Meenzer

I listen to music while working, tweeting, facebooking, forums and reading, for a start. And quite often while the fella is trying to talk to me, too.

(I fucking need coffee. Someone bring me coffee.)

(Come to think of it, I assume you'd have to be signed to a label of some description to even take part.)

Ah, I suppose that's not too bad. Still adds up nicely for the organisers for effectively doing nowt, but not a prohibitive amount for all but the smallest and/or unsigned acts (who probably know fine well they wouldn't have a look-in anyway).

Plus tennis players don't have such lovely, strapping, lycra-clad thighs. One can only dream there were four Tours de France a year.

Wonder how much it costs just to be considered by the panel. Seems like a decent money-spinner. No different to most awards processes though, I imagine.

FYP (But yes, it does go some way to highlighting how things had become dominated by the same old repeated, circular discussions)

Loved him jibing Lendl for not smiling

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The http://andymurrayometer.com/ is harsh though, still only 99%? Must be waiting for Wimbledon...

Gerrin.

No Sky here so basically following it on Twitter and the Guardian minute-by-minute. Aaaargh.

It's not allowed to. BY LAW. Germans.

Oh, April weather should make it a decent time for the boat type of thing then, if you want something lower-key during the day. Or chill for a few hours at one of the bars down by the Alster lake.

Fixture list is here: http://www.fcstpauli.com/staticsite/staticsite.php?menuid=2916&topmenu=5 As for tickets, doesn't look as if they can be bought online, but this page suggests kartencenter@fcstpauli.com and 0049 40 317 874 51 for general ticket info and 0049 18 05 99 77 19 for specific ticket bookings - somewhere in that melée you might be lucky and find someone who speaks English. But obviously holler if you need any Jorman-language help on that front. Not sure about turning up on the day tbh, might be possible but I wouldn't want to rely on it.

Based on my experiences with the Parkster to date, he'd be the one taking us to all the gay bars.

Parky's your man in terms of more current knowledge, yep, but the areas you've picked are what I'd have suggested for the nightlife trawl already. There's nothing quite like battered fish in a bun at 6am accompanied by the sound of a live band to end a night on a high note. There's also a decent area just to the east of the main train station called St. Georg, around the Lange Reihe street, that's another alternative for pub-hopping if you don't want to be tied to the Reeperbahn all the time (and you don't) - although it's also one of the gay quarters so you might want to exercise due caution. The best Irish pub (in my humble opinion) recently closed but the owners and a decent amount of the clientèle have moved just down the road to the Fleetenkieker bierkeller and restaurant on Börsenbrücke, a street right by the City Hall so dead central. Could be somewhere to accommodate a big group, especially if you want to tuck into some traditional German grub - pork knuckle, suckling pig and various other things that sound similarly dubious. Activity-wise, I'm assuming you'd want something more lively than a canal/lake boat trip, even if they do (usually) serve booze on board - it's a nice alternative if you do want something a bit more sedate for an hour or two though, and Hamburg's built on water so exploring it is all part of the experience. Tbh I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that's "typically Hamburg", but they have all the usual stuff you'd expect for a city of nearly 2 million people, so plenty of options in terms of go-karting, paintballing and stuff like that. Again, being a current resident, Parky might have more to say on the matter. Oh and he might also be able to guide you towards the seedier side of things, I wouldn't like to say, but obviously strippers aren't exactly my forté. Or to put it another way, the queens we use would not excite you.

http://miniboro.com/11617.html Epic.

Just stumbled across a few blog posts on that very subject. Lovely stuff (especially the "worst" list - I had 3 of the 5 ). http://thefootballattic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/rich-js-favourite-5subbuteo-items.html http://thefootballattic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/chris-os-favourite-5-subbuteo-items.html http://thefootballattic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/rich-js-5-worst-subbuteo-items.html

Split the difference and serve the drinks in these.

Cake all round!

At least they're better at Eurovision.