tpbury

In my experience of visiting Oz, it seems quite normal to drink beer at any time of the day, though probably quite weak stuff with no intention of getting drunk. Is this true? I'm the opposite - strictly in the evening and I don't want to be too sober at the end. In any case, I'll probably stick with H2O - so long as it's free.

Seeing any half decent player we have being linked to another club - and it being mentioned in a national paper.

I've never heard of this - is it of a post-war vintage?

Hey it's the 30th and Pizza all the way!

Well I treat them a bit like junk mail, just a few words extra from the OP could make me more willing to follow the link. There's people who do this (some daily mail references going on on another thread), and I've followed the link. With YouTube clips, I don't mind coz I like watching funnies.

Exactly - I re-read this after my previous post. I saw you got gcses so therefore assume you're ca. 16. This led me to ponder about how generations differ. I grew up in the 70s/80s where the post war sterotypes of unemotional, "stiff upper lipped" Brits were still very engrained, and I believe this was almost a hangover from Victorian "down t'pit" attitudes. Children were viewed as medium term employment resources who should be seen and not heard and thus, not loved. Reason being, their parents were brought up the same way. I don't think we have make a choice between an austere relationship with our children and seemingly lawless Chav culture of today. I don't think you have to hit your kids to make them behave; you just have to not be a to5 ser yourself!

The only boundaries I was ever taught was in Geography.... I am a bit dispirited by the urge of some people to want the right to whack their children. God knows I've done it, but in a fit of temper which I haven't been able to control - which just goes to show what a stupid way this is to teach your child. I can see more benefits with the group who hit their children in a non emotional way, but I think you have to be incredibly controlled and possibly cold to do this. This ties in with the "don't be a friend" argument - at what point does bringing up your children differ from dog rearing? As my kids get older I get a lot of pleasure from interacting with them as people, as such, the thought of hitting them in order to get them to do what I want seems just the same as hitting someone in the street for the same reason - ie just violent.

I almost never follow a link to a newspaper article or blog if the person who posts it just says "interesting article on XYZ" or "be careful out there in cyberland" or whatever. It's too much effort. Can you not tell us why the article aroused you sufficiently to bother posting the link? Add some of your insight FFS!

Quite funny. JohnCooper Claaaarke: Isn't it amazing how we sometimes mix up the beginnings of words: "Pass the butter" become "Barse the putter", "Fish and chips" becomes "Chish and Fips". At the breakfast table the other day, I meant to say "cup of tea?" to my wife. What accidentally came out was: "You've ruined my life you fkin *****, I HATE YOU!!!" Needless to say, we all laughed about it!

I still rate the ONLY picture so far posted. Get her to PM me. Apart from that, there's no other rule onnage at all! Very poor.

Make sure you beat your children from the earliest age possible.

Think I'm gonna give up booze when we get there - too expensive for the amount I normally get through. What's Tooheys?

Hi, Not sure where I stand on the Ashes. I'm not a massive cricket fan but was pretty pleased to win it (as I was in 2005 with a radio in my ear all summer). How's the defeat being taken in Oz? Do they spit at you? Are they really gutted? Then I ask myself: why on earth am I emigrating there if I want to be happy about my adopted country getting defeated? Should my son or daughter turn into top class sports stars - would I want them to compete for Australia or England / UK? On balance, I'm not going to Oz in order to bore people about how great England is, so I predict my lad will play centre back for Australia in the world cup of 2022! (whilst captaining Saints to the premier league title, but travelling home to Oz in the off season).

Dell computers are actually designed to knacker 367 days from purchase. FACT!

Chandler's Ford?

Unwise to use that term if you're trying to make a rational point I would suggest. It sounds outrageous and probably is.

Rule 1

I think you're going about it in the right way, in as much as you need to keep a record of every interaction with the company. It used to be the case that bad customer service was a result of "bad" individuals in an organisation, but I believe that nowadays customer service is systemically good or bad within an organisation - that's as a result of individuals' awareness of what customer service means (after all they experience good customer service in their 'civilian' life) and companies taking steps to improve it. From how you describe it, it seems there's are culture of crap at Currys, and this doesn't suprise me one bit from my recollection of unmotivated, ignorant and unhelpful teenagers that used to work there (and places like there) when I used to go to shops.

St Landrew is being rather arch in his esoteric musical tastes. However, I recognise the song he is referring to I think and it is from "My life in the Bush of Ghosts" by Brian Eno (Roxy Music, ambient music, produced U2, wrote the log on theme for Windows) and David Byrne, who was Talking Heads' lead singer. I wouldn't bother replying if this wasn't one of my favourite ever albums - it was from about 1983 and was years ahead of its time. I think the Chemical Brothers borrowed from it extensively, it has that kind of sound as well as using sampling effectively (can't have been many records around at the time doing that!). Just off to stroke my chin....

Hi folks. We're emigrating to Brisbane end of Sept - thought I'd let you know. Think there was at least one of you from that part of Oz. Any others? Think I might catch the Stockport game before I go (I live north of Manchester), but in reality I think living 15000 miles away is probabaly the best way to be with the team as it is! Keep an eye out for me as I will be wearing my rather classy Saints polo shirt with discreet badge whenever possible! Cheers Toby

Jack the Ripper Karen Matthews Murderous children Welcome to West Yorkshire - and you're very welcome to it.

The trampoline breaker wasn't fat at all! Justice for trampoline breakers!

Jeepers, I understand now - as I'm about to hit 40 I hope you'll accept my youthful ignorance. Having digested the full extent of the word play, I'm afraid to say the name is still pretty lame: "Stairs", "Rods", "Rodstairs", "Sitar Roid" are probably better. It's the raining reference which draws one's mind to The Weather Girls and cocomittant lameness which lets the band name down. Nevertheless, I appreciate the unextinguished drive within you which makes you think of names for bands, no doubt fronted by yourself, that will never exist. As such, I salute you. My own personal imaginary band is Teapot 2000 - a band that never existed in 1990.

Is this where we dig out the Fatima Whitbread jokes: "Doctor I think I've a man as I have got hair on my chest" "Don't worry it's quite common in some women" "Well, it's just that it goes all the way down to me balls"

To be honest, it's a bit of a lame name. Is it a play on a real band's name or is it just lame?