GhostOfClayton

Have to agree - the Venus Kallipygos certainly floats my particular boat.

For those with iPod, iPad, or iPhone, (anyone know if it's on Android?), try accessing UNRV using the app 'IP Board'. Not as good as my 'proper' PC, but better than nothing when you're away from home.

Interesting that Housesteads was also thought to have a hospital. Located within a couple of miles of Vindolanda, albeit on a different road.

Good point!

Aulus has blonde hair in the second series and also the opening sequence changed from the first. Is there an episode guide on amazon? If not, pm me and I'll send one. Are you able to watch region two DVDs?

Look's good. Might have a look on Amazon.

But it is Brittania, yes?

Barrack came to my mind too (can you confirm?). However, the hills look like the Simonside hills. Perhaps one of the Hadrianic forts?

A very rich subject, often observed in hindsight through the lens of modern Christianity rather than viewed in a polytheistic context - let's face it, he started as a Pagan and chose Christianity as one of any number of possibilities.

Arbeia is thought to mean Place of the Arabs

answering my own question . . . Mongols . . . but I was thinking of the silk trade.

. . .and the parallel with the Silk Road must be drawn. The Silk Route was clearly longer than either of the sub-Saharan African trade routes, but the physical (if not political) landscape was comparible, having deserts to cross or oceans to sail, etc. So, almost as relevant would be the question, were there any Orientals in the Roman Empire? The Roman Legion may be pushing it a bit, but if any Orientals settled, you never know. And from the Indian sub-continent . . . ?

Venetia et Histria?

One for, one aginst. Just like I predicted, a 50:50 split.

On finally returning to OfClayton Towers late last night, I found that this had dropped through the letter box in my absence. I've watched the first series already! Mungo: "They call me Mungo The Quick" Young Lady: "Why's that?" Mungo: . . . . . . . "Sorry"

Another dream shattered.

Do I dare hope that it was from Hyginus Gromaticus (Pseudo-Hyginus was an unknown writer basing work on that by Hyginus Gromaticus) that we get the word 'Hygiene'?

Maggots most certainly are.

I just can't understand why wind turbines cause such controversy. OfClayton Towers is located right on the southern edge of the sleepy little village of Aquis-of-the-Romans. It's next to a field, on an escarpment top facing over the Vale of York (an almost totally flat area stretching to the west as far as the eye can see), so although it�s unlikely to be the site of wind turbines, it wouldn�t be completely out of the question. If I were to make a list of all the things I wouldn't want placed in that field, a relatively benign structure like a wind turbine would be quite a long way down it. So why is it that, at the first sight of a man with a trundle-wheel, whole villages rise up as one, and act as if the local council have just granted planning permission for the slaughter of their first born? We know that village folk don't like change. Threaten any kind of change to a rural community, and their default position will be to oppose it. Cut the number of buses, and there'll be a meeting in the village hall about Edna from Fosdyke Lane who can no longer get her corns done. The fact that only seven people used the bus in the past two years, and that two of those have now passed away, will be irrelevant. Threaten to increase the number of buses, and there will be a letter-writing campaign about the increase in pollution, the clogging up of the narrow lanes with all these buses, and the perceived additional burden on the Council Tax payer. We know they do this sort of thing, it's as much part of rural life as any other country pastime (incest, suicide, drunk driving, etc.). But even considering the undeniable truth of the previous paragraph, the venom and ire that Parishioners reserve solely for the wind turbine seems wholly out of proportion with the impact these structures have. Are they a blot on the landscape? That is subjective in the extreme. Outside of any area where some might be placed, there seems to be a 50:50 split. Some people don't like the look of them, and some people find them a joy to behold. Noise is another oft-cited objection. Now, I've walked through an 8-turbine wind farm, whilst all blades were turning at a reasonable pace. They do make a sound, and it can be described as a low frequency hum. It's a little like the hum you sometimes hear whilst walking past a small electricity pylon on a damp day, but not as loud � the track I was walking passed halfway between a small pylon and a turbine about 200m apart, and the loudest sound was from the pylon. Statistics are often thrown into the mix � how wind turbines are not actually as efficient as stated, with usage numbers for existing wind turbines cited. Now here, there may be something to seriously think about. Wherever you find one set of statistics supporting one view point, you will find an equal and opposite set of statistics opposing that view, yet surely the scientists must all be agreed that we're better off with them? Or did the government just offer huge financial incentives for green energy, and some companies realise they could make money by putting up wind turbines, irrespective of the environmental gain? The Lex Parsimoniae would make the latter an absolute truth. But surely that�s more of a national policy issue, rather than a sound reason for a local planning objection. My last theory is that they�re scared. I'm not really sure about what, but it may be all about house prices, which does seem to dominate the waking thoughts of many a Middle England Telegraph reader. However, I doubt anyone finding the right house would bother too much if there was a wind farm in the view. The right number of bedrooms, garages, garden square footage, off-road parking spaces, etc., and the presence in the village of a 'good school' would surely drive prices much more substantially. So I don�t know. I no doubt sounded confident and knowledgeable at the start of this rant, and you mistakenly thought I was going somewhere, driving towards a certain conclusion with which you could agree or argue. No, all I have found out in this process is that I am also a little scared. Not about having wind turbines near my house, but about what the alternative might be if no-one is prepared to accept and live with them.

Do not hesitate to order it, GP-Max. You only need to read the reviews on Amazon - all 5-star. It was on in 1988. I'm particulalry keen to get it because I know there's one episode I haven't seen. I had made the mistake of giving a young lady the 'brush off' earlier in the evening, and she chose the exact start of Chelmsford 123 to phone me up and cry at me. This was before the days of iPlayer, or VCR (not in my flat, anyway), and so I missed it. I'm aware the above makes me sound like some sort of hard-hearted lethario, but I can assure you this isn't the case. There were a small number of girlfriends in my youth, but all but two gave me the brush-off. The first of those is mentioned above, and the second is Mrs OfClayton who, at the time of writing, is bravely hanging on in there. "They call me Mungo the Contradictory." "Do they?" "No"

So it is. I was being dim.

The excellent and hilarious Chelmsford 123 is now available on DVD. "They call me 'Mungo the Forgetful'." "Why's that?" "Why's what?"

Sledgehammer? Once in a lifetime? Black Velvet? Sleeping Satellite? I bet if you two each listed your favourite 20 tracks, they'd already be on my iPod! On the subject of mid-life crises. It's something you should plan out in detail and look forward to. Mine is to pack it all in, and bum it round Europe in a VW Camper. Admittedly, there's no sign of it happening yet, and the clock's ticking!