Alex

And you're not a comedian.

He also knows his limitations in midfield. Plays it nice and simple. And plays it early and how he sees it. If you were 1-0 down and he saw a lot of the ball he'd be awful.

Would be up for this, aye.

The Barley Mow was quality like

Ignorance is bliss

Agree with you there. He's not good enough on the ball to play full-back in the PL and not good enough in the air to play as a centre-half. He's done pretty well as a central midfielder though, both when he's started and when he's come on to shut down games.

Just finished watching the first series of Spiral. Some cheesy / unbelievable bits but overall very good. It's supposed to be the French version of The Wire but it's more akin to Law and Order really. Well worth watching though and stylishly done. Very French you might say and it's also pretty gruesome in parts.

Aye, can only echo the sentiments of others. Good luck to you mate and the same to LTB's mam. I hope everything turns out ok for the pair of you and I'll have a look at your blog, Mac.

Ok but I'm not going to Gotham Town this time.

Nice one. I'll pm you or whatever a bit nearer the time.

Aye. After grudgingly accepting Taylor was alright I think I've gone back to my view he's nee good. He's decent as cover and can do a job at full-back in an emergency but apart from the odd spell he's done little to suggest he's got to grips with actually marking his opponent, something I've always been critical of him for. And of course he's always getting injured. Williamson isn't good enough either but I don't think there's a great deal between them which is a bit of a sad indictment on Taylor tbh. And Williamson is still the more honest, in that he actually tries to stick to his man rather than sweeping up behind Krul when he loses him. In a similar way I'd liken them to Robbie Elliot and John Beresford where the latter was more 'Hollywood' and got the plaudits whereas the former was more honest. Although they were both good, solid players.

Incidentally 'Hans', Union, just round the corner from End Clothing is spot on for clobber.

Does anyone know if the Tanners still does a dub night? Or Newcastle's Top Wednesday Evening Dub Night as they used to call it.

The cheap spirits in the Trent were fucking minging like. I saw Tuaca pop up in a few places, presumably the new owners were marketing it. It's still nice / tastes the same but it's a bit of a shame the little factory in Italy shut down and it got taken over by a multi-national. The company made a few other liqueurs too but I think they've all died a death as the new owners were only interested in the Tuaca brand. Way of the world I suppose.

It's an Italian liqueur. Except the small Livorno company got bought out so I think it's now made in the States. Anyway, it's not too sweet and its brandy-based with the main flavourings being orange and vanilla. It's also really nice in a Lake Como. 1 1/2 measures of cognac, 3/4 measure Tuaca shaken with ice and strained into a martini glass. Bit like a Black Russian but nicer. It's nice neat on the rocks too. It's not that easy to get in the shops but widely available online. The Trent used to sell it funnily enough.

The Sri Lankan curry was very nice in case you're all on tenterhooks

May well have mentioned it on here before but this is a great little book with info about various drinks / ingredients and how to serve them as well as bar tending techniques and (of course) loads of recipes: http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/1844771318 As you can see you can get a copy for next-to-nowt on Amazon too. Recent fave of mine is Tuaca cocktail 1 measure Tuaca 1 measure Vodka 1/2 measure fresh lime juice shaken with ice then strained into a martini glass. Also had the odd Rusty Nail of late but I prefer 3 parts Scotch to 1 Drambuie rather than the classic half and half.

Aren't you a Bailey's man (if that's not an oxymoron)? You could opt for the far superior (and fairly basic) Brandy Alexander instead. Most of the nicer cocktails are pretty basic anyway. And you don't need to buy a shaker if you haven't got one, a wide-necked flask will do. Don't buy the pre-mixed ones though. Or I wouldn't bother. And don't buy cheap spirits or again you might as well not bother. In fact, if I was you, I wouldn't bother

The £20m was a bit like the end of Bullseye when they haven't scored 101 or more. I.e. the actions of a spiteful arsehole.

He came across as a cool bloke and I've seen a few interviews where he was genuinely funny. I thought Dallas was canny shite like but not to be taken seriously at all even as a young kid.

Aye, Ashley was stupid in that regard but perhaps if the last owners cared about the club as much as they like to pretend they do then they'd have tipped him the wink. I don't blame them for not doing so but it shows they only cared about the money in the end.

I'm not going to make out I'm some sort of financial expert because I'm clearly not, but turnover and profit are two different things. Not that many clubs make a profit, but you could get away with not making a profit to a larger extent pre-the crash. Also, I could see absolutely no evidence that we were going back to the CL days under the last regime which is what you would've needed to get away with their profligate spending. A lot of people like to compare Ashley to Shepherd in terms of how we did then but you also need to look at how the old regime would be doing now. The fact is they'd have had to sell sooner or later otherwise them and the club would've been absolutely cattled in my view.

Papa Laz did that in there iirc. Different night to what the Dutch refer to as 'wild pissing'.

You need to be a little bit more subtle sometimes.