great to see the absolutely predictable responses from some of the upliftingly joyous people of our town.

"terry breen" of "helmsley street" writes on the letters page that he thinks that the tall ships' success should be tempered for a few reasons.

he reckons that because he visited the show on four days and saw the same people over the four days, [so] the figure quoted is artificially high

my family and i visited the event on 3 of the four days and spent money on each visit in and around the site (the globe and victoria arms plus the premier shop on the headland, and the smallies club for the beer festival). presumably a lot of people did the same ? and this fooker did well to spot the same people on all 4 days !!

amongst other small-minded complaints he also whines about the tall ships 'parade of sail' not being organised enough and being too far from shore. perhaps they should have given him a 21-gun salute and lined up to spell his name out as well ?

on the same page, "jeff stevens" from "oxford road", bemoans the fact that despite seeing signs that the lock gates were closed, he still took his kids down via newburn bridge only to find out, amazingly, that the fookin lock gates were closed !! what are the odds eh ? jeff says that "all" the "major routes were closed for driving". er, no they weren't jeff, and plenty of other people managed without a hitch. next time the tall ships are coming to oxford road jeff, i promise.

add to this the letters in the last two days complaining about the difficulty in walking on the surface at the main site, and how disorganised that was.

people, it's a working port !! what did you expect ? hescalators ?

elsewhere in the mail, we have three local business luminaries, two of them owners of fishing tackle shops, complaining about a massive drop in takings. here's a clue lads, its an event that has a link, however tenuous, to things maritime. perhaps the people who would normally go fishing IN THE SEA decided that the huge amounts of traffic, visitors and acrtivity going on NEAR THE SEA meant theat they would leave things for a bit. perhaps relying on access to the pier (Liam Larkin of North East Tackle) or having a large amount of live bait stocked for the weekend (John Readman of Friarage Tackle) wouldn't qualify you for business brain of the year. As for Colin Rafferty of the Sofa Bed Shop claiming that there should have been more consultation !! Damn those Tall Ships for just turning up out of the blue !!

Oh, and we had nearly a million vistors to Hartlepool, as well as some internationally recognised bands, the Hospice raised £10,000 and many of our restaurants recorded record takings. We also made a huge impression on ocean-going and land-based visitors from all over the world,

but DAMN it, the fourth Indonesian sailor from the left looked at me funny, TWICE !!

i live in helmsley street, i'll go knack garry breen or whatever he's called the irish cooont!

Hartlepool will always be a backwater if people take this kind of attitude

But to be fair, the vast majority of people have nowt but praise, it made me feel proud of the town and I hope the choose us again

I loved it where the bloke said he followed the pink arrows on the pavement ... he lives in the bleedin town for Christ's sake.
Then there was the complaint about how the ships came out.. I suspect some idiots expected them to cruise along the front under full sail at Seaton a couple of yards from the beach with the crews giving high fives to the crowd and shaking hands.... the bloke was obviously unaware of something called the Longscar Rocks.

That's ironic, because I think exactly the same nearly every time I read one of your posts.

get off my thread

yeah but apparently people come from york and manchester to buy them in hartlepool.

we have one in the back room it looks just like a normal settee, it is ideal for whenever we have friends stopping over

h.t.h. etc

Miserable bastards!

Why is that then?

Because you come across as a very bitter, belligerent and ungracious person.

as opposed to some little unwelcome buttinsky with nowt to say.

get off my thread

What's your problem?

I don't think he likes you.

If that's the case, I don't know why, but that's his problem.

He can add me to his foe list, if he doesn't want to see my posts.

And that reminds me of the bar scene in Star Wars.

About 1:40 in!



I hope you're not thinking about cutting Aido's arm off!

Well said. Having heard some of the moans about the tall ships, even a miserable twaat like me despairs. I've even heard people sayign it wasnt a "free" event because so many people HAD to pay for a park and ride and that nobody attending the tall ships was allowed to park anywhere inside Hartlepool because of the council.

Absolutely incredible. The town deserves to rot IMO unfortunately along with a fair few people in it.

Grave you worked at the event right? In what capacity?

My work had a stall there or summit, but i didnt fancy it as it was 'volunteer' work, pffft no chance.

There's a sizable minority in this town who find compensation in every disappointment.... so lacking in drive they can't even rouse themselves to have a chip on their shoulder. Someone said there are two kinds of people in the same situation, some laying in the gutter but looking at the stars , while the one next to them is laying face down looking at the gutter, it all depends which way you look at something and these whining people are face down and pissing their pants as well and adding to the mess.

