malumbu

Withdrawal of labour is the organised unions last resort in a dispute. In the modern world most employees would take this decision very carefully. Widespread industrial disputes are a thing of the past. It is a pity when they have to resort to this when all avenues fail.

Is this a surreal dream? I'd lay off the the cheese before you go to bed, or tranquilisers or larium. PS PM me if you'd like to buy Angie's biog - a fiver and not heavily read. I found it in a house clearance.

Shocked as most were yesterday. But let others have their opinion. I didn't like the new Star Wars, and was probably the only one in the cinema. Please don't burn me at the stake for being a heretic. Ironic that they showed the Lazarus video before the film started and we thought "my, he has aged" (not obviously realising his condition). That was Sat night and then on Sunday that Deutchland drama in Channel 4 finished with Modern Love. Spooky. Prior to this I'd posted on EDF that two of the most lame videos were the Bowie/Jagger and the Bowie/Crosby. They are. Absolutely loved the V&A exhibition, Glass Spider tour was pants (as he admitted - too ambitious), and pissed off 32 years later that I couldn't get tickets for the Serious Moonlight tour. Loved that album but Scary Monsters grated at the time and still does now. Visage did it much better. Should have made an effort to see Tin Machine, they may have been lousy but I did like his green suit. Had a funny chat with the big big big boss today, who said even he had heard the news, but (depsite being of my generation) did not like the music. Obviously must have been a Roxy fan!

Favourites and best team in 70 Was the taking off of Bobby Charlton when the match was won 2-0 the catalyst for defeat? Some shaky defending as the match progressed, soft goal back, but if Hurst had either a finer or thicker touch when he beat the onrushing goalie with a header that would have been all over at 3-1. A hoof was all that was needed to clear before the equaliser. And then Labone should have finished it off for England in extra time with a free shot from a corner. Played at a snails pace, and not helped by the Mexican crowd that were clearly supporting Germany. Ah, what might have been.

I often say (in what I hope is a humourous rather than creepy way) - if only I was 20 years younger (in terms of an attractive young lady). Now I can say if "only I was 30 years older". Nice to post something light hearted following yesterday's sad news about David Bowie.

It makes me grumpy grumpy sweary sweary. And I have been through it on a bus, in a car and my daily commute by bike. It is illogical, the phasing is awful, the queue from the South from the New Kent Road is extended, the new right turn onto St George's Road means a long wait for the lights and then you almost come back on yourself, and then you get onto St George's Road and there is no traffic (ie it is all stuck before then). It has yet to make a jot of difference (compared to before the roadworks started) on my bike. The bus lane means that traffic turning left coming from London Road has to cut left at the junction causing more chaos. It is chucking awful. Who the chuff designed it - have they any skills about traffic management. It beats the pointless traffic lights at the Forest Hill Road junction, and Dunstans, and Mostyn/Akerman Road (Brixton) hands down. The only comparable traffic nonsense is the unecessary lights on the Lambeth Bridge Southside.

Try Peter at the Old Bath House in Sydenham, he will have some other contacts. When I have asked plumbers about this sort of thing they always say they can't be rrrrssed to repair anything any more and prefer to replace things.

A few of us were up there for New Year's eve as per usual. Sadly the trees spoil the view of the fireworks. It is not ancient woodland and would be great to return it to the single oak and grazing of sheep as in the old days. This would also be great opportunity for those soggy sheep up North to have some respite from recent weather and come south on holiday. How do I start a petition or who do I write to to get some action? BJ??

Well you lot are a lot of help! Probably go for a Marantz

In deed But shocking to say that mid 80s was my low point in watching footy so don't recall the great West Am team of the time. Forest eclipsed the Clough Derby team as (a) prmomotion to champions in a season (b) champions to European cup winners (and again) in two seasons They had a pointless question on the Forest Teams that won the European Cups - both me, the contestants and Richard OP came up with the same (low scoring but not pointless) answeres - Kenny Burns, Gary Birtles and John Robertson. Pointless were Frakie Gray, John O'Hare and one other.

Clnical distillation (ie that produces 97% or so alcohol) or freezing produces similar results. A super strength vodka. The only flavour is the alcohol which you then need to dilute and preferably add some flavour. Various hooches can carry over methanol and other pretty horid higher alcohols, tasting nasty and possibly causing harm. They add other stuff to meths, including the colour, to put you off drinking it and again this can be harmful. The real stuff as said is an art to get the right flavours over - eg wood alcohols in Whisky and a complex cocktail in gin, from the juniper berries. I read up alot about this when I was going through the motions. I even bought a bag of maize, ground it down and maleted it. A failure! As I said rights of passage.

Years ago there was discussion about glamerising smoking with the industry and many others saying that it did not attract kids and new smokers (it was just getting people to switch brands). And then that putting death on packets didn't make a difference (with reference to an e-mail from an Aussie civil servant) and that banning smoking from indoor public areas was a an infringement of civil liberties etc etc. But what wonders some hard interventions have done, even many hardened smokers now go outside rather than inflict non smokers and particularly kids with their poison. Aren't pubs and restaurants (and the top deck of pubs and tubes) so much nicer now. I recall decades ago stuff on the tobacco industry having then to prey on developing countries to make up for lost revenue. And now, yippee, they can make up for it with a new legal high. Lets just be honnest please. Wouldn't it be great if big retailers including airports (duty free shops) made a stand.

