Cup Final 1973

My brother still lives in Sunderland. He said the atmosphere in the city was electric with thousands on the streets even with nearly 50000 away in London. You’d think we’d won the World Cup!

IKNWC but…..after 4 seasons in the wilderness, Sunderland have won promotion to the Championship! Wembley was a sea of 47 000 red and white supporters.️

We went to watch day 3 of the Ashes at the MCG in December 2006, three months after migrating to Australia. The train was a little late so we were still outside when we heard the massive shout signalling an Aussie batsman out. We were full of hope ….but spent the whole day watching Mathew Hayden and Andrew Symonds piling on the runs. I think both scored over 150 and England lost . Symonds seemed to lose favour though and I don’t remember him featuring a great deal afterwards.

It must have been very late indeed ….. chance has 6 letters!

A very common word from my native north-east but still took me until the fifth row.

Seriously?

Enid Blyton also wrote St Clare’s, another series about a boarding school but Mallory Towers was my favourite. In my first year at secondary school (not a boarding school I hasten to add) we had to keep a diary of our reading books and my English teacher wrote very disparagingly of my fondness for Mallory Towers.

Sorry Ruth. Completely missed the NHS bit!

If you have not yet reached pension age your pension amount has not yet been calculated! It will depend on how many years you’ve contributed and the rules do change. Once you start receiving your UK pension it is frozen at that rate while you are in Australia. Each time you go back to the UK or certain other countries the rate is updated to the current rate for the time you are in that country but reverts to the frozen rate once back in Oz. You have to declare it when you do your yearly tax return in Oz and you are taxed on it.

I loved all the Enid Blyton school stories and thought midnight feasts of ginger beer and anchovy sandwiches sounded so exotic. Years later I tasted my first anchovy - revolting!

I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make. It’s true there haven’t been new towns created in the UK but my existing town, founded in 71AD, is having new houses built at the rate of almost 1000 a year.

That’s a rather sweeping generalisation about the UK.

Together with the bluebells we have masses of these plants in our wood, white flowers in full bloom pink yet to come. Are they rhododendron bushes?

I love bluebells!

We don’t book a blood test on the NHS website here. We ring the GP surgery and the receptionist books one for the next day.