<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807</id><updated>2009-07-06T09:56:33.912+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Lucky Col</title><subtitle type='html'>Inane mumblings about life, Nottingham and everything</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>697</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-2733629660475440970</id><published>2009-07-06T09:52:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-07-06T09:56:33.925+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Some extra days off are on the way .....</title><content type='html'>From the BBC:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Public sector pay should be frozen or at least subject to "severe" restraint to help rebalance the public finances, says the head of a spending watchdog.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Quite whether this spending watchdog head will accept a pay freeze too isn't mentioned, although the phrase:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;.... public sector workers had "done well" in the past 10 years and would "tolerate" modest reductions.&lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;would indicate that this moron spends most of the time with his head up his a**e.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Or at least that's where it will be if he needs to go to hospital any time soon.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-2733629660475440970?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/2733629660475440970/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=2733629660475440970' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2733629660475440970'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2733629660475440970'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-extra-days-off-are-on-way.html' title='Some extra days off are on the way .....'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-2789384850627460740</id><published>2009-07-03T11:03:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-07-03T11:16:40.474+01:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='tossers'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='vegetarians'/><title type='text'>Vegetarians 'avoid more cancers'</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8127215.stm"&gt;From the BBC&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Vegetarians are generally less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well that's all well and good, but being a vegetarian has two major draw-backs:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Firstly, you can't eat meat. A fairly obvious draw-back, really, but one that can't be underestimated. No more bacon cobs to cut through your hang-over, no more juicy steak, chips &amp; mushrooms, mmmmmmmmmm, and more worryingly, no more kebabs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And secondly; Most, if not all, vegetarians are pompous pretentious supercilious tossers of the highest order, drunk on their own misguided sense of self-importance, convinced that everyone else needs to be told about their eating habits while deep down yearning for a roast dinner, crackling and potatoes done in goose fat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having already had cancer, personally, I'd rather avoid vegetarians.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-2789384850627460740?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/2789384850627460740/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=2789384850627460740' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2789384850627460740'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2789384850627460740'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/07/vegetarians-avoid-more-cancers.html' title='Vegetarians &apos;avoid more cancers&apos;'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-494736125709347621</id><published>2009-06-25T21:14:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-06-25T21:19:16.173+01:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Newcastle United'/><title type='text'>Sometimes it can go too far and result in pity</title><content type='html'>I know I bang on about Newcastle United, I've still got a smile on my face following their relegation, and I laugh at their self-proclaimed best-fans-in-the-country.  But sometimes people's suffering can go too far, you start to feel sorry for the pitch-invading losers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Seriously, what the f*** is this ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPa2ON4bnI/AAAAAAAABgA/G1cCXkad720/s1600-h/newcastlekit.bmp"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPa2ON4bnI/AAAAAAAABgA/G1cCXkad720/s400/newcastlekit.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351361407310392946" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;So, for the second season running, the Newcastle players will turn out with a big yellow stripe down the spines.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-494736125709347621?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/494736125709347621/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=494736125709347621' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/494736125709347621'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/494736125709347621'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/06/sometimes-it-can-go-too-far-and-result.html' title='Sometimes it can go too far and result in pity'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPa2ON4bnI/AAAAAAAABgA/G1cCXkad720/s72-c/newcastlekit.bmp' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-4265008530349695496</id><published>2009-06-24T13:40:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-06-25T20:57:33.626+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Good news</title><content type='html'>The &lt;a href="http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/homenews/City-press-ahead-tram-plans/article-1102732-detail/article.html"&gt;City Council is going to move forward with the tram after all&lt;/a&gt;, so long as it's not obstructed by the toys Kay Cutts threw out of her pram over the last month.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.thetram.net/about/Lines2_3.asp"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 185px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPWfYdwqHI/AAAAAAAABfY/tonMMKN2fEU/s200/line2and3map.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351356616877844594" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Apparently not enough people in Nottinghamshire will benefit from the tram, meaning that those that will benefit are getting something for nothing. Has Ms Cutts seen the size of the County ? It's f***ing huge, how many lines would she want to build before it's acceptable ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, to make sure those that do gain from the new trams pay their way, how about the following:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Everyone getting on / off the tram at a stop outside the City border has to pay double.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Stop the tram going into the County completely after dark. Have you been to Hucknall at night ? Exactly !&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Turn the electricity off at the City border and make the dumb f***ers who elected a Tory council for the first time in a generation get out and push !!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-4265008530349695496?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/4265008530349695496/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=4265008530349695496' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/4265008530349695496'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/4265008530349695496'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/06/good-news.html' title='Good news'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPWfYdwqHI/AAAAAAAABfY/tonMMKN2fEU/s72-c/line2and3map.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-7966678481046557917</id><published>2009-06-16T15:58:00.004+01:00</published><updated>2009-06-16T16:09:32.203+01:00</updated><title type='text'>It doesn’t happen here, does it ?