so22saint

lol

my car got cleaned out in Eastleigh back then - full of shopping for a funeral as my wife's nan had died that day and we had just buried my auntie that day as well. point being, we still raised a smile as the cheeky ****ers left that away shirt in the boot....

The White Horse at Ampfield is superb. Bear and Ragged Staff at Michelmarsh isn't bad. The Cricketers in Eastleigh recently improved 100x (but it used to be ****e) , The Chilbolton Arms

Was that you on the goalline with the Dubai Saints flag?

Dave behind us in the Chapel had Guly first scorer, 3-1 and Chambo last scorer. When DC had that 1 on 1 and then missed the open goal he was the only one who cheered

What about Jan Portvelt?

Through a massive stroke of luck they catered my wedding (basically they took over the Parkhill hotel a week before we got married - Parkhill became Limewood). Recently eaten at Paramount on top of Centre Point in London - great location, good food. Some of the best food I've had was at Chesil Rectory in Winchester in 2001 (before it lost it's Michelin Star). Pub grub: Yew Tree near Newbury. Amusing comment about The Vineyard at Stockcross - next time go to the Lord Lyon pub about 200 yds further on - always good bog standard pub grub . The Cliff in Barbados was superb last time I went. Best curry ever had at Bangles in Kuala Lumpur - so good we went 3 nights in a row Some of the best food I've ever had though are freshly caught fish cooked in a bucket on the beach - or over hot coals in a pit of sand. Freshness is everything (unless you're Icelandic :-))

7 words for you Phil Duty free. Ipad. Salisbury. Starbucks. Free WiFi

Norwich

Loughborough. I went to Loughborough - it's a bit mental as it's possibly the most American place in Britain. Once the art college merged into the Uni (the year I left - the ****ers), it turned into High School Musical! I popped in last September and there was a bunch of lads shooting hoops as the music and drama lecture turned out - felt like walking through a casting for Fame (or Glee for you younguns). Anyway, best bits were the fact it's all on campus, they aim to get you into halls for years 1 and 3 so it's a good, safe lifestyle, the town is a bit of a whole but has 3 clubs and a couple of decent curry houses, and it's 20 minutes closer to Southampton for the football (I had a season ticket through all 4 years - ****). The art department had loads of investment when it was taken over, and the student union is absolutely superb. Towers Hall if she gets a choice - great social life in a listed (though ugly as sin) building at the lower end of the campus. Used to have single sex floors in the east tower, mixed in the west.

I'm from Totton - result :-)

The Flying Swan obviously... Seriously, It's the 65 from Richmond as well, and 25 minutes from there (or a 2 hr wander along the river) so go with the crumpet option. In which case The White Swan is good, and there's an All Bar One near the riverside. On the river is a Pitcher and Piano and a Propaganda or whatever it's called.

I have a mate who's very very high up in the NHS, a client who we provide services for who support FTs, a wife who is an intensive care nurse and a mum who is dying of cancer at the moment so I see all sides of the argument at the moment. My comments: * Private industry takes the **** out of the NHS - mainly through NHS incompetence (though also through immorality and greed in my opinion) * The NHS couldn't negotiate a contract out of a paper bag. Our client helped save 2 of the trusts £2bn through actually WRITING SOME CONTRACTS WITH SUPPLIERS. The IT bit did nothing - basically they had no set prices for anything so the suppliers could charge what they liked month to month * The ringfencing did happen and NHS budgets were frozen at a round £100bn, but supplier inflation in the NHS runs at an average of 5% (see first comment) so it was effectively a 5% reduction in real terms * A great deal of front line staff are superb and really care. Intensive care and A&E are amazing. Cancer care (in Southampton at least) is a ****ing joke - charities are the only thing keeping it going * Too much money goes on "management" staff who aren't really managers - the people who don't even negotiate contracts for instance. It seems to attract a certain kind of person who doesn't live in the real world - who thinks a central planning approach and work next to but ignore a free market economy. In addition, the NHS is a pass master at ****ing money away offshore that'll never come back to the UK (IT, NHS Direct, staff) in tax etc. Another mate who works in care leasing told me a story over a pint of the month after New Labour (they're not Labour) got in and one of his trust clients refreshed the entire management car fleet from Mondeos to BMWs. Good spending chaps, new budget went on the important things eh! * Basic free healthcare is a good thing - it's a must to improve living conditions and create a stable, happy and healthy workforce. The NHS is a good idea. It needs some reorganisation to focus on medicine and care and not ********

blimey, this is how it feels to be lonely....

http://www.sceneric.com/images/01_Last_goal_at_the_Dell.mp3 There you go. It's on my company's main web server though so be nice

I've got the mp3 of the solent commentary if anybody wants it. It occasionally pops up on the radio in the car from the ipod and it always lifts the heart. As I posted on here 3 posts ago, I turned to my sister at half time and said "2-2 on 80 minutes, MLT for the winner?" and had a proper blub when it happened. Life's a bit ****e at the moment and I'm blubbing again . At the end of the game some Oz girl had her photo taken with me and my sister in the East Stand and when I mentioned this on the saintslist at the time her brother (who was a member) said he had a copy of that photo - never got one. If you're on here, I'd love a copy. Miss the Dell as well, loved that old place.

His son is a mate of a mates son - they had a great conversation at school which is how they found out: "Which do you prefer, Top Gear or 5th gear". All the kids answered 5th gear except one and they asked him why "Because Tiff Needell is my dad" :-) Comes across as a superb bloke

On the CL commentary last night, Ray Wilkins said that Ronaldo should be tugged off. What is the world coming to

Air Florida.

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Can somebody start a Branfoot vs Nicholl thread please. Or Hoddle vs Gray - that ought to get a few posters out and about. Maybe Wigley vs Strachan - there's so much to compare there. How about Lowe vs Wilde chairman thread. FFS

I turned to my sister at half time, sitting in the bloody East Stand of all places, and said "2-2 with 5 minutes to go, MLT belter?". I admit I cried when it went in - a special special moment. And CMFG tried to ruin it by nearly scoring another ;-)

Kevin Moore, bless him, is now in a hospice for people with dementia in Curdridge with my wife's Grandad. Poor bloke. Great goal at Wembley in 92

He said he tried it because Phillipe Albert lobbed Schmeichal the week before. If you do find it, I'm the fat bloke behind the goal where it lands who takes slightly longer than everybody else to stand up. I've got tears in my mind remembering watching the ball come toward me and thinking it was going to hit the bar. One of the best days of my life that

I remember this - I think I might still have the podcast! When I lived in London and he started on XFM I couldn't work out why his sense of humour chimed so much with mine, and all the slang (cacker, mush etc.) seemed to be from Southampton until he mentioned doing Project Trident works experience at the Transit factory - and my mate then said "ah yeah, I remember him", so same age as well. As to why they're called skates - it's because they think a skate's mouth looks like a lady bottom