chrisp65

yep, same at my comp, which back in my day was simply a machine for finding the best 15 rugby players in any one year group if you weren't good enough for the first, second or thirds you'd be exiled to the disused tennis court to organise your own game of soccer with the wimps and nerds the PE teachers used the word 'soccer' like it was filth to try and instil in people the importance and legitimacy of their bastardised perversion of football the 's' word is my 'n' word, you don't get to use it against me, only I can use it (too much?)

my last two 'entertaining' trips to Lords for 20/20 cricket have seen me get as far as The Ordnance and end up staying there until curry o clock not as funny as when we did actually get as far as the ground, one of the guys decides it's his turn to buy a round even though he was client side - not only that, but this is Lords in the sun 'we are all having a pint of Pimms' £10 a pint - you actually saw his knees go when the barmaid handed over the trays of drinks and asked for £80

yep, I watched it live on BBC 3 as a neutral I thought the game was perfectly entertaining, it did look like only one winner from the england equaliser, it was that classic where you saw all the confidence just gush out of the opposition screaming winning goal as someone that watches my fair share of non-league, it was at least as skilful but far less physical, which is probably obvious

I've been rumbled!

Well, I guess there are two or three points here. Firstly, without wishing to look like Mr wet PC lefty, if I was fit and able and lived anywhere across that band of north africa and beyond, I would be that scum trying to get to a 'good' country such as the UK. If the UK descended into murderous anarchy and the rest of europe were using it for bombing practise, again, I would be that scum trying to leave. Secondly, perhaps if the government was actually genuinely serious about not letting scum in to the country they'd properly resource border control?

The Queen gets a benefits rise of 6.7% so I'm well chuffed with that. Fourth consecutive year her money has gone up.

No, I haggle, but it's utterly excruciating. I just know that they're laughing at me. I'm buying an old record turntable at some point, but I appear to be freaking out the retro hi fi shops by saying I'm definitely buying, but happy to buy today or wait a few months. When you don't 'need' to buy it does slightly change the dynamic. I amazed my nipper last summer when we were walking through St James's Park and there was an ice cream concession. I walked up to it and calmly asked the bloke if I could have a free icecream for my nipper. There was a slight pause....then he said yes and handed me a cone! Once I had the cone, I asked if I could take a flake from the box. He gave that little 'help yourself' wave. Nobody was more surprised than me, I'm not sure that would work 999 times out of 1,000. But it did the one time I tried it!

Out of curiosity, do all you non-hagglers buy cars at the price on the windscreen for the interest rate first quoted?

surely you are there for work and thus it's zero spending money in your pocket ... unless you mean you are fraudulently claiming the money back on your expenses Expenses are strictly receipt repayment. No receipt, I lose. So you're correct, I don't haggle work visits.....quite the opposite as I'm collecting various rewards points! Believe it or not, NEC and Hammersmith were family trips out! We have to double room now due to age of the kids, so haggling and points harvesting is nigh on essential! I may or may not sometimes get confused over office auto top up oyster card useage.

I guess BOF doesn't haggle in his north european homeland either then? If I'm paying for a hotel I'll do the usual travel sites, then phone them up and ask to pay less. Perfectly polite, I'll put an offer. Some say yes, some say no. I can haggle a price down at a Novotel and sometimes a Hilton. You would imagine the desk jockey at those isn't in a position to offer discount but they often are. Last visit to Novotel Hammersmith and Hilton NEC I got a combined total of 5 days parking for free - because I asked! That's £100 of spending money to me, thanks.

Absolutely everything was a form of barter and negotiation, from airport taxes to bus fare, entry to attractions, the price of a bottle of water, the lot. You get used to it very quickly. After a few days you carry a small amount of cash in your pocket and the rest elsewhere, in your sock or whatever. Then, whatever price you're quoted for anything, you open your wallet and show the $7 dollars you have left and shrug. Invariably the $7 is enough. On our last day we traded all our (used) clothes except what we were stood up in for souvenirs from the beach shops. It's the most I've ever got for my used knickers.

When I went to Kenya we were whacked with a number of innovative taxes. Everyone had to pay an 'arrival' tax, in dollars. Everyone with a camera or a video camera (i.e., everyone) had to pay a 'tech' tax, in dollars. Anyone that randomly had a chalk 'x' put on their baggabe had to pay 'chalk x' tax, in dollars. The main factor for receiving the chalk x appeared to be if the bag was dark and made of a material where chalk could leave a mark. Shiny, metallic finish bags or light coloured bags appeared to be exempt. All these taxes were collected by a small group of men in military uniform with guns and mirror finish sunglasses. We went to a zoo type place in Mombasa and on the big board outside were the entry prices: local black visitor £1 black tourist £3 white £10 I think it was an attempt at being fair, I think it was a crude attempt to charge what they believed you could afford. A couple of black americans were charged the white price, for being american. They must have loved that.

what? WHAT? blue tooth TOWEL???? no I'm sorry sir, we don't have the technology thanks for calling click

sounds like a great life.......what's the CV for?

I think you might have just made the same point as Tony.

Without wishing to go full anorak, I don't see (or hear) where that backs up your case? The example also presumes the vineyard would be in capitalist control and not a co-operative. It also presumes no worker would ever be prepared to pay more than the hourly production rate for an item, which is a bit of a crude year 1 version of Marxism. My version is definitely better. My version allows art appreciation and individuality.

You must be quackers. Don't get me started. I was going to confront "her" but felt like chicken tonight. cock

hipsters, it takes a lot of effort to look like you don't care

they were well lubricated

Parma have failed to find a buyer, have officially been declared bankrupt and will start next season in amateur division 4 busted

a night tube to Stockwell should go straight on the tourists 'things to do' list

at first I nearly choked on my supermarket knock off version of Alpen then I watched it now I'm ready to face Monday with a smile and a '**** yeah!' attitude 'thanks for posting' as they say on youtube...

77m albums sold worldwide will buy you one hell of a penthouse Popularity isn't everything. Justin Bieber has probably sold more. between them, Cliff Richards and the Spice Girls have sold over 300 million yet with the exception of 'Devil Woman' and '2 become 1', much of their output has been mediocre

Aahh I was only dicking around to start a mini war, both bands are perfectly fine and nobody's musical taste is better than anyone else's. The first Oasis album is a stand out piece of work, excellent. But then, first listen to some of those Roses singles* as they came out, oooh man. *they'll be up in the attic somewhere, I'm sure they've got postcards of art and whatnot tucked in them, from memory.

there's a world difference between the art of The Stone Roses and anything Oasis have managed to knock out that's not instantly recognisable as a rip off of someone else's work