giggsy
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Posts posted by giggsy
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do u laiku dogsu
What does that mean then (do you like dogs?)
I hope one day soon to go and get asked lots of silly questions.
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The leagues were the best part. Then it got boring. And 2 of our (MU) players started to fight and provide lots of "news" over summer.
For someone not into football, it wasn't a particularly good show.
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Here is the real Ronaldo doing his stuff
Apparently he has announced that he wants to leave Manchester. I hope we get a ton for him. Little git.
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That is class, good to see it again after a while England underperform, as if we didn't know:
ENGLAND'S footballers are under-performing - and that's (almost) official.
As if fans up and down the country need to be told, Sven Goran Eriksson failed to get the most out of his squad in Germany according to the boffins.
Researchers came to the same conclusion as millions of supporters after devising a formula to determine how good the world's teams should be based on factors including climate, population and wealth.
According to academics from the Cass Business School in London, England should be ranked fourth in the world, although their average FIFA ranking between 2000 and 2005 has only been ninth.
Researchers looked at a large range of factors when considering what might affect a national team's performance. Factors used were the number of men who play football regularly (P), the number of years the country has been a member of FIFA (N), wealth (W), the number of internationals who play abroad (E) and climate.
The formula used was ((111xP) + (1.2xN) + (5.8xE) + (188xW) - (1.2xWxE) - 68) - 881 to calculate results for each country.
The results suggested that none of the home nations were reaching their potential with Scotland ranked 51 by FIFA and 34 by Cass' Wales ranked 79 by Fifa and 37 by Cass and Northern Ireland ranked 101 by Fifa and 48 by Cass.
Meanwhile countries like Brazil (Cass ranking of 18 but ranked top by FIFA) and Argentina (Cass ranking of 12, three by FIFA) were overperforming.
World Cup finalists Italy were ranked at three by the research, four places above their Fifa ranking of seven.
Their opponents on Sunday, France, should be number five in the world according to Cass. Their average FIFA ranking is two.
Dr Gelade, author of the research, said: "These findings show England's poor performance at the World Cup is even more disappointing because the country has many a dvantages."
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I remember The Man With 2 Brains being good and so was looking forward to seeing it again.
It isn't.
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Rooney didn't deserve a red card there for sure, it was just a bit of pushing and shoving and him being fed up with Ronaldo for moaning, but he should know better.
A lot of discussion about Ronaldo with United fans right now. Whether he wants out or not, whether he being a git to his United team-mate or not.
I think England didn't deserve to lose that game, but they still weren't much good - neither were Portugal and in the end not good enough. Why did Carragher get put on at the last minute? For penalties? I just read an interview with him where he said he had only taken 2 before.
Looks like France are doing the peaking at the right time thing well this time.
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Turkish Delight.
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How bad are all these lines?
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Yes Germany were totally up for it last night. They were looking good actually, surprised me.
On the other hand Sweden were rubbish - did England actually struggle against them?? Says a lot that, unfortunately
If anyone didn't see the Argentina game - watch it, especially the winning goal. Total class.
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I think Spain will win this time.
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Poll had a nightmare. Surely he is finished in major comps now. How we miss Mr Bulgy Eyes he was a class ref.
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May well get a season ticket this year.
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So much to answer for. (But so much to thank for).
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That miss (Yanagisawa?) was worse than the Crouch miss. (Is he getting ridiculed, or do they not do that in Japan?)
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Well made movie and definitely worth watching. It could have been so so much worse (as a movie).
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WE ARE, MATE!!!Quote:Owen not worried by performances
Owen has not added to his 35 international goals at the World Cup
England striker Michael Owen said he is not worried about his performances to date in the World Cup. -
Just had a look round and couldn't find any news on the fixtures.
Then I looked at the top of this thread and saw scouser posted it on the day the fixtures were released last year.
That was, da daaaaa.....
posted 23 June, 2005 06:04 PM
So fairly soon then.
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I would hope not anyway.
