malumbu

Interesting to see that an Olympic Gold medal winner did not know the answer (yesterday's celeb who wants to be a millionaire) and similarly half the audience. Yet in Northern Ireland 'loyalists' are rioting over the flag not being continually flown over the City Hall. The answer is easy, well at least I thought.

Read the post kidkruger. They've all had to change the active chemical, to an inactive chemical. Brands are still there, Thanks Lowlander for advice, I use an adjustable heat gun, stipper is (or was) useful for getting paint of the intricate bits.

Western Swing band/blue grass practice at the Foresters in Forest Hill or the George Inn Giant Celidh Band. Who practice in the George Inn. http://www.gigcb.com/band.php PM me if any interest/problems. Used both.

Infamy infamy they've all got it in for me Now that is amusing

Oh dear have I ruffled some feathers? I had hoped for a quality response. Anyway back to my original question, it appears that this afternoon has answered it. Get rid of the cheats and hand football back to the fans. Sadly I can't find the excellent Viz paradody when Fulchester United featuring Billy the Fish play against a team with a cheating Maradona look alike (and I am sure this would to be too un-PC for you sensitive lot)

I found two dessicated dead mice under the sofa when moving it to put up the Xmas tree. The cats must have brought them in in the last year. I hung them on the tree but the family kicked off. I thought that they made an interesting and free Xmas decoration.

With the banning of methylene chloride by the EU a couple of years ago, the active component in all proper paint strippers, are there any alternatives? That actually work?? The stuff from Wickes is shit. I got the last tin of methylene chloride based stripper from Plough Homecare last year, and I am using it extremely carefully. I have it under lock and key with alarms and lasers, so don't think of nicking it.

Is this thread for football talk or some Fifa 13 prediction competition. I assume the former so why don't you lot start a new thread where you can act like 13 year olds (I time when I used to get the occasional pools win, and before my balls dropped). So for anyone with serious interest in football, where has the romance and crowds gone from the FA Cup? Only ten years ago 3rd round used to attract big crowds. I see that only 7500 QPR fans turned up yesterday, marginally better than Mansfield where ever they may be. Grounds that are only 60% empty must add to the lack of atmosphere. Did the loss of the Cup winners Cup start the decline (a proper knockout tournament, playing amongst some of the best in Europe)? Does this add to the case for binning that pointless League Cup? What do we reckon wil be the scores in the replays?

Looked at the pub, and thought I'd reply with a picture of the Buthers Arms, and then realised it was the Butchers Arms. Phenominal place but can't see it happening around here.

I choose not to eat meat, poultry and fish. I do not label myself as vegetarian, and only use this when necessary for convenience. I set my own rules and eat what I wish. I avoid all these nonsense arguments, and simply quote Stephen Morrissey as this is an easy way out of 25 years of people questioning me unecessary. I don't do labels, as said, but the only true vegetarians are vegans which is a bloody difficult life choice. But if you choose to justify eating meat, as some of you seem to want to do, kill it, and eat everything edible. Sweetmeats, brains, tripe, the whole lot. But you can't sing this as you can 'and death for no reason is murder'

The moment has passed but in my good, bad and the ugly this weekend one of the latter two for this weekend would have been all the empty seats at the New Library. We are led to believe that there are 1000s that can't get tickets for the Arse. So the redistribution of spare season tickets is failing let alone people buying season tickets and not going. I only ever missed matches when my parents took me on holiday (yes I was a teenager at the time, when it was a close thing also between football and girls), or on one occasion when my selfish sister got married. And would offload the spare ticket to a mate, I think this was three matches missed in four years; I'd love an explanation on why for many matches there are thousands of empty seats at the Emirates; I wouldn't be that bothered if they didn't included these as another sell out attendance.

