Jenjie

been looking at the central line all week, last tube in a wembley direction is 00:44 then its buses because of engineering works, according to tfl website. Mich still on way to London, they got stuck on the M6 :( if we manage to meet up with Mich, Lori & others, then he'll be the one trying to look like he's not with the squeeeeeeeeeeing girls :laugh3:

nope, it was Norfolk. The Oracle confirmed it this afternoon

If anyone really desperately still wants tickets, War Child twittered:

plus that article is 2.5 years old.

I'll be thinking about signing off my phone for lunch about then :P I don't think i've said it enough yet, that video is awesome :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

yay you got home :D :dance: wasn't it so worth waiting for? its awesome, awesome, awesome :D what time tomorrow are you heading off to London baby?

Please can we savour the results of the Postcards first. Its one of the most awesome days I've had as a member of this board. Plus, one of the things that hasn't been picked up on yet is Debs. She was a huge part in making the Postcards Project successful. She's gone beyond the call of duty in helping us out, and a lot of what has happened couldn't have happened/worked so well without her. We can't just expect her to help us out all the time. We love her, but don't want to abuse her generosity.

Hiiiii I'm h0ome!!!!! late to the party as usual!! I snuck on the board at 15:30 and saw we had a video but couldn't watch it until I got home. my keyboard is now soggy :D Its the most awesome short vid I have ever seen, even if the scary puppets did sneak in at the end!! :lol: to add my twopennorth to the comments: Lore, Chelsea & Semy - Thanks for an amazing idea, and for all the mountains of work you put into the prject. Without you there would be no Postcards From Far Away, and therfore no beginning to the project. To all the postcard senders (from here, Coldplayzone & all the other fansites that joined in) - Thank you for your contributions. Without you all it wouldn't look anywhere near as imppressive, or as awesome. Debs - Huge thanks for all your assistance. You've been beyond the call of duty, and without you there would have been no delivery, and no-one to sort Roadie #42 & Anchorman out for us. :D That's as far as I go for now because I really don't have the words right now to express all the million emotions that are flitting through my brain. I knew I loved this board & all you guys, but you've just pushed my boundaries again. :kiss:

I'm off to work. have fun guys and I'll see you tonight :D

Just in case anyone's wondering. This is Santiago time: <iframe src="http://free.timeanddate.com/clock/i1f2m78l/n232/tluk/fs20/fcf0f/ftb/tt0" frameborder="0" width="396" height="26"></iframe>

nope, Anchorman works weekends, Debs doesn't :D good thinking batman!! :D I can go to work and not be late now :laugh3:

I'm going to have a shower & get ready for work. See you shortly :D

I was thinking more like 5ish. a 4 hour queue in the cold is about as much as my fingers & toes will take, even with layers on. You betcha I wanna be close, no point otherwise :laugh3:

me too. I think 1 or 2 designs would still work though.

there's one thing missing in this conversation. a little thing called a LAW, and therefore the fact that its all illegal. posting him on the front page of The Sun for being a young dad, and talking about the publicity money will only encourage people. Posting them both on the front page with some sort of criminal record would be better. I'm not saying its a solution, but surely is a step in the right direction. What's the point in having this law if no-one does anything about it? You might not be able to prove that he has had underage sex, but there's little doubting that she did.

ty hun :D if there's anything before I go to work, I'll text you just in case Mel isn't up Its the title. "Wish you were here" features a lot on postcards.

:D my brain cells are going into overdrive now!! what if it wasn't one announcement/message but a series of them throughout the day? :laugh3: and that was the first teaser.

they freak me out more every time I see them. :\ did you notice the postcards reference?

Morning :D anyone see the scary puppet photos that went up on Coldplay.com last night?

you want to see the one in the Daily Mail which I read after that. apparently his parents are fighting over selling the story. it gets worse & worse the more you read.

cool :D we need a survey of popular opinion then. To Everyone else: what time were you thinking of going to queue up?

12ish for 9pm doors open :stunned: we can't check our stuff in until 12. and is looking like a long trip back to hotel afterwards as last tube is at 00:44.

