ChezGiven

Glad to hear you enjoyed the cruise, its even better on a summer's evening. Sounds like you've had a mint weekend, that's got to be a lot of brownie points in the bag. If you are atill around and fancy a proper steak frites, go to the relais d'entrecôte on rue Saint Benoit in the 6th for lunch. It's near your hotel.

I was in world of whisky in terminal 4 at heathrow yesterday, got a 15 year old Dalmore and a 19 year old bourbon cask aged Glenfiddich from their Age of Discovery brand. Making a Thai curry tonight, got a nice bottle of Faugeres, which is a languedoc red to go with it. Has a nice blend of grapes to set off the blend of flavours in the curry. Think I'm too wrecked to appreciate it though, battered from a hectic week.

I've listened to a lot of people and read a lot of discussion which starts with the phrase 'if this planet is going to survive....' Very few of them involved getting thrashed at pool by Maradona like gypsies.

When your fannying on trying to get from terminal 2E to the RER B and then queuing to get a ticket, I hope your phone sends you a message saying 'just get a taxi you daft tit'.

Read it again you fucking moron.

I think some of that is incorrect. Its commercial income from sponsorship, hospitality boxes etc that are down. When i used to go to the Metro radio box around a decade ago, i couldnt believe the sorts of companies that had boxes at SJP. Those companies are long gone since the crash and perhaps before. I think matchday income from ticket sales has been steady, there are clubs who have hiked the prices to show some big growth but we freeze ours. Overseas revenue is not broken down within commercial and there is no analysis of this sub-stream of income over time anywhere that i am aware of so thats made up. We get the cash at the end of this year, not the start. Its arguably an asset already but since we dont run an overdraft, i dont think we have access to it yet. However, i agree with the sentiment and wanted to share a couple of additional thoughts. There was a narrative within the football finances discussion one or two seasons ago that the money required to break into the top 4 was so astronomical that the risk was hardly worth it. The argument ran that if you want to spend your way there, you either have to lay out 100's of millions or face a strong possibility that additional expenditure will not even affect your league position. It was quite a dominant narrative, exemplified by the astronomical quantity of money spent by Man City to buy a place in the CL places. It was also given credence through the expenditure at clubs like Villa which got them nowhere. Within this narrative was Spurs and Everton. Spurs were attempting to build towards the CL places financially as they had a solid framework within which to grow. Everton were ' financially challenged' but through 'good management' were able to hover just beneath the top spots, challenging, probing, hoping. This season has cemented my view that all of that narrative was biased by the one major factor driving success at those clubs; the manager. City had an arsehole in charge throughout their time of riches, Hughes is a cunt, Mancini is a cunt, neither of whom are for me great managers. No wonder it took hundreds of millions for them to buy their way there. O'Neill is as we now all know a shite manager, no wonder Lerner's millions got them nowhere. Spurs had Happy Harry, the fucking knobhead but he got them up there with a set of players that were good but not amazing. For me, this league is more than open to any club that does 2 things; puts the best manager and coaching staff their budget and talent acquisition skills afford and invest in key areas of the team. Southampton are a good example and in a way so are we, as if we had put 20m down on another attacker, another midfielder (or wherever else you think), you can see that we might have sneaked a few more points already this season. Then again, without the right mix at the club, you could be Cardiff spending 30m, Norwich wasting 12m on Von Wolfswinkel, 12m for Bony at Swansea etc etc. Only Southamptom have out spent and out performed us and i think they are being subsidised heavily. If they are, it wont be forever.

Tom too if truth be known, he wouldnt react like that if it was an electric guitar being discussed for a 5 year old.

Sounds like a great evening. Not possible for me but good luck.

4 hours?! If you and your lass are the sort of couple that travels in full Karrimor gear, Merrell shoes and backpacks, am sure you'll love it. That O Chateau place i linked to does 1 hour champagne cruises on the Seine. About 40 notes for the trip and 4 glasses of premier cru champagne. They wont make you ride a bike either.

Please take photos of you on the bike wearing a beret with a load of onions draped around your neck. I will pay money for this.

Got a couple of good recommends if you havent already booked up. I went to a decent wine bar in the 1st that does good wine tastings in english. We went in the summer but was decent. http://www.o-chateau.com/o-chateau-wine-bar The beef club on the same road is meant to be amazing and has an underground cocktail bar too. http://www.lefooding.com/restaurant/restaurant-beef-club-paris.html

I can see the argument for getting an ipad but kids find them so amazing i fear that if you give one at such a young age it will 'crowd out' other activities that they should also be doing. If you give one to the child and then ration it to say 30 minutes a day, they might not understand and it may cause issues. To solve those issues you will need to take it away, cause bigger short term issues or give in causing longer term issues. Mine is 3 now and the only thing she cant do is the code for the ipad as its got my work security/password to lock it. Having Disney films, cinderella apps, learning games etc means she would spend all her time on it. We were doing jigsaw puzzles last night and she was more than happy to do that. The problem with an ipad or even similar is that doesnt encourage play within the family, modern devices are insular for adults nevermind children. Having said all that, i dont think responsible handling is that difficult. Our one know's that the phones and tablets are both mum and dad's and its a treat to be given it. I wonder how long that will last though.

Haidara did send it, that's why the FA didn't charge him. The most telling element of the whole stupid episode though.

I think City will come good away from home now Kompany is back but Pellegrini needs to grow a pair and start attacking teams with 2 up top etc. They are by far the strongest side in the league. Can see them going on an unbeatable run.

I have to agree really. A good case can be made for Gouffran too, set the goal up at Spurs and scored the winner this weekend.

Either Remy or Gouffran, obviously.

3 wins on the bounce! Thought we'd revert to type today but first half was outstanding. 2 points behind 3rd place.

So it was Haidara who sent him the photo in the first place The fact that the FA decided not to charge Taylor only once they found this out just shows how sanctimonious and hypocritical modern Britain is.

You're more Mike Teevee tbh.

What happened in court yesterday then?

Thanks for the info.

"I dont know what to ask for for christmas!" Fuck off man.

I cant imagine anyone over the age of 21 actually even thinking about this in November. In fact, this thread is a bit odd given the demographic of this board.

Yes you did. Repeatedly, over and over and over. Have a read of this anyway. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/21/post-crash-economics-austerity-common-fallacies