Good morning everyone.    A bright day here today but still very chilly.  We are supposed to get some rain tomorrow morning but then it's due to turn brighter again.

 

My sister appears to be doing really well after her surgery.  It seems as though she has had a lot more pain relief than I got, via an epidural and top up.  Not sure how she will find things once that wears off!!

 

I managed to record episode 5 of Spooks and did watch that last week.  I've recorded the last episode and will watch that day.  I am intrigued to see the ending.  I may or may not buy the boxed set now.  It was really the concluding episodes I wanted to see and I have been able to do that.

 

Be back later. 

Joyron I'm glad your sister is doing well Squiggle, MM means murder mystery. Hoochie & dame (I think) do a MM thread from time to time, it took place over the last 4 Saturday's with the murderer being revealed last night! I would have liked to have joined in but knew I wouldn't be home 2 of those Saturdays..

I think it stands for the Murder Mystery thread which is going on at present. I think Rosgirl is one of the people playing but she's there under an alias and as I haven't been following it I don't know who she is.

I've just seen this on the local newspaper website. It's just down the road from me and fairly close to the church - I don't know who the people involved are - there are about 12000 people in Longlevens so the chances are I don't know them. The village hall is next to this community hall and I've just spoken to the village hall treasurer who knew nothing about this. This is not the sort of thing which you think of happening here, but it has

 

A MASKED robber held up a community centre at gunpoint before making off with £3,000 in charity money and takings.

The male raider, who had his face covered with a balaclava, forced his way into Longlevens Community Association, in Church Road, as two members of staff were closing up at about 12.40am yesterday.

The man and woman were held up at gunpoint as the robber demanded cash from the tills and thousands of pounds raised that evening at a charity event to fund a pensioners' Christmas lunch at the club.

Frightened

Neil Chamberlain from the centre said the staff members were left very frightened.

He said: "Everybody is all right. The two people that were here are very shaken up but they are okay."

It is not known if the handgun used in the raid was real or an imitation.

Detective Constable Jon Williams said last night that finding the masked raider was a priority.

He said: "This centre is at the heart of the Longlevens community and part of the money stolen is the fund for the pensioners' Christmas meal. I would appeal to anyone who has information to come forward and help us try to recover this money and bring the offender to justice."

Councillor Kathy Williams (Con, Longlevens) said she had never heard of anything similar happening in Longlevens before.

She said: "It is shocking and pretty distressing. Longlevens has very low serious crime rates but for someone to target the community centre is very bad. I wouldn't have thought there was enough money for them to target."

Inspector Tony Fisk said the gun was not used during the incident.

He said: "An offender entered the premises wearing a balaclava and hoodie and produced a handgun.

"It is not known if this is real or imitation.

"The male victim was made to lie on the floor and a female victim told to put the takings and float into a bag the offender had brought with him.

"The offender then made off through the main front door taking cash in the region of £3,000.

"Police are appealing for witnesses who may have seen or heard anything at the time and would ask anyone with information to contact the police."

How shocking EL, and what's more as its an unlikely target someone must have known about the fund-raising event for the pensioners' Christmas meal.  How mean.

 

Thank you for informing me about MM, I should have guessed shouldn't I?

 

Joyron glad your sister is doing so well, I am sure they will have good painkillers ready for when the epidural wears off.

El that's terrible I'm glad they weren't physically attacked too but that's still very very frightening! I hope the culprit is caught, stealing is bad enough but from a charity fund?! That's low! I really hope the man & woman involved are going to be alright, this could really damage their confidence

Good evening everyone.    Well I watched the last episode of Spooks.  I have to agree that the ending was probably right, although I would have prefered something different!!  Probably won't bother buying the boxed set now, at least not until it's gone down a lot in price as it will do after some time has elapsed.

 

Thinking of you Yogi. 

El, I can't believe how low some people are prepared to sink - stealing charity money is appalling.

Joyron, glad your sister is recovering well.

 

Joyron, I hope your sister continues to recover smoothly

 

Re the hold-up at our community centre. I have now also been in touch with one of the church wardens and the church secretary about this, and they will discuss it to see what needs to be done to improve security at our church in relation to when money is taken to the bank and when we have fund raising events such as the fete.

Very wise El, it is best to have security measures in place as much as possible what about the fund for the Xmas meal..? Are donations taking place so it can still go ahead?