It'd be your arm I'd be lopping off, wouldn't it, Billog, if we're replicating the series of events

returnofaido would be the looker with the baboon's arse for a face. If only there was an appropriate maxim I could use about a form of expressionism being similar to everyday happenings.

There's some int' town....... if there was a volcano erupted in the middle of Hart Lane, which decided to spout out 24 carat diamond crystals, .....the miserable barstewards would still complain that the crystals produced did not have fuppin cherries on the top of them.

If it had owt' to do with me, I would personally like to attempt to play one of Beethovens Symphanies on their knee-caps, using only the aid of a large pick-axe handle.

The daft damned bounders that are moaning in the mail are the same backwards daft twats that would moan if ASDA went back to 9-9 opening hours cos they couldn't get tabs and vodka on the way home from Church Street on a Friday but would moan like fook if someone opened a free tabs and beer booth at the end of their street cos it would attract the wrong sort of behaviour.

Why the fuck did anyone in Hartlepool who is able bodied need to pay for park and ride? Can the lazy fat scrounging not nice people not fucking walk or ride a bike like the rest of us managed to?

I can see how that gravel was inconvinient for those in wheelchairs or the elderly but as said it is a working dock and the bits near the boats were fine.

As for the sofa bed bloke surely if someone wants a sofa bed they will still want one after the fucking tall ships the dopey twat, or did seeing a few boats make people want cabin beds and hammocks instead?

I am waiting for tomorrows letter page which will contain a moan from local chippy owners that people have stopped buying Fritter and Chips cos they fancy some indonesian scran instead.

Lest we also forget the miserable fuckers moaning how the same people were counted twice, perhaps they are too thick to have ever had a job involving statistics of any sort but I am sure a call centre counts the number of calls regardless of whether they phone the same bloke 3 times in a week. Or did the council screw up by not employing someone to ask everyone looking at a boat if they turned out yesterday and were planning to come back tomorrow so their feet could be deducted from the total.

Maybe we should get one of them ships near the power station turned into a tall ship and send some of the fucking luddites that hold this town back by moaning that the bastard sky is the wrong shade of blue and they have to actually queue at the post office to get the free money from their giro to rot in the middle of the sea.

Well said that man.

Too many fkin idiots in this town, and another moron at The Mail who printed the bastad letters.

I bet the original letters sent in were full of spelling mistakes too.

And txt spch.

good morning from wet Bournemouth - down here on a stag weekend and can I just say, anyone who is thinking of having a stag do down here, don't. It's 99% male down here and the the 1% of women are usually stags dressed in drag Seen some lovely wet t-shirts contests though

Anyway, one of the guys in the group (from the south) found out I was a Hartlepool fan and he mentioned that he took his family to the tall ships event last weekend. He said the logistical arrangements were first class (he likened it to the The Great North Run) and said the event itself was so good that he is planning on going to next years event in Ireland.

Excellent! Tell him to write a letter to the Hartlepool Fail telling them how good it was. Actually, scratch that, the mail obviously wouldnt bother printing it unless it slags off the town/council/road-painters

Cracking post Aido! Think people just begrudge this town success and pick at any matter be it niggly or not.

Did anyone buy any fudge from the self serve jobby?
£4.56 for 4 pieces, after the St Johns had revived me and my lass had prised the fiver out of my clenched fist and spouted something about not causing a fuss! No wonder the over made up trog behind the counter had a i pad, I just paid that months bloody rental!

are you absolutely sure you're getting the flow of this thread

This isn`t the monthly fudge packers open forum on anything fudge related then?

no mate, that's three doors down on your left

Oh ok thanks

I came in from Billingham on all four days, and didn't have to park and ride/walk on any of those visits, those facilities were aimed at people who didn't know their way around in the town. Anyone who does know the town should have had no problem getting about. I parked outside me mams twice and in Asda car park for the 2 later night visits, easy peasy.

Not at all bitter, Hartlepool is ramo with whinging chunts, as the article in the mail proved

They could all be given the horse Chip has, that shits gold bricks and pisses diamonds, they would still fucking bump their teeth


I do h.th

Ah but you're not daft enough to live in the town

He was even complaining about the weather as if that was also the councils responsibility. Some people are only happy when they are moaning - I was there every day and enjoyed it. Well done to all involved

Not so much 'not daft enough', more the fact I met and married a Billingham lass, who wanted to continue living there.

I met a lass from Peterborough who didn't want to leave. I shagged her best mate and she dumped me. I got an extra shag and didn't have to learn Polish.

I didn't know Peterborough was in Poland.

Walsall is though, isn't it?

Its not but at the time there was a lot of them there, and yes Walsall must be cos they all talk different.