Shoot league tables

The terrible thing about getting older is that you gradually become more and more separated from the happy days of your youth. You start pushing all those nostalgia buttons at the back off your mind more and more regular and the greater our age, the more I yearn for times gone by.

Today my memory jumped out at me while picking up the morning papers and while checking out the football magazines I couldn’t see an old favourite of my youth the Shoot magazine. It seems that low demand as pushed it off the magazine shelves to an online publication. I remember always looking forward to this weekly football magazine targeting kids.

As I remember, the centre pages were always dedicated to a randomly chosen club with the middle pages a squad picture. If it were your team, it would be heading for a prime spot on your bedroom wall if not on you wall in a scrapbook, do kids do scrapbooks these days. From time to time, you would get a free gift the best of all was the ‘League Ladders’.

In a few issues before the start of a new season in your Shoot, you received a card with all four English league tables (as well as those for Scotland). Then over the next few weeks you would receive the required 'team tabs' on which were printed the names of all the teams that could be slotted into the relevant places in the tables. Every time a match was played, you would move the team tabs to their new positions on your League Ladders. It became an annual tradition that these days looks futile but in the early 70s what else was there to do.

It was our gateway into reading about football and facts about the game and it made us read which was a sneaky back door into being educated. I am sorry to find out Shoot the magazine is no more surely there is a market for a kids football magazine if there is not one already out there.

Thinking ahead to the kick-off

With pre-season underway at most clubs it is time to take a look at the fore coming Football League Championship. There will be 24 teams duking it out for the holy grail of football a place at the top table of the Premier League and of the 24 only three places are up for grabs.

The only way to do promotion is via the two automatic spots and while some like the play-off’s I ruddy hate them with a passion. You can end the season in third place but still not be promoted while the team that finish sixth can go up, so wrong even if my team were the sixth team. It just so happens the third place team last season was promoted, Norwich.

Personally, I would like to see a change in the Play-offs. If we can’t have straight three up then I would like to see a game or games between the team that finish 18th in the Premier League and third in the Championship. That would have meant a game between Hull and Norwich.

This season the favourites for promotion must start with the three teams relegated from the Premier League Hull, Burnley, and QPR but there no guarantee they will. It’s excessively early for predictions with a ball yet to be kicked but bookies kind of get it right most of the time.

The bookies are not being favourable to my team Cardiff City topping the Championship with a big outsider’s tag, which is unsurprising. The odds on gaining promotion are better with most bookies not seeing Cardiff in relegation problems that is a relief. I am excited to see what the season holds it is always a interesting trip good or bad it's what makes being a Cardiff City and football fan in general.

Will Calais ever end

How do you end the Calais problem? You can’t! Unless the border is shut tighter than George Osborne’s pockets. Because for everyone who reaches home base (Britain) is an incentive for more to keep trying.

During Prime Minister's questions, Mr Cameron said, "It is totally unacceptable scenes that we have all been witnessing in the last day." So why cut back the border force over the years, if its migrants its East European criminals or oversea students disappearing into the ether. Even yesterday after the chaos of the strike and while on TV are screens were full of migrants jumping into lorries still some were making it in to the UK. How were these migrants getting throw? Were the lorries searched or just waved through.

It’s not the government who have to deal with this siege on the roads around Calais but the British and other drivers who are sitting ducks for gangs of migrants looking to stowaway on UK-bound lorries. It’s not just lorries even holidaymakers are targeted with a school bus returning from a trip to France with two migrant’s hiding in the luggage compartment of their coach.

Leading French politicians are blaming Britain's 'black jobs market' and the fact UK has no identity papers you need in most of Europe to work. They forget these migrants are crossing their borders to get to the port towns. Some local French politicians are talking about closing the channel port, which would greatly affect the British economy. With thousands and thousands of migrants, crossing the Mediterranean some are bound to end up at Calais but how long before it spreads to other channel ports with the same intensity has Calais.

One illegal immigrant who broke through the“100 per cent” security checks at Calais and slipped through Dover turn up at Toddington services after a 106-mile journey underneath a lorry. Sitting at the side of the Car Park waiting for the police, Abdul Aziz, from Sudan was asked why he wanted to come to the UK he said, “England is good.” Going on to say, "I am a student and I want to learn. I want to go to university,” said the 22-year-old in broken English. Another comment he made was "I love London, the people”, how the hell does he know about London and it’s people.

