Albi

What's the average waiting time for an allottment in the S9/S7 area? I'm down for both, but have no idea when I'd (ever) get one, and like other's couldn't take on a jungle plot right now.

These are all great ideas. I would join a club like this if there was one! Still on a waiting list for an allottment so I couldn't justify helping set one up as my knowledge is minimal. My yard is full of easy to keep pot plants and some onions which don't seem to have taken. Still, great idea. I will keep a look out for when it's up and running. I'm nearer Millhouses than Meersbrook, but it's not that far away is it.

This has also happened to her husband in the last few days: told he could only take 'sick' leave or a 'holiday' to deal with their flooded house! I can see there are threads on here offering help to businesses that have suffered from the floods, so why then are these businesses being so inhumane to their workers? This is not right.

Have you been badly treated at work as a result of the flood? A friend of mine had to deal with a flooded living room, and was refused any compassionate leave to deal with both the emotional trauma and the reality of getting her house inhabitable again. She was told at work that she could only take sick leave or a holiday to deal with the damage. I think this is disgusting, and so posted a comment on Guardian Online which the journalist Polly Toynbee responded to. She is interested in similar stories. Please contact her at [email protected] or, if you'd rather not, then at least share them here. Don't stand for this treatment! Albi

Thanks for all your opinions, they have been great (apart from the one who got into a bit of a giggletither about someone in the world having an alternative viewpoint) and much appreciated. You're a very diverse and interesting bunch of people. I shall concede - not to the whole pressie malarky, but to raising a glass to y'all on the day. Cheers very much. PS If anyone seriously objects to being quoted in my research, please PM me. Ta.

Someone mentioned people who have no choice. If the person who found himself lonely at the end of the year had a choice, would it not stand to reason, that he would be happier choosing not to do Christmas, than having his arm twisted behind his back and the voice of his consumer conscience breathing Do Christmas, or else! down his neck? Someone suggested having the experience enhanced by visiting those less fortunate, like people in hospital. At the risk of sounding sanctimonious, my dad is in hospital at the moment, and probably will be up to Christmas. I have taken him a gift every week. The point is, why should you just think about family for one day in 365? And why does a person get called a Scrooge, because he doesn't buy a gift for anyone, for one day out of those 365, because some chairman of the board thought up a great marketing gimmick for 2006? People have already come up with ideas like, don't spend over a fiver, which is a good policy if you can stick to it. But the question is still out there...do we really feel like we have a choice?

Lets take away the consideration of children, because you are all making valid points about that, which gives you a reason not to think about Christmas as a national tradition. If you were on your own, or with a partner, and had family - we're talking extended family, would you be able to give it up? The consideration here is obviously about that extended family and how you'd deal with the backlash. Does the thought of it send shockwaves through your system? Do you think an undercurrent of refusniks could change the very fabric of our society? That sort of thing.

It's a bit controversial, and my partner and I have upset our families with this, but we don't do Christmas. We haven't done it now for about four years. We're not Jehovah's witnesses, and are not of any other faith either. But we don't think of ourselves as pagans. Actually if we did, we would celebrate, because it's a pagan tradition originally. We don't do Christmas because we feel like hypocrites. Firstly, as I said we're not religious and secondly, it seems to us a tradition that only benefits business and lines the pockets of the rich - and that's a far cry from it being a time of 'giving'. But the thread was prompted from seeing a piece in the Guardian called 'Hurry, only 81 days to go' about shops having a laugh with us by 'launching' Christmas as early as August in some places. This makes me as angry now as it did four years ago. It's not about supermarkets catering for those who want to spread their shopping out over a few months. There's nothing altruistic about Tescos is there, come on. Our families have cried, because we told them not to buy us presents. They say we have taken away their right to buy us gifts at Christmas, that it should be their choice, not ours. I need opinion on this, for research purposes. Can anyone imagine not doing Christmas, simply because they 'didn't want to'? I need qualitative answers, not a poll. Cheers.

No. Quad Erat Demonstrandum!

They do it in Tesco's ya know! You do have to look for it though, I mean, don't ask the shelf stackers cos they'll say 'doh, don't know'. But I buy it myself to make homemade hummus. Mmm. It is there honest. Might be on the jams isle. I forget.

I agree with this. Those who stick to the speed limits actually get everyone to their destinations quicker. Why, how? Well, the ones who drive faster create gridlock at busy times because they're always up each others arses! Simple really. I'm driving along, roughly following the '2 second rule' behind the car in front, and an SUV is sitting on me tail lights, trying to push me along. Where the bleedin ell am I going to go mate? It's only the bloke doing the speed limit a mile down the road who's keeping us moving at all! And another thing...how can speed limits be outdated when you can still kill a kid in the road going 35mph? (not the kid, the car). They don't make kids car proof these days to suit the engines produced by our oh so sophisticated technology! Do they? PS can anyone lip read this little guy? I think he's saying 'bugger me' over and over again.

But these are MY feet. I've only just found my feet! How could anybody have my feet? If you took my feet you'd see my face! It's ridiculous.

That's because no one writes about it. I never see anything in the papers. Why isn't Sheffield seeking publicity for it's comedy scene?