He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
My mother once got a note that they'd left a package in a "safe place": the wheelie bin.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
Perhaps that is who is responsible for the HoC internal mail system and why the letters aren’t getting to Graham’s mailbox.
How do we know how many letters this Brady arsehole really has? He could be throwing them in the bin for all we know.
He'll have more than 48 right now I expect - but they won't be authorised to be 'used' till the moment of maximum May weakness, losing the meaningful vote.
He said he doesn't accept post dated letters.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
I actually like DPD, but then I have a decent local driver.
I do a bit of consulting in that industry and DPD are so far in front of Yodel, Hermes et al, it's not funny - not so much in terms of technology, but company culture. They are really, really focused on not pissing off the customer, much more than the other firms.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
Handbag Cardboard Box???
I am hoping it's a cardboard box full of *bottles of wine*. Anything else is unthinkable.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
Handbag Cardboard Box???
I am hoping it's a cardboard box full of *bottles of wine*. Anything else is unthinkable.
Of course!
Actually that wasn't the whole of Yodel's screw-ups on the consignment, which was five cases of wine. For some reason they arrived in five separate deliveries. As well as the one left on the verge in the rain, there was one found by our neighbour on her drive, another left outside her front door, another delivered to the farm next door (farm run by the same neighbour, this was getting embarrassing..), and another left on our front drive when we were in.
I now have a policy of trying not to use any supplier who uses Yodel.
How do we know how many letters this Brady arsehole really has? He could be throwing them in the bin for all we know.
He'll have more than 48 right now I expect - but they won't be authorised to be 'used' till the moment of maximum May weakness, losing the meaningful vote.
He said he doesn't accept post dated letters.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
I actually like DPD, but then I have a decent local driver.
I do a bit of consulting in that industry and DPD are so far in front of Yodel, Hermes et al, it's not funny - not so much in terms of technology, but company culture. They are really, really focused on not pissing off the customer, much more than the other firms.
My local DPD driver is brilliant, and their prediction of timings and tracking of the vans is spot on.
If I order something and they say it will come via DPD I breath a sigh of relief.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
Handbag Cardboard Box???
I am hoping it's a cardboard box full of *bottles of wine*. Anything else is unthinkable.
How do we know how many letters this Brady arsehole really has? He could be throwing them in the bin for all we know.
He'll have more than 48 right now I expect - but they won't be authorised to be 'used' till the moment of maximum May weakness, losing the meaningful vote.
He said he doesn't accept post dated letters.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
I actually like DPD, but then I have a decent local driver.
I do a bit of consulting in that industry and DPD are so far in front of Yodel, Hermes et al, it's not funny - not so much in terms of technology, but company culture. They are really, really focused on not pissing off the customer, much more than the other firms.
I'm really not surprised - I sent a big shipment with them that went awry at one of their hubs and the effort they went through to resolve the problem was way above my expectations.
i think JRM would make a very fine Chancellor. No, stop. Really. He's a ridiculous figure in many ways (which is why he must not go near the leadership) but he's also logical, lucid, calm and astute, solid under pressure, and very good with money
How do we know how many letters this Brady arsehole really has? He could be throwing them in the bin for all we know.
He'll have more than 48 right now I expect - but they won't be authorised to be 'used' till the moment of maximum May weakness, losing the meaningful vote.
He said he doesn't accept post dated letters.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
I actually like DPD, but then I have a decent local driver.
I do a bit of consulting in that industry and DPD are so far in front of Yodel, Hermes et al, it's not funny - not so much in terms of technology, but company culture. They are really, really focused on not pissing off the customer, much more than the other firms.
My local DPD driver is brilliant, and their prediction of timings and tracking of the vans is spot on.
If I order something and they say it will come via DPD I breath a sigh of relief.
The interesting thing is that this type of conversation, repeated more broadly, will allow people to start discriminating between the companies which otherwise blend into an amorpous "bad" whole, leaving cardboard boxes of wine in the rain of all things, etc.
I shall now look out for DPD, if that is at all possible when receiving things.
I do a bit of consulting in that industry and DPD are so far in front of Yodel, Hermes et al, it's not funny - not so much in terms of technology, but company culture. They are really, really focused on not pissing off the customer, much more than the other firms.
My local DPD driver is brilliant, and their prediction of timings and tracking of the vans is spot on.
If I order something and they say it will come via DPD I breath a sigh of relief.
