cyrusr

Might need to book some time off in March

Yep - Johnson spending taxpayer money on defending himself. Rumours that the oral evidence will be heard soon though cannot find anything confirming that.

Watch the first 2 episodes yesterday (without spoilers but having played the games) as wanted to get a couple of episodes in. They were excellent, excellent TV and a wonderful interpretation of the game with Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal sublime in their respective roles. And now I've just watched episode 3. Wow. What an episode. Completely forgot you were watching a zombie apocalypse show.

I am rather disappointed they didn’t appoint Gerrard, that would have been the funniest appointment

To be fair, aren't you judging him on his full time contract rather than loan? If he was that poor during his loan spell we wouldn't have signed him surely? Whilst there is no doubt he has been poor for a while, he is by far nowhere near the worse loans we've had. Top: Tammy & Mings were both fundamental for the promotion (El Ghazi & Tuanzebe were pretty good for it as well). Grabban/Johnstone were good in the last Bruce season. Reina was helpful for staying up. Going back a bit further Keane & Milner definitely were good loans and helped a lot. Would probably go with Tammy, Mings & Reina mainly because they contributions were critical for the success of the club. Worse: Barkley at least had a decent couple of games but drifted off massively. Drinkwater clearly terrible both on and off the pitch. Bolasie was literally a waste of space. Others were largely forgettable without looking at the full list (forgot that we had Cleverley!). For me Drinkwater and Bolasie were definitely the 2 worse. You could pick a lot for 3rd, largely forgettable players.

We've found the bluenose!

If it helps, one of our cars had to have an eye out last year (melting ulcer, horrible to look at) but cats adapt really well to having 1 eye. After he had healed a week or 2 later he was bouncing around like there’s nothing wrong with him and apart from him physically only having 1 eye you couldn’t tell. If anything he’s become more of a moggy since and I’m sure you will see that very soon if not already!

All seated - it was a tad odd but seen them, Yes and Wardruna at Symphony Hall and generally it is a good show. At the end of the DT set I was VERY glad it was all seated... Mind you, when Tool played NEC arena (or whatever its called now) in May they made that an all seater but they are Tool so generally do whatever they want.

First one for me isnt until 18 February - Dream Theater at the symphony hall. I have to say not particularly fussed as caught them the last time they were there and I was a tad bored by the end (it was a double set as well). However sister wanted to go and I needed an excuse for a Christmas present... at least they have a support act this time (never heard of them though, Arion?).

It is genuinely the easiest way to sort the problem out and I understood it that France is willing for us to do it. It would mean people wouldn’t have to cross the channel to claim asylum and therefore money doesn’t go to the criminal gangs. Win, win. The Rwanda deal money would probably pay for it and then some. Would be nice if Labour actually announced a policy akin to this. Except those that like to ensure there remains a problem so they can justify whatever nonsense they spout to solve the problem.

That makes sense. Cheers

Isn't more akin to the Leader of the Commons role (currently Penny Mordaunt, formally Rees-Mogg) as they put stuff to debate rather than the speaker who in essence is the referee. Whilst it needs to be sorted to get the country to run, it is VERY funny to see this bite the GOP in the ass. Play with fire, you're going to get burnt. I don't really know why they have taken such a dislike to McCarthy (well, there are many reasons, just not ones I suspect those objecting to him hold) and not too fussed to look into anyway. I suspect that the GOP might need to put a different person forward, either one the Dems will vote for or the "far right" of the party will agree to.

They are going to need more than a corner…

0 points last year. Going to change a little and make it a pseudo wish list: - Donald Trump Boris Johnson Nigel Farage Vladimir Putin Piers Morgan Sadly I think only 1 of those is a real possibility but the world would be a far better place without these lot

So, last day of 2022 and finally sorting this out… I initially thought “not bought much music that has come out this year”. 73 albums later… So on that note this year I have gone for a top 5 with a few honourable mentions as I have had quite a few... So, to start with honourable mentions/shoutouts in alphabetical order. So here we go with the blurb in spoilers to make the post smaller… 5. Boris – W 4. Ghost – Impera 3. White Ward – False Light 2. Fellowship – The Saberlight Chronicles 1. Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor So that’s it, there have been other good records you should check out (Rolo Tomassi, The Callous Daoboys, Municipal Waste, Autopsy, Porcupine Tree, Coheed & Cambria, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (only 4 albums this year), but I am running out of steam! Go check them out, hopefully you will enjoy too Thanks to all those that read every word, as you know sometimes I can't be succent! Pretty decent year, all in all, bring on 2023

Merry Christmas all. Hope you are having a wonderful day and thoroughly drunk and are too much. For those that have forgotten the other half are they are disappointed with their presents. Always remember the true Villatalk present can be given

Am I being crazy, but are the crowd chanting "Aston Villa" at the end?!

Martin Duffy, Primal Scream keyboard died aged 55 https://www.nme.com/news/music/primal-screams-martin-duffy-has-died-aged-55-3369531

Kind of like Musk putting that stupid picture to suggest that the left has kept moving but he's kept still? Sadly I think you are right but what should be done to turn that back to some form of normality?

This is my favourite extract Utterly farcical and I hope it has enough support to destabilise the Tories.

Counter-counterpoint - Top right there’s a corner price. Also the next stage is obviously the edges and there’s a ton in the picture. The only logical explanation is that the grandparents are indeed serial killers and need to be put down.

There’s a lot here to agree with. It certainly wasn’t his worse performance as an England manager that is for sure. However, it still highlights probably his biggest flaw in that he doesn’t ever really have a “plan b” or willingness/ability to change mid game. It’s a problem with a lot of managers as we know too well but I don’t think he has the tactical knowledge to take England that last step. The really genuinely difficult question though, if not Southgate, then who? I have always thought Smith would be good international manager, but he suffers as well for a lack of plan b as well. Potter/Howe are unlikely to leave Chelsea/Newcastle I suspect. Dyche won’t ever get the fans on side but struggling to think after that so looked at some odds, that is some grim reading… Cooper, Lampard, Gerrard?! It’ll probably end up being Steve Bruce knowing our luck…

I just can't believe that Ronaldo managed to get 6 goals last night; 5 of them from the bench! What a talent.

Well there are some moments of magic that’s for sure… To be fair to Southgate he’s doing OK - you can only beat what is in front of you. He’s also generally sticking to 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 which looks infinitely better than 5 at the back. Still can’t substitute to save his life though. At 3-0 should have rested Kane golden boot or not given the concern over fatigue etc. at least gave Bellingham a rest though ready for France. Still don’t think Southgate is any good, but can’t really criticise him too much so far. He reminds me more of Bruce than Gerrard, in particular the season of the play off final we lost. Football was largely forgettable but we were winning a lot, so largely forgivable. However when we came to the crunch we just crumbled. France will be a proper test, hopefully he will keep the same shape but I do fear he will revert to type and try and grind a result out.

Ah fair enough. When I read the release info I saw the latest bit so didn’t know the translation point. Maybe with the 3 albums they are providing a conclusion to each element to their sound rather than last one of each. If it was the last “boris” record I suspect that there would have been a little more fanfare. To be honest just happy with more releases from the band and that this is just a nice surprise. I was relistening to flood a couple of days ago which just put me in that mindset anyway so I was very happy!