Meenzer

Flights to/from Copenhagen and accommodation in Malmö for Eurovision.

His overbite?

I probably haven't seen enough of him to judge, but I thought he was hopeless tonight.

Defoe for Welbeck I suppose, he's not a world-beater but he can get on the end of scraps and speculative balls, which is what we were starting to get reduced to.

They're the first European team to be mathematically eliminated from the qualifiers. Even Andorra and San Marino could theoretically still make it. Ouch.

Aye, I'm always paranoid about burning the pan or cooking it too fast or whatever, but the ultra-low-heat simmer approach is what makes that Madhur Jaffrey lentil rice recipe I've mentioned before work so well. Not having to wash up a sieve is a bonus.

He didn't do too well here either: http://www.newstatesman.com/staggers/2013/03/boris-johnson-heckled-almost-two-hours-lewisham Plenty of fun YouTube footage too. Of course it won't change a thing about what's going to happen, but ho hum...

There's still plenty of radio stations that won't play her stuff, but there's definitely been a bit of a generational shift I reckon, people like Miranda Lambert (and even Taylor Swift in a way) have moved things on a bit. Of course, there's still room for the old-timers... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUozb7d2uks

One of the smaller jobs in the north-east is no barrier to international management though...

Nice. The fella's away from Wednesday to Monday so I'm planning on making a bit of a veggie/detox weekend of it. That'll be a decent start.

I only watch Nashville.

Can't argue it's not authentic I suppose!

Reminds me of America. Macaroni and cheese as a side dish.

This is the Cooking thread, not the CT's Food Porn thread - I was sharing the recipe. Anyway, it looked like that. There's not a great deal you can do to beautify mince and dumplings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mince_and_dumplings_47431 Come to Daddy.

Germany may be an exception of course, but I'm pretty sure the figure there is more like 20-30% (depending on who you ask). Of course it might be a question of how certain institutions are classified and/or where you can get the kind of education you need - if it's only available at university here then you're not going to not go, given the chance...

http://theweekly.co.uk/brain/hurrah_bah_archive/

Not really - it works for the Germans, for a start. When I was teaching English over there, kids of 15-16 who weren't after a university education would often start "learning" specific careers. Not to the extent that they were tied into that particular job forever, but they'd study combinations of vocational and academic subjects plus on-the-job training for a certain profession - I worked with classes of everything from booksellers and jewellers to mechanics and garage attendants. Even the latter had to learn English, but specifically including the kind of English they might actually need in their jobs, e.g. when dealing with foreign drivers who needed help. Just a small example, but ultimately the country isn't obsessed by that whole "university is everything" aspiration that Blair forced upon us here, and it recognises vocational and career-oriented qualifications as equally valid. It also has a hugely healthy engineering sector, strong exports and a SME landscape to be proud of. Funny that...