Was almost bursting with delight yesterday when I heard. Thing is it was totally unexpected, by him too. In fact he went to the admin office just to see his 2:1 confirmed and when he saw just a 1 next to his number he told the woman there had been a mistake and she had to show him all his marks to make him believe it. He was in shock all day!!!

Just hope we've picked the right restaurant in Leeds now - our youngest, lazy at school at anything he didn't want to do and even known to fall asleep in a history lesson, has just rung to say he got a first in Politics!!!!!! That's 2 brilliant results in a couple of weeks.

Sorry did I sound like I was telling you off! Teacher mode again I'm afraid. Our daughter has just had her first pieces on BBC News 24 too, with her name at the end followed by BBC News, so we're justly proud of her, and quite gutted we can't do the ceremony at Stoke. Want to make the rest of the day as nice as possible for her, especially considering some of the stuff that has gone on in he life this last year outside of work.

Just don't turn into another Philip! I used to value his insights into the financial background of things at the club, but nowadays he doesn't seem to have a positive thing to say about anything. If accountancy does that to you then be very careful

Problem is, we had already booked to go to our son's degree ceremony in York at 9.30 on July 15th. At that point there seemed little chance of our daughter graduating at all this year as she was supposed to finish a 30 minute documentary in order to do so and since she's worked almost full time since finishing her actual course 2 years ago, graduation seemed unlikely. Then the Uni got wise to the fact that some of their better students weren't going to get their degrees if they didn't do something different as all the people on my daughter's course were working somewhere in the media and simply didn't have time to set up interviews and film the extra hours of footage required for editing into 30 mins. So they changed the rules and allowed a portfolio of professional work from the last 2 years accompanied by a written evaluation. Daughter has 11 or so editions of Late Kick off to choose from and so writes evaluation of 6 different kinds of piece, puts the 6 pieces on DVD and gets it in just before the deadline for awards then suddenly discovers that graduation is not just same day as little brother's but at more or less the same time. So we can't attend. She, when not working at the BBC in London, lives in Leeds so seems sensible to share at least part of the day by eating together in Leeds but if we have to foot the bill for 5 or 6 of us, having just paid for a christening do for the eldest one's new baby, we don't want to pay the earth, but want to make it nice. And thanks for the congrats.

Did the Red Hot Buffet for my birthday. Good but not quite what we want on this occasion, as our daughter has just got a first in her Masters and we want to treat her somewhere just a bit smarter. Said daughter actually worked in Leeds from Jan to May last year and this but doesn't seem to have found her way round the restaurants for various reasons which is why I thought I'd ask advice here, as I've noticed quite a few posters from Leeds. Will check out these or get her to check them out when she's back there later this week. Thanks.

Any of our posters who live in/know Leeds recommend anywhere to take our 2 youngest for a bit of a celebration meal after they graduate. Their ceremonies are in York and Stoke so Leeds is convenient for all of us. Looking for somewhere nice but not too pricy. Thanks

True - he probably needs to go home to realise that he doesn't really want to be there. My kids are glad to be here for a few days but life moves on, me and their dad have got our own way of doing things and things the kids accepted because that's the way we've always done them are not accepted now when they've had a chance to find their own way. Bet, come July, he'll be champing at the bit to get back into training.

He'd be less homesick if he was playing - it's probably become more of an issue when you're not in regular training with the rest of the lads.

I went to see The Eagle tonight, as my husband is away and I didn't really want to come straight home to an empty house as I felt I might have to do some cleaning or something like that. Totally strange - I was the only one in the cinema. enjoyed the film though - nothing like a bit of escapism and a few good fights and villains to dislike.

Wanted to see that but struggled to find it on at a sensible time. Blackburn had it at 9pm which means that weeknights we would be home too late - getting old and need my sleep - and other cinemas only had it during the day. Planned to go to Burnley to watch it cos they had it at a reasonable time but other events got in the way so I guess it's wait for Sky or the dvd now.

Haven't seen the film-only the trailer. Usually trailers make films look interesting even if they aren't your kind of thing. This one didn't.

On LKO Yorks and lincs briefly tonight when they do an article on the new proposals for academy intake.

nice find Dan

I was on the concourse of Munich staion last weekend just after the match and the odd thing was you couldn't tell which team had won. Both sets of supporters seemed equally pleased. On a different topic the French have put amateur refs into their Ligue 1 games this weekend because refs are sick of the abuse they are getting and were going to delay the kick off of all amtches by 15 mins as a protest. http://www.francefootball.fr/#!/news/2011/03/04/194235_les-arbitres-du-national-pour-la-l1.html

Have just glanced through this thread to see what others read and am amazed by the serious nature of much of it. I read constantly but only ever really light thrillers and so on. I think the hangover of reading der Zauberberg in the original German (even down to the gothic text because I couldn't get hold of a standard text) and all those amazingly detailed and depressing 19th century French novels persists after 38 years.

don't do recurring dream but as a child I was convinced the devil lived under my bed and would drag me under if I left a leg trailing as I climbed in so had to jump into bed rather than climb. Even now, after dark I won't sit on the edge of a bed, and I get in, if not with a flying leap any more since age and weight mean I'd probably do some damage to the bed or myself, as quickly as possible making sure I don't leave my leg dangling in mid air for more than a split second. I never fling arms or legs over the edge of the bed in sleep like lots of people do. I'm too scared.

Lorient lost away at Nice and drop to 10th. Crazy that my husband chooses to go and support a team when we're away on holiday and they turn out to be so like Rovers it's unbelievable. An unfashionable team from an industrial type town happy to first stay up and then push as far up the table as possible. They do have an excellent manager in Gourcuff and some good players but lost out a bit this summer when they sold some of their better players to bigger clubs.

to be fair, he did have a lot to pull

He may have been our most prolific striker this season but that's not saying much is it?

The advantage of a loan being he can't play against us so avoiding the situation none of us want of his scoring a cracker against us.

Are West Ham now officially the BIG club they've always thought themselves?

If we had a wide range of other potential goalscoring options available to us then I could understand Allardyce forcing the issue here, but when we have nobody else capable of putting the ball in the net and no option to buy anyone who just might be able to then it does strike me as ridiculous to get rid of the one man we have who can definitely score, given the chances.

Doesn't make the analogy any less relevant. and i wouldn't suggest always playing McCarthy and certainly not at the expense of Dunn playing as he is. But there can surely be more of a place for him while we are paying his wages. Scoring a few goals would do the whole team the world of good. McCarthy scores if you give him chances. Playing different styles sometimes means we are far less predictable and therefore harder to play against. I like winning and am therefore prepared to put up with some dire stuff sometimes, but sometimes I'd like to see something other than the hit and hope football that we often (though not always) get. Yes, the team is more important than an individual, but sometimes you have to let individuals have their day too.

Quite. The players we've got are what the manager has to work with. When I have to put a meal together and can't go to the shops I look in the cupboard etc and decide what I can make with what I've got that will feed us all and be tasty at the same time. I don't insist on making a beef casserole if what I've got is chicken, mushrooms and cream. I think it's the manager's inflexibility that is more annoying than any perceived long ball tactics.