Lou

Thanks for the info catanfan. I paid Patriot Games a visit on Monday. The guy who served me was very knowledgable and helpful. I bought Arkham Horror which is FAB! I'd love some Talisman expansions as well but I think I'll have to wait until next payday. I could spend a small fortune in there! Oh and I play badminton on Tuesdays, so board games would have to be another night...

There's a student festival called "Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival" which has just been held in Sheffield. (I didn't go but a work colleague is involved in the organisation of it). They've got the names of the bands that played on their website here: http://www.ivfdf.ceilidhsoc.org/mainevents I don't know if this is helpful at all? I don't know what any of the bands are like though!

Ah damn, that's disappointing about Number 1's. Their food was yummy.

I watched this series, it was suitably sick and twisted for my liking! I too especially enjoyed the Maroon 5 guy getting his arm ripped off! Ha ha! Having not watched the first series I didn't know what to expect. I thought the second series started off very promisingly, then with each scenario producing a worse outcome than before, I started to lose faith a little. It started to take things a little too far sometimes. However I watched it to the end because I was hoping the nicer characters would get their much deserved happier ending after all their suffering!

I love The Beatles White Album. I also love: Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium

Yep, really enjoyed it. I was expecting another story about Jack The Ripper but I thought the way it was set just after the Ripper murders was a clever adaptation. It enabled them to bring in the element of paranoia that the Ripper had returned when a similar murder occurred. It also put pressure on the police because they were judged to have "failed" by not finding out who the Ripper was. Also I loved the authenticity of a Victorian era autopsy such as smoking a fag during the procedure!

You can play at Ponds Forge without having to join a membership or anything. Just play when you want for a one-off game. The only drawback is that it can be quite difficult to book a court sometimes.

I'm so pleased that I've seen this thread. I've been wanting to buy the expansions for the Talisman board game but I'd rather be able to buy them from a shop rather than ordering over the internet. Nothing against the internet, it's just sometimes when I'm in the mood for something I want it straight away! I'm also unlikely to be at home when an internet order is delivered. I never knew about this shop, Patriot Games. Thanks for the info. I will be paying them a visit! I'm a little confused why these types of fantasy/sci-fi board games aren't available from other high street shops that sell board games? I know that board games have got their work cut out to compete with console/computer games but are the likes of Talisman and Settlers of Catan just not mainstream enough to be sold in high street shops?

Hmm intriguing! It's on my Sky Plus. I'll hopefully get round to watching it today.

I'm on twitter and I had a reply from Sebastian Bach (former lead singer of Skid Row) once. I also had a reply from Rick Allen (drummer in Def Leppard). Skin (lead singer of Skunk Anansie) re-tweeted me once. I think that's it. There are certain people on twitter who "talk"/reply to followers quite often, Sebastian Bach and Rick Allen are prime examples. You sometimes just have to be lucky and be on twitter at the right time. I saw that Sebastian and Rick were replying to lots of tweets and I asked them a specific question and got a reply. Rio Ferdinand replies a lot to his followers. I've tweeted him a couple of times but had no reply. Some tweeters (like Rio) probably get LOADS of tweets so I imagine it's very easy for them to miss a lot of tweets. I just think it's nice to be able to converse directly with someone you admire or respect or whose music you love.

I'm loving The Walking Dead TV series. I've watched it from the start. I loved the first series but now they've got to have different story lines and inevitably it's gone down the route of other humans being more of a threat than the zombies themselves. I know this idea has been touched on in previous series but it's becoming a major theme in this series. Still, it's keeping me hooked and (not having watched last night's episode yet) ** possible spoiler alert ** I'm feeling the tension of the group's difficult decision as to whether to leave the prison or not. Be interesting to see how this is going to unfold.

It's been a while since I've been near Number 1's: I thought it was closed for refurbishment and not permanently closed? Does anyone know if it's open again? I think their food was nicer than Jumbo's, but agree with someone else's post that I saw somewhere, that Number 1's has a bit of a strange feel to it because it's in one big room, so there's a bit of a lack of atmosphere.

It's incredible how quickly things have advanced on. Just thinking about computer games from the basic "ping pong" game to the games nowadays which have incredible complexity and amazing graphics which look almost as realistic as watching the real thing. I did grow up without a mobile phone or the internet (and I hand-wrote letters to friends and family when I was at Uni) but we still managed to meet up with friends and knew what was going on. Having said that I would hate not to have a mobile phone now (with its internet access)! There is something addictive and compelling (and very convenient) about having INSTANT access to friends and information at any time, wherever you are and wherever they are. So, overall, I don't think I would want to go back. But in the back of my mind, I think that if we HAD to go back, at least I know it wouldn't be quite as much of a shock to the system for me as it would be for younger generations!

I finally got my certificate through for this the other day. That took a while! Can't believe it was as long ago as 25th July 2010! It was a bloomin warm day that day but good fun.

El-Hadji Diouf is utterly vile. He doesn't seem to learn or improve his behaviour. His spitting at other players is just completely scummy. Remember Arjan de Zeeuw? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4049409.stm This article says that (at the time) Bolton were considering sending him to a psychological counsellor. He doesn't need a counsellor, he needs a bloody frontal lobotomy. Rant over.