tifosi

Oooh, that smarts!! :P

dominant New Zealand!

They'll have to do the video again... everyone knows the sun doesn't shine on that part of Manchestaaar! ;)

What a miss by Torres! :rolleyes:

one of them was due for the chop....

meh, indeed!! :rolleyes:

Yes and no. Yes for same price in mainland UK & NI. Different postage per size of letter/parcel. And extra for packages, weight & insurance. Private companies are pretty similar but tend to make most of their money off corporate clients so focus on guarateed delivery. Suspect that if the US is opened out then this is the way it will go.

So long as the don't do like the did in the UK and allow the post-office to be paid by advertisers (hereby known as leaflet spammers) to post 20 shades of shite through your door for stuff you'll never buy, offers you'll never take, and insurance you'll never need!!

Wild, wet and windy. After - officially - the coldest summer in the UK for 20yrs (and the most goddam cloudy and miserable one here for years) it looks like autumn has come early.

wax on wax off!! Go on Sammy!! :)

The big difference now is that all 3 countries are far more 'open' due to tourism and the globalisation of communication in the last 30years. Spain had an attempted Military coup in the 90s I think which was swiftly dealt with. If this happens then it would mean that there would have been far more serious instances elsewhere globally and in Europe and not just a by-produst of the current financial instablility. Sounds like scaremongering by someone with an agenda at worst or simply a fundemental lack of understanding at best. At worst will be a reorganisation of the euro and a drastic devaluation of currencies. Spain & Greece's populations especially aren't liking the projected austerity measures but in the end they're either going to have to like it or lump it. I can see at Greece at least leaving the euro. It would certainly help their tourist industry. It used to be cheap to go to Greece. Now it's not.

Manchester 13 - NorthLondon 3 SuperSunday indeed!!

wet here!!

Yay! sod off you goaty bearded philanderer!! :)

S****horpe v Newcastle you've gotta love the profanity filter!! :)

ooohh err missus!!! :P

I was more relating that to2008/9 - 2011 where if we'd let more major banks fail and then picked up the shards of the broken system it would have been tougher but ultimately a shorter roller coaster Still might happen, if the other 2 credit rating agencies downgrade the US bonds then there will be more cries for the return of the gold standard, or more likely a country independent standard currency. I'm not, that's why I had the dichotomy of rubbing their hands and sweaty palms. The strength of their system - and their political ideology - is supported by their export/import balance. Already this is shifting towards deficit though far from it due to increased living standards and expectations vs lower exports.

Jen, You might want to change your status from happy to 'worried, very worried'. We're in the shitter and not getting out of it any time soon. The ploughing of money into the banking system to hold up the financial industry and to avoid the second phase of the classical double-dip recession has failed.... miserably. I'm afraid the one thing you can never trust a labour party to do is understand economics and finance. From Harold Wilson and beyond to the flagrant and astonishingly beligerant profligacy of the last government. The national credit card has been maxed out. Instead of a nasty but survivable couple of years we now have the prospect of a min 3-5year recovery and more likely 10yrs. As much as I generally support the tough love that is the austrity measures introduced, more to generate confidence in Sterling and UK Ltd there are still some serious failings, and the lack of direct movement in Bank reformation is one. But for the PPI write-offs the banks - esp the 'nationalised' ones would be making big profits... and using these profits to prioritise the payoff of the bailouts. But where is this money coming from? You got it. Us! Not just us in the UK but every global country where they have their sticky little mits in. They've let then off the hook out of sheer fear of the threats of abandoning the UK as trashing our GDP, which they wouldn't do anyway... we're too much of a money hog! The US has already had their national platinum credit card cut up and been given a tacky gold one. If the dominos fall in the EU, with Spain & Italy first then we're falling into depression territory. Germany won't continue to bail out, nor will France - they're pretty much broke, and the EMF is rinning out of ideas. An beyond this is China, part rubbing its hands, and part with sweaty palms.

And now get ready for the transfer window... where's Cav going? And then some REAL races, not the namby pamby media circus that is the tour. The Vuelta, tour of Lombardy & the worlds. And my end of season sportives!! :)

....................../´¯/) ....................,/¯../ .................../..../ ............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸ ........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\ ........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...') .........\.................'...../ ..........''...\.......... _.·´ ............\..............( ..............\.............\...

and his caddie gives the 1 fingered salute to Tiger Woods as well. Amen to that!

uh-oh!! ;) not far from the terrible 2's!!

Go Sammy! Only another 3 flights to climb!! :)

Jenson Button!! Ave It! In yer face lady boy... that's how it's done!!! HA

Is that Sammy in the new conservatory??