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.

You must have tears in your eyes.

don't have over-tight underwear either

You probably wouldn't notice if you did.

in that case, i wouldn't have tears in my eyes

Just laughed my head off over that one cynic , brill .

:-)

Carnaval starts tonight in Rio. 35c

I was wondering if in the spirit of the winter Olympics whether Jong will invade the south just straight after the games.....surely.... isn't that fashionable nowadays ?....

Fantastic the carnival....would love to see that in all its glory !....

The day after the winter Olympics : by required field,
(South Korean medallist)...Wong ....I see you von a medal at the Olympics....really well done...thanks....and you got a medal as well Chong.....yes thanks...velly happly as vell.....do hear that...what ?...no I did't hear anything atz allz...(by this time
velly drunk border guards)...sounded like tankz tooz mees..(both look round at the same time)...naaah...distant rumbling...you're imagining thingz...by ze way...weren't the northern competitors nice ?...yesz..thatz whyz weez beat zem....(chuckles all round)........keepz drinkin'....(meanwhile...hundreds of tanks rumble past the South Korean border checkpoint)...

The really big samba schools parade tonight and Sunday night.

One of those events you have to see before you die. The sights and sounds are incredible. :)

The biggest 'Carnival' I've ever seen was in Tenerife and it was massive - but it has nothing on the one in Rio which is humongous!

Some of the participants live their lives for nothing else but Carnival.

Rio is the most spectacular but the biggest and longest street party is "Carnaval na Bahia", in Salvador. Starts early and ends.. never :) not a city for old men ..

The scandal at Oxfam is just one of many in this growth sector, I have commented here before about the obscene pay scales of the so called charity hierarchy. One such charity with income of £8m paid it's highest earner £230,000-£240,000 in 2016, another the Thrombosis Research Institute paid the same amount despite having £17m of income.

Surprised there has been no comments here re Oxfam etc

i don't have much interest in this latest "scandal", but certainly i have refused to contribute to oxfam for many years, as their "o'head" is far too high

While so much of many Charity`s funding is swallowed by the excessively high salaries, the public will be reluctant to help.

In the late nineties I was invited to join in a jolly(a convention they called it) through a former friend, who`s sister (a lawyer) ran this large Charity - not only were they offering to pay flight tickets to Aruba - a Caribbean Island - but also three nights in a 4*+ all expenses paid including food and wine. I declined and expressed my disgust and that was the end of the friendship.

Since then, all Charity donations have been selective and mainly local - to what I perceive as being deserving. As they say, charity begins at home, so look around yourselves and see how many are struggling on our streets.

Charity funds being used to support dictatorships in Africa, and supporting corruption around the world, so some of the counties can use their own money to buy our weapons and wage war.

How many get gongs for their so called charity work as well , what do they get from these charities in return . It's just a nonsense .

Talking about gongs - what makes me laugh is that companies raise money from their customers one way or another, like The Entertainer - used to ask at the till do you wish to make a donation - which embarrassed many to say NO and the travel/airlines that have little boxes that you need to untick not to give a donation - which the bosses then proudly announce "We raised XYZ for Charity" We should be rewarded with a gong grinon their faces.

Sad part they do get them for their good works but heaven help they will not dig in their own pockets unless they have family that suffer some misfortune.

Still they like top to take the huge bonus payments they get rewarded with.

That is not the only donation they may have left behind - they may have left behind some little relatives.