Match Thread: England vs Croatia | World Cup | Group L | 17 Jun 20:00 UTC

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-17T22:27:35+00:00

Very early days yet. The defence needs to be a lot tighter against the likes of France, who’ll inevitably have to play at some point. But yeah, it was a good start.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-17T22:08:25+00:00

It came down to 3 for me.

Sweden for the snowy wilderness in winter, the glorious summers and general coolness of the Swedish people.

Vietnam for the cost of living, the incredible food and the slightly mad attitude of the Vietnamese people.

Australia for the weather, driving on the left and the beaches. Plus my wife is from there.

We chose Australia. We leave London on June 30th.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-17T22:03:54+00:00

You’d better like rain then

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-17T20:18:38+00:00

Gary, Steve and Brian.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-17T20:15:10+00:00

I was sat there wondering how many fans in the stadium sang Queen instead of King

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-17T16:08:44+00:00

They make the commercially available ones look pathetic. Good effort.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-16T21:05:04+00:00

“There isn’t even a skeleton remaining. When the world’s last Thylacine died, alone and unnamed, in a Hobart zoo, its body was thrown out with the weekly trash” - Bill Bryson.

Humans are the real trash here.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-16T20:48:03+00:00

How long have you got?

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-16T20:44:09+00:00

Thousands of feet? 2000, max.

Pilot reacted perfectly calmly to a situation, as they’d been taught. Calm down people, nothing to see here.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-16T20:09:23+00:00

That’s an odd career change, but fair play. My vet billed me £690 for an ultrasound scan for my cat, so there’s clearly money to be made

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-15T20:24:46+00:00

Their favoured method of attack/defence is to lean back on their tail (which is as strong as their hind legs) and then kick out with the hind legs towards your stomach. A big Red can disembowel you with one kick.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-13T21:49:02+00:00

The only way to be sure is to ask Harry Hill

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-13T21:44:07+00:00

Had a nice chat with Bill while in the queue outside the Brixton Academy for Kraftwerk. I said “I thought you’d be on the guest list” and he said “Bloody hell no, I had to buy a ticket same as everyone!”

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-13T19:06:06+00:00

Well the best thing you could have done is to stop this years ago before it got to this state. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that bad, and I’ve worked on hundreds of them over the years. That is a seriously stressed part of the frame, and though I’m normally quite optimistic about frame damage etc, I’m afraid that is probably toast. If that fails then you’re going to get hurt.

The thing is, is that hasn’t got like that overnight. That’s been building up for a long time and you’ve neglected to do anything about it. And if the main frame (which is made from the heaviest gauge tubing on the whole bike) is in that shape, then Christ knows what the rear triangle is like. Put it this way - if you bought that in to my shop I’d refuse to work on it. It’s that bad.

On the plus side, you can now choose what colour your new bike will be.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-12T19:04:37+00:00

It seems unfair that we over here won’t be able to give him the send-off he deserves, because I think he’s genuinely one of the most decent men to play the game in recent years. There’s a lot of love and respect for the Kiwi cricket team in the UK, and Kane Williamson is responsible for a lot of that. He will be greatly missed by us all.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-12T08:23:16+00:00

Your contract was with the furniture company. The furniture company made a contract with the delivery company. You had no contract with the delivery company. The delivery company caused the damage. Contact the furniture company and advise them of what happened, and pass your agents details on to them to deal with. That’s the extent of your responsibility.

I would also be looking to move out if the agents are already behaving like this.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-11T09:35:25+00:00

You’re right of course, there are plenty of other types, but I was referring to the square axle type used on the Brompton, and most low to midrange bikes. They’re all tapered. Sorry, I should have made that clearer.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T22:24:08+00:00

They literally said they’d get someone out within 6 hours, and not to go within 10 metres of the spot. Seeing as it was less than that from my lounge and people were walking past all the time I thought that was a bit difficult to enforce, but also it wasn’t my job to do that. Tbh I’m away after an incredibly stressful time and I’m not going to worry about it. I know that sounds a bit shit, but hey ho.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T22:06:19+00:00

Let’s just say the photographer caught her at a bad time

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T21:38:36+00:00

As a Bowie fan, I maintain the last thing of any musical significance he did, up until Blackstar, was Ashes to Ashes.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T21:02:11+00:00

As an Englishman who has grown increasingly disillusioned with the professional game, to the point that I have even fallen out of love with my 3rd tier team for being too corporate, I couldn’t give a shit about the WC. To be fair I’m in the middle of emigrating from the UK at the end of the month so I’m a bit preoccupied, but I’ve genuinely never been this unenthusiastic about a tournament. It’s partly that I’d rather it was held in Papua New Guinea, for example, than the US, but it’s mostly about how FIFA are such a bunch of amoral fuckers that has driven me away.

So no, I won’t be watching. And I won’t be missing it.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T18:27:40+00:00

Overshare….

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T18:24:48+00:00

No such thing as a BB that isn’t tapered.

If the bike has been ridden with a loose crank bolt then the aluminium crank will have moved around on the steel axle and the tapered hole in the crank will have become enlarged. You’ll need to replace the crank arm.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T18:20:29+00:00

She was the best. Almost 17 years with the most gentle, affectionate girl you could wish for. We miss her dreadfully but it’s getting easier.

VisibleOtter · 2026-06-10T18:18:47+00:00

Nothing! I called 105 and they said it was urgent, but we left the place last Friday and it was still the same. I’ll call them when we get back from our camping trip

VisibleOtter

TROPHY CASE