Frosty

I wouldn’t ever just check one car rental company. Try in no particular order Rentalcars, Holiday Autos, Carjet, Kayak, Expedia and Skyscanner. Carjet has been the cheapest for UK rentals recently. Keep an eye on limited mileage with rentals and costs for additions such as additional drivers if relevant. Would also recommend spending a few quid on insurance to cover the excess which can be significant with most hire companies - never buy the additional insurance from the hire co - and do go over the car with a fine tooth comb when picking it up and get every blemish logged however small - with many hire co’s running quite old cars that have been hard used don’t assume they are blemish free.

No mate - down south where we live. Being Labs Ayr beach was their stock walk when they came up or through the Old Racecourse, Rozelle and Belleisle with regular trips to the burn running through Seafield and Belleisle. Happy days.

Our handsome boy gone to join our beautiful girl. Days don’t get any tougher.

Just braved watching the highlights after Saturday’s debacle. Didn’t change the view from watching it live that we were universally rank rotten in every single position and that includes the dugout. Brown is trying to play a system that just isn’t suited to the players at his disposal. There’s not one of the starting back 4 on Saturday that’s comfortable bringing the ball out from the back - the highlights brought home how close Stanger was to doing a Sanders on more than one occasion in the first half and McGinty never looks comfortable with the ball at his feet like Musonda or Kirk did last season. Sanders took his goal well which showed some character after his disaster for their second but he just looks an utter bomb scare at the back and has to be dropped for his own protection if nothing else. Think the criticism of the keeper is harsh but it looked like he was rooted to his line for the first from the SRE and the highlights showed Paton finished a fairly lobbed cross from well inside the six yard box so a ball Clarke should have been coming to take or punch really. Dowds put himself about so was the only one to challenge Franny for MoM (which was clearly a statement from the sponsors and good on them) as the midfield and attack matched the defence for looking as if they’d only been introduced to their teammates just before kick-off and to a ball just after that. Queens Park looked like a team that will avoid relegation with ease although they won’t get to play a team as bad as we were on Saturday every week. The Paton reaction was very strange for an experienced professional footballer - can only think something was said to him at one of their corners but it wasn’t obvious from where we were standing and he hadn‘t been getting singled out by the crowd so he must have a thin skin or normally have very bad hearing as with the coupon he has to carry around and a hooter that means the rest of his body must be in permanent shade he must be used to getting more than his share of abuse from the terrace. Big game on Friday as a performance as bad as this one needs a quick reaction.

His “save” at around 1:10 into the highlights makes it look like he’s wearing mittens and handcuffs rather than goalie’s gloves.

Nice one! That’s a quite unbelievable turnaround especially when you factor two postal deliveries into the equation.

Have a US trip coming up in April and while my passport ran to August and US rules are that the passport just needs to be valid for the period of your visit rather for 6 months from the end of your trip decided to renew it. Did the online renewal on Feb 23rd and sent the old passport off the same day - had confirmation passport was approved on the 28th and delivery scheduled for March 1st. Thought might be of interest to anyone thinking of renewing - difficult to see how the turnaround could be quicker.

As you said nothing about that side attacking wise - apart from the three goals obviously. Your hope to look stupid achieved.

What a voice. What an outfit. Not a bad effort from Lady GaGa too…

Had meant to mention that Stansted had a few of the new scanners that don’t require liquids or electronics to be removed from bags when I flew out last year. Used Stansted again last week and they are in the process of replacing all their scanners for these new versions. There will be fewer scanners than currently but should still make for a faster security process. The new scanners are currently in a room on the left as you come through the main security entrance so if you have the choice favour that side as you enter. Coats and belts only still need to be removed.

Stalwart character actress Patricia Hayes in the picture with Martin Shaw doing his best geography teacher impersonation.

From memory the ball connected with Rooney’s shin closer to his knee than his boot so goes into the outrageous fluke category for me.

Not just a cheat - the engraving on the Claret Jug shows the cut of his jib getting his name put on larger than everyone else.

My recollection was the family stand was built when Barr was chairman but I could be wrong. Might have been when he was on the board prior to be being chairman and he funded it? The overhead shots of the ground look terrific and it’s noticeable that even the surrounding areas like the car park look better than I can ever remember them looking - certainly better than the recreation of the Somme battlefield the car park resembled until being resurfaced. Might just be my OCD but would love to see the main stand extended to run the full length of that side of the ground although would make no sense to do it. It’s not kissing Smith’s arse to say he’s made the most significant improvement to Somerset in anyone still drawing breath’s lifetime even if the tight arsed cider drinkers in the support are loathe to do so.

Elizabeth Line then change onto the DLR at either Stratford or Canary Wharf. The Heathrow Express would be quicker into Paddington but would mean two changes that would make the whole journey slower and is also one of the most expensive trips per mile you can do. Obviously avoid the Piccadilly line like the plague unless you have a day or two to waste before your next flight.

No-one watching this? Really enjoyed the original two UK series from 20 years ago and was surprised it was dropped. Think it got blown away by Big Brother although Survivor had the better ratings. Never watched the US versions. Enjoying this re-boot. Two of the first three voted out were Scots but think Doug the remaining Scot is one of the favourites.

