Just to bring this thread back to the middle ages....... I went to see Michael Buble at the Sydney Entertainement Centre. Great great show. Had an acapela (?) group as a warm up, called Natural7, absolutely brilliant. Buble sounds exactly like he does on cd. His band was great and gave some excellent jazz sounds. Buble came down into the audience, specifically to say hello to two kids and their mum. When he got back on stage after several "gropings" he said, "Lady, I've never had my butt squeezed that hard before!" His singing was great. Well worth the visit. Second thing, my daughter brought me a couple of cd's from NY. Both by a Chicago based jazz singer called Kurt Elling. Got to admit, better than Buble. I'm into jazz, and this guy is sensational. If your girl is in her late twenties/early thirties with a bit of class, then a well cooked dinner by candlelight, some fine wine, and Kurt Elling's music then you are 90% of the way there.

Best Italian (outside of Italy) Devonport, Tas. Mine host sat at the end of the bar and inspected every dish. If it wasn't to his satisfaction it went back until he was satisfied. Only then was it put in front of the customer. I had a scollopine marinara, absolutely perfect. Diced prawns, scollops(Tassie of course) muscles, calamari, in between finely sliced peices of veal cooked in a divine tomato sauce. A year or so later, I went into a restaurant in Nowra, just South of Sydney, to test a theory (that the chef would cook something not on the menu). The reason being that he wanted something different to do. Anyway, this chef did, he came and said that he hadn't all the ingredients, but he'd work something out. He did, it was good, and yes, it cost me a bit more than a standard menu item.

Paul, if Neill's behaviour annoyed you, why didn't you say something? I'm quite aware of queueing etiquette, and had that happened in front of me, then Neill would have been told in no uncertain terms. A loud "Oi" would have generated much support from those waiting, don't you think? Perhaps it says more about you and your fellow imbibers than it does about Neill. With regards to Neill's football, he's one of those that you either like or dislike. He had good games for the Rovers, had bad ones, pretty much like many other players. He's certainly not the most gifted of players, but he does give everything, and certainly a lot more than some of those that may be described as talented. He was (and is) passionate about playing for his country. He has stated ambitions about developing the game here in Australia. To acheive those ends, he'll need plenty of cash, so on that basis I'll not criticise him for wanting to make as much as he can, whilst he can.

I bought a Dell for my wife's office about 12 months ago. It had Vista (professional) installed as standard. As part of the same purchase I bought a Belkin file transfer cable as we had some large word and accounting files to transfer, as well as all the other programs such as internet etc. To this day, we have not had one problem. It was up and running within an hour of plugging it in. The best buy was the file transfer cable. We had all the files transferred (from XP) within 30 minutes, simple to use, no drivers to load, just drag and drop.

Bazza, I've got to take issue with you here. You state "........it did not receive serious journalistic scutiny" and then go on to quote a "Journalist". Piers Ackerman would have to be the most right wing "journalist" in Australia. He is in the pocket of big business and a supporter of ultra rightwing politics. He would argue that day was night and night was day if it suited his politics. Before using him as support to back an arguement, be aware of the fact that he's a Murdoch employee, and check out some of the other tripe he's written I thought that the troposphere (the lowest level of the earth's atmosphere) was getting warmer, correct me if I'm wrong.

indeed, Cletus, and can you all add a decibel for me, from down under. Jack Walker, a gem, a friend, never to be forgotten.

thoughts and thanks from down under

Interesting that Leeds is still in the top 10.

Tony, (I seem to be replying to you alot today) 30 or so years ago, a mate of mine like to indulge in a a "smoke" over lunch. Remember hash was of a lesser "quality" then. Bill enjoyed it carried on and now. Tony, you should see him. To put it mildly, he's a mess. Never married, heart attack material, and has had medical attention for that; a life totally wasted, he was a top bloke. Now, he can't do the things his mate can. So before you go down the track that there's no problems, think about what will happen in 10/20/30 years. As for acid, well the two recent deaths of teenagers (in Sydney) suggests that there is more of a problem than previously thought.

AESF, whilst I'd agree with the overall sentiments in your post, it's wrong to blame all deaths on the drugs. Many are caused by the circumstances in which they are taken and the varying strengths of the doses. Here, in Sydney, there is a drug injecting room. At this stage it is experimental (and has been for 3 or 4 years). It sole aim is to give a safe place for these unfortunates to indulge in their addiction. It ddoen't supply any drugs, it doesn't question how they obtained the drugs, it just provides medical and nursing care in the event of an overdose, and clean equipment. It's estimated that some 2000 deaths have been avoided by the provision of these premises. Additionally, none of the syringes get onto the streets, there are less ambulance call outs and fewer unsightly bodies lying around.

Interesting article that, Philipl. What the rovers should be doing is charging the away fans the same amount as the Rovers fans attending their ground.

only got to 12c today and taking the wind chill factor into it, a feeling of 4c! We're due to get back to some normality on Sunday or Monday with an expected temp of 20c. Much more civilised.

It's a worldwide thing Abbey. We've had our coldest night for 20 or so years. 4c overnight and only getting to 13-15c during the day. Bring on summer.

Did it ever come out why he did it?

got you the first time Jack. Notwithstanding any thing said, but if you were living on a Pacific Island, you'd be a bit, just a bit worried. I acknowledge that warming and cooling happens now and then, but when the warming happens more quickly, then there has to be another influence. All that program did was assume that things are the same now as they were 4 -5 -600 years ago and they are clearly not. All I would say is, to every person on this earth, leave this earth for your sons and daughters in exactly the same way that it was on the day you entered this place. Await the flak.........

This, from the BBCgossip column: West Ham will axe 16 players in the summer. (Daily Express) Among them will be Anton Ferdinand, Nigel Reo-Coker, Dean Ashton, Carlos Tevez and Lucas Neill - but Matthew Upson will stay. (The Sun) Would have to be one of the quickest on record.

Rev, I wondered how long it would take before you replied. I still laugh at the mental image of Grabbi dispossesing the clown.

I still feel that if Grabbi's goal, against Manure had stood (and it should have) he'd have been a legend at Ewood despite his subsequent displays.

Next time, Cocker, I'll make it to the IOM, never been there. Best of luck with the new one. They are great when they are tiny, even better when they can move around, fantastic when they can interact, absolutely crap in their teenage years and fabulous when they come out of them. Enjoy the future

Cocker, I'm still on Pandora. Listening to all the Jazz they can supply. Can't say anything else, but , thanks mate.. if you're ever in this neck of the woods, give me a call, I'll buy you an ale or three......

Agree entirely with you Ste B, Neill has got to be a part of the relegation team, but the Beeb are reporting in their gossip column that he could be out for up to four weeks. As for ########, he had no need to make that comment, I've obviously got under his skin. From now on I'll be like an itch that won't go away. One additional thing, D######, I'm not a hypocrite. What's it like to work for an Australian born boss, on a casual night shift basis?

Nah, Matt, we spend it on the beach when we're not tubbing some hapless cricket team.

Rev, Is that really you? You actually said something positive about the rovers.

They say that hell has no fury like a woman scorned. I think that there's now a match for that given some of the comments on here. Neill is a slightly above average footballer who got a lucky (financial) break. Good luck to him. If the Whammers go down, he sure as hell won't get the offer of that kind of money again, should he choose to enact the reported realease clause.

And this, from the Rovers fan of the year? Sorry, Jordan, you don't make the grade. I admire your efforts in going to all the Rovers games, but this , well Words can't describe....