Youth net/do it is the bees knees Also try Southwark Volunteering Centre in the Elephant (most of their posts will be on do-it Also check whether your employer supports volunteering and gives time off. Dave had this Big Society idea that we'd all do far more volunteering, but with my football hat on "it's all gone quiet over there"

Should have titled this racism in football crowds of course. Think there is a fine divide between changing someone's behaviour as opposed to the sledge hammer approach. The twot at the Chelsea Man U league cup match does amuse me though, "I am so so sorry for doing the monkey impression, please please don't ban me for life" The thread was based on a couple of real experiences, but as one was second hand don't know how objectionable the person was - yes stewards were brought in and yes no doubt he will get a banning order.

Heifer whines could be human cries Closer comes the screaming knife This beautiful creature must die This beautiful creature must die A death for no reason And death for no reason is MURDER And the flesh you so fancifully fry Is not succulent, tasty or kind It's death for no reason And death for no reason is MURDER And the calf that you carve with a smile Is MURDER And the turkey you festively slice Is MURDER Do you know how animals die ? Kitchen aromas aren't very homely It's not "comforting", cheery or kind It's sizzling blood and the unholy stench Of MURDER It's not "natural", "normal" or kind The flesh you so fancifully fry The meat in your mouth As you savour the flavour Of MURDER

The good ? Orient?s ninth win in a row Wigan at Villa Walcott bucking the trend and either staying on his feet, or getting up quickly, after what were two cast iron pens. Good to see that Arsenal didn?t have to cheat this time. The bad - Steve Clarke?s lack of ambition in team selection against Man U who were up for the taking, stopping a Man U player from scoring until the 90th minute is not a moral victory The Ugly - (but rather amusing) the comparison of SAF with the Queen on Radio 5s Fighting Talk - always looking glum at sporting events apart from horse racing Bale (aka Ben Stiller/Ted) for going down so softly. Oh it was his momentum says MOTD. Bollocks, his momentum was good enough to brush aside the slightest of touches. It is a physical game.

I was there on my beloved terraces when opposition fans (not every team, and I wont name them) chanted "nigger nigger lick my boots" (I am quoting, so will use the term), and 100s of bananas were thrown onto the pitch. It was wrong, even so a different world when Shoot magazine had an article on the lack of black players, and blamed mental attitude. Oh how they were proved wrong. I recall 15 years later monkey chants close to a ground at a black bus driver. Now all changed, including the attitude both of fans and the authorities and thankfully society as a whole. You can be a lanky b'tard, fat b'stard, bald b'stard but not a b'tard of any particular ethnicity when being insulted from the terraces. OK so these may be offensive terms, but in the manner of JT offensive, not racist. And I heard a great story, Millwall fans taunting Marlon King, a man who has a bit of a dodgy past - "you're just a black Jimmmy Savile". And a couple start discussing, questioning whether they are being racist or not (how times have changed). I think this is another JT outcome. So my question dear reader is how far does zero tolerance go. If someone is being racist, do you say please disist from being racist my dear man (or madam), this is 2012 not 1912. Or do you go straight to the stewards, get them kicked out and banned for life (which will happen). Not a loaded question, just interested in views as I came across this almost first hand the other day. Don't go to FIFA 13 as that wont give you an answer. Depending on the results tomorrow I'll tell a story from New Years Day 1979.

Nicely left to the audiences immagination - did he live or not (think not with the closing credits) and lots of unfinished sub plots left open. Homelands, take note, how to leave things in eternal suspense.

Caught the final version in 4OD last night - not the same watching it on your computer. Thought it ended very interestingly with a sting in the tail; there were some holes but I'll leave it there. And surely it should be left there, with the audience wondering and questioning. Please tell me that they are not serious about further series.

I put bugger all salt in my food, and try to use little oil. Just sometimes you need a little bit more of both!

I spent three days at Iceland HQ in the 1990s, very impressive in those days with a very tight business model. I had great fun telling everyone I was spending three days in Iceland. Almost as much fun as when I went to the Nissan factory in Washington. Tyne and Wear.

