Viv Marsh

And it's 'sank'. But apart from that...

Nowhere near enough yet, though.

Prepostpare - when you're about to order and you wonder if you'll end up regretting your choice.

If you just pare, is that when you leave it till you get there to decide ?

One of their best, and most important

Should I ask what you say to him when he does that ?

And shout out to all the freelancers who have to cover that shift (with its extra hour) to replace the staff who've seen it coming and taken it as leave.

Am not good at being quiet.

Not me. Not ever.

Anne of Linguine Gables

I voted *not* to jump off the cliff.

One of my students did his BA dissertation on whether Russell Brand should have been sacked every week from the BBC. He was a far better judge of that than I was.

Cameron had no idea what he was doing, and he just assumed that - despite 6 years of austerity at that point - everyone would think like him. Then he went tum-ti-tumming off to his shed.

Again, this is fine for someone who's just trying to escape Brexit Britain, as in 'any port in a storm'. Not so for people with firm social ties in specific EU countries. I read with incredulity accounts from 'celebrities' who had 'discovered' their German/French/Irish roots & grabbed a passport.

We all had our EU freedom of movement removed, arbitrarily and without any further consultation. It did not come up in the referendum (as previously stated, no-one talked of leaving the SM). Theresa May boasted about ending FoM without seemingly realising that she was ending ours too.

*as

Spanish unfortunately not one of my languages ! Plus the PhD took nearly 5 years and you can’t really move once you’re into it. So to avoid Brexit I would have had to upend my entire life. Obvs I voted Remain, but never thought the govt(s) would be so stupid ad to exit the SM.

Not necessarily. To take up legal residency you had to live in the EU for a (varying) number of years. For that, you needed a job. After decades in journalism I was doing a PhD (UK) when the referendum happened. No chance. Too old, despite having lived in EU before, fluent German & French, etc etc

Late last century, when we still had answering machines, someone left me a message saying, "Hello, are you the same person?" This has v little to do with alpacas but it reminded me of it somehow.

True, but Brexit besmirches everyone it touches. Labour facilitated Brexit and still hopes to 'make it work' (how ?), and Farage will definitely throw that back at them unless they change tack radically right now.

That's lovely to hear. I'm glad that the cat distribution system happened accidentally ! - that's probably the way I will acquire my next cat, I reckon.

My life is poorer without him. I sold the house in which we had lived because I felt the lack of him everywhere. I'm happy where I live now, but there's still an emptiness where a cat should be.

He talked all.the.time. He converted cat-haters to Eric-lovers. He was my companion, my alarm-clock, my burglar alarm, my daily source of joy and laughter. The gas man (when he cameth) gave him the instruction book for the boiler to read, as he was so invested in the boiler service.

A pedigree British shorthair but with !! flaws !! that rendered him unsuitable for anything other than a loving home, which he found with me. The breeder gave him to me for no charge if I neutered him, which I did. I took his cousin Andrei (Andrei Kat-chelskis) but he died of FIP within a month.

Can I please tell you about Wildberry/Vonray Wildberry/Vonray Wildberry William Eric Catona/Pusikat, but mostly just Eric ? He was the Best Cat, to the extent that I still haven't dared replace him though he died in 2006 (at 13 years old). 1/2

Not. Bovvered.

What a piece of work. (Both the column, approvingly, and its subject.... not.)

Reminds me of the pot-cleaning instructions: "Scrub thoroughly, then stand upside down in sink".

Exactly. They shouldn't be having to do this, though. It's been turned into something it isn't, as anyone who follows football knows.

Doesn’t absolve people of responsibility for their own decisions