As if by magic been e-mailed by Ivy Picture this: You are squashed in amongst a hoard of frostbitten strangers staring up at Big Ben. The bottle of fizz in your hands has gone flat long ago. You try to still bear a grin despite losing all your friends to the crowds and the feeling of early onset, new year morning neck ache. "Who likes fireworks anyway?' you think to yourself. "Damn, I wish I stayed local..." Don't make the same mistake I have made year in year out. Stay local, don't pay entrance fee or any cab fair. See in the new year amongst familiar faces, great beer and wine and enjoy an awesome DJ set of dancehall fillers from the 60s to the present day (any requests welcome!)

No doubt there is discussion already but it has been 30 years or so since the top division has been so interesting. I don't think Leeds or Blackburn's Premership titles count ('big club' and moneybags). Reminds me of (dare I say it) Villa's title in 81, Ipswich coming so close, Forest under Clough, QPR in 75, Palace no doubt (only quarter of a century ago) and Regis and Cunningham. And it isn't just Leicester (who perhaps are being found out), but, something I also hate to say, Stoke too. Watford?? Of course helped by relatively poor Chelsk and the Mancs, and of course looks like Arsenal's to lose. But still there to enjoy.

I am replacing my 1980s model having at last sorted out some storage place for my record collection. I plan to use it with my original amp, lovely 1950s speakers, but the analogue tuner and tape player will go! Meant to go to Richer sounds yesterday and may still pop in tomorrow. Any advice? Not sure why I would want a USB model (amp just takes raw wire input). What else has changed in the last three decades? Plan up to a couple of hundred, I understand that this is nowhere near top of the range, but I doubt whether my record collection is in great condition!

So hands up. As a chemistry undergraduate most of us tried it. Pretty easy to get a pure product through double distillation. And confirmed as such through gas chromatography. But nobody would drink it, and with all the effort to brew the alcohol in the first place it wasn't worth the effort. To do it properly, and get carry over of the other chemicals which give it taste is a skilled art. Perhaps you could get a job where industrial quantities of illegal and probably quite dangerous liquor are produced.

Its all to do with big business pushing drugs isn't it?

Great, a thread for me. Why does everyone (including older people) walk round looking at a screen. Why can't I go to gigs any more (and this will soon include the theatre) as so many people video the whole event, or worse spend their time texting or tweeting their views, or even worse play that candy thingy game. Why has the anticompetitive Apple corporation got so many of us by the short and curlies. Why hasn't the might of the US legal system / antitrust system taken them on when they are brave enough to take on Fifa. Why have we made Britain, in particular London, a safe haven for money laundering, in particularly in property. Where have all the good pubs gone, and why do you lot drink expensive fizzy beer because it is 'craft' Me, I'd rather spend my time moaning on this forum. None of these points above are for debate, just humour me! Happy New Year.

Fick knows what Dulwich Estates is doing - oonverting an already successful pub into a hotel, closed down , albeit difficult to market, the Grove Tavern and this nonsense with the famous Half Moon. Thanks for posting and please consider joining Camra who are already on the case. http://sel.camra.org.uk/ Sadly can't find the pictures of the pub crawl we did around closed pubs in the area in the Autumn.

For those of you who remember the CPT and when NYE was free head off to the Ivy. http://www.ivyhousenunhead.com/events.php

Been doing it for a week now on me bike, and don't like it (or the alternatives). It's just weird and counter intuitive going round what was a roundabout the wrong way (like being in Europe) and some quite sharp turns. Not at all smooth flowing. You lot in your metal boxes can't be that impressed either. First day was hilarious as loads of us were confused and ended up cycling (by accident) through red lights and being shouted at (in a good nurtured way) by the fuzz.

Due to branding. I Think there was an ELO two without JL. There were two versions of Boney M, and many other bands have wrangles over the name. They seemed to have put him and Noel Edmonds into a cryogenic chamber as they still look the same as in 1977. Which ironically was the last time either were any good. Time to move on ladies and gentleman M - purchaser of three ELO albums in the 70s. And they were left buried in the 70s Creepy fact - one of the ex minor members died a few years ago when a hay bale came off a trailer and went through his windscreen.

I thought that this was going to be a thread in why you can't get a decent sharpener any more. In the days of Sheffield steel they were great. Now they chew up your pencil, snap the lead, or in the case of plastic ones just break. And less and less decent Cumberland pencils around as we buy cheap shiite from abroad. Same can be said about other items of stationary. It all went down hill when we lost our empire. To put things into context we've lost most of our manufacturing industry as it can be done better/cheaper abroad. But there are still wholesalers who must be specifying to the Chinese manufacturers they want cheap poor quality products, that due to the price tag people seem to still buy.

Every year people set up in pub car parks etc selling trees. I suspect they don't need to work the rest of the year because they make a killing. Every year they say what a bad year it has been (early frost, late frost, too wet, too dry...) for the trees. Where is the competitive pressure from us as consumers and other suppliers? Great to know. I did buy from a couple of places but every year they hiked their prices up.

This is on my songs to play at my funeral list, but not so keen on the link which is when the Clash were mortally wounded