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.

Germany balances budget for first time since 1969 (by bankrupting half of €urope)

Leader of Angela Merkel’s CDU party says that Germany is leading by example in the eurozone



Reuters


The Guardian, Tuesday 13 January 2015 17.27 GMT



Job centre in Hamburg, Germany. The number of people in work in Germany hit a record high of 43.1 million in November. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images




Germany has balanced the federal budget for the first time in more than 40 years, helped by strong tax revenues and rock-bottom interest rates, but the extra leeway is unlikely to translate into spending that could boost weak eurozone growth.

Berlin had been aiming to achieve a schwarze Null – a balanced budget or one in the black – this year but the finance ministry announced on Tuesday it had got there in 2014, a year ahead of schedule.

It is the first time since 1969 that Germany has achieved the feat and is a domestic and European political fillip for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, which wrote the goal into a coalition agreement in late 2013 and has preached budget discipline to Greece and other indebted eurozone countries.

Peter Tauber, general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), said the budget was a historic success and sent a clear signal to the rest of Europe that Berlin was leading by example and only spending money in its coffers.

“This marks a turning point in financial policy: We’ve finally put an end to living beyond our means on credit,” he said.



More: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/13/germany-balanced-budget

Exec,

You are close enough,

c confirms that muscle weighs more than fat :-)

was never overweight and only mildly chunky around the midriff - allowable in late middle age! - but upper body has now bulked up a bit (without steroids!)
and heaven forbid that i should give up my regular intake of alcohol

"MaxK - 14 Jan 2015 08:17 - 54994 of 54997

Exercise makes you put on weight, c just confirmed....avoid."

... Stupid boy.

Irony Fred, ever heard of it?

Manuel,

Can we see a picture of you in a Bikini!

i don't have moobs :-)
however, if i could ever work out how to post pix here, i'ld find one or two in due course from our cycling jaunts
i think one has to have a photobucket account or somesuch, which is all a bit dull and probably beyond my capabilities anyway

My worry!




I won't be able to be rude about Manuel and remain anonymous or anomalous.

"cynic - 14 Jan 2015 09:06 - 55001 of 55002

i don't have moobs :-)
however, if i could ever work out how to post pix here, i'ld find one or two in due course from our cycling jaunts
i think one has to have a photobucket account or somesuch, which is all a bit dull and probably beyond my capabilities anyway"

... Well thank christ for that then -):

Just a thought , does Charlie Ebdo publish arthist cartoons

you don't know what you're missing .... it's a sight for sore eyes

actually, there are already a couple of pix of me on MAM somewhere that were posted for me a few years back

Yes I remember you had your bike with you outside cafe Fanny.

Oh dear , goldies started c&p ,ing again

no bike outside Table de Fanny - Chalons sur Saone from memory - but there was another of me in full gear with the bike outside the hotel

cynic
You must have been able to post pictures as I have seen a pic of you with a bike in France. You posted it a couple of years ago.

Yes outside cafe Fanny.

It was one of our female posters who remembered where it was. ?

From memory that photograph of Manuel was banned.

Or, at least it should have been.


8-}

The one I remember was outside a hotel.

Lets hope the photo's still there then -):