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I've been hearing on the news that the barmy beurocrats who are in charge of the Ambulance Service, have now come up with another brainwave that they claim will 'improve' the service to the public.

Apparently they have now decided that it would be better for all of us, to have lots more individual Paramedics working alone and driving round in small cars with basic emergency equipment. They would be dispatched to emergency calls to provide emergency treatment and to assess the possible need for more complex equipment and/or transport of the patient to an appropriate A & E Unit.

This is supposed to be about maintaining or improving response times, and nothing to do with cost savings, and we the public are supposed to believe that!

What total claptrap!

The beurocrats claim that it will allow for more efficient use of staff and resources, but it is simply going to delay hospital treatment for those needing it, and will make staff working conditions even worse than they are!

Although it sounds a little as though he is singing "Me Monkey", it's a beautiful sounding song never the less (well it is when he sings it anyway), but I really don't know what he is actually singing about, so I am wondering:-

Firstly, I can't seem to find the word 'Manchi' in my Italian dictionary, so are there any Italians or Italian speakers out there who can translate the title into English?

Secondly, whilst I can only imagine that it is a romantic song, he could be singing about emptying the dustbins for all I know, so does anyone please know what the song is actually about, and is it possible to translate the lyrics into English?

It isn't important that the English lyrics fit the music. I would just like to know what story the song tells.

Although it sounds a little as though he is singing "Me Monkey", it's a beautiful sounding song never the less (well it is when he sings it anyway), but I really don't know what he is actually singing about, so I am wondering:-

Firstly, I can't seem to find the word 'Manchi' in my Italian dictionary, so are there any Italians or Italian speakers out there who can translate the title into English?

Secondly, whilst I can only imagine that it is a romantic song, he could be singing about emptying the dustbins for all I know, so does anyone please know what the song is actually about, and is it possible to translate the lyrics into English?

It isn't important that the English lyrics fit the music. I would just like to know what story the song tells.

Although it sounds a little as though he is singing "Me Monkey", it's a beautiful sounding song never the less (well it is when he sings it anyway), but I really don't know what he is actually singing about, so I am wondering:-

Firstly, I can't seem to find the word 'Manchi' in my Italian dictionary, so are there any Italians or Italian speakers out there who can translate the title into English?

Secondly, whilst I can only imagine that it is a romantic song, he could be singing about emptying the dustbins for all I know, so does anyone please know what the song is actually about, and is it possible to translate the lyrics into English?

It isn't important that the English lyrics fit the music. I would just like to know what story the song tells.

With so many things going wrong for the government lately, you might think that Gordon Brown would be really hissed off. But I wonder if he is quietly quite pleased about all the hoo ha going on about the lost disks and surrepticious donations, as it has kept the EU Treaty out of the news for the time being?

It looks very much as though he is going to commit Britain to all this European nonsense without any genuine consultation or the much talked about referendum.

Is it possible that the bunch of morons who are supposed to be The Opposition, are even going to make some mention of this issue before it is a done deal, and too late for Britain to reject it?

After the discs went missing it was stated that some junior official had resigned. I read in the papers yesterday however, that this 'junior' official has already (in the space of two weeks) been given a new job in another government department. It then went on to say that he/she would be earning a similar salary to the post they had resigned from, which was in the region of £200, 000.

It is possible that the figure quoted is a misprint, but I have read the same figure in several papers, so it does appear to have some foundation. If it is an accurate report, what on earth is going on here?

I know that most politicians hold the electorate in complete contempt & think that they can get away with anything nowadays, but are we really expected to accept that this resignation was anything more than whitewash?

Why are we paying 'junior' officials £200K? And as the resignation was through incompetance, why give them another job at such a high rate of pay?

Is it me? Am I going mad?

If you would be offended, what type of punnishment do you think I should recieve?

Watched a programme on TV last night (Tuesday) about revisiting the wreck of the Titanic in an effort to resolve some of the mysteries of her sinking.

As always with these sort of programmes, there was a little too much waffling at the start but there was undoubtedly some amazing video footage of the wreck showing evidence of how (and maybe why) the 'unsinkable' ship sank so fast and with such great loss of life.

Apparently there was a theory that something else must have happened, apart from the iceberg making a hole in the ship's starboard side, to have caused the disaster, and it now looks as though that theory was correct as they have now found a large section of the bottom of the ship totally separated from the rest of the wreck.

So it now looks as though a huge chunk of the ship's bottom plating was ripped off by the unseen part of the iceberg also.

Personally, I think that this raises yet more questions about how well the ship had been built.

Any comments?

Hardly ever seem to hear any trad jazz played anywhere in the UK nowadays, either live or on the radio. Doesn't anyone like it anymore, or have all the musicians who played it been elevated to playing in the big bandstand in the sky?

Here's one for the older members of this club, or those who are good at research.

Richard Tauber, the Austrian Tenor, recorded many songs and sang or performed in many shows and some films where the music and lyrics were composed or written by Franz Lehar.

Did Tauber ever appear in either a stage or film production of The Merry Widow?

If he did, is it available as DVD.

There are numerous CD's where he sings various individual tracks from the show, but I have not yet found him singing the complete operetta.

