The Hallucinating Goose

Motorcycle

Cake

Oil

Point

Gonna be starting 'The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War' by Antony Beever in the next couple of days. While a bit of a history buff it is one area I know virtually nothing about so thought I'd learn something about it! Looking forward to it!

Similar to the thing I posted a bit back. Can't be doing with people who will really aggressively argue a point that is absolutely wrong and really attack you for offering up the opposing point which is the correct one. The point that is being argued in this case is something that is an absolute fact of course. For example, someone trying to argue that Leeds have not won the super league 8 times, they insist it is 6 say. I will tell them I know for definite it is 8 and they will then proceed to attack you. It is not necessarily the aggression that is most annoying here, although it is horrible and unnecessary, it's more that because it is a fact that they are wrong, they have clearly never researched the point and found that they are wrong. They have been misinformed about something or perhaps even just decided themselves out of the blue that their answer is correct and have a go at anyone else for saying it isn't. I can't understand why someone would believe something that they have not bothered to confirm for themselves through a very quick bit of research. You have to wonder as well, why have they gone into a debate on whatever the topic is with such certainty when they must surely realise that they don't 100% know what they are going to be saying is true. Do not just believe everything you hear! A number of times on this forum, if I am going to say something I will quickly check the facts are right before posting cos I don't wanna look like an idiot even if I am pretty certain I am right. These people are either too proud to admit when they are wrong, too self-obsessed and/or egotistical to comprehend the possibility they are wrong and/or too ignorant to realise someone else could be right. Won't name names of course but there is certainly one troll on this board that fits into this category of people.

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Probably be indifferent to pineapple flapjack. There is one element of it I would like and one I wouldn't. Obviously you know which is which!

While goose is used as a general term to describe the species of bird, goose is actually the word for a female goose while a male is a gander.

You know what my biggest pet peeve in the world is and something I'm noticing more and more as the days drift by? People that try to tell you stuff about yourself, especially when it is completely wrong. It can be the littlest thing in the world and it is so ##### annoying! Let me give you a scenario. You're at someone's house and they say, "do you want something to eat?" I will then say, "what you got?" "oh I've got some flapjack". "nah, I don't like flapjack". "yes you do!" "no I don't". "you bloody do, you love it!" Why is this individual trying to tell me something about me which I am assuring them is false? The annoying bit really comes from the fact they don't just accept they are wrong and apologise, no, they start getting agitated and defensive, using a tone which is essentially accusing you of lying... about something about you... which you will know better than anyone... Now that is one side of it. The other is where the information they provide is correct but is essentially used against you. Such as: "do you want something to eat?" "what you got?" "I've got a pineapple, you love pineapple!" "nah, I don't fancy pineapple right now". "but you love pineapple!" "I know I just don't fancy any right now". "but it's your favourite, you love it". And then the person gets up and goes to chop up the pineapple. They haven't listened to the fact I don't want it. In their head they think because goosey likes pineapple he wants it all the time. No that is not the case. Sometimes I may just not particularly fancy that thing at that time. I am allowed not to. It is one slight criticism I have of my people (Yorkshire folk not geese), is that they try a bit too hard to make you comfortable. You walk into someone's house and it's like battle stations. Quick get him a drink! Quick get every bit of food in the house down his throat! He loves pineapple just ram it in cos he obviously wants to eat it, he loves flapjack! No I don't! Yes you do, you love flapjack! No I don't! The last drop of my drink hits my tonsils and they are up out of their seats, do you want another drink? Oh my god you've run out of flapjack! (chucked it in the bin when they weren't looking), oh my god, disaster, disaster! Running round like a fire alarm is sounding and the apocalypse is coming! No! No! No! That went a bit crazy towards the end haha....

Next to my loo I've got a copy of 'it's been grand, now it's final' by Eddie hemmings and Mike Stephenson. It's good cos I haven't had to buy bog paper for a little while now.

I've had them when they've put one of them cards through the door, you know, we tried to deliver this but you were out (how do they know I was out? Maybe I was having a hard time on the bog), and they say they delivered it to your neighbour and put a name but not the house number. So you look at the name and think who the hell is that? and have to spend the rest of your afternoon wandering up and down the street knocking on doors asking if they have a package for you. When that one bloke said, I've got a package for you, in a rather creepy tone I legged it!

Tonga got 18,000 against Samoa and 24,000 against NZ in the world Cup there so it would seem there is interest but a lot of those will have been fans of Samoa and NZ of course. Depends how much stock the Tongan fans put in the GB name I suppose.

