String fellow

Gated roads are fun when you've got a passenger in the car to open and close them. Today, I tried using a gated road as a short cut near Tilton-on-the-Hill. Having driven along it for over a mile in my otherwise empty car, suddenly there was a gate, with a flock of sheep loitering with intent to escape on the other side. If I'd opened the gate, returned to the car to drive through, then closed it again myself, the sheep would all have escaped. The only option was the sheepish one - to turn round and go back. Was I annoyed with the gate or the sheep? No, I was annoyed with myself for risking using a gated road without a passenger in the car to help out.

As someone who suffers with chromic insomnia, I recently learnt that sleep patterns can be improved by aligning the bed north-south and sleeping with one's head at the southern end. This is because the human head is its north pole and the feet are its south pole, and so with opposite poles attracting, the body is in its most natural alignment with the world in that position. And there's more! According to the 17th. century poet Robert Herrick, you're more likely to sire male offspring in a bed that's aligned north-south. In his great poet work 'Hesperides' of 1648, this was his Observation: Who to the North, or South, doth set His Bed, Male children shall beget.

Very appropriate! If you look at the famous 1927 Solvay Congress group photo, guess who's sitting right at the centre of the front row? Yep - the man with the biggest ego, Einstein. Imo, Paul Dirac (standing behind his right shoulder in that photo) should be as famous as Einstein, and this article seems to agree. But the Englishman was socially awkward and that probably didn't help with his public persona. https://www.fsu.edu/news/2009/09/16/strangest.man/

Einstein got loads of stuff wrong, including on the existence of gravitional waves and black holes, and even on the expansion of the universe. He also wasn't keen on having his papers peer reviewed, in case flaws were found in his work! Imo, he marketted himself as a genius, hoping that we'd forget about all the other great physicists around at the same time, including Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr and Paul Dirac.

I recently gained a load of points in Scrabble with the word 'scooper'. My opponent immediately pointed out that that was our new manager (S.Cooper)! If you look at the definitions of scooper, it's someone who scoops things up, often with a pooper-scooper. It can also be an animal or bird that scoops up food, such as an avocet. Apparently, there's also another definition in the urban dictionary, which we won't go into details about!

City appointing Cooper would seem like a case of them cutting their coat according to their cloth.

By coincidence, City played at home to Spurs on 19th August 1967, which was the start of the 67/68 season. We lost 3-2 and it was only the second game that I'd ever attended. Frank Saul got their winner.

Yes, his Wiki page says he's died today. Also, the young Millwall keeper.

Having done a bit more research, it seems that the 1.6 diesel engine didn't have an AdBlue tank added until the start of 2015, so my car would have been manufactured just before the change was made, but Peugeot nevertheless provided the handbook for the newer version. This would explain the lack of a filler cap anywhere and the ulez non-exemption. Thank you everyone who has responded to my original enquiry. Much appreciated.

Thank you for the YouTube link. That plastic frame is present - it's the thing that anchors the spare wheel bush in place, but immediately behind it (the round filler cap just visible in the above still picture) simply isn't there. Looking underneath the vehicle, there is also no obvious 'bulge' where the AdBlue tank might be located.

My Peugeot 2008 HDiBlue (64 plate) mentions in the handbook about topping up with AdBlue. It clearly shows that the filler cap is under the spare wheel in the boot. However, there isn't one! I've checked on a couple of forums, and the same question (where is the AdBlue filler cap?) has been asked, but no sensible replies given. Did earlier 2008 diesels not have an AdBlue tank? If so, why is it mentioned in the handbook? If it doesn't have one, that might explain why the car isn't exempt from the ulez charge.

1. Which would you prefer, 30% possession and a fortunate win or 70% possession and an unlucky defeat? 2. Are you happy that the club released certain players and gave another player a contract extension prior to your interview? 3. Did you stick to the 40mph speed limit on the A46 on your way to Seagrave?

I just want someone without a tilde and/or a cedilla in their surname! That rules out this Sergio guy.

Apparently, licences should be renewed every 10 years with a new photo, and there's a potential fine of £1,000 for not doing so. But without a reminder letter from the DVLA, it's easy to overlook.

It's sometimes strange how things work out. Yesterday, I went to vote in the local elections and took my driving licence as id. However, it wasn't asked for by the clerk, but later I spotted that the licence's expiry date had recently passed. The expiry date is on the front and the valid until date is on the back - and they're different! I'd not received a letter from the DVLA to remind me to renew it, so it was just by pure chance that the situation came to light. Anyone who hasn't looked at their driving licence closely for a long time would perhaps be advised to check its expiry date, to avoid possibly being caught out.

With Ipswich winning last night, the combined points of the top 3 now stands at 280. This equals the record set in 2013/14 when City were champions with 102 points. That season, Burnley were second on 93 and Derby were third with 85, although they failed to get promoted. Another comparison with that season is City's overall record of results and goals, which are fairly similar, perhaps not unsurprisingly. Then: 46/31/9/6/83/35/102 Now: 45/31/4/10/89/39/97

It's hard to believe that in the space of less than week, our GD has improved by 12 compared with that of Leeds.

Curiously, Southampton are 5th in both the home and away tables, but easily 4th in the overall table. For me, the ideal pair of clubs to get promoted with us would be Ipswich and Norwich, leaving Yorkshire without any PL clubs.

Sometimes we have bottle and sometimes we bottle it!

That vital 5-0 win against Southampton was quintessential in proving that we do have bottle!

Quite Perfect Result!

When Chelsea helped us to secure the title back in 2016 by preventing a Spurs win, I don't recall too many City fans complaining. So why on earth would we not want a similar situation to occur this evening? In an era when kick-off times aren't all at the same time on the same day (except for the last day of the season), this sort of thing is always very likely to happen. In fact, from a safety point of view, it may even be preferable.

Looking at the total points for the top 3 in the Championship since it began in 2004/5, there have only been 4 instances where the final tally has exceeded what the top 3 have already got between them so far this season. Thus far, 273 points have been accrued, which is only 7 short of the highest previous end-of-season total of 280. That was in 2013/14, when City were champions with 102 points. The average points total of the top 3 over the past 19 seasons is 264, so already that figure has been exceeded, 88 points being the average individual number of the top 3 overall. With 7 games for the 3 clubs left to play, the maximum total would go up to 294, if every game were won. That would mean the top 3 averaging 98 points each, 10 more than the previous average, with the possibility that Leeds in 3rd place on 96 points could fail to get promoted, ho-ho!

To celebrate City getting to 94 points, I've concocted a magic square with 94 as the sum of all the rows, columns, diagonals, corners etc. But to make it more of a challenge, I also wanted to include the number of wins, draws and defeats in the grid. This is the result:- 27 14 10 43 40 13 17 24 23 30 34 07 04 37 33 20

It's on the A6003 between Uppingham and Oakham!