Here's another of those don't know where it came from (friend sent it) posts but an interesting read. (If anyone knows please post to give credit
)Excess all areas: Rock's top 50 big spenders
Splashing the cash is as much a part of the rock'n'roll lifestyle as picking up a guitar. But it's not just how much you spend - it's what you spend it on. From his'n'her gold teeth to a guest appearance by Marlon Brando, we point the fickle finger of pop at the tasteless, the shameless and the downright ludicrous.
1 Gold Dust Man: Mick Fleetwood
Item: Cocaine
Cost: $8m (£4.35m)
In 1994, Mick Fleetwood estimated how long a line of all the cocaine he'd ever taken would stretch. He guessed five miles, but given his admission that he'd spent a lifetime total of $8m on the drug, five miles sounds like an average weekend.
2 An Offer He Couldn't Refuse: Michael Jackson
Item: Marlon Brando
Cost: $1m (£545,000)
A frequent (and conspicuously overage) guest at Neverland, Brando demanded a cool million for a bizarre appearance at Jackson's 30th anniversary show in September 2001. After introducing himself to the crowd as an "old fat fart", the star of Jackson's "You Rock My World" video ranted about children being hacked to death with machetes ... from a leather recliner.
3 Hedge Fund: Paul McCartney
Item: Gigantic fence
Cost: £100,000
Herds of wild boar were becoming a problem on McCartney's 1,000-acre English estate, tearing up trees and carrying swine fever. But he didn't want the guilt of the pests being shot on his property, so in 1999 he had a four-mile long fence built to keep them out. "He does whatever he wants because he can afford it," said a disgruntled local farmer. But his second marriage, with a settlement that could run into the hundreds of millions, may well turn out to be the biggest extravagance of them all...
4 Snack Attack: Elvis Presley
Item: Peanut butter and bacon sandwiches
Cost: $3,387.28 (£1,846)
On the night of 1 Feburary 1976, Elvis Presley pulled off a stunt that combined three of his favourite activities - profligate spending, showing off to cops and eating repellent things. While entertaining two Colorado policemen at Graceland, he mentioned a sandwich that he'd once eaten at the Colorado Gold Mine Company restaurant in Denver: a hollowed, buttered loaf, filled with peanut butter, jam and a pound of fried bacon. The sandwich was meant to feed eight, but Presley had finished one unaided. Remarkably, one of the policemen expressed an interest. Even more remarkably, Presley insisted they should head to Denver to try it, a distance of 1,000 miles. His stretch Mercedes took them to the Memphis airport, where his private jet, the Lisa Marie - upholstered in aquamarine plush - awaited. Two hours later, they landed in Denver, where 22 of the $49.95 "Fool's Gold" sandwiches on silver platters, plus a bucket of Perrier water and a case of Champagne, were brought to a private hangar at the airport by the restaurateur, his wife and a waiter.
5 Say a Little Prayer: Kanye West
Item: Michelangelo's ceiling
Cost: $350,000 (£191,000)
"I'm the closest that hip-hop is getting to God," remarked Kanye West recently. "In some situations, I'm like a ghetto pope." Which may explain the decoration he chose for his LA dining-room: a complete recreation of Michelangelo's frescoes from Rome's Sistine Chapel ceiling.
7 I Will Always Love Suey: Whitney Houston
Item: Chinese Food
Cost: £200
When Whitney Houston wants, Whitney Houston gets... Chinese. Before the Sheffield leg of her UK tour some years back, Houston felt peckish. So, she flagged down a taxi and asked the cabbie to drive a 169-mile round trip to London, to pick up some choice nibbles from her favourite Chinese restaurant. He was paid £200 for his troubles, even though the sweet and sour chicken was a little cold.
8 High Hat: Bono
Item: Flying a hat first class
Cost: £1,000
Poised to play a charity show for Iraq with Luciano Pavarotti in 2003, Bono realised he'd forgotten his favourite trilby, so he arranged to have it taken by taxi to Heathrow to be flown to Italy - first class. Amid fears it might get squashed, lost or stolen, the hat was upgraded from its spacious seat and got to ride up front with the captain.
