He’s back, Maverick is back on our screens for 2020. Call it what you will; Top Gun 2, Top Gun 2020 or use the official title of Top Gun Maverick
All the years down the line, he’s still in the service, but he’s now an instructor. He’s teaching the best of the best including ( surprise, surprise ) Bradley, the son of his former navigator Goose. He’s reached the rank of captain, where his commanding officer suggests he should be a 2-star admiral, indicating his attitude hasn’t changed much over the 30+ years.
Who can forget the original which showed great flying stunts and the added touch of romance along the way.
Long-awaited it’s been released and you can watch this here;
What can we expect to see? Cruise on a motorcycle, Cruise playing volleyball, Cruise flying fighter jets and naturally Cruise being his usual ambivalent maverick self. Those are the definites, the probables will be Cruise leading his squadron into battle to save the rest of the Western world. Ed Harris is his usual solid self as the military top brass and Jennifer Connelly adds the female temptation in the movie. Bradley is played by Miles Teller and although we don’t see the original Goose, we do see IceMan returning, played again by Val Kilmer.
Hey, if you’ve been living under the rock the past third of a century, you can watch the original here on Amazon.
Love him or loathe him as an actor ( see the Reacher post here ) Top Gun was an iconic movie which along with Risky Business really got Tom Cruise recognized. This is the movie that suits him, he is who he is, playing this type of role.
Top Gun Maverick
With a scheduled 26 June 2020 (USA ) release date, this is going to be a popular sequel for sure. The film also reunites Cruise with the director Joseph Kosinski, who he worked alongside with in Oblivion in 2013. With 3 powerhouse production companies behind this, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media you know this will be an impressive offering.
Will the soundtrack be as good as the original? We’ll find out in 11 months from now.
He’s known for doing his own stunts and making the action scenes as real as possible, but this time he’s been grounded. The US military don’t allow civilians to fly in their fast jets, such as the F18. Not matter how much he wanted to do so, he’s not been permitted to do so. None the less, the flying scenes will no doubt be as realistic and as enthralling as the original movie.
Fancy Yourself As Maverick?
Impress the ladies without the need to actually qualify from flight school. This costume comes with Men’s Top Gun Pilot Costume Jumpsuit, Name Tags & Sunglasses, Top Gun. Please note F18 not included!
The military green jumpsuit comes complete with decorative patches, the aviator sunglasses complete the ‘ Maverick look ‘. Ideal for fancy dress or parties and available to order here, available in different sizes.
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You’ve heard of Black Friday, yeah? The name that was given to the shopping day after Thanksgiving in the USA. More recently they’ve added Cyber Monday where the electronics and electricals are sold cheap. Well, the good news is you can buy plenty of Christmas gifts and birthday presents earlier in the year.
One way to find out is to ask your friend; “Alexa, when is Prime Day?” Prime Day is the middle of July, so for 2019, these dates fall on 15th & 16th July. What most people don’t understand is there are also offers available beforehand. These Pre-prime deals are also available just for Prime Members. You can even use the search engines, just type in ‘ when is prime day and hopefully the correct answer comes back.
Prime Day starts with signing up for AmazonPrime, believe it or not. Yes, it really is that simple. Just sign up!
There are some great savings to be had, some good savings and there are also a few quite average discounts. Keep in mind though, these are being offered with the free delivery, so that is an extra bonus.
There are other advantages with Prime, we really enjoy the video and tv services. There’s great viewing with some Prime Original series, which are only available to watch as a Prime customer.
We covered the tv and film aspect here briefly, but there are plenty of great series, shows, and films. Literally, something for all the family to enjoy.
I bet you weren’t aware of this? Well, you can watch 20 Premier League games live & exclusive on Prime Video this December. No better way to recover from the Christmas Day festivities, than spend a day watching all the Boxing Day Premiership games. Now might be the time to grab the new TV you’ve been promising yourself and get sat down to enjoy great viewing.
