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9 for Thursday. Bridge.

I was Yes last time. I will be yes again. On the poll above I accidentally clicked the yes to no option.

She knew his name, background and where he lived, she had to to send him the death star plans.

His daughter went on to star in bongo movies.

On Deborah James, I think that not only should she be worth zero for those who put them on their list, but everyone else should get bonus points for sticking to the rules.

Iggy Pop.

They'll just lump the yes votes in with no again, like last time.

Lisa Nandy looks like a teenager held captive in a warehouse in that image.

How will I be voting? With a small pencil.

My sister met (and later married) a guy from Somerset. We were walking in Alloa Town Centre one day when he bumped into an old army friend of his. On holiday in 2014, we were walking down a thoroughfare when we bumped into one of my son's teachers. In 2008 I booked a holiday in Spain and found out that my sister had booked to go to the same resort at the same time (we hadn't discussed our plans ahead of time) My parents have screeds of stories about meeting folk they know whilst abroad on holiday.

The mind boggles at what oddities are included.

I learned many, many years ago to keep every correspondence with them. Let me give you an example. When I left them I was ~£200 in credit. They sent me a final bill saying I was £900 in debit and giving me options to pay. What they had done was go over the last two years of usage and recalculate them using a higher tariff than the one I had been on. If I had not downloaded every statement I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. When I raised this (and once again put it to the ombudsman) they corrected the "computer error". Must have had about £500 in total over the years from them in various "goodwill gestures"

I remember being at a lecture years ago, and the lecturer shut down his powerpoint. On the projector we then all saw his home screen - his wallpaper was Sarah Michelle Gellar in her underwear. We all burst out laughing. The guy just shrugged and said "It keeps me young."

This is what puzzled me. I gave OVO meter readings a few days ago - could SP somehow have access to these? Are they charging me for years? Just the very thought of dealing with this shower again has stressed me out.

I think back to the late 90s. I would head to Tree Tops in Alloa with my mates. One guy was obviously on the slippery slope, pished in the afternoon before we even went near the pub. He got really, really drunk every time I saw him - weekdays, the lot. No idea where he is now. One change that has happened is the move from drinking in pubs and clubs to drinking at home. Reminds me of when I stayed in Sweden - pub prices for a pint were crazy (£4.50 in 1999) so folk bought booze and stayed in. That's probably the biggest cultural change.

Scottish Power. The one company that enrages me just at the mention of their name. I was a customer of their for years, suffering. Ombudsman several times, the lot. In 2016 I left them and went to OVO Energy. For 6 years I have had good service from OVO and no hassles whatsoever. Yesterday I got this email from SP. At first I thought it was spam. But the email address and links are all legit. I emailed them saying that they have made an error as I am not a customer of theirs and haven't been for 6 years. Got 2 auto-replies immediately. One saying that they don't communicate via email and to use their chat bot, and another saying it has been passed to an advisor who will be in touch. Am I f**k phoning them and waiting hours on hold, nor am I paying them a shiny penny. I hate this company so, so much.

8 for Wednesday

That's stretching the credibility of the scenario a bit.

Remember the good old days of 2000 when lorry drivers held go-slows on the motorway in protest at petrol hitting the dizzy heights of 80p per litre.

She was stockpiling coal from the summer of 1981 when there was the possibility of a strike. Unlike in the 70s though, she stockpiled it at power stations. The Heath government stockpiled coal at the pitheads, where the miners could stop it getting to the power stations. And then, of course, the NUM started striking in April just as power consumption was lessening.

I recently read Margaret thatcher's autobiography. The big thing for her in the 70s and early 80s was inflation. It was a cycle of inflation running at about 10-15%, unions striking because they wanted their staff to be paid at the same rate, big pay rises which fuelled inflation - a vicious cycle. Her solution was somewhat brutal (cutting the money supply at the source, raising interests rates to ~12%, wage restraint in the nationalised industries, and so on which caused the recession of 1980-81). Businesses were shut, and it took inflation a long time to come down. I'm not for a second advocating what she did, and in fact the government today couldn't do it. Too much has been sold off or made independent so the tools she had at her disposal no longer exist. To put it another way, we're screwed for a long time.

The first actor to be nominated for both an academy award and an Emmy in the same year did so in 1961, and again in 1962. Also won the Best German Actor award in 1976 from Golden Camera, Germany, despite not being German.

Correct, they can't.

My brother works with kids, and asked Southall to come and give a goalkeeping class and a talk. Apparently he stayed all afternoon talking and telling stories, signed every autograph, posed for photos, the lot. Genuine good guy.

You underestimate the pulling power of Benny T's.