Those quotes are quite amusing. The Irish guy seems really happy despite the fact none of his players will be in the team... I get the impression the Scottish guy doesn't really know much about rugby league so says about the one Scottish player he can name to seem more knowledgeable and then mentions young Scottish players, despite the fact no scottish players will be in the team... And the Welsh guy just sounds incredibly diplomatic. When someone says the phrase "fully embrace and support" what he means is "someone put a gun to my head and told me to agree"... At least he might have a couple of players in the team.

So the big announcement was the confirmation of 4 games we've all been pretty sure were happening anyway?

Assuming the article is correct, it does make you wonder if the Fiji and Samoa games have been shoehorned back into the 'tour' because of the union world league mess.

Is QI even still going??

We've certainly had some extreme weather recently. This time last year the beast from the east had been about for a couple of days, now we have the hottest February since records began two days in a row. Let's not forget last summer as well when temperatures were touching 40 degrees in some places. Can't help thinking we're in for something similar this year!

I'm confused. So is this thing a standalone England game alongside a GB tour or instead of GB? Or is it just Australians calling GB England?

Wow it just keeps getting worse doesn't it? To be honest though, it's the GB bit that pees me off. I wouldn't even mind about this curtain raiser proposal if it was England cos at least they would be playing. Going two years without England playing is a joke, an absolute feckin joke. We're used to awful organisation when it comes to internationals of course and 5,000 in Leigh, midweek against France is the prime example but at least England played a game which is the most important thing here. Are we really gonna go 2 years without England playing at all, let alone playing at home. I know we didn't play a home game in 2017 but we did play 8 games that year and 5 last year which are the kind of numbers we should, at least, be playing. Guaranteed, if GB happens it will be the last time we ever see the brand. It will be considered an absolute embarrassment and a disaster and go down in the history books as a massive f up. We've started to build something decent with England in the last few years so let's ditch that progress for 2 years and bring back a brand a good lot of rugby league fans don't really remember and couldn't care less about for just a couple of games that will have absolutely no consequence on any development of rugby league in this country and will ultimately be completely forgotten about in just a couple of years. If these games have to go ahead please for the love of God make it England that plays them at least.

I've gone beyond fed up with this tour now. Lets just forget it and put together 2 or 3 friendlies so at least England can play some games this year. A lot of the Jamaican team is based over here as is the French and Welsh teams so there we go, 3 friendlies, sorted. Caravan park, headingley and leigh or something. Wales at Leigh, smallest ground, least interesting game, France at caravan park and Jamaica at Headingley. All grounds that we could get at short notice. Jamaica game might be at biggest ground but the novelty factor would draw people in I think and I believe there's a decent Jamaican community in the city. Print out a few leaflets and canvas that community, free tickets or discounted to school kids or something. Obviously Jamaica would get battered but the publicity they would get here and at home would be massive! Make sure the BBC have got it, even if not on proper TV get it streamed on the website. Do not put it on our league cos that France game on there was quite frankly horrendous and watched by one man who left his dog at home. Boom. Easy. Sorted.

I was watching the news just before I came out to work and the lead story was the weather. They are talking about the South grinding to a halt, people stranded in the middle of nowhere, genuinely talking like it is the apocalypse and then they show you a video of a light covering of snow perhaps 2 millimetres thick. There was a bloke on there who got stranded in Cornwall and he said he lives in Norway for 3 months of the year and he's never seen weather like this there. I can only assume he in fact meant that he has never seen so little snow as this in Norway. As he was saying this he was stood by the side of the road in about a centimetre of snow. They were also at a college down that way where students had been stranded overnight and it showed them all wrapped in blankets looking traumatised like they had been rescued from an earthquake. The head of the school said something along the lines of, 'we have a managed to provide water and food for them' and they were getting bedding donated..... Bloody hell, they don't know they've been born, I've slept against walls on concrete floors in dodgy Eastern European train stations before! Grow a pair! Jesus, media know how to blow stuff out of proportion...... Its genuinely embarrassing when you see pictures like what Kayakman has posted with people in those places just getting on with their lives. I know people who live in Finland and they've said before that for a few months of the year you can't use your car cos the roads are completely blocked and if you leave it out of your garage the petrol will freeze. People here would die if they couldn't use their car for even a couple of days. 'how will I go 1 mile down the road?!' walk you Nancy!!

Good old carry bag sledges, those were the days!

Do people still go to legoland?? To be fair, I'm surprised kids still play with lego, doesn't have any screens or buttons attached to it.

Must say we've got some pretty crazy weather here at mo. At work having break right now, stood outside and I can't see more than 10 metres in front of me cos of some super thick fog that's come down in the last couple of hours and it's getting worse. Gonna be dark soon, hope this lifts in next three hours before I've gotta go home.