I have a feeling all his ideas of life in the UK will lead to one disappointment after another the streets are not paved with gold he may have been better off staying in the ‘jungle’ outside Calais. He will probably attempt to claim asylum in a bid to avoid deportation. The UK border is full of holes that just landing here is a victory with two words getting your feet through the door, political asylum. He will inevitably be handed over to immigration authorities and then shipped off to an Immigration Centre where he will be stuck in limbo. He is likely to fail in the asylum bid many do and be returned back to the Sudan if possible.

We see very little evidence of families clambering into the back of the lorries most seem to be young men of varying nationalities who often fought pitch battles over the best spots to gain enter into the lorries.

For all those coming via the Channel ports there are just as many coming here with the golden ticket ‘a visas’ meaning they can legally enter Britain. Many intend to overstay their visas and just disappear.

Classic TV - On the Buses

I never did rate ITV comedy shows highly. Yes here I go again off on a nostalgia trip but even today I can’t say there is a ITV comedy show I would call a must watch. However, one of my favourites was ‘On the Buses’ which is having a rerun on ITV 3 weekdays.

The channel is having a bit of a comedy nostalgia hour around 5pm with ‘Doctors in the House’, not a favourite, I would call it a bit of a hit or miss with me. That is followed by the aforementioned ‘On the Buses’ a classic piece of totally un-pc British comedy that today wouldn’t make the TV screen without the pc brigade up in arms. Broadcast between 1969 to 1973 it was a hit with the viewing public and even made it to the big screen in three feature films On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972), and Holiday on the Buses (1973) the latter based around a holiday camp. The popularity of the first offering saw it become the biggest grossing film in Britain (1971) outdoing Diamonds Are Forever.

Centred on the workers of the Luxton & District Bus Company the main characters are Stan Butler (Reg Varney), a bus driver, and his best mate and conductor, Jack Harper (Bob Grant). Besides dodging authority they spend most of the time, chasing the Clippies (female conductors) known has 'Birds' who were normally over endowed in the chest department with the standard mini skirt uniform. There was a lot of some would say crude banter, naughty postcard kind of stuff.

Each episode has a theme around some kind of dodge like when Stan decides to re-upholster some chairs, smuggling some material used for the bus seats out of the depot. However, Inspector Blake who was Stan and Jacks arch-nemesis unexpectedly calls in at his home, resulting in the need to rapidly camouflage the furniture. Bus inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake tried his upmost to keep them on the straight and narrow but with little success. His catchphrase is "I 'ate you Butler!". Their bus was the No.11 bus that ran from the depot to the cemetery gates and was never on time.

Although most of the show revolts around the bus depot Stan’s home life is a strong part of the show. He still lives at home was is mum (Mabel) a name I never remember hearing she was simply mum or Mrs Butler played by Cicely Courtneidge in the first series followed by actress Doris Hare for series 2-7. Mum did everything for Stan ‘the apple of her eye’ while he had a fractious relationship with his brother-in-law Arthur who also lives in the house with Stan’s sister Olive. While Olive was in love Arthur would constantly put her down often suggesting he was unhappily married.

It is good old fashioned, bawdy, slapstick fun, not meant to be taken seriously, and all the better for not being fettered by being made before the political correct brigade ruined entertainment as we knew it.

US television produced its own version in the 1970s called Lotsa Luck but it was a massive fail.

Fixtures Out - Excited

So we have the 2015/16 Championship fixtures (Full List) and I am excited just looking at the list. Who knows what next season will bring but let us hope more joy than heartache. At nine o clock this morning, I don’t think there was a football fan anywhere not hooked up in some way to find out their teams fixtures.

Cardiff have a home fixture to kick off their season against Londoners Fulham and the first away game in London the following Saturday at QPR. Those of us interested in the ‘Sevenside’ derby against Bristol City have to wait until mid-October at the Cardiff City stadium with the return fixture over the bridge at the beginning of March. It wouldn’t surprise me if both these fixtures were likely to be subject to change and could be televised.

