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I gave him a black eye once with a toilet roll.

I half expect to bump into him in Poland one day.

DON'T SAY SUCH THINGS! I half expect him to actually be here! I swear I'll hunt you down if he turns up

Yup, I desperately wanted to give him a good fuckin' hidin' every day at school.

I gave him a hiding twice - once when he tried to grab the breasts of a female mate at a house party (he wasn't invited, but he turned up anyway) and the other time when he tried to fight another mate. Didn't seem to change a thing, but with a drink in him, he was a right aggressive arse. Problem was, he was also an absolute pussy. Like everyone else says, he'd just appear and start pissing everyone off.

He actually broke into my mates flat and went to sleep there. That incident got him another hiding as well.

Cue him moving into a dorm next door then getting chucked out for various nonsense

What dorm were you in? We went to one really bloody weird party that he invited us to, where everyone seemed to hate his guts.

He got himself barred from most pubs and clubs in Aberdeen at one point, that's why he started hanging out in Imagine because they actually let him in.

Last I knew of him, he was living in Great Northern Road in some flat with a stream of junkies coming in and out.

Didn't he get a lifetime ban from The Moorings as well?

Roger Kimmett had mates that actually trusted him with cash?

I whacked him once with a pool cue in the Ambassador.

The people demand to know what happened to Roger Kimmett.

http://rawkstar.net/reviews/demos/5

My friend wrote this years ago, and got quite a bit of hatemail from Karloff fans as a result.

I can't stand the "Full Time Mummy" types as well. There's one girl on my Facebook that seems to do nothing but post pictures of her boring kid in her ridiculously messy house. She's done fuck all since leaving uni, and of course, she posts all the obligatory BRITISH SOLDIERS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST IN FAVOUR OF LESBIAN ROMANIAN IMMIGRANTS rants too.

Oh, and she's still breastfeeding. The child is 3, ffs.

The best one was quite recent, she had a 'hectic day in town' and so she had to go home and drink a nice cup of tea to relax. Yes, because walking around some shops is such an intense activity!

Do you see yourself staying abroad in the long term or do you plan on returning to Scotland after a certain amount of time?

Can't see myself going back to Scotland, to be honest. It's not just the miserable weather, but also many other things - for instance, I doubt they would recognise my professional development (and status) on an equal level there. I'm the Head of English (soon to be Head of Foreign Langauges next year when we start offering a 2nd foreign language) in a primary school here - I'm fully responsible for everything that happens with languages, as well as having responsibility for some other areas such as ICT strategy. I can't imagine I'd get offered something equal or better in Scotland - so that is a significant obstacle. I don't want to go back and teach English in a crappy language school, nor do I want to go back and enter the real teaching profession at the lowest pay level.

Then there's other things - for instance - I can drive to Croatia on holiday, there are so many interesting places to visit within a few hours drive (heck, Munich is only 7-8 hours away) - it just all weighs against living in Scotland for the long term. Even being able to go to Berlin in a couple of hours is great, and there are plenty of low cost flights from here - I managed to do a roundtrip to Stockholm for 1 euro to Stockholm flying and 39 euro by train back to Pozna?.

If I got offered a decent job in Scotland, I'd give it serious thought - but at this point, "decent job" would mean two things - going in at Assistant Head level or higher at a proper school, and having complete freedom to wear what I want at work. I can't imagine this happening in a million years - and I have no interest in wearing a shirt every day, let alone a tie or proper shoes. Poland is strangely laid back in this respect - there just isn't the same obsession with formality in clothes that the UK has.

Came across this article that might interest a few of you - http://mapleleafshotstove.com/2013/02/06/draft-schmaft-a-post-lockout-analysis/

Calgary are going to be fucked for years with statistics like that. People are calling for them to trade Iginla and Kiprusoff, but given how terrible the Flames have been in recent years with trades - I'm not so sure it's a great idea. Reminds me of the bad old days of the late 90's

Head of Foreign Languages for a primary school.

I only teach around 8 contact hours a week, then some hours where I have to be here to deal with any problems (such as the kids terrorising their music teacher...) but I don't have to actually do anything, and then the rest is up to me.

Hours : 8-3pm Monday, 10:30-3pm Tuesday, 7:30-3:30pm Wednesday, 12:15-3pm Thursday and - that's it. The occasional Friday if they're going on a school trip somewhere.  And random stuff added in, like going tonight to watch some crap play that they're performing. All in all, decent hours and enough free time at work to do everything needed.