++
DPD are one of the better delivery companies. If they say something will be delivered at a particular time they are almost always spot on with the timing, and they do good job of communicating and tracking.
I do a bit of consulting in that industry and DPD are so far in front of Yodel, Hermes et al, it's not funny - not so much in terms of technology, but company culture. They are really, really focused on not pissing off the customer, much more than the other firms.
My local DPD driver is brilliant, and their prediction of timings and tracking of the vans is spot on.
If I order something and they say it will come via DPD I breath a sigh of relief.
++
DPD are one of the better delivery companies. If they say something will be delivered at a particular time they are almost always spot on with the timing, and they do good job of communicating and tracking.
Interesting - I did wonder if they might have something like this up their sleeve, expecting to lose the vote then having a little extra concession pre-planned.
Hard to imagine it's going to change the minds of the DUP/ERG nutters though.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
Handbag Cardboard Box???
I am hoping it's a cardboard box full of *bottles of wine*. Anything else is unthinkable.
Of course!
Actually that wasn't the whole of Yodel's screw-ups on the consignment, which was five cases of wine. For some reason they arrived in five separate deliveries. As well as the one left on the verge in the rain, there was one found by our neighbour on her drive, another left outside her front door, another delivered to the farm next door (farm run by the same neighbour, this was getting embarrassing..), and another left on our front drive when we were in.
I now have a policy of trying not to use any supplier who uses Yodel.
I try that too, but it's so difficult.
The major problem with receiving parcels is that you are not their customer - the sender is. Yodel and Hermes don't seem to realise that if their customer loses customers, they too will eventually lose a customer...
Hermes are the pineapple pizza of delivery companies.
Delivery is very much a demonstration of penny wish, pound foolish. If a company doesn't use DPD and things go wrong - that's the last time I'll be their customer...
The major problem with receiving parcels is that you are not their customer - the sender is. Yodel and Hermes don't seem to realise that if their customer loses customers, they too will eventually lose a customer...
Yep. Amazon's in-house delivery service is hyper efficient for that reason.
Interesting - I did wonder if they might have something like this up their sleeve, expecting to lose the vote then having a little extra concession pre-planned.
Hard to imagine it's going to change the minds of the DUP/ERG nutters though.
But why not have the vote? Or a too hefty defeat means she doesn't get to any amendment presumably.
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just come back from a Times travel gig around Cognac and Bordeaux, eating and drinking in all the best restaurants. Staying in Europe's most expensive new hotel. Visiting 400 year old distillers where I drank Du Point Art de Vie $2000-a-bottle cognac. Etc etc
And it was boring and a bit depressing. Yet again the food disappointed, quite badly. I know I bang on about the decline of French food but this was really quite impressively poor. I ate in two different Michelin starred restaurants, I ate in famous local brasseries and celebrated fish restaurants. Almost every meal was mediocre and utterly forgettable, if not actively bad: only the oysters were good (but they are hard to fuck up), and the grilled sole in one place in central Bordeaux.
The countryside was humdrum, ugly, rainy and overrun with yellow vesters causing 20 mile traffic jams. The wine was meh and of course stupidly overpriced (its Bordeaux) I drank Grand Crus worth £100 a bottle which, in reality, should go for £10.
The one impressive thing was Bordeaux. They've scrubbed it clean for 20 years and now the city is gloriously handsome and golden, like a smaller, sweeter Paris.
Only problem, on my last night in Bordeaux they had massive riots and the town centre was looted and burned and several people were seriously injured (luckily the travel PR for the city had told me to "get out of town, there will be violence" - !! - so I was staying on a posh hotel on a hill overlooking the city. I could hear the stun grenades as I ate my farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
Isn't it just the case that beyond a certain price level, both food and wine are subject to a law of diminishing returns?
There are pubs in Beds/Herts. where I can get an excellent meal for £20. I'd expect a £100 meal in a top restaurant to be better, but certainly not 5 times better.
Isn't it just the case that beyond a certain price level, both food and wine are subject to a law of diminishing returns?
There are pubs in Beds/Herts. where I can get an excellent meal for £20. I'd expect a £100 meal in a top restaurant to be better, but certainly not 5 times better.
What does 'five times better' mean? It might well be the case that you (or certainly I) would prefer to go a top place once for something really special than to an OK pub restaurant five times.
