Meenzer

What took you so long?

I'm surprised you're buying into that. They persuaded the sitting MP to change to a slightly differently-coloured horse midstream. Not even remotely comparable to targeting a seat from scratch.

The second one is "...but I really fancy Jessica Ennis."

Parky's mileage may vary.

At one level there's always been huge awareness and sensitivity about it - even waving the German flag was seen as excessively nationalistic until this side of the millennium, with the change driven largely by the 2006 World Cup and the football team's recent success generally - but at another level I think a good chunk of the younger generation feel fairly disconnected from it, in the sense of "we know what happened and won't let it happen again but why should we still bear collective guilt for it?" (or, if you prefer, "why are those tattooed neanderthals singing 'Ten German Bombers' at us?"). As for family ties though, yeah, embarrassment doesn't cover it really. I suppose for those who "did nowt to stop it", there's an argument that there was little they really could do as individuals, but it must be awkward if you've got an actual war criminal in your family tree. Anyway, that's how I'd generally see it - it's become easier for people to talk about the Nazis in a more rational manner as time goes by (rather than simply assuming the burden of guilt and not engaging with why it happened in the first place) as the relics of that era literally die off, but that's accompanied by not wanting their country to only be associated with that era and nothing else.

For all it's big news in isolation, I imagine UKIP will have expected to win by more.

I should charge commission. Whereas all I've got on Hannover is "clean but dull". Not that I've ever been much beyond the square outside the railway station.

Do sherbet lemons count? If so, I'm sorted.

Sounds like the "Ethiopian 1984 diet" Stevie recommends for those who are more than 2st overweight. (Assuming you mean lemon, ginger, garlic and literally nothing else.)

Mind, even if Evans's account of events is accurate, there's definitely something a bit gay about it all.

Pre-match banter ffs.

Peter Peter Sutcliffe Peter Sutcliffe on 'D' Wing

Pre-match banter ffs.

Not exactly a surprising insight, but: https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/535430746417418241/photo/1

Lack of contrition is part of the issue in the way the Evans case is being perceived, not that that has any bearing as such, and obviously if he still doesn't think he was in the wrong then I'd hardly expect him to pretend solely to rescue his career. But it's definitely one factor in the resistance there's been, the nature of the "role model" argument and all.

Also "Bierkeller" is one word, not two. Have they no respect for compound nouns? Do they not observe the Substantivzusammensatzrespektzeigepflicht?

http://imgur.com/a/XQn5o

Mind, if you self-appreciate too much your lens'll fall off.

Just coming!

Snuck under 85kg the other day for the first time in about six years, but otherwise I'm definitely approaching a plateau so I figured I'd best step things up a bit. Just dragged myself round the sunny streets of SE Lahndan for a 10K jog, having only done 5Ks so far this time round. A lot of it's definitely mental, or at least it must be because I got round in under an hour despite feeling reasonably sure I'd hate every second of it, so I'll definitely take that. Also signed up for an organised 10K in hilly Greenwich Park the weekend before Christmas. Madness.

Oompah bands?! Not in my Germany.

Nice of them to make sure the sauce is mild, wouldn't want it to be an unpleasant dining experience.

I even have a packet of Cock soup mix in the cupboard. If I'd known it was worth so much more than the 40p it cost me at the corner shop...

Quite tempted to make one of these delights. http://heneedsfood.com/2013/12/cokoladna-salama-chocolate-salami/

Ay oh