Married couples are in a minority for the first time since records began as fewer people choose to tie the knot, new figures indicate. They showed that couples are less likely to get married now than ever before, with the number of weddings at a 100-year low. The marriage rate, a more accurate guide to the long-term trend, also fell sharply to a record low in 2007. Experts say that since the number of marriages is closely tied to the fortunes of the economy the proportion of married couples is likely to shrink even further in 2009. Only one in 50 single women now marries each year, and only one in 43 single men. Those are the lowest marriage rates since they were first calculated in 1862. At that time weddings were largely the preserve of the wealthy, with everyone else settling for common law marriages. Data due in June is now expected to show only 48.8 per cent of the over16 population had marriage status in 2007, according to analysis conducted by The Times. When these records first began in 1971, more than 68 per cent of the adult population were married. It would be the first time that the married proportion of the adult population has been recorded as dropping below 50 per cent. There were only 231,450 marriages in 2007, down 3.3 per cent on the year before. The only year that has had a smaller number of weddings was 1895, the first year a count was made, when there were 228,204. The figures, for England and Wales, have been released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) a week after a report from a leading children’s charity said that a third of 16-year-olds were living with one parent, and that children of separated parents were far more likely to perform poorly at school and suffer behavioural problems. Marriage is likely to be a political battleground at the next general election. The Conservatives have promised to offer tax breaks to married couples, while Labour says that financial help should be directed at the most needy families. Anastasia de Waal, director of family and education at the Civitas think-tank, predicted that the credit crunch would keep marriage on a downward trend. “This is not a case of people not wanting to get married, but about it being increasingly out of their reach, and that is going to get worse in the economic crisis,” she said. “Our research shows that 70 per cent of people actively want to get married with only a minute number believing that it is old fashioned. But either the cost of the wedding or the desire to be more financially secure, such as owning their own home, was making them put it off.” Justine Devenney, head of policy at One Plus One, which researches relationships and breakdowns, also forecast that the figures would fall further next year. “The average cost of a wedding is now over £20,000,” she said. “So it is easy to see why, if you are worried about redundancy or are a young couple who can’t get a foot on the housing ladder, getting married may not be a priority. Marriage rates go up when the economy is strong, so we may see people choosing to wait till things are less uncertain.” A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “The Government supports marriage in principle and in practice but accepts that stable families may come in a variety of forms and some people may choose to cohabit. The Government will continue to work to strengthen the family unit in whatever form it may take.” The marriage rates for men is 21.6 in every thousand of unmarried men over 16, compared with 23 in 2006. The rate for women dropped from 20.7 to 19.7. The number of marriages has fallen by a quarter since 1991, according to the ONS. The data showed that two thirds of the marriages were the first for both parties. Remarriages for both parties accounted for 18 per cent of all marriages. The average age at first marriage for men increased to 31.9 years and to 29.8 for women, compared with 31.8 and 29.7 respectively the year before. In 1970 the average age for marriage for men was 24 and for women 20. Church weddings are also in decline. There were 77,490 religious weddings, just under 56,000 of them Anglican ceremonies. Numbers of church weddings have halved since the early 1980s. The only type of wedding that proved more popular was the ceremony in “approved premises” such as hotels, stately homes and football grounds. There were 99,760 such weddings, up from 95,760 in 2006. Jill Kirby of the centre-right think-tank Centre for Policy Studies, said: “The decline of marriage is worrying because of the very clear evidence of the importance to children of growing up in a married family. Research this week has shown that Britain stands out in Europe and the Western world in doing nothing in the tax and benefit system to support marriage.” A spokesman for Marriage Care, which helps to prepare people for marriages and offers a counselling service, said: “There are many reasons for the figures but I think a lot of people have experienced parental break-ups and the pain involved, and that puts some people off despite all the known positives of marriage. People are much more independent these days.” Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5721241.ece

