Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Cynic cut it out this personal stuff with Fred.

You arent doing yourself any favours.

YOU started it.

On a personal note Ive been so saddened that Baby Olig (the meerkat) in the Insurance advert that proceeds Coronation Street his staying in his native Africa.

Brought tears to my eyes and her indoors.

Surely they could have spun it out into a kids programme.

Best advert Ive ever seen.

sorry sticks, but do i really care ..... i get enough shit from gobmeister week in and week out, and it's about time he had some dished back

Well calm down and have a drink.

Happy New Year.

Alf sinks to lower and lower depths by the end of the year.

No matter how much Blair tries to wriggle, he clearly said the following,

"Ed Miliband will lose general election under 'left-wing' Labour, warns Tony Blair".

It has been widely reported by numerous newspapers and other media.

The interesting part is his view that it is the 'left-wing' that the public don't want. This is the same mistake that Foot, Kinnock and others have made. The UK wants parties of the middle ground. It has been a long time since socialism had any appeal; probably not since a brief period in the 1950s.

The US are now going to export oil!

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/31/oil-price-dips-further-us-opens-crude-exports

How it all started





And how it ended up

what ho sticks! ...... really enjoyable golf this afternoon + ace dinner - cracking piece of beef - accompanied by yorkshire pud and savoy cabbage and some truly delicious old burgundy
and forgot to mention the "yippee" day on the dow :-)

Happy New Year




City Link administrators send out redundancy notices

Delivery company’s 2,356 employees told of fate at 4.30pm on New Year’s Eve



Rupert Neate and Sarah Butler


The Guardian, Wednesday 31 December 2014 19.08 GMT


http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/31/city-link-administrators-redundancy-notices

so closed most shorts with a VERY juicy profit to finish 2014 but left a smallish short position running :-)

Anyway...happy new year all....oh great cheers all...
what's on the menu ?
.....Soupe de poiscaille degoulinante
.....Filet mignon avec squawk bitch
.....Fromage plateau du golan
.....Muller corner hors date unfinished from Christmas...
.....Wine is chateau Chinon Chirac
delicious...yummy...

what's on tv....?..isn't this the one evening when the ones you don't see the rest of the year appear ?
Angus Steak or whatever he's called, Mandy hold on... and such....dear...
I'll put a dvd on I.i think...
now where'z zat red vino..?
buenos noches allz...

How to pour champagne like a professional:

This is not 'How to do an F1 race win celebration'. It's the absolute opposite!

Champagne is expensive and so, as a drink it is to be respected. Doing the following will show the onlookers how you are 'not a champagne novice and quite used to doing it and dealing with it'.

1. Do notice how the sommelier (wine steward) holds the BASE of the bottle and not the neck!
2. Do notice how he doesn't bother unwrapping the foil from around the cork. But he does release the wire which holds the cork into the bottle. Do watch what happens to the foil after the bottle has actually opened. The foil wasn't any kind of a problem was it?
3. Do notice how he twists the bottle and not the cork so as to get maximum twisting leverage whilst at the same time safely holding the cork and hopefully preventing it from exploding right out of the bottle and hitting someone in the eye.
The idea is to get the cork to make a fairly unwasteful and pathetic 'popphh' noise (rather than a really loud 'POP'. Remember it is an extremely expensive drink and we do not want to waste it - and it is not a 'Formula 1 celebration')
4. Notice how he tilts the glass whilst pouring so as to avoid the champagne foaming up and right out of the glass

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/29/coffin-found-on-mars_n_6389284.html

Best in a magnum !...(P.I.)

Best just supping from the bottle, must admit I am a pleb though.

Did you notice El, that any engineer would do it the same way?


Anyway, get it down your throats!

Happy New Year to all.

Happy new year all. :-))

"Happy and Prosperous New Year to All!"

Labour elite thinks Northerners are stupid, MP complains
Ian Lavery attacks lack of working class MPs and 'frightening elite', during debate on Labour Party


Sadly in your case GF he has a point LOL!!!!!!


By Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent3:23PM GMT 31 Dec 2014
Ed Miliband's inner circle think people with northern accents are stupid, a Labour MP has claimed.
In a discussion of the Labour Party’s fortunes, Ian Lavery said he was “frightened” by a ruling “elite” in Westminster that has never held a manual job and looks down on working class people.
It came as Labour MPs embarked on fresh infighting over the direction of the party, after Tony Blair, its most electorally successful leader, warned Mr Miliband is leading it to defeat.
Mr Lavery, the MP for Wansbeck in Northumberland, is a former president of the National Union of Mineworkers, taking part in the 1984-85 strike. He was elected in 2010.
The remarks were made during a fringe event at a conference organised by CLASS, a left-wing think tank funded by the trade unions. He was speaking during a discussion on Labour’s welfare policy, in which he said the Labour Party is “in the wrong place” on the issue


He said the elite in Westminster have not “done anything” in their lives, and think people with northern accents do not “really know too much”.
He also warned there is a dearth of ethnic minority and disabled MPs.
“I’ve got to say there are some superb MPs, Labour party MPs. Sadly there’s not enough MPs who’ve actually worked on the coalface, on the factory floor.
“We haven’t got enough ethnic minorities, we haven’t got enough disabled people in, who have actually been there. We’ve got an elite in, we’ve got an elite in Westminster which quite frankly frightens me. They haven’t been anywhere or done anything, and when you’ve got an accent like mine they think well that man doesn’t really know too much.”


In a statement today, Mr Lavery said: "My comments were about the need for more working-class MPs and in no way a criticism of Ed or his office.
"For the record, I believe Ed Miliband is absolutely the right man to bring in policies that will be of great benefit to people in the North and across the country."


Mr Blair insisted that his apparent warning of a Labour defeat had been “misinterpreted”, and he has confidence in Mr Miliband.
The former Prime Minister had told the Economist magazine that May’s general election risks becomes one in which a “traditional left-wing party competes with a traditional right-wing party, with the traditional result”.
Asked by the Economist magazine if he meant that the Conservatives would win the general election in those circumstances, Mr Blair replied: “Yes, that is what happens.”
David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham and a likely contender for the London mayoralty, urged colleagues to listen to Mr Blair “very seriously indeed”.
He said Labour must be the party of aspiration and enterprise, and “not give the impression that we are solely focused on the public sector.”
He added: "I don't think that anyone should underestimate a leader of the Labour Party that won three consecutive elections and fought hard to make Labour electable again after 18 years in opposition.”



But Mr Blair was slapped down as yesterday’s man by Lucy Powell, one of Mr Miliband’s closest shadow cabinet allies.
"Tony Blair, he has his experience and his knowledge from his era as leader of the Labour Party and that is not the era that we now live in,” she said.
Paul Kenny, the general secretary GMB union, a major Labour donor, said: “Tony Blair is now a very wealthy person sitting on top of the pile and is disconnected from the lives of ordinary people.”
Mr Blair said in a Tweet: “My remarks have been mis-interpreted, I fully support Ed and my party and expect a Labour victory in the election."
Charlie Whelan, a former press aide to Gordon Brown, responded: “Don’t be surprised if no-one believes you.”