WDB
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Post by WDB on Jun 29, 2018 15:40:00 GMT
He’s in Cheshire. Cocaine arrives with the milk.
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Post by tyrednexited on Jun 29, 2018 16:21:32 GMT
He’s in Cheshire. Cocaine arrives with the milk. I wondered where this guy's round was.....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2018 17:01:43 GMT
Colombian beer is nothing special, but some of their food is outstandingly good.
I worked in Bogota many years ago and put on quite a lot of weight because of it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2018 20:42:58 GMT
Teams you are disappointed are no longer in the competition...
Nigeria Japan Denmark
Two played really exciting football against teams who should have smashed them, and went out in very much the last minute(s) of the match (Nigeria and Japan). Great second half from Japan against Belgium and the effect of the managers on the match by clever subsistutions were very visible by Denmark and Belgium. Denmark was being walked over by Croatia in the first half and in the second, Croatia were struggling after a half time change.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2018 23:39:35 GMT
Thing is about the World Cup, aside from the very rare and occasional piece of deliberate cheating, the team that deserves to win usually does.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jul 3, 2018 0:40:06 GMT
I've said at home from the start Russia is going to win. And if they do then there will be a lot of speculation.
Until Wednesday I have to say my hope it's England. After tomorrow's game I will hopefully still be saying the same.
I've not got a St George's flag with England printed on it mind. And never would ;-)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2018 0:49:24 GMT
>>I've said at home from the start Russia is going to win. And if they do then there will be a lot of speculation.
Why?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2018 5:58:24 GMT
What do you get if you combine Putin's Russia and FIFA?
Corruption
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 3, 2018 7:29:21 GMT
Boy2 is also convinced Putin is up to something here. I've not seen any of Russia's games so far - except the end of their 0-3 against Uruguay - so I can't point to anything on the field.
On the other hand, reporters I trust - such as Simon Kuper in the FT - have been full of praise for the conduct of the tournament so far. There's been none of the racist abuse we feared, nor thuggish Russian supporters attacking visiting fans in the street. On the contrary, the locals have embraced their visitors, filled the stadiums and even dressed in their colours. It looks like fun over there, and I wouldn't have put money on that a few weeks ago.
I see two possibilities here: one, that all this surprising niceness is a cover for a sinister plan for Putin to pocket the proceeds, sporting and political. The other, that that was Putin's plan but that the people have so embraced the internationalism of the tournament that they'll now be a lot harder to sell on ideas of exceptionalism and confrontation. I know which one I'd like to be true.
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Jul 3, 2018 9:33:26 GMT
Those of us who knew Russia always knew that the people are warm, welcoming, and very accommodating to guests, particularly foreigners.
The dour, aggressive, belligerent image of the Russian people served up to us by our media is very, very wide of the mark.
It is a joyous place full of joyous people. It has given the world some great cultural icons of the arts, particularly classical music, literature and poetry. Even down to the lowliest of the working classes in Russia there is a knowledge of, love of and skills in the arts which is very deep rooted and puts our own population to shame.
Yes, there are some football hooligans, there are in every country. In Russia these groups are connected to mafias and organised crime, and it is sad to say but those elements are intertwined with the current Russian government, which isn't far off being a mafia state. It isn't too much of a leap of the imagination to speculate that they have been "asked" to show their patriotism and dedication to their country by not embarrassing it.
There is much to dislike about the way Russia is governed, there always has been. But on a personal level the people are very very different.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 3, 2018 10:29:36 GMT
I’ve only seen Moscow, and only briefly. I didn’t find it welcoming as a city - although, as Vić says, the individuals I dealt with were delightful hosts; I even found myself invited for tea and cake at the customer’s offices in honour of the senior manager’s birthday.
I suspect part of my misgiving was to do with how different it feels from Western Europe. If I were going again, I’d try to make at least a start with the language. (Being able to read Greek helps a bit.) I would like to go to St Petersburg, for example.
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Jul 3, 2018 11:08:03 GMT
I get where you're coming from. Out on the streets of Moscow it can feel a foreboding, impersonal, threatening place. In public and in the idiom of the language, it seems an inordinately rude and unpleasant place. But as you've seen, get behind doors and the world becomes a different place.
Couple of little anecdotes - on my first visit student sojurn in Leningrad, one of our teachers invited us all to his flat for food/drink etc. They were people of few means and possessions in those days, and his prized possession was a ropey mono cassette player. He was playing a Dire Straits album to my surprise, and I told him that was my favourite band. Big mistake. He then insisted that I took as a gift all the Dire Straits tapes he had, itmes difficult to come by in Soviet Russia, despite my telling him I had copies of all their albums at home. He wouldn't hear of a refusal to accept the gift, so accept it I did. Couple of years later I went to Moscow for my year's study visit, and the people who accommodated me in their flat for the first six months were Scotophiles, to the extent that they had a West Highland terrier called Nessie. On finding out my surname was that of THE great Scottish poet, they insisted that I accept as a gift their Complete Works of Robert Burns, in both the original and Russian translation. A weighty, rare and once again prized possession. There is absolutely no way of declining a gift in Russia, and they would give you the skin off their backs if they could. They genuinely want nothing return.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 3, 2018 11:21:29 GMT
On finding out my surname was that of THE great Scottish poet... McGonagall? Connolly?
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Jul 3, 2018 11:41:56 GMT
Nesbitt.
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Post by Humph on Jul 3, 2018 11:58:55 GMT
Espada will know who you mean, after all, not only was the gentleman in question a great poet, he was also famously a Rabbi. 😉
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