</title><content type='html'>One thing I’ve learnt from life is that while it’s commonly accepted from people with similar political views to myself that the Police are commonly perceived as the enemy, the police in Nottingham, on the whole, are pretty decent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Watching the Police methods in London a few months back harked back to a more aggressive police approach more in common to the miners dispute &amp; the riots of the 80’s, but in 2009 it happens down there, well away from Nottingham, by meat-head coppers publicly out for a fight. Doesn’t it ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, this little incident over the weekend could make me question this outlook. See the &lt;a href="http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Police-officer-shown-punching-arrest-man/article-1077410-detail/article.html"&gt;video here&lt;/a&gt;, and discuss further &lt;a href="http://www.leftlion.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=19063.0"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width="560" height="340"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tRhr-jNkS3Q&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tRhr-jNkS3Q&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="255"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Clearly the video doesn’t show the whole story, doesn’t show why the, ahem, victim is lying on the floor, doesn’t show what he’s done to get the attention of the police in the first place, but how bad does it have to be for him to get tasered, not once but then again while seemingly incapacitated on the ground ? Let’s not forget that the use of a taser, a potentially deadly weapon, is the last resort before getting the hand guns out. Then after his second shocking, what seems to be one policeman punching the prone victim several times. Is he trying to free his hands for the addition of handcuffs or simply harking back to a time when it was acceptable to give innocent people a bit of a slap. Yet this is clearly so far beyond the fabled days of yore when it was acceptable to ‘give ‘&lt;em&gt;em a clip round the ear&lt;/em&gt;’ and ‘&lt;em&gt;send the scamps on their way&lt;/em&gt;’. What next, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Shall I shoot him again, Sarge, he’s still twitching ?”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The police reaction supports this angle, “&lt;em&gt;Nottinghamshire Police's Professional Standards Department have obtained footage of the end sequence of an incident&lt;/em&gt;”, note the use of the word ‘&lt;em&gt;end&lt;/em&gt;’, they clearly want you to know that they know more about this than the general public, and further “&lt;em&gt;Police attended and an officer was assaulted, requiring hospital treatment&lt;/em&gt;”. This is clearly factually correct, but omits whether the arrestee needed hospital treatment as well and smacks of getting their verbal &amp; legal retaliation in first.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have a lot of sympathy for the police on the streets of any major city on a busy evening, some of the morons bouncing around Nottingham, as any city, on a weekend evening, p***ed up, coked up, f***ed up and looking for a fight. And we expect a small band of police to stand up to this week in week out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, had this bloke been with anyone in the large crowd of people at the back of the video it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to have seen this incident spiral out of control not on the actions of a lone prone p**s-head incapacitated on the floor, but from the actions of someone who should have known, and has been trained, to perform a hell of a lot better.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-7966678481046557917?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/7966678481046557917/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=7966678481046557917' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7966678481046557917'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7966678481046557917'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/06/it-doesnt-happen-here-does-it.html' title='It doesn’t happen here, does it ?'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-5084055165615689024</id><published>2009-06-16T13:33:00.004+01:00</published><updated>2009-06-25T21:02:51.621+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Pros and cons</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPXlUt5rMI/AAAAAAAABfg/QxTpD6WuQXc/s1600-h/history.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 202px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPXlUt5rMI/AAAAAAAABfg/QxTpD6WuQXc/s400/history.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351357818462645442" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Lots of good things about working where I do:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Easy walk into town&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Close to the train station&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Easy walk to the Forest ground&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Right near the tram&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Free parking (for the time being, at least)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Close to the News House and the Vat &amp; Fiddle&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, today there's one significant disadvantage:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Having to listen &amp; watch all the cricket fans on their way to Trent Bridge, cool boxes in hand, destined for an afternoon of beer &amp; Twenty20 cricket in the warm sun. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The jammy b******s !!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-5084055165615689024?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/5084055165615689024/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=5084055165615689024' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5084055165615689024'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5084055165615689024'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/06/pros-and-cons.html' title='Pros and cons'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPXlUt5rMI/AAAAAAAABfg/QxTpD6WuQXc/s72-c/history.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-1902284742963847128</id><published>2009-06-10T10:01:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-06-25T21:04:14.839+01:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Dictionary'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='New word'/><title type='text'>Millionth English word</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPYMMNbjrI/AAAAAAAABfo/rZaIMoTtjVU/s1600-h/dictionaries.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 170px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPYMMNbjrI/AAAAAAAABfo/rZaIMoTtjVU/s400/dictionaries.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351358486193868466" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The millionth English word is looming, according to a US company, Global Language Monitor. (&lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8092549.stm"&gt;from the BBC&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, I'm sorry, but I'll think you'll find that 'looming' is already in the dictionary, so it'll have to be another word.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maybe 'Gullible', that's not actually a proper word, go on, look it up yourself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the new word is going to be created sometime this morning, may I suggest the following:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fuckedoffatwork&lt;br /&gt;Ratherbewatchingthecricket&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;or&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sincewhenhavethefuckingamericansbeeninchargeoftheenglishlanguageforfuckssake&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-1902284742963847128?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/1902284742963847128/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=1902284742963847128' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/1902284742963847128'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/1902284742963847128'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/06/millionth-english-word.html' title='Millionth English word'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPYMMNbjrI/AAAAAAAABfo/rZaIMoTtjVU/s72-c/dictionaries.