The festive games see Cardiff travelling to MK Dons on Boxing Day followed two days later with a home game with Nottingham Forest. Come May 7th hopefully for the last game of the season it will be a promotion party game for the visit of Birmingham City.

The effect of the rebrand and a poor 2014/15 season is still hanging over the Cardiff City stadium which is shown in the lack of a take up of season tickets. Therefore, the club will need to entice the on the day walk up fans and that will become oh so important, which will only happen if it is right on the pitch.

The transfer news out of the club has been dead but for the cleaning out of the unwanted. There have been plenty of transfer rumours for fans to mull over. With the backing of the clubs owner manager Russell Slade, needs to prove himself this season with a play-off place or above is what the fans expect.

AFC Wimbledon and fixtures tomorrow

We (Cardiff fans) got our first fixture of the new season earlier today with the draw for the first round of the much-maligned Carling Cup. All cup competitions are important, a trip to Wembley with the cherry on the top for winning a European spot. To top it off tomorrow the Football League fixtures are out.

These days the fixtures are about the highlight of my season, sad or what. It would be nice to be in the Premiership fixture list but these days take away the money, the Premier League is all about money, I believe the Championship is the tougher league.

Back to the Carling Cup so we face a home fixture against AFC Wimbledon (Full List) managed by former Cardiff player Neal Ardley. I hope that we go further than last season having reached the third round only to be knocked out by Bournemouth after beating Coventry and Port Vale along the way. I like cup runs and don’t believe a good run comes at the expense of a good league position.

Soon has the fixtures are out it’s the start of my season everything is then focused on the first game. When the fixtures were announced years back, they would be written in stone more or less, Saturday 3pm and the odd mid-week fixture while now so many have a say they change all the time. With TV demands, the police and clubs themselves a fixture can be changed at a whim. My club Cardiff have to contend with rugby internationals and it’s the ruddy Rugby World Cup (World is a bit of a joke) this season.

However, with all that said like always I would be on the lookout for certain fixtures like the first and last games of the season. Then you have the festive fixture always a delight for the fans while managers moan about the need for a mid-season break. Every fan has games he or she looks out for mine being the Sevenside derby against Bristol City. When I was a travelling fan, I always enjoyed trips to London relegated Queens Park Rangers will be a popular destination.

One big change has seen the demise of the BBC’S The Football League Show highlight show. Channel 5 have now secured the rights to the Football League highlights package so we will have to wait and see how that goes and rumour as it that this new show will go out on Saturday’s 9pm. Sky Sports will again be the primary broadcaster of the Football League.

Game of Thrones Season Finale **Spoiler alert**

The Game of Thrones season finale was called ‘Mother’s Mercy’ but we see little of that in this episode with a few shocks thrown in to wet our appetite for the next series. We have now to wait ridiculously ten months until Thrones returns.

I think most fans were hoping Stannis' forces would take Winterfell but after sacrificing his own daughter in the previous episode at the behest of Lady Melisdandre, I wasn’t. That would mean the legitimized bastard son of Lord Roose Bolton, Ramsay Bolton would not get his comeuppance, a disappointment.

It was not going to be a good day for Stannis Baratheon. He woke up to find half his army had done a runner, taking all his horses he then finds his wife had hung herself. To top it off seeing how the wind was blowing his bit on the side Lady Melisdandre hit the road back to Castle Black. On arriving a Winterfell and before having a chance to draw breath the Bolton’s were upon him and his much-reduced forces. Next, we see Stannis wandering around the woods seeing off a few of Bolton’s men only to collapse to the ground where a vengeful Brienne finds him and after a little chat, she despatches him.

Meanwhile back at Winterfell Ramsay’s wife Sansa takes the chance to escape while her husband is busy. First she made her way to the tower to light a candle to single she was in need of help. Unknown to her the help she was calling was that of Brienne who was busy with the Stannis/Bolton set to and misses the single. With help, not coming Sansa decides it was now or never so she sets out to escape but she is intercepted by a bow wielding Miranda, a muse of Ramsay and by the Reek (Theon Greyjoy) who lived for many years with Sansa’s family.

