tonyh29

Seems Tom Watsons one man crusade is starting to show its true light ££££££

Fixed

he's been around since the early 90's hasn't he ?? posted about him in The believer that i watched the other week .. probably his best role of the films I've seen him in

Sorry , I probably made it sound far worse than it is ... seriously just enjoy it you'll be fine In all my travels , Slovakia is the only place where I've actually been properly fleeced ( it was also where they cloned my credit card when I purchased petrol (first and only time ,lesson learnt) but lots of Germans have told me they always get pulled on the way to Lake Balaton by the Hungarian police purely because they have a German plate ..... Slovakia it was actually quite amusing as they wanted more money out of us before they would return our passports so I told him I didn't have any with me but I had an arrangement with the British Embassy and if they wanted to come with us we could get more cash , surprisingly they didn't shoot us and we got off lightly :-) .. then told the policeman as I had to hand over my 30 Euro "fine" that it was a condition that he let his colleagues know we'd paid our "foreigner tax " and that we'd be left alone .. we were but that may have juts been coincidence ... just do the obvious stuff like don't be the fastest car on the road ...some of the counties have a slower speed limit for wet conditions (Hungary , Slovenia and Germany if i recall) so make sure you keep an eye out for that ... sadly if they want to pull you over they will do so but at least you are not giving them an obvious excuse General safety , as I've said in previous travel threads , behave as you would back home , assuming you don't leave your phone and wallet on the table in your local pub , don't leave a sat nav in full view when you park the car ... don't buy something and pull out a huge wad of cash showing the whole world you have your life savings in your wallet ... The favourite pick pocket tip is people that put there jacket over the back of their chair , someone will sit on the chair behind and then have a rummage through your pockets at the opportune time ... Trams are the other place to look out for as tourists often have their bags over their shoulder with an easy to open zip ... you can never guarantee you wont have a bad experience but you can at least do your bit to increase your chances of it not happening PS Just a thought but if you are taking your car you need to make suer you have a warning triangle and a first aid kit as it's the law in some countries ..you also need to put some sticky label thingy on your headlamps ( you can buy these on the ferry I think) something to do with the headlamp positioning on UK cars ( though that may have since been resolved it was the 90's the last time I took my own car abroad ) Maybe let your insurance company know as well , you'll be covered for Europe , but the level of cover could be a factor ?

just mentioned Naples in the Europe by car thread It's certainly a place with a reputation and one that appears justified by accounts of people that have been there ... I suspect it's fine unless you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but you can increase your odds of survival :winkold: by staying in Sorrento instead .... go visit Pompeii though regardless of where you stay

Driven through most of those myself Slovakia will be your most likely problem ... we broke some law out there but never did establish what law , only that if we were Slovakian we would go to to prison but as we were foreign they would let us off with a fine (how kind) .. they then said they would take us to our hotel and proceeded to drive us into the middle of nowhere before driving off .... as you enter from Austria the roads are littered with hookers , it may be the crime there is to drive past them as they are probably on the police pay roll ... Croatia has a lot of toll Motorways but you can pay with Euros if i recall so if you are only passing through don't worry about getting local currency Slovenia I think I kept my speedo over 160 K/ph the whole time I was there apart from the tunnels which have radar traps in them so slow down on those. Hungary you have to have your lights on when driving at all times outside the villages , it's actually a good idea because you get a lot of heat haze , slow down in the villages as the rozzers are quite often hiding in the lay-bys .. on he motorway the law seems to be that if you are in heavy motorway traffic that you have to tailgate the car in front of you by mm's and flash your lights repeatedly and if that doesn't work you undertake at the first availability pull in front of the car that was in front of you causing them to have to jump on the breaks to avoid hitting you ... and then repeat the process Ad infinitum .... it really is a sight to behold :-) ... but having done 1000's of miles in Hungary I've sort of got used to it now Italy a lot of the city centres are restricted zones for cars .. if you are a tourist then you are allowed to drive in but you have to register your car registration number with the hotel when you check in .. if you don't you will receive a letter a few months later .. saying that I registered my car in Florence and still got the letter anyway .. duly binned it but some people have been hounded and had bailiffs turn up , there is some form of European Union tie up !! but 3 years on and I've heard nothing ... Avoid Naples city centre you will most likely get beaten up , raped and mugged if you drive around there with a foreign number plate .. you'll be OK going to Pompeii just don't stray to far off the motorway ... the hire company gave us a car with a French number plate ( ..it's almost as if they knew) driving along the motorway near Naples minding our own business when a car overtook us , swerved across in front slowed down whilst the passengers started giving us the rocket polisher sign ) said to my mate do you think we should shout out We're not French we are English , but figured that would make matters worse :-) Keep your main stash of money in your bag and have a token amount of "bribe" money in your wallet as you will almost certainly get pulled over at some point your crime will be having a foreign number plate .. they tend to prefer Euros or yankee $'s for their bribe money , Slovakian money is only good for toilet paper the fine will vary on how much money you've got so make out you are poor and staying at hostels when they ask where are you staying ..though they will factor in the type of car you are driving as well ... I'd also suggest that you don't use your credit card to buy petrol in the former Eastern Bloc bits , it will almost certainly get cloned at some point ( probably Slovakia ) but on the whole you will have fun :-) ...