9 Own Goals: Rod Stewart
Item: Personal football field
Cost: $100,000 (£54,500)
There's being a football fan, and then there's building a full-size football field on the grounds of your Epping mansion, complete with dressing rooms modelled on Celtic's, and groundsmen to maintain them. Sadly, in 2004, the planners objected to his plans to install floodlighting.
10 Electric Dreams: The Beatles
Item: Apple electronics
Cost: $510,000 (£278,000)
Part of The Beatles' infamously extravagant Apple Corps company, which also included Apple Records and a boutique, was this subdivision led by one "Magic" Alex. In his single year of employment, Alex outlined numerous inventions, including electric paint, a flying saucer and a recording studio with a "sonic force field", not one of which ever worked. He was fired in 1969.
11 Out of Pocket Man: Elton John
Item: Flowers
Cost: £250,000
The nation's favourite ivory-botherer has never been a man to squander one million where three million will do. But Elton John's love of flowers exceeds even his own vertiginous levels of spending. Pressed by a UK court in 2000, he admitted that between January 1996 and September 1997 he had spent £250,000 on flowers alone. "Yes - I like flowers," said John. No kidding.
12 U Can't Afford This: MC Hammer
Item: California mansion
Cost: $12m (£6.54m)
When Stanley Burrell became a global pop-rap superstar worth $30m in 1990, he did what anyone would do - put 250 people, many of them friends, on his payroll, bought 17 luxury cars - and a mansion. By 1996, he'd found God and filed for bankruptcy, $13.7m in debt.
13 Bar for the Course: Ron Wood
Item: A replica British pub
Cost: $66,000 (£36,000)
When the Rolling Stones guitarist bought Sandymount, an "18th-century gentleman's residence" in County Kildare, he outfitted the garden with a pub where the Stones could relax during rehearsal sessions. These days, though, it tends to go half-stocked thanks to Wood's sporadic bouts with sobriety.
14 Action man: John Mayer
Item: Boba Fett figure
Cost: $1,719.15 (£945)
In 2004 the mint-condition bounty hunter was an impulse buy on eBay - at a time when the singer-songwriter also admitted to having spent $1,500 on phone sex in four months.
15 A View to a Spill: Simon Le Bon
Item: Yacht
Cost: $1.35m (£736,000)
The Duran Duran frontman planned to sail his 78ft racing sloop around the world, but nearly died when it capsized in the Channel in 1985, trapping him for 20 minutes. He later sold the yacht to a Scottish car dealer; supermodels and Champagne, presumably, were not included.
16 Class Act: John Lennon
Item: All of first class
Cost: $12,980 (£7,075)
Lennon famously banked on his "working-class hero" image, but didn't shy away from enjoying the fruits of his Beatles' labour, and once bought out an entire first-class airline cabin - so that his son, Sean, could set up his model train set. Fittingly, Lennon now has an airport named after him in Liverpool.
17 You're Barred: Bryan Adams
Item: Peace and quiet
Cost: £400,000
After releasing Waking Up the Neighbours, adoptive Londoner Adams then lived it; the pub next to his Chelsea mansion hosted boisterous louts whose noise kept him from sleeping. In 1994, Adams did the only feasible thing: he bought the bar... and shut it down.
18 Burning a Hole in Their Pocket: The KLF
Item: Torched cash
Cost: £1m
Ah, who doesn't love the smell of flaming cash in the morning? British pop duo KLF clearly did - why else would they have set 20,000 £50-notes ablaze, then circulated a videotape of the bonfire? Some say the 1994 stunt was inspired materialist satire. Others called it moronic decadence. Starving children worldwide were unavailable for comment.
19 Million-dollar Baby: Mick Jagger
Item: Love child
Cost: $15m (£8.2m)
Born in 1999, Lucas Maurice Morad Jagger turned his father's affair with Brazilian lingerie model Luciana Morad into one of the most expensive flings in history. Jagger's new son was the final straw for long-suffering wife Jerry Hall, who got a reported $15m divorce settlement from him - while Morad hit him with a claim for $35,000 a month in child support, citing nannies, rent, housekeeping and security.
