FIRETHORN1

Yes - it was ten year one. I don't think they do the one year passports any longer. I too had only used my previous passport twice to travel abroad in the last ten years, but so many transactions require proof of identity these days and most will only accept either a passport or a full driving licence as proof. I'm a non-driver, so a passport is a must for me - even though I have no intention of going abroad in the foreseeable future. For example, I recently closed a small savings account with Santander and they demanded my passport or driving licence as proof of ID. I had my old bank passbooks, copies of the previous bank statements - but they'd only accept passport/driving licence.

I know a lot of people on here disagree with me, but I still maintain that the vaccines that so many of us have willingly taken (including myself) have caused as much - if not more - harm than the Covid virus itself. So many previously fit and healthy people have died horrible deaths or become seriously ill shortly after taking the vaxx - especially from bleeds and clots on the brain and from heart problems. The BBC journalist Lisa Shaw, the musician Lord Zion, the psychotherapist Dr Stephen Wright. Their friends and relatives have been suppressed from reporting their deaths by Mainstream Media and even banned from popular social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook. You may not agree with the view that the vaccine is dangerous but it makes me very suspicious that anyone praising it is allowed to speak freely, yet anyone criticising it - or even questioning it- is banned.

I needed to renew my passport and even though I'd got 8 months left on my current passport, I decided to renew it early, because I'd read so many horror stories about huge delays and huge backlogs in HM Passport Office. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to get a much quicker and better response than I was expecting. I submitted my application on 12th April, using the Post Office "Digital Check& Send" service. HMPO texted/emailed me at every stage of the process and my new passport was successfully delivered to me on 3rd May. The whole process took only 3 weeks. I'm sure HMPO deserve some of the criticism they've had, but they did well on this occasion, so I thought it only fair to give them a bit of praise,

Oxtail is also great for making mulligatawny soup. Just stew it as per any of the recipes above, allow to cool, skim off the fat and shred the meat off the bones. Reserve the stock and vegetables. Marinate the shredded meat overnight in the curry paste of your choice then gently fry it with some minced garlic, finely chopped hot chilli and minced fresh ginger, until lightly browned. Then puree the stock and vegetables with a stick blender and add it to the meat/ginger/garlic/chilli mixture, a ladleful at a time. Simmer gently for about 45 minutes - add more water, a bit at a time , and stir in until you get your required consistency. It's best left overnight, to allow all the curry flavours to develop - then re-heated. Serve with naan bread, roti, paratha or chapati's . I like my mulligatawny really hot and fiery, so I use hot curry paste and loads of fresh chilli- but if you prefer it milder, just use milder curry paste and go easy on the chilli.

Yes Delbow - Norse Star III - that's the one. It really is cracking - if you can bear to fork out £4.50 for one can of beer! I'll look out for that Acorn Brewery beer you mentioned - I like liquoricey flavours. The Tynt Medow beers mentioned by Zinger549 sound interesting too

I've recently developed a real liking for gnocchi - a sort of little dumpling-type thing that can be used as the main carb ingredient in meals and which make a nice change from the usual carb content - like pasta or potatoes etc. They are nice to eat with traditional English type dishes, like soups, stews, casseroles, nice with creamy, meaty or tomato-ey pasta-style sauces . Gnocchi can be bought in the chilled sections in supermarkets but it's much cheaper to make your own - they are quick & simple to make - and freeze well. To make 2 portions 250g floury potatoes (eg King Edwards/Maris Piper) 50g plain flour 1 egg yolk A few chopped fresh soft herbs - eg basil/mint/dill/chives/parsley (optional) Cook potatoes in their skins until tender. Allow to cool and completely dry. Peel potatoes, mash together with flour, egg yolk and chopped herbs. Season with salt and ground black pepper and beat together to form a soft dough. On a floured surface, roll this dough into a sausage shaped rope, about 1cm thick - then cut the rope into pieces, each piece about 2cm long. Roll each piece over the tines of a fork, then chill for about 10 mins in the fridge. To cook, add the gnocchi to a large pan of boiling water - and simmer until they float to the top - then drain and allow to cool. (Toss in a little olive oil/ or any veg oil , to stop them sticking together) Once cooked, these gnocchi can be added to any soup, stew or sauce and gently heated through. They can also be shallow-pan-fried in hot oil and served with bacon and egg, or any pan-fried food. The gnocchi can also be frozen in a plastic bag or airtight container. They last for ages in the freezer - just defrost them before cooking.

