Sam

Eagles of Death Metal - Death by Sexy and Heart On Pete Molinari - A Virtual Landslide Gomez - A New Tide, only listened through twice and liking it so far Banksy, I've heard Pulse by Holy F*ck and liked it. Does the rest of their stuff carry on in the same vein? Might well puchase!

No, damn it, I'm not! Anyone got a spare?? Saw them supporting Calexico a few years ago and they were great. Hopefully Zach is feeling fit and well and will play up to the usual standards. Hope it is a great one for you, Prancingpony. V jealous!

Only 2 specialist fly halves does seem a bit risky and I'm never keen at the idea of non-specialists covering that position (which presumably they will look to Flutey to do at a pinch). But they can always fly players out to join the tour, I suppose. I would worry a bit at O'Callaghan starting. I like him and his physical approach but he seems to get into a lot of pointless scrapes at the moment. If he has a short fuse then he can expect to get some attention. Giving away penalties (esp at altitude) and yellow cards will be very costly. But then again I've got a soft spot for Simon Shaw and I can see him being an effective starter and then replaced at 50 mins or so. Hines and Wyn-Jones are good picks too. Second row is probably one of the few areas where the Lions have quality throughout. I like Croft too but I don't think he is physical enough and the pack is picked to be very competitive and hard, rather than expansive. Ryan Jones' form has not been good enough of late to merit a pick, although he must have been close particularly given that Shane Williams hasn't been tearing up trees in 2009. Incidentally I can't see Williams starting, at the moment. The squad highlights the problems in the domestic sides in that we're not blessed with a true openside other than Martyn Williams, a world class 9 or a 10 that offers a non-kicking game. It will be fairly grunty stuff, as bignumber5 says, with the pack being not particularly mobile, and the 10 kicking for territory. Can't blame the management though. In these days of professionalism chucking together 30 blokes and taking on a true Test side is not easy and certainly no place for Baa Baas style rugby. Who would you pick in the centres and at front row? Tricky ones - Flutey was much improved during the 6 nations and he does create space in the manner that Darcy does for BOD. But arguably Roberts and Shanklin are the form centres! For the front row I think Sheridan is lucky to tour but I'd go for Gethin Jenkins and Murray propping with Flannery hooking (if he can keep his temper). BBQs and Lions - bloody marvellous! We'll get hosed 3-0 but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. We should try and keep up the Lions banter through the tour.

Sadly, SimonM, it's not just the owner's garden that a cat has access to.

cate Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > "...Oh, and you'll have to get a litter tray > too.........." Does this mean that cat owners do not buy litter trays as a matter of course? Apologies for straying off topic.

I've had similarly unsatisfactory experiences i.e. the call for the telephone consultation happened an hour before it was supposed to and I was lucky to be at my desk to take the call. To make matters worse, I was told that I could pick up a prescription that evening as the practice was open until 8pm. Left work a bit early and got there just after 7pm to find that everyone had gone home except the cleaner. I was very annoyed and left a note explaining I was there, they weren't, I want my prescription and an explanation and apology. That was several weeks ago and I've heard nothing. They've had ample opportunity to respond but apparently they cannot be bothered. I know they got the note because I left it on the counter and I saw it on the receptionists' desk when I collected my prescription the next morning. If I was annoyed at that, I can't imagine how I would have reacted if I had been one of the two people there who had been booked in for appointments after 7pm that evening... I shall be voting with my feet and will take my germs elsewhere.

The whole episode is saddening. What is especially depressing is that Shu.Kurimu.Sensei and his wife have endured racism to such a degree that they are not comfortable going out in ED. I recognise that there are idiots everywhere but I would have hoped for better.

Sounds great to me...although not this Friday. Offered my help for Sunday but didn't hear back. Always happy to help out. Sadly I fear being in there is directly linked to money leaving my wallet...On reflection probably not a bad thing!

F*ck yeah! Of course, we all should be wearing obscure band t-shirts...

Balls!

It's pretty tough trying to concentrate on work when it's such a lovely day outside!

It's pretty tough trying to concentrate on work when it's such a lovely day outisde!

Apologies in advance for the shameless plug - James Hunter and Edgar Jones and the Joneses are playing on Monday 21 July at a Mojo event at the Arts Theatre...