Lost our beautiful chocolate Labrador girl today. Hardest day of our lives.

Thanks for that. Yes the filter should be cleanable - the tuning company I got to come round would have done it and reset the warning message but they couldn’t access the filter due to it being too tight to the gearbox. It’s in limp mode as you say - no poke at all when you start it up, really struggles on any sort of incline and 80 seems to be top whack. It’s supposedly self cleaning the filter but I’m not convinced. At the dealer on Wednesday so we’ll see what they say then - will definitely be querying why they didn’t check the filter when it was serviced and I raised the noise levels.

Exhaust filter warning light has come on saying filter 100% full on 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Car has been noticeably noisier for a while and did ask Jeep dealer to have a look into it when they did it’s last service which was just 3 weeks before the warning light came on so a bit pissed off they didn’t check the exhaust filter as the % full reading must’ve been high. Got a tuning company out who would clean the filter as was due to go on holiday but they couldn’t get to the filter due to the proximity to the gearbox and the car has had some significant long runs including some at high revs. While the car says it is self cleaning the warning message/light is still permanently on and the car has no poke at all compared to normal which I think is due to the self cleaning mode. Booked into the dealer this week but just interested in what is likely to be required - can filter be cleaned or will it need replaced, is that likely to be the cause of the recent noisy diesel running sounds and should the dealer have picked this up when I mentioned it when it was serviced. Cheers for any feedback.

No criticism of Scottish golfers clearly allowed on this thread. Gallagher would certainly have been in the conversation for a wildcard in 2014 as you say given his Euro and World points rankings although Donald was higher in the world rankings - 32 to SG’s 34 - and obviously had an unblemished record of being in winning Ryder Cup teams so had to be favourite to be the pick. Easy to be wise after the event about picks I agree and while gubbed playing with Poulter SG wasn’t disgraced against Mickelson going down 3 & 1 but Mickelson isn’t the Ryder Cup stud you imply even in the singles as his loss to Philip Price shows. McGinley’s captaincy doesn’t really deserve any criticism as you say - it was the start of the statistical and analytical approach that is used now although he did benefit in coming up against a captain in Watson who was about 20 years past his sell by date for the role and a disfunctional team with disruptive influences - none more so than the the aforementioned Mickelson. And for what it’s worth my criticism of Bob came at the 10th in his second Fourball outing when the 28 holes he’d played up to that point had been less than impressive as he himself acknowledged. The rest of that back nine showed a marked improvement and he delivered his singles point pretty comfortably against the reigning US Open champion which was good to see. Would be great if that’s the catalyst to him taking the next step up and other Scottish players following him - it’s been too long since we’ve had Scots in the top echelon of the game.

Burn’s definitely drawing the short straw in coming up against Rory. 5 under not shabby but he did well to take him to the 17th. Fitzpatrick’s level par effort was another disappointment to add to a Ryder cup record which is difficult to explain for a player with such a stellar amateur and professional career under his belt already - played 8, won 1 and lost 7. In his favour 2 of his 3 appearances have been in losing away fixtures at Hazeltine and Whistling Straits and he was handed the much harder team option of foursomes in both those outings. He also had the considerable additional handicap in his two Whistling Straits foursome attempts of being paired with the lead weight that was Lee Westwood who was a shocking wildcard pick by Harrington and undoubtedly the worst since the annoying blowhard McGinley picked Stephen Gallacher over Luke Donald amongst others for Gleneagles which he should always be reminded of when he starts pontificating about captaincy. If Donald does stick around for 2025 having a plan for turning Fitzpatrick, who is one of the names from the current team you’d bank on for being an automatic qualifier at Bethpage, into an asset rather than a almost guaranteed two or three point head start for the yanks must be high on his agenda.

Great to see his progression over the weekend and brilliant to see him deliver a point today and be undefeated. We obviously didn’t see much of him today but looking at his stats he was a couple under for his round and he was never behind so hats off to him. Kudos too to Donald for handling him magnificently - Rose was absolutely the right partner for him and Fourballs the right format. Giving him the second fourball match might not have been the easiest decision but proved to be the right one for the team and him. Thought his singles slot was the right one with Fleetwood being next to him as insurance too. It’s been great to have a Scot back in the Ryder cup for the first time since 2014 too - hopefully this will be a catalyst for Bob to take the next step up in his career to be challenging for majors and also indpire some of the good crop of Scottish youngsters who are being competitive on the DP World Tour.

That’s probably how I’d have listed how the team have performed to date. The one exception was Fitzpatrick who looked a bit high on the list but then his front 9 on Friday was sensational. If you gave him a par 3 on the one hole he didn’t complete - Rory birdied it so presume that’s why he isn’t down as completing it - he scored 29 winning 5 holes on the bounce.

The first yesterday was halved not won by Bob. Both his matches have been Four-balls not Foursomes. If it makes the Bob fan club happy Fitzpatrick was a weaker link today by far. Out of interest if Fowler was to be ill and unable to play would anyone have a name other than Bob’s in the envelope?

They played 34 holes over the two days and won 10 of them of which Rose won 9 and Bob won 1. Are you seriously saying that isn’t Rose carrying him?