Chindie

Pubs are going bust, imo, because they've been squeezed by cheap home boozing and thus the pub has increasingly become more of 'an event' type deal - somewhere you go out to specifically for a good time, rather that habitual thing they used to be. Thus the pubs that don't have either a) a considerable regular local crowd, or a selling point etc, go down the swanny because the average person can get twice as sloshed at home for less than half the cost, and if someone does want to take on the cost of going out they go to a more upmarket place as part of a larger night out or they go to the pub specifically do infrequently that the trade dies off. The ban may have stopped a few people going to the pub, but I'd bet my last penny on cheap booze from supermarkets and the like being far greater to their demise.

While smoking added a little to the atmosphere, it also made everyone and everything stink, theres the health issue and frankly it was just a bit unpleasant. I'm all for the ban. I also don't think it'd do anything to save pubs whatsoever.

No "Muppet Christmas Carol"?! :shock: BEST XMAS MOVIE EVER. I concur. Scrooged is bloody good too though.

I read a preview of this a few months back and while the preview was gushing about it, everything I read just didn't inspire me much.

Aye I thought it was quite well documented too. Some of his actions this season haven't been the kind of thing a bloke who is happy does. Whether it's just unhappy at Citeh, unhappy in England or unhappy with football isn't that clear though. He spoke fairly recently (this year at least I think) about retiring from international football and theres some suggestion he's considering quitting the game full stop rumbling round now. He's clearly not happy at Citeh as this, and other displays have shown - earlier in the season there was that odd celebration where he ran into the dugout straight past Mancini and co to one of the subs and celebrated with him whilst also seemingly making a point about something or other. And theres long been quotes from him not liking his family being away from him. It's a weird one. I suppose the obvious answer is for him to go back to Argentina and hope one of their super clubs picks him up. But to do that he needs Citeh to let him and, lets face it, in his time there he's been their best player not only for ability, but for delivering on his ability and doing it consistantly. He had some absurd record a few games back, knocking on for a goal a game.

He's apparently seriously considering retirement according to a few places.

Iron and Wine (and I think Calexico) - Wild Horses Not the most ground breaking cover but hey, it's a great song and a great artist playing it.

Elbow - I've Got Your Number

The Welsh League team the New Saints, formerly known as Total Network Solutions, are from the town of Llansanffraid-ym-Mechain in Wales, but play their home games just outside Oswestry in England.

He's Mexico's number one these days I think. He's pretty damn good from the little I've seen.

Fulham supposed to be signing Ochoa. Thats a weird one.

My boss having a habit of messing round with the rota and not telling anyone.

:|

Not a clue how to call this one but a loss would not be pretty.

Midland Buses. I hate buses at the best of time but Midland ones are awful. They're blatently old stock from other companies given a lick of paint, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but what is bad is the seats. I'm about 6 foor 2, and I can only sit comfortably on about 5 seats in the things. Theres no leg room at all, it's either wedge myself in irreversibly or sit in the seats side on. People who come into shops for a chat. This annoys me both as a customer and an employee. At work, we regularly get people come in who have no intention of buying anything, they just come in and wait for someone to ask if they need any help then just get into an aimless conversation. One bloke, who everyone avoids in the store now, does it every Friday. It's put you in an annoying position if you work there because you can't just curtail the conversation because that gives a poor impression. As a shopper, it's annoying because if I'm out to buy something, I want to be in and out and doing something better sharpish. So inevitably I get stuck behind some bint who wants to have a chat at the till rather than just buy something she has chosen from being informed beforehand on what she wants/needs. Took me 10 minutes the other day to buy a film, and there was only this woman in front of me, didn't have a clue what she was buying.

I think it is the goal of some of those involved in the EU. Unfortunately for them theres also a lot of people that also want to the EU in a different direction that isn't with a federal end game. There are a number of factions as I said that want to take the EU in different directions and it's by no means the racing certainty that it's being made out that a federal Europe is the ultimate endgame. To suggest otherwise is misleading imo.

Gerard Houllier's Aston Villa careers seemingly imminent future

I wonder whether that isn't chairing the European Council (which is not the Council of Europe). Aye I know the difference, Three months of this look on my face is testiment to that I've got the wrinkles to prove it. I'm still fairly sure the EU President chairs the Council of Europe, acting both as a rep for the EU as a whole and a kind of chairman (the Speaker role if you will). I could be talking out of my arse but I'm pretty sure I'm not.

Poor choice of words, tiredness is catching upto me. It might be better to say that they work very, very closely together and the EU more or less 'hosts' the Council of Europe. Also the EU now has a policy of working much closer with those outside of it's membership meaning the 27 members doesn't quite tell the whole story of what the EU is. Can't remember what the exact term they've given it is, but the countries on the edge of the Union (both metaphorically and geographically literally) are being involved increasingly in it's decisions, either directly consulted or simply heavily considered. Theres even talk of a kind of 'second class membership' where those on the outskirts can be brought to the table but not signed up for the full kit and caboodle. Which even more brings the integration with the Council of Europe into focus. A Council of Europe held by the EU would have a room of delegates who all are rather au fait with the EU and would most likely be doing their own policy dealings with the organisation themselves without even being part of it officially. As I said it doesn't change your point at all, but it raises another - this organisation is so absurdly complex that it a)isn't good for it or us, and it makes it incredibly hard to really make an informed decision on. I only managed to reconcile myself with it when I came to the conclusion that much of it's ideal is a good thing, more or less skipping over the bad points or accepting they need change. Of course the complexity is basically an offshoot of it's genesis - made up as it went along. After all this an entity that started out as being interested only in coal and steel .

Nope. Never did, certainly don't now. Out, quickly.

A small correction Snowy, IIRC the Council of Europe has been subsumed by the EU and now is another element of the organisation (but a comparatively small one). IIRC one of the main duties of the 'EU President' was to chair the Council of Europe. Doesn't change your point at all but does somewhat return to one I made earlier - the EU is so complex it's hard to debate it's merits. Even little things like that can change perceptions of some aspects of it.

A silver lining for the day, I found a bottle of cider I'd forgotten in the fridge.

I think thats far too simple a line of thought AWOL but fair enough. I'll remain considerably surprised if a genuine majority push ever comes about for a truly federal European state.

Just on the way home from work, heard the score but the phone is a pain in the arse to browse the forum, can someone tell me how shite we are? (if at all).