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-2576509897330926570</id><published>2009-06-04T13:28:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-06-25T21:07:27.129+01:00</updated><title type='text'>If only I could pick 6 numbers with the same success</title><content type='html'>The interview stage of The Apprentice always has me shouting at the TV more than usual, quite how some of these losers manage to make it to their 12th birthday without getting knocked down by a bus is beyond me, let alone be allowed anywhere near a photocopier.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So James goes for not letting his colleagues &lt;em&gt;'spunk money up a wall'&lt;/em&gt; at work and for &lt;em&gt;'bringing ignorance to the table'&lt;/em&gt; in meetings. Jeez, I've worked with people who need telling which way round to sit at a table, yet none of them would be proud to be ignorant. Bye bye loser.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lorraine is Irish, apparently, something which she'd manage to hide for the rest of the program until finding her Lucky Stars just before walking into Karen Brady's office. When asked about getting her dates of employment wrong, she claimed it was just a typo and should have read 2008 instead of 2007. Oops. I'll need to change the typo on my CV now. Where it reads 'Head of ICI' it should say 'Post room operative', a simple mistake. And then she scrubs up really well on the You're Fired program, which only goes to show one thing, not only is she useless at business, but she can't even put her own slap-on properly. Bye bye loser.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, the last three. I don't want to blow my own trumpet here, but Clough knows I will. &lt;a href="http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/04/magic-of-television.html"&gt;Way, way back in April I wrote&lt;/a&gt;;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;I’ve got a feeling that SirAlan has already pretty much decided on who are his favourite two or three (Debra, Kate, Yasmina) and will keep them in regardless. &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well bugger me. To be fair I did say Newcastle would challenge the top four and Fulham would be certs for relegation last season, but at least in this case I was right.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Debra is only 23 apparently, but has already p****d off more people than all those darned MP's expenses combined. Those were references from her company. Those were references that she gave the show as contacts. And they said she was arrogant and obnoxious. What the f**k do the others think of her, the ones she thought of passing on as referees and then thought better of it ? She did manage to instigate probably the best put down of the whole series on the You're Fired show, Jane Moore of the Sun standing up for Debra, arguing that had she been a bloke, she would have got away with acting like a t**t. &lt;em&gt;'Fuck me'&lt;/em&gt;, exhaled Jo Brand, &lt;em&gt;'a Sun journalist with a feminist agenda'&lt;/em&gt;, chewing the inept Sun lickspittle, spitting her out and leaving her looking like a complete idiot without the hapless moron even knowing it had happened.  You can &lt;a href="http://www.janemoore.com/"&gt;read more about Jane Moore here&lt;/a&gt;, but trust me, have a bucket handy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For Debra, Bye bye nasty loser.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPY2eh8hnI/AAAAAAAABfw/4YhgTjLKg0o/s1600-h/final.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 102px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPY2eh8hnI/AAAAAAAABfw/4YhgTjLKg0o/s200/final.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351359212666259058" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;So it's down to the last two. Yasmina has no real interest in winning while Kate would argue she was on fire if you told her she needed to be &amp; wasn't. With James gone the TV's not going to be as humorous, but with Philip back still licking the stab wounds in the back from his ex-squeeze, at least there'll be one Geordie not going down this month.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-2576509897330926570?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/2576509897330926570/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=2576509897330926570' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2576509897330926570'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2576509897330926570'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/06/if-only-i-could-pick-6-numbers-with.html' title='If only I could pick 6 numbers with the same success'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPY2eh8hnI/AAAAAAAABfw/4YhgTjLKg0o/s72-c/final.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-5562492354911755283</id><published>2009-06-03T11:27:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-06-25T21:09:07.006+01:00</updated><title type='text'>You see, this is what happens when you stay on at university</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8080630.stm"&gt;From the BBC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Eating a curry once or twice a week could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, a US researcher suggests.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPZRRkh81I/AAAAAAAABf4/bNbYjDcg4eY/s1600-h/curry.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 170px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPZRRkh81I/AAAAAAAABf4/bNbYjDcg4eY/s400/curry.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351359673043907410" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;So, a team of researchers obviously go out on the p**s on a weekly basis, rounded off by a nice curry, hardly earth shattering stuff but in order to keep getting paid to go out on the p**s and their increasingly large curry bills, they need funding to continue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And not happy with this being a once a week affair;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;... researchers were testing the impact of higher doses - the equivalent of going on a curry spree for a week - to see if they could maximise the effect.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Genius.  Where do I sign ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’d agree with this piece of research, but I can’t remember how many curries I’ve had in the last week.  &lt;strong&gt;Does this invalidate the findings ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-5562492354911755283?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/5562492354911755283/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=5562492354911755283' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5562492354911755283'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5562492354911755283'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/06/you-see-this-is-what-happens-when-you.html' title='You see, this is what happens when you stay on at university'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SkPZRRkh81I/AAAAAAAABf4/bNbYjDcg4eY/s72-c/curry.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-7272581347566635335</id><published>2009-05-29T10:10:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-29T10:16:02.515+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Nail on the head, as usual</title><content type='html'>Only just stopped laughing after Wednesday night, Ronaldo's stropping about for the last time in a United shirt, Giggs &amp; Scholes realising that their time is up and Vidic showing himself up as the second rate bottler he really is.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But, as usual, &lt;a href="http://www.stressandpie.co.uk"&gt;Stress &amp; Pie&lt;/a&gt; hit the nail on the head with this brief, but accurate, match report:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Barcelonia 2 Manchester Sulky Boys 0 &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Manchester United should be ashamed of themselves. They've let their club down, they've let their fans down, they've let Manchester down, they've let the Premiership down, they've let England down, they've let football down. If it weren't so funny, it would be a disgrace. &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-7272581347566635335?