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Having read this I got to thinking about where my tips go. I do wonder now and then if the waiting staff get it. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/04/tipping_in_the_balance.html Where do you stand on tipping? When I first moved to Portugal I always left 10% but rather meanly brought my...

It is South African but they're marketed with the Portuguese cock etc. My sister's South African has been going on about them for ages and I was bemused I hadn't seen one here. I checked their website and they are in 25 countries but not here.

Just one question - why are there no Nando's restaurants in Portugal?

People buy the right wing papers to read stories about pedos and mad mullahs not communist regimes. The rest of the press sell sweet F.A anyway.

Surely the western media won't be overly critical of China during the Olympics? The political and economic interests of the western powers supersede any concern over human rights. Can you imagine the impossible scenario of Iran holding the Olympics?!

I think your hours of work have a lot to do with whether you exercise. I'm lucky enough to work afternoons, evenings and nights, which allows me to rise later than the average person and get some exercise in before lunch. I swim 3 to 4 times a week and try to work a couple of runs in. If I...

I don't move in circles where urban handshakes are involved but European kissing (both cheeks or one) I can't deal with. Being British I prefer a firm handshake. I always freak out and go in too hard, cracking the other person's cheekbone. The other party can always sense my awkwardness which...

Back in my early teens it was metal and grunge all the way for me. This "car alarm shit" was my idea of the beginning and end of dance music. Of course I opened my ears to a lot more as the years went by but I can't help but associate HH with Max Power-reading...I'm not gonna say "chavs" but for...

For me decent bacon is the key. I had 1/2 full English for lunch but here in Portugal you can't get decent bacon. It's a bit placcy and you just eat it for a bit of bacon flavour. Smoked Danish is IT. Decent tea is impossible here too. It's like gnat's piss. Though people are disgusted when you...

Jesus! He's been given the four years. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/radio-1-dj-jailed-for-four-years-in-dubai-on-cannabis-charge-784400.html What a place!!!

After a long dry patch there seems to be a run of decent films at the moment. I've recently seen, and can unhesitatingly recommend, both In the Valley of Elah and The Assassination of Jesse James. My enjoyment of the former was spoilt a little by popcorn-munching, chair-kicking chatterboxes. I...

Why CELTA all day long?!

I have the CELTA while my g/f has the TESOL and neither of us have had problems getting work. Employers like you to have either and I've never heard a preference stated. The TESOL is geared a little more to teaching people in the U.K. who speak a variety of languages (not individually of...

I fell in love with music as a child with Michael Jackson (who better?) and went straight to metal before hooking up with dance and hiphop in my late teens. Faith No More are about the only band I go back to and Patton does some interesting stuff now. My interest has been reignited recently...

After teaching EFL for a few years I've learnt that how you present what you're doing to your students is half the battle - at least in my field. In my job it's all about getting them speaking to each other and that can be a constant battle with some nationalities. The key plus for me is that...

There's a temptation to get quite sniffy over lists and I do when in company. But in the social isolation of my own home I find them quite useful. I've found both Pitchforkmedia and the Wire's end of year lists to be a good source of information. There are many superb albums that would've passed...

Box sets (of the Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under and more) have been a lifeline since moving abroad. But they can be dangerous. It takes discipline to watch just one episode a week and make them last. Though I'm the type who eats everything and leaves the yolk until last.

I loved Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting'. He seems to have got weaker over time and it's difficult not to associate Trainspotting with all the Britpop/Cool Britannia hype of the early-mid 90s. Not that I'd personally link them. I just mean more in terms of the era. After Welsh I came across Niall...

After Six Feet Under and The Sopranos I though HBO couldn't deliver anything better but the Wire is ahead of even these two great shows. Ditto the comment re: a lack of a main character. The strength of the show for me is the writer(s)'s ability to give us a window into the lives of a broad...

zhao: hahaha. You've got me there on the album covers. As for the noodling, either I haven't made my way that far into the ECM catalogue, or I hear noodling and go: "hmm, that's NICE".