MrBen

Actually...French tv is decent (TF1 esp) and I would watch it with the sound off /no subtitles to US telly

US TV is possibly the worst in the world. For every stonking HBO epic /decent sitcom there are a million mind sludging pieces of turd rotting minds across the nation. Most Brits I know out there only have a TV for DVD's or online stuff (like iPlayer).

Agreed. Depressing to the point that Ted Max daren't write of the sheer hopelessness of it. The former reminds me of the those school fights where some peacemaker steps in to break it up but gets whacked for his efforts. So then he starts too, his mate joins in and before you know it you have a Western style cowboy brawl where everyones scrapping yet everyone's forgotten the original point. For a brief moment you think you can add some erudite and incisive lines of wisdom to tie it all up. But then you realise.... it's hopeless....and you get back to something more important in the real world instead.

Apart from a hazy first memory at the age of 2, I cant honestly remember much until I was about 4 or 5 years old and wouldn't have had any awareness (or cared) where my parents were eating their meals/ had taken me. I certainly hadn't learned anything about table manners etc at that age. Eating out only got my interest at about 5 years old - but only if it involved jelly and ice cream with my mate Patrick at The Edinburgh Trampoline Centre or a Wimpy kids burger on Princes Street. Like most kids, I didn't really want to sit still at that age, so those places were quick in and outs or I could run around a but when I felt like it. Past 5 I started learning about what it meant to eat out and would ask to be taken to Pizza Hut and it was a treat so I'd start to behave. I didn't read Nanny's good post above thinking parents shouldn't take their kids out to eat in public and stay at home to eat, just that sometimes, some common sense might be called for on time of day, kids behavior/tiredness beforehand, what the parents themselves want to get out of it etc.

To be honest even a hard wood door can bow and split depending on quality of the wood, moisture content and whether its been treated. Wooden doors are typically be made of: - MDF with a veneer - Softwood core with a hardwood veneer (which some firms pass off as "hardwood" misleadingly) - Engineered hard wood - basically smaller blocks of hard wood glued together with or without a veneer - Solid hard wood A solid hardwood door will have one grain running through most of it's core and so can warp. An engineered wooden door can actually be stronger and more resistant to bowing. I found it really hard to get a good local joiner (I can already guess which firm you used) and so ended up ordering some doors online which were cheaper but cut to size..... Anyway - keep pestering the owner until he sorts it out.....he's a man that needs prodding.

Check it out people - it's a Mitt Romney voting machine.... http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/watch-glitch-voting-machine-pennsylvania-171806481--election.html

Thanks both. So that's why Florida and Ohio become really important. Back in 2000 didn't a bunch of grannies in Key West effectively determine a president who alienated the entire Muslim world and started two long, bloody and costly wars?

:-) Brilliant.

I'll be honest. I've tried.... but I still can't understand the US voting system.

I would repaint the room to the colour you want. And next time paint one wall first and use the real stuff rather than go for a colour match. Lilac doesn't sound very grey to me!

I moved to DMC from Melbourne Grove after they made it almost impossible to see a GP, handling most things via telephone appointments with nurses and putting in a margin maximising triage service that didnt put patients first. At first (early last year) it was decent and way better but now I just cant be bothered with the bun fight each morning do if I ever need anything its a private walk in GP in the city, ?60 and you're in and out in 10 mins with whatever you need to get you through the night. Perfect.

Let's say I'm a head waiter at the Savoy, and I'm trying to get two women from a mixed group to show them to their table. "Women, if you'd kindly follow me..". Sounds weird. If they were men you'd say "Gentlemen". I'd hate to offen women like Asset so what's the correct (as in PC) form?

Heinz baked beans. Tinned tomatoes. A couple of fresh chillis. Colemans. A Newspaper.

Perhaps...but what really he needed for protection was some thermolactyl underpants.

My old man once told me that he got "black balled" at school. Apparently this meant bigger older kids rubbing black boot polish on his nut sack. Weird eh? I still don't get it.....anyone?

100. My first ever and on my own massively deviated thread. *makes ker-ching gesture*

That said, Huguenot is a master wind up merchant when he's on one of those long, hot, bored Singaporean nights and looking for something to do.....

Let's not forget our 1970's Wembley victory though...

...quite a lot of the early developing girls of the same age were out my reach. Not because I was a late developer but because back in Edinburgh in the 1980's, many were openly going out with guys of 18-25 years of age. The guys with a car, beer and experience. And it wasn't considered that odd. This piece today in the indie chimed with my recollections: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-jimmy-savile-abuse-scandal-means-men-across-britain-will-sleep-uneasily-remembering-past-conquests-8194583.html

Gidget Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > MrBen, > Which businesses do you think are champion? You can't really win answering a question like this on here can you? But *Bob* has nailed a good few. If you are talking restaurants or pubs specifically then I have a lot of respect for what Green & Blue have achieved as risk taking entrepreneurs working hard in a nasty economy to bring along an offering that was different (and often full most nights). They've grown their clientele in a tough climate and that's not easy. Hats off to them. Bars might not be for pub types etc but if you DO want a decent cocktail locally (properly mixed, fresh ingredients, creative mixing) then I rate the newish HO Tippler highly.The guys behind it are expert at their craft, and they are the genuine article. So there's two to start with....

Indeed. Genius early playing. I interviewed him once for a student rag when he had a brief mid 90's comeback. Lovely guy but also a sombre lesson in why not to drop acid with the Grateful Dead. Bless him.

Does "best" mean fastest/most acrobatic notes per second? Or most musical, soulful and loin stirring....?

It's all been said before but......when money flows into an area it both benefits and loses in equal measure. Small indie business owners bring a passion and personality to create the DNA of their offering which in turn rubs off on those who work there and buy from them. Character, charm, service....something a bit different - that's what gets my interest. Eventually, this DNA gets diluted by brylcreamed men from Mayfair who fund expansion of "the forumula" , owner sells out (hello Gourmet BK, Gaucho, Capital Pubs) and offering becomes "meh". Everyone has their price, and the cycle continues. On LL at the moment you have the two ends to the stick. The low rent ethnic restaurants with what I'd generously describe as less than transparent cash flows at one end, and the omnipresent estate agents. At the other you have the chains (see above). What you need for some SOUL is the middle bit, creative independents with local rents and policies that allow them to flourish. These conditions are now best found in fringe areas where there is a spending demographic nearby but where startup costs are low. And that's why Camberwell, Peckham and Brixton are now more interesting places to go out. That said there are still some champion businesses on the lane - it's not all shit.

Anyone on here had a soir?e lately? Own up....

What quids said (beat me to it). It's clearly much more complex than that. The old notions just don't exist anymore and you have huge gaps widening in some contexts (eg unemployed Nigerian immigrant vs the newly moneyed emerging from the 80s) yet much more mixing between socio-economic groups in others. Definitely flatter in the new world countries - Canadian and Australian attitudes are often refreshing in how people mix and interact with each other. Before he got all shirty about coathangers, I rather liked Ken78s definition which was something about curry and going down the dogs vs having a soiree. Then there was Rosieh's ketchup thing.