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/7272581347566635335/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=7272581347566635335' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7272581347566635335'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7272581347566635335'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/nail-on-head-as-usual.html' title='Nail on the head, as usual'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-5166699939197214197</id><published>2009-05-27T15:33:00.000+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-27T15:37:20.970+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Am I being greedy ?</title><content type='html'>It’s been a good weekend for football results, Millwall slipping up meaning we won’t have to put up with their animalistic following cluttering up the City Ground next season.  Sheffield United getting their just deserts meaning their moronic &amp; pointless ‘scab’ chants will be heard again, as well as not having to go back to the 1960’s mecca that is Turf Moor for at least one season, plus the absolute bonus ball of Newcastle getting dumped off their self-deluded perch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So am I being a bit greedy asking for Barcelona to rightfully win the title of best team in Europe rather than have to listen to the plastic mancs bang on for another 12 months.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While there is now an acceptance that the Champions League isn’t the European cup, it would still be nice to know that Man United have never retained either, as opposed to the giants of European football, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Ajax &amp; Benfica.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anyone else missing off that list ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-5166699939197214197?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/5166699939197214197/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=5166699939197214197' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5166699939197214197'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5166699939197214197'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/am-i-being-greedy.html' title='Am I being greedy ?'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-6227367728129366981</id><published>2009-05-25T12:58:00.001+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-25T12:59:50.403+01:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Newcastle United'/><title type='text'>Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ............</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/ShqIGH2wAcI/AAAAAAAABe0/wJCgU5mMw4s/s1600-h/newcastle.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 345px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/ShqIGH2wAcI/AAAAAAAABe0/wJCgU5mMw4s/s400/newcastle.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339729946970423746" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-6227367728129366981?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/6227367728129366981/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=6227367728129366981' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/6227367728129366981'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/6227367728129366981'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.html' title='Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ............'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/ShqIGH2wAcI/AAAAAAAABe0/wJCgU5mMw4s/s72-c/newcastle.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-8238839517454643455</id><published>2009-05-20T12:13:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-20T12:16:03.211+01:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='MP'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Expenses'/><title type='text'>Hold up, calm down</title><content type='html'>At the risk of being controversial and not agreeing with the current mass hysteria that “they’re all at it” and we need a complete clear out of ALL MP’s, since when has government changed laws which reflect on us all on the back of a Daily Telegraph campaign ?  &lt;strong&gt;THE F***ING DAILY TELEGRAPH FOR F***S SAKE&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sure, there have been some MP’s who have broken the rules and these should be punished.  Clearly any MP who can afford to give back £13K just like that hasn’t incurred these expenses in the first place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, and this is going to sound really controversial and I offer no apology, I feel a touch of sympathy for Douglas Hogg MP on this.  Here is a man, rightfully elected by his constituents to represent them, who bizarrely has a moat outside his house.  Now someone has to maintain this, and I’m guessing that while he’s at home, it’s either Mr Hogg or the local Clean-a-Moat franchise.  Now when he’s elected as a public figure to represent his constituents and work on behalf of the whole country, I’d like to think that while he’s away, his home doesn’t go into disrepair.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now clearly anyone with a house BIG enough to warrant a moat outside isn’t short of a few bob and maybe making tax payers pay up to have it cleaned is taking the p**s a bit in these lean times, but where do you draw the line ?  Having his moat cleaned is important to him in the same way as any piece of house maintenance is important to any other MP’s.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We’re already seeing a switch in people able to afford to go to University.  Twenty years ago when the students got bigger grants, anyone could go free in the knowledge that they wouldn’t leave with a debt similar to that of a third world country, or worse, the USA.  And no-one gave a shit back then that most grant money went into the tills at the local night-club on 2-4-1 night.  But now were seeing a change in University applications, less from poorer families, more from the well off middle class.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Clearly using the word ‘expenses’ should make it clear that MP’s shouldn’t benefit from ‘bending’ the rules, but putting limits on rent, bans on maintenance that seem frivolous to the majority (or the fucking Daily Telegraph editorial team who seem to be running the country at the moment) and therefore reducing the expenses that MP’s can claim for, the only situation you will arrive at is a return to the 18 century, the ONLY people who can actually afford to become MP’s are the land owning gentry or people fortunate enough to have a second flat overlooking the Thames.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not too many sheet metal workers from Glasgow fall into either of those two categories, are there ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-8238839517454643455?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/8238839517454643455/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=8238839517454643455' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/8238839517454643455'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/8238839517454643455'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/hold-up-calm-down.html' title='Hold up, calm down'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-877337968077838786</id><published>2009-05-18T09:35:00.000+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-18T09:38:31.603+01:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Martin O&apos;Neill'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='John Robertson'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Aston Villa'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Nottingham Forest'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Newcastle United'/><title type='text'>Newcastle United</title><content type='html'>When asked which team I hate the most, and hate is probably the right word, Newcastle United is the answer.  No ifs, no buts, no thinking about it.  Not Derby (pity more than anything else), nor Leicester (good to see the little East Midlands teams get a shot in the big leagues), nor the Man Uniteds or Liverpools of this world with their prawn sandwich eating plastic band wagon jumping supporters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No, for me it’s Newcastle United all the way.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When they nearly won the league a few years back and they were everybody’s favourite second team, it seemed like there was only me happy that they’d blown it, laughing at Kevin Keegan as he defended Stuart Pearce, like he ever needed defending.  