Of course youth clubs can aide social cohesion but I was struck by something I heard the father of one of the recent teenage London victims say in an interview. On being encouraged by his Radio 5 interviewer to criticise the lack of youth clubs he pointed out that most youth clubs that do exist in his area had a gang attached to them. His big problem was with the parents of these kids 'allowing' their 14/15 year old offspring to keep knifes/guns in their bedrooms. He was also adamant that police had to get far braver with stop and search.
Reminds me of the old sex joke. The plumber's position. You stay in all day but nobody comes. Sorry about that Jana.
Couples or pairs of people who manage to occupy the entire frigging pavement. The only way you can get past is to ask them and such a request is met with a reaction that suggests you asked them if you could have one of their kidneys. It's especially bad in central London (today being a particular case on point) but it's not exclusive. Just move out of the way FFS.
People ringing their bike bells as they race up from behind. Those same people who take offence when I tell them to ram that ****ing thing up your arse.
Add to that people who ride on the pavement and get all arsey when you point out that they shouldn't actually be there.
With no experience of youth clubs, I could not say whether their disappearance is some areas is just an easy excuse for lack of parental guidance and responsibility. I guess this is a generational thing to some extent as well as locational. I was brought up in what was a small leafy Lincolnshire village. There was no youth club but us kids just went out and entertained ourselves, playing football and cricket in the street or on the school field. I guess in the big towns and cities kids probably could not play in the streets, probably did not have gardens if they lived in narrow terraces; and did not have fields, trees to climb, the village beck to catch sticklebacks with a net, nowhere to play hide and seek when young. The modern youth have been brought up in the era of digital slavery. They cannot think for themselves or use their imagination to come up with things to occupy their free time. It is a sad reflection of modern society, where teenagers see access to the internet as some sort of birth right and would be totally lost if somebody pulled the plug on the mobile phone networks and Wi-Fi tomorrow. Is this just another symptom of the disease of modern consumer society?
I do distance walking and kind of agree. It's not walker's per se - just the ones who stop without warning or have an inbuilt sensor that brings them into physical contact with you for no reason whatsoever.
When it was time to return 'home' for tea or bed and I could no longer be Gary Sobers, Gianni Rivera or Tom Okker!
Nearly - 1970. But sport was never off the telly in our house. My earliest cricket memory was of Tony Greg winding up the W. Indies and poor old Closey bearing the brunt.
I can remember Brian Close with his sleeves rolled up and no protective helmet. My first memories of cricket is of the West Indies attack of Wes Hall and Charlie Griffiths; watched a test series in England scoffing orange juice and crisps with my Granny. Tennis was probably the domination of the Australian men at Wimbledon; Newcombe, Laver, Rosewall and others. Football was the 1962 World Cup in Chile; watched in various hotels, pubs and working men's clubs in Poulton le Fylde while on holiday at a caravan park.
Cyclists can be dangerous people, Cyc, especially the younger toughies. A while ago in Pasing, a suburb on the outskirts of Munich, an old guy lipped-off a couple of bike riders who brushed by him while riding on the sidewalk. They stopped, went back and beat the **** out of the old fellow. He landed up in hospital of course, I honestly cannot remember if they caught the hooligans, or if the victim recovered.
That's just plain silly! (You know, looking at politicians like Amber Rudd, never realised how wonderful Conservatives really are. ).
It's all relative. Some runners and walkers do take care with that others don't - and if you're walking 20 miles as a training jaunt you need something to remind you that you're not a complete loony
I'm not a headphone wa#£ker. I run and listen to what's going on around me. Like the cuckoos on whw or cyclists on the canal. I'm happy to share the paths with anyone respectful (not labourites tho)
