Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Here ya go old man ... PORN!!


Was in town and saw this in a shop window and thought of you.

December looks like a right tear up of a night out !!

Lol, "4 titles + mince pies"!

[Colchester Kev]

Here ya go old man ... PORN!!


Was in town and saw this in a shop window and thought of you.

December looks like a right tear up of a night out !!

Four titties included though.......

Look at the text in the bottom right hand corner, "Why not bring a friend?"

I will tell you why not ... people that go to these things HAVE NO BLOODY FRIENDS !!  

[marcro]

Black September - the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics?

[Acidmouse]

Poll tax riots, miners strikes.

I might include the Miners Strike, though as I said before, it may belong in "The Thatcher Years", though perhaps it's worth being a stand-alone.

What great TV & Print Media coverage it got, & what a figure Scargill cut, with everyone loving him or hating him. Nobody was ambivelant towards Scargill. The sub-plot was the battle between the NUM & DUM (?), and as I was working in Nottingham & Yorkshire at the time, I got to see & know a lot of the characters. Interesting to reflect upon it now, & Thatcher, hate her all you like, got it right, the Government could not subsidise it forever. These days no Prime Minister would dare make such a stand.

Poll Tax. No, I would not include it on principle, because the whole thing angered me so much, then as now. Rates, Poll Tax, it made no difference, we have to pay for our LG services, but it was a stick to beat Thatcher with, & the Media expolited it shocking, stirring up unrest.

We subsidise imported coal now and ever since they closed all the mines down. It was not about coal but breaking down the power of the Unions.

Regarding the poll tax, it does make a difference. All you have to do is ask a Tory MP if they agreed with it and they all look sheepish and say no. Watched some documentaries about the Poll tax and she kept pushing the idea forward against all her party wishes, at that point in her job at PM should was not listening to her closest ad visors. No one minds paying for our LG services but I dont want to pay the same amount as Lord Harwood who had a 40m pound house down the road. For me the Poll tax riots was democracy at its best, such a fundamentally wrong idea rejected by the masses.

[tikay]

Poll tax riots, miners strikes.

I might include the Miners Strike, though as I said before, it may belong in "The Thatcher Years", though perhaps it's worth being a stand-alone.

What great TV & Print Media coverage it got, & what a figure Scargill cut, with everyone loving him or hating him. Nobody was ambivelant towards Scargill. The sub-plot was the battle between the NUM & DUM (?), and as I was working in Nottingham & Yorkshire at the time, I got to see & know a lot of the characters. Interesting to reflect upon it now, & Thatcher, hate her all you like, got it right, the Government could not subsidise it forever. These days no Prime Minister would dare make such a stand.

Poll Tax. No, I would not include it on principle, because the whole thing angered me so much, then as now. Rates, Poll Tax, it made no difference, we have to pay for our LG services, but it was a stick to beat Thatcher with, & the Media expolited it shocking, stirring up unrest.

I thought the whole miners strike episode was very ironic - the miners making a stand for the working class which in turn, through enormous overtime claims and overnight stays, led to the police officers being able to afford new houses, cars, and foreign holidays.

Well as you know Trace, some of the Police - who had been drafted in from all over the UK - were earning absolute fortunes - HUGE sums. They sat chatting in vans & portakabins 90% of the time, but the other 10% was sheer hell, worker v worker really. Horrible, I hated that image of a coppers & a miners fighting, & knocking each other about. Scargill & Thatcher both exploited it, of course. All very sad.

A whole cottage-industry built up around the Strike, too, mainly "Mobile Catering", but B & B, all sorts. The end of the Strike was regretted by many.

The prompts are making me re-think the inclusion of this Story actually. The 'leccy "rationing", where we only had electricity x days or hours per week. Imagine that today, the kidz not being able to watch telly, or play poker. There'd be proper riots.....

Of course, no Government would be able to survive, the Media would shred them, & the readers would fall for it, just as the public have been led to believe that the Banks, or the Government, were between them, solely to blame for the Credit-Crunch.

[tikay]

Black September - the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics?

No - it never hit any nerves with me. Should have, but did not.

[MANTIS01]

I would like to offer a few words about John Hartson who left hospital today. I was never a big fan of his football talent but the story of his fight against cancer has seen me cheering this guy on. At the age of just 34 he was admitted to hospital seemingly riddled with cancer. He underwent a number of life-saving operations to his brain and at one point many thought his days were numbered, me included. In the depths of his demise the news that his partner was pregnant with his fourth child brought a lump to my throat. But this guy is a fighter, he has miraculously survived this first ordeal and is ready to face the next challenge of three months intense chemo to fight the cancer. Good luck to him.

[tikay]

I would like to offer a few words about John Hartson who left hospital today. I was never a big fan of his football talent but the story of his fight against cancer has seen me cheering this guy on. At the age of just 34 he was admitted to hospital seemingly riddled with cancer. He underwent a number of life-saving operations to his brain and at one point many thought his days were numbered, me included. In the depths of his demise the news that his partner was pregnant with his fourth child brought a lump to my throat. But this guy is a fighter, he has miraculously survived this first ordeal and is ready to face the next challenge of three months intense chemo to fight the cancer. Good luck to him.

