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.

My company had a contract with the Indian Government which meant that I went there often. Usually for stays of a month. While I enjoyed the weather and the scenery, I always felt that I was in an alien environment despite being welcomed by many. I couldn't wait for the time to leave.
Strangely, after a couple of months I was quite keen to return but that dissipated as soon as my flight touched down.

it's certainly a fascinating country and i'ld love to spend time there, but there are so many aspects that would drive me truly nuts that i certainly wouldn't want to live there ..... i'm sure the same could be said of china

I travelled quite widely around India. One of the States I worked in was Rajasthan, which was a dry (no booze) State. To take liquor into there I had to have an alcoholics licence which, in my case, was issued at the consulate in London. I had to declare that I was an uncontrollable alcoholic but it allowed me to carry the alcohol or buy it at a bottle store in nearby Haryana. For medicinal purposes.
As part of the agreement I travelled first class on Air India between London and, usually, Delhi. I remember one return flight to London on the 747. I was sat in an aisle seat next to an elegant and demure Indian lady. In those days you could smoke on flights and after take-off the stewardess offered drinks and cigarettes which I accepted but the lady declined. After some time she shyly asked me what i was drinking. I cant remember what it was now, but when I offered to get her one, she accepted. From then on it was hours of drinking, smoking and laughing. Great character. Turned out she was the wife of the ambassador to the US and was travelling on to New York. When I got off at London, I told her just coffee for the next flight and plenty of water. And no more smoking. :)

As suggested:

http://news.sky.com/story/1641269/germanys-merkel-backs-camerons-eu-reforms

Angela Merkel has given her support to David Cameron's EU reforms, saying they will "benefit Europe as a whole".

In a speech attended by the Prime Minister in Hamburg, the German Chancellor gave her strongest endorsement yet to the UK government's proposals.

Mrs Merkel said: "These concerns that David Cameron has raised with the European Union are not only understandable - but we even support them."

She told dignitaries: "We are at one in saying that in the European Union much more needs to be done for competitiveness, more transparency and cutting red tape."

And in clear reference to the PM's demands to restrict benefits to EU migrants she said that "social systems ought to be protected against abuse".

Interesting scientific discovery but I think it needs confirming by Tim Peake(twin peaks)...if these nipples in space are for real : there will be a long queue ready for blast off that's for sure....

Of course Merkel will make the right noises. As I have said before, a Brexit is the last thing they want due to the likely domino effect. Cameron needs a strong out forecast now to get real concessions, but I doubt he has the intelligence to play his hand properly.
On the subject of intelligence, I can't but wonder looking at that labour front bench. Two obese self-satisfied women in the guise of Thornbury and Abbott and two scrawny assed males who must wonder if they are on pot or not. How did we get here?
Thornbury aka " I'm not posh, I failed the 11 plus". No dear, you're not posh, you are thick. Thick for failing the exam and thick for thinking intelligence and social standing are mutually inclusive. Maybe that's why she walks around with that silly superior look on her face. Pigs and lipstick don't come into it.

Look at the map of Syria on the BBC website : the political/military controlled areas : what a mess.....you have to feel terribly sorry for the civilians caught up in this....the quicker this war ends the better but in favour of who ?....either way it will be ungovernable for decades ....Europe cannot cope with the influx of migrants from that country so it it might seem ruthless to be hard on preventing this invasion of illegals...but immigration to our shores has to be curbed...

The enrichment of Calais..



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKAQX74yRyc&feature=youtu.be

Brown and Corbyn would just shrug their shoulders and call that woman a bigot.

Anybody read this

http://www.amazon.com/The-13th-Enumeration-Thirteenth-Series-ebook/dp/B008QMS9VG

Yes it must be very hard for residents living in Calais .

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Just received a copy of a report in the Diario de Pernambuco. A newspaper in the NE Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
Most of the cases of microcephaly have occured in that state. It refers to a report just published by Argentinian researchers which considers the possible relationship of a larvicide called pyriproxyfen with the condition. The larvicide is recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Health to combat the mosquito Aedes Aegypti, the carrier of the zika virus, and is said to be used in potable water tanks since 2014 in areas where sanitary conditions are very basic. It replaced a larvicide called Temephos, that proved ineffective.
The researchers point to the fact that microcephaly is only occuring in areas where pyriproxyfen is being used. It also highlights the fact that Columbia has the second highest rate of expectant mothers infected by zika, 3,000, but there has not been one case of microcephaly reported.

Looks like Fred and Stan have taken over the old Labour party...




Revealed: The radical hard-Left Momentum activists mounting a ruthless purge of Labour

The identities and backgrounds of those controlling Momentum can be revealed for the first time



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/12156177/momentum-activists-jeremy-corbyn-labour-purge.html

P 67771

Perhaps, that would be better than a con party taken over by hedge fund managers, Russian oligarchs, overseas donators and little Englanders.

talking to a couple of consultants today, and between us, none can understand what on earth the gov't is actually trying to achieve, though we all agreed that the NHS in its present format is totally unsustainable and will get progressively less able to cope

of course, one answer might be to raise NIC by say £1 a week for most wage earners, always presupposing that would actually go towards funding more doctors etc, but for any party, that would be almost political suicide - the public will always want something for nothing

None of NIC goes toward the NHS. All taxes just go into the pot.