Craig

You make it sound like the talking aspidistra in The Adventure Game! I was waiting for the fuckers to run at me tbh

Were you down this way recently?

Yeah I called it the other week. Came round the corner near home one night and found a shopping trolley stuffed in the middle of the road upside down. Only just managed to miss smashing into the thing, got out and pushed it to the side of the road. As I was doing so, I heard a chorus of "Oi you fucking wanker, leave it where it is!" from the bushes off to the left hand side. Needless to say as soon as I'd driven off, the little shits would have put it right back where it was so thought it best to call the old bill to send someone round to make sure it was removed properly.

Did that in about January this year just before I jumped into support. I'm the main support contact for him anyway so still call on him to give me the lowdown on all aspects of my tax. And basically he's given me a list of all the cars available to me and how much each would cost me per month. They did change the rules about 4 years ago, you used to get raped the less miles you did and the more you did the cheaper it was (seemed like madness to me). It's now based on the CO2 emissions of the car and therefore cleaner, newer cars cost less than the petrol guzzlers. I am on a good deal yeah, but it's kinda pigeon-holed me in my current job as I doubt I'd have as good a deal elsewhere.

Yeah it's all done on a flat fee based on £14,400 multiplied by the percentage band that the car's CO2 falls in multiplied by your highest rate of tax. The more miles you use, the better value it is which is why I had no issues with driving up to Newcastle in the summer as it cost me no more than driving to Tesco over the road from me!

As I used to work supporting the financial IT applications at our place, I got to know the company taxation manager very well. Sat down one day and basically worked out how much it was costing me in additional tax (on top of standard income tax). The car was costing me £60 a month and the fuel card £65 a month. All in all £125 a month. Even if I was living 10 miles down the road, there's no way on earth I'd be able to run my own brand new car on that amount, nor the cash equivalent (£4,500 a year gross).

The range of cars I get to choose from is not brilliant but then I am also given a fuel card for all business AND private mileage. The fuel card is not offered to those taking the allowance and they can only claim business mileage (which doesn't include commuting to the normal place of work) back on expenses. Considering I drive nearly 100 miles a day, it'd be madness for me to take the cash option. Sure I only have a 1.8 Mondeo LX but am safe in the knowledge that for around £125 a month I'm getting: * A car * Insurance * Road Tax * As much fuel as I can use * Full AA cover * Full dealership service (vehicle taken from the place of my choosing and returned later with a courtesy car left for me to use in the iterim) * All repairs dealt with * A brand new car every 4 years

I've never bought one but have taken delivery of a brand new company car. Nice to see a low figure on the odometer and of course that 'new car smell' is nice but apart from that I don't see the big pull. Plus (if you want the thing to last) you need to go easy on it for the first 3,000 miles. Would never, ever buy a brand new car, it's just not worth it...

I'm too tired to kill you. You'll keep You make it sound like I've got a 'Best Before End' date stamped on me!

I have my reservations about his ability and despite what Roeder said, I reckon we only turned to him when it was clear Kuyt was off to Liverpool. Hasselbaink would have been a better risk to take.

I think we need to look at it all, not from the perspective of positions relative to other clubs, but on whether it's good enough full stop. Forget the comparisons, what we're seeing week in, week out is simply not good enough and frankly hasn't been since we were booted out of the Champions League by Partizan Belgrade in 2003. We're on our 3rd manager since then yet a constant over this time has been the chairman. Time he went!

And I'm still breathing?

Kind of hits the nail on the head really. We simply aren't good enough at the moment and certainly over the last 2 years, Shepherd has shown no way of being able to improve things at all.

That's Gemmill in about 30 years time!

If you've got a kosher version of XP, I'd ask the place who you got the PC from to supply you with the disk that you have paid money for. If they refuse, I'd box the thing up and return it. Can't believe some places try that one, it's like buying a car and not being given the keys and expected to hot-wire it instead. Tossers!

(one on the right but i'm still dead! ) And of course - RobW is most definitely.....

HTT is blatently Mr Brittas! like

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread....8649&page=4

Does he know what side of the Tyne that's on?

Hang on, isn't it the trial of the blokes who killed that policewoman in Bradford at Newcastle Crown today? Wonder if Sammy's working on that one?? EDIT: that case is on down there http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/6043588.stm

I assume you didn't actually burn in eternal damnation before they left then. Ha! Pedant!

When I was in the first year of Uni, the halls were a group of houses which were almost like a village in its own right. The fuckers decided to do a door-to-door procession asking us whether we were interested in their literature. When they got to our house they asked the same question and quick as a flash my housemate grabbed his copy of Escort and said "no, are you interested in ours?" They soon left, not without pointing out we'd burn in 'eternal damnation' before they left

Bit pointless unless you're using a character based UNIX environment (unless of course you like making work for yourself.... )