Blimey, Goerge! I don't suppose you're allowed to elaborate, are you? 

So your remark about going into labour earlier on was made from considerable experience, then; which constituency did he represent? Can you please do me the small favour of reminding my currently absent-minded self what "TOP" is? You don't mean "The Other Place", do you?...

I haven't met the Blairs either, but then this is perhaps unsurprising, since I have never voted for the party that one of them was once said purportedly to head, nor have I sought to secure the professional services of the other to defend me in court against a felony of which I had been accused.

The nearest I can get to this are the two occasions below. The first occurred many years ago when Lord Tony of the Potteries was an MP for a Bristol constituency (a position that he held for about as long as your Uncle Barry, methinks). I was travelling by what was then British Leavesontheline from Penzance to Bath and had to alight at Bristol to change trains; I arrived at Bristol some 12 minutes late and had barely a minute in which to dash to catch the London train to go to Bath. I jumped into the front coach of this train just as the whistle was being blown and, having caught my breath, I began to walk through it towards the rear, as the front coaches were first class. As I got to the first door, a gentleman stepped aside for me to let me through. I recognised him instantly. "Good morning, Viscount Stansgate!", I had the sheer impudent stupidity to say; "travelling first class, I see", I added as I disappeared rapidly before I heard his reponse, if any.

The other was much more recently when I almost got caught in a revolving door with Ffion Hague when attending the world première of Elgar's Third Symphony.

I'm not going to reveal which of these experiences I preferred and, in any case, there would be no political significance therein if I did.

Best,

Alistair

I used to sell antique oriental carpets. Actually, I just dragged them out of the storeroom and opened them up for the affluent clients while a salesman did the actual selling. A very educational experience. I know where old "Crippled Symmetry" Feldman is coming from.

Seeing as we're talking politics here, I'm related to a certain member of the SNP...

Every Saturday afternoon (for the last twenty years) I retreat into a self-created imaginary world where my friends and I save the universe on a regular basis.



The rest of my week is spent preparing for this event, which is far more important than mere real life 

Well it is hexagonal paper, which I think (if memory serves) is right for (A?)D&D.
That takes me back. I used to play it with my brothers, and then 'graduated' to games like Cyperpunk and such like, with hefty doses of Games Workshop products. I still own an obscene number of figures and books that I plan to get into order (some day) and put on Ebay.

Goodness gracious! He of the Intelligence and Security Committee when Tom King was Chairman, among other things. I do believe our paths may have crossed (with my role being as a mere humble flunkey I hasten to add.)

That particular scene was the climax of the struggle to overthrow Earth's alien occupation force in the year 2380. A group of time-travelling heroes joined forces with an alien turncoat to reveal that the alien Emperor was an extra-dimensional robot who had been playing both races against each other Er... you probably had to be there... 


I haven't played (A)D&D since... oh... about 1985, but we always played in on square grids. It's possible that later versions used hexes but I haven't kept track.

My Game (that's Game with a capital G  ) is a sort of semi-futuristic thing that's gone through many mutations over the last 20 years and outgrown at least three different commercial rules systems along the way.


You really should! I've grown out of touch with the current mainstream hobby but a friend who keeps up with such things was telling me that there's a big collectors' market for old items these days. You could be sitting on a treasure trove.