THE BRITISH THREAD II

If the ref isn't sure, he can, and does, consult the linesman. That takes about a minute.

With a video ref and a radio link (as in professional rugby league) it takes about half a minute, if that.

It's a no-brainer, Spendy. The referee is still in charge, and he decides what he wants to consult about and what he doesn't.

What's a no brainer? It isn't clear.

I should have really grown out of posting stuff like this on here, but I'm a little bit happy so sod it:
1st class honours for my degree, hurrah.

KUDOS!

Even Sepp Blatter is changing his mind about it now, according to today's news conference.

And hurrah again. Let the welkin ring.

That's pretty damn good, PQ

Thank you!
I feel a bit weird now though, I'm sat at home with my laptop. I suppose I should be outrageously drunk or something.

Nah. Par for the course for a lass with Queenie's talent Mac. Let's face it -it's not as exclusive as playing football for England and look what's been said about them.

It's a stepping stone. She might have been in a class of dead-beats and they have to give somebody first-class degrees otherwise people will think the institution is on the skids and start cutting their budgets.

Did you see that 5 of the 7 soldiers whose bodies came home today were from the N.W of England.

True, true, true, but at least it's a stepping stone.

Hurrah!

that's good news

How do you know that Beth? Are you a fortune teller? Queenie has a lot of lessons to learn and she is one of that rare breed who knows it. People who get carried away with themselves never learn any lessons and anybody who praises them is in the business of turning them into a fossil.

It is a mere stepping stone which I was confident she could put a firm foot onto.

It's almost as if you are surprised.

Bit sour today, aren't you.

I am a bit protective of Queenie I'll admit. We go back a fair way.

Showoff!! I could have got first class honours on several degrees if I had of worked hard , been more intelligent, showed greater interest, studied more, partied less, been more responsible, more career orientated, more long term focused and pain attention in class instead of recovering in bed with a hangover. So when I see you I think there but for the good grace of the devil (and a sex change) go I....

No it's good. Spendius is like medicine I suppose, it shall stop me from getting complacent. (Although none of this criticism is actually too constructive, spends).

I just saw the film Harry Brown. It's basically Michael Caine in a Clint Eastwood movie, set in London.

I swear the building where Harry lived is the same building (a council flat?) used in the television dramatization of Zadie Smith's White Teeth and, I think, in the updated version of Othello, with Othello as a police officer, and, possibly in the Peter O'Toole film Venus.

I also think that a corner shaped building that appeared in Venus was also used for Bridget Jones' Diary.

Is that because only certain areas of London are made accessible to film companies?

No. But some researchers, directors, locations finders have their favourites, where they know the lie of the land and have done the groundwork (local contacts etc) already.

Nothing ever is Queenie to those who already know what constructive means.

Remember Milton's Delilah who--



arrived.

Those are lines which Graham Greene said he was reminded of in Congreve's comments on Millimant in The Way of the World as she arrived to lay down her conditions for marriage. A common theme in those days.

We might assume you will one day be a married woman. I have known a large number of married women, a few more than the rest. I saw one wrestle with her conscience in seclusion in a posh hotel in the Lake District and ranging over the fells in solitary walks as to which of two suitors to accept. Her choice fell to the safer one and the protestations of love at the ceremony were pitiable to witness.

Settling for a big dong and money is all very well but gentlemen with such assets are not readily amenable to disciplined rectitude and the alternative was an officer on the QE2 which was a luxuriously appointed ship that normally cruised the warmer oceans containing a larger proportion of rich American widows and divorcees than is to be found in most parts of America leaving aside the dotage departments.

So the streamers are waving. Or will be at the graduation ceremony I suppose what with the rituals, which, of course, derive from religious practices as well they might as seeing as how they are there to persuade us all into believing, possibly against our better judgement, that you are a right, little genius. A mortarboad, not one for plastering rooms, with a tassle on top which signifies I know not what, (suggestions please), resting upon a sort of cowl to hide your lovely locks and a gown in black. We want no unruly thoughts. A DVD of the proceedings (£9.99), only the provincial institutions still use Betamax, and an illuminated scroll to prove you are a right little genius which you should present without delay to someone with pull at Sky Television. You can all clap each other and beam with self-satisfaction and that will give you confidence that you are actually a right, little genius. Which well you may be but it would take more than an illuminated scroll to convince me despite some of the others seemingly having lower standards than myself or, which I hope isn't the case, enjoy giving you a good old patronising butter bath for want of something to post when inspiration has failed them.

Now you have to be careful right there. Us believing it is one thing. We can turn it off. You doing is another. Such beliefs can blow your head off. Render you inartistic I mean. And thus contradict the illuminated scroll.

It doesn't fill the sails though. What does that is the wind blowing when you get back to the street after the do has slowly fizzled out and you have thanked your tutors for transforming you from a dizzy gump, from that place with the nice sounding name which I can't remember, into a first class honours degree graduate, signed, sealed and delivered and ready to repay our investment in you. Some of that investment is charged in the price of beer with which the sweating lads in the labour force who made it all possible quench their thirst after a 10 hour shift.

I take your bravery for granted considering the tales you have told us so there's only the tackle left to be trimmed.

And you are always arriving somewhere.

First class honors is something to be proud of.

Today?