NoFakie

Anywhere icy, narrow, mogully, too many people, half of them half hidden in the moguls. It doesn't have to be that steep, but that adds to it too.

Buying lots of duffers with their Gareth Bale money.

Plenty of potential for a Spurs. Same at ManYoo too with their shopping.

I hope that dune buggy comes in a choice of four colours.

For heating, I was thinking more about the UK....

I think Liverpool have played the situation very well. I would have got rid of him at racism time, but he's got a goal a game and an assist every other game since then, Liverpool nearly won the league and got the coveted CL place, and his valuation has gone up by about thirty million. If you employ Rafanomics and calculate the beloved "net spend", the fifty million profit on Suarez might more than cover the losses on Carroll, Downing, Adam and the other ones King Kenny bought. Henderson doesn't look such a bad buy now either.

Because they can. It's like mountaineering, except for old people.

Loads of folks have mortgages and have seen the value of their home soar, so debt for housing can be a fantastic investment, a good, a so-so, a bad, or a disaster. Its all a timing play. Housing is a need, so it's crap that there is so much speculation and boom and bust with it, and that people are forced into playing the game. Speculation should be limited to less important things. For me, buying toys like jet skis or even flash cars on credit does not equal living for today. That's just what advertisers and sellers want you to believe. If you want to travel, do something active like

With pools, isn't the heating more of an eco problem than keeping the water clean? I don't suppose you'd heat them much in Perth.

Having reached 70 and still being fit enough to work, the person you mention would have had a normal life expectancy of I guess another 15 years. I guess Rik Mayall had plenty put away but he died at 56. You don't get to choose when. Working hard to save for a retirement you may die before or soon into or be too sick to enjoy goes against carpe diem, living for the day. In simple terms, the younger you are, the more you can enjoy the money you've got. I reckon any overseas travel done when you're young is worth loads more than when you are old. Loads loads more. Personally, I reckon th

Wiki says he's played there before, first thing in the morning though. I'd rather have Shakey than Muse or Elbow!

I missed some of the first knockout games, but the ones I saw were ace. I reckon this must be the best World Cup since '82. I thought the French looked pretty good, Germany were lucky, and the Netherlands fought back well, although Mexico were stupid to play for a 1-0. Go Colombia and Costa Rica!

In English football, Ashley Cole for William Gallas is the one I remember. Maybe it's because of the the genius Arsenal fans' song, "I'd rather have a Willie than a C**t" In world football, Barca did a big swap with Zlatan for Eto'o and some dosh. That was probably the biggest one in recent years. But yeah, not many. I think you get them more in American sports.

It's been deleted apparently, but some public-minded individual updated his wiki.

I hope no-one tells him to hurry up and get married and have kids. I don't think he's ready.

For strength, I prefer it weaker and drinking a lot. Lots and lots of quaffing. Especially at this time of year. A lot of draught ales and Guinness come in about 4%. If I'm out, I think it gives me an extra hour of drinking before I'm sozzled.

Let's Coalition of the Willing!

The big hip Japanese dish in the UK is katsu curry. They make it with a yellowy Chinese takeaway style curry, and the katsu is chicken, not pork. It strikes me as putting in minimum effort.

The fortified beers are rank. Fortified wine like Thunderbird or Buckfast will also get you pished quicker if that is the objective. The taste is equally rank though. Some more naturally strong beers are very good though. Duvel for example. I'd buy that quite often if it were cheaper.

They like a bit of the ironic guest spot. It used to be Rolf Harris, but it won't be any more! fwiw, I reckon Glastonbury is now just some big corporate version of a music-only festival like Reading with some hippy history that is judiciously mined for street cred. Actual hippies and other alternative types stopped going years ago. All the counter-culture political stuff is long gone too. I bet Hawkwind never mimed in 1975! etc. etc.

The Japanese food I've had in the UK was shit and very expensive. 100 yen sushi for 500 yen a plate. My kids are used to Japanese food though, so we usually end up going a couple of times.

Ours has gone up quite a bit since the disaster and around 15,000 now. Its double in winter, but that includes some of our heating too. The rest comes from firewood. Its way better than the Bubble era house we lived in before. The electricity bill there was the same, with a huge toyu bill on top for hot water and heating. Plus a couple of thou a month for gas for cooking.

We have time-based metering, so we don't get a single total. At this time of year, we use about 300-350 kWH a month combined for the day peak and morning/evening zone, plus 200 to 250 more overnight, which will be the water heater. That might sound a lot but its the equivalent of 25 litres of kero. For a 200 litre home kero tank feeding a boiler, that would be one fill up lasting eight months. We've got three kids. We don't use gas or kero. I work at home, so I'm usually around during the day and there'll be a cooked lunch and umpteen cups of tea and coffee in there too.

They get a lot of stick, but that was a brave call by the (English) linesman there. It looked like he was blindsided, but the decision was correct.

On the topic of travel to Yuzawa/Nozawa, a new highway extension opened today linking the Tomei, Chuo and Kan'etsu. On the little map on tv, it looked like the final bit on a big outer ring road outside Yokohama on the west side of Tokyo. It sounds like the idea is to stop folks in the Yokohama region from going into Tokyo when heading toward Gunma, Niigata or eastern Nagano. Depending on where the jams form, it might save you a fair bit of time.