northernboy

That's the one, fantastic!! Such a quick response too. Many thanks to everyone (and merry Christmas!)

This might be a bit of a long shot but I heard a song once on the radio and I'm trying to track it down ... it was about a woman who finds a dying snake by the roadside, the snake persuades her to take care of it saying he won't bite her, but once recovered he bites her and she dies - sounds like a strange subject for a song I know! I've been searching on Google but can't find anything, does anyone know the song I mean? (It might have been recorded by Tom Jones but I can't swear to that.)

Whoops - sorry if I have spoiled it for you, and anyone else who hasn't seen it yet! Hope I didn't give too much away...

Probably later than normal ... for example John Lewis is open until 9 today (Wednesday), and 8 on Thursday and Friday. I imagine the other big shops (Debenhams, Marks, etc) will do similar.

What do people think about the last couple of episodes? I thought the one about the guy who died and became invisible was very similar in tone/style to the episode of Dr Who in the last series where the main characters barely put in an appearance (Love And Monsters I think it was called). The episode with the people who had time-travelled from the 50's also seemed a bit weak - surely these people would have been a bit more "freaked out" to find they had travelled 50 years into the future? After a couple of minutes wandering round Tescos, they seemed to pretty much take it in their stride... And I thought Torchwood was supposed to be investigating aliens and alien technology - where are all the aliens then?!

Traffic jam was even worse than usual (and that's saying something!) Took my bus 40 minutes to get from Homebase to Morrisons, I should have walked! Couldn't see any obvious reasons for the slow moving traffic...

There's a Mr Wang works at the same place as me, and his first name is Richard...

I've always thought that the ITV channels were more prone to breaking up, pixellating etc than the other channels - thought it must just have been my imagination until now!

I also used Glasses Direct and found the service and the quality of the glasses to be excellent. However mine is a relatively mild prescription and I only really use them as a spare pair - I'd echo the comments about having specs fitted "properly".

Also the "Active 8" monthly free magazine in Sheffield 8 always seems keen to promote charity events - I think their offices are on Hutcliffe Wood Road.

John Lewis starts extending its hours 2 weeks before Christmas - from 11th December they open until 8pm Monday to Friday, then from 18th they open until 9pm.

The quiz section of the programme is pre-recorded and always has been. At least they no longer pretend that the presenter is walking out of one studio and straight into the other. I noticed this week that if you press the red button to "play along" (sigh) with the quiz, the pictures and sound that you see are about a second ahead of the regular Freeview transmission but still slightly behind the analogue transmission, so to be really pedantic you could say that none of it is exactly "live"...

I really enjoyed the Cyberwoman episode, thought it was the best one yet. Hope the pterodactyl is ok!

Thank goodness they allowed Karen to re-start her dance after all the trouble with the microphone cable getting tangled - why on earth do they have to wear microphones to dance anyway? Surely someone could point a hand-held mic in their direction for the interviews? Still it could have been worse - when they first started to have problems I thought it was her dress that was falling apart...

Thanks Ghozer, maybe it is a virus scanner that's doing it.

Here's something that is puzzling me - when I use Windows explorer to look at the "date modified" field of the MP3 files on my pc, the dates keep changing even when the files have not been modified. For example, several files that I ripped months ago are showing that they were modified today - this seems to happen every day I use the pc, regardless of whether or not I even accesses or played the files on that day. Anyone have any idea why it's doing this? Thanks.

I can definitely remember the Tardis materialising as a pipe organ in a Colin Baker episode... I wonder if anyone has compiled a list of all the Dr Who references that have cropped up so far in Torchwood. Radio Times has listed quite a few - for example there are some TV sets in the Torchwood base that were in Mr Magpie's shop in the Maureen Lipman episode of DW. And next week's Torchwood seems to be all about the Cybermen (have they run out of ideas for new aliens already...?)

Wow, is the exhibition still there? I went several times up to the age of about 11/12, and loved it!

Have they worked out what will happen now that Jimmy Tarbuck has left the show? If the plan was to lose one celebrity per week, they will have to either have a week where nobody leaves or finish the series a week early! (or get someone in to replace him, but I can't see that happening) I'm actually starting to like Georgina, but it's true, she can't dance... Personally I can't see why Louisa is getting such high marks - she's good but sure she didn't deserve a 10?

We sang When A Knight Won His Spurs as well, plus All Things Bright And Beautiful and one I can only remember a couple of lines : I have seen the golden (something) I have watched the flowers grow I have listened to the (something) and there's (something) now I know... (but I've forgotten what it is that we were supposed to know!)

The plans for the retail quarter include new car parks (for example, the new John Lewis will have 2,500 spaces) plus mini transport interchanges, but we'll have to wait until after 2010.

I think the radio show was funnier, but the TV version was still better than most of the pants that is broadcast in the name of comedy these days...

Why does Pinstone St need to be closed for nearly 11 hours? Just how slowly are these cyclists going? Slightly less silly point : I see that "they" have dug up the little "island" on Pinstone St just outside the Panasonic shop (the island that's supposed to stop traffic turning right towards Coles), presumably to make the road surface level for the cyclists - I imagine that after the race they will dig it all up again and re-create the island. Good to see our Council Tax is being well spent......

If it's the same one I saw, there was more than "minimal" damage to the bus, the whole of the front window was shattered right in front of the driver's seat - hope he's ok.

Just wondered whether the fortnightly collections are being proposed for all areas or only some - we've not had a letter, nor have any of my neighbours. Thanks.