When Miranda threatens to hurt Sansa the Reek who has been under Ramsay’s control finally has the balls (a bit of a joke there) to throw Miranda from the battlements to the courtyard below. With Ramsay returning, they both jump over the battlement into the snow below but have they survive for the next series.

At ‘Castle Black’ Jon Snow was feeling friendless after helping the wildlings over the wall so not the best time for your only friend, Sam to request a transfer. Sam was eyeing up a position as a Maester, which his character was always more suited to than a fighter. Jon Snow the Lord Commander of the ‘Black Watch’ came to an abrupt end, which was very annoying.

He was tricked into believing there was news of his uncle Benjen but all he found was a cross bearing the name ‘Traitor’. It was like the ‘Ides of March’ all over again has his former colleagues queued up to stick the knife it with his Brutus moment coming at the hands of the young lad Olly. With him lying there with blood pumping into the snow social media was awash with rumours that he was not dead

The instant Meryn Trant appeared with three young girls before him, I knew the defiant one was Arya until she looked up and I was puzzled. Oh she was wearing a mask and within seconds she was visiting death on Trant's it was vicious and graphic, she stabbed his eyes out stabbing umpteen times in the chest before cutting is throat.

We see Arya replacing the facemask she borrowed from the House of Black and White but Jaqen H'ghar has seen her.

'A girl has taken a life. The wrong life,' he tells her. 'That man's life was not yours to take. A debt is owed. Only death can pay for life.'

He then unveils a vial of poison - and drinks it himself. He falls to the ground dead as Arya shrieks in dismay. However, suddenly another Jaqen appears behind her. Confused, she reaches for the dead man's face and pulls it off to reveal another... and another, and another.

She continues to pull off his changing faces - until she reveals her own. Then the corpse's face begins to blur. When she turns to look to Jaqen for an explanation, she finds she is completely blind.

As Jaime and Myrcella sail away from Dorne, it just felt too easy. Had Ellaria given up on plotting and forgiven the Lannister’s for the death of her husband, of course not? With a kiss on the lips, Ellaria planted the seed of death on the young princess Myrcella.

There was time for Jaime to pass on the information that he wasn’t her uncle but her daddy, which she indicated she knew. You can be sure there will be some retribution handed out from the Lannister’s.

In Meereen, Daenerys is still missing after flying off on her dragon last week while Tyrion is left home to look after the palace along with Missandei and Grey Worm, Daario and Jorah head north in search of their missing Queen. While on the balcony watching Daario and Jorah ride off Varys resurfaced offering his to help Tyrion with knowledge of this enemies

Meanwhile, Daenerys was struggling with a wounded Dragon.

She wanders off and is captured by Dothraki warriors. Will they remember she was once married to Khal Drogo and was once there leader?

I have never been a fan of the wicked Cersei but as an actress in this episode, she was magnificent (and big up the body double). When the sister arrives, once again asking her to confess, she is clearly broken, and finally succumbs. In her confrontation with the High Sparrow, she admits she had sinned by sleeping with her cousin Lancel but vehemently denies her brother fathered her three children. He seems satisfied, telling her she can return to the Red Keep in the meantime. In her cell, stripped naked, roughly scrubbed clean before her hair is harshly cut off with a razor.

Brought in a robe out to the steps of the sept, where thousands of people have gathered to witness her walk of shame. To demonstrate her repentance, she is stripped of her robe and pushed forward, stark naked. As the eyes bore into her she is shoved forward to the sound of a ringing bell, and the call of 'shame, shame, shame' by the escorting sister.

At first, the crowd just stare silently, but things quickly turn ugly. They begin jeering, then shouting, then screaming obscenities. They throw food, filth, and excrement at her, spit in her face, and some even brandish their own genitals at her.

So the action packed episode over we have to wait until March/April of next year to see what happens next.

Extreme Couponing

I have a secret (well not that much of a secret now) vice in a TV show and no it’s not some late night pervy kind of thing my vice is ‘Extreme Couponing’ on TLC. I get a daily fix every weekday around 2pm.

It’s not a new show it has been around for a while but I did recently hooked up with it during a bout of boredom that found me channel hopping. A docu-series, come reality show in which people have an unhealthy commitment some might say to saving money via coupons and lots of them.

