dubai_phil

Interesting drive up there. Did you stop in Homs or come in from Lattakia?

Ah hem...

Crappers here all have a mini hose pipe alongside them. A visiting Sarf African employee says. What are those hose for. Washing your arse is the reply Yuk why d you want to do that "Cos we're not Sarf Afrikaan

As the book, so the thread. Inspired by SuperMikey's thread We've all travelled somewhere, sometime and will have one place that sticks in the mind as being OMG. Let's try and keep it sensible, (yeah I know as Saints fans, Plymouth Away/Orient in the Day Wembley 76) but somewhere that still exists physically that one of us could go and visit tomorrow, whether to impress a GF or your Mum, Sort of more a legacy for those who keep asking for where to go advice. Was it somewhere like the cliff-top at Tintagel? A view over Skye from a particular pub after a rain-storm? A perfect New Forest Pub with a perfect summer evening watching a game of cricket with a perfect pint? A sunset over the Indian Ocean? or even somewhere exotic like The London Eye? For me? Petra in Jordan climbing to the top sipping a cold tinny as the sunset while looking over the River Jordan. (I did spoil it last time by singing Swing Low up there but hey, had to be done)

Oh here's one that really didn't work... You start your journey together today and so these coming days, weeks and months as you become the perfect couple can be so rudely interupted by the patter of tiny feet in the Bedroom at inoportune moments.. So to ensure that doesn't happen, I bought you a Mousetrap....... t'was in a book

The perfect speech? "Most internet web sites give advice on how to make the perfect Best Man's speech. They have many ideas but one thing is critical for success. The speech should be short. I thankyou" And then you and sit down. And then you can say, PHEW, now the speech is over let me tell you some proper embarrassing stories about the groom...... after thanking and toasting the yadda yadda yadda Seen variants on it twice, it worked as they go into some sort of stunned silence and THEN you hit them with your joke and they add relief to the laughter.

The thing that comes out of this so utterly clearly is that these people have only TWO interests. Power and Money. They utterly totally and completely disregard Football, and disregard the fans. How they can charge someone like SAF or Wenger for bringing the game into disrepute when making sensible statements and yet let these morons carry on like this in Public? They are a disgrace to Football, they show up Politicians for what they really are AND they pile shame on the Country that allows them to work in "Pomp & Luxury" and pay virtually sod all taxes. Switzerland should kick them out, remove their trading licences - SOMEONE needs to give these people a Reality Slap. Oh & Qatar - how the FECK can they give the World Cup to Qatar who (IN THEIR PRESENTATION) will have Hotel Accomodation for 90,000 FANS. Yes 90,000 fans. FFS England took 36,000 to SA, and yet only 90,000 fans can watch that world cup.

What I think IS exciting about all of this is the fact that I don't believe that NC will "settle" for anything. He will keep setting targets and aiming higher. Why should we "Settle" for being a Stoke or a Fulham or a Bolton? That way leads to aiming for averageness. When you build plans you have to have a goal or a Vision, THEN put it into Bite Sized chunks. We AIM to get out of the NPC, we AIM to get to the CL over time, and then, of course at some point in the journey we WILL be the equal of Stoke & Fulham (Which many of us would happily take today hell would even crack open an OSH with Eric!) But once we have made it to THAT point you HAVE to keep aiming and planning. A great deal of our troubles resulted from..... Lowe not "Pushing On" after the '03 Cup Final (as we have discussed to death). He "settled" for mid table mediocrity. The one word I never want to hear while NC is around is "To settle" In fact in a different context, I don't want to settle for a point away to the League leaders either, I want to be MAD that we didn't WIN, and so should the players & Management - Elite Sport - mind games give that extra 5% you always need

Yawn, well you asked Mikey Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, South Africa (my old Sales Territory) Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Maldives, Japan, Australia, Singapore Jamaica, US, Iceland, Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, Ireland, Andorra, France, Italy, (Yes, Vatican City), (former) Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Malta, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Belgium, Holland. Lots of those for work so paid for (yes I was one lucky SoB)

Oh, now I wonder where, when and how I remember that happening before?

