CheshireTom

All started by Phar Lap, of course! Nah, probably the paddock mamasan!

I noticed she's also entered in the July Cup - a couple of quid on Krypton Factor at 12s is my value bet though. LOL. I used to regularly back a nag called Mai Pen Rai in the late 80s. As you say, not a good strategy!

Etihad's booking system already caters for that.

Think positive. It's not double from Thailand, it's half-price from UK. On a serious note, you can generally find Etihad at 30-odd k Baht - short notice and long stay (over 3 months) will bump the price up.

Pot, kettle, black ...

Sounds like a local issue - working fine for me. Staffing at the Call Centre is probably down because of the Public Holiday today - normally they're pretty good (in my experience).

I doubt it. It is showing on Astro Supersport - coverage starts at 7.30 am (Thai time).

I would have thought de Jong would be over the moon, blue or otherwise.

I think that when you select the "English Language" option at the beginning of the transaction, it cuts out all the Thai language ads that the locals are subsequently bombarded with.

As things stand, City is 4/7 to win at Newcastle and Utd is 2/11 to beat Swansea. The fat lady ain't taking the stage just yet. I'm betting on ex-City bad-boy, Joey Barton, or Shaun Wright-Phillips to score an injury time equaliser against the blue noses in the final game. Agreed, but he had his work cut out. There are some big fuckers in the City team and then they can bring on de Jong and Milner as subs!

Great pics ... looking forward to the next 90!

Your 1k AUD will return 1.8k AUD and your "free" bet will return 800 AUD - they only pay the winnings, not the stake, on the "free" bet.

4/5 (1.8) with Paddy Power seems to be quite generous odds for our Aussie chums.

That sounds about right. The journey is less than 40 clicks so it should be less than 500 Baht, either on the meter or by distance on the rate table.

LOL. My local gym is on the 6th floor in a 44 floor condo building. Lots of tarts jump in the elevator to go to the gym and then spend an hour on the stepper machine (tuned into their ipod or whatever they use nowadays for music). Any suggestion that they'd be better off doing a couple of ascents/descents of the fire escapes isn't particularly welcome though.

... or so the saying goes. Anybody want to buy a gym membership? I'll miss their big ad at the Asoke intersection in BKK, but maybe they'll be back as Miami Whatever!

This is the background. You've got to feel sorry for the airlines concerned.

And one from the Dutch ...

And here's one from Vanessa Paradis - who would do anything for a tenor. Apparently. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJrHSfDSm34

OK, getting away from the Oz theme for a bit - how about some foreign language stuff. Just for you, Gonzo, I'll kick it off ....

The game begins at 01.45 on the Thai clock.

ray, I didn't know the connection, but it's what Salonga sung at Aquino's funeral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY8yWjlsagY Keeping with an Aussie theme for a bit, I was a bit of a closet ABBA fan during that period between superstardom and the opening of Mama Mia when they weren't so cool in the UK. I think they remained hugely popular in Oz the whole time though. The vid was live in Sydney.

I didn't for one minute think that Bert has always looked like he does now. I believe he was a bit of a racing snake in his army days.

Gonzo, I took a bird from BKK to see Lea Salonga for Valentines Day. Cost me a fortune but well worth it in the end. Talking of pinays ... In the 80s I had to do a run from Germany to Brisbane to trial a stretch version of the C130 Hercules. As things turned out, the aircraft went u/s all over the place including, for several days unfortunately, Darwin. I always had a hard job describing the nightlife in that remote corner of Oz to my mates ... at least until this movie came out. I still chuckle hard every time I watch the scene ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDu9gbuKpKc