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Messages - thewobbler

#1
General discussion / Re: Movie recommendations
March 27, 2024, 07:28:01 PM
Quote from: AustinPowers on March 27, 2024, 06:11:47 PM
Quote from: jcpen on March 12, 2024, 10:52:25 AMTop Gun was epic. Loved it.

Never watched Top Gun. No desire to either.  But when  I hear it mentioned , I automatically think  of Team America.

America, f**k yeah!!

I'd imagine   they're pretty much the same movie  anyway

Top Gun 1 yes it was.

The new Top Gun was surprisingly self aware, while never quite dishonouring America.
#2
General discussion / Re: extortion
March 27, 2024, 11:15:01 AM
Quote from: Tony Baloney on March 27, 2024, 10:31:23 AM
Quote from: toby47 on March 27, 2024, 09:06:54 AM
Quote from: Duine Inteacht Eile on March 26, 2024, 07:33:32 PMWhat are pubs paying Diageo per pint nowadays? Couldn't be much over £2?

Yeah nearly £2 on the button.
So a 7 quid pint has a fiver going to the publican - 440 for a keg. Obviously that doesn't take into account the many overheads a business owner has, but it's mad that small places operating at low volumes can charge much less and still keep going.

The traditional pub model was a ratio of 3:1 on purchases i.e if a drink sold at £3, roughly £1 was for the wholesaler, £1 was for cost of business (staff, heat, light, insurance, tv, etc), and £1 was profit/loan repayments/reinvestment.

Diageo (and other brewers) have made this model unsustainable in recent years, as bars attempting to charge £6 for a pint when the same core product is available in off sales for around £1, should put themselves out of business.

When I say should, Belfast city centre's pub scene is effectively a cartel and they got together during Covid to agree minimum pricing i.e. a return to 3:1 ratios on pints.

Which as a move I suppose I'd support in general, except those shower of profiteering c***ts are now using a baseline 3:1, and are charging upwards on 8:1 ratios for mixed drinks and "premium" bottled beers.

Then they appear in the press every few weeks claiming poverty.

No harm to any of them. If they're converting £12 bottles of Smirnoff into £120 cash on repeat, and still claiming poverty, then they're on the take.
#3
General discussion / Re: extortion
March 27, 2024, 11:03:44 AM
Quote from: Armagh18 on March 27, 2024, 10:56:04 AMThe price of a keg goes down the more you're ordering.

By a few pence yes.
#4
General discussion / Re: extortion
March 26, 2024, 07:28:43 PM
Quote from: gallsman on March 26, 2024, 06:10:36 PM
Quote from: armaghniac on March 26, 2024, 05:49:01 PM
Quote from: gallsman on March 26, 2024, 05:38:40 PMThe point is about cost. Publicans aren't paying 6e to buy in a pint.

A pint of Estrella Damm will cost you the same in Belfast as a pint of Guinness, and that's not Diageo. Why?

Diageo may be comparatively expensive but the point of sale in Ireland gouges far, far worse than the big bad multinational.

There is a cost to running a pub, a restaurant charges more for a steak than a butcher does. However, the prices in Belfast seem to be taking the piss.

Cities are more expensive than the club up the road. Quelle surprise. Higher rates, higher wages etc, it all adds up.

The price of a pint, wholesale in the keg is going up 6-8c. Wait and see how the price to the punter jumps. Multiples of that over the course of a year I'd bet.

Wetherspoons can sell pints at under £4 in every major city in the UK.

The difference in how Wetherspoons and Diageo treat the end customer in a public house is startling.
#5
General discussion / Re: extortion
March 26, 2024, 05:51:10 PM
Quote from: gallsman on March 26, 2024, 05:38:40 PMThe point is about cost. Publicans aren't paying 6e to buy in a pint.

A pint of Estrella Damm will cost you the same in Belfast as a pint of Guinness, and that's not Diageo. Why?

Diageo may be comparatively expensive but the point of sale in Ireland gouges far, far worse than the big bad multinational.

In Belfast City Centre (£6-6.50 a pint) the point of sale gouges every bit as much as Diageo. And more fool those that pay it.

In the rest of the six counties (£4.20-£4.80 a pint), it's entirely a Diageo gouge.
#6
General discussion / Re: extortion
March 26, 2024, 05:07:33 PM
Quote from: gallsman on March 26, 2024, 03:28:17 PMAsk your camarero the next time you're in Tenerife what he makes compared to a barman in Ireland.

