ariotofmyown

And still people buy newspapers and read news online...
They'll not stop until people's appetite for (dis)information ceases. I won't be holding my breath.
Stop reading the news, stop watching television and stop using social media and you'll be far happier. Ignorance is bliss. Unfortunately, knowledge is power, so we're in bit of a pickle.

You can’t recommend GTA to a 10 year old?

The pundits Xi for Croatia had a 433 with Mount in midfield and grealish/sterling and Rashford /Foden up with kane. 
Mount is probably better a bit deeper tbf. 
What seems a bit late is the development of partnerships with great understanding. Mings /Shaw and Godfrey /White were more brand new combinations and they both got easily carved open. 
Might be that Southgate has to go 3 cbs for that reason - we don't have a 4 that are used to playing together. 

I know. Was due to Algarve in ten days ?

Dublin? No politics in this thread please!

Dublin? No politics in this thread please!

Was just looking at Centre PARC's for 3 nights next weekend.
£2500 for 2 adults, seems like Robin Hood is alive and well in Sherwood Forest.

To be with me? Cute.

Yes, very much so. 
we were having a whole new heating system installed last autumn. Ripping out the boiler entirely, putting in solar hot water, and Infra red panels in all the ceilings. 
Hot water came first, and the plumbers installing that also ripped out the radiators and boiler while they were there. On the promise that’s the heaters would be less than a week away. All organised by the same bloke, so theoretically all coordinated. 
a series of disasters later, including the electrician (the guy’s son in law) getting Covid, the wrong heaters being delivered, the new ones being shipped from Australia, time differences to speak to the suppliers, the suis canal, the guy himself being in and out of hospital with some unknown illness, and we ended up spending all winter with little fan heaters around the house. Finally got the Infra red heaters installed in February, still waiting on one little one in the downstairs toilet, and a new battery in the attic, which, theoretically should make all this cost barely anything to run, but until we get that, it’s costing a fortune in electricity. I had to pay extra for that battery in February, when only then it became clear that this would be too much load on my current battery. Still not installed yet. The latest excuse is that he’s got the battery, but the cable required to install it is out of stock everywhere!
oh and then one of the Infra red heaters spontaneously exploded showering my bedroom with glass. Apparently just a one in a million manufacturing error, he had it replaced within a couple of days though. I was worried at that point he’d just start to block my number.
Problem is, although the solar hot water was what I first got in touch with him about, through a company, and therefore I can follow that up, go over his head or whatever, the heating was something he said he could sort out for me himself. So I’ve got no head office to go to for help. 
And the thing is, this is such a weird year, his excuses could all be legit, until everything goes back to normal in June (hopefully). So I’m not sure what’s an appropriate level of pissed off to get. And at what point I need to start threatening small claims court for this battery I’ve paid for that’s not materialised. 
ah, that feels a bit better. 

Just seen that TikTok are the official sponsors of Euro 2020 that's me out then.....

I’m truly fed up! Even more so with rumours that Portugal could be removed from the travel Greenlist. I was already fed up worrying about coordinating the rip-off tests we need. What is the point of all the lockdowns, vaccinations, testing, social distancing etc if there’s never going to be trust and faith in evolution. Whilst I can see some rationale in the overall thinking, there must be a point where we break the circle of continuous fear and crack on with life. If not, what’s the point of life? 
 
Those of you that know me (cyber wise), know that i work hard and do so knowing that I’ve got something to look forward to, whether it be a holiday or a Butlins weekend with the boys. 
 
Like most, I’ve missed out on, or sacrificed a lot over the last 15 months or so. I am past the point of feeling selfish now cos I cannot see justification for the control and potential restriction. 
 
aside of potentially missing out on a holiday, as none of us would be able to quarantine, I think I’d lose all the money too. 

I’m a Johnny Concrete lager swilling lout who likes to watch the scantily clad girls go by..... not sure ? 

Im an advocate of opening up right away.
But...its silly comparing positive case increases with hospitalization/death rate increases on the same day, as there is a lag in the data.
If hospitalizations/deaths are still at the same rates in 2 weeks there can be no excuse for delaying removing all restrictions.

No but I'll happily charge you a tenner for a partially filled sandwich and a bottle of warm water

was due to fly to Faro on 16th. But, due to a non-existent and not-recognised variant of COVID, Portugal was removed from the Greenlist. None of the three of us due to go are allowed to work from home when we return, so 2 weeks quarantine is out of the question.
Annoyingly, the hotel cancellation come with a €175 charge! Trying to get them to waive that.
£92 of parking refunds in the form of vouchers to use within 3 years, which I will.
The worst bit was I researched World Cup 2022 dates to transfer the flights to next June, before actually realising the World Cup next year is in DECEMBER. So we paid an extra £80 each to change flights to July 2022, as it will be dead in June without a football tournament on!

