I don't think I've had a Ludo set since I was about 8 years old :cry:

 

 

:P Me neither.....I do have ' Scrabble & Monopoly though..... -_-

awwww time to invest in a new one me thinks! :D

The Desert Is The Place To Chill

Dec 23 2007

 

Laura Davidson And Fiance Brian Loved Their Arabian Adventure

 

It's the world's fastest-growing city with gleaming skyscrapers and ultra-modern shopping malls - but it's still fun to get back to basics in Dubai.

 

Drive 45 minutes beyond the heart of the city and you feel as though you're transported back in time as the mirrored glass skyline recedes to make way for an enormous expanse of desert.

 

The Margham Desert Conservation Reserve is truly awesome. Spanning 235sq km, it is protected as the natural habitat of gazelles and the Arabian onyx and is worth a trip just for the photo opportunities alone.

 

We fancied a bit more of an adrenaline rush, however, and signed up for a morning desert jeep safari with excursion company Arabian Adventures.

 

After hearing that Robbie Williams took the same trip on his recent tour stop in Dubai, we knew we'd made a good move. If it's good enough for the prince of pop...

 

Our guide, Roshan, had been Robbie's driver and while I secretly hoped that Mr Williams had screamed like a girl while riding the dunes, the man at the wheel informed us his superstar passenger had been the very image of composed calm....... ^_^

Never mind, I did enough screaming for both of us.

 

The peaks and troughs of the dunes stretched out like a sandy roller-coaster ride but expert driver Roshan's instincts were as sharp as a desert rat.

 

He took us on an exhilarating hourlong ride with a few hairy moments thrown in for good measure as the jeep slipped and slid its way down the sandy slopes.

 

For the complete Bedouin experience, you can also have a bash at camel riding or enjoy dinner and belly dancing in a desert camp but our stay was too short for an extended trip. We'll leave that for our return.

 

At just over seven hours' flight time from Scotland and with daily direct Emirates flights from Glasgow, it's no wonder Dubai is a hotspot with Scots.

 

There's year-round sunshine, it's a shoppers' paradise and the hotel accommodation is first class without costing the earth.

 

We stayed at the Residence and Spa, one of three properties which make up the fabulous One & Only Royal Mirage.

 

Situated on Jumeirah Beach, the resort has 1km of private coastline for sunbathing and eight restaurants where you'll be spoiled for choice without getting a knockout blow to the wallet.

 

The food is surprisingly reasonable for a five-star joint and you can easily fit in three courses for 30 quid.

 

We loved Nina, an Asian restaurant with a contemporary twist, and Celebrities, a fine dining eaterie with dishes from a young Kiwi chef that could get Gordon Ramsay hot under the collar.

 

If total relaxation is what you're after, there's a Givenchy spa in the hotel, a Turkish steam room and a fab French pedicure studio.

 

But it would be a shame not to venture a little further afield and indulge in a spot of retail therapy.

 

If you're planning a trip between January 24 and February 24, then you're in luck. You'll be in town for the annual shopping festival when prices are slashed by up to 50 per cent in most shops.

 

Don't worry if your dates don't tie in though, there are bargains all year round, especially if bling is your thing.

 

Jewellery - gold and diamonds, in particular - can be less than half the UK price so a trip to either the city's Gold Souk or Gold and Diamond Park is a must.

 

For clothes, the nearby Mall of the Emirates, with more than 400 stores, is a shopper's paradise. And just to prove Dubai really is a city of contrasts, the shopping centre is also home to Ski Dubai, a 22,500square metre indoor ski resort. So, if the fancy takes you, you can bake yourself on the beach all day, then swap your suntan oil for winter woollies and enjoy an evening on the slopes. Bizarre.

 

With the city growing faster than the Beckhams' bank balance, no two trips need to be the same. You could try out something new every day for a fortnight and still have plenty of things left on a "to do" list for your next trip. We never had time for a day at the races Dubaistyle, or a night cruise on a traditional dhow boat but we'll be back to give both a try.

 

The city will be massive when it's complete. Dubailand is the most eagerly awaited tourist attraction, a huge theme park split into six sections, due for completion by 2010.

 

As well as rollercoaster rides, massive new shopping malls, science centres and wellness spas, there will be world-class sporting facilities with a Tiger Woods golf academy and Manchester United soccer school.

 

It's easy to see why the city has been dubbed the superstar of the Middle East and the superstar treatment is not to be missed.