Yes, I wish him well, too.

As a Footballer, I despised him, but this is different, & I hope he wins through.

[byronkincaid]

Jim Jones, hadn't heard of him before today,

when is that blonde bash to south america again tikay messiah sir?

[I KNOW IT]

Do you remember the Carl Bridgewater murder case that as a big case during my school days

Yes - the paper-boy who was shot.

4 wrong 'uns, who were committing burglary when disturbed by Carl, all got 25 years minumum, including one who was only 17.

They all got long sentences because it could not be proven who murdered Carl - the same logic as prevailed in the GTR, when they all got 30 years+ because it was never established who hit Jack Mills.

After some years, their sentences (the Bridgewater Four) were quashed, as it was proven that the Police fitted them up.

Interesting story, very tragic, but not in my Top 20.

What would be in your Top 10, Craig?

9/11. I remember the chill down my spine I got after seeing the first plane overhead after this happened.

Death of Diana, The effect that had on people was unbelievable, one of those " you remember where you were when you heard the news"

The break through of the Channel tunnel.

Iranian embassy seige.

Yorkshire Ripper.
 I remember as a kid, me and my mates going to the local phonebox and putting in 2p to listen to the recording of the voice of the Ripper. I believe it was later proved it was not him and someone was arrested for impersonating him, (may be wrong on that)

Poll tax riots

End of the Berlin Wall

IRA/Northern Ireland, even though I was too young to remember the Birmingham pub bombings they were always close to home

think of others later

I always remember the OJ Simpson trial but wouldnt say its in my top 10

The 7/7 bombings probably should be but I was in Vegas at the time and didnt see much news and it may have had more of an impact on me if I was at home.

[gatso]

my personal top 10 in no particular order and subject to change

- 911- for obv reasons

- solidarność and the fall of communism. completely changed a huge portion of the world very much for the better and in a large part led to my next choice

- end of the cold war

- kings cross

- end of apartheid

- chernobyl

- falklands

- lockerbie

- death of john-paul II. this one would never have made the list if I'd been in the UK but as I was in Poland for the last years of his papacy it had a huge impact. think the effect princess diana's death had over here and multiply it by a few

- the 2004 EU accessions. again one that wouldn't have made it had I been in the UK but watching and entire region change and develop almost overnight was incredible. also the celebratory parties were excellent

[tikay]

Jim Jones, hadn't heard of him before today,

when is that blonde bash to south america again tikay messiah sir?

As usual, you've whooshed me there Byron.

Who was/is Jim Jones, please?

[gatso]

sigh, already need to add another. can I have a top 11?

the IRA/Northern Ireland. growing up with your country effectively at war but not officially is a tricky one to explain to people overseas

I was very close to the downing street car bomb when it went off, bloody loud it was

[byronkincaid]

glad it's not just me then, he killed 900 people apparently

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

http://www.culteducation.com/jonestown.html

[tikay]

This may be a bit too "tl:dr" for most, but if you enjoy fine writing, this is well worth a few minutes gander. If you don't enjoy Test Cricket or Football, look away now.

It's by Giles Smith, who is The Times's (is that apostrophe correct, Mr Pedant Phillips?) TV Sport critic.

I've split it into two parts to make it more digestible.

"Move on. Dust yourself down.” The words of David “Bumble” Lloyd - wise and to the point, as ever, after England sank through the floor at Headingley Carnegie, leaving a television audience staring disconsolately into a gaping, 2½-day hole where the rest of a Test match was supposed to go.

Yet even peering into the site of that unnatural collapse, there were little amusements to be found - sights to gladden the heart and quicken the spirit. Such as Graeme Swann messing up Stuart Clark's bowling figures. And Peter Siddle repeatedly flinging the ball to the boundary and getting a small caning from Stuart Broad. Thus did England contrive to pull a couple of perfectly edible baked potatoes from the bonfire of defeat.

“At the moment there's a few teapots out there - a few hands on hips,” Shane Warne, in the commentary box, noted. This was during a passage of play when, instead of catching the ball, certain Australia fielders were seeing how many times they could tip it over the boundary - always good value.

Even better value: the reaction of Ricky Ponting. You know the Australia captain is properly wound up when the chewing gum makes an appearance in advance of the teeth. Ponting is no great adopter of the teapot, but he can be made to work the “huffily folded arms” motif very hard and, at such times, pleasingly seems to be doing his best to disguise the fact that he has just inhaled a passing wasp.

Just to add to the general amusement, there was a brief mix-up over the score, a confusion down to Billy Bowden, the umpire, who used a whole repertoire of freelance hand gestures to signal four wides. Or was it two byes? Or was it 12-1 the rest of the field? Clarification did not ensue when Bowden began issuing further instructions with his upheld fingers, as if performing the official pledge of the worldwide Scouting movement. Dib, dib, dib, dob, dob, dob, etc.

“I'm not sure Billy's 100 per cent sure about anything at the moment,” Warne said. “Maybe where to stand at square leg,” he added, generously. Yet since Graham Poll retired, there has been an aching vacancy for a top-drawer sporting official prepared to draw attention to himself at every available opportunity. And, you know what? The best candidate was under our noses the whole time.

More.....