Appart from Hillsborough, which was due to the fences (and the crush) rather than the actual terracing themselves (although as already discussed it was the design and management, as much as the numbers, that caused it) I am not aware of ANY disaster that was a result of people standing. Surely the same argument could be applied to 2000 people standing in a relatively confined space a the Brixton Academy. Perhaps we should all have allocated seats in pubs nowadays. Anyway to return to the terracing vs seats argument - the Torygraph has listed twenty or so footy stadium disasters: www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/3003121/Football-stadium-disasters.html One or two were due to stampedes, so this may have been on the terracing - more common is stands collapsing, or crushes as people try to exit (and often turning round to go back in when there is some late excitement). Don't real understand all this safe standing business. At overdesigned stadium like the Emirates you can quite easily stand in total comfort. You are still miles away from the nearest person, so it doesn't make it any more atmospheric. Perhaps that is why Loftus Road is such a shed of a ground, you are so crowded in those tight seats, it makes it feel like the old days. Well in a rare fit of trying to consider both sides of the argument I put away my blinkered rose tinted specs, recalling the Millwall riot at Luton in the late 80s, although this may have been aimed at the boys in blue. And considering on the Millwall theme, my first recollection of serious football violance was when Birmingham City pipped Millwall to promotion to the top Divsision in 1972 (Millwall must have ambushed the coaches returning from Orient, where Birmingham won on the last day of the season). That was in the days of the old Den, mainly standing. Fast forward almost 40 years and the same thing happened at the lovely new Den, all seater, when Birmingham beat Millwall in a play off semi final. So all seaters didn't seem to change things. It may be with the change of demographics, more money in the game, marketing, Sky etc most don't want to go back to standing. I think its lost its soul; but thats my humble opinion. Disappointed that following my alternative view on branding, that some lightweights have returned to FIFA 13 for their kicks and no one else recalled that once upon a time teenagers outside the North West supported Man Ure just so they could go round the play ground chanting "Hello hello, United aggro, United aggro". This isn't an anti Millwall tirade, just that if you want examples of bother this is a mine of such information.

Otta In the 1970s big grounds starting to do daft things like building a seating tier above one of the standing ends and reducing the bank of terracing. For segregation they then divided the reduced sections up, usually just the 'away end'. And for fear of fans invading the pitch they put fences up. All wrong. a) reduced standing areas led to less room for the masses to move when the teracing was packed. b) The pens exacerbated this c) And finally with fences up at the front there was no room for fans to spill onto the pitch in a crush. There were two famous matches with trouble on the terracing, both televised. Firstly in 75/6 when Man U picked up thousands of 'fans' living nowhere near Manchester due to their reputation for trouble, they were playing Derby at that s'hole the baseball ground. There was a pitch invasion but the cameras showed it was all handbags - like a sort of wild dance to 'everybody was Kung Fu Dancing'. Just a load of teenage posers from both sides pretending to be hard. The other one was when Palace won at Chelsea in the cup and it all kicked off. It was all pre-arranged stuff with a few tens of nutters facing off. And there were poor kids who couldn't get away from it due to those bloody fences/netting that they had at the Bridge. Virtually all the real bother happened outside the ground (as now), most of it inside was just posing, and was usually quickly broken up by the heavy policing. Fences were not needed, and eventually fatal. I also remember there would always be a fair number of home fans in the away end before the pens were set-up. Trouble was limited, and usually between a few people from both sides who wanted to have a go. The pens went up and then it got a lot more tribal. For some reason some home fans liked standing in the away end, normally because it was less crowded. The pens went up at it got far more tribal. At the same time, due to stuff that went on in earlier decades capacities were reduced and more crash barriers went up. Unlike now everyone could move to where they could get a view, and kids tended to move to the front. Atmosphere was great, never any risk of a crush etc etc. And with large away ends (before the terracing was reduced) there would always be a cracking atmosphere playing the 'big' Northern clubs as they would bring down 10000 plus. Bit hostile at times, but fond memories. Newcastle brought down over 20000 for a cup match once, when the cup still meant something. Bloody Blayden races and 'Supermac' being sung virtually all around the ground. Compare Villa Park with Hillsborough. Both similar designs in the away end. A sell out match in 1979, I am in the central pen behind the goals and it is getting a bit crowded. the police open up the ens, and move a few 100 of us to the side pens to even out the loading. Hardly rocket science. My simple point is the atmosphere has suffered so much. But that no doubt is also due to societal reasons as well. Mr Devil, it is called debate and banter. I have a strong view, you present your alternative. Here's one - football is business, and it is all about branding. Man Ure have the world's biggest brand, and therefore will be as a whole the most successful team and attract business not only across Britain but around the world. Clearly I think this is a retrograde step but no doubt I am in a minority.