Fergie done him up like a kipper, guv’nor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But why ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, go back to March ’74, FA Cup qtr final, Forest drawn away at Newcastle.  Forest were a decent second division side at the time against but were against one of the best teams in the top flight away from home, surely only one result ?  Well, with 15 minutes to go and Forest 3-1 to the good the form book was well and truly out the window.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cue the moment my hatred was spawned.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Newcastle fans intent on ‘supporting’ their team the only way Neanderthals know how invaded the pitch, kicking and punching anything in a red shirt as they went.  The referee took the teams off until the pitch was clear before restarting the game.  A clearly shaken Forest went on to lose the game 4:3, knocked out by thuggery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The FA, in a rare moment of clarity, decided that the result shouldn’t stand, the game void.  So, do we get through by default, Newcastle ejected from the competition ?  No.  Do we get a replay at the City Ground ?  No.  We get a game at a neutral venue, Goodison Park.  Ah well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A 0:0 draw, a chance to pull the mighty Newcastle to the City Ground and play them on our turf ?  No, the FA, in an all to familiar moment of toadying up to the big clubs, decide that the ‘replay’ should also take place at Goodison Park.  Why, what did we have to do to get a replay at home ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A 1:0 defeat and as far as the FA is concerned all was well.  Newcastle got to the final, our season petered out eventually finishing a mere four points off promotion when a top three place looked likely.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, why bring this up now ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Newcastle go to Aston Villa on the last day of the current Premiership season not only needing the win, but also requiring other results to go their way.  Relegation to the Championship is a distinct possibility.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But Aston Villa have already secured a Europa League place for next season, whether they want it or not, so their players will be, mentally at least, feet up thinking about the beach.  Surely they wouldn’t be as bothered about the result as a frantically struggling Newcastle ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, if you go back to the 6th March 1974 and look at the Forest team sheet, you’d notice a young Scottish midfielder by the name of J.Robertson and an even younger Irish midfielder with the name M.O’Neill.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It might take a long time for justice to come through, but revenge is a dish best served cold, and when Newcastle go down, &lt;strong&gt;WHEN&lt;/strong&gt; Newcastle go down, &lt;strong&gt;I’ll piss myself ‘til Christmas&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-877337968077838786?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/877337968077838786/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=877337968077838786' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/877337968077838786'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/877337968077838786'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/newcastle-united.html' title='Newcastle United'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-5042533114638726627</id><published>2009-05-14T13:40:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-14T13:48:18.931+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Have you ever ....</title><content type='html'>A little list doing the rounds on a couple of the message boards at the moment.  Obviously &lt;a href="http://nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com/"&gt;Mr Never Trust a Hippy&lt;/a&gt; &amp; &lt;a href="http://mcgari.blogspot.com/"&gt;Mr McGaribaldi&lt;/a&gt; should answer these as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pulled a girl at a football match, includes watching on the big screen down the pub.  &lt;strong&gt;No.  “Put ‘em away, duck, I’m watching the football”.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Took a girl to her first ever football match.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, a couple of times.  Obviously a couple of different women, not the same one a couple of times, that wouldn't count.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Can remember where you was when win England beat Germany 5-1 in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Germany !  &lt;strong&gt;In the bar of the Gateway Hotel in Cinderhill watching quite possibly the smallest TV in the world.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shed a tear after Yeovil beat us in the play offs.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, &lt;a href="http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2007/05/bag-oshite.html"&gt;see here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shed a tear after a England lost on penalties to Argentina or Germany.  &lt;strong&gt;Germany in 1990 &amp; ‘96, but not Argentina in ’98, hardened to it by then.  Come Portugal it just got funny.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have escaped from a riot outside a game.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep, Barnsley away ’93.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Spotted yourself on the bigscreen during a match or in the stadium during a repeat programme on TV.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep, a few times, one of the advantages of being so tall.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lied to your partner in order to go to a match.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep, Wimbledon away ’91.  “I’ll be round yours for 11”.  At 11 I was at Wimbledon tube station, didn’t go down too well.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finished a Panini sticker album.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, ’78 &amp; ’79.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Had a row with your spouse because you went to the match instead of doing what they wanted to do.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep, see above, Wimbledon ’91.  We split up a week later.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Touched the ball when it went into the crowd.  &lt;strong&gt;No, and this is a strange one.  I’ve been going for nearly 40 years, most of which was in low terracing behind the goal, and I’m 6’5”, yet I’ve NEVER touched a match ball.  What’s the chances of that ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Verbally slated one of the players, only for them to score.  &lt;strong&gt;I must have done at some point, I’ve spent a long time slating players that at least one of them must have proved me a clueless numpty.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Followed Forest and England on a trip abroad.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep, Auxerre ’95 &amp; Munich ’96.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Met a crazy foreigner who is proud to know who Forest and Brian Clough are.  &lt;strong&gt;In France &amp; Germany there were plenty of locals keen to buy the English beer.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Had a drink with a player or ex-player.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep, Pedro Richards ex Notts County and sadly no longer with us.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Was a junior Red.  &lt;strong&gt;No.  Junior Reds had to sit in the Main Stand with their family, while us hard lads stood in the Trent End with the men !!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Watched a match with the away fans.  &lt;strong&gt;Not so much the away fans, but watched from the home end at a couple of away matches, Spurs in ’94 and Oxford ’98.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bought the three lions CD by Baddiel and Skinner.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bought a ticket off a tout for more than double the face value.  &lt;strong&gt;No, although paying £45 for an England Scotland ticket back in ’96 seemed like a rip-off at the time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Invested in a Forest or England tattoo.  &lt;strong&gt;No.