What sort of train Claire? Underground, Overground, big ones, little ones?

PS - lovely photos, you are both ageing well. Think the last time I saw Dan was in the UK Passport Office somewhere in London.   

Big trains for Chiltern Railways

Thank you - I think Dan's aging better than me to be fair - he'll be 50 in a couple of months. I still have a couple of years to go

How are things with you? Are you married yet?

Claw? Mantis?

Dan (gatso) and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary this year neither of us play poker anymore, but we do like our quiz shows. I was on Countdown in 2021 but ran into an eventual octochamp on my first game - Dan went on a year later and won 5 games and the coveted teapot! I also had an appearance on Mastermind last year. We're hoping to get on Only Connect (with Sheriff Fatman), but have yet to get past the application stage.

As Tikay said, Hannah is all grown up now and she and I will be hitting Vegas later this year to celebrate her 21st. We've also had a new addition to the family in the form of our lovely little Cavachon, Maddie, who will be two next week.

Work wise, I'm working full time from home (which is now Aylesbury) as National Complaints Manager for the country's largest provider of mental health services, and Dan is (don't get too jealous Tony!) a trainee train driver.

Overall life is pretty good.  Hope all is well with you and yours

We're all good thanks very much.

These are my granddaughters, I have a great granddaughter and a great grandson on the way.

Click to see full-size image.

Very proud looking grandad you are! 

Congratulations on the forthcoming additions - of course you don't look nearly old enough to be a great-grandfather!

Going tomorrow with dean and Eso. Possibly a few others. Not sure it’s a reunion but you’re more than welcome to be anti railed.

Ooh I just might. Send me deets. Dealer dealt?

My daughter turns 21 in December

O...M...G! 

I know! Ridiculous isn't it?

Hope you and family are keeping well Tom.

Got a pretty sweet deal on Vegas for later this year, but it did take a lot of advance planning....

My daughter turns 21 in December, and since she was little we've talked of going to Vegas for her birthday.

About 18 months ago I signed up for the reward+ credit card which gives a pretty hefty points bonus for a certain spend in the first year, plus a companion/upgrade voucher. Also signed up to virgin red which effectively gives double points (at least) for purchases made through there on things you might be buying anyway (eg Just Eat).

When the day came round that the flights for our dates were released I had enough points to pay for a PE ticket for myself, and the companion voucher to use for Hannah's flight. We just had to pay taxes (which were pretty eye watering at £500 and change each).

Hotel is completely gratis - not been to Vegas for around five years but not paid for a room on my last few trips thanks to MGM Rewards (previously MLife). I'm not a high stakes gambler but a couple of hundred a day in the slots at MGM properties will give you plenty of comp room offers (usually 4 nights) - just need to log into your account to see what's available.

Whilst I'm here, any recommendations for fun nightspots where a 21 year old and a 48 year old will be equally comfortable would be happily received

Back in the day, if a thread ever looked like it was in danger of getting deleted, I'd set up email notifications so I wouldn't miss anything - quite surprised to get one such notification today.

I'm a bit concerned about the time it's taken George to get home.

Should do a Luton G blonde league reunion at some point imo. Hope all are well.

We're all good thanks 🙂 Gatters and I are finally joining the ranks of the grown ups and buying a house, so preparing for a move out to Aylesbury next month.

My baby girl Hannah (who was a cute 3 year old when I joined up here) is now 18 and off to uni in Manchester in a few weeks. I know she'll love it and it will be great for her, but I'm not sure I'm entirely emotionally prepared for it myself.

I haven't seen Paulina for ages, I think the last time was at our wedding 7 years back, but keep in touch via Facebook and she'll always be a friend for life.

Genuinely really lovely to see you looking in such fine form. Are you still with Sky?

<3 spacefrog

This photo was taken 58 years ago this week - there I was, with my Burton's suit, heading off to my first ever day at work, full of excitement & hope about life ahead. (The dog was Susie, who tried to follow me to work).

Click to see full-size image.

And this was taken yesterday, in the very same spot, as I approach the other end of the journey. There's a whole life story there. For sure, I've not aged well.

Click to see full-size image.

Apart from a brief period after I "retired", I've worked non-stop all my life, & loved every minute of it. In the 40 years prior to retiring I had just three jobs, and since retiring, ignoring short spells with Wm Hill TV, Sporting Bet & PNL, I've been with Sky Poker 15 years. In all that time - 58 years -  I've had a grand total of three days off sick, which was after my heart attack in 2017.

I suffer from incredible insecurity about my job & am scared to bits of being jobless. I pester them non-stop to give me more work, they must be sick to death of me asking, but I guess there's only so much I can do given my limited abilities & age.

Amazing how fast life flew past.

Hey stranger. You actually look incredibly well for a man of your advanced years. Have you had work done?

Hi Chris. How's things? Any early x-factor tips?

Just wanted to say Hi missus. Say hello to Dan for me too please.

Geo

Hi Geo - hope all is good with you. Dan says hello back

Hi Claire, nice to hear from you. If you had left it any longer I would have begun to suspect that we were no longer an item.

Just keeping you on your toes Tom! Hope you and family are all well x

Can't believe Lambeth doesn't qualify! Gl getting your team together

Lambeth is part of Central London for the purposes of this tournament.  I agree with you though!  What's weirder is Bexley coming under East London!

Sorry to derail - how is your brother Clawbird ? Have they caught the cowardly scumbags yet?

Hi Boo,

he's fine thanks - apart from the physical scars - he'll never get the sight back in his eye and his face is a bit weirder than it was before, but not so much that you'd notice . Mentally he's remarkably fine.

The police know who did it but without any clear CCTV/independent witnesses they didn't have enough to charge on, so the investigation got dropped.  I just hope they don't go on to do similar to anyone else.