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just come back from a Times travel gig around Cognac and Bordeaux, eating and drinking in all the best restaurants. Staying in Europe's most expensive new hotel. Visiting 400 year old distillers where I drank Du Point Art de Vie $2000-a-bottle cognac. Etc etc
And it was boring and a bit depressing. Yet again the food disappointed, quite badly. I know I bang on about the decline of French food but this was really quite impressively poor. I ate in two different Michelin starred restaurants, I ate in famous local brasseries and celebrated fish restaurants. Almost every meal was mediocre and utterly forgettable, if not actively bad: only the oysters were good (but they are hard to fuck up), and the grilled sole in one place in central Bordeaux.
The countryside was humdrum, ugly, rainy and overrun with yellow vesters causing 20 mile traffic jams. The wine was meh and of course stupidly overpriced (its Bordeaux) I drank Grand Crus worth £100 a bottle which, in reality, should go for £10.
The one impressive thing was Bordeaux. They've scrubbed it clean for 20 years and now the city is gloriously handsome and golden, like a smaller, sweeter Paris.
Only problem, on my last night in Bordeaux they had massive riots and the town centre was looted and burned and several people were seriously injured (luckily the travel PR for the city had told me to "get out of town, there will be violence" - !! - so I was staying on a posh hotel on a hill overlooking the city. I could hear the stun grenades as I ate my farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
France is a magnificent country. It has political problems? Yes, it always has. Arguably worse than Brexit? Total bollocks. I think you are just looking through the shit-coloured spectacles of the average anti-French Brexiteer. You probably get crap service and food because they sense your sneering.
David Lidington seems highly stressed, but he is speaking to a crap brief, arguing that the prime minister and government are bending over backwards to be accountable to the Commons when patently clearly they aren't.
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
My mother once got a note that they'd left a package in a "safe place": the wheelie bin.
On bin day.
Thankfully after the binmen had been.
Had one recently in wheelie bin and had not even left a note , just found it when I went to put rubbish in the bin.
Interesting - I did wonder if they might have something like this up their sleeve, expecting to lose the vote then having a little extra concession pre-planned.
Hard to imagine it's going to change the minds of the DUP/ERG nutters though.
But why not have the vote? Or a too hefty defeat means she doesn't get to any amendment presumably.
Absolutely. Far better to draw the poison out at this stage, before getting serious. I think she should have given the opposition the chance to vote her down before coming back in that case.
We once presented a council budget, knowing that Labour's policy was to vote it down, once. (because We Are Against Austerity And Austerity Is Bad So We Are Against It.)
We took the defeat, spent 30 mins agreeing a concession (Labour later said they didn't expect to get it, but it was something we liked anyway and we were desperate to get the budget through) and passed the budget after midnight.
Had Labour simply proposed the amendment earlier, we'd accepted it, and they'd then abstained overall, we'd have been home hours sooner but they wouldn't have got to demonstrate their opposition to austerity. So worked well all round.
I recently had utterly shambolic service from John Lewis. My previous service from John Lewis was just as shambolic. I am no longer using John Lewis.
Wow. John Lewis have always been brilliant for me.
Me too. But I have read other stories of complaints similar to Alastair's so I think that JL need to beware. They are at risk of taking their very loyal customers for granted.
But why not have the vote? Or a too hefty defeat means she doesn't get to any amendment presumably.
I'd guess so, yes. Best case was probably a 150 vote defeat if a lot of rebels abstained, and more likely >200. That'd be too damaging, she'd never get a 2nd try.
France is a magnificent country. It has political problems? Yes, it always has. Arguably worse than Brexit? Total bollocks. I think you are just looking through the shit-coloured spectacles of the average anti-French Brexiteer. You probably get crap service and food because they sense your sneering.
Thermo-nuclear incoming in five, four, three.........
He sounds like the inverse of most DPD delivery drivers. If you don't answer the door within 5s of them ringing the bell, you must be out and they are taking that parcel back to the depot.
Yodel drivers just lose the package long before it gets near your home, much simpler for everyone concerned.
One of the managed to 'deliver' a cardbox box of wine to us by leaving it in the rain on the grass verge at the top of our admittedly long drive.
My mother once got a note that they'd left a package in a "safe place": the wheelie bin.
On bin day.
Thankfully after the binmen had been.
That happened to me once. I came back from walking the dog and saw a woman acting suspiciously near my bin. I confronted her and she said she had put a package (which contained a foodstuff!) in it. I told her that was no place to deliver a parcel and said I thought everybody knew that rubbish bins were used only for throwing things away. Through thin lips she replied that many of her "customers" liked things delivered to their bins when they were out. Never mind that I wasn't her customer. She then asked as if I were some kind of slave-driver whether I wanted her to come back a second time with a parcel if I wasn't at home.
