drumbeat

Yes, he's looked very assured. And as you say, his passing is solid; far the from safe but timid stuff we had been seeing. He looks confident and I like it.

Chalk one to benefit of the doubt.

Come in no 5, you're time is up!

What a difference. We're up for it and playing bloody well. Youri is in form, Maddison finding it.

Nacho is on fire

what a ****ing goal!!! Nacho, Youri can I have your children!

I hate posts like that.... I never know if my stream's behind!

Can't argue with that. Arse.

Looks rrsally good so far. I'm surprised tbh

My first gut feel; thank christ Evans is back. Maddison needs to repay the trust shown. Soumare to show us both what he can do and that he can play a role. Midfield is going to be a battle area, to stifle rat face would be good.

Are Watford even in the game? I'm not watching but stats suggest they've forgotten to turn up.

No, no, that one's hugely popular. Grand stand type seating etc. This is just a local rally. That said, the spectators are startng to gather, parking outside my house etc.

Funny that. So do the French. Almost as if it's a different language.

I'm sorry. What was that again? "Large portions of Americans"? How many kilos are we talking? Do I eat for free if I can eat the lot?

I shan't be singing, I'll be sitting on my sofa with everything crossable crossed and the TV remote far enough away to stop me hurling it across the living room. Whilst some of you will be enjoying prematch beers, I'll be raking chestnuts and generally tidying the garden. It's a tough life. Actually, there's a rally going on around my house today (almost literally) so I shall amuse myself much of the day by watching cars hurl themselves around the bends. I do miss the prematch beers and buzz though. COYB!

Are you supposed to be able to read text messages shown on phones on tele and films? Because I need my glasses to read the buggers on my own phone, so I don't stand a chance when they're on the tele! Always bugs me as I don't know if it's important to the plot etc.

or maybe even.... no Evans nor Vestergaard.... good lord, I think I might well be hiding behind the sofa come kick off.

Careful though. I can undestand that you might respond that way, bit did Praet himself actually say that of the way he was treated? There's a danger of over extending. Equally, 'no explanation'. BR probably wouldn't agree with that assessment. No explanation sufficient for Praet perhaps but that's a slightly different thing. And I say that as someone who missed entirely what my cardiologist said to me at our last appointment, when it was obviously in my interest to understand (the follow up letter made me realise) Now, I too believe Praet got a raw deal given his talents, but that's only what I think, and from my distant perspective. I have to accept that I have no idea of what actually went down .

BBC costume dramas, indeed costume dramas generally, are invariably tedious nothing, seemingly striving for period authenticity over interest. Cool if you like heaving bosom but of limited greater value.

I like the ones that kind of work in their own way and possibly add something. I mentioned the 'wolf in cheap clothing' before. I've now added 'tender hooks' and 'pampering to'. You can understand them and they arguably retain a similar meaning but with just a little bit of an unintended (? though perhaps maybe not!) extra flavour.

Praet meant whatever it was he said in whatever language he said it in (Flemish?) Actually, strike that, I'm assuming he was interviewed in his mother tongue, maybe he wasn't. You can suggest alternatives, or better words, but the issue is one of translation. Whoever translated him chose 'sour', not Praet. It might well be a correct literal translation but equally not have the same sense in differing contexts. You have to be flexible. Even in the same language, people use words in a slightly different way (sometimes very different) and it pays to be sensitive to that. Translation is a fiendishly difficult task, it's not as simple as swapping one word out for another, you have to have a real feel for what is being said, and an intimate knowledge of both source and destination languages. Sometimes things just aren't said in a language, or not in a certain way, and you have to find a way of expressing the same thought or emotion in a compatible way - sometimes that means using an entirely non literal translation. A simple example; in English someone might say 'it is raining cats and dogs'. A literal translation of that (to any language?) would probably confound. The French say something like (literally translated) 'it rains of the ropes'... and you could probably have a discussion of that translation! Translation is not an exact science and you inevitably add, as the translator, your own flavour or scent. It can't be avoided. And then there's constraints, time not least. That article probably needed translating and publishing within hours. Novels will spend months, if not years in translation. TV and film translators (for subtitles) have to consider screen space, audience reading speed, plot pace... sometimes it just takes longer to say something in another language, so a way to strike a balance has to be found. Audience itself is a factor; who are you translating for? A technical audience? Is it a missile guidance operators manual for the military? etc etc etc Like most trades, the more you delv into it the more you see. It's never as easy as it might seem on the surface. In short, Praet's 'sour' (I say that ironically as he probably didn't actually say sour!) could have been an ill judged and/or rushed translation. Or worse, google translate!

I can beleive it, jokes are incredibly difficult to both make in and translate from a foreign language. I steer resolutely away from making jokes in French. I've lived in France for 14 years now and whilst my French holds together, I am not nor will ever be fluent, I'll never have those native speaker intuitions. I've said clunky things myself and seen the reaction. In fact, sometimes I only know something's wrong from the reaction, I have to go back over what I said in my mind to look for the cause. And sometimes I know it's clunky as I've said it but didn't know any other way to say it. So I have a first hand experience of language barriers and am consequently both aware of and sympathetic to people speaking in a foreign language. I like Castagne's attitude and POV, at least from what I can judge from video interviews. He seems down-to-earth and slightly dour. It gives a good contrast to the usual marketing type speak.

Lasso or BR? The TV series; it's got a warm and goo-ey feel to it. Some nice moments, some excellent lines, a good bit of light weight entertainment overall. BR; dunno. I hope he's not so wedded to his strategy as to overlook the strengths in his team (that could almost be a line fron Lasso)

sorry, quick first bite... ...it took me AGES to process that correctly. Had me going wtf! for a moment there.

An answer to the above conundrum might be, and I cite a NZer former colleage, you can drink loads of it without becoming fall-over drunk. Ideal if you're planning to drink all day.