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hugged a complete stranger after Forest or England scored.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, there wasn’t anyone more strange than the woman / thing that had the seat next to me in the Upper Bridgford.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Skived off work/school to watch a football match.  &lt;strong&gt;Can’t remember, although I guess I must have done at some point.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Queued up for more than 2 hours to buy a ticket for a football match.  &lt;strong&gt;League Cup Final tickets in ’89.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Watched the football results come in on the TV in a shop window.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Refused to go to a friend's wedding because it was on a matchday.  &lt;strong&gt;No, although if pressed I think I probably would.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Never left a match before hearing the final whistle.  &lt;strong&gt;No, but only a couple of times.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Followed a match's progress for the entire 90 minutes on Teletext.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, dull isn’t it ?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Followed a match's progress on the internet minute by minute commentary.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, still quite dull.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shamelessly convinced a young and impressionable relative that they should support your club.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, and they still do.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Converted a girlfriend to support your football club.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;listened to a game on the radio while indulging in sexual acts with your partner.  &lt;strong&gt;Even better, while it was on the TV !!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Seen the Film "Escape to Victory" at least 3 times.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Been ejected from a ground or pub during a match.  &lt;strong&gt;No, I’m a good boy me.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Taken a piece of terracing or turf as a souvenir.  &lt;strong&gt;Grass from the City Ground.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Been involved in a pitch invasion.  &lt;strong&gt;City Ground, Portman Road, London Road, Meadow Lane …..&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Started the singing in the crowd during a game and its spread all round the ground or pub.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fallen out with a best friend or close relative over club rivalry.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, but not even over club rivalry, we support the same team !!!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Asked your partner to wear a Forest shirt during sex.  &lt;strong&gt;Yes, although I soon found it wasn’t as erotic as I thought it might be !!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Successfully explained the offside rule to someone who doesn't have a clue.  &lt;strong&gt;Yep.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Had a kickaround at the service station on an away trip.  &lt;strong&gt;Oh yes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Smashed something in anger after a heinous defeat.  &lt;strong&gt;There’s a sink in the Upper Bridgford that is still dented to this day after I kicked it in anger after a shockingly bad home defeat to Norwich in ’93.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-5042533114638726627?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/5042533114638726627/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=5042533114638726627' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5042533114638726627'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5042533114638726627'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/have-you-ever.html' title='Have you ever ....'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-5550095743087372846</id><published>2009-05-12T12:05:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-12T12:10:07.481+01:00</updated><title type='text'>The worst thing that will come out of this is ….</title><content type='html'>Far more &lt;a href="http://nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com/2009/05/proportion-and-mps-expenses.html"&gt;intelligent people&lt;/a&gt; than me have blogged about MP’s expenses, while the Daily Telegraph continues its own single-handed self-appointed role as sole arbitrator of dog food receipts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Consensus inevitably comes to these points&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;MP’s aren’t all corrupt, although that won’t stop the Torygraph slinging enough muck to cover most of Norfolk&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gordon Brown is corrupt, in big letters&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Although, actually, it was all someone else’s mistake in smaller letters further down the article and he isn’t actually corrupt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Therefore, the system needs updating&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All the party leaders apologise, probably more as a pre-emptive ‘sorry’ for the items that HAVEN’T come out yet, but what will all this mean in the long term.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It’s a bit tiring being a labour supporter at the moment.  Small ‘L’ indicating my more than &lt;a href="http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2006/09/socialism-hard-truth-to-face.html"&gt;lapsed activism&lt;/a&gt; towards a party bearing only the name of the one I joined over 25 years ago.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What can they do about the credit crunch ?  Not a great deal, except in Gordon Brown you’ve probably got the best man for the job to sort it out, a grey-suited accountant who can do magic with figures, but can’t produce a decent YouTube sound bite without looking like, well, a grey-suited accountant.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The current expenses row will push the already disillusioned electorate towards demanding change come the next election probably leading to another tenure for the suddenly sleaze-free Conservatives, all because a few ‘Labour’ MP’s massaged their expenses.  Anyone who can remember the period between ’92 and ’97, the last possible year the Tories could hang on to what little chance they had to cream off the top, will recall a government riddled with corruption &amp; sleaze.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But they’ll get back in and the only people who’ll benefit will be the top earners, your share-holders, middle England, fat-cats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exactly the same people who caused the f***ing credit-crunch mess in the first place.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-5550095743087372846?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/5550095743087372846/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=5550095743087372846' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5550095743087372846'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5550095743087372846'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/worst-thing-that-will-come-out-of-this.html' title='The worst thing that will come out of this is ….'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-7887440492636680366</id><published>2009-05-12T11:57:00.000+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-12T11:58:04.826+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Nothing new, but nice all the same ....</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/03/forest-malmo-may-1979"&gt;From the Observer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-7887440492636680366?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/7887440492636680366/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=7887440492636680366' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7887440492636680366'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7887440492636680366'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/nothing-new-but-nice-all-same.html' title='Nothing new, but nice all the same ....'