Although I've known some of the melodies to this operetta for many years, I've never actually seen it either live or on film or TV. I recently acquired a DVD of a production by The San Francisco Opera and the BBC, and I can see just what a joy I've been missing all these years. As a DVD recording it regrettably suffers from the very irritating camerawork more appropriate to Top of the Pops, i.e. too much camera movement, and far too much use of 'close up', which has very little real use in opera, where the stage setting is normally quite wide, and with a considerable number of cast members moving about on stage in most scenes. That being said however, it still managed to give an image of space and grandeur. Although no particular fan of ballet, I was quite spellbound by the Act 3 ballet scene, set in 'Maxime's. It really does seem to capture what I can only imagine must have been the atmosphere of the place at that time.

Was anyone out there present when this recording was made?

It seem that the Main structure (the central building), of the old Smithfield Meat Market in London is now under threat of demolition and redevelopment into yet more glass and concrete office space.

I realise that we can't preserve everything, and there has to be some change to the face of London, but buildings such as these are part of London's history and represent the nations heritage. Few other countries are able to offer such tangible evidence of their past through its historic buildings as Britain has, and of course these buildings have, and still do, provide a substantial draw for tourism. Should we not therefore try to preserve as much of our historic heritage as possible?

From all the questions denigrating and barraking Britain and the British that Seahawk puts up, it would seem that he isn't very happy here. There was a mention in one of his questions (I'm assuming that the whinging toe rag is male), that his employer made him come here, presumably against his will.

Well we Brit's are not such a mean bunch that we would allow anyone to remain here against their will, are we?

So would anyone else like to contribute to the Seahawk Home Passage Fund?

Any suggestions as to what arrangements we could make to help him on his way?

Is there any other way that the British people can throw out the bunch of parasites at present sitting in Parliament, and replace them with a smaller, more controlable government , who will make some attempt to run the country for the benefit of the people rather than simply to do what is best for themselves?

So the powers that be have managed to find a firm of architects who are prepared to knock up an olympic stadium that can be easily taken apart after its three weeks or so of useful life, and reckon they could do it for an estimated 500 million. Wow! Now that's what I call a bargain!

Thank heavens that we have such sensorious and financially astute people in charge of this project, otherwise some of our money may have been wasted!

Are we now going to see an even larger version of 'The Millenium Dome' fiasco that will provide imense profit for a selec band of business friends of Gordon Brown, and numerous others offered high paid positions for people to head up all the useless quango's that will inevitably be set up to 'manage' the projects?

No doubt the building of the olympic park as a whole, will provide a means of soaking up thousands of East European Plumbers, Builders, and Electricians who are continually flocking into East London at the moment. Good result for Gordon.

Frequently getting this 'not responding' message when trying to follow links or open new pages, which then means that I have to use Windows Task Manager to close non responding programs. That inevitably results in all running programs shutting down, and I then have to start the whole process over again. This is becoming a particularly frequent problem when using internet explorer, but it does also occur elsewhere.

I have Windows XP which has not been a problem before, and I'm also using Norton 360 which I feel may be at the root of the problem, although I can't actually see why it should be so. I have also run several scans but no viruses have shown up.

I'm not that knowledgeable about computers so I'm hoping one of you experts out there will have some suggestions to clear the problem.

Are any of you knowledgeable people out there aware of any websites for Architects or other organisations who hold stocks of ready drawn plans for houses and bungalows that conform to basic UK planning and building regulations?

I need to submit an application for outline planning permission to a local planning authority, on a piece of land that I already own, but which at present has a bungalow standing on it.

Although the current building is still useable and quite easily capable of being improved, modernised, and extended, I think that the land will be worth more as a building plot with permission for a larger dwelling to be built (possibly a four or even five bedroomed house with garrage etc.

I know that there are companies that supply such plans from their own catalogue of designs but don't really know what they might be listed under, other than Architects of course. The companies can be located anywhere of course as long as the actual plans conform to British standards.

I seem to keep seeing really cute and beautiful young women who (by their looks at least), appear to be from countries such as China and Japan. Are these countries only allowing their most beautiful women to travel?

Even most of the girls one sees selling pirate CD's on the streets and in the markets look gorgeous.

Back in the early 1960's I think, I remember that in the local cafe where I would often go for lunch, they used to have something on the menu called 'Vienna Steak'.

It was a sort of meat pattie made mostly from minced meat and diced vegetables, and shaped rather like a lump of steak but a bit thicker. It was normally served with roast potato's or chips and peas I think, and with some Oxo or Bisto gravy.

I seem to remember that the two ladies who ran the cafe were of Italian origin, so its possibly a dish based on something from that country.

I've never heard of anyone else mentioning it, and I've never seen any recipies in books, so I just wonder if anyone else remembers the dish and how it was made?

The BBC was originally set up as a public service broadcaster. It had no other means of raising revenue at the start, and even when commercial TV had been established, the BBC was not allowed to earn money through commercial activities.

In recent years however this situation has changed considerably, the BBC has become quite a large commercial concern largely through the sale of its programmes to other TV companies around the world, and the retail arm selling CD's and DVD's to the public.

Whereas there is some sense in the BBC having a number of TV and Radio Stations, there seems to me to be no practical justification for its ownership of so many stations as it now has. It couldn't possibly maintain an appropriate standard of quality for sufficient programmes to fill all of these stations schedules, and this of course is one reason why they are now showing so many repeats and sub standard programmes.

So perhaps the time has come to rethink the whole set up, and start afresh!