Thanks Delbow. That St Mars of the Desert sounds really interesting - I will keep my eye out or it. Thanks to you too Zinger 549. I'd never heard of Tynt Meadow and was intrigued by your info about strong stouts - up to 9.4%. I really love a strong stout, because they tend to have a big alcoholic kick, without also having that thick, claggy, treacly texture of a strong ale. I'm currently treating myself to the occasional can of Northern Monk's"Norseman III" strong stout. It's 9 percent and really delicious ,,,,but far too expensive to drink on a regular basis.

Yes, I agree that some parents don't seem to pay enough attention to their kids - especially if their kids' behaviour becomes a bit excessive, but I also think that if you go anywhere where you are likely to encounter small children, you need to be a bit flexible and expect a certain amount of noise and disruption. Children play, they get boisterous, they run around and make noise, they throw a strop when they are tired or when things aren't going quite the way they want. It's just what kids do, it's just natural child-like behaviour. Most parents do their best to ensure that their kids have boundaries in public places - but if you really can't tolerate child-like behaviour, perhaps it would be best to only go out to adult-only spaces.

Your posts are very refreshing Anna B. You are a voice of commonsense and you express your views clearly and convincingly. Can I ask, were you always against the vaccine - or were you like me, took the vaccine, then changed your mind after realising it was all a vast con?

Not sure what the overall percentages would be in each category RJRB, but within my own smallish circle of friends and family - about 30 people in total - only 4 people- just over 10 percent - are out and out anti-vaxxers who have always refused to have the jab from the beginning. The other 26 - nearly 90 percent - all had the 2 jabs and 20 of those also had the booster. However, of the 26 who had the jabs,10 now wish that they hadn't had them, because like me. they've come to realise that the jab is more damaging to health than the Covid disease itself. I disagree that there is compelling evidence that the jab makes symptoms less severe. I don't think there's any such evidence at all - at least no evidence that I believe. I reckon you're just as likely to get Covid and be seriously ill from it whether you've had the jab or not - and by having the jab, all you achieve is to lay yourself wide open to getting a whole load of unrelated illnesses that you would probably never have got in the first place - if you hadn't had the damn jab.

When it comes to talking about the vaccine, I reckon people fall into 3 distinct categories. PRO VAXXERS - these are the people who believe in the vaccine, believe it is a good thing. They've taken all the jabs and boosters they've been offered so far and will continue to take any jabs they are offered in the future. They will continue to believe in the vaccine, despite there not being a shred of evidence to prove that it slows the transmission of Covid or makes symptoms less severe in those who do get it. ANTI--VAXXERS - these are the people who never believed in the vaccine in the first place. They never took the jabs and never will. I think they were right all along PRO-VAXXERS WHO SUBSEQUENTLY BECAME ANTI-VAXXERS - these are the people like me, who started out as gullible sheep, believing what we were told - who took the vaccines willingly, then realised too late and all we had "achieved" was to damage our own health and make tons of money for the big pharmas and their cronies in the process. I have now come to the opinion that the Covid vaccine is, never has been, nor ever will be of any value against the disease. I think that it's, at best, just a cynical, money-making ploy - and at worst, it's a damaging, experimental poison.

