Friendly chat

I'm not sure that I've ever seen swifts. Swallows and house martins a plenty but not swifts.

Hello, On a day filled with such hurtful news, life still goes on. So much of my volunteering is by rail, so coming out of Coventry station on to Warwick Rd, puts me back seventy years. Even more so if I get the No 11 or 12 bus, as that drops me outside of the Earl. Then, a walk to Trinity St, takes me past the site of the Coventry Gulson library, where much of my homework was completed.

Hello, Another sad reflection of society is bank fraud. I had a new one yesterday. I received a message on my phone, thanking me for signing up to a bank credit facility. Now, I know that I hadn't done such a thing, besides I don't have banking on my phone. The essence of the fraud is for me to reply stating that I haven't signed up to such a scheme. If I had done that, I would be on the road to disclosure of all of my details. So, please be aware. Just simply delete the message. Your normal routine of checking your banks will reveal all. Have a good day.

Hello, If any of our members are struggling with getting somewhere in the Coventry area using public transport, please don't be afraid to ask. I don't know all of the areas, but I'm very used to sorting out directions. There are limitations, particularly venturing into evenings. We can always have a look, hey.

I always wanted a bus that would take me from the Belgrade to the Herbert but I suspect that would be the number XI.... preceded by the TA.

Hello Helen. The No 9 will do exactly that. Every half an hour even on Sunday. Up to three or four an hour at busy times.

Very interesting. I thought only the X30 went by the Herbert.

Hello, For all of the politics, I couldn't do my volunteering without my travel pass. Yes, Helen. The No 9, comes from Green Lane, passes the railway station, then along Corporation St, into the Pool Meadow, then passed the old swimming baths, where it turns left into Gosford St. I think that will do what you want.

Is it only me, or does anyone else think the Olympic Games are a complete shambles?

Hello, Like so many things nowadays, anything goes. The female boxing for me is a farce, but that's just my opinion.

The Olympics has been in trouble for a long time. It's a ridiculous financial burden to the host. There are numerous sports that only a tiny number of countries could compete in. There is a constant thread of cheating in one form or another and it even promotes damaging the competitors because it can't stop countries or individuals doing bad things to win. On the one hand it tries to promote an international concept of good behaviour but hasn't got international agreement of what good behaviour is, inside or outside the games. The opening and closing ceremonies are an illustration of the way the games are no longer what they were supposed to be.

I lost interest in the Olympics years ago. I found that I was unable to tell which competitors had used drugs to enhance their performance as they were not identified by an armband or some other labelling to help spectators see who was cheating. With the emergence of excess display 'ceremony' by the organisers and countries at the opening of the games it becomes more of a variety show than an athletic contest. I feel sorry for the athletes who have trained for four years to compete and are upstaged by third rate theatre.

Hi Philip. It's not just your opinion, but the opinion of millions!!!!!

Perhaps you would like an anecdote from the inside the Olympic Games?? In 1972, the Games were in Munich and the British board decided it would be of benefit to the team members to spend some time at altitude in France to improve their red blood cell count [a means of increasing oxygen in the blood flow a ound the body]. As per usual, I couldn't go because every time I was absent from work, Warwickshire Education Committee stopped my pay. I lost two weeks' pay at the time of the Olympic Games and four weeks for the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. I was lucky that the European Games took place in the school holidays - where I came 4th. I ran the marathon each time. I was a teacher of mathematics. As my wife and I were scraping together a deposit for a house we had lived in a caravan for some time... not a mobile home but a caravan as in a seaside type caravan! During the winters if I trained in the late evening, I could go out and leave a hot water bottle in our bed and sometimes come back to find it frozen solid .... I kid you not. Anyways, I joined the rest of the Great Britain team, probably last of all to arrive, the first task being to collect my kit from whoever was in charge. I saw my running vest, and told the official it was totally unsuitable for running a marathon, wrong material etc. I went into Munich and purchased a string vest and a packet of felt tips. Back in the athletes' village I used the red and blue felt tips to colour in a red and blue horizontal stripe with a gap for a pretend white stripe, to make the vest look like a genuine Great Britain official vest. When we had to strip off in the 'holding room' before the runners went out onto the track for the start of the marathon race the official in charge of the three British runners went berserk when he saw my kit (vest). "You can't run in that Kirkham. Adidas will stop all future British sponsorship. And I won't allow you to ever run for Great Britain or England again!!!" He did unsuccessfully try to bar my way onto the track from the changing-room but I hid behind a couple of others going out. Unbelievable!!!!! During the race itself, after about 18 miles I kept hearing the shouts of "vive la France, vive la France" and I expected a couple of Frenchmen to come plodding past but they never did. And it was only later that I realised that water from sponges of water at the drinks stations and the shower of rain must have soaked my vest and made the felt tips run (no pun intended!!) making it look like the French national vest. So what was the motto of this little tale and what would I do differently if I had my time over again, I hear you ask? I must have been the only Olympian to have lost his wage to enable him to compete but also had to buy his own kit. Well I would certainly buy some decent permanent felt tip pens that's for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyone like to buy the vest for a couple of hundred quid so I can give the money to "Tiny Tim's Charity" which is a Coventry charity which provides free physiotherapy to disabled children? [Here I must declare an interest because I have a disabled grandson who has benefited from treatment.] I could tell you about my fund-raising sometime.

So, "Break Dancing" is a new Olympic sport !!!!!!!!!! Really