A Corbynite has worked out that populist bullshit wins votes?
Really?
Wow.
Yes, she's dangerous in that respect. I was staggered that my wife's public-school educated Cambridge-graduate young lawyer nephew was taken in by the Momentum videos on Facebook, to the extent that he voted for Corbyn in 2017 (and in Westminster, too, FFS!). He didn't even realise that he'd been the target of propaganda. Looking at Ms Sarkar's Twitter pages, that sort of propaganda video is exactly what she and her colleagues do. It's going to be a hell of a challenge seeing off that sort of stuff.
Yes i was talking to a 40 year old posh female doctor on Sunday who is a massive Corbyn cheerleader. They live in a public sector bubble where the Tories are pure evil and there will be free money for everyone under Corbyn. All her doctor friends are the same apparently.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
A Corbynite has worked out that populist bullshit wins votes?
Really?
Wow.
Yes, she's dangerous in that respect. I was staggered that my wife's public-school educated Cambridge-graduate young lawyer nephew was taken in by the Momentum videos on Facebook, to the extent that he voted for Corbyn in 2017 (and in Westminster, too, FFS!). He didn't even realise that he'd been the target of propaganda. Looking at Ms Sarkar's Twitter pages, that sort of propaganda video is exactly what she and her colleagues do. It's going to be a hell of a challenge seeing off that sort of stuff.
Yes i was talking to a 40 year old posh female doctor on Sunday who is a massive Corbyn cheerleader. They live in a public sector bubble where the Tories are pure evil and there will be free money for everyone under Corbyn. All her doctor friends are the same apparently.
I had to give my smart, lefty young wife Jung Chang's Wild Swans to read, to make her grasp the total and evil failure of communism. She said she had no idea, she thinks the book has changed her worldview, she is sharing it with her friends, who are all equally stunned. Seriously. It is a revelation to them.
They should put that book on the bloody National Curriculum.
Things would have gone no better in Russia or China had the Whites or Kuomintang won the respective civil wars.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just come back from a Times travel gig around Cognac and Bordeaux, eating and drinking in all the best restaurants. Staying in Europe's most expensive new hotel. Visiting 400 year old distillers where I drank Du Point Art de Vie $2000-a-bottle cognac. Etc etc
And it was boring and a bit depressing. Yet again the food disappointed, quite badly. I know I bang on about the decline of French food but this was really quite impressively poor. I ate in two different Michelin starred restaurants, I ate in famous local brasseries and celebrated fish restaurants. Almost every meal was mediocre and utterly forgettable, if not actively bad: only the oysters were good (but they are hard to fuck up), and the grilled sole in one place in central Bordeaux.
The countryside was humdrum, ugly, rainy and overrun with yellow vesters causing 20 mile traffic jams. The wine was meh and of course stupidly overpriced (its Bordeaux) I drank Grand Crus worth £100 a bottle which, in reality, should go for £10.
The one impressive thing was Bordeaux. They've scrubbed it clean for 20 years and now the city is gloriously handsome and golden, like a smaller, sweeter Paris.
Only problem, on my last night in Bordeaux they had massive riots and the town centre was looted and burned and several people were seriously injured (luckily the travel PR for the city had told me to "get out of town, there will be violence" - !! - so I was staying on a posh hotel on a hill overlooking the city. I could hear the stun grenades as I ate my farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
I think the problem is that at the luxury end of the market everything is being homogenized to appeal to the bland, petit-bourgeois tastes of the global plutocracy and their wannabee hangers-on. Last time we were in France, back in July, we stayed in a delightful little boutique hotel in the Marais, had a fabulous lunch in a little side-street café and then chilled and people-watched in the Place des Vosges.
That was part of a wider tour including Sicily, Malta and Tunis (@SeanT, you should definitely give Tunis a try, great city!). We put the boat out to stay in a luxury hotel in Agrigento for my wife's birthday, and it was indeed luxurious and had views to die for over the Valley of the Temples, but we had a much nicer and more fun stay before that in a quirky and very slightly down-at-heel city centre hotel in Catania, where the clerk gave us a rec to a nearby traditional open-air courtyard Sicilian restaurant that served probably the best meal I've had all year.