Yes melthebell I accept that coincidences do indeed happen and that health problems can increase as we get older. However, to those people who say that I have no absolute proof that the Covid jab is a bad thing, then I would say to the pro-vaxxers that there's no absolute proof that it's a good thing either. Many pro-vaxxers have pointed out that the Covid infection rates, the death rates and the serious illness rates have reduced since the jab was rolled out - but surely this could also be just down to coincidence too? All the stats quoted by the pro-vaxxers seem to come from the official bodies - like the government, their paid scientists. the WHO, the ONS , the NHS etc. They are just telling us what they want us to believe - confident in the knowledge that the majority of people will believe it and will continue to take the vaxx....and the more people who take the vaxx, the more money is being made by the big pharmas.

So - what more "absolute proof" do you think I need hackey lad? I have always been a healthy person. I retired a couple of years ago and in 45 years of working, I had a total of only 11 days off sick. Then I have the Covid jabs and suddenly develop a serious brain condition, Coincidence? Tne respected and experienced neurological consultant who has been treating me for the past 7 months is firmly convinced that the Covid jabs directly caused my brain condition. Is this neurologist just lying to me for the hell of it, or are they basing their opinion on the fact that they have suddenly been swamped with a huge rise in brain conditions in previously healthy people who just had the jabs? I'm just banging on about my own brain condition, but what about all the other health failures that have suddenly and inexplicably happened to people who had the jab - the heart problems, strokes, autoimmune problems, blood clots etc, etc? Are they all just coincidences? A friend, who was so fit that she regularly ran half marathons , had the jabs - and suddenly developed arthritis so severely in every joint that she can now barely move. Coincidence? Another friend's previously fit and healthy 29 year old son had the jabs - and was almost immediately rushed into hospital with heart problems, later diagnosed as myocarditis. Coincidence? Read what trastrick posted on here about his/her own health problems following having the jab. Coincidence? It's pretty clear from your posts that you are a firm believer in the efficacy of this jab hackey lad. I respect your right to believe that - but can not even one small part of you even consider the possibility that it may be harmful to many, many people who would have remained in good health if they'd never taken it in the first place?

In answer to Delayed, the official line from my Medical professionals is that the cause is "unexplained". However, one of the neurological consultants I spoke to at some length told me that they had recently seen an upsurge in such cases, all unexpected and all in people who had recently had Covid vaccines. This NHS consultant would not go "on the record" because they would lose their job for straying from the official line. I believed this consultant - why would they lie? And I wouldn't want a valuable medical professional to lose their job for not toeing the official line.

In answer to Dromedary and Hackeylad , the brain conditions I have been diagnosed with are "CNS demyelinating disorder, left inferior homonymous hemianopia, white matter lesions in both hemispheres, posterior fossa and more markedly in the periventricular region" A series of scans, blood tests etc have ruled out stroke & MS. The most likely explanation is a viral infection or autoimmune reaction after receiving my 2nd Covid jab . As yet, I don't know if there is any cure or treatment available -I have further appointments with a neurological consultant coming up

Thanks for the quote from The Vaccine Knowledge Project at Oxford University Hecate - but surely you are just proving my point that because something is said by someone from Oxford University - it must automatically be true? I'm going step back from this now. The irony is, that like many of you, I was a pro-vaxxer at the beginning and have now changed my mind. All I've been trying to do here is to share my own experience and to tell people exactly why I've changed my mind. I just want people to think about the dangerous poison that they've willingly allowed to be injected into their bodies and to at least think carefully before they allow any more of this poison to be injected into themselves or their children. If I can dissuade just one other person from taking the vaxx, I think I'll have achieved something, no matter how small. At the end of the day though - we all have different opinions and our own reasons for holding those opinions. We need to respect that - and not start calling each other 'idiots' or bandying around unpleasant words like 'bull....'

So what you're saying then Hecate, is that if you go on youtube and listen to what the government or their scientists say, then it's the absolute truth - but if you listen to another doctor or scientist who disagrees with the official line, then those holding the opposite view must be sociopathic grifters and fruitcakes? Can you not accept that some people can hold an opposite view quite genuinely? To me, a "conspiracy theorist" is someone who believes what they are told, without any evidence to back it up. There is no evidence whatsoever that the vaccine works and my own evidence that it is a damaging poison is my own self - because I've been damaged by it. I don't need some government scientist to tell me that it's safe - because my own experience shows it isn't safe and I don't need some youtube fruitcake to tell me it's dangerous - I'm living with that evidence every day .