Maybe a bit pedantic on my part, but 9 months ago (about the 1st of September) the message from the government was if you don't go back into the office, then don't be surprised if you lose you job.
Then the message throughout September was that there would be no 2nd wave and no lockdown.
Towards the end of October, the message was Starmer wants to destroy the economy by following scientific advice that a new lockdown is needed.
Then a few days later there was a lockdown for the whole of November announced.
If the lockdown doesn't end at the end of June, then it should spell the end of the government. Travel from Pakistan and Bangladesh stopped, but Indian travel allowed for another 2 weeks or so. Pure coincidence that Johnson was supposed to be going there to attempt some trade deals.
So many screwups, many of them being to a non-existent border policy. People allowed to fly in from Northern Italy in early March without a single restriction or check.
Did you see how on the first day of international travel earlier in the month? We had passport queues mixed with people arriving from red, amber and green countries. They had months of no travel to plan for this.
So much incompetence. So many people who have done nothing worthwhile in charge. Perhaps we should have put the military in charge in March. Or some successful business who had worked their way up, rather than just been educated at some posh school.

Hope you can all still go.
Difficult to understand why so strict on Portugal now but weren't with India when they were had a fast spreading variant.

Maybe a bit pedantic on my part, but 9 months ago (about the 1st of September) the message from the government was if you don't go back into the office, then don't be surprised if you lose you job.
Then the message throughout September was that there would be no 2nd wave and no lockdown.
Towards the end of October, the message was Starmer wants to destroy the economy by following scientific advice that a new lockdown is needed.
Then a few days later there was a lockdown for the whole of November announced.
If the lockdown doesn't end at the end of June, then it should spell the end of the government. Travel from Pakistan and Bangladesh stopped, but Indian travel allowed for another 2 weeks or so. Pure coincidence that Johnson was supposed to be going there to attempt some trade deals.
So many screwups, many of them being to a non-existent border policy. People allowed to fly in from Northern Italy in early March without a single restriction or check.
Did you see how on the first day of international travel earlier in the month? We had passport queues mixed with people arriving from red, amber and green countries. They had months of no travel to plan for this.
So much incompetence. So many people who have done nothing worthwhile in charge. Perhaps we should have put the military in charge in March. Or some successful business who had worked their way up, rather than just been educated at some posh school.

Boris wasn't planning on attending a summit and announcing a trade deal with Portugal?

The rules are confusing but in essence yes. Always a risk that someone tests positive and they won't be able to return.
Booked this 2 years ago for late July, nice villa on the Algarve, whole family going for my 60th. Flights booked separate, so might get buggered there with changing etc. Need to check. 

Always felt like FFP or P&S do nothing to tackle the problem they were set out to achieve.  They were implemented to stop teams overspending, gambling on success but failing and crumbling.  It hasn’t prevented this, it’s just made it more of a gamble. In the Championship, overspend and pull it off and you get promoted and face no punishment, but fail and you’re left in a worse position than you would have been without FFP. Before you’d be in a financial state, now you’re in a financial state, face a fine, transfer embargo and points deduction.  I’m sure these are intended to act as a deterrent so that people stick within the rules, however, they won’t and they’ll constantly try and find loopholes due to the lack of a level playing field. 
 
a fairer way to level things out would be to set a transfer budget that all clubs have to stay within. You can spend more than say £20m on players in a year and every club has an overall wage limit to stick to. That way, even those with parachute payments get no unfair advantage as they have the same wage and transfer budget. That said, they’ll need to ensure contracts given in the prem at suitably structured to include a wage reduction should they get relegated. 
 
I am no expert so feel free to rip the idea to shreds if it’s actually nonsense. 

Birmingham, York and Bristol for great pubs in a City centre.
Bournemouth for beach in a city.
London for culture and eating.
Edinburgh for the buildings.
Belfast for the scenery and the locals.

London/  Loved living there, so easy to get around. Winter Wonderland after work.
Edinburgh/  We we’re going to live there this year? Hogmanay, Loony Dook with a hangover 
York/  Always go there when we come over
Inverness/. Strolling the River Ness, Culloden
Belfast/  We’d only been to RI but got talked into going there by a couple of paddy’s at work. Great pubs, if only I could understand what they’re saying.
Granton on Spey/  Missus is a Grant, whiskey trails, snow in the Cairngorms
Oxford/  Uni (missus teaches English and History) nice town to walk around
Brighton/  The pier, strolling through the old town
Derby/  Family, the little back bar at the Olde Bell, clearing the dance floor at Jorrocks
Dryburgh/  Staying at the Abbey on a cold clear January day, the food

What a true gentleman & outstanding leader of our club what he did for us last game of season means everything to me!! I'm sure with out Curtis in them last 10 mins we would of conceded a headed goal with out dout and been relegated!! What a truly wonderful suprise for me and my boys with him coming into our work while on holiday in Devon!! made 2 people very happy on a very busy day. Total  Respect for this man and were lucky to call him a ram!! 
Ps does this mean I'm itk as he not going coaching yet got one more season in him!! I did ban him from dance machine to make sure ok for next year ????