Ok the spoof Interceptor opening credits were amusing :-)

more evidence that the people running our club are barking mad if true ...

First wouldn't be big enough for all of them would it only 14 seats on that route if i recall ? did they all go Club or did they split between first and club ?

I've got a solar charger that didn't cost much more ..used it when i was up in the atlas mountains to charge my camera / i-pod etc and the solar one recharges itself so is a much better bet imo

I've always said Blair should stand trial for war crimes Trial being the key word what exactly are the issues ? other than that Murdoch switched allegiance and upset you ?

Regardless of what we may all think or think we know ... I'd still prefer to live in a society that does actually wait until a court has convicted before passing judgement .... True we all know OJ did it but at least he got the right to buy a jury to prove his innocence , surely Coulsen deserves the same right ?

Usually regardless of whether I agree with your pov or not it's always a well argumented case... but when you have to chuck in the old Etonian stuff , well to be honest your better than that I've not read all the details on this whole scandal but the suggestion from some here is that it was all about lining MPs pockets... I suspect Camerons only motive much the same as his most of his recent predecessors was to secure the Murdoch backing that many believe can deliver an election , Cameron may be a lot of things to a lot of people but I don't beleive he is a crook and I don't believe he is taking backhanders either ( though one could argue that we are in a similar situation to cash for questions that dogged the Tory party when it lost it's way and got drunk on power)

based on the optimism i picked up from the main page about players coming good I've opted for Torres as my main striker

Arrests made already ... seems quick would make me wonder if they weren't already tracking the suspects ?

I'd take that over our check abominations any day though mine is rather fetching and would make a nice 3rd kit

maybe we need the £1m for part of Mcleish's severance package in Jan ?

oh and BOF wants shooting for that team name :shock:

you find fantasy football that exciting do you :? Heskeys Rollerskates are in

well thats 2 of us , now if we can just convince the other 61,838,152 people in the country

Is the PM's "crime" appointing Coulsen , or is it that Coulsen may have been used for his contacts and influence ? or is it his lack of judgement in the matter ? (or all 3) out of interest if Coulsen is subsequently found "Not Guilty " of any involvement what so ever , would that change anything ?

nice try , but FAIL , saw straight through that one :-)

Bicks was suggesting the actual number of NI hackings were buried not the actual numbers being released themself so in essence it could have come out anytime since 2009 but just happened to come out now in time to derail the BskyB bid ... funny that

those figures are from 2009 , so if someone was burying it then it does show it is a cross party issue

Operation Motorman in 2009 requested Information Commissioners Office files which contained 4,000 requests from 300 journalists and 31 publications for confidential information from a private investigator, which in many cases had been obtained illegally.” 1600 requests were from Trinity Mirror Group 1200 from Associated Newspapers 400 from News international 200'ish from the Guardian and the Express can only assume the Mirror and the Mail will be hauled up before Parliament before too long ? or as i said from the off it was no coincidence of the timing of all this , and conspiracy nutjob i may be but there clearly appears to have been political motivation about this ....