In each episode ordinary people normally two have a hard nose focus and a willingness to shop for over eight hours including the checkout buying hundreds of dollars’ ( it’s an American show) worth of goods for next to nothing and free. They stalk their bargains via the internet and pre shopping scouting missions in a David v Goliath kind of way. Once they have their shopping targets they then have to spend hours cutting out coupons from magazines and flyers as well as downloading printable vouchers from the internet.

These shoppers take little apparent pleasure in purchasing or consuming; the thrill is the save. The show is about saving money and it would seem some savings are for just the frill. Take a young man who buys over a 100 ladies products, why! Because he got them all free and the woman with no pets but has a stockpile of hundreds of pet’s food.

Someone's stockpile

Then there are the houses the shoppers return to, which run from biggish to big, roomy enough to hold several years’ worth of paper towels and body wash in their stockpiles. The stockpiles are oh so important, some just take over their homes, and look like a mini store remembering to rotate by expiration date.

Many of these extreme couponers have struggled financially at some time and used couponing as a way to fight back. I can understand that remembering one Christmas Eve we had like under a pound cash and since that time, we have always saved for Christmas. Pity we can’t extreme coupon over here.

Watching I find it’s not about greed more about security and it is not just about them. Most donate to food banks and other charities as well as freely supplying family and friends. Some also teach disadvantaged group as well as family and friend how extreme couponing works.

I like a Sausage Roll ... or two

Library Picture

I think everyone knows I like a nice pie and a pastie is always nice but I do love a sausage roll as well and I can feel the calories piling up as I write.

I have been on at the wife for years to make some homemade sausage rolls and have even bought all the fixings to make some but I am still waiting, so I will hit the kitchen myself. Therefore, next week it will be my project of the week an oven full of homemade ‘Pete’s Sausage Rolls’. I can’t call them Peter’s because of copyright issues.

I like the plain old sausage roll none of these artisan/posh types with fennel and other ingredients I like them straight up plain. All you need to do is with a sheet or sheets of puff pastry, which you can buy readymade, wrapped the pastry around the sausage meat. If you are inclined to be fancy, you can add something to the filling then glazed with egg or milk before putting them in the oven to bake.

I have my preference of where I purchase them locally. Brutons Independent bakers do a lovely sausage roll along with Rees the butchers. I still bemoan the loss of Franklins the Bakers they sold the best sausage roll I had ever eaten. It’s been a long time but never forgotten, R.I.P Franklins.

I have loved sausage rolls my whole life. They were always the cheapest option for a hot snack, I can remember going around the corner shop to buy one, and how disappointed I would be if they sold out. They had one of those, for a better word, Pie Cabinet on their counter to warm up and keep warm pies, pasties, and sausage rolls. I have probably eaten a lot more bad quality sausage rolls compared to good quality and do prefer small independent bakers like those that I mentioned earlier than the massed produced ones.

If the filling is right, it makes the experience of a sausage roll pleasurable and if the pork is seasoned perfectly & the pastry is flakey with a nice colour all over. For me a soggy bottom is a real turn off or if the bottom looks uncooked.

Sausage rolls are the best party food ever, but why bite size (cocktail) or worst chop up a full size sausage roll to make bite sized because it looks pretty. You end up filling your plate, well I do, and then you are made to feel greedy because your host or whoever allocated two per guest.

I am not sure how popular this British delicacy is worldwide but I do know they are popular in Australia and I suppose New Zealand. You can tell when something is popular the vegetarians mimic it like meat free sausage rolls which I have yet to taste.

'It was not me' - Lottery

Woke up this morning to hear someone in the UK had won the Euro lottery and pocketed a little bit over £92m and it could be me seeing I had yet to check my tickets.

While waiting for my laptop to fire up I found myself spending money I had yet to win, oh what an imagination I have. House bought because every week I check out local estate agents, I do get bored a lot. Many other things wanted and bought has I waited for my lappy to light up.

In goes, my password and a click on the email button I was disappointed not to see one from Euro lottery. So all my momentary plans when out of the window again but until you check it ‘it could be you’.

For a fleeting moment, I considered that maybe the email was late or they could knock on my door any minutes saying they don’t send that kind of message via email. However, reality soon clicked in as I realised it was not me and really, I knew before I switched on my laptop.