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
France is a magnificent country. It has political problems? Yes, it always has. Arguably worse than Brexit? Total bollocks. I think you are just looking through the shit-coloured spectacles of the average anti-French Brexiteer. You probably get crap service and food because they sense your sneering.
lol. Really. LOL
I'm a Times travel writer. I don't go out there and sneer (I'd soon lose my job). I go out there and smile and say Thankyou a lot. Just as I do in the hundreds of other countries and hotels and restaurants I visit, which offer me a global perspective very few get.
Moreover, I love France for its landscapes and culture, its history and art, even the people (who can be irritating, but also immensely charming). It is enviably beautiful, and varied, from the rugged glories of Corsica to the exquisite prettiness of Provence to the wilds of the Cevennes, and on and on.
But there IS a major problem with stagnation. Major major. And the relative decline, maybe absolute decline of the food is a symptom of that. The overpriced wine thing is different, it's just snobbery (and actually a symptom of commercial success and brilliant brand management).
Anyway, I gotta go write my piece about France. I will be enthusiastic. I'm a travel journalist.
A bientot.
You're a great wordsmith. You have sampled more variety but have no better inate understanding of food and drink than my uncle's gardener who'd never left Sturminster Newton.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just come back from a Times travel gig around Cognac and Bordeaux, eating and drinking in all the best restaurants. Staying in Europe's most expensive new hotel. Visiting 400 year old distillers where I drank Du Point Art de Vie $2000-a-bottle cognac. Etc etc
And it was boring and a bit depressing. Yet again the food disappointed, quite badly. I know I bang on about the decline of French food but this was really quite impressively poor. I ate in two different Michelin starred restaurants, I ate in famous local brasseries and celebrated fish restaurants. Almost every meal was mediocre and utterly forgettable, if not actively bad: only the oysters were good (but they are hard to fuck up), and the grilled sole in one place in central Bordeaux.
The countryside was humdrum, ugly, rainy and overrun with yellow vesters causing 20 mile traffic jams. The wine was meh and of course stupidly overpriced (its Bordeaux) I drank Grand Crus worth £100 a bottle which, in reality, should go for £10.
The one impressive thing was Bordeaux. They've scrubbed it clean for 20 years and now the city is gloriously handsome and golden, like a smaller, sweeter Paris.
Only problem, on my last night in Bordeaux they had massive riots and the town centre was looted and burned and several people were seriously injured (luckily the travel PR for the city had told me to "get out of town, there will be violence" - !! - so I was staying on a posh hotel on a hill overlooking the city. I could hear the stun grenades as I ate my farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
I have been tear gassed three times in my life, two of which were in France (first, doing a military fitness class on Île de la Jatte but not on a Sunday, second in Marseille old port). They do love their tear gas, do the CRS.
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just come back from a Times travel gig around Cognac and Bordeaux, eating and drinking in all the best restaurants. Staying in Europe's most expensive new hotel. Visiting 400 year old distillers where I drank Du Point Art de Vie $2000-a-bottle cognac. Etc etc
And it was boring and a bit depressing. Yet again the food disappointed, quite badly. I know I bang on about the decline of French food but this was really quite impressively poor. I ate in two different Michelin starred restaurants, I ate in famous local brasseries and celebrated fish restaurants. Almost every meal was mediocre and utterly forgettable, if not actively bad: only the oysters were good (but they are hard to fuck up), and the grilled sole in one place in central Bordeaux.
The countryside was humdrum, ugly, rainy and overrun with yellow vesters causing 20 mile traffic jams. The wine was meh and of course stupidly overpriced (its Bordeaux) I drank Grand Crus worth £100 a bottle which, in reality, should go for £10.
The one impressive thing was Bordeaux. They've scrubbed it clean for 20 years and now the city is gloriously handsome and golden, like a smaller, sweeter Paris.
Only problem, on my last night in Bordeaux they had massive riots and the town centre was looted and burned and several people were seriously injured (luckily the travel PR for the city had told me to "get out of town, there will be violence" - !! - so I was staying on a posh hotel on a hill overlooking the city. I could hear the stun grenades as I ate my farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
I have been tear gassed three times in my life, two of which were in France (first, doing a military fitness class on Île de la Jatte but not on a Sunday, second in Marseille old port). They do love their tear gas, do the CRS.
I had to give my smart, lefty young wife Jung Chang's Wild Swans to read, to make her grasp the total and evil failure of communism. She said she had no idea, she thinks the book has changed her worldview, she is sharing it with her friends, who are all equally stunned. Seriously. It is a revelation to them.
