Mark Stretch: Thanks for the zine.

James Hardy: I never know which issue of Boris to put in the subject line (of e-mails) - is it the one I just received or the one I'm sending orders for? Always a conundrum…

IH: Me, I always put the number of the next issue, which I assume makes things easier for the editor’s filing system.

Tony Dickinson: Thanks for #73 ... good to know Borealis is still alive ... I can't say I honestly fancy joining any waiting lists ... maybe I'll just follow now via the web version? Maybe you could set up an e- list to let people know when the next issue is out so people can go check it on- line? Just a thought.

Alan Coulthard: Thanks for the latest issue of Boris. Here are my orders. Oh no! I am not in any games!

IH: Lucky you! It can’t be easy nowadays, avoiding being in a game in Boris, since once you’re in one you’re just about in it for life. There may not be many of them but they do last for decades!

James Hardy: Gall bladder is out - went in February. Is it really that long since the last Boris!

Mark Stretch: A game with 4 month deadlines, eh? How about the managerial job at Newcastle. Seems to be about how long they last...

James Hardy: Sorry about Newcastle. No really. Damn, knew I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face! :-) Michael Owen's success story after dumping Liverpool just goes on and on and on and on...

IH: Bah. My prediction last season, that Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesborough would all be relegated, almost came true. Can there ever, ever have been a more inept, destructive and just plain crap owner of a football club than Newcastle's Mike Ashley? He’s almost as bad at running the Toon as I am at running this zine!

I mean somebody must have approved this monstrosity....

Tony Dickinson: As for my 16p remaining credit ... stick it in the fund for Newcastle to buy some decent players next season ...

IH: The way that load of prima donnas played last season, if I paid 16p for the lot of them I’d be expecting change!

Alex Richardson: Ta very much for your e-mail - you have earned yourself a tick!

IH: This was in response to a plea in Alex’s zine Obsidian for readers to either take an active part, or be booted out. I took the opportunity to have a good old moan about the drudgery of running a games zine.

Alex Richardson: I used to feel exactly like you did when I got home from my warehouse job. After eight and a half hours of lifting and packing boxes, on my feet all day in the boiling hot or freezing cold - there was no air conditioning in our warehouse so in summer the temperature pushed 90 degrees - almost the last thing I wanted to do was worry about the zine. After a few weeks of being late you almost go past the point of feeling guilty about it; after a few months it is almost impossible to finish the latest issue. (It is definitely worth a try, though, as you'd miss it if you stopped completely. Trust me on that one...)

IH: That’s exactly the point I got to last time. I actually started to think of myself as a former zine editor. Then it hit me that I’d have to return all the banked subs for Boris, plus take out subscriptions for those zines I now see by trade, and, well, you know what a miserable stinge - bucket I am; next thing you know, it’s all done and posted. We’re off to Ibiza again in August, so I’m determined to have it done before then. It might help that I have a full week off before we go, as well. Let’s hope I avoid any sports injuries this time.

Tim Deacon: Hopefully you’ve suffered no long term injury from your holiday mishap.

IH: Nope, the ankle’s fine now, thanks.

Tim Deacon: As for the non-functioning car and an over zealous check-in clerk consider them as your "three-in-a-row" mishaps - perhaps now the gremlins will leave you alone.

IH: Nah, me and gremlins, we go back a long way, and there’s no sign of them getting off my back any time soon. What’s the betting there’s some ‘hilarious’ mishap at my funeral? (Ugh, there’s a cheery thought.)

Tim Deacon: When I wrote "almost got put on" heart pills, that is what I meant. This is because my doctor was quite insistent until I convinced him I wouldn’t be taking any prescribed medication. (At least not yet!)

IH: I’ve been quite good at following the doctors advice, taking my tablets every day when I remember. The annoying part is having to pay for them, and the feeling that they’re having no effect whatsoever.

James Hardy: I ran out of my blood pressure pills two weeks ago - I just don't get around to booking the doctors as I skive off work for the kids / wife / physio (my shoulder is knackered - has been for over a year. Sub acromial impingement apparently) so much already. Be interesting to see what my BP is next time it is taken - bet it's fine…

Alan Coulthard: In respect of your prescription for lifetime medication, you can purchase a prescription repayment certificate (PPC) for either three months (@ £27.85) or a year (£102.50). I suffered a stroke four years ago and also have a pacemaker. Consequently, I am on tablets for the rest of my life. I find that, if I stockpile my prescription requests, shortly before my PPC is due to expire, then I can wait two or three months before renewing it as I have a two to three month supply! It is certainly cheaper than paying £6 - £7 per item when I go to the chemist. I obtain my PPC online at www.ppa.org.uk/ppc

IH: Thanks, that should be useful. I’ll try it.

Tim Deacon: As for being a "band of sad old duffers" please leave out the "old" bit when referring to myself! :)

IH: Sorry, it’s just when you find yourself sitting around comparing ailments and giving each other tips on using the NHS, it’s hard not to feel the hand of Old Father Time on your shoulder. Hell I’ll be fifty next year. Fifty! I was twelve a few days ago!

Alex Richardson: Did you know that it's almost exactly 19 years since you started reading the zine? I seem to recall getting your letters around about Easter 1990, in Bassingbourn, which would make number 28 one of your first issues. It's a cliché to ask "where have the years flown?" but... blimey. Whatever happened to that weird little printer you had?

IH: Erk, yes, that little printer. At the time I’d made the step up to my first proper computer, an Amstrad 6128, from the electric typewriter I’d been using, but unfortunately the only printer I could find/afford used rolls of paper about three inches wide not unlike a receipt from a supermarket till, and printed using not an ink jet or laser jet but tiny little felt - tip pens which laboriously drew out every line and curve of graphics or text. I don't know what happened to it after I moved on to the PC; I think I saw it once, at the bottom of a cupboard, years ago. Now look what you’ve done, I’m coming over all misty eyed and nostalgic about a printer!