Tonight the lotto is a triple rollover! Meaning £10m is up for grabs so do I throw another few quid on it or save my money and just continue to dream about such a big win.

Sex in Space ... The real deal?

The sextraunauts

It is apt I suppose that the day after a woman astronaut set the record for the longest time in space for the female of the species there is another space adventure bubbling on planet earth. There will be no fanfare, medals or parades just horror in some circles about this latest project.

Going boldly forward where few countries have gone before is the porn company ‘Pornhub’ and they have a plan for this milestone … the first real space porn movie. Two 'sextraunauts' have been chosen, Eva Lovia and Johnny Sins, who will receive 'six months of rigorous training' prior to launch. Yes, the plan is to send them into space.

They will fly into low-Earth orbit next year if they secure funding to film the first ever-adult movie in space. They need to raise a reported £2.2 million for the mission and they are asking via the IndieGogo fundraisers site for help hoping the general public will donate.

There are a number of rewards for donating, rising from a dollar to $150000 for a mega donation. Today after two days, they have only managed to raise just over $8378.

There has been a lot of sex in space with feet firmly within the earth’s atmosphere although a previous porn company made a movie where a zero gravity intercourse scene was accomplished by flying an airplane to an altitude of 11,000 feet (3350 meters) and then doing a steep dive. The scene lasted only 20-second, featuring the beautiful Sylvia Saint.

There has always been a ‘Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. Say no more" rumour of sex in space for real that could have been attempted in the past. Jan Davis and Mark Lee, two astronauts who went into orbit aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, had secretly married nine months prior to their mission. The deployment of husband and wife on the same mission was a first for NASA. It immediately prompted speculation that they may have been the first couple in history to do the deed in zero gravity.

Facts are pretty sketchy like how they intend to get into space, who will supply them with a spacecraft with the launch date in 2016. Who will be training the two 'sextraunauts' or will they nip to the local gym one thing for sure can’t see them needing to train the sex part of the mission.

Paul Root Wolpe, a senior bioethicist at NASA said. The logistical difficulty of body-to-body docking in microgravity would probably put astronauts off in the first place. The release of fluids could also cause some problems for the astronauts in microgravity.

Then there's the fact that gravity helps our blood flow to the lower parts of our body, so in space, blood rises to your head and chest, making erection problematic. Pornhub, says it will find out for 'the love of science and sex'. Sounds like Johnny could have some performance problems.

I'm backing Wales

A full house at the Cardiff City Stadium as Wales take on Belgium who are second in the FIFA rankings and according to the bookies favourite to win the game. A game, which stands to have potentially decisive say upon the ultimate composition of the automatic qualification spots in Group B of the European Qualifier. The game tomorrow will the live on Sky Sports.

 

Wales and Belgium are joint leaders in Group B on 11 points so making this top-of- the-table clash vital with both teams hoping to keep the gap between them and third place Israel. They (Israel) face a trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and will be looking to put pressure on the joint leaders of the group while the loser will be likely forced to fight it out with the Israelis for second spot if they pick up some points.

 

While Wales decided against playing a friendly last weekend Belgium travelled to Paris, played France, and were 4-3 victors. The Welsh manager Chris Coleman said it would be better to work on the training ground than play a game.

 

Although the visitors may be favourites Wales did manage a very impressive 0-0 draw in Brussels in November. Still, the fact that Belgium have won six and drawn one of their last seven away qualifiers suggests the best Wales can hope for is a draw. The atmosphere will be electric in and around Cardiff with over 2000 Belgium fans in town and pubs screening the game hope for a bumper payday in their tills.

 

I am not the biggest of international football fan, I am a clubman, but I always want Wales to win like the rest of sport minded Wales. The down side of supporting Wales have far outweighed those great nights/games like the Italy game at the Millennium Stadium but we always hope this tournament would be the one.

Billboard Favourites

Out of a conversation last night, I’m blogging about a favourite thing or something again and this time it is on the subject of ‘Billboards’ and which one was a favourite. In full sleazy mode, I thought about it and made a decision in moments.

