Basingstoke Fox

I've been learning Spanish for 3 years, initially with Duolingo & flashcards with pronunciation. Last year during lockdown, I signed up to an online course whereby you could have an unlimited number of conversations with Spanish speaking teachers via Zoom. It was expensive, so I only did this during months where I had at least a week off, but it helped massively. The only problem is finding the time to continue doing that to keep your knowledge up. The key things I'd recommend when starting out are: Pronunciation. Focus on this and try to avoid any bad habits right from the start. The typical example of this in Spanish is pronouncing the "R" correctly and never pronouncing it how we do. By learning the exact phonetic sounds of the language, it helps during conversations later down the line. Commit to it. Even if it's just for a few minutes every day, it adds up over time. Duolingo's gamification is great for this. Vocab flashcards are also a great way to boost your knowledge over time. Music. Listen to music in your target language. It keeps things entertaining and is a great tool for learning if you get an online teacher too.. When you learn enough of the language, watching TV / Films with the target language's subtitles is also a great help. For some reason the subtitles on Netflix are usually inaccurate but this Chrome extension's subtitles are more accurate and you can also hover over them for translations - https://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/. Following Spanish, I'd like to learn Portuguese or French as the transition should be made easier. Here's a couple of interesting videos about techniques for picking up languages: I could list more things which I've found useful over the years, but would be wary of inundating you and putting you off the whole thing. Best of luck.

Absolutely love this video! Just watch this moment from about 16:50 and watch Wilf's reaction in the background.

Spent this evening watching a few YouTube videos about our history in the FA Cup: I love videos like this of historical events in England from decades ago, especially about our club. This is a playlist of older videos of the club, but is mostly from our FA Cup runs: Also one for the history of "Abide with Me" and why it's sung at cup finals: Despite having a ticket for the final, I've felt somewhat underwhelmed about the whole thing given that our first final in 52 years just won't quite be the occasion that it really should be. However watching these and learning more about the background info, it just shows how we've come so close yet so far on several occasions. I'd absolutely love for us to get that first FA Cup trophy in the bag to complete the domestic set.

Followed by this

Just asked a local about decent beer gardens for matches, he mainly just mentioned places in the Northern Quarter - Dive Bar is meant to be decent, but perhaps a difficult one to book at this later stage. I won't be around for the cup final but I'd be up for finding somewhere to watch the League game against Chelsea on the following Tuesday if anyone fancies that? Tib Street Tavern is a good spot for when we can book places indoors again. Are there still many Leicester fans still living in the Manchester area itself?

Is it just me or do the foxes on these retro shirts have a wonky eye?

Based on a mix of tradition, my favourite away days & decent local derby's.

I've followed the situation with interest since the Robin Hood fiasco of last week. This EToro business is at least as bad and should be highlighted as a scandal in itself. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks, months & years as a result, given the spotlight on the whole situation.

I've generally avoided this thread to avoid seeing spoilers until I can watch games the next afternoon / evening. But these playoffs have been great to watch with multiple highly memorable moments already. Can't believe Denver overturned a 1-3 deficit for 2 series running.

Just bit the bullet on the NBA game pass until the end of the season. 50% off atm with the code ‘SLAMDUNK50’. Got plenty more time these days than usual so will see if I like it. Also downloaded the App to watch it on the PS4 via a temp Argentine account. Did it via a US one initially but that only works with the US accounts. The Argie one works with our international accounts.

It's a full size, first gen model. They can be pricey but I got it at a good price via a staff purchase scheme a few years ago. Overall I absolutely love it! It's switched on while I'm working, cooking, basically whenever I'm awake, especially during lockdown & it fills my apartment with great sound, even at 50% volume. I also use it for my TV audio atm. It's a fairly large unit, but not having separates is much easier for me as I've had to move apartments a few times during the last couple of years. Quite like the range of radio available via the app too. My only gripes with it were that it would sometimes switch off randomly while playing a song (due to a bug with the auto-standby setting), it could be a little finicky for playing Spotify directly through the speaker and that you can't control it from a Windows / Mac. I got around the first two by extending the auto standby setting to 24 hours and I tend to play Spotify through my PS4 during the day now anyway.

Also considered it for a Naim Muso, but haven't signed up. I don't want to sign up for an attractive starter deal and then find myself spending approx $20 per month on it if I find it very good.

Absolutely love Trance music. Always felt like I'd just missed the boat when I turned 18 as the scene had mostly died out. I've managed to do the occasional Trance night out & the Gatecrasher orchestra in Sheffield a couple of times but not much more. Used to regularly hear this compilation in the car as a kid & still listen to it regularly when driving at night: Would happily give it a listen. I'll take a look at all other recommendations in this thread too.

Cheers pal.

Did you ever confirm whether this number was from LCFC in the end? Just missed a call from the same number myself and found this thread from Google. I can see you posted an image later in the thread but it's not showing now - must've been lost somehow in the last year.

Potentially great news for the club & city if that can happen.

Jonny Evans must be one surely. Wilcox is a good shout too.

I waited a good few months before even trying them while learning some of the most common words in the language, along with various other verbs & adjectives (process still ongoing) which certainly helped. That said the narrator chimes in for context in English at least once per minute, so you can mostly make out what's going on, plus the episodes aren't not too long. I think the best thing about them is that if you can't quite understand a word / sentence, you can rewind 15 seconds and listen again. Then if you still can't make out the word, rewind again until you do, which I think is supposed to help train your ear to listen to sounds you wouldn't normally hear otherwise. It helps that there are so many similarities in the words between Spanish & English though, not sure how that'll be for French. It may be worth giving an episode a go, try listening to it by ear at first and then refer back to the transcript online afterwards to find any words you didn't understand & then go and learn those. Especially if you have more time on your hands with the current situation.

To be fair to the guy he did post a good response after an absolute mission to & from Kent to watch this match. Just found Pearson's post match interview, which was every bit as enjoyable as I'd hoped it would be: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/16714076

For French / Spanish learners, the Duolingo podcasts are actually quite good. Some interesting stories and it definitely helps to listen to a range of accents depending on where the stories are based. Makes the morning rush hour commute more enjoyable.

Watched that one myself. Fantastic game right till the end. Does anyone on here have the NBA League pass? I'd be interested in it given that you can hide the scores and watch highlights the following day. There's just a couple of things which put me off for now - the price and the fact there is no decent PS4 app for some reason.

Finished watching Time: The Kalief Browder story today. It shows almost everything that's wrong with the US justice system (New York in particular) and is a harrowing watch. Again, not light hearted but it is thought provoking.

It's all very "who shot Mr Burns" from the Simpsons, but it is enjoyable. The ending of that first episode with 'Dre was messed up.

Such a poor display from Everton on their best chance to win at Anfield in god knows how long.

What a miserable b*****d. Was this someone sat towards the back of the area? If so then it could be somebody who bought it on general sale when the club sold those last few seats without any notice. Sadly couldn't make it today but it sounded class on the stream I was watching, especially in the first half. Especially for a lower league team at home in the early rounds of the cup. Great image of the section just before kick off too which will hopefully be shown on MOTD.