Thanks melthebell - for that constructive "bull...." comment. All I will say is that you have absolutely no evidence whatsoever - no scientific evidence and no anecdotal evidence - that the Covid vaccine actually works. All you have is your own opinions and the opinions and false information fed to you by the Government and their scientists - opinions which you are ully entitled to hold. I though, have absolute proof that the vaxx is a dangerous poison - because I have been poisoned by it. I'm my own living (or rather dying) proof, that this vaccine actually damages people.

A number of people have pointed out that they have had 2, 3 or more Covid vaccinations and have not experienced any adverse reactions.. I'm sure that millions of people worldwide have had the jabs without having experienced adverse reactions. I think what they are saying is that they haven't experienced any adverse reactions yet. Who's to say that they won't suffer adverse reactions later - months or even years down the line? I maintain my original stance. The progressing nerve damage in my brain was not a previously existing condition that coincidentally occurred after I'd had the vaxx. The vaxx is the direct cause of the damage to my brain. If I hadn't had the vaxx, I would still be fine. This Covid vaxx may well give some protection against catching or spreading the Covid virus itself, but in doing so, It fundamentally changes the structure of the DNA in our cells, it destroys our natural immune systems and leaves us wide open to catching all manner of other viruses and developing autoimmune conditions. I respect those people who have refused to take the vaxx from the beginning and will never take it. I think they've been proved right. I respect those people who still believe that the vaxx is a good thing and who will continue to take further boosters. They have right to believe what they want to believe. I also know that there is a growing number of people like myself - people who initially took the vaccines, who regret it now and wished they'd never taken them in the first place - and who will never, ever have another booster and never, ever again believe a word that our Government and their scientists tell us.

I didn't start out as an anti-Covid vaxxer. I started out as a pro-Covid vaxxer - which is why I had the two jabs in the first place. I genuinely believed that our government were telling the truth and had our best interests at heart when they urged us to take the jab as a means of protecting ourselves and protecting others. I have now become an anti-Covid vaxxer with hindsight - because it has been proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that taking these jabs has destroyed my health, destroyed my immune system and has caused irreversible damage to my brain. There's also mounting evidence worldwide of the damage this jab has done - and nearly all serious and fatal cases relate to heart damage, brain damage, damage to the immune system and increased susceptibility to life threatening viral infections. We were never told that the Covid vaxx would stop us from getting or spreading Covid, but we were told that it would reduce the chances of getting and spreading it - and that it would make our illness less severe if we did get Covid. A complete lie! The vaxx has now been proved to have been completely ineffective at preventing or minimising the effects of Covid - but there's more and more proof emerging every day that this xaxx is actually killing people and making them seriously ill, because it's destroyed our immune systems and made us susceptible to developing a slew of other serious illnesses that we would never have developed if we had not taken the vaccines in the first place. I feel angry and bitter. I am angry and bitter at the Government and their scientists for lying to us that the vaxx was a good thing. I am more angry and bitter at myself for believing them. Nobody pinned me down or forcibly injected me - I took the vaccine willingly - and by doing so I've signed my own suicide note. It's a dangerous, deadly poison. It doesn't help us or save us - it kills us. It's too late for me now - but if I can persuade just one other person not to have this damn vaccine and to not allow their children to be injected with it, I'll be happy that I've at least spared someone from committing a similar sort of suicide too.

I've recently got more and more into drinking Brewdog's Mr President IPA. It's very strong- at 9.2% - but very more-ish. Tesco sell it in 440ml cans - not just the titchy 330ml bottles. Quite expensive though - at £3.50 a can. I also recently tried a can of a super-strong IPA from Northern Monk, which I bought in Morrison's - again over 9% and very tasty - but even pricier - at £4.50 for a 44oml can. I guess I'm a bit of a self-indulgent fool for paying this much for a single can of beer. Its daylight robbery really- but my excuse is that it's an occasional treat - and with beer this strong, you only need one can (or maybe two, at a push) to give you a proper beer-buzz.

