Well this has been a tremendous find. One of the things I miss so much about the 'old' forum was your Vegas stories Tikay, so it's great to find them here. I read through all this visit's posts and it was a grim start but the last cash has righted the boat, now to power on and get some deep runs.
Good luck Sir!

The only thing that might make that black easier to deal with is that it wasn't for the title, a place in the final yes, but not for the world title itself. He seemed to take it well and was very eloquent when interviewed afterwards.

My snooker story is that I was once offered a bribe to lose a match, I turned it down and then played the worst match of my life and lost anyway. Trying to explain to the people I had told about the bribe that I HADN'T taken it after all was difficult as they were all convinced I had taken it as I played so badly.

p.s. this was university halls tournament, I would never claim to be any good, biggest break in practice was 83 and in a match was 50 something and I haven't played for years, but I'd still like to think I would have potted that black

I have a Spike Milligan story......

My Physio, Alan, also used to treat Spike. Spike had bad problems for many years and this was back in the days when physios could prescribe quite strong pain killers. Anyway Spike turned up at the Physio practice one day in agony and Alan did what he could and then prescribed painkillers. 'Will this ease the pain and help me sleep Alan?' 'Yes Spike, it's quite a strong painkiller', 'are you sure Alan?' 'Yes Spike, get the prescription filled and you should sleep much better', 'OK Alan many thanks, you're a life saver.'

3 am the next morning Alan's phone rang and rang and rang and rang. Alan got up and answered the phone, all he got was 'You lying b*stard!' Before Spike hung up, Spike was very much a character.

The current government is as useless as all the preceding governments, at least for the last few decades. I think it has come as quite a shock for those that voted Labour thinking that it would be a change for the better. It hasn't been. The next general election looks like it is going to be between further left and further right, the centre ground has failed in it's job and that's quite sad. I despair as the UK population deserves better but it doesn't look like there is anything better on the horizon.   

The ONLY redeeming fact about UK government? At least we don't have Trump.

Yea but the 12th, the 12th! You slaughtered him!

Apologies if my writing comes across as having been written by the police. My father was a police officer, maybe the phraseology has rubbed off.
Surely, technically, there wasn't deemed to be enough evidence is correct as the CPS would have refused to take it to court, thereby deeming that there wasn't enough evidence to get a conviction? Once it goes to court it's the jury that decides if there is, or isn't, enough evidence.
To paraphrase my father (who's been dead a while now so won't be offended), if they get to court they are almost certainly guilty, it's just whether the lawyers can prove it. I think he was a little jaded by it all after 30+ years.
Things were certainly different 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. I remember one of the girls at my school had a bit of a reputation, at the age of 14, and was questioned by the police after she ran off with an older lad. As part of that questioning she had to write down a list of people she had been with. Local rumour was that it included entries like '4 boy scouts' '2 workmen' etc. etc! I don't think any of them ever faced a court although they certainly would now. 

From the bits I have read (admittedly not a lot), he wasn't prosecuted because there wasn't deemed to be enough evidence at the time, so possibly the other person involved refused to give evidence? Male or female surely if this happened under age 16 then it is a serious offence.

Many years ago a friend of a work colleague was put in prison for having a one night stand with a 15 year old girl. He was found guilty when she turned up in court looking all sweet and innocent with her hair in pony tails and stated that he had forced her. In reality he had met her in a night club, wearing a tight mini dress (her, not him!) and the activities they got up to were at her instigation. She only changed her story when her parents found out about it, then she claimed that he forced her. I remember thinking at the time (and still do) that it was grossly unfair, but I suppose legally he was guilty. The only safe way seems to be to ask for a birth certificate or drivers licence before taking things further, not particularly romantic though is it? 

RIP Chuck Norris

I always thought he was indestructible

For the first time in my life I think if I challenged him to a fight I might stand a chance, I'd still make him favourite though. RIP Chuck.

As a very tentative link I once played a tennis match and, at one point, one of the opponents shouted 'I can't believe we're losing to Chuck Norris and Phillip Schofield' simply because my doubles partner had ginger hair and I rock very distinguished grey locks. We thought it was hilarious, made even funnier by the fact that we beat them 6.1 6.0.

I've been taking Vitamin D for a while, it is supposed to combat Alzheimer's but you have to take at least a certain mg per day and you need to take it together with Vitamin C too as they work together. My Dr didn't know that  

Although there definitely is a general problem with doctors not generally keeping up to date with new research - there is no study (as of yet) to confirm this link

This sums it up

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers-and-dementia/what-do-we-know-about-diet-and-prevention-alzheimers-disease

In particular the paragraph

But despite early findings of possible benefits for brain health, no vitamin or supplement has been proven to prevent Alzheimer’s in people. Overall, evidence remains weak because many studies were too small or too brief to be conclusive.