I just found out its ros's birthday on Wednesday!

hi in here

I was Yu lie in the MM and it was longer this time - over 3 weeks as we were all mostly  working - we therefore ha d a whole week to ask our questions and answer any  given questions . It was in 3 sections It is usually  over a week and  is very intensive - I can only do that when I am on holiday

no its an illusion i actually requested it to remain hidden but it appeared

 

hi summer

joyron - glad your sister is OK

hi yogi skylark EL joyron squiggle

OMG - good idea - its unbelievable the amount of low level crime about these days

I hope you won't mind us making a bit of a fuss over you on Wednesday Ros, we tend to do that

 

Night night everyone, sleep well, talk again in the morning

sorry just seen this - summer you could have posted other than Saturdays -  I think there is another in December  so you could  join in that

off myself - night again

 

Night Ros 

 

night velvet

Good morning everyone

 

Summer, I would assume that the Community Centre would be insured against theft, but if not, I should think that the publicity would result in more people making donations. I will post if I hear any developments.

 

At present, it's fairly sunny, but showers have been promised.

Good morning everyone, not a bad morning here at all.

 

EL I do hope that the money is raised for the pensioners to enjoy their Christmas meal and above all that they catch the thieves.

Good morning all. Weather is overcast and threatening to rain.

El, I hope they get enough donations to ensure the Christmas meal goes ahead.

 

morning I woke to heavy rainfall but it's stopped for now, it's very grey & threatening out there though so i'll not be surprised if we get more. The topic of conversation at work this morning so far has been snow

Ros, if you see this, had I known about the week long MM antics, I'd have been up for it. I'll mention it to hoochie and if they're doing the same sort of format next time, I could join in

Good morning Summer.

Has snow been forecast for your area, or was it just a general chat about snow?

It was a general chat yogi, but we've been forecast it and it hasn't come lol I can't believe people took it so literally! They've bought snow boots and everything Any predicted for you?

I've checked the 10 day forecast, and I can't see any snow for my area.

I bought a new pair of wellies (flowery, pink and black ones) because I can't find my jazzy, pink ones - they have disappeared!

wellie fairy! oh no!!!! I bet you find them when you start wearing the new ones I wish I had some jazzy ones, mine are plain green and that's not like me at all. It wasn't me that took your first pair

I hope snow falls Christmas week

All the news items in recent weeks forecasting we are going to have the worst winter ever recorded are based on one website's predictions - exactaweather.com. James Madden their long range forecaster hasn't changed his predictions for November through to February.

 

The Met Office do not give out long term weather forecasts as they consider them to be little other than guesswork - although they do give a general forecast for the next 28 days, there is nothing in that to support Madden's predictions. Of course he may be right, only time will tell.

 

You will be glad to know that the other prophet of doom and gloom Harold Camping who had predicted the end of the world earlier this year and had to revise the date has been proved wrong again as we are past October 21 and are still here.

I didn't suspect you.

I have probably put them away somewhere "safe" and can't remember where.

You are right, as soon as I start wearing the new wellies, I'll find the other ones.

 

I hope we get snow at Christmas, too.

I love to go out in the evenings when it is snowy, and everthing is all pretty and twinkly in the moonlight.

That's a relief, El.

Hi all x
That just awful about the break-in El  
Hope you are all well, and your sister too Joyron.
Hope you find your wellies Yogi  
Jazz up your wellies with nail varnish or some gloss paint Summer . My daughter is always making things and says you can buy sample pots very cheaply and get decorating! 

That's so true skylark! I could paint my own jazzy flowers on my wellies!!!!!!! Yogi I know what you mean about evening snow fall, I love seeing it in the light of street lamps! El, isn't there a prediction that the world will end next year too..?

They seem to be hedging their bets.

 

Hi Skylark.

We'd better do winter in style this year then, if it's to be our last

Absolutely!

Summer, the next scheduled end of the world is on 21 December 2012. This is based on the Mayan calendar where the 13th b'ak'tun will come to an end. The b'ak'tun is a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Calendar and consists of 144,000 days or about 394 years. Michael Coe decided in 1966 that this meant that the world would come to an end. The Mayans didn't forecast the world would come to an end - it is his interpretation which has become absorbed into popular culture - they released the film version a couple of years ago to cash in on it.

 

I've been out this afternoon visiting a client in the middle of nowhere. Whilst I was driving there, when I turned off the main road onto the country lane, I noticed this shoulder length haired woman ahead of me carrying bags of shopping. I knew that it was at least a mile before there were any houses, so I slowed down, wound down my window to ask her if she would like a lift.

 

As I passed her and looked towards her, I suddenly noticed that HE had a black moustache so I confess I then didn't say anything and drove on - he hadn't noticed me.

 

I mentioned this to my client and his wife said they knew who I had seen - from the back he does look very feminine.