St Landrew

Jiggling the wires is the technical term.

Used FlyBe myself a few times. I've found them fine, and when travelling on their old HS146's, very comfortable too, with good seat width and plenty of knee room. But this is a football forum, therefore everything is either brilliant or crap, with no inbetween. Ryanair were OK too. Never flown with Easyjet.

If Owen could regain the pace that made him quite the predatory striker of his earlier years, then he would certainly be worth the gamble. And, with the players ManU have, fitting in should be easier. It's all up to him. He won't be wanting for top quality service. I'm thinking Fergie likes the idea of a challenge, and a chance to bring out the hairdryer treatment for one of the Premierships divas.

I must admit there are times when I just wish Top Gear would return to being the motoring programme that it was when it was first broadcast many, many years ago. They don't even particularly open the bonnet anymore, and as for mpg figures and running costs, well forget it. However, that particular cat is out of the bag, and it won't go back in. A truly informative motoring programme is now almost impossible to do. Even Fifth Gear is really just a little bit too silly, despite the fact that they try to be informative. Top Gear has become the BBC's longest running joke, but the trouble is the producers manage to keep coming up with new ways to re-tell it and the presenters are obviously friends too, and have an great push-pull onscreen relationship. It's no surprise that the popularity hasn't really waned, since the first programmes of the different style came in, and the comic content gets bigger and bigger. It's kind of like Have I Got News For You/Mock The Week/Never Mind The Buzz****s... for the jokey motor enthusiatic public. There really should be [some..? More..?] motorbikes on it though, especially as May and Hammond own machines too; and JC should have to test one - and fall off. Now that would be a funny joke.

...but the Top Gear Reliant rocket was real fun, and it actually worked rather well.

Good find B18

Last Saturday, Rossi notched up his 100th GP win at the oldest Motorcycle Grand Prix circuit - Assen, in Holland. This week the crews go to California and the dry lagoon. Last year, Lorenzo flew - courtesy of a high side. This year I hope nobody repeats it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WqvSTiRvdw This is what we want [same race but a lap or two later].

Keep going Stu. I can see only one way that this will end.

The club, the fans, the staff, everybody but the people who make the decisions, have been bruised and battered and buggered for so long, I believe I might be at the point of beyond caring any more.

Have to admit, ol' Andy fights like a British Tennis male player hardly ever did, certainly in my flawed living memory. Usually, it's a case of the Brit failing pathetically, but with Tim [oh our Tim] it was a case of just failing, after such an effort - phew..! It was always ever so english tea and victoria sandwich with our Tim. Such is British Tennis, on the whole, although tbf, Canadian Greg Rusedski bucked the trend, in his own way. And for a while he was Britain's No.1, and obtained a higher rank than our Tim ever did. Honest, it's true..! But with Murray, I sense a bit of a working class street fighter. A bloke who says to himself, I'll be f****d if I'm going to let this tw*t win. And much more often than not, he doesn't - let him win, I mean. And that's when he's actually stretched. When he isn't, he plays like a bloke who doesn't like playing, i.e. he wraps the game up in the shortest possible time. It's about time Murray finally showed the Brits that they can play tennis like everyone else on the planet. Because we're running out of people who like sponge cake with their tea.

Today is certainly the day, only much later than this post. Time to put the money where the mouth has been [up until now], I believe is the saying. Come now, Pinnacle. Let's see your colours. The Swiss, with their Victorinoxes are just over the hill. Let's hope you aren't, eh..? EDIT: [commenting on the above post] And being as this should be a new era, I'm wiping the slate clean on Saints fan cynicism.

Well of course, I had to: Don't worry, it's just a bit of fun.

We did this before, a few years back. It's a right sod to come up with the albums of choice, and in as little time as the next day one can change one's mind. Let's have a go off the cuff. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds XTC - Skylarking The Dukes Of Stratosphear - Chips From The Chocolate Fireball The Moody Blues - To Our Children's Children's Children Pink Floyd - Ummagumma Talking Heads - Fear Of Music Laurie Anderson - Mr Heartbreak Pat Metheny - Secret Story Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries Beach Boys - Surf's Up But it could 10 compeletely different others as well. Unlike Hamilton, I left out Mozart, but I could include Mahler. For pete's sake, I've left out Yes, Led Zep, Jimi, Peter Gabriel, Jethro Tull, Simple Minds and loads of others. I'll grudgingly say that my top 3 would always be in any selection of mine. But I'd almost certainly add Surf's Up. There, I have. I never need any Beatles tracks as I know all the ones I love atom by atom in my head. I could say the same of Beach Boy tracks, but I like them just that much more. Besides, it's impossible to rekindle those BB harmonies in one's memory perfectly. I can sing practically all XTC tracks accurately, bar a few off GO2, to myself as well. But Skylarking is just so great, it would be sacrilege to leave it out. Selecting is tough. No easier than it was last time.

Sorry to have been so late in replying to this comment, I did mean to write something at the time, but today someone commented to me about the temperatures in NZ at this time of the year, and I got an amazing deja vu feeling of how the air feels in me old adopted home. I never quite got to grips with it. How the sun can be beaming down at you, and yet you are utterly, biting cold. And the feeling in the summer could be rather odd too, at times. I believe it was mostly due to the lack of humidity compared to the old homeland. No other large landmasses nearby doesn't help either. BTW, please remember that I lived in Gore in the South Island for most of the time I was there, so the weather was a little different to you, Seatbelt - sorry, Saint-in-Mourning.

How about driving slightly less aggressively..?

Indeed. Whoever heard a white suit being classy..? It may look good, but it certainly doesn't exude class.

Wait a few years while everyone surrenders their undated 20ps to the Mint for £50. Then yours will be worth a lot more.

Interesting point. I've owned two SAAB 900s they were Pirelli P600 shod IIRC. One time on the Turbo I changed to Michelins after getting some advice. I couldn't wait for them to wear out, as the car was simply awful with them. Back to Pirellis and the Turbo was its old scintillating self again. Sometimes one shouldn't play about with original fitment. My Tipo has some odd combination of cheap and cheerful tyres that refuse to wear out and do just fine. The VFR has Dunlop 207ZRs, and bloody expensive they are too. The chicken strips are finally disappearing.

I stand corrected TBF. The original Southern TV studios were indeed the former Plaza cinema. I suppose I had in mind the original Meridian Studios, but tacked on the Southern TV/TVS bit for historical reference to Saints fans from every era. :axe:

The auction hasn't finished yet. Must get the PC's time synced so I get can get just right. Course, I might be out bidded anyway. I'm not going to pay too much for a used item. And there's another one available anyway later on. Wowee, what a Saturday night I'm in for..!\\:D/ :smt015

Saints fans, who have moved far away from the city of their birth, may be interested to know that only a tiny solitary storey block of the original Southern TV/TVS/Meridian Studios is left standing. And apart from the gatehouse, everything else is rubble or gone. Sorry to have gone off-topic, but the title is Sky Sports News, so I'm not a million miles away.

A word of advice. Don't assume I don't know that..! It's the 1 seconders that get me going.

He never was. Perhaps you're thinking of Bruce Parker..?

Sorry guys, just a Scottoiler for my VFR.

I'll believe when I see it too. But unlike several others, I won't be second guessing, or putting in my 6 pence worth, based on hearsay and what the Echo or SSN said, and reading incorrectly between the lines. I'll wait. Because realistically that's all I can do. Just as I'm also biting my fingernails over a bid on ebay at this moment.