dubai_phil

Taxi for D_P Pub here we come! WOOT Oh and Pan seared steaks on a red WIne reduction for dinner 21C in town today getting down to a chilly 17 overnight

Right, sorted out which bar, we're going exploring to Goodfellas 2. (The old one down town WAS our home pub but we always lost when we went) so heading the other way! Meanwhile sweepstake on how long before the forum crashes this evening? 62 minutes.

Wow, now that is a huge shock. How do you know it was Ruperts?

Mixed emotions. This season the only time we get a televised game is for the Cup. (Nobody bothered to buy the rights for L1 & L2 down here) and with our local internet I am fed up watching a collection of juddery still pictures in a 2 inch window on my computer Don't have the system it is shown on so have to go to the pub. Pubs here are a PL fanzone so will be full of Mancs wearing fake shirts too small for them and looking strangely like our old buddy Al Fahim up the road. I know we'll in all likelihood get tonked and that it doesn't REALLY matter, I want to wear my Shirt with pride this afternoon, and yet know that the local plastics will give it large and I'll come home all wound up. So do I wish this was a League Game? No because at least I can watch us on telly. Do I hope that we get through the game without injuries or cards? Yes. As equally as the wrist slitters bemoan the damage this game could do, equally RL could get a hat-trick and go on a scoring run of supreme confidence. Today is a big game, so is Tuesday. It makes a change to have TWO big games in one week. Has been many years since that happened. I'm going to the pub with my held held high and will enjoy this, sod the moaners & the plastics

The problem is, as we see in MLG's post regarding the sun interview with NA, what the Papers print may actually NOT be what was said. Is there actually a direct quote where Wenger actually says We will buy AoC? There seem to be a lot of quotes saying he is the sort of player he/they like, in much the same way our HCDAJFU threads examine the merits of different players. Most of the "Tapping Up" accusations in the past have come from a direct contact with a player, seen such as having dinner with XYZ, think it would be very hard to go to court or the FL with a Newspaper article as evidence with words cut & pasted to change the context. eg re hashing the words I typed and leaving out a question mark you get Wenger actually says We will buy AoC - a direct quote - there actually - Is He has said those words, in my example but he didn't mean that and is that tapping up?

Hmm dominoes falling. First Tunisia, then Lebanon gets problems and now Egypt. Facebook & Twitter lead the revolt against (corrupt) Authoritarian regimes out of touch with their people. Yet the primary driver has been the increases in basic commodity prices, Flour & Bread in particular, but food in general Control has been lost quickly and unexpectedly. The dominoes keep falling, many of these countries export huge amounts of the fruit vegetables and flowers that the EU devour. Will the Middle Classes in EU revolt when they find the price of their flowers trebling on Valentines Day? Should valuable fertile land be producing life style/luxury products for the Western Middle Class or should it provide the basic commodity food stuffs for the population at prices they can afford? Should the world REALLY turn the wheat belts over to Bio-Fuels and let the west drive their cars while some poor african can't afford to buy wheat? Or should you drive cars and have a conscience and give them charity (often with strings). Why should Consumerism be saved by natural disasters in Asia? That's a nasty opinion isn't it? Why not time for more floods heatwaves and droughts in Europe? Use bio fuels, save the planet from Carbon emissions and starve some poor Africans by having to import more wheat and driving the prices up at the same time. Cool solution.......

Nobody can be THAT old and still have tried to play football in public 18 months ago. Oh and Deppo, you have obviously never tried to do business with Arabs, they try it with every deal, so yes, in this part of the world, everyone DOES want to f**k you. And Benji - about 4 years ago I took my work team (including HR VP & female staff to Bangkok) I was sitting with the girls in a Bar Beer in Nana Plaza, (they had just voted that the whole team could go to a GoGo bar to see naked women as long as the whole team voted to go to a Gay Bar to see naked men. (Now that provoked a funny reaction from the guys) They were sitting and talking to about 4 Katoeys. They spent the evening talking about where they came from, the processes involved, how the origins of the girls are split. Just over half of them choose that lifestyle because of their genetics, but a similar number from poorer backgrounds take that choice as a way of climbing out of the abject poverty of the countryside, many of that latter group ARE gay (but not all) but they are not genetically driven, they can just earn more in a life as a "Male Prostitutue" by having silicon breasts than they could in any other field. The latter group tend to not have the whole surgical process, but may often have their Adam's Apple removed in order to improve their money earning capacity. They are limited to a life being exploited in the bars & clubs, so anything that gives the genuine transgenders the chance to have a proper career is to be welcomed. The manager of Angelwitch (which has won best GoGo Bar is married to a (post op) ex Ladyboy), it's also an interesting evening talking to them. She is a superb choreographer but could never find any "real work". My apologies again if the flippant arrgh in the title gave the wrong impression, there are many many people (mainly those who never bothered to try and understand) that I talk to who find the whole concept of (for example) attending the touring show "Ladyboys of Bangkok" revolting. "An abomination", in their eyes. There are many others who see them as the butt of jokes. There is a lot more to their story.

