The Neville Southall Connection

Just started researching my family tree although on the Internet they draw you in finding the name you are searching for and then they ask for your credit card details to view anything, unbelievable.

The theory my mam and dad had was that we were related to Neville Southall the ex Everton and Wales goalkeeper and possibly the finest goalkeeper in the world at his peak. This theory is a good one as it stems from the fact my Grandmothers maiden name was Southall and a number of her relatives moved to Swansea in the early 20th century and believe it or not, one of my cousins is a dead ringer for the big man himself.

Only a whole amount of research will uncover the truth.Come to think of it, I was a pretty good goalie at school and my brother also played in goal and we both have decent beer bellies (OK that's pushing it a bit far).

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.

So after heavy snowfall across most of the country yesterday, everything once again ground to a halt, schools closed, 6.4 million people didn't go into work (good excuse), planes, trains and buses didn't run and everybody was once again blaming the government for the infrastructure totally collapsing under a little wintry weather.

Lets take a reality check, the snow was the main news and knocked all the doom and gloom recession headlines out of the headlines so that must be a good thing.

If a local council spent millions of pounds on a fleet of snow ploughs in June, they would be crucified so when opposition MPs say its a disgrace that we cant cope with a little snow when countries like Canada, Norway and Finland manage comfortably then maybe they need to pull the reins in a little.

In some places in Canada they get 121 days where they have a snow covering, here we are lucky if we get two or three, they need to be geared up for it, we don't.

Nuff said.