Athy

Why should a senior official at CART be launching a campaign to preserve and protect our waterways? That's what they're supposed to be doing already; has nobody told him?

"A message from our chair". What an articulate piece of furniture he is. Could you explain your "fired the gun" statement? That would suggest some sort of aggression or antagonism, which I didn't notice.

I'm still surprised to see £interesting" and "gin" in the same sentence - though I get the impression that it's had a bit of a revival in recent years, just as cider did before that. What will be next, sherry?

This reminds me of the days when I worked as a buffet car steward on the Festiniog Railway. In those days that part of Wales was "dry" on a Sunday, but you could buy alcohol on anything that was moving. So all the local topers had season tickets on the railway, and the 11 a.m. departure from Portmadoc was the "beer train". As luck would have it, the train reached the intermediate station of Penrhyndeudraeth just as the chapel near the station was turning out after morning service, and of course the inhabitants of our buffet car raised their pint glasses and smiled cheerily at the congregation as we passed. I suppose that the local pubs are open on a Sunday nowadays, which must rather spoil the fun.

W hen I was at university in Brum, a pub boat appeared on the canal which ran along one side of the campus. I went there on a couple evenings. I can't remember if it was a narrowboat or a wider beam craft. After a few weeks it went away, perhap because somebody told it to.

Nah, this is a song contest. Walsall was a concerto.

Do you know what, I haven't seen any either.

How can you tell? I for one have found it highly atmospheric and was looking forward to the rest of your log.

Hmmm...file under typical Eurofodder - lively enough, but with no chance of winning )though, based on my pervious form as mentioned earlier, it probably will win now that I've said that). At least ahe keeps her performance fairly low-key and doesn't cavort around wearing 5,000 sequins or come onstage riding on a puma. It is after all supposed to be a SONG contest and not a PERFORMANCE contest.

I have a few Eurovision winners in my record collection. My favourites are probably 'Tom Pillibi' by Jacqueline Boyer and 'Waterloo 'by Abba. Nothing too recent, though.