20 Gest of Honour: Liza Minnelli and David Gest
Item: Wedding
Cost: $2.7m
It seemed like a match made in heaven: the gay icon and a guy who - ahem - is fond of musical theatre. What could go wrong? The extravagant wedding was held in New York City in March 2002, but the marriage lasted barely 18 months.
21 Wonderwallet: Noel Gallagher
Item: Decorating
Cost: £400,000
The Oasis guitarist was merely showing his love for The Beatles when he decided to cover his kitchen walls with costly paintings of yellow submarines in 1997. The £20,000 he spent on carpet in Man City's colours, on the other hand, is somewhat tougher to explain.
22 Crime Pays: Marilyn Manson
Item: Charles manson memorabilia
Cost: $500 (£270)
Given that Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey made Manson a reverend, it's fitting that Manson should visit Odium, the LA occult shop that was co-owned by LaVey's grandson. While there in 2002, Manson picked up framed photos of the Manson Family murder scene. Perfect for the guest dungeon.
23 Not Quite Art: Paul Simon
Item: The Capeman Musical
Cost: $3m (£1.66m)
In 1998, Paul Simon opened a play about a Puerto Rican teen who stabbed two white kids in 1959. Enraged picketers ("Murder is not entertainment") outnumbered ticketholders. Backers backed out, Simon dug seven figures deep into his own pockets and the Capeman closed 10 weeks later - deeply in the hole.
24 Furtastic: Nelly
Item: Mink-lined Rolls-Royce
Cost: $385,000 (£212,000)
Despite a trip to the customiser for new wheel rims, Nelly felt his 2004 Rolls-Royce Phantom still lacked a certain discreet charm, so he had the interior totally re-worked... in mink fur.
25 Wheel money: Jay Kay
Item: Lamborghini Diablo SE30
Cost: £180,000
Bought for his "Cosmic Girl" video, a handler took this rare jewel for a joyride and smashed it up beyond repair.
26 Investment Pond: Freddie Mercury
Item: Fish
Cost: £1m
A passionate koi carp enthusiast, Mercury amassed a collection whose value rose to more than £1m. Tragically, after his death, all but five of the 89 fish - worth up to £10,000 apiece - were killed in a bizarre gardening accident when landscapers at his London home turned off the power for their storage tank.
27 Pup Psychology: Will Smith
Item: Dog shrink
Cost: $2,500/month (£1,360)
When the pressure of life on the A-list has Smith's four Rottweilers feeling down, he calls on the Sigmund Freud of the canine world - renowned Hollywood hound analyst Cesar Millan, aka "The Dog Whisperer". Apparently, it takes a special talent to help a pooch get over the trauma of watching Bad Boys II.
28 Smash Hits: The Who
Item: Musical instruments
Cost: £700
Rock bands have always had a love-hate relationship with the tools of their craft. But The Who's attitude to their instruments takes some beating. In 1965, the band went on a guitar-breaking spree, and smashed up about £700 worth of equipment on stage every night. Their biggest fee was £500. "We'd come out ahead", said John Entwhistle, "just by not showing up."
29 The Joy of Wrecks: Billy Idol
Item: Hotel vandalism
Cost: $20,400 (£11,120)
Possibly bored of "dancing with himself" to watch pay-per-view porn, Idol wrecked three luxury hotel suites to pass the time while vacationing in Thailand in 1989. A friend of the peroxide rebel assured one hotel manager that the damage would be paid for once Billy had his fill of mayhem. A check was duly cut.
30 Rubber soul: 50 Cent
Item: Condoms
Cost: £40
One of the stranger items to appear on 50 Cent's rider is that 50 condoms must be supplied for his use. Even if Fiddy's a double-bagger, it still constitutes an ambitious nightly workload for the young man.
31 Big Night: Lenny Kravitz
Item: Night out with Lionel Richie
Cost: £12,000
In late 2004, Kravitz and Richie took over London's Kabaret's Prophecy club for three hours of £700 magnums of Cristal.