And a vast amount of holidays. The Polis obsession with having holidays on certain dates as opposed to having bank holidays is a win-win situation - if Thursday or Tuesday is a holiday, then Friday/Monday will almost certainly be off because everyone fucks off for the long weekend. I think I only ended up working around 150 days last year...

Huh?...

Roger kimmit?

Whatever happened to Roger? He vanished off the face of the earth a few years ago and no-one I know has seen or heard from him since. Apparently he moved to Dundee, but the trail went cold...

Looks like more if a win for the NHLPA and Don Fehr than for the league.

The salary variance and contract term length are both good things and should help stop these ridiculous frot loaded long term deals like Luongo, Weber, Parise, Kovalchuk etc. Draft lottery process is also interesting (until Edmonton get number 1 pick again and then continue to suck, of course).

If the weighted system gets removed, it'll be a complete joke - wouldn't it just mean teams facing a first round blowout in the playoffs would tank instead towards the end of the season to have a shot at a top 3 draft pick? I guess the point is to try and reduce the chances of a Lindros style situation happening again - but there was really nothing wrong with the old system.

But for the love of God, Bettman, admit defeat and let Quebec have a team again. Winnepeg is a roaring success, Quebec are building an NHL-standard rink - heck, even Minnesota could support a second team if needs be.

Plans?

Not much. I want to do more with international projects at work, I want to learn how to snowboard and...that's it. Ambitious stuff can wait until 2014 - this year is still about building our school.

If anyone wants to volunteer with kids in Poland, drop me a PM - I can organise something without ridiculous "placement fees" and so on. I could easily organise some accommodation with a host family, too.

Ah, places...

Avoid Prague if you don't smoke, and the service is lousy in general. Even off the beaten track. Sarajevo would be my recommendation too, but getting there is going to be a bit of a bastard from Scotland. Don't go to Krakow, it's full of the same twats that go to Prague, combined with an exceptional amount of dumb Americans who walk around with their rucksacks on front because it's "dangerous". And it's full of pretentious Polish twats too.

An interesting bet would be to go slightly further afield and go to L'viv in Ukraine. It's a beautiful city, it wasn't destroyed in WWII and the local beer (L'vivskie) is excellent. It's a cheap place, the food is good and people are friendly. Flights might be an issue, though...

I think it was an excellent venue for small-medium touring bands and sometimes local bands also but needed a much larger promotional presence. It was crazy how little some of the gigs got promoted there. Inside the basement and moshulu - gig posters were the exception to the norm. They weren't exactly common outside of the venue either. The gigs I went to were generally well attended however.

In all fairness - both Ross and Jamesy did as much as they could with promoting gigs. Maybe Jamesy got caught up in trying to do too much and the advertising suffered as a result - but really, they were victims of simply not having the money to do everything properly. Both of them also performed minor miracles in terms of getting good gigs there - but when you consider that they were frequently competing against the Lemon Tree (who had far more money for doing these things) - they did a stellar job.

Moshulu didn't work for local bands. The economics always worked against it - it actually cost more to put a gig on in the back room than in the main room - which really hurt them. If they had had the money to fit out the back room properly and make it a viable gig space, it might have changed things. They also had the issue that, at the time - many gig goers were under 18 and couldn't drink - so they couldn't benefit from increased bar sales.

Promoting in Moshulu was a thankless job, that much is certain.

As someone who frequented Moshulu until it closed - I agree with some of the above sentiments. It was very good as a club and a venue when I first started going into town (2005-ish) and you would see proper metal heads, goths, punks and people who felt comfortable in that environment. Within a year or so, it seemed like they were increasingly abandoning their key demographic in favour of the things that happened to be popular at the time. Soon, the goths vanished, it was comparatively rare to see anyone in a band t shirt and the average hair length halved.

This proved a completely flawed strategy in the longer run as they lost their loyal customers and attendance soon dropped. Furthermore, both the Monday and Wednesday club nights were cancelled or relaunched without sufficient promotion or longevity. Any future owner would have to be a wee bit more willing to lose money on midweek club nights (at least in the short-medium term) in order to build up a loyal customer base and raise the profile of the business in the longer term. Preferably, they would be competent enough with promotion to build up attendances and not lose money. When I first turned 18, the Wednesday Rock Kareoke in the Basement - followed by a clubnight in Moshulu was extremely well attended. The two parts were linked and I think that is key to their success and decline.