Never experienced this service? Get your Free Trial of Prime Video Here and you can enjoy the following;
Enjoy unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows
Watch anywhere, anytime with unlimited access throughout the UK
Download movies and TV to their mobile or tablet to watch offline
Watch Amazon Originals in HDR on living room devices
Watch exclusive hit TV shows before they air on British TV
Get unlimited, FREE One-Day Delivery on millions of items
Borrow books from a choice of over 500,000 titles from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library
Secure unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Listen to over 2 million songs on Prime Music
It’s enough to make The Fat Lad as happy as a pig in muck.
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The combined salaries of the 1,693 women playing in the top seven football leagues add up to $41.6m, slightly less than the $41.7m salary paid to Neymar. This is according to the Economist. The American females who play soccer are the top of their game, so to speak. The Stars and Stripes who are the national team, representing… Yes, you’ve guessed it, the USA. Now they are more successful than their male counterparts in the game of soccer. In fact, they’re the most successful side in the history of women’s football. As we are here in June 2019, they’ve already won the World Cup three times. Not forgetting the Olympic games, where they’ve also claimed Olympic gold four times. Compare that with the men’s team, whose best result has been third place in the 1930 World Cup. More recent years have seen them struggle in group stages and even to qualify.
An interesting article in the WSJ confirmed that the female sport in the States is more popular than the males. Between 2016 and 2018 women’s games generated about $50.8m in revenue. These numbers are based on ticket sales, keep in mind. The men took in about $49.9m, so slightly less. Despite the female sport being more popular, the players are paid considerably less. A research study showed that; If each team were to play 20 friendlies over the course of a year and win them all, the women would receive $99,000 whereas the men would net $263,320 which is a huge difference.
There’s nothing more disheartening than having a passion and a natural skill, but not being able to make it pay to be a living wage. Do I think a woman should be earning $50million a year to kick a football around? Not a hope. Do I think a guy should be paid that? Again, not a chance. So was it any real surprise that United States women’s team marked International Women’s Day on March 8th by filing a class-action suit against their employer, the United States Soccer Federation (ussf)? In a word – NO. The fact the females have been much more successful highlighted how unfair this was. The suit alleged that differences in pay and employment conditions between the women’s and men’s team violate the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any interest in women’s soccer. It’s not for any sexist reason, it’s just of zero interest to me. I’m not even going to go down the avenue of who should/ should not play sport. It doesn’t matter which team, which country or anything like that. IT IS NOT OF INTEREST TO ME.
Neither is men playing cricket. In fact, I have no interest in tennis, cricket, snooker, athletics or the vast majority of sports / so-called sports. The only possible time these would raise an eyebrow is if I was betting on these events.
Women Soccer players should be paid more, especially those in the USA. Looking at the success they have had in the past and no doubt can continue with in the future. The fact that the men’s game is nowhere near as successful as the women soccer teams, nor even as popular, says a lot. me watching these sport on TV, it’ll never happen. The sexist side of me can reveal I don’t even watch womens beach volleyball, nor did I used to watch topless darts or womens wrestling. There’s enough crap on tv as it is, so my viewing time doesn’t need to be cluttered with these less appealing events.
So it looks like USA play England on July 2nd, Holland play Sweden the day after that. Both semi-finals are played at the Stade de Lyon. The 6th of June is the playoff for the third place and the final will be played on 7th July at the Stade de Lyon. Who will win the competition and lift the trophy? Who cares? As an Englishman, I’d prefer it to be England, but trust me I’m not going to be shedding any tears if England win or lose.
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We all speak differently, or do we all talk differently? I’m not meaning accents alone, but the local phrases you never seem to hear outside of where you grew up. When I go back to Yorkshire, I smile when I hear some of the words, never used in the same context outside of the White Rose County.
What did you use to do on the days you or your friends didn’t want to go into school on that particular day?
Being British is partly defined as to where you come from and the way you speak. I’m not having a dig and the plum in your mouth brigade or those who went to Harrow or Eaton. I’m referring to the genuine local, regional accents. Being from Yorkshire we have some great, old sayings and phrases many of which are still in use today. I’ve never heard of dog off, but we used to use skive or bunk off, when we were school age.
Gill
I remember in the pub hearing blokes at the bar ordering a drink and saying to the landlord, “have one yourself”. The reply often came back, “thanks, I’ll have a Gill with you”.
A Gill ( pronounced with a hard G, so sounding like Jill) is a measure of ale, of a third of a pint. Now pubs sell in half a pint and pint, so this measure was taken to mean a half.