32 Hello Sailor: P Diddy
Item: Yacht rental
Cost: $800,000 (£436,075)
Even in the world of high-end yachts, Diddy's choice of transport for his summer 2003 holiday in the Mediterranean seemed sightly de trop: a 181ft luxury yacht, rented at a cost of $40,000 per day, with its own gym, gold-plated taps in the Jacuzzis and, most vitally, a helicopter pad.
33 Real Fir: Sting
Item: Christmas tree
Cost: $11,900 (£6,485)
A man who has done so much for the plight of the rainforests could hardly hack down one of his wooden friends just for holiday decoration. So in 2002, Sting had a special living Christmas tree brought into his 41-room English mansion, hiring a top-flight florist at additional expense to give the festive centrepiece a lavish makeover.
34 Scissor Sister: Britney Spears
Item: Shears
Cost: $3,000 (£1,635)
When Mrs Federline gets her locks trimmed, not just any scissors will do. The soon-to-be-mother-of-two opts for a set of custom-ordered clippers, handmade and imported from Japan.
35 Heil! Heil! Rock & Roll!: Lemmy Kilmister
Item: Luftwaffe sword
Cost: $6,000
Born in 1945, Motörhead frontman Lemmy is fascinated with the Second World War. This rare sword is the prized piece in his extensive collection of memorabilia and has doubled in value since he acquired it. "It's a very good investment," reasons Lemmy, who says that he has no admiration for any Nazis except Hermann Goering.
36 His Ride Pimped: Jay-Z
Item: Mercedes Maybach
Cost: $360,000 (£196,000)
Not so much a car as a spirited attempt to see how many optional extras you can cram on four wheels, Jay-Z's top-of-the-line Maybach features an electro-transparent panoramic glass roof, reclining seats with massage function, a DVD player, a 21-speaker hi-fi, an "interphone" and, most vital of all, two cup holders.
37 Footing the Bill: Usher
Item: Trainers
Cost: $26,000 (£14,175)
R&Bs answer to Imelda Marcos may have had a good reason for spending the equivalent of a new pair of shoes every day for a year on trainers; after all, simulated onstage sex can really scuff up a pair of kicks. Maybe next time he should also think about investing in a wardrobe of T-shirts that don't rip quite so easily...
38 Beatle Mania: George Harrison
Item: The natural law party
Cost: Several million
Seduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Harrison dumped unspecified amounts into a political party based on his philosophy (that all conflict can be solved through meditation) and organised a benefit concert at the Albert Hall. The party pulled a handsome 0.4 per cent of the vote in the 1992 election.
39 Spend it: Justin Timberlake
Item: Harrods shopping spree
Cost: £1m
Wanting to beat the Christmas crowds, in 2003 Timberlake had Harrods opened for him and 80 friends. His purchases, including jewellery for Cameron Diaz, were transported away in two buses.
40 Key purchase: Mariah Carey
Item: Marilyn Monroe's piano
Cost: $662,500 (£397,000)
When Christie's sold Monroe's possessions in 1999, the third-priciest item turned out to be her white baby grand, bought by an anonymous buyer - who turned out to be fellow vixen Mariah Carey.
41 Caffeine kick: Tommy Lee
Item: Starbucks franchise
Cost: $4,000 (£2,440)
The Mötley Crüe drummer's 1999 purchase was built in his house as a gift for then-wife Pamela Anderson.
42 Smacked Down: Kurt Cobain
Item: Drug treatment
Cost: $40,000 (£21,800)
Cobain might have started using to help relieve his lifelong stomach troubles, but his troubles with heroin led to two prematurely ended rehab stints in 1992 - one at Los Angeles' pricey Exodus Recovery - and some of his mopiest facial expressions.
43 Hitting the Bottle: J Lo
Item: Crème de la Mer
Cost: £1,000
Jenny from the block is said to be such a huge fan of Crème de la Mer's new Essence face cream, that she uses it all over her body. Just to moisturise Lopez's bottom would be, at a conservative estimate, a one pot job, so the mind boggles at how much J Lo drops on the £1000-a-go, invitation only Miracle Broth.