I put 'authentic' in inverted commas for exactly the reason others have pointed out - there is no such thing. Do try the India Club in the Strand, opposite the High Commission, where Indian's serving and no doubt Indian's eating, so they no doubt know there own 'shit' What a strange thing to say KidKruger. Very mixed reviews I hasten to add. And having not been to India for a few years, no doubt everything evolves. I spent years trying to perfect my own curry and then worked out what I was doing wrong, not enough salt and not enough oil. There's healthy for you.

Some great ideas here. I always add orange juice (cheap stuff) and sugar. Brandy too. A lemon with cloves in it is both decorative and functional. I'd use a full bodied wine, but experiment. It will take some time for all the alcohol to boil off. Other intersting ingredients are pepercorns, and .... whole chillies, both will give it a kick, but make sure not to eat! Grated ginger will do similar. I tend not to add more as it cooks, apart from liquid, as using some raw spices will strenthen things. Don't use those bloody spice teabags, and don't ever ever ever buy that spiced wine from Ikea. Yes dear reader, I did venture there once, through the rear entrance so I could order something functional, but I too got sucked into an impulse purchase. I am so ashamed So back to teh recipes - great advice here, experiment and develop you own fave.

Thoroughly enjoyable MOTD tonight, and I am continuing to laff at Arry. I doubt whether any of you light-weights will join in with anything I have to say about modern life is rubbish but here are my top hates about the modern game, as shown today. Scroll to the end for my top one; and please don't debate number 1, that wasn't the point of the posting. 1. All seater stadiums. Hillsborough was truly horrific, but it was not terracing that caused the tragedy, but fencing, crowd management, policing etc etc. 2. All seater stadiums that were not designed as such - where you pay ?35 to have a restricted view - Anfield, Goodison, Loftus Road to name a few. 3. New, design by flat pack, stadiums in some retail park in the middle of nowhere, with no pubs, no character, no nothing - Majeski, Pride Park, etc 4. Stadiums that have dispensed with the home and away ends - cynical by Aston Villa, and bland in the Emirates 5. Expensive bland megabrewery beer in grounds, hat's off to Orient and I can't wait to sample the local Brodies' bitter 6. Clubs that change kits when playing away, when there is not a clash. Yes I know it is all about sponsorship and selling shirts, but with away kits changing annually most will have no affinity with them. A curse on both Newcastle (who lost) and Chelsea (who sadly won today) 7. Should be top of the list; playing that bloody Piranaha's track or whatever when you score. Again a further curse to you second rate teams - Wolves, QPR, Reading, Forest etc. Shame that Wigan do it, as I have far more time for them and they have not had the rub of the green. 8. Gareth Bale's haircut and celebrations. 9. Players in short sleeves and gloves - I ask you, wet but very mild today. What is that about?? 10. And wait for it. That whinging twot Fergurson. Smile damn you. Show some humility. You may have a crap defence but you are 7 points clear and will walk it. Stop moaning about refs when we all remember: the golden rule that no one gets penalties at Old Trafford and Fergie time. Prefer that miserable bloke Phelan to you. So plenty of food for thought if you can be bothered to get into a proper debate. Equally as happy to be rubbished, as agreed with. Shame about Palace today. That is Crystal Palace one of our local teams.