The conversation was sparked off by the recent ‘Are you Beach Body Ready’ campaign that appeared around the London’s underground. The billboard was heavily criticised with social media platforms going overboard with negativity. Has for me it was always, going to be between two campaigns, and like the ‘Are you ready one they are the kind to cause protests.

I can’t split the two as one harps back to my teens the other a tad more recent but they did capture my imagination, the pervy side anyway.

The Wonder Bra ad ‘Hello Boys’ sparked a sensation when it was unveiled in 1994 and was blamed for stopping traffic and causing accidents as commuters stared at the huge roadside posters. The Czech model Eva Herzigova was propelled to stardom around the world, making her a household name.

The advert also won a public vote as the favourite 'iconic' advertising image.

The ‘Join the Lamb’s Navy’ billboard campaign was memorable for the lovely Caroline Munro high on my all-time favourite list. These series of ads really made her famous and lead to some great opportunities. This brought her to the attention of Hammer Films, and a series of appearances in their horror movies.

She earned bigger roles in ‘The Golden Voyage of Sinbad’ and ‘At the Earth’s Core’ she also earned a “Bond Girl” status in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ playing Naomi, a psychotic helicopter pilot and bikini-clad henchwoman.

Rumour Mill ... I want facts

My social media is full of rumours about my club Cardiff City wanting some player but rarely does the reports become fact and if you add the fans wish list, its never ending.

I’m tired of rumours there was a time I would jump on every one, research the player and time and time again, it would be a waste of time. The transfer rumour business is really thriving with today’s papers full of them with the word exclusive thrown around a lot.

I know some fans want to hear rumours and papers, websites, radio, and TV channels mainly Sky Sports News will happily provide them but it would be nice to have some substance behind them. I get the feeling there are many agents fishing, putting out a line, and waiting for a bite. It’s not only agents these days players put themselves in the window giving interviews like Raheem Sterling.

A first team player at Liverpool and offered a £100,000 a week extension, not a year, and still wants to take a chance with a new team. His agent said if Liverpool were to offer his client £900,000 a week, he would still want to leave. Liverpool are threatening the 20-year-old that they will make him see out the final two years of his £35,000-a-week contract should no extension be signed this summer. I don’t really care but I do hope Liverpool stick it to the greedy numpty.

Meanwhile at the Cardiff City stadium many rumours but no new personnel yet although manager Russell Slade as a list. The owner of the club has promised cash but not the stupid kind of cash paid out in previous seasons. The club are still trying to clear out some more high earners to reduce the wage bill.

Checking to make sure there was no big announcement of a new signing before publishing this blog I saw the wage bill has been reduced, but not by much with news that United States under-23 goalkeeper Charlie Horton has left the club.

The rumour mill was quiet today with Kenwyne Jones wanted by Western Sydney Wanderers and fellow striker Adam Le Fondre who is interesting a number of teams.

Nuclear 80's

While musing along the road I looked into a charity shop window and low and behold staring at me was this poster which a dawned my bedroom wall back in time and later my flat.

While shopping I racked my brain to remember where I bought the ruddy thing which is me all over I get a spark and must remember how, where, when. I concluded it must have been in the poster rack at Virgin or WH Smiths were I normally bought them if I was paying cash.

Not my normal kind of poster. I would normally shop for pretty young things with a fine set of boobs or film posters but married life and kids put a stop to that.

Interestingly I was never a ban the bomb kind of person. I was very political and left of right but felt safe under NATO’s nuclear umbrella it was more about hating Ronnie Reagan and Maggie Thatcher. Every lefty or ban the bomb household, flat, bedroom in the land must have had this poster on the wall it became iconic as the tennis girl with the itchy bum.

There was a great case of anxiety around that time at good old Ronnie could actually press the button with Maggie tagging along in a junior partnership kind of way. Husbands and boyfriends bemoan the fact there other halves wouldn’t be home slaving over the cooker. They were more likely holding hands outside RAF Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp protesting the decision of Maggie’s government allowing USA cruise missiles to be based there. That was the protesting culture of the time, marches, and demos about the bomb.

The government didn’t help the situation by distributing Protect and Survive booklet telling me I would need to use my doors to survive with some pillowcases filled with sand or earth but after seeing When the Wind Blows, I decided f**k it! I would be the first to embrace the first missile to hit my house.