They should put that book on the bloody National Curriculum.
Things would have gone no better in Russia or China had the Whites or Kuomintang won the respective civil wars.
Their dictatorships would probably have been shorter-lasting.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I had to give my smart, lefty young wife Jung Chang's Wild Swans to read, to make her grasp the total and evil failure of communism. She said she had no idea, she thinks the book has changed her worldview, she is sharing it with her friends, who are all equally stunned. Seriously. It is a revelation to them.
They should put that book on the bloody National Curriculum.
Things would have gone no better in Russia or China had the Whites or Kuomintang won the respective civil wars.
Their dictatorships would probably have been shorter-lasting.
As long as Franco's or Salazar's or only as short as Mussolini's?
I had to give my smart, lefty young wife Jung Chang's Wild Swans to read, to make her grasp the total and evil failure of communism. She said she had no idea, she thinks the book has changed her worldview, she is sharing it with her friends, who are all equally stunned. Seriously. It is a revelation to them.
They should put that book on the bloody National Curriculum.
Things would have gone no better in Russia or China had the Whites or Kuomintang won the respective civil wars.
Their dictatorships would probably have been shorter-lasting.
As long as Franco's or Salazar's or only as short as Mussolini's?
I think Taiwan and South Korea would be the best real-life examples.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Case in point.
Afraid of Leadsom? Wasn't she senior partner of Goldman Sachs?
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I agree. Leadsom is thoroughly ridiculous. One of the more vacuous MPs IMO. Watching her expression she she is asked a difficult question is practically entertainment in itself.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I agree. Leadsom is thoroughly ridiculous. One of the more vacuous MPs IMO. Watching her expression she she is asked a difficult question is practically entertainment in itself.
She has never retained my undivided attention long enough for me to assimilate the change in her expression.
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
France is a magnificent country. It has political problems? Yes, it always has. Arguably worse than Brexit? Total bollocks. I think you are just looking through the shit-coloured spectacles of the average anti-French Brexiteer. You probably get crap service and food because they sense your sneering.
lol. Really. LOL
I'm a Times travel writer. I don't go out there and sneer (I'd soon lose my job). I go out there and smile and say Thankyou a lot. Just as I do in the hundreds of other countries and hotels and restaurants I visit, which offer me a global perspective very few get.
Moreover, I love France for its landscapes and culture, its history and art, even the people (who can be irritating, but also immensely charming). It is enviably beautiful, and varied, from the rugged glories of Corsica to the exquisite prettiness of Provence to the wilds of the Cevennes, and on and on.
But there IS a major problem with stagnation. Major major. And the relative decline, maybe absolute decline of the food is a symptom of that. The overpriced wine thing is different, it's just snobbery (and actually a symptom of commercial success and brilliant brand management).
Anyway, I gotta go write my piece about France. I will be enthusiastic. I'm a travel journalist.
A bientot.
You're a great wordsmith. You have sampled more variety but have no better inate understanding of food and drink than my uncle's gardener who'd never left Sturminster Newton.
My wife and I had our honeymoon in Sturminster Newton, 41 years ago. The food and drink were rather good. In fact, the place is still going, under the same owners.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I agree. Leadsom is thoroughly ridiculous. One of the more vacuous MPs IMO. Watching her expression she she is asked a difficult question is practically entertainment in itself.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Case in point.
Afraid of Leadsom? Wasn't she senior partner of Goldman Sachs?
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just come back from a Times travel gig around Cognac and Bordeaux, eating and drinking in all the best restaurants. Staying in Europe's most expensive new hotel. Visiting 400 year old distillers where I drank Du Point Art de Vie $2000-a-bottle cognac. Etc etc
And it was boring and a bit depressing. Yet again the food disappointed, quite badly. I know I bang on about the decline of French food but this was really quite impressively poor. I ate in two different Michelin starred restaurants, I ate in famous local brasseries and celebrated fish restaurants. Almost every meal was mediocre and utterly forgettable, if not actively bad: only the oysters were good (but they are hard to fuck up), and the grilled sole in one place in central Bordeaux.
The countryside was humdrum, ugly, rainy and overrun with yellow vesters causing 20 mile traffic jams. The wine was meh and of course stupidly overpriced (its Bordeaux) I drank Grand Crus worth £100 a bottle which, in reality, should go for £10.
The one impressive thing was Bordeaux. They've scrubbed it clean for 20 years and now the city is gloriously handsome and golden, like a smaller, sweeter Paris.
