Ping Pongers

[Dan Not Dale]

13 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

My wifes Sister and hubby lived in Bermuda for about 10 years, they are teachers. When they came back to the UK, something they always wanted to do and knew they would have to, settled in Tolpuddle. Obviously they had the cash to let them do it, their stint in Bermuda was well paid and the house provided by the school.

They love it but strangely enough their kids couldn't wait to get away. One is in Nottingham and the other is moving back to Manchester after a stint in China, teaching.

TBH it was too quite for me too when we've visited. One pub that had hardly anyone in, virtually no public transport and the nearest town Dorchester. Too far from the coast to say you're close and not much happening locally.

Nearly 200k population where I’m from. An almost empty village sounds good to me though:)

[Dan Not Dale]

53 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

I reckon. I think football fans are much better behaved than they used to be. Wasn't that one of the reasons they made the stadiums all seater? 

Is much better these days. Chelsea fans were particularly notorious in 70’s/80’s. Football culture in general and recent success means it’s not as bad now.

[Dan Not Dale]

57 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

Mate, I can't remember the number of times I've been involved in brawls in either Sheffield, Nottingham or Derby. Just because we had Derbyshire accents. You would think we'd be OK in Derby but no, our accents were different enough to be noticed. Sheffield was the worst though. Always a bit of a feeling between Yorkshire/Derbyshire. 

I had 12 stitches in my head once, place Chesterfield, just because a biker guy didn't like the kaftan I was wearing. He said I'd been looking at his girlfriend too. Probably had TBH. He just walked past and smashed a pint pot over my head then did a runner. 

Can happen anywhere, specially when your younger. Not been involved in any brawls since I was at Uni. Every time it wasn't started by me either, I'm not a violent drunk, booze makes me happy.

One definite positive about Australia. Very little of that here (just my perception). 

[Marisawright]

2 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

I had 12 stitches in my head once, place Chesterfield, just because a biker guy didn't like the kaftan I was wearing.

Wait a minute, you were wearing a kaftan...?

[Paul1Perth]

19 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Wait a minute, you were wearing a kaftan...?

'Fraid so. Probably still in the wardrobe, I'm just waiting till they're back in fashion.

My son borrowed my 1960 levi jacket recently and I reckon he's tried my parka on

[Cup Final 1973]

A kaftan…and I thought my husband was the only one ….

[Dusty Plains]

1 hour ago, Paul1Perth said:

'Fraid so. Probably still in the wardrobe, I'm just waiting till they're back in fashion.

My son borrowed my 1960 levi jacket recently and I reckon he's tried my parka on

It will be quite a while before Kaftans once again make a fashion statement,. Kaftans are up there with:

Platform shoes, high "waister" jeans ( with the bow at the back), turtle neck sweaters, men's swimmers with the underpants sown in, flared jeans, tie-died shirts, mini skirts, maxi skirts, men's vinyl coats, Duffle coats, Dr Martins boots, Levi jackets, beige cardigans (or any cardigan for that matter), feather boas, Bonds men's white cotton underwear with the Y" pocket at the front, socks that actually covered your ankles and your lower shins,  Speedos that were made in Australia and were strategically double material, where it also counts, etc etc etc,  bubble dresses,  crochet bikinis, "stubbies" shorts, terry towelling hats, Drizabone overcoats  etc. etc. etc. 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Dusty Plains

[Blue Flu]

3 hours ago, Dan Not Dale said:

One definite positive about Australia. Very little of that here (just my perception). 

Very little biff? Are you serious there's loads of it. Crowd controllers sort of keep it at bay inside a licensed premises , sometimes 'overstretching' their authority in my view, but outside pretty much anything goes. Aussies not shy of a punch up. But it was hard to beat Cairns (QLD) or Darwin even, for intoxicated , wanna fight English back packers. Two popular places in each city could fifty per cent of the time < I guess witness fighting. Always English. In fact the Cairns venue seemed to have a policy of not admitting Aussies as a rule to allegedly prevent trouble. English more than capable of instigating with the flimsiest of reasons regardless of pub security. 

[Blue Flu]

2 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

'Fraid so. Probably still in the wardrobe, I'm just waiting till they're back in fashion.

My son borrowed my 1960 levi jacket recently and I reckon he's tried my parka on

I guess the Vespa is in the garage as well. I've crossed Mods on several occasions now in Perth. Love the scoters. It could almost be Brighton 1966 from scenes I've seen when get a large group together. They often turn out to Mod Squad gigs. (last gig soon in Fremantle as band winding up) Over done Britishness but great. I feel the urge to play a Who song now.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Blue Flu

[Paul1Perth]

3 minutes ago, Blue Flu said:

I guess the Vespa is in the garage as well. I've crossed Mods on several occasions now in Perth. Love the scoters. It could almost be Brighton 1966 from scenes I've seen when get a large group together. They often turn out to Mod Squad gigs. (last gig soon in Fremantle as band winding up) Over done Britishness but great. I feel the urge to play a Who song now.