Which is to say various vitamins and supplements might help - but statistically there isn't enough evidence to back that up yet - that would be why the average GP wouldn't necessarily know anything about it

25 years ago my other half had cancer, we went to Mexico for 'alternative' treatment. The clinic was run by Dr Contreras, one of the world leading experts in cancer treatment and 'alternative' therapies, he still runs it. One of the things that we learnt from him is that there are many, many studies carried out into cancer treatments, almost all paid for by the drug companies, however if they seem to be producing evidence that natural remedies ARE effective against cancer then the funding almost always gets pulled and the results are not published. On his advice my other half had chemo back in the UK, she had 4 drugs, 3 were artificial copies of natural remedies. If the drugs companies can't make money out of something they are unlikely to pay for research to prove that it works. I wonder if the same is true for vitamin D, C or any other natural supplement and it's possible prevention of dementia and alzheimers? 

Greatest news stories?

The Bible
The Quran
The Tanakh

Or are we not including works of fiction?

In my lifetime my top 3 would be -

9/11
The death of Diana
The SAS ending the Iranian Embassy siege  

All of those kept me rivetted to the TV for hours

Ah an aches and pains thread, I've found my spiritual home.

I turned 60 in December and can confirm that from 50 onwards is all downhill so far. I try and stay active with tennis but physically everything is getting harder (or not, make up your own joke....)
Bruised toenails are an occupational hazard for tennis players, sometimes resulting in lost nails, not a pretty sight. My other half however outdid me last week when she dropped a post rammer onto her big toe, very nasty and her mood wasn't helped when I pointed out that post rammers aren't meant to be dropped on ones toes.
Medications? just an inhaler to control very mild asthma which I've had all my life but both my father and brother died of COPD so it's a concern.
Supplements? Loads - Glucosamine, cod liver oil, turmeric & black pepper, as well as a multibiotic and a multivitamin, both of which have too many ingredients to list here.
I have vowed to try and get fitter when I retire as sitting at a desk for hours a day isn't good for posture, health etc. Fingers crossed for that retirement.

I've always wondered how Trump was so good at golf, he's using your eclectic scoring, oh that and just plain cheating.

I'm going to take up golf again when I retire, after a sabbatical of nearly 40 years (barring one Top Golf adventure in Vegas, but that doesn't count, surely?)

I'm aiming to turn pro within 12 months using this method.

Ooh! I always fancied doing the rally driving thing, but I have to settle for 3 points and £100 fine for doing 34 in a 30 zone. 

Do let us know how it goes.

Why Enut BTW? I'm guessing it's not because you go crackers when you take  methylenedioxymethamphetamine tablets....

The rally driving was great fun, although totally alien to me. I was taught by my father who was a class 1 police driver for many years and it was instilled in me to keep the car under control at all times, the rally driving was the opposite. The car (a rally prepped GT86) was rarely under complete control, certainly when I was driving it, and there was less grip than on the worst of public B roads, in the wet, with mud on them, and leaves, and gravel, and pot holes etc etc. Two 20 minute sessions on mud/gravel/tarmac stages with an instructor trying to get the best out of each student, the right lines (tougher to hit an apex if the car is sliding all the way through the corner), handbrake turns and learning to control understeer, oversteer, drifting and the correct application of power etc etc. Great fun but I was physically drained after 40 minutes. As a quite experienced road driver I felt way out of my depth but I was getting the hang of it by the time we finished. I might well give it a longer go when I have time, they do 1/2 day and full day courses and I'd hope that I would get the hang of it much better with a bit more time.  

Points wise I've only ever had 3 points, for 70 in a 60 at 11 pm with very little traffic about (nabbed by a police car following me). I did however get a 7 day ban for doing 61 in a 30 once. In my defence the road had always been a 30 and I was overtaking a slower car when I saw flouro jackets in the distance, I actually sped up to make sure I could complete the overtake before I got to any incident, turns out they were police officers with a speed gun! 'What speed were you doing young man?' 'About 60', 'What's the speed limit?' '60' , 'no, it's 30' ''no, the 30 starts here, where you're standing', 'No it doesn't, we moved it up to the roundabout a month ago' 'oh, s**t!' I went to court, was advised to plead not guilty by my father (a now retired traffic copper), as there was no reason to change the road from a 60 to a 30. Duty solicitor put me right and said I couldn't plead not guilty as I was guilty, I could only plead mitigating circumstances. Magistrate gave me a week ban 'treat it as a holiday' he said, I very nearly got myself in contempt for telling him what I thought of that comment but bit my lip. The usher told me afterwards that they couldn't let me off as they had done 70 people for speeding on that piece of road in the last month and if they let me off they would have to let all the others off! As you can tell, I'm still bitter

Oh and Enut? It's just my surname backwards, nothing more sinister.

I'm enjoying these posts. It's good to see Phil's jokes making an appearance. Sad to hear about the squirrels, I'd assumed that some of the dead squirrels on the road were the result of a fall, it now seems they may have survived the fall but then, just as they were picking themselves up and dusting themselves off, Mildred in her Renault Scenic squished them.

I'm off to do a rally driving thing at Brands Hatch today, who knows I could be the next Colin McRae, somehow I doubt it.

Damn, I woke up this morning and couldn't stop thinking about how much I needed an anti yellow clear case to keep my phone looking visually appealing. Imagine my sheer delight when there was a post on here seemingly offering exactly what I was after, what are the odds? Sadly, Tikay has banned the poster so my phone will have to stay encased in its dull black covering, I don't know how I will cope with the disappointment. Thanks Tikay.