1.26ish, just after Lualua scores, camera pans across the delirious travelling support....

London borough of Barnet an early leader in the tory post election race to the bottom... How far does Cameron want to shrink the state? Ask Barnet’s binmen http://gu.com/p/49d5j?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy to clipboard

Sounds like they've robbed that from Palace fans tbh

In 86 you were watching a team managed by either Jackie Charlton or Willie McFaul old son

Keegan won't manage a football team again iyam. It's over for his generation at the top.level now Redknapp and Dalglish are out the picture. Yesterdays men as far as coaching is concerned.He could very well come back as a figurehead to steer the club in the right direction should some nutter take the club off Ashley's hands.

Flash sale at our local Treds results in a whopping £27 off these bad boys

Am wondering who made this decision... http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20150528/season-ticket-renewal-deadline-extended_2281670_4751746 Rattled....or an announcement in the next couple of weeks?..

I've run into him three times in six months, Tuesday morning was the last time. I'd love to ask him how he could lose a quarter final and a semi final in the same week and about the Boumsong and Faye transfers but frankly he still looks like he could tear my fuckin head off