Having not been online for 3 days, I have just read this thread through from start to finish. Going from deep sadness to great joy in 5 minutes. The majority of people still are honest, as has been shown by Mudassar, but unfortunately junior ADG has had to suffer at the hands of one of the moronic minority.

Hope your young Lady has a great day on Monday.

Do 13 year olds really need mobile phones as well??

9 year olds and 13 year olds have all sorts of stuff they don't need, like 90 quid trainers, Wii's, X Boxes, and mobile phones. When we were 9 and 13 we had all sorts of stuff we didn't need either but peer pressure and relentless marketing means that you plague your Mam and Dads eyes out until you get it, then the local thieves, footpads, vagabonds and shitheads try and steal it off you 'cos their parents either can't or won't succumb. When I was 14 I had me brand new bike stolen from outside John Joyces up the Fens shops. I bet everyones got a similar tale.

It's just rites of passage.

And no I wasn't in the bookies at 14.........

Mr.Katcha....have you got any kids????


Serious question!!!!

Aye - two of em (4 and 7)- and they WILL not be spoilt ferkin rotten with things they do not need.

Things that they do need, such as books, pens, paper - things that broaden the mind, things that educate the child - not a moblie phone at a ridiculously early age which will only damage their knowledge of english (and french for the older one).

'textspeak' is killing the english language and we will see a generation that cannot spell due to texting, that have poor memories due to an inablility to remember numbers (another pet hate is people who cannot remember phone numbers - it's in me phone like..fookin hell), have poor eyesight due the endless playing of banal games on phones, forget what it's like to wear a good watch because they use their phone as a timepiece and so on and so on.

Dolls yes, scalectrix yes, dvds fair enough, footballs yes, toys yes...

phones fags and booze - when you're fookin 16/18 and legal enough age wise to have a contract phone.

'Spoilt'????

The bairn is far from spoilt!!!!

A £30 phone!!!!

Trainers cost just as much if not more for her....(the latest style)!!!!

We've got her a Nintendo DS Lite for her birthday tomorrow....£160 package!!!!

Hope you told her it was Llewellyn

That's good news Mr Mutley.

Katcha, the simple question is, is it any of your business what Mr Mutley buys for his kids? I would imagine that parenthood is hard enough without someone else telling you that you're doing it wrong?

and I thought my parents were strict! must a laugh a minute in your gaff eh?!




my son has a moby, he's 10, and as ECG says its real peace of mind when he's not with us. [our council in their wisdom moved 200 paedophiles into the area, so we feel justified in him having it. it came with a fiver in credit on it and its pretty much still there save for a few texts mostly saying 'vote ray' or 'vote jade' ]

I do agree with Mr.Katcha about kids these days not being able to spell and attroo....atrosio....hatrocius....rubbish grammar due to texting!!!!

Is it just me that Texts using proper spelling and grammar????

I never use 'u' instead of 'You' and 'bak' instead of 'Back' etc etc!!!!
And I never use 'LOL'....I type hahahahahahaha!!!! :sweet:

LOL!!!!

Your not alone. I hate text speak

I've always used predictive text so my texts are usually ok. Shit, I even have to use punctuation in mine!

I am the same unless I am running out of space in a text and I will then go to u instead of you to save it going onto the 2nd page and paying the extra 10p

I wasnt particularly implying that kids are spoilt as in spoilt with loads spent ont hem

I shoudl have really stated that it spolis the child, the funm of being young and not having to care about possessions, the whole irresponsibilty of youth.

Mine certainly do not go without and is a right ferkin laugh in our house - but i'd rather i bought them a slide for the garden - something full of fun and enjoyment and exercise rather than a phone.

It's up to each and everyone of you what you do or dont do with your readies but for my daughters ninth birthday she won't be gettign a fookin mobile that's for sure.

remember phones are for life, not just for christmas.

All mine have em...they keep offering me their 'old' 6 month old ones, but I don't want to be at anyones convenience ...and anyway, everyone has one so I can use theirs for nowt

I gave my kids an orange and a lump of coal for Christmas

YOU SPOIL THEM

Not really. The coal was used and i'd eaten the orange

if you are such a traditionalist why not teach your kids latin, surely you must rue the day that died......

all languages are living and evolve and develope, we do not speak as our ancestors did in the 15th century and our future generations will not speak as we do....like it or not.....you will not stop that by buying a bleeding slide.......... stupid

Mr Ed - you state that i must rue the day that Latin died in one sentence and in the following go on to advise me that all languages are living and evolve and develop - more fuel for my fire of the death of language - stupid

A slide is fun for a seven and a four year old and the recreational and academic pursuits of my children are far more important to me than them being seen as cool for they have the latest phone or a Wii etc ad infinitum and thankfully for them too.