Chump
More often used to describe someone who isn’t the brightest person, or is a bit foolish. Back in the 70s when I was growing up, it was the word we used when we went to scavenge and collect wood for bonfire night.
Ginnel
We didn’t have alleyways in Yorkshire, we had ginnels and snickets. These were the footpaths between properties such as mill sites, used as a shortcut by people walking, instead of having to go around the longer route.
Buffet
Nope, not an all you can eat spread of food. This is pronounced as ‘tuffet’ and was used to describe a small wooden stool or the more feminine sounding pouffe which is a cushioned footstool.
Spogs
Another popular one back when I was at school. Sweets were called spogs. Back then you had the small corner shops which were often newsagents, they had the local papers on the shelves, sold cigarettes and most importantly for the kids had the jars of sweets ready to weigh out. You’d go in and ask for a quarter of your favourite sweet, clutching your coins in your hand staring at the big, scales as the shop keeper weighed out as precisely as possible your order. Then these were poured into the white, paper bag which you then put in your coat pocket and went off to share with your mates. Did you know it’s still possible to buy these ere spogs still, ont’ t’interweb? Just click here to buy; Handy Candy Ltd.
Yorkshire Slang – Spogs & Spice
Spice
The older generation used to refer to spogs as spice. I often used to hear my grandad refer to sweets as spice. “Pass me that bag of spice and get yoursen one out” was one way he’d offer me a sweet and hint he wanted one himself.
If yer still want some spice, here’s a place to fill yer boots;
“It’s like Blackpool illuminations in ‘ere.”
Heard that a time or 2 in my youth. When we had the side light on and the big light in the room on too. More often me or my sister would be sat with the lamp on reading and my other sister would come in and flick the main room light ( ie the big light ) on so when one of our parents came in, both lights would be on.
Peter Kay explains what the Big Light is, here
I came across this wonderfully put together quiz, which actually is pretty accurate based on answering truthfully.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html
I completed all the questions and it showed I am from Leeds, which is not too shabby a result.
Get yersen a brew and take 5 minutes to give it a go, answer honestly and see if it matches up where you grew up.
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Yes another rant, you bet your arse this is a rant. Had that been one of my relatives and I was also on the train, trust me I would have dragged one of these arseholes out of their seat.
What is wrong with society today? You really want to know? There’s no need for me to spell it out for you, this image speaks volumes.
This is what is wrong, the self-centred morons, who have zero manners nor respect for their elders. This person is clearly in need of a seat, but does she get one?
Do they really need to be told, it’s the polite and proper thing to give up their seat to an elderly person (especially one who looks like she struggles physically)? Instead, they sit there listening to some crap music, oblivious to the old woman. Or are they oblivious? I think it’s more like I don’t care about her, I have my seat, I’m alright Jack.
Who do you think would have a better chance stood, holding onto the rail if the train had to break suddenly? The younger people listening to music, or the frail older people? This could be one of your relatives in this situation. Your grandparent, great aunt or even your neighbour. Where is the respect from these clowns sitting there? What makes them think it is correct to act in this manner?
Would they also leave a heavily pregnant woman standing? Or a parent with a young baby? A person on crutches or a blind person, what about them?
Where does this remarkable act of selfishness actually end? I wonder if it was their relative who got on at the last stop, would they leave them to cling on and stand? Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if that was the case.
The signs are clear enough, easy enough to understand so where’s the problem? It’s the lazy morons who are too self-centred, don’t care about other people. Well, let me tell you sunshine, one day that will be you or one of your loved ones. So do not come moaning about how people treated your friend, your relative. What goes around, comes around.
It’s not just on the trains, I have seen this bullshit in places such as airports, where able-bodied people are happy to take priority seating in the waiting areas. Even worse are the idiots who are happy to lay across 3 or 4 seats, with their eyes closed when there’s a clear shortage of seating.
‘I’m alright Jack’ -NO, you are not, you are a total prick and nothing more.
Makes My Piss Boil Rating out of 10 = 9.8
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When I was a kid, very early 1970s, I used to walk to school. (‘WTF are you talking about ? People used to actually WALK to school?’ – I hear you say).
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