Patrick Bateman

Spot on I'd say! Far too many women trying to be blokes, far far too many. Have to agree with other posts as well, most Southern women are a pain in the backside with most being far too stuck-up and pretentious. I married someone from the midlands, not with a stupid accent though, that was important - but her and her friends are all more "normal", a good laugh, normal jobs, dress well and aren't stuck up or trying to be blokes. But when I was last single, I totally agree with you, it was very difficult to find those decent, balanced women.

Find a simple brain energiser on the internet - just to get everyone's creative juices flowing at the start of the day over a cup of tea. If you know each other, it's one of the best ways to get everyone engaged.

Seriously, what the hell is this?? Talk about self-righteous bull! "The ultimate membership for our biggest fans is by invitation only. A ticket for every game, everywhere, and Ticket Exchange is also included. By invitation only"

Pah! Well I considered it (Seattle, not Oregon), but having spoken to a lot of Americans (who had made the opposite move) and some over there, the decision is to stay here. It ties in to what I said above to be honest - this IS a good country! It's busy in places, but it's still good. Also, if you lived in Seattle, where can you get to after 2 hours flying? Southern Canada and that's about it. You can't even reach Chicago, Vegas, New York etc. Where can you get to within 2 hours flying from London? A shed load of places, cultures, sights and sounds!

But it isn't - this is a really great country! Those of you that live here, speak to foreign people you work with and ask them a) why they are here, b) what do they think compared to their country and c) would they go back. Working for a large company with worldwide offices, many people choose to work in London/the UK. Of the French, Germans, Americans and Hungarians I work closely with, most slag off their own country and only see the good about the UK. Of course there are a couple who are here for the short term, but most love it here and want to stay, most think everything is "far better" here. In fact I spent a short time today talking to one of my Hungarian mates who was slagging off (yet again) one of their Government offices. He tried to sort out his Hungarian driving license on their website and it failed, so he called up. The response was basically "and, what do you want us to do about it?". I think we're too happy to slag our country off really, it isn't that bad!! Stop watching BBC news, stop reading the tabloids and life will be a lot more tolerable and relaxed!!

No, I don't think he should. Of course, all credit to him for over-coming his disability and being a class paralympete (is that a correct word?), but, it makes it a non-level playing field if he competes. Ben Johnson had a disadvantage, he was slower, he took something to help him and won ...

Exactly! It does go on - it can't possibly be that bad otherwise.

You dullard. How old are you, 97?

Outstanding article, very hard to read, but what they went through was horrific. Seem like a really nice couple and the LJS Foundation is a fantastic idea as well to raise awareness. On a more light-hearted note, I really like that T-Shirt and I ordered one as I liked it and it is a great cause. I was wearing it when I left Seattle in May to come back home, but I got stopped at the airport security by a border control person and a copper and I had to explain what the t-shirt meant!?!? WTH? I think they must have thought it was something dodgy, but a weird experience. So don't wear your t-shirt in a US airport!

Exactly - the old days, especially Network54 days and even the new forum model when Keith was still around were so much better. It's why the UI forum is much better than here now.

Ah, he must be the nunchuck one? Uncanny!

Echo the comments on the MacBook Air. Having used various windoze based laptops for years from Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Sony and HP - they were all more brittle and bits broke off. (I can see Essruu chuckling now) I got a MacBook Air 13" and haven't looked back. I don't miss a CD/DVD drive and I certainly don't miss how slow Windows is and how clunky other laptops are. I wouldn't bother with a MacBook Pro - you only need that extra power if you're doing graphic design or software development. It's a lovely machine, but the extra weight is not worth the hassle. Most of us at work now use the 13" MacBook Air too, with a few of the graphics guys on the Pro, but even the developers use an Air too - they are more than powerful enough. I also have a Windows Virtual Machine on mine for apps that are Windows only - even that is quicker!! Whenever I occasionally go back to my old Sony laptop to get something - a photo or whatever, I groan at how clunky and annoying it is and another piece falls off. You pay for what you get! I would not own another Acer or Sony for certain and now I'm even bordering on "I will never own another Windows-based machine".