My favourite live band ever. Scooters were never my scene though, preferred motorbikes but went straight to a mini cooper as soon as I could.

[Blue Flu]

4 hours ago, Dan Not Dale said:

Is much better these days. Chelsea fans were particularly notorious in 70’s/80’s. Football culture in general and recent success means it’s not as bad now.

I know all Sloan Rangers these days and Hooray Henriettas. I expect some of the old grit survives. Overall I've heard English football culture is not as violent as times past. Still was in 2006 at the World Cup in Germany, and attended most England games, even if only at the fan fares. Still a lot of people looked liked Borstal or Brixton prison had thrown open their doors for the event. Some well hard cases about.  

[Paul1Perth]

Just now, Blue Flu said:

I know all Sloan Rangers these days and Hooray Henriettas. I expect some of the old grit survives. Overall I've heard English football culture is not as violent as times past. Still was in 2006 at the World Cup in Germany, and attended most England games, even if only at the fan fares. Still a lot of people looked liked Borstal or Brixton prison had thrown open their doors for the event. Some well hard cases about.  

Unfortunately soccer fans don't do themselves any favours. There seems to be a certain look, usually short hair, stupid look on the face and the here we go chant immediately makes them look like morons.

I guess they learn a lot from the players with their stupid celebrations when they score.

[Paul1Perth]

40 minutes ago, Dusty Plains said:

It will be quite a while before Kaftans once again make a fashion statement,. Kaftans are up there with:

Platform shoes, high "waister" jeans ( with the bow at the back), turtle neck sweaters, men's swimmers with the underpants sown in, flared jeans, tie-died shirts, mini skirts, maxi skirts, men's vinyl coats, Duffle coats, Dr Martins boots, Levi jackets, beige cardigans (or any cardigan for that matter), feather boas, Bonds men's white cotton underwear with the Y" pocket at the front, socks that actually covered your ankles and your lower shins,  Speedos that were made in Australia and were strategically double material, where it also counts, etc etc etc,  bubble dresses,  crochet bikinis, "stubbies" shorts, terry towelling hats, Drizabone overcoats  etc. etc. etc. 

I wear a tie dye, grandad vest style T shirt quite often. My Levi jacket gets a bit of use. 

Mini skirts never went out of fashion did they? Not judging by some I see. 

[Bulya]

40 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

Unfortunately soccer fans don't do themselves any favours. There seems to be a certain look, usually short hair, stupid look on the face and the here we go chant immediately makes them look like morons.

I guess they learn a lot from the players with their stupid celebrations when they score.

Mostly they’re bored silly.  

[Parley]

1 hour ago, Cup Final 1973 said:

A kaftan…and I thought my husband was the only one ….

A Demis Roussos fan.

[Dusty Plains]

27 minutes ago, Parley said:

A Demis Roussos fan with obligatory Kaftan!

 

[Jon the Hat]

5 hours ago, Dusty Plains said:

It will be quite a while before Kaftans once again make a fashion statement,. Kaftans are up there with:

Platform shoes, high "waister" jeans ( with the bow at the back), flared jeans, tie-died shirts, mini skirts, maxi skirts, men's vinyl coats, Duffle coats, Dr Martins boots, Levi jackets, beige cardigans (or any cardigan for that matter), feather boas, socks that actually covered your ankles and your lower shins,  Drizabone overcoats  etc. etc. etc. 

All of the above seen in London last weekend.  Also speedos but I cannot say whether they were double skinned.

[Cup Final 1973]

Apologies to my husband, it wasn’t a kaftan, it was a sarong à la David Beckham!!

[Blue Flu]

16 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Unfortunately soccer fans don't do themselves any favours. There seems to be a certain look, usually short hair, stupid look on the face and the here we go chant immediately makes them look like morons.

I guess they learn a lot from the players with their stupid celebrations when they score.

What I suspect is that a lot of so called England Football fans were not really fans in the true sense, at least at the venue I write about. Which was after the first game in Frankfurt. Don't recall opposition beyond it being South American. I think Ecuador. These guys, or a big proportion of them were heavy duty, hard core , while not attacking anyone that I noticed, full of malice and having go's at each other. Other occasions the chanting and singing was fine. Even Germans joined in singing 'Ten German Bombers' at times. You'd really need wet weather gear though, in order not to smell like a brewery. The amount of beer that was hurled around was nobodies business. I saw one bloke tip what appeared a pretty much full jar of beer over his son's head, who appeared to be about eight years old , kid though it a great laugh as did those around. 

