Mia

I don't agree that just going with the judges' verdicts takes all the entertainment away. There are plenty of events where that happens and people still watch, even though they have no input into the final result. If you like the dancing, you're still going to find it entertaining. What did we do before the era of the phone vote? I'm sure there were plenty of shows judged by the people on there who are qualified to do it. That's a very good idea! I like it. I don't know about it being fixed, but Tom certainly seems to be very popular, even though he is easily the worst dancer of the three. I think Rachel will go out first (because she doesn't seem very popular, although she is an excellent dancer), and the final will be between Tom and Lisa. Tom could very well win it, which wouldn't please me as the two women are much better. Still, that's what happens when you get a public vote and people vote for who they fancy instead of the best dancer...

After all the shenanigans this series, I'm beginning to wish that they'd do away with the public vote and just go by the judges' scores. I know this opinion won't be very popular, but to me Strictly is very much a dance competition. The judges are qualified to judge standards of dance, so just let them get on with it. At least that way the best dancers would go through and we wouldn't get lumbered with the likes of Kate Garroway and John Sergeant hanging around for weeks, or decent dancers being voted out before them. It won't happen though, because they make too much money out of the voting.

15/15, but I really had to think hard about some of them and I only had about a minute left! I thought they were pretty tough for 11-year-olds.

Well, that was the last episode last night! It was a good end to a good series. I liked it when Merlin called Arthur a prat! Also the bit where Arthur and the dragon had their major fallout - there'll be trouble to come, mark my words. Plus, there seemed to be the first hint of a possible romance between Arthur and Gwen. There were a few things that didn't seem to make sense though, or perhaps I just wasn't thinking straight... 1. When Gaius was giving Arthur the life-restoring water, Uther came in and was all suspicious, snapping at Gaius and demanding what he was giving him. As Gaius is the court physician, surely Uther wouldn't have been suspicious of him giving a potion to Arthur? 2. The boat to the Isle of the Blessed: Arthur used magic to get it to move. How did Gaius get across? There were no oars. Or does it mean that Gaius has magic too? From their later conversation, Nimueh seemed to know him well and it was implied that Gaius knew magic... 3. Nimueh's fireballs - the first one was powerful enough to explode the stone walls. The second one that hit Merlin merely scorched a hole in the front of his tunic. Hmm... Anyway, I've really enjoyed this series and I can't wait for it to return. Preferably with Sir Lancelot.

It didn't seem fair to me. That BBC page seems to be saying that Tom was so far behind he would have gone? Well, so be it - he was the worst dancer last night. So as far as I can tell, the BBC have fixed the vote and given him a free pass to the final, which he shouldn't be in. I agree that the BBC have certainly mucked up this series of Strictly!

I agree, Kay. I prefer his earlier books. The most intense one for me was Intensity (funnily enough!) . No, it's not your fault! The Taking was one of the worst, most pointless books I ever read. And I do consider myself a Koontz fan! But that one truly was awful...

Thank you Raven and Poppy for the info. I will have to look out for those.

Well said Jewell. I totally agree.

Now you come to mention it, that's very true! They're either good or evil, never a mixture. Still, at least you know where you stand and it makes for easy reading! I think some of his books have been made into movies... Watchers, Phantoms and Sole Survivor are some names that come to mind (and there are probably more). Of course, they are never as good as the books!

I didn't even know there were more books about Cold Comfort Farm! How many are there? And why are they out of print?! Arrghh!

I agree, they are my least favourites (but they're still good!). Mort was the first Pratchett I read. I remember laughing out loud as I read the line "he was eating a meat pie with no regards to personal safety". (That might be slightly wrong, but it stuck with me...)

Good news! I don't know how or why, but today my brother was able to get to his password screen, which said his password was disabled (Norton's fault?). He put it in a couple of times, then it started to go to the whole checking thing again, but this time he was able to press a key and stop it continuing. He had to do this a few times, and then his PC booted up normally, he has been online and it is currently working fine (touch wood). I tell you, I will never understand computers. Thanks for the advice! PS: I told him to ditch the Norton but he won't listen.

Thank you, Chimera and Michelle. I will tell him what you've said.

Many, many thanks Michelle! I'm okay with computers as long as they're working - if they go wrong I haven't a clue (nor has my brother). Er... (stupid question ahoy)... when you say "factory settings"... you mean it will be as it was when he first got it? I don't think he's really added much since he got it, he usually just goes online... Why oh why do PCs not come with manuals for if you have a problem? They put them all online, but when you have a problem you can't get online to look at them... Aaarghh!

I finished this tonight and I thought it was great! The style is unusual, as it's written in the first person, present tense, so it's a bit strange at first. But I soon got used to it and it seemed really natural and brought you right into the action and what everything was thinking. I thought the idea was original and the book was a real page-turner. The bit where . The relationship between Todd and Viola was well-crafted and I liked the way it developed. The ending... Very exciting, but annoying as it was such a cliffhanger and I'll have to wait goodness knows how long until the next book! But I'm pleased there is a next book. I'd give this book 10/10 and recommend it to anyone who fancies reading a young adult book that's different and gripping.

Another good episode, another instance of Arthur being a dimwit! Yeah, killing a unicorn is always a good idea. Still, it was nice to see Arthur doing the right thing and being willing to sacrifice himself for Merlin. And I enjoyed the humour too - rat stew anyone?

There was some very good dancing last night, and some pretty poor stuff too! I agreed with Len about Austin's paso - it was a lot of posing, shouting and stamping but no dancing! The other judges were hoodwinked and gave him 10s, which it did not deserve. The paso is my favourite dance, but I'm always disappointed as no-one ever does it well. Christine was the worst dancer, but I don't think she'll be out tonight as she's popular. It might be Rachel who goes, because although she's become a very good dancer lately, she doesn't seem as popular as the others.

He tried leaving it for over 8 hours, but it didn't advance at all, just remained stuck. Does he have to use the recovery disk then? I'm not sure what to do as this bloomin' black screen with text comes on as soon as the PC is switched on, and you can't do anything. Even Ctrl + Alt + Delete does not work... Is Norton bad then? I told him to get AVG, but he thought he was doing the right thing by buying a proper program... Looks like it's everything up.

Thank you very much for that, Michelle! (and thank Coop too for me). I will tell my brother to try leaving it to run overnight (he has tried leaving it for a couple of hours, I think). I'm a bit unsure about getting the test software from the website - he can't get online or do anything at the moment. But we'll try the overnight thing first.

I doubt it Michelle, as it's just over a year old. Do these things have an expiry built in or something? Although I did hear that you could make a fuss if things don't last a reasonable time, and I'd expect a PC to last longer than 1 year. He paid quite a lot for it - Dual Core etc.