What you're forgetting is that a lot of Moshulu's clientele were under 18 - and only there because they could get in without being ID'ed. It was quite normal to see people go early to the Bassment (avoiding the bouncers), wait until the bouncers started, then go to the bar without fear of being ID'ed. They'd then leave The Bassment and go to Moshulu, get in there without fuss and be able to enjoy a decent night out while underage. I'd actually say that Moshulu's reputation for being an underage haunt was partially what hurt it so much. The stereotype of being a "rock club" also hurt them with Mondays/Wednesdays - no-one wanted to go to a "goth club, min" - even when it was anything but. The Wednesday concept of the Flying Circus was great - but totally uneconomic. In regards to the Monday and Wednesday nights - I would be surprised if these ever made money. I don't know what's going on now, but at the time - these nights were an utter bloodbath. You could go and get drinks for 1 pound in plenty of places - places that had the cash to lose on those nights because the idiots would drink themselves silly at the weekend irrespective of prices. Moshulu never had that luxury.

Moshulu/The Bassment will always be a story of "could've, should've, couldn't have". I'd say that they, on the whole, did a hell of a job with what they had - much of it was done on a shoestring budget. If they had had more cash behind them to start (okay, make that a hell of a lot more cash) - then perhaps it might have worked. But - the way that nothing has really replaced it since tells me that there simply wasn't the demand.

Did it really close because of the noise issue, or was that just a cover story?

Jesus, Estrella are still on the go? I thought we'd heard the last of them after we mocked their previous "press" to bits on here.

They haven't achieved a thing by themselves, and it seems to me that almost everything they have achieved has been a result of simply paying for it.

Speaking of which, if Jim is posting on this thread - why the fuck are you promoting such garbage?

It's written in bold in Neil's post.

Reason #534 not to work with children : you miss the bloody obvious for long term planning

when are you planning to do it? do I have time until tomorrow night?

As soon as the reputation/rating scores went discussions were a bit more level headed, fair and less bickering too.

There was plenty of bickering, complaining and personal attacks before there were rep points

Now, did Starfall headline or not...?

As far as I know (it used to be like this, anyway - I did it) - you can go from an HNC -> first year of uni, or HND -> second year of uni and still get the fees paid. I think they accept that not every course has a partner course at uni - though with an HND, you really should be getting into 2nd year as a minimum.

Are they still allowing one "false start", I wonder?

Cadonas was fantastic back in the early 90's. Loads of arcade games, a slightly seedy atmosphere, it was a cracking place. Rambo Land was bigger as well, I swear.

Then Sunset Boulevard came along and ruined part of it by being far too bright and airy, as well as having far too modern games. And then the abdomination that is the Boardwalk came along

The death of the stand-up arcade cabinet is something that I hate I even remember the brilliance of Stonehaven arcade (is it still there?) back in the day before it became just another pool 'n' bandits place. Thankfully, the local train station here still has a fair few decent games at a very reasonable price.

And more importantly, is that bloke with the long hair still working on the Waltzers and sleazing on all the drunk teenagers?

Gutted. A truly great entertainer, and if Facebook is anything to go by - plenty of people on this site will have fond memories of him. He was a true great - charismatic as hell, entertaining and a hell of a wrestler to boot.

Link below about the story.

PROWRESTLING.NET - BACKSTAGE NEWS AND OPINION ON WWE, TNA, MORE

UK Urban Exploration Forums

Search for Aberdeen. Tons of derelict places.

Also try the old Barracudas bowling alley in BOD. It's been burnt out and there's an open door round the back if you jump over a fence. Really creepy, it's all burnt and black but there's still kids toys, bowling pins etc. lying around.

Archived Report - "One" 10 Pin Bowling Alley, Aberdeen. March 2010 - UK Urban Exploration Forums

Bloody hell. I know one of the old directors of that place - that would bring tears to his eyes, I'm sure. It was one of my haunts back in the days of Barracudas being mentioned non-stop in Northsound, too!

He was hugely popular in Albania, fact fans.

Read Hawk's book as well, then?

Myslovitz. Just stay away from their English language stuff, it's painful on the ears

They lost 21-3 to North Ayr? jeez, that must have been fairly brutal to watch

Aberdeen could have had a fairly decent team if the rink had supported them properly...