You've missed the key point.

They are selling draught beer for half the price that a publican here can buy it in.

Your camerero isn't part of the equation at this point.
#7
General discussion / Re: extortion
March 26, 2024, 01:35:54 PM
Last summer I was in Tenerife. Went for a daily walk of 5-6 miles generally from Adeje to Los Cristianos.

Along that route the various cafes (all seaside) would advertise their prices.

Some went with €3 for a pint. Others €2 for a large beer. Then there was a cluster at either end of the walk has €1 large beers.

They're selling draught beer for roughly half the price it can be bought in for on this Ireland.

Tax is an issue. But mostly it's Diageo, and a corporate willingness to gouge and gouge and gouge.

No surprise they're putting their prices up again next month.

Horrible c***ts.
#8
What should have been obvious to anyone from the 2023 season:

Mayo made hay in the league playing what was very unstructured football, safe in the knowledge they wouldn't have to face Dublin at all, let alone in Croke. Then through a combination of injuries (the story of their past 5 years), lack of midfield strength (the story of their past 3 years), and a tendency to self-implode and doubt themselves when championship games are in the mix (the story of their past 75 years), they weren't good enough to win the championship.

Dublin's tails went up during the championship, largely because a group of seasoned winners one-by-one regained their hunger and their match fitness. At which point the championship outcome was all but a foregone conclusion.

——-

How this seems to have been interpreted by managers of D1 and top D2 teams, apart from Dublin:

Dublin are back and they're going to win the All Ireland again whether we like it or not, so let's spend the entire season complaining about the schedule, fighting phoney wars, and blaming everything but ourselves until our inevitable exit. Where's my envelope?

——

So wouldn't it be better for the players and counties to win a league title en route to their inevitable championship exits?

Or am I going soft in the head?
#9
General discussion / Re: Petrolhead culture
March 25, 2024, 04:48:56 PM
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on March 25, 2024, 04:02:58 PM
Quote from: marty34 on March 25, 2024, 03:48:04 PM
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on March 25, 2024, 03:23:56 PM
Quote from: marty34 on March 25, 2024, 08:43:46 AMOn  similiar vein to this road safety issue, I think it should be complusory that anyone out walking, day or evening, should have a hi-viz vest on.

The amount of people I see out at dusk walking, wear black/dark clothes is scary.

Plus all school uniforms and bags should have a few hi-viz strips or reflections on them.  I'd say it'd be simple enough to design and install.

If roads are so dangerous that people have to dress like construction workers just to go about their daily business then we've got a serious problem that no amount of high-viz is going to fix.

Bit arrogant that answer and not addressing the issue I raised about people out walking at dusk with dark clothes on nor re: school uniforms.

But hey anything for a quick quip.

So you want to live in a society where we all walk about our streets looking like we just stepped off a building site? Are you serious?

I walk bendy, hilly country roads every evening for 4-6 miles.

I will have a hi-vis on me if there's any chance at all, that I'll be out during or after dusk.

Why?

Because it requires no effort to do, but makes everyone else's life's easier who is using the same roads. Which means there's less chance of me getting killed.

But I suppose i am a rational person, capable of seeing the bigger picture. Cyclists like yourself Eamon, you're not rational people.
#10
General discussion / Re: Petrolhead culture
March 25, 2024, 02:49:57 PM
I'm sure I posted this on another thread, but in this era of mollycoddling our children to the nth degree - in effect elongating their childhoods for as long as possible - our willingness and encouragement for them to facilitate them driving as soon as they turn 17, doesn't make any sense.

——-

Fwiw, in my experience the petrol head culture is dwindling, certainly around here. It's been replaced by a an image culture of needing a car that looks the part - the right car brand, nice alloys and calipers, personalised plates, and so on. Which again is only possible because parents facilitate it. I suppose this doesn't do any harm apart from every youngster forced into a 1 litre on passing the test, upgrades to 2+ litre land a year later. Part of the brand and all that.

——-

Key solutions i'd recommend:

1. Until 3 years of a clean driving is completed (however long that takes), then points on the licence equate to months off the road. So a 3 point penalty becomes 3 months banned from driving. And when you start driving, it's back to day 1.