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-3090991218246674696</id><published>2009-05-06T21:22:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-06T21:23:15.850+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Proud of Nottingham</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHxrFqDmsI/AAAAAAAABes/gHA4IXEMpWI/s1600-h/proudofnottingham.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 176px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHxrFqDmsI/AAAAAAAABes/gHA4IXEMpWI/s400/proudofnottingham.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332809156338621122" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-3090991218246674696?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/3090991218246674696/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=3090991218246674696' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/3090991218246674696'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/3090991218246674696'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/proud-of-nottingham.html' title='Proud of Nottingham'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHxrFqDmsI/AAAAAAAABes/gHA4IXEMpWI/s72-c/proudofnottingham.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-2263292965964500542</id><published>2009-05-05T14:02:00.003+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-06T21:11:30.359+01:00</updated><title type='text'>On the up</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHt0buesFI/AAAAAAAABd8/N_oGxm7Mt_Q/s1600-h/03052009158.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHt0buesFI/AAAAAAAABd8/N_oGxm7Mt_Q/s400/03052009158.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332804918835064914" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;So the season came to an official end with a decent home win against an already relegated Southampton side. Decent in so much that a team playing bobbins for 70 minutes to win by two goals is a sign of a good side.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Next season promises much, the board are starting to listen to the supporters by freezing season ticket prices, players are finding it harder to guarantee a place in the side purely by being stuck up the manager's a**e, instead having to rely on actual ability and we now have a manager who knows the path to the Premier League.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, in short, a team on the up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I haven't felt this confident since Joe Kinnear led us to safety at the end of the 2003/04 season with a combination of astute loan signings, better tactics and crowd euphoria. 2004/05 was going to be our season.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, roll on 2009/10. I hope it's as good as 2004/05, but for some reason, I seem to have wiped that from my memory .....&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHuw3KtcfI/AAAAAAAABeE/XmPFZesTgcw/s1600-h/leaguetable200405.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 340px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHuw3KtcfI/AAAAAAAABeE/XmPFZesTgcw/s400/leaguetable200405.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332805956993380850" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-2263292965964500542?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/2263292965964500542/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=2263292965964500542' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2263292965964500542'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/2263292965964500542'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-up.html' title='On the up'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHt0buesFI/AAAAAAAABd8/N_oGxm7Mt_Q/s72-c/03052009158.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-961118578556418837</id><published>2009-05-05T13:57:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-06T21:12:57.310+01:00</updated><title type='text'>This is no longer a mans world</title><content type='html'>Proof, if proof were needed, that now in the twenty first century, it’s no longer men who wear the trousers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Men have been battling the vicious man-flu for years, some even unable to get down the pub for a pint because of their near-death predicament.  And yet as soon as a flu comes along that can be caught by both men &lt;strong&gt;AND&lt;/strong&gt; women, whoosh, you can’t move for the clearly female led World Health Organisation swarming all over it.  Like a rash.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's a phone number to ring if you've got any concerns over swine flu.  I tried ringing it, but all I got was crackling.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHvLc0k92I/AAAAAAAABeM/6nEMCwrq5EY/s1600-h/swinefluwoman.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 170px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHvLc0k92I/AAAAAAAABeM/6nEMCwrq5EY/s400/swinefluwoman.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332806413777696610" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8019832.stm"&gt;One woman&lt;/a&gt; tells of symptoms involving a sore head, achy limbs and not wanting to get out of bed.  And what happened ?  She got prescribed tablets.  Hardly that bad then, normal man-flu is so bad it has &lt;strong&gt;NO&lt;/strong&gt; cure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I had similar symptoms a few weeks back, nauseous, head-ache and I just couldn’t raise my self out of my pit.  I reckon I must have caught something in one of the 16 pubs I visited the day before.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, welcome to the mans world, missy.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Women, eh ?  Bit of pain comes along and they don’t know they’re born !&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-961118578556418837?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/961118578556418837/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=961118578556418837' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/961118578556418837'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/961118578556418837'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/this-is-no-longer-mans-world.html' title='This is no longer a mans world'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHvLc0k92I/AAAAAAAABeM/6nEMCwrq5EY/s72-c/swinefluwoman.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-7126338297038613249</id><published>2009-05-05T13:54:00.001+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-06T21:14:23.285+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Joey Barton</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHvlmcX56I/AAAAAAAABeU/SodlnabP0w4/s1600-h/Joey-Barton-001.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 120px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHvlmcX56I/AAAAAAAABeU/SodlnabP0w4/s200/Joey-Barton-001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332806863037130658" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Mindless thug, or intuitive genius ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/may/05/football-transfers-newcastle-birmingham"&gt;From the Guardian&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;According to today's Sun, Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton and his caretaker manager Alan Shearer had a right old ding-dong in the visitors' dressing room at Anfield on Sunday afternoon. Raging that Barton had got himself sent off for a needless over-the-top challenge on Xabi Alonso, Shearer took Barton to task over his rash challenge, only to be told that "you're a s*** manager with s*** tactics". The endearingly coy tabloid's liberal use of asterisks means we may never know for certain whether Barton was being abusive, but considering his famously withering reviews of the literary endeavours of England's most recent crop of World Cup failures, it's probably safe to assume his critique of Shearer's managerial skills was far from five-star.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-7126338297038613249?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/7126338297038613249/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=7126338297038613249' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7126338297038613249'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/7126338297038613249'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/joey-barton.html' title='Joey Barton'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHvlmcX56I/AAAAAAAABeU/SodlnabP0w4/s72-c/Joey-Barton-001.