The baby shambles of Alfie Patten and Chantelle Steadman The case of the 13-year-old father is a classic tabloid tale that has much wider implications When Eddy Powell looks out of his window at night and sees his hedge shaking to the accompanying sound of childish giggles, he knows exactly what it means. “They are having sex behind it, out in the open, knowing full well I can see them,” he said. “They do it deliberately. They are making some kind of statement. Sometimes you find the condom in the morning; sometimes you don’t.” Powell, a 55-year-old former soldier, is not talking about twentysomethings behaving badly after being turned out of the pubs at closing time. Those engaging in sexual liaisons behind his shrubbery in Hailsham, East Sussex, are children, many barely into their teens. He knows their ages and he knows their faces: some of them are his neighbours. “They are so blatant these days, they think it’s a big joke to lift up their skirts and have sex,” said Powell. Last week the consequences of such adolescent fumblings was laid bare to the nation. One of the houses in Powell’s road is home to the Patten family. Alfie Patten, a tiny, cherubic-faced 13-year-old boy who looks far younger than his age, was named on Friday as the father of Maisie, who was born four days earlier. The baby’s mother, Chantelle Steadman, was just 14 when she became pregnant; Alfie was 12. When their bemused faces were plastered across tabloid newspapers, it prompted an outcry from politicians and social commentators dismayed at the latest example of “broken Britain”. Although Alfie is not the youngest boy to have fathered a child, the extreme youth of his appearance coupled with his blatant immaturity made the photographs of him next to his new daughter seem all the more shocking. In video footage placed online by The Sun newspaper, Alfie made it clear he did not understand the question when asked how he would provide for his child financially. “What’s ‘financially’?” he asked, cluelessly. Chantelle could not hide her scorn at his answer. The cries of condemnation crossed the political spectrum. Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader and now chairman of the Centre for Social Justice think tank, said: “The case exemplifies the breakdown in British society. The problem of family breakdown has sadly become deeply inter-generational.” Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, said: “It’s not right – it looks so terrible. It has got to be sorted out. I want us to do everything we can as a society to make sure we keep teenage pregnancies down.” Accomplishing that is no easy task. Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in western Europe, and although the rate has been dropping in recent years, in 2006 a total of 7,826 girls under the age of 16 became pregnant, with 3,148 going on to have their babies. Linda Blair, child psychologist at Bath University, said: “We’ve moved ahead much faster technologically than morally and we need to slow down. It sounds simple but there isn’t the willpower. “We have to teach kids more about relationships. It’s a pity we have to do this but in modern Britain the truth is we just don’t live in strong family units any more.” Alfie’s family would seem to fit the template of a broken home. Although they live in an attractive double-fronted house with a front garden dotted with palms, the household is far from peaceful, according to neighbours. Two years ago his father Dennis, 45, who works for a vehicle recovery agency, moved out of the home he had shared with his wife Nicola, 43, their three children – Joe, 16, Alfie and Isabella, 11 – and a bull terrier called Winnie. Both Pattens also have children by other partners; Dennis is a father to 10, one of whom, Jayde, is said to have become a mother at 13. Since Dennis moved out, neighbours say the family has increasingly become a problem. “At five or six in the morning you hear music blaring out of their house – they are having parties,” said Powell. “[Alfie’s] younger sister is out and about in the street until 10 or 11 o’ clock every night. Alfie himself never seemed to go to school. To look at him you would think butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth until he starts talking and answering you back.” Another neighbour, Grace Cameron, 78, said she has had trouble with Alfie throwing bricks in her pond. “I did have a lot of trouble with him, but that was a little while ago. I feel a bit sorry for him, though. It’s obviously the way he’s been brought up. I was really shocked to find out he has become a father.” Another female neighbour said of the Pattens: “I was not surprised, knowing that family. Mind you, is he really the father? At 12 years of age, is it really feasible? Has she got pregnant by someone else and then just blamed Alfie?” That possibility was given some credence by suggestions this weekend that Alfie may not have been Chantelle’s only sexual partner, which her family denies. Two boys, aged 14 and 16, claimed last night to have slept with Chantelle. Alfie’s family have apparently considered taking a DNA test to determine Maisie’s paternity, but with the possibility of large amounts of money