Why thankyou Sky Sports for your input. I asked a rhetorical question. I also said that it was good news that they are getting an opportunity. Clearly you have never thought to seek to understand what drives many of them to take that life choice Congratulations on re-inforcing my beliefs about myopic PC madness in the UK. So, would so perfectly PC British Airways agree to employ a Transgender? Would they agree to give them a special name tag in recognition of their sex? No, because the Uk hides behind inane responses like yours and so you get the closet BA Steward syndrome. Thanks for proving my point

Re-vist the Solent interview with NC from about last April. The question re how ML was funding the club was asked. The answer was vague, but it came out as "in the form of grants" or words to that effect. Don't think there are any loan notes on the club at the moment (IMHO) think it really was a hobby

4 cbf 3

We're wearing ours down the pub to watch. Big choice - The Skate Pub (Red Lion at Metropolitan) Chelsea Pub (Fibber McGees) or the Manc Pub (The Country CLub) One thing for sure NOT going to Goodfellas - we have NEVER won when I have watched down there

Interesting sweepstake opportunity here How many pages will the "We should have made more effort to sign Austin" thread will run to? Followed by - Let's guess the names of the posters who will post on the "Failure to sign Austin shows lack of ambition thread" And the final one. How many days before the OP eats humble pie/tells us the full story? There, that should cover the missing 79 posts we need

Why on earth shouldn't you. After all, half the wrist slitters on here do it every week

Good luck to him, he always seemed to play to the best (but, limited) levels of his ability. I'm glad that he had a magical career day with us all up at Wembley and I am sure his honesty & commitment will continue to stand him in good stead for the future.

Ok so it's bad enough in Patpong, but Ladyboays as Air Hostesses? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8288327/Newly-formed-Thai-airline-recruits-Ladyboys-as-air-hostesses.html Mind you, thinking it through, may be an improvement on the stereotypical image of the gay BA Steward. So what DOES happen at immigration when they have to fill in one of those Landing Cards? Good that they are being given an opportunity to work in an otherwise difficult society for them, but would YOU want them laying out your dining tray on your lap?

I preferred Thorpie's version. That chick was far sexier than 3 blokes and a car Unless you're a Top Gear nut I suppose

This But also adding humour back into the situation, I received this one by email today I have of course informed the sender that I am deeply offended and taken action to have him fired as it came from a work email address.

To be fair to DPS everything he has posted in the OP has been made in differing public statements at some point in the past 20 months or so. But boy ain't some people gonna be in for a shock one way or the other IF we ever find out who to really believe NL/LB or NC. IN NC's defence as to whether we should believe or not, he's a Banker, not a Politician Oh

Won something similar 20 years ago and the system hasn't changed much. The critical issue is "The Presentation". It will be the most compelling and logical sales argument you have ever endured. You HAVE to sign at the end or you are a complete idiot. I used to send my sales employees to the Marriott event just to learn how to make a pitch, it is excellently done. So, the TRICK is to go to these and find ONE way that you can use when it comes to the Sign Here moment that the rep simply cannot argue around. You want the free trip but don't under ANY circumstances want to sign up for 100 years in a cakc-hole you never want to go back to. That part is not easy, the only one I found that worked was to use a dummy bank account that had no cash in it and no credit/overdraft limit/say you're waiting for your Flat/House sale to come through/Bonus cheque to come from work (we call that The Al-Fahim") and tell them "Oh I expect some money to come in in the next 2 or 3 weeks, go on the holiday and say, oh it hasn't come yet. It isn't easy as different companies use different types of closures and contracts and you really need to keep your brain in gear as you could sign something that "not having money" means you are legally screwed, but the free holiday is great and lots of mates have used different versions of the same get out ending. But at the end of the day DON'T SIGN ANYTHING

This A life without humour may as well build the Gulags now. But as he says, in that line Humour is the key

Hmmmmm. Matty mate, love you to death as a hero and having met you you're a great bloke but FFS that old adage has been around for a long long time and you're old enough to have heard it before Ensure brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear.

Oh krap, my two business meetings have both been canned so no way I can justify coming back. Am gutted was looking forward to a big day out and lots of real ale. Will have to sit in a pub over here surrounded by Plastic Mancs paying 6 quid a pint. Sod it

Idiots the lot of us... Wrong weekend for this to have been won by our winner.... It means that come Saturday while we are getting our butts kicked (but giving it 120%) we'll have to put up with the forum's version of Private Frazer popping onto the matchday thread to tell us "We're all doomed Capn Mainwaring". Sod it I'll just go down the pub and watch the game laptop free

That's nothing new, he says that after every PL match with a contentious decision

Have we signed Austin yet?