El Pibe

exactly, 3 shoes was for the over 18s back then ;)

Story was today he claims he has the confidence of the management. In a long tradition that's out by the end of the week then!

From what I can work out non endorsable (ie no points on your licence) tickets are 60 quid, endorsable ones 100 quid (and upwards). No MOT is the exception to the former infringements with a ?100 fine. I'm guessing they don't have a seperate form for that, so as Otta suggested they just scrawl the larger figure on the non endorsable pentalty charge ticket. I doubt you'll be able to contest it though i've heard of people contesting less clear cut cases and winning. Either way I'd suggest you cough up and reclaim, as the fine could keep growing with continued failure to pay.

definite crossed lines, all seems to have worked out. But great suggestion RD, you're more than welcome to take him.

Big Fat Sam would be perfect, he has recent form in taking over a london club with a long tradition of playing an entertainig brand of passing football.

Hardly massively surprising in today's game. If the other TLA could go next please.......

I'm not sure, it clashed with the US one, and he'd see that as a massive step back. Same reason Louis keeps rejecting the Irish one, i think he said something like 'once you been in Rolls Royce why would you get into a mini" or something equally patronising.

The obvious solution to your woes is to kncok your house down and rebuild it from scratch putting in about 2 miles of cat 6 cabling to multiple data sockets in every room, I'm sure that's workable for most.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensions_crisis

saturday night's Wagner extravaganza summed up what's wrong with the show trying to be a singing competition rather than panto. It's lost its ability to entertain. Gary gave it some minor CPR, but if there had been another insipid clone a la dannii or tulisa rather than Sharon there, I suspect that this might have been the last one (at least until it underwent Dr Who style regeneration and became X Idol in the Jungle, or something)

:) I also noted that 90% of the control subjects rumbled they either were being given booze when they were told it wasn't booze, or vice versa!

Ah yes, the poo thread was a classic, pity it was shut down.

BRilliant, this year's ignobel pyschology prize http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02114.x/full ?Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder? they had me at "This research examines the role of alcohol consumption on self-perceived attractiveness" And I'm sure quids will appreciate the: PROBABILITY PRIZE: Bert Tolkamp [uK, the NETHERLANDS], Marie Haskell [uK], Fritha Langford [uK, CANADA], David Roberts [uK], and Colin Morgan [uK], for making two related discoveries: First, that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up; and Second, that once a cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again.

"I tend to suffer tiredness these days rather than a hangover" I think it's just called fatherhood isn't it? Like quids I'll rarely have more than a bottlwe of wine with the missus on a friday night (we feel terrible if we carck open another) or four pints on a night out. THe five o clock start just becomes too damn hard.

Any stand out moments in 2013? The street Food thread was quite fun. I suppose it should also be a time for reflection upon those who have left us, Mandela, Huguenot...

blimey, poor Chang, executed for "selling off national resources at too low a price, factional manoeuvring ... womanising, playboy activities and ?drunkenness and general immorality?. I'm not sure we'd have any left if we did that here, Boris would go for starters!!

spurs not exactly banging them in. yeah, voted with my usual loathing of liverpool to a narrow spurs win that won't come to pass. I probably realistically reckon 3-1 liverpool

tbh absolutely every NYE has been a massive anticlimax since the old days of The Fox in Willian. I've been at home with good friends for 7 years on the trot now. better booze, no queuing four deep at the bar, sciatica, I'm losing my memory, my memory isn't as good as it used to be...slippers.....death.......

ok, done (19 missed predictions and counting....)

some jolly nice pics of yesterday's fog http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2013/12/11/23-dazzling-photos-of-the-fog-enveloping-london/

I survived last night's mostly thanks to the fact that I had to be up at 5 to drive the family to city airport. But it was actually pretty good, it was in the atrium at the back of the Natural History Museum underneath the big globe thing, food was nice and (must be the age thing as you say) I didn't get wabsnasmed and had a pleasant evening with some folk I'd not met before. I still shudder at the (hazy) memories of bygone ones though.

In my experience private health care is a way to speed up the torpid referral system before inevitably being treated in the doctor's NHS practice anyway. In other words you enrich a bunch of shareholders to jump the NHS queue but still use up its precious resources. What a cad!!!

Are those the lunchtime prices? ;)

Worst sort of scaremongering, get a grip foxy!! It took me years before I dare set foot on a farm lest I drowned in a slurry pit whilst being crushed by hay stacks, ploughed up by a tractor and electrocuted whilst getting my frisby (that may have been another one). There's one thing promoting sensible caution and another to tell people THEY'll DIE IF THEY WEAR osbourne stewart HEADPHONES!!!!!!

Parkdrive, meet the interminable cyclist/motorist culture war. interminable cyclist/motorist culture war, meet Parkdrive. You'll get on famously.