2. Until 3 years of a clean driving licence is completed, driving without a tracker is illegal. No mucking around, no exceptions. If you're pulled over and can't produce a track, then you lose the books.



#11
General discussion / Re: TV Show recommendations
March 23, 2024, 10:42:33 PM
Shõgun is genuinely brilliant so far.
#12
General discussion / Re: Strule Campus
March 21, 2024, 09:19:54 PM
Quote from: LC on March 21, 2024, 08:08:13 PMhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68621308

Is this actually needed?

Potential to be another Casement in that the budget will ultimately be blew out of the water in no time.

From I first heard of it 7-8 years ago I thought it a brilliant idea.

Each school gets it own state-of the art, purpose built complex for core learning.

Each school gets to enjoy the use of state of the art auditoriums, specialised learning spaces, playing fields, and outdoor spaces.

The Dept of Education gets to facilitate all of this without the expense of building and maintaining those shared facilities 6 times over.

They also enjoy the benefit of not having to pay 6 times for security and general janitorial, for transport links and routes.

Plus they'll have 6 substantial plots of land to return to communities or sell to help pay for the construction.

The students enjoy being part of a wider community which should foster inter-gender and inter-denominational relations and opportunities.

The people of Omagh gain a leisure complex for after school use.

So. Where is the downside?
#13
General discussion / Re: American Sports Thread
March 21, 2024, 03:57:32 PM
I don't think any of us are quite capable of thinking about the qualities and variances of field goal kickers, in the same way as an NFL special teams coaches.

But from my perspective:

Beggan has a two step kick. He has exceptional distance. He has the physique to contribute defensively should something go wrong. He has 10 years left in him in an kicking role. And he has eons of footage backing him up of kicking scores from distance from all angles, in all kinds of weather, and in front of full stadia. His pressure kick percentages, albeit from another sport, would I expect place him among the NFL expectancy rate (minimum 80%, hopeful for 90%).

And he's kicked no more or no fewer attempts in the NFL than everyone else pursuing a first time contract as a kicker.

That's a lot of boxes checked. He has to be under serious consideration. 

But to go back to the start. I cannot place myself in a special team coach's shoes. Not even remotely.
#14
Quote from: Keyser soze on March 19, 2024, 11:48:57 AM
Quote from: thewobbler on March 19, 2024, 08:22:42 AM
Quote from: snoopdog on March 19, 2024, 08:09:31 AMDo away with the only chance of a day out in croke pk for silverware for most duv 3 and 4 teams. Again the bugger counties always push for what suits them.


For the absolute life of me, I'll never understand why anyone would want to play in front of 5-10k people in Croke Park. The atmosphere is shit at these games. Absolute shit.

Tell me you've never played gaelic football without telling me........

Eh... okay then.

——-

The "every player's dream" nonsense peddled by pundits about Croke Park, comes from the same pond as the soccer lads when they used to peddle "every player's dream" is to play at Wembley.

They don't do that so much over the water now. For they found out that playing the FA Cup final in Cardiff didn't change the occasion a tap. And they kind of worked out the "scoring in a cup final" dream is stadium independent.



#15
Quote from: snoopdog on March 19, 2024, 08:47:35 AM
Quote from: thewobbler on March 19, 2024, 08:27:27 AM
Quote from: Armagh18 on March 19, 2024, 08:25:06 AM
Quote from: thewobbler on March 19, 2024, 08:22:42 AM
Quote from: snoopdog on March 19, 2024, 08:09:31 AMDo away with the only chance of a day out in croke pk for silverware for most duv 3 and 4 teams. Again the bugger counties always push for what suits them.


For the absolute life of me, I'll never understand why anyone would want to play in front of 5-10k people in Croke Park. The atmosphere is shit at these games. Absolute shit.
It's Croke Park. Its every players dream. 99% of players will never play in it.

Nonsense.

Every player's dream is to win championships. Some of that dream will involve Croke Park. But it's not the focus. Not even close.
So the schools finals shouldn't be played at croke pk infront of a few thousand. Sure who would want to play there.

No these shouldn't be played in Croke, and there's decades of evidence that the Hogan Cup doesn't gain any more significance from being played in an empty stadium.

Yes some schoolboys get to boast how they've played in Croke Park. But anyone who might place that "achievement" on anything close to the same pedestal as winning a Hogan, well they don't get it. They just don't get what it's all about.