Never listen to the radio anymore - it's normally full of trash music and trashy, northern presenters that get on my tits. I'm glad Moyles is finally leaving as his show was very irritating and so was he and his ego. I used to like his afternoon show, but then I was younger - I can't stand the breakfast show, it's irritating childish crap with bad music. Radio 2 is often boring, commercial radio does my head in with adverts, bad music and annoying "local" presenters. Whatever happened to the days of Steve Wright, DLT and so on. Actually, of the current lot, Vernon Kay is the best of a bad bunch.

Amen.

Player opinions are pointless, subjective conjecture on the internet. You all think you're right, that's the problem. It's boring! How about being happy when he's signed (if he signs and we'll know when it's on the official website) and seeing how he does.

HOW DO YOU KNOW? Seriously, have you watched both Zaha and De Ridder week in week out, every week? How many times have you see both play? Are you a scout and able to make a detailed assessment of a player's ability? FFS. This forum drives me insane.

Really?? Frozen at Man City (okay, they are pretty good, they may have done well last season ), but was pretty poor at West Ham and Sunderland. Yes, I think with match practise he could still offer something, but we don't have that luxury, we'll be hard pushed to get to say, 14th in the Prem, without the hinderance of someone getting match fitness. No thanks. Winchester boy, Saints fan and all that, but not in the team now in my opinion.

Nice, that'll do. We aren't overly original so may as well steal that too!

Who cares if it's a success or a drain, it's all bullsh*t and conjecture. Why can't people just bloody well enjoy something without over-analysing every minute detail - I do wonder about most of you lot on here, far too much time on your hands. Maybe the economy would be in a better shape if everyone worked harder and got off the internet offering their opinions.

Totally agree that it's not right to eat bags and bags of crisps. Sure, many of them taste lovely and some of them lower in fats than others, but they are SO unhealthy - all the saturated fats, salt and carbs. A horrible snack for your health. More and more people do seem overweight, especially kids. When I was at school, in our whole year of 200 or so, we had one "fat kid", now how many do you see? I don't know what's to blame, junk food, TV, laziness, a combination of everything? I do many people filling their trollies with complete crap in supermarkets - their choice I guess, but it doesn't help.

I'd like to nominate B&Q. Not 'customer service' as such, but their website, a truly dreadful eCommerce experience. What kind of eCommerce store lets you do all your shopping (I wanted a load of garden stuff including fences, soil, cement etc etc) and then when you get to the checkout all you can do is reserve it at a store. The reason I was bloody shopping online is to get it all delivered as I don't have a van!! So I went to the Wickes website, ordered the same items and got it all delivered 2 days later - now that is service. So B&Q - most pointless eCommerce site award from me!

This is excellent marketing. Everyone hates the advert, yet everyone talks about it so it's not forgotten. However, I suspect their sales aren't as good as the Meerkats marketing campaign which appeals more to Joe Average. They did some direct research recently to ask everyone which was their favourite Go Compare advert - the "old fashioned" one with the plinky-plonky piano music one, unsurprisingly, so now they've acted on this to get rid of the "annoying fat bloke" - you've noticed this, you've posted it on here, therefore their new campaign has already gone viral - masterpiece.

95% of tennis fans at Wimbledon are mental. Well, Hopefully I'll fall in to the 95%, would hate to disappoint! I have tickets for No. 1 court tomorrow, looking forward to it - first time I've entered the draw for tickets and got two good ones. Not sure what to expect, but I'm sure there will be plenty of places to drink and people watch. People watching will no doubt be quite amusing.

ntl: were not "taken over". ntl: bought Telewest and Virgin Mobile. With that, that bought the right to rebrand as Virgin Media. Their customer service really isn't that bad, there are FAR worse companies out there - what's your problem? I still know plenty of people that work there if you need help?