mockney piers

I think we can safely say that there are quite a few foodies on the forum. Acres of pixel ink has been used discussing merits and demerits of ED eateries, so I thought it might be good to have a room dedicated to those places in the rest of the world where we've loved or hated the food. I won't bore anyone with the sheer awfulness of Fifteen so will kick off with the Greenhouse where I took the misssus for an anniversary meal. Delicious in that very foamy way of so many places now, but well worth a visit, superb service, ?65 for three courses (1 michelin star remember) they throw in some nice palate cleansers and amuse bouches and an almost intimidatingly awesome wine list. Nice decking too.

Monday mornings I find it hard to be anything but churlish I'm afraid, apologies. I've only ever worked private sector, but my mum Unt and uncle were all lifelong NHS frontline staff (speech therapist, nurse and consultant surgeon respectively) and all were hugely dedicated. Private sector certainly is well capabale of employing substandard people and not doing enough to get them working, trained or sacked, especially if a manager is seeking to save face. My missus has encountered some pretty awful people and real institutional intransigence in the public sector, and as dat as I can tell though far from unique to public sector it does seem more entrenched. I've no experience of back office in the NHS but I'd be surprised if that atttude doesn't pervade NHS civil service staff in the same way it did the industries that the missus worked in. I think mr ben and quids have very fair points in saying that the public sector should be open to impassijnate scrutiny in the same way that shareholders can hold private sector management to due diligence in minimising waste and maximising efficiency. No worker especially front line staff need take this as a personal attack, it's surely only sensible to have openess and transparency in any large, especially public institution. It should also be possible to take on findings at face value.

Lively encounter. I think 1-1 would have been a fair reflecion even though Spurs did it edge it in both play and goals ultimately. I don't know whether that means we should be thinking about being more ambitious or whether Spurs should be concerned that they're nowhere nearthe finished article. What was Cole thinking though!?

Form striker has to be Defoe and yesterday was a good call for having him and Cole as striking partners, perfectly weighted ball that was :(

Eleven hours?!?!? Nobody should do Anything for eleven hours except maybe sleep or Zelda!!!

Forgive me chair whilst I offtopicate, but on a Monday morning it's all I can do to struggle out of bed and get to work. Chairing hasn't been part of my morning either. Can someone skive off unpaid unappreciated roles in the voluntary sector? Anyhoo, back to NHS (with a little more debate and a little less speculation or churlish posts like this one please).

Xbox arcade going through a purple patch. Just downloaded Shadow Complex. Basically metroid with excellent graphics. Nice story line too making it somewhat reminiscent of Flashback, with errr good graphics.

Constant Gardener was the first Le Carre book I've enjoyed since the cold war ended. Film wasn't a patch on it but did an ok job, I usually like Fiennes anyway but would happily watch paint dry if it was on our Rachel!!!

Oi keef, ive blimmin warned you!!! NO!!!

It's a settng in your control centre, you can set email notifications on or off.

I gather the average fourth innings total at the oval is 141. For what it's worth.

I saw Alec Stewart's last ever innings at the oval too (plus it was home turf) and that was a very emotional ovation that he received. It didn't hurt that I was a guest of Graham Beck's so the wine flowed quite literally freely all afternoon. Thank you brother mine for falling ill that afternoon and sending me in your stead! Surely even Eng 'from the jaws of victory' land can't lose the ashes from this position.

There's a story about local council workers digging holes. Passng man sees men, one digging a hole one filling it with earth. Passing man incredulously says, 'I can't believe what I'm seeing, our council pays people to dig a hole then fill it ?!?!?!' One of the council workers looks at him seeng that the man is obviously deranged...'no mate, it's just the guy that plants the trees is off sick today'

I may make it out for that game. If I do probably hoopers, though I hear rumour that there's crytal clear reception somewhere in these parts. If I see you there I'll keep my 8-0 predictions to myself, might give you a charitable 7 ;-P

" a run chaise " I know it's a gentlemanly sport and all, but surely that's taking things a little too far. G&T old chap? ;)

Uncannily accurate, thanks for the nostalgia trip!

Not to 'put the mockers' on anyone, but HELLO!!!!!!

Innovations (loosely of this ilk) that have made a difference in my working life? Instant messaging and RSS. Great for keeping lines of communication open and instantly being able to catch up with latest changes, bug fixes etc. Twitter is really just glorified single purpose RSS reader (in effect if not technologically) which of course is entirely application (with a small a) neutral. It can be useful, peurile, interesting or dull. It can be anything. I've enough trouble just meeting up with my mates and cntinuing my pointless musings on here. Facebook is only useful in an easy way to recoup lost emails/phone numbers. Twitter I just can't be arsedto invest effort in, that's not to belittle t or those who use it (apart from all the vaccuaous solipsists out there of course) it just ain't for me.

....and hope is rekindled

I know Huguenot very well and one thing he doesn't lack is intelligence or a grasp of logic, two things, two things he doesn't lack are intelligence, a grasp of logic and debating skills. Three things, three things he does not lack are... In all fairness he's making the point that you used ubiquitous and something else, escapes me now. I'm really not of the opinion that this is the case. I've had to deal with endemic low level corruption in other countries, Huguenot has had to deal with both low level and high level in other countries. But here? Not so much by any stretch. Corruption does of course exist here, you only have to read private eye each fortnight to realise how rubbishly self-serving, nepotisitic and generally stupid people in many walks of life are prone to abusing positions, responsibilities and power, Rotten Burpughs being particularly entertaining. It is not Huguenots position to prove the lack of ubiquity or existence of systemic corruption, it's up to you to prove. So far I am utterly unconvinced. I know he likes wordy fencing and sometimes overplays his ahnd but it's all based in pretty concrete rationality. You too are a capable and intelligent chap but so far you've been a bit donald rumsfeld about this. Gone on evidence, concrete evidence, and I'll require more than anectdotal, I can cite Tony's leaning on the police to drop investigations or on attorney generals to give wars the ok, bit I want ubiquitous, endemic and systemic corruption. Paying for travel visas, police turning a blind eye post payment as a matter of course etc.

Interesting points Robyn (and welcome to the drawing room btw always lovely to see a new face in this quiet corner) and whilst there is an important debate to be had about the purpose of education, this is nothing new and certainly existed as issues in my day (same academic year as Indiepanda)this does sugges to me that the bar is being set lower, again no disrespect intended to anyone, you still have to work for those results. For my part ve oft considered going back to uni, but apart from my own satisfaction there is nothing to be gained in it for me. I had a word with my old professor who had expressed a wish in sponsoring me for a masters and doctorate. He said that I'm too old at 36 to be considered by any university as I'd be too expensive to hire in a teaching position, so I'm stuck banging out code forever sadly. I digress and can't remember my pont. Congratulations on your first though.

Weirdly, out of over 10000 possibilities, 24 Hours has just appeared on my shuffle. What are the chances? (yeah yeah about 1 in 500)

Aaah, the Sundays. Lovely.

You mean the homoerotic camaraderie wasn't highlighted by Fidel and Ernesto touhing outstretched fingertips in the prow of the Gramma on their way to Cuba? I'm very dissappointed!!

Ooh have you heard YoLa Tengos cover of Needle of Death. A fine effort.