There were TV shows like ‘Whoops Apocalypse’ with the brilliant named President Johnny Cyclops while in the charts Frankie Goes to Hollywood were giving the world ‘Two Tribes go to War’ with a crazy video of the then-President Ronald Reagan and then-Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko have a no holds barred wrestling match.

All joking aside then we had the BBC drama Threads depicting a nuclear attack on Sheffield in 1984. Enough to give anyone plenty to think about and it truly scared the pants off me I was in fact horrified. That one person with a finger on a button in Moscow and Washington back then could destroy the world, frightening. I remember one small scene that I never forgot. We see the mushroom cloud and the next scene we see a lady and then see her peeing down her leg.

Still the poster caught the mood of the time with the slogan,

“She promised to follow him to the end of the earth and he promised to organise it.”

The greatest case of unrequited love ever Maggie and Ronnie.

What ever happen to ... Imogen Hassall

I was watching White Cargo (1973) a film, which I have never seen before the other night and got to wondering what happened to the actress Imogen Hassall sometimes referred to as "The Countess of Cleavage" who played one of the stripper, Stella.

The film stars David Jason (Fools and Horses fame) as daydreamer Albert Toddey, bored with is job and while frequenting a seedy strip club manages to get caught up in the white slave trade in seventies suburbia. The strippers in the club along with Imogen Hassall were being kidnapped to stock up an Arab sheikh’s harem. It was a sub-par comedy, watchable only if looking for that sleazy British seventies vibe which I do, and to spot a myriad of TV regulars such as Hugh Lloyd, Dave Prowse and Sue Bond.

The British actress was frustrated that she never really got the chance to shine beyond being typecast as a ditzy sex-bomb, all tits and cleavage, popular in British films of the time. She appeared in some of the best TV shows in the 60s early 70s, The Saint, The Avengers, and The Persuaders playing the eye candy and I remember her from ‘When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth’ (1970) playing the dominant cave-girl.

I suppose her biggest role was as Jenny Grubb in ‘Carry On Loving’, a frumpy sausage factory worker, a shy and sheltered girl, and after a minor make over (which mainly consists of taking off her glasses, ruffling her hair and putting on a padded bra!), blooms into a beautiful and sexy model.

She died at age 38, in London 1980, after taking an overdose of sleeping pills.

Hashtag ... flash some flesh

Two random pictures

The gullibility of people on social media sites never ceases to amaze me when it comes to flashing some flesh. The latest craziness is #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge that was sold on Twitter and other platforms as an attempt to make breast cancer 'sexy'. What does it involve, placing a tin/bottle of coke a cola between your breast and its open to both sexes.

It has since emerged it was intended as a joke along the line of the Ice Bucket Challenge, but with no intention to be raising cash for charity. It has also come to light the this trend was started by a Las Vegas-based 'adult entertainment' scout, now that’s a job. He was name Danny Frost while glamour model Gemma Jaxx admitted they started the hashtag.

It as become very popular on social media and even now after it was outed as a joke there have been large numbers of images being posted online showing mainly topless women attempting to cover their nipples while holding a can of coke in their breasts.

Cancer campaigners were up in arms with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation revealing that the trend isn't raising money for them. However, they would happily receive donations from the challenge should they start coming in.

Not a fond memory

I can’t remember why my brother or I were given this game for Christmas in the early 70s but I do remember it was impossibly complicated for us to master. I am talking about the board game ‘Escape from Colditz’.

The memory came back while watching the film Colditz earlier today and I remember the game with little fondness. I can’t really blame mum for buying it she must have seen it on the shelf and thought two boys, Second World War it’s an easy fit. Also at the time the Colditz TV show was on or had just been shown on the television.

I can’t remember what the instruction book was like but we never played it properly and in the end, it was soon discarded. The cover and the board may have looked exciting but without any way to play the damn thing, it was a waste.

Finally, many years later I did play the game and playing it with someone who already knew how to play it which did help. To be honest it turned out to be pretty easy to play maybe we were to young back then and I could be very impatient as a kid.

Pity the internet and video were not around back in the 1970s it would have helped. On YouTube, someone would have made a video on how to play the game successfully.