44 Bargain: Keith Moon
Item: Customised milk truck
Cost: £300
In 1971, Who drummer Keith Moon bought an electric-powered milk float and had it converted into a "mobile Victorian parlour" - with armchair, wallpaper, cocktail cabinet and gramophone. To fit it in his garage, Moon also removed his Corvette - and drove it into a nearby hedge.
45 Tres Cher: Cher
Item: Wigs
Cost: £200,000
A mole on a recent Cher tour revealed that the warbling diva required two wardrobes just for her wigs. So, when one of her equine head-props went missing recently, reported stolen, and was valued at £5,000 to £6,000, tongues started to wag. At a conservative estimate, a small wardrobe could house at least 20 wigs. So how much has Cher spent tressing herself up? You do the math.
46 In this Bed: Jessica Simpson
Item: Bedsheets
Cost: £1,000
"I don't sleep good," was how Simpson chose to defend shelling out a grand for a set of Egyptian-cotton bed linens. When they were almost ruined in the wash, husband Nick Lachey had an explanation of his own: "Even the washing machine thinks $1,400 sheets are ridiculous," he said.
47 Home Movies: Russell Simmons
Item: Cinema
Cost: $2m (£1.09m)
The Def Jam/Phat Farm mogul is such a film lover, he had a cinema installed in the basement of his New Jersey house. And not just a couple of comfy seats and a video projector: Simmons' home cinema has a marquee, a popcorn machine and a ticket booth.
48 Material Girl: Madonna
Item: Accommodation
Cost: £500,000
The Queen of Pop has a penchant for castles. Not only did she rent out every room at Dornoch's Skibo Castle for her wedding to Guy Ritchie in 2000 at a reputed cost of £150,000, but more recently, she spent £350,000 housing her whole touring entourage at Luttrellstown Castle near Dublin. Two nights. Half a million quid. You'd expect nothing less from Her Madgesty.
49 Quadruple Platinum: Chris Kirkpatrick
Item: Wheel spinners
Cost: $40,000 (£21,800)
While Lance Bass spent his time and money trying to become the first member of a boy band in space, fellow 'N Syncer Kirkpatrick decided to invest his money more practically: on a set of platinum-plated wheel spinners for his Cadillac Escalade.
50 Rap Sheet: DMX
Item: Freedom
Cost: $1,000 (£545)
It may seem steep, but a $1,000 fine was a bargain compared to the jail sentence the rapper faced after being charged with smashing his SUV through a security gate at New York's JFK Airport. While high on Valium. And impersonating a federal agent. If only he hadn't been arrested just a week later for doing 104 in a 65mph zone...
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Best games so far for me:
Argentina v Ivory Coast
Italy v Ghana
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Luckily none. I'm interested to read about other experiences though, sounds like an experience I don't want.
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Not sure where this is coming from a friend sent it on but....
My top 10 World Cup viewing gripes
All in all, a jolly good start to a World Cup for us viewers. Goals aplenty, a minor shock courtesy of Trinidad & Tobago and, England's notwithstanding, few games to send you to sleep while gawping at the plasma. So, mustn't grumble really ... but grumble one shall. Here are my top 10 World Cup viewing gripes:
1) Shadows
Not the backing band for Cliff Richard and creators of Apache, possibly the finest twangy guitar and tribal rhythm tune ever written, but rather the dark, colder bits that appear when the sun comes out. A combination of lots of sunshine and posh stadium design has conspired to make watching the World Cup needlessly stressful. During Holland's game against Serbia & Montenegro the only person anyone could see was the referee, clad in a luminous top, which may explain why Serbia's players failed to pick out the hulking frame of Nikola Zigic all afternoon. There have been calls for stadium roofs to be shut but weather forecasters have warned of a potential "greenhouse effect". Presumably an allusion to sweltering temperatures rather than the surprising, yet welcome, childhood discovery of dad's secret stash of bongo.