being offered for all those involved to speak to the tabloid press, this is unlikely to happen soon. Visually, at least, the baby girl’s parents make an unlikely match. Chantelle, who lives in nearby Eastbourne with her mother Penny, 38, father Steven, 43, and five siblings, looks like a fairly typical 15-year-old. Sitting next to Alfie on a bed to pose with Maisie for photographs, she dwarfed him. While her parents are still together, neither works and, according to The Sun, they survive on state benefits. One estimate put their potential hand-outs, including income support, housing benefit, child tax credits and child benefit, at £30,000 a year. Once she turns 16, Chantelle will be eligible for benefits too. Both sets of parents apparently knew about their children’s relationship and Alfie was allowed to stay at the Steadmans’, where, in a sign of how welcome he was, he kept a spare school uniform. Yesterday, while the new parents pondered how to couple playing on their PlayStations with feeding and winding a newborn – Chantelle reported that Alfie had been “very helpful” in their first night at home – debate raged about how to address the issues raised by their case. Duncan Smith espouses a policy, backed by David Cameron, the Tory leader, of “early intervention” to break the cycle of dysfunctional families begetting further misfits. He said: “We are convinced that it is cheaper and more sensible to tackle problems before they begin, rather than spend ever greater sums on ineffective remedial policies, whether they take the form of more prisons, police, drug rehabilitation or supporting longer and more costly lifetimes on benefits.” However, David Laws, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for children, schools and families, said: “Where the Tories go off the rails is in thinking that this is a problem with all of society. It’s clearly not the case that all of Britain is broken. That just doesn’t resonate with people. Because of their poor backgrounds we have a significant segment brought up in chaotic and unloving situations. Unsurprisingly, they often become chaotic and unloving themselves.” Others say that it is particular policies rather than parts of society that need to be fixed. Tony Kerridge, of the sexual health group Marie Stopes International, said sex education, or the lack of it, was to blame for situations such as that of Alfie and Chantelle. “Who can blame young kids when they get it wrong when sex education is so poor in this country?” he said Both he and Duncan Smith pointed to the sex education model used in schools in Holland, which has one of the world’s lowest birth rates among teenagers. Dutch children are taught to respect and value their own bodies, as opposed to the more perfunctory approach in British schools which some critics compare to a “how-to-do-it guide”. Being nonjudgmental about sex is all well and good, runs the argument, but how will children become aware of the consequences of their actions? Family campaigners say that such morals must ultimately come from parents, as they provide the real role models that their children follow. Norman Wells, director of the charity Family and Youth Concern, said: “We need to challenge the common perception of sex as a recreational activity and present it rather as an expression of the total self-giving of a husband and wife to each other in marriage.” Given the many children by different partners they will have seen all around them, Alfie and Chantelle could hardly be expected to break the mould. The teenagers are still riding the tabloid whirlwind. Both of Maisie’s parents were this weekend negotiating large sums to spill further the stories of their short lives. Having had a pack of journalists planted outside their house for two days, Nicola Patten was showing the strain. “I’m not used to this kind of attention,” she said. “I’m very upset about this. I’m very distressed, and Alfie is very upset.” Dennis Patten’s mother, Susan, said she was loath to talk about her new granddaughter – because she did not want to “interfere with my son’s business interests”. Daniel Foggo and Chris Gourlay Additional reporting: Abul Taher, Kevin Dowling http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5734056.ece

Speed warning stickers for wheelie bins have been handed out in a Cumbrian town to encourage drivers to slow down. The move follows complaints by people living in Castlegate Drive and Windmill Lane in Cockermouth that their roads were being used like "racetracks". In response, the police and fire service have given residents 30mph stickers for each side of their bins. On collection days, motorists using the roads will have to pass rows of the signs reminding them of the limit. Pc Sue Wheelhouse, of Cockermouth Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: "This initiative is in response to excessive speeding concerns by local residents, who are worried that it is only a matter of time before someone is killed or injured on their roads. "It has not been tried in Cumbria before and we hope it will be eye-catching enough to encourage speeding drivers to slow down." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/7891239.stm