Only problem, on my last night in Bordeaux they had massive riots and the town centre was looted and burned and several people were seriously injured (luckily the travel PR for the city had told me to "get out of town, there will be violence" - !! - so I was staying on a posh hotel on a hill overlooking the city. I could hear the stun grenades as I ate my farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
Would you say those problems exist because France is in the EU, or despite it?
A disorderly hard Brexit could see the loss of 100,000 jobs in Scotland, the country’s main economics thinktank, the Fraser of Allander Institute, has forecast.
Citing the Bank of England’s worst case scenario that the economy would shrink by 8.9% after Brexit, the institute, based at the University of Strathclyde, said that would reverse recent steady growth in Scotland’s economy, now growing at a faster rate than the UK as a whole.
It would have twice the impact on the Scottish economy than the 2008 financial crash, which saw tens of thousands of jobs cut in the finance sector and other industries.
Odd, then, that the SNP are risking a No Deal crash out by not supporting the EU's deal.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Case in point.
Afraid of Leadsom? Wasn't she senior partner of Goldman Sachs?
What does that have to do with anything?
I am reminded of David Brent and Gareth - difference between assistant sales manager and assistant to the sales manager.
A disorderly hard Brexit could see the loss of 100,000 jobs in Scotland, the country’s main economics thinktank, the Fraser of Allander Institute, has forecast.
Citing the Bank of England’s worst case scenario that the economy would shrink by 8.9% after Brexit, the institute, based at the University of Strathclyde, said that would reverse recent steady growth in Scotland’s economy, now growing at a faster rate than the UK as a whole.
It would have twice the impact on the Scottish economy than the 2008 financial crash, which saw tens of thousands of jobs cut in the finance sector and other industries.
Odd, then, that the SNP are risking a No Deal crash out by not supporting the EU's deal.
A disorderly hard Brexit could see the loss of 100,000 jobs in Scotland, the country’s main economics thinktank, the Fraser of Allander Institute, has forecast.
Citing the Bank of England’s worst case scenario that the economy would shrink by 8.9% after Brexit, the institute, based at the University of Strathclyde, said that would reverse recent steady growth in Scotland’s economy, now growing at a faster rate than the UK as a whole.
It would have twice the impact on the Scottish economy than the 2008 financial crash, which saw tens of thousands of jobs cut in the finance sector and other industries.
Odd, then, that the SNP are risking a No Deal crash out by not supporting the EU's deal.
I see the Fall Out 76 Larpers are out again today in Paris, this time protesting an increase in non-EU uni fees. Macron isn't going to get any reforms through now is he.
There's a couple of FT articles saying this (and they were pro-Macron). The tax concessions he has just made to the Gilets Jaune are enough for France's budget deficit to break 3% and be subject to EU fines (which won't happen: "France is France" etc etc). The FT thinks he is a busted flush already, just another president who promised so much (like Sarko, Chirac, Hollande) but caved to street protests.
France is maybe unreformable, absent war or aliens landing.
Most aliens who have mastered interstellar space flight would take a quick look around France and say
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
I've just farmed French caviar (tasteless)
France has huge, huge problems. Arguably worse than Brexit.
France is a magnificent country. It has political problems? Yes, it always has. Arguably worse than Brexit? Total bollocks. I think you are just looking through the shit-coloured spectacles of the average anti-French Brexiteer. You probably get crap service and food because they sense your sneering.
lol. Really. LOL
I'm a Times travel writer. I don't go out there and sneer (I'd soon lose my job). I go out there and smile and say Thankyou a lot. Just as I do in the hundreds of other countries and hotels and restaurants I visit, which offer me a global perspective very few get.
Moreover, I love France for its landscapes and culture, its history and art, even the people (who can be irritating, but also immensely charming). It is enviably beautiful, and varied, from the rugged glories of Corsica to the exquisite prettiness of Provence to the wilds of the Cevennes, and on and on.
But there IS a major problem with stagnation. Major major. And the relative decline, maybe absolute decline of the food is a symptom of that. The overpriced wine thing is different, it's just snobbery (and actually a symptom of commercial success and brilliant brand management).
Anyway, I gotta go write my piece about France. I will be enthusiastic. I'm a travel journalist.
A bientot.
Travel clearly doesn't open the mind of all people.
(Incidentally I think we can add the rights and responsibilities of the Speaker's Chair to the bumper book of Things Mrs Leadsom Does Not Understand).