Watched a decent thriller on a Movie Channel last night - The Echelon Conspiracy. Simple, had a few plot holes in it or things anyone who knows about "hacking & spyware etc" would have done differently, but a decent story in decent locations and an enjoyable evening in.

Of course! First time I saw it we were actually taken to the local cinema by our History teacher (one of those year end specials that used to happen back in the day) It was the benchmark I used when I (finally) watched the newer version. That's why I said PH as a movie with the whole "build the characterisations up" was naff, but the flying sequences and moments with the guys grabbing guns in emplacements and shooting were fairly well "inspired" by that original movie" and were really well done. I think that Midway and Sands of Iwo Jima were why I managed to get into The Pacific so quickly. To the GF (younger, Eastern European) who had never seen those films, she didn't really understand the magnitude of the War in The Pacific Geographically, Logistically or simply horro of Jungle wise Although I hated history at school those movies helped build the enjoyment of the quality of that series. I did a tour (the HOLIDAY version) in Vietnam about 3 years ago and again, I found the reality of the places I went was enhanced by the movies I had seen, everything simply became more real. Heck even the much abused Green Beret and John Wayne came flooding back when I landed at (as Big John would say) Darrr Naaaang airport. (Bit like finding the Bridge Over the River Kwai film set in ..... Sri Lanka FFS) Also unrelated we used to recruit IT Staff from The Philippines so ages ago I went to Manilla on business and had an astonishing day out to the river where they shot Apocaplypse Now. Sort of ruined the movie a bit to find it was a tourist spot 45 minutes outside Manilla though. The OLD war movies - The Longest Day, Bridge Too Far and the like come back to mean so much more when you go to the actual sites. Modern war movies and the CGI effects don't seem to have that same impact to make me want to go out and see and learn. TCM doesn't quite match the old Sunday afternnon Beeb War Movies.

Ah, as this often mimics a Stephen King horror novel, welcome Dear Constant Reader. An interesting question for those of you who have a more general interest in Football, fans and their forums. Is there actually any other thread on any other fans forum that has managed to stay on track and bring so much entertainment knowledge and information about one team's rivals? I ask that because as we move inexorably towards the 40,000th post it may just be time that the Football League Show, HMRC's legal team, Matt Slater, heck even Jordan (hope you're having a nice holiday you Twit, sorry Tweet) Sibley or MOST possibly, The Guinness Book of Records must be notified. It is time we stood up and received our awards and the few - no, OTH is right, it's far too early for the pain to stop for them up the road, there has to be so much more to come.

WOW So, a thread about TUI tells us that Alps would consider rubbing NC's willy. I love this forum's complete randomness at times Don't worry Alps - won't need to happen mate. He's Italian, you'd never be able to find it So an ex GF once implied about Men who wear Designer Clothes and have fast cars or boats or something

You're going to Gibraltar for a WEEK? Perhaps you should have asked for advice prior to deciding where to go let alone about the accomodation web site. Little known fact. The Chief Minister's wife & kids used to live next to me in my first house with my ex wife. They preferred an 19th century Terraced House on a main road in Salisbury with no parking & p*ssheads staggering home every night to the CM's offical residence in Gib. Not that I am knocking Gib, just a little known fact

Can we just 1) Earn enough points in the first two or three weeks of the season to NOT have to worry about RELEGATION 2) Be in a position at the end of December where a couple of minor additions to the squad in January take us on another lunatic once in a lifetime run 3) Can we still PLEASE be humble enough to have Alps moaning, to have agreement about poor away games in midweek and to find a new source of Inspirational Nuns in Gas Masks As long as THAT happens and we play good football, score goals and ENJOY ourselves, who gives a fook about the odds.. And you know what? I reckon if we do all that I will totally utterly be happy with 2nd place, sod the bookies

How did this become a debate about Lowe again? He has gone, he has a son who is a Saints fan so in my book if he's paying for his tickets I'm happy for them to come and watch. He had some good ideas and some bad decisions but he is GONE. I like the input from the normally sceptical Hypo, I like the fact that NC has seen some of what we tried to do and now sees that is the way forward. I think he is far closer to following the Arsenal model than what Lowe put in. My views on the SCW role (as someone so eloquently put it) was that he was (and still would be) the best "Director of Technical Support Services" that any sporting entity could wish for. I think we were very unlucky we didn't get the chance for some of the basics of Elite Sports Management to get put into place. Jeez if Luke Donald can challenge for the World #1 in golf thanks to a winter working with a Rugby KICKING coach to improve his mental approach & focus to the game then those same processes will improve footballers. And I am very happy to see we (through NC) are putting THAT infrastructure back into place.

