Public Image - Metal Box, listened to it on the way home from the summer party and while at work now. It really is the most original album ever made in my opinion.

Abba, Queen, The Beatles and Lady Gaga.

1. As to quality of life, who really wants to live a life of misery and regret. Besides being fat really doesn't mean that you are going to shorten your life by such extreme amounts, that it makes very little sense.

2. Wish I could find my copy of "Being Fat is not a Sin" by Shelley Bovey. In it she quotes a long term health study (from Norway I think), where the life expectancy was longest amongst the slightly overweight group (longer than so called normal) and the extremely obese group had a longer life expectancy than the underweight group. Maybe overweight people are costing the NHS more because they do live longer.

3. Indeed what is normal? What is considered beautiful? There are so many cultures where fat is prized as the most beautiful, that there is no such thing as normal.

From what I can see there is a pious attitude amongst fat haters, much like the safety police, that they know best. God forbid anyone should actually want to enjoy themselves, isn't everything we like/want to do, bad for us. It's as if they insist we all become clockwork oranges and women, in particular, to become Stepford Wives.

The England v Italy game should be interesting with all 22 players on the pitch behind the ball. Maybe they should dispense with the match and go straight to penalties.

I enjoy being a taxi driver, it suits my personality, I'm good at it and I have cash on the hip. It also means that I don't have any pressure to have to win playing poker or betting on the horses. Therefore I can go about these pursuits with more confidence and a clearer head, which enables me to have constant winning years.

If it happens naturally there's nothing wrong with that, although it can be unpleasant if the burp or fart smells a lot. Doing it on purpose is silly though. I have a friend that used to fart on purpose loads of times. One day though he completely backfired into his underwear, I told him it served him right and that he should save it for the toilet. Me and my other friend couldn't stop laughing when it happenned.

I've been wondering these things for years. In my job as a taxi driver I have seen many very slim girls get fatter over the years. Do often wonder whether some of them gained on purpose, probably unlikely, but you never know.

One girl in particular, that I picked up often, went from underweight to definitely overweight in the space of about 3 years. What made me really curious about this girl was that she looked like she had been really stuffing herself, as the clothes she wore showed off her gaining very well (tight jeans and a t-shirt that showed off her love handles and muffin top to great effect). She was about 5'2 and must have gained at least 50lbs.

I don't think she was on this site and some of the others are very unlikely to be either, but then again it's hardly something you shout about from the rooftops.