He's an odious little twerp. Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound. The extent to which she's attacked by remainers is a measure of how afraid they are of her. See also Rees Mogg.
"Once again Leadsom is thoroughly sound."
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Case in point.
Afraid of Leadsom? Wasn't she senior partner of Goldman Sachs?
What does that have to do with anything?
"According to a former colleague who admitted to not knowing her personally, "the problem about these claims[clarification needed] is that they risk misleading people into believing that she has finance management skills and experience which qualify her for senior posts in government"; her actual job was to work (sometimes part-time) on “special projects”, mostly for the Chief Investment Officer, which included negotiating pay terms for senior fund managers. Towards the end of her time, she advised on a number of governance issues, but she had no-one reporting to her in either role"
Comments
"Fuck this. Which way's the Congo?"
On bin day.
Thankfully after the binmen had been.
HandbagCardboard Box???Actually that wasn't the whole of Yodel's screw-ups on the consignment, which was five cases of wine. For some reason they arrived in five separate deliveries. As well as the one left on the verge in the rain, there was one found by our neighbour on her drive, another left outside her front door, another delivered to the farm next door (farm run by the same neighbour, this was getting embarrassing..), and another left on our front drive when we were in.
I now have a policy of trying not to use any supplier who uses Yodel.
If I order something and they say it will come via DPD I breath a sigh of relief.
I don't work for them, honest!
We need someone from Norfolk in charge.
I shall now look out for DPD, if that is at all possible when receiving things.
DPD are one of the better delivery companies. If they say something will be delivered at a particular time they are almost always spot on with the timing, and they do good job of communicating and tracking.
Interesting - I did wonder if they might have something like this up their sleeve, expecting to lose the vote then having a little extra concession pre-planned.
Hard to imagine it's going to change the minds of the DUP/ERG nutters though.
Hermes are the pineapple pizza of delivery companies.
The major problem with receiving parcels is that you are not their customer - the sender is. Yodel and Hermes don't seem to realise that if their customer loses customers, they too will eventually lose a customer...
Incidentally why is Corbyn being quizzed?
There are pubs in Beds/Herts. where I can get an excellent meal for £20. I'd expect a £100 meal in a top restaurant to be better, but certainly not 5 times better.
Despite the fact they weren't on the van until Monday...
We once presented a council budget, knowing that Labour's policy was to vote it down, once. (because We Are Against Austerity And Austerity Is Bad So We Are Against It.)
We took the defeat, spent 30 mins agreeing a concession (Labour later said they didn't expect to get it, but it was something we liked anyway and we were desperate to get the budget through) and passed the budget after midnight.
Had Labour simply proposed the amendment earlier, we'd accepted it, and they'd then abstained overall, we'd have been home hours sooner but they wouldn't have got to demonstrate their opposition to austerity. So worked well all round.
T May should have done the same.
Decimal point in the wrong place by my reckoning!
Has May managed to escape her car yet?
That was part of a wider tour including Sicily, Malta and Tunis (@SeanT, you should definitely give Tunis a try, great city!). We put the boat out to stay in a luxury hotel in Agrigento for my wife's birthday, and it was indeed luxurious and had views to die for over the Valley of the Temples, but we had a much nicer and more fun stay before that in a quirky and very slightly down-at-heel city centre hotel in Catania, where the clerk gave us a rec to a nearby traditional open-air courtyard Sicilian restaurant that served probably the best meal I've had all year.
ha haha hahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
almost.
The Whites would've had to go some to beat Stalin's death toll.
Must have Crossrail...
Citing the Bank of England’s worst case scenario that the economy would shrink by 8.9% after Brexit, the institute, based at the University of Strathclyde, said that would reverse recent steady growth in Scotland’s economy, now growing at a faster rate than the UK as a whole.
It would have twice the impact on the Scottish economy than the 2008 financial crash, which saw tens of thousands of jobs cut in the finance sector and other industries.
Odd, then, that the SNP are risking a No Deal crash out by not supporting the EU's deal.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2018/dec/11/brexit-deal-latest-theresa-may-eu-juncker-tells-may-deal-could-be-clarified-but-no-room-whatsoever-for-renegotiation-politics-live
15:14
Happy to back the general thrust that London 2020 is Sadiq's to lose but, erm, 18 months is a long time in politics right now
https://twitter.com/KateEMcCann/status/1072510830141427714
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Leadsom#Financial_career