Richard Tonkin

Who doesn’t pronounce these words like ‘caf’ or, indeed, ‘chak’?

I think I’ll get a chicken parm to celebrate!

Genuinely intrigued whether the writer feels £200 for a chair and £150 for a desk is too expensive, or whether they’re concerned Torsten’s buying cheap stuff which will turn out to be a false economy…

nice

I mean, it’s one bell tent, Michael. What could it cost? Ten thousand pounds?

Museo Nacional de Anthropologia was great (and huge). Temple Mayor museum also good, as is the Teotihuacán is a day trip, but a must see imo. If you like visiting churches, Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is good too.

When I went there the line for Frida Kahlo’s house was too long, so went to Trotsky’s house down the road as a plan B - was pretty interesting

It’s one of those phrases used when the writer has no idea how it could ever possibly work, but has felt obliged to say something in that direction

Glad to see my tastes have now matured into paying stupid money to see Guns n’ Roses next week

I went to Deconstruction 2021! (Manchester if I remember rightly) was a huge Pennywise fan at the time

My time living in NYC was two years of people being constantly confused by what I was saying.

FYI - telling your gym instructor you really need new trainers is a good way to cause unintended offence.

A young woman takes a cab to her apartment.

Films where people get cabs is my favourite genre

A father and daughter attend a pop concert

Jane announces she’s moving to London

A Florida girl turns out to be the only hope

An industry run by greedy chocolatiers

I have fallen in love with the cryptic one line descriptions of films on Fiji Airways. What are any of the films actually about? Who knows

There’s something about this song which makes me feel physically ill whenever I hear it *shudders*

Completely agree with this sentiment- if I had to limit myself to one streaming subscription, it would definitely be Apple TV+

I don’t think I’ve ever had a customer service request resolved via chatbot - always gets escalated to an agent. I expect the next gen AI customer service could be a lot more powerful, but like you feel the necessary guardrails will prevent many situations getting resolved without human intervention

Nice! Will be in Suva working with FBoS on climate change stats in a couple of weeks - looking forward to it

Falstaff from Duolingo says ‘Il n’y a good as d’oeufs

I’m going for Abergavenny?

NYT headline: New Order Seeks to Severely Punish Law Firm That Worked for Democrats

This wouldn’t have happened if Pete Hook was still a member

NYT headline: New Order Seeks to Severely Punish Law Firm That Worked for Democrats

This wouldn’t have happened if Pete Hook was still a member

Based on ny experiences, the consistency of UK and US ashes seems to be different - not sure if US mix in some kind of oil which allows the more defined crosses

Wow! Am not very familiar with the film critic world, so had never heard of the author before clicking that link - when he spoke about the producer and director coming to his class, I assumed from the rest of his he writing he was an excited undergrad! Was rather surprised on reading his bio…

Could this be extended to only one app for EV charging?

Who sacked 1,000 employees?

Very good to see new data from the Wealth and Assets Survey!

Like Tom I also think this is a great visualisation from ONS for highlighting the extent of wealth inequality in GB

Was only 2022 they moved out of Drummond Gate for the last time (for now) - London office went back there (on one floor) for about 10 years having previously left for Myddleton Street when HQ moved to Newport

He seemed very pleasant in the one occasion I’ve spoken with him. Though that was in a lift, so the opportunity to spot someone more important was limited.

A few private schools specialise in SEN, but a whole load more select by academic merit so exclude a lot of children with genuine SEN. And the large majority of parents don't have any choice whatsoever about sending their kids to a private school.

It's genuinely astonishing how people will sit and type a sentence in which they claim that 'genuine SEN' and 'academic merit' are contradictions in terms while thinking they are virtuous because they're slagging off private schools at the same time.

My concern about comments like this is that they overlook:
a) as a matter of deliberate policy since 2010, SEND have been shifted out of mainstream schools.
b) many parents end up choosing private because their state school has been so hostile to getting their kid diagnosed.