 

[Blue Flu]

12 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

All of the above seen in London last weekend.  Also speedos but I cannot say whether they were double skinned.

Good to read London still maintains its anything goes street culture. I had feared it had been laundered and become more sanitized or at least conformist.

 

[Blue Flu]

21 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Mate, I can't remember the number of times I've been involved in brawls in either Sheffield, Nottingham or Derby. Just because we had Derbyshire accents. You would think we'd be OK in Derby but no, our accents were different enough to be noticed. Sheffield was the worst though. Always a bit of a feeling between Yorkshire/Derbyshire. 

I had 12 stitches in my head once, place Chesterfield, just because a biker guy didn't like the kaftan I was wearing. He said I'd been looking at his girlfriend too. Probably had TBH. He just walked past and smashed a pint pot over my head then did a runner. 

Can happen anywhere, specially when your younger. Not been involved in any brawls since I was at Uni. Every time it wasn't started by me either, I'm not a violent drunk, booze makes me happy.

Obviously can happen anywhere. I was only pointing out  to another poster Australia is not the meek and mild place some may at first glance assume. Lots of aggro here as well. One difference though, at least I find, is the 'tribal culture ' for want of another term does not exist to any real extent in Australia compared to England. 

[Wanderer Returns]

23 hours ago, Dan Not Dale said:

She’s Australian, born in Melbourne, family here. Has an English passport now. Would prefer to be here. Will live in uk if she has to for my sake.

She sounds very understanding. Maybe you should consider a fresh start elsewhere in Australia (as others have suggested), if she's open to that. One of you will always be a migrant wherever you end up living, so that compromise might work for both of you. Heading straight back to the UK when you're clearly ambivalent would not be a wise move.

When I 'got off the boat' 18 years ago my intended destination was Melbourne as I'd both UK and Aussie friends there at the time, but that was insufficient to keep me - left after 3 weeks. Quite glad, as I'm much happier in QLD than I'd have ever been down there, not to mention the friends down south have long since departed.

[Bulya]

8 minutes ago, Blue Flu said:

Obviously can happen anywhere. I was only pointing out  to another poster Australia is not the meek and mild place some may at first glance assume. Lots of aggro here as well. One difference though, at least I find, is the 'tribal culture ' for want of another term does not exist to any real extent in Australia compared to England. 

It does when one is telling about AFL teams but they are still civilised when compared to soccer ‘fans’.  I remember  going to my first ever VFL game at the ‘G’ and being surprised at how well the 114,000 plus fans behaved towards each other.   

[Parley]

17 hours ago, Dusty Plains said:

It will be quite a while before Kaftans once again make a fashion statement,. Kaftans are up there with:

Platform shoes, high "waister" jeans ( with the bow at the back), turtle neck sweaters, men's swimmers with the underpants sown in, flared jeans, tie-died shirts, mini skirts, maxi skirts, men's vinyl coats, Duffle coats, Dr Martins boots, Levi jackets, beige cardigans (or any cardigan for that matter), feather boas, Bonds men's white cotton underwear with the Y" pocket at the front, socks that actually covered your ankles and your lower shins,  Speedos that were made in Australia and were strategically double material, where it also counts, etc etc etc,  bubble dresses,  crochet bikinis, "stubbies" shorts, terry towelling hats, Drizabone overcoats  etc. etc. etc. 

I am a Drizabone fan. Love their stuff have several of their vests and coats. Not the big oilskin though. And my dog has 2 of their drizabone dog coats.

I bought a Levi jacket with the sheepskin collar a couple of years ago and give it a run occasionally. I still like a denim jacket but maybe the double blue denim is too much. Blue denim jacket over black denim jeans is fine. 

[Dan Not Dale]

30 minutes ago, Wanderer Returns said:

She sounds very understanding. Maybe you should consider a fresh start elsewhere in Australia (as others have suggested), if she's open to that. One of you will always be a migrant wherever you end up living, so that compromise might work for both of you. Heading straight back to the UK when you're clearly ambivalent would not be a wise move.

When I 'got off the boat' 18 years ago my intended destination was Melbourne as I'd both UK and Aussie friends there at the time, but that was insufficient to keep me - left after 3 weeks. Quite glad, as I'm much happier in QLD than I'd have ever been down there, not to mention the friends down south have long since departed.

Yep that’s why Perth has come up in discussion a bit.

But from the thread it’s hard to know if Perth is great, boring or the Columbia of the Antipodes.