Why would anyone buy a thirteen year old a slide for the garden - the only thing thirteen year olds do in this town who frequent the areas where slides are is drink lambrini, smoke tabs and text each other. Thirteen is too old for a slide.

Of course its true that language evolves constantly and a comparison between the latin languages of today with middle age English proves the point. Today in France and Spain they use expressions like 'he knows not'.

If you think about it, we were invaded in 1066 by the French it is pretty impossible that some of 'The King's English' did not merge into the language. There are hundred of latin words in English which are exactly the same in French; with a very few exceptions, everything ending in ble, ary, ion, ant, ent, ence and many others are the same word in French. The only difference is the pronunciation.

English langauge as is, really is a mix of french, latin, german, celtic and 'olde english'.

Also personally I prefer not the call the 1066 affair an invasion, more forceful return by displaced britons who fled the shores during the time of the romans and took centuries to return, building first in Breton and then spreading the word to Normandy and ultimatley returning. We all have different views on most things. :sweet:

Ever considered working for Blair's communications unit? He could do with a line like that

OK - something along the lines of 'when Hrothgar fought with Grendel at Hart Village in the 6th century he retreated to Wynyard where he was treated for his wounds and recovered. This makes Wynyard the natural site for Hartlepool's hospital"

will that do?

At 'our' school, you get to choose whether to do Latin or German for GCSE. Lots of kids opt for German on the grounds that latin is 'no use'. Always puzzles me......knowing latin has all sorts of spin-offs, as mentioned in some of the posts above. Whereas German is useful for what exactly? your once in a lifetime trip to Munich?
If the choice included Spanish or Mandarin, which are widely spoken, there might be a case.

You should try opening one or two.....there are nice stories on the inside

I wish I'd chosen to study latin. With that language you are half way to speaking many others.

What about the book that came with your breville pie magic?

how sad. i hope you are taking the mick.

i'm just reading Schott's Almanac 2007 - an absolutely fascinating book full of beautiful facts.

Mandarin's a bit of a mare. It's not the vocabulary or the grammar, they're much simpler than English, it's the pronunciation. We think we might have problems with teaching 'were' where' and wear' but it doesn't even scratch the surface with mandarin. Makes your head ache......

English is not difficult in the written form but the colloquialisms are horrific for a foreigner to understand. Imagine you are a foreigner with limited English trying to work out the difference between these two statements:

She looks a vision.
She looks a sight.

Not easy!

I bought a veery good book from Oxfam last year,its balanced the wobbly leg on our kitchen table perfectly

*Goes off to google for "How to text whilst bouncing upside down on the trampoline" by J R Hartley*

Good books don't teach, they intrigue :sweet:
Also, you can read them while flat out on the sofa with your feet up and a cup of coffee balanced on your stomach. I wouldn't dream of spoiling all that by texting anyone at the same time. Who would be worth it???

Beg to differ!! The whole language, written and spoken is full of variance, nuance and contrariness. I mean, irregular verbs?? Why?? The standard classroom answer to that is just 'Cos they do!!' I spend half my life explaining oddities about the English language and that doesn't even take into consideration the difference between English, Scottish and American.

Try this one:

Walking
Working

But thats an 'or' isn't it?? And the first one is an 'al.'

Then say it in a Chinese accent!!

They don't pay me enough!!

You know that book I gave you in the Millhouse that time??

The Last Time London Burned?? The account of Strummers last gig with Mick Jones for the Fire Brigades Union appeal??

What did you do with it??

Now stop winding people up you awkward get!!

He's just trying to get someone to send him a text message whilst balancing on a trampoline

The one that says "To Tony - Viva Joe! May groovy times be here again. George" on the contents page (or maybe thats just my copy )

English langauge as is, really is a mix of french, latin, german, celtic and 'olde english'.


and in the future people will add text speak to that list.......

bored with all of this now - i'mjust too busy in the garden on the swings after coming off the seesaw, the bouncy castle, the slide and the trampoline - working on the bairn's laptop writing me next two books - i'll even sign them for you - in Latin of course.

Im still bloody waiting for you to sign my copy of the last one.

By the way why does a 7 year old need a laptop

it's charlie's tone - he's 4!!

so he can use skype! the calls are cheaper than a mobile, and with wi-fi he can use it just about anywhere!

Thats OK then