Thanks Hecate - but an honest second opinion is hard to come by. Many doctors, like my neurological consultant, now agree that the Covid vaccine has done more harm than good but they understandably are reluctant o say so publicly because they fear losing their jobs for going against the official government line. My neurologist made it clear that she was giving me her opinion "off the record". I asked 2 GP's at my local surgery for their opinions and they stuck rigidly to the official line that the vaccine is safe. However, there is growing evidence worldwide that this vaccine is a dangerous poison. What about all those fit young people, including athletes, suddenly struck down with myocarditis? A friend of mine, who is 66, was so fit that she was regularly running half marathons, yet since having the jabs has been struck down with painful arthritis in every joint and can now barely move. This surely can't all be coincidence? I believe it is now becoming clear that the jabs have caused many deaths and damage to health - yet the stats are being hidden to prevent embarrassment to Governments who recommended the vaccines and to protect the profits of the big Pharmas who make and sell it.

I am a vaccinated person. I had my first Covid jab in March last year and my second in June. At the time I believed the official blurb that by having the jabs, I was protecting myself and others. I was a fool, who allowed myself to be conned by the official line . If I could have my time over, I would never have had the jabs in the first place, because I have destroyed my own health by having the jabs and have done nothing to protect others. I will share with you my personal experience. Make of it what you will. I don't want to get into any pro-vax or anti-vax arguments - it's already too late for me. Just read my story and draw your own conclusions. In July last year, just a couple of weeks after having the second jab, I experienced a sudden, unexplained loss of vision in the left side of both eyes. At first it was thought that I'd had a mini-stroke, but subsequent MRI head scans showed this not to be the case. I was subsequently referred to a neurological consultant and for the past few months have undergone a huge swathe of scans and tests. Finally, my partial loss of vision was diagnosed as homonymous hemianopia - which is not a problem with the eyes themselves, but is caused by damage to nerves in the brain. Further head scans have revealed many more lesions and damaged nerves in my brain. As a previously very healthy person in my early 60's, who had never experienced anything similar, I asked my neurological consultant what could have caused this. She said it was due to a breakdown of my immune system. When I asked how my previously healthy immune system could suddenly collapse like this, her official response was that it was unexplained. However, privately and off the record, this neurologist is of the opinion that the Covid jabs have destroyed my immune system. She won't say this openly, because she is in fear of losing her job for going against the official line - but apparently there are hundreds of thousands of cases worldwide of the Covid jab destroying people's immune systems and this is all being swept under the carpet. I don't know what will become of me now. At the moment, I'm ok, apart from the damaged vision. Maybe the nerve damage to my brain will naturally slow down and I'll be ok - or maybe it will continue to deteriorate and I'll end up as a drooling vegetable or as a corpse. All I do know is that I was in good health prior to having the Covid jabs and that now I'm not in good health - and it's those damn jabs that's caused it. It may already be too late - but I will definitely not take any more jabs or boosters To those of you who chose not to have the jabs, I'd say that you were wise and sensible not to have them and I hope you never have them. To those of you who've already taken the jabs/boosters, I hope you'll be ok, but my own experience has proved to me is that these Covid vaccines are a dangerous. damaging poison.

Bit of a late reply to this enquiry, but I was visiting relatives in S6 last week and noticed that The Wadsley Jack on Rural Lane S6, has a board outside advertising that they have a Quiz Night each Thursday and Sunday. It's a nice, pleasant pub, with friendly staff. I wouldn't recommend their beer though.

Yes - the stick of butter thing is very confusing. The Americans still use Imperial weights, pounds and ounces. 1 stick of butter = 4 ounces - or 113.4g in grams. These damn Americans also call courgettes zucchini.