OK I've mentioned we became American Idol fans. They had their season finale last night. 2 hour show OK it's hype & pure brutal marketing of new albums/singles/movies/books American stylee but hell for a TV show what a line up they had. The last 4 finalists got to sing with superstar surprises as well as even bigger surprises coming on and doing new singles and stuff. Then in no particular order Casey Edwards who came 5th doing Queen with Jack Black?? which must become a legendary moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEm9yeeM1Io Respect Jack Black holding his own Rocking in front of about a zillion TV audience. Then hell I forget Gladys Knight, Beyonce, Gaga, Tony Bennett, Bono & Edge, Tom Jones, Marc Anthony with J-Lo doing this mamma dance routine, TLC, Stephen Tyler (awesome Dream On), Carrie Underwood (phwoar), Tim McGraw (C&W) and my favourite rocker of the series getting this moment with Judas Priest.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9USyQWzUcUI&NR=1 But the 17 year old kid that won it Scotty. Jeez he really is gonna be some massive C&W star now and besides actually being a real person (shocked by the fact that he was working in a Grocery store a year ago to that) he has one muvva of a voice. Worth suttling around to listen to some of his covers during the season

Chai. I wouldn't ever try and call it a cup of tea. But for the S.E. Asian expats here there is an entire sub-culture built around it. Every shopping neighbourhood has a Chai Wallah. It seems they have a regular delivery time, but also seem to arrive magically when a customer walks in and is expected to wait - say a hairdresser or an office reception. No money ever seems to pass, the wallahs walk along busy streets with polystyrene cups with little silver foil lids on top & the Lipton Tea Bag string hanging out. Those lids probably get re-used a zillion times. It is tea made with Rainbow, a local version of Ideal Milk or Carnation. It is swamped with sugar. It sure isn't tea, but as a hot refreshing drink when it's 47C outside it works. Oh, another anecdote. Iraqi's LOVE extremely strong Black Tea. Probably a hangover from the end of WW1, but they love their tea served Black and sweet. I once tried some, best description would be - place 6 tea bags of a strong Yorkshire (or Irish) tea in a cup. Leave to stew for 6 hours. Skim the gunk off the top. Re-heat, add sugar, drink. Barf I met with a Trade Delegation post Gulf War II and took along some Harrod's finest (and most expensive) tea.... They used half the tin in one go - ouch

http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/fb_news.php?storyid=12646 He's not all doom gloom and agenda driven. That's a fair article praising our stability. Heck, almost Happy Clappy

But of course the Parachute payments will continue to go towards the "secured loans" that Chinny made to the Old Co. So the Newco only exists to repay Chinny unless he finds some mugs. Pretty much what we expected. Welcome back BTW we missed you of late :-)

Yeah but Beans with a liberal splash of Worcestershire Sauce and a couple of drops of Tabasco (before cooking) are WAY better

Jeez careful, half the forum will collapse in shock - Phil in making sense shocker! no prob. He was great fun and completely honest and open about it all.

Try and get Isotonic drinks down you. Your Isostar stuff is way too e-additive but maybe you can find Gatorade or Powerade. One day the marketing gurus of the world will allow you lot to buy this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat That is the perfect solution for squits. Something we get to learn to live with over here because of the weird mix of food types and heat. Visitors from home still gag at the thought of the first sip of sweat, but once tried - hooked. I have to bring loads of packets back every time I get home for the UK's addicts!

There is only one use for Marmite. Spread VERY thinly in the centre ONLY on a piece of warm buttered toast with a perfectly soft poached egg on top. That is ONLY acceptable when you cannot get (or be arsed to make) a proper Eggs Benedict. Otherwise it is bleah