That does make sense Kel. I was going to some friends' gig at The Jazz Cafe and decided to pay on the door on the night rather than pay the crazy booking fees online. Given that I was getting some other people along I decided the prudent thing was to call the venue and make sure that they were selling tickets on the night. They were but at greater cost than was available online! Now I understand why. On a related point, I always thought that this was quite cool: "sigur r?s and the toothfaeries, the creators of their merchandise, are fed up with the extortionate fees they are required to pay to concert venues for selling their t-shirts to fans at the american shows. half of the profit of all merchandise sold at tonight?s show at ?the joint? in the hard rock hotel, las vegas, goes to the venue and new taxes. sigur r?s have decided to protest against these ridiculous fees by selling their t-shirts for $1 each at tonight?s show in las vegas, leaving the venue with about 50 cents per tshirt. here is a message from the band?s manager regarding the decision." (from here clickety click) Apparently it cost the band and toothfaeries some money but they wanted to register their protest nonetheless.

I've not yet made it to one of the get togethers but am hoping to do so in the future. Would be nice to meet you guys.

Just popped back in and bought a couple of CDs of independent artists I'd not heard of before and which John recommended to me. We had a nice little listen in the shop and the recommendations were great. It's lovely to be able to do that. I actually went in to buy a CD for my brother's birthday but ended up buying some for me too!

Ms B I like the sound of that top... But I do agree with you - I don't mind the clothes in White Stuff and I've bought a few of their shirts. Think people are overly harsh.

We popped in too and had a nice chat with John. I'll be going back once he's managed to put a bit more stock out and hopefully make some purchases. Best of luck to him.

Hi KK. Good point. Yep we mentioned it everytime it happened. We didn't leave written complaints but we did (politely) point out to the staff the amount of time we've been waiting and saying that it wasn't good enough etc. etc. I like the place and would love to be able to go back without wondering if 90 minutes is long enough to eat breakfast.

We've been increasingly miffed at this too. Been a number of times when it has happened and we've had to hurry things along. Hope they do address this soon!

Tend to go for train to Elephant and Castle (from Denmark Hill) or bus to Elephant (if you can stand sitting on the Walworth Road for ages) and then Bakerloo line from there.

I'm shining my tankard as we speak (not intended to be a euphemism...). Looking forward to it.

Ha ha! Unfortunately JJF the post was posted when I didn't mean it to and was about to take that line out because it made it sound like some sort of personal ad!

There has been a huge amount of vitriol directed at ESPH. I love the place. Know a lot about opening and running a gym eater81? Going by what I've heard from the staff, they're meeting their targets and subscriptions are where they want them to be. I was a member at a central London gym for a long time - it had loads of aerobic machines, a boxing ring, punch bags and tonnes of free-weights. It also had all the usual creatine guzzling meatheads that go with it. As you have said, it's horses for courses and everybody has a different opinion of what constitutes a decent gym. The fact that it isn't massive and that there are classes and help etc. freely (in all senses) available works just fine for me. Your biggest gripe was the number of, or lack of, free weights. I did go to Fusion a couple of times and found the free weights section to be something that looked like it had been cobbled together from purchases at car boot sales. Maybe they've done something about that recently and would happily stand corrected. As for the weight machines, you can set them pretty high on the pneumatic ones and the reason the physios give for choosing those over weights is that they are a better action for you and your joints (something to do with a smoother, more consistent resistance or something). If you're lucky enough to be a big guy with slabs of muscle and that is what interests you, then I agree that ESPH probably isn't for you. Again, you acknowledge that. But to wholesale slag it off seems unnecessary. When I was going to my previous gym I was using fairly high weights of dumbbells for things like bicep curls. Now, at ESPH, I'm using much lower weights because the technique and type of exercise they've got me doing is far better i.e. it isolates the particular muscle. Again, using bicep curls as an example, it's easy to "curl" a 30+kg weight if you're chucking it up using your arm AND your shoulder. Unless you're a total beefcake, curling the same weight with good form and just using your bicep is a totally different kettle of fish. I'm sure that any of the PT's at the old gym would have happily pointed out the error of my technique. I'm not saying that ESPH is unique in that regard. What I am saying is that when I first looked around I too thought "22kgs? That's not enough" but when I was doing my assessment and first session I was (unpleasantly) surprised that at the moment 22kgs is plenty to aspire too! I'm not having a pop. I'm also not suggesting you don't know how to work out. I just feel that people don't give it a fair crack of the whip. It isn't cheap, admittedly, but to have a go at the place just because it doesn't suit you seems a bit harsh. Of course, I recognise, and embrace, that forums are precisely the place where people can air their views and speak freely. It just felt a little bit like an attack.

Chips on shoulders still in evidence