mockney piers

"I hate royals" I dunno, The Queen's done alright by the country (in both senses of the word mind you, she's not short of a penny, despite recent protestations to the contrary), but frankly she's done a pretty good job. Better her than David Beckham, Peter Mandleson or god forbid, Tony Blair as president. But in Spain good old Juan Carlos has to be one of the most respected people around. From effectively being a political prisoner (a pretty well off one who was groomed for power admittedly) he actually steered the country expertly through a difficult transition to democracy and at no time did he grasp for power himself. Spain in the late 70's could easily have been Yugoslavia in the early 90s. The difference was one had Juan Carlos, the other Slobbo. Mind you, his son's a bit of an idiot, something to do with being called Prince Charles I guess ;)

Sounds kind of virusey to me if you're missing your usb ports then it sounds like some of you're drivers have been disabled. I had a similar thing from a virus that propogated itself on the boot sectors of floppies (yes, it was a long time ago). But if you've not found one I'm not sure what to do, it could be an overzealous virus blocker or firewall, have you tried switching both off? If it's anything like my old spectrum days, talk to it soothingly, cajoole it, and if all else fails, pull out its rubber keys painfully and hurl it against a wall. Time for a new one anyway!!

"We all know the kind of people who come on to internet forums (or perhaps "fora"?)" Well it's certainly not fauna in this case!!!

I think I remember reading recently that Kiwis have the most homogeneous accent of any English speaking nation, which I thought was quite interesting. I can't remember why that was the case though.

I met Julio Iglesias once, I think that must surely count; mind you I was very young and probably just pooped my nappy rather than curtsey.

Indeed, the whole Tsar this and Tsar that (have we had a spoon Tsar announced yet?) is getting overused, I just thought this is the one instance they really should have avoided it in a press release ;)

"All Party Parliamentary Beer Group" This sounds so much more fun than I suspect it really is.

Just read this: "An adviser to the [McCain] campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M., the senator will call for an increase in combat troops and the creation of a special Afghanistan tsar to coordinate policy toward the country. "There will be a surge for Afghanistan. It will be moving combat troops in and applying the lessons from Iraq and the strategy that was successful in Iraq and taking that to Afghanistan," this official said." Funny on two levels. 1, appointing a tsar to a country that lost a million people trying to get rid of the Russians is very poor use of language, and 2. The success of the surge has nowt to do with the extra troops and much more to do with talking with the enemy and paying them to stop them killing you. Frankly a very pragmatic policy which could very well be successful in Afghanistan. It's just I'm not convinced McCain seems to understand this point and seems to be advocating killing more, not fewer people. Let's hope somebody sets him right.

"How did you go from Golgotha to the Alps in one quick step anyway." ?Peter! Peter! I can see your house from up here.? I'm not a sophisticated man, I had a different peter in mind. You were thinking Golgotha or the Sermon on the mount, I was figuring teutonic goatherder.

*note to self, don't do image search for heidi at work again*

I think you'll find that according to google, everything was either a quote from Swift, Twain, Wilde or Churchill. In fact most things were said by all of them....apparently. I'm not sure anything can be actually attributed to big JC can it, everything having been written about a metric year (anything between 10 and 1000 standard years) after he died?

This from the Best Man: "I know, the reaction of the head manager at Scudamores was fantastic ?err, sorry, did you say the punt has sunk? Oookaaay, errrrr, I?ve never ever heard of this happening before, I?ll errr, just need to think about this??will call you back?..? Just to put that into context, the Scudamores punting company was established by the pioneering punter F.Scudamore in EDWARDIAN times!"

Is sheets to the wind a metric or imperial measurement? I imagine the romans counted in slaves to the oar or something.

I don't mean to be a party pooper, but I don't think people were seeing much of anything there. It even took a bit of working out on my part, and I'm a reet geek !!

tis a joke. If you're logged in to facebook you'll see a picture of yourself. Well done ;)

Ah, yes, *hangs stunning head of hair in shame*

"I'm pointing out that the default position in this country is ludicrously biased. And there are many words for people who wear kefiyehs to "show their solidarity" whilst never having opened a book on the subject in question, and "w@nker" is probably the politest." I actually completely agree with you on this one, much in the same way that Celtic shirt wearing arseholes bleating on about ETA tend to wind me up also. I actually know quite a few Israelis, and apart from one of them who's something of a hardliner, most of them have a strange ambivalence towards their country which are equal parts pride and shame. And most that I know personally, are of the opinion that a state based upon permanent occupation is unworkable in the long term and resolution through negotiation is something which will happen sooner or later. Interestingly the debate there is much healthier than it is here.

Private Eye made me chuckle this fortnight

This is jolly nice Andantino Alla Siciliana Can anyone else tell I'm killing time 'til I can eff off to Kings Cross for my glass of Pimms on the train up to Cambridge? 55 minutes and counting.....

no no, I'm beginning to think it's the best news source there is. On a different note, this isn't very love thy neighbour turn the other cheek is it.

Mind you, the I can't help but feel the Daily Mash has a point http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/iran-kicks-america-in-the-nuts--200807101084/

perhaps "I can feel the soil falling over my head", said the Iranian nuclear technician....

Haha, hadn't really bothered following this thread, but now I'm sooooooo glad I gave into curiosity (err so to speak). Thanks you thank you *Bob*. And if it was one of yours then hats off. It's majestically good pop even if a hook laden chorus looped 20,000 times shouldn't work, somehow it just does.

Not sure what to make of this Jeff Buckley - I know it's over

wasn't it a comedian at the gut-rocking?