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-5872581604529945118</id><published>2009-05-01T12:45:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-01T12:48:09.059+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Twenty million reasons why staying up was so important</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2009/04/30/dough-is-there-for-forest-boss-115875-21319900/"&gt;From the Daily Mirror&lt;/a&gt; (and, it has to be said, taken with a huge dollop of salt)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nottingham Forest to spend £20million on players this summer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nottingham Forest chairman Nigel Doughty will cough up £20million this summer to turn his Championship strugglers into promotion contenders.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Doughty, 52, has deep pockets as the coowner of a European private equity firm.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And boss Billy Davies is expected to bring in at least six players - with QPR keeper Lee Camp, Man City striker Ched Evans and Spurs fullback Chris Gunter in the frame.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Credit crunch ?  What credit crunch ?????&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-5872581604529945118?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/5872581604529945118/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=5872581604529945118' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5872581604529945118'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5872581604529945118'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/twenty-million-reasons-why-staying-up.html' title='Twenty million reasons why staying up was so important'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-4753989981164503515</id><published>2009-05-01T12:35:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-06T21:17:21.801+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Sometimes the punchlines just write themselves</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHwRQ3pOkI/AAAAAAAABec/jRjtx4K5UW8/s1600-h/pages.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 170px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHwRQ3pOkI/AAAAAAAABec/jRjtx4K5UW8/s400/pages.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332807613160176194" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8024809.stm"&gt;From the BBC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;An Iranian scholar who stole pages from priceless books at Oxford's Bodleian library and the British Library has had his sentence halved.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And who says we don't practice &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;'eye for an eye' &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;justice in this country ?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-4753989981164503515?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/4753989981164503515/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=4753989981164503515' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/4753989981164503515'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/4753989981164503515'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/sometimes-punchlines-just-write.html' title='Sometimes the punchlines just write themselves'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oj5pqBo41Cg/SgHwRQ3pOkI/AAAAAAAABec/jRjtx4K5UW8/s72-c/pages.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-3245156102392337252</id><published>2009-05-01T12:31:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2009-05-01T12:34:33.766+01:00</updated><title type='text'>I'm not a great believer in religion, but .....</title><content type='html'>..... sometimes they talk a lot of sense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;'Derby is worse than Baghdad' says vicar on Nottingham visit&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have. I lived in Derby. In my former life, when I did obstetric anaesthetics, I did it at Derby City Hospital. Derby was the worst place I've ever worked in my life. Far worse than Baghdad.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/homenews/Derby-worse-Baghdad-says-vicar-Nottingham-visit/article-953421-detail/article.html"&gt;From the Nottingham Evening Post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-3245156102392337252?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/3245156102392337252/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=3245156102392337252' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/3245156102392337252'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/3245156102392337252'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/05/im-not-great-believer-in-religion-but.html' title='I&apos;m not a great believer in religion, but .....'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19799807.post-5862081625952178444</id><published>2009-04-30T15:09:00.001+01:00</published><updated>2009-04-30T15:13:14.084+01:00</updated><title type='text'>SrAlan &amp; Son</title><content type='html'>More Apprentice, more b******s spouted by these self-proclaimed business geniuses and another one bites the dust.  Noorul this week, telling the world how he loved his kids back at his school and how he couldn’t wait to get back to them to get them through their GCSE’s.  I bet he’d have thought exactly the same thing if he’d been offered the job at the end, eh ?  School ?  Kids ?  What kids ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Philip kicked things off by telling everyone, and I’ll paraphrase a bit, “&lt;em&gt;if you think I’m a t**t, then tell me&lt;/em&gt;”.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, Philip, you’re a t**t.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He then failed to let Lorraine talk him into realising the true cost of a rug.  Surely the best option for all concerned would have been to shove said rug up Lorraine’s a**e, shutting her up, making us smile &lt;strong&gt;AND&lt;/strong&gt; not making a huge loss in the process.  Poor management, me thinks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ben is a rival for Philip, in so much that he’s nearly as big a t**t.  “&lt;em&gt;I’m a grafter&lt;/em&gt;” he stated, er, no you’re not Ben.  “&lt;em&gt;I’m a good leader&lt;/em&gt;” he added, well again, no, your team lost you numpty.  “&lt;em&gt;I had a scholarship at Sandhurst&lt;/em&gt;”.  &lt;strong&gt;Well whoop-de-f***ing-do&lt;/strong&gt;.  I once got offered the chance to join the coaching staff at my boys school, a chance I had to pass up when I moved back to Nottingham.  &lt;strong&gt;Doesn’t make me Alex f***ing Fergusson, does it ?&lt;/strong&gt;  And doesn’t everyone who joins the army get paid ?  They certainly don’t have to pay themselves to get in, so in actual fact, &lt;strong&gt;EVERYONE&lt;/strong&gt; who joins the army gets a scholarship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Philip, you’re still a t**t.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Debra shot herself in the foot by arguing with Nick leading to an admonishment from the big man himself.  “&lt;em&gt;Don’t talk to &lt;strong&gt;HIM&lt;/strong&gt; like a second class citizen&lt;/em&gt;” clearly forgetting himself that referring to someone sat next to you as &lt;strong&gt;HIM&lt;/strong&gt; is cat’s mother territory.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mona will be next to go, if she hasn’t decided to completely go into hiding, while James is improving every week.  He’s now improved up to the level of village idiot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And Philip.  He’s still a big t**t.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19799807-5862081625952178444?l=luckycol.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/feeds/5862081625952178444/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19799807&amp;postID=5862081625952178444' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5862081625952178444'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/19799807/posts/default/5862081625952178444'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://luckycol.blogspot.com/2009/04/sralan-son.html' title='SrAlan &amp; Son'/><author><name>Lucky Col</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/03423382101529533305</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13901410580630802453'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry></feed>