2) Leonardo on the BBC
The Brazilian midfielder may be "dishy", according to my mum, and he may bring a bit of South American flair to the Beeb's shower of a line-up but as no one can understand a word Leonardo bangs on about (including the blank-faced Lineker), surely a pair of fashionable Havaianas flip-flops could do the same job? Still, Leonardo is preferable to Ian Wright. So too are the flip-flops.
3) Angola's tactics
There's three minutes left, you're one-nil down to Portugal, your reviled one-time colonial masters, and you've a dangerous free kick positioned on the edge of the opposition's area. What do you do?
a) Adopt a clichéd African devil-may-care attitude to defence, throw everyone into the box, including the goalkeeper, and put the ball "into the mixer".
Do something you haven't done all match and perhaps have a shot, preferably on target. c) Keep eight players behind the ball. Pass it backwards. Knock it around the defence a bit and then concede a lamentable throw-in.
For some reason, Angola took the last option. What happened fellas? Last time you played Portugal, the match was abandoned after you had four players sent off amid a flurry of brutal tackles and dissent with the score at 5-1 to Portugal. Now that's more like it.
4) Not enough fouls and fisticuffs
As Olivia Newton-John once warbled, "let's get physical, phy-sic-al". Where's all the rough and tumble gone, eh? There's been far too little to quench the average viewer's blood-thirst. Of course, no one likes to see brawls, dangerous tackles or bone-crunching collisions, do they? Except they do. In fact, that's exactly what people like to see. Instead of lugging out a big "Fair Play" banner before each game, those angelic kids should cart out one adorned with the words "Fight, Fight, Fight" to remind us all that football was once a contact game.
5) Gary Neville
Come on Gary, sing up, son. Stop looking so miserable, it's the World Cup f'chrissake, not a funeral. As England's nominated shop steward, you should be getting your lungs out for the lads and whacking out "God Save the Queen" with the same kind of gusto you used to wind up thousands of Scousers. Oh, and another thing: stop giving the flippin' ball away.
6) Boring pennants
It's not often that other countries are urged to follow Iran's lead, but in the world of football pennants, the Middle Eastern minnows are blazing an impressive trail. Before Iran's opening game against Mexico, captain Ali Daei received the lacklustre, traditional triangular number from Mexican Rafael Márquez. The Iranian, meanwhile, proudly handed over a huge, ornately decorated picture frame housing what appeared to be a bit of carpet with some squiggles on. Márquez looked a little embarrassed, like someone who'd brought a four-pack of Foster's to an ambassador's reception. Other teams should follow suit. When England play Trinidad & Tobago, David Beckham should ditch the Three Lions flag and give Dwight Yorke a picture of the tennis player scratching her backside, that one of the hunky man holding a baby, or, even better, a Jordan calendar.
7) Ronaldo's showboating
You're not in the playground now, Ronnie. After all those needless stopovers and dummies, indulgent posing for the cameras and refusing to play a simple ball when your team-mates are in acres of space, it's little wonder that Big Phil hauled you off. At least you didn't make matters worse by sulking on the bench though. Eh? Oh.
8) Mars advert
They shouldn't receive the oxygen of publicity but they're simply dire. Tango did it first and did it better. Believe that.
9) Screen glare
You want to watch the World Cup but others want to go out in the sunshine. Surely we can do both? Apparently not. We can put a man on the moon and run a car on vegetable oil but a telly that works in a sunny garden and doesn't give viewers a Columbo-style squint? Don't be so silly.
10) Fifth officials
Eh? What's that all about? Apparently, he's there just in case an assistant referee gets injured. If that's the thinking, why aren't there six officials in case both assistant referees get crocked? At least they could keep each other company and maybe even share the hotel room that Fifa are unnecessarily paying for.
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Any decent place in Japan!
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freak snowmobile accident - don't hear of too many of them.
FEATURES: The Snow Monkeys of Jigokudani
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
Posted
Great photos there!!
It looks like you can get REALLY close to them!