this web site in 2014

At midnight 54 years ago today the farthing stopped being legal tender.  We always thought it charmingly suitable that the smallest British coin had the tiny (the goldcrest is the smallest) British bird the wren on the reverse ... so comforting that the wren population, around Framlingham at least, seems to be increasing.

So how was your Christmas?  Challenging?  You're not alone.  Lots of people on the Market Hill Framlingham looking not quite Fram but the only stall was the bread stall, the Co-op was busy but not hectic and whilst we were away training has picked up a second fave.

Have a good one ... see you on the other side ...

Anorak Alert 8:  It's RAF Bentwaters Katherine Nash not Brentwaters ... #BBC eh?

In memory of Fish we've been meaning to mention the Samaritans' Twitter app Radar launched at the end of October.  The app monitors friends' Twitter accounts for concerning words or phrases.  The Samaritans have since suspended the app.

9:02am:  The bulletin board will be going offline while we upgrade the software.

9:54am:  The bulletin board is back, in the end we had to do a full re-install so the board style is the default subsilver ... we're leaving it like that.

Make life easier for us by putting text in the body of an email NOT AN ATTACHMENT and attach graphics as a jpg NOT A FRIGGING PDF but we do still like to hear from you.

Life Skills 4:  Scissors with a screw that keeps loosening tighten the screw, turn the scissors over and centre punch the end of the screw so it expands just a little.

Life Skills 3:  Those large jars of Marmite which seem to be the default these days have flats on the sides.  No doubt something to do with how they pack in a box but it has the unintended consequence that you can put the jar on its side, leave for while and get the last couple of spreadings out a bit easier.

We've just taken the the road tax disc off our state of the art news gathering vehicle and feel liberated ... so far today though we've seen only one fellow liberatee.

Anorak Alert 7: We rather like the unlikely l♥ve child of Wee Jimmy ... more here

... actually we are quite big in Japan.

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day ... still miss Fish.

Here's why we donated to www.mndcommunity.org yesterday.

The drastic plastic bulletin board has become the drastic plastic forum

It's 8:40pm ... at 10:00pm we'll be turning all the lights off except one.

Guess Who 33?:  Congratulations to flinders for their first win by naming writer Charles Hamilton, one of his many noms de plume was Frank Richards who created the fat owl of the remove Billy Bunter.

Don't know whether to be pleased or embarrassed but Alamy have licensed one of our pix to the Daily Mail Online ...

Fish's ashes were scattered on the River Blyth at Southwold on Tuesday 15 July.

The weather will be back soon on the right, not that your interested but it went after the cURL library also went missing when Apache had to be re-installed after a MySQL upgrade ... see, we said you wouldn't be interested ... weather's back ...

ASTONISHER No.36:  The Bank of England got its first telephone in 1902 but was still buying quill pens in 1907.

Three years ago today ... still missed.

Very flatteringly Aldeburgh Music is following us on Twitter ... perhaps it was us being nice about Musicircus?

If nothing else Bobby Womack thank you for this ... RIP

Anorak Alert 5: Next time you're on the telly talking about the Hoxne ... more here

Today is Something Day? ... It's our seventh Birth Day!  Haven't we grown!

♫ Darren's got his beard on • Hip hip hooray • Darren's got his beard on and the sun is out to play! ♫  Delighted to welcome back fishmonger and Framlingham market supervisor Darren Smith.  Next available advertising slot is now 8th July at just £14.95 for two months ... did we say we get around 17,000 visitors a month?

Life Skills 2:  If going out (especially if going out out) and wine is likely to be taken don't wear your new glasses ... or when painting a ceiling.

ASTONISHER No.35:  Singer Mama Cass Elliot died in her sleep ... more here ♫

des' dinners has been restructured but nobody has lost their job.

House sales near the coast recovering?  Maybe not.

Last month you lovely ntcers visited a record 180,540 pages and for a week or so our online stock photography portfolio has been regularly appearing on the right side bar.

Coming Soon!  Top ten reasons for not reading lists.

Life eh? 

Life Skills 1:  When sending a letter (a letter not an email) to a big organisation use recorded (or special) delivery not because it's more likely to get there but because big organisations use the Royal Mail barcode to log the letter's arrival, without it they'll have no record the letter arrived.

We get papped on Framlingham market ... #Suffolk eh?

Well that that didn't last long ... today our Alexa ranking is 300,005:)

Halesworth 2010 to 2007 has got its own page and encouragingly our Alexa ranking has gone under 300,000

We had a record 19,684 visitors last month perhaps because of becoming more mobile phone friendly.

We were saddened to discover that Ming the Merciless' head of security General Kala died early last year from pancreatic cancer ... as far as we know she was never on the council but probably would have fitted right in.

Finally mobile phone users visiting us have a friendlier and stable(ish) if not polished version to see, the left and right side bars disappear and the central content is bigger so it can be read without zooming.  It's been tested on four different telephones, comments welcome  by email, Twitter, Facebook or the board.

Anorak Alert 3: Lovejoy (the later series without Eric and Lady Jane ... more here

Congrats to SBB who's named Guess Who 31? but regrettably he won't be getting a cheque in the post ... though we're working on it ...

No doubt in 2014 the East African and councils will continue to rot your brain, nothing will get cheaper and you'll need your passport to buy a box of matches or a potato peeler, but there'll still be proper beer and coffee to drink, Suffolk Roller Derby should bout publicly, we'll get a record 20,000+ monthly visitors, we stick to VB46 and despite all the expected building near the coast it will remain a pleasant place to live, safe for trees and the barking ... bring it on 2014.