 

I LOVED The luxury of the hotel

 

I HATED Not having time to fit everything in

 

DUBAI MAILFILE

 

Return flights to Dubai from Glasgow with Emirates start from £485, including taxes. Call 0844 800 2777 or visit www.emirates.com/uk

 

Stay at the Palace at the One & Only Royal Mirage from £158 per room per night during June and July. Visit www.oneandonlyresorts.com

 

For info on day trips from Dubai, see www.arabian-adventures.com

 

Courtesy: The Sunday Mail UK

 

 

 

 

After hearing that Robbie Williams took the same trip on his recent tour stop in Dubai, we knew we'd made a good move. If it's good enough for the prince of pop...

Ughhh those damn tabloids, can't they do their research ................ Its King of Pop not prince :P

 

Wtf is Ludo?

Ossy! :o :o :o :o :o

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludo_(board_game)

LET ROBBIE ENTERTAIN YOU HOBOS

 

THE ghosts of Christmas past, present and future must have paid Robbie Williams a visit, because the grumpy Scrooge is spending Christmas feeding the homeless.

 

The terminally cheesed-off warbler will join America’s largest soup kitchen and shelter on LA’s impoverished Skid Row.

While his fellow multimillionaires roast their chestnuts on burning bank notes, Robbie will be serving festive food to

hungry hobos alongside the fat-hearted volunteers of the Union Rescue Mission.

 

The former Take That chubster was touched when his chef pal Raymond Terry took him to the charity house on San Pedro Street.

 

So Robbie, 33, volunteered his services for today, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Raymond said: “If it’s better to give than to receive, then this is the most satisfying way to spend Christmas.

 

“Robbie does an awful lot of charity work. And this is really close to his heart.

“Everybody I’ve taken to Skid Row is moved to tears. And the homeless people there are a lot of fun.

 

Hard

 

“People have a lot of misconceptions about them but many of them are intelligent, kind people who have simply fallen on hard times.

 

“We have to remember that while we’re all tucking into our Christmas dinners, there are people starving and freezing to death out there.” That might not be the most cheerful thought to have over our sprouts but Robbie has taken a great deal from the world and wants to give something back.

 

Our Tinseltown tramp said: “Most of the guys over here don’t really know who Robbie is. But there’s a lot of excitement in the air, because they’ve been told he’s a big pop star in Europe.”

 

And the impossibly kind popster is taking his guitar along, too.

Our source added: “He’s planning on performing Christmas carols to everybody there after the meal.”

 

Oh come on now Robbie, haven’t they suffered enough?

 

Craploid source

Those nasty gits can't even be nice on Christmas :angry:

 

I hope they get coal in their stockings :lol:

Those nasty gits can't even be nice on Christmas :angry:

 

I hope they get coal in their stockings :lol:

 

RF4L......That's a bit mean of you...... :angry: :angry: :angry: .....

 

 

 

..........................HOW......

 

 

 

-------------------------------ABOUT :naughty:

 

 

 

------RED HOT COAL..... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

 

Awwww bless. :wub:

 

Well, as they say, the easiest thing in the world is to hate and mock. Having a good heart is a much nobler (and rarer) thing. :wub: Wonder how many tabloid journalists are out helping the homeless over Xmas? Hmmmmm? :rolleyes:

 

Think I'll set up a thread for this :wub:

What an horrid article. What a f*** is wrong with these people?? He just cannot win with them. They are scum of the earth, and I sincerly hope they choke on their bacardi and coke tomorrow :lol:

 

A great thing for him to do if true. :o :D

The Nations favourites

ic Wales

Henson 'nation's favourite bad boy'

Dec 26 2007 icWales

 

http://im.sify.com/entertainment/movies/images/dec2007/Robbie_Williams_2.jpg

 

CHARLOTTE Church’s rugby player boyfriend Gavin Henson was today named the nation’s favourite bad boy.

 

The 25-year-old Welsh international beat rocker Pete Doherty and I’m a Celebrity contestant Mark Bannerman in a poll of 2007’s biggest Badfellas.

 

Henson and three friends have been summoned to court next month after allegedly getting drunk on a train. His club, the Ospreys, say he will deny charges of behaving in a disorderly manner.

 

His singer girlfriend gave birth to their daughter Ruby in September.

 

Brad Pitt was voted the film star Badfella of the year and Labour trio Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and John Prescott took the top spots in politics.

 

 

 

The survey, by Goodfellas Pizza, found Robbie Williams was Britain’s favourite good guy.

 

Mel Gibson made a comeback to be named movie Goodfella of 2007 and David Beckham came top in sport.

 

London Mayor Ken Livingstone won for politics and Sir Trevor McDonald was voted TV Goodfella.

When did he become a 'good guy' all of a sudden? :lol:

No idea. The press contradict themselves so much it is hilarous :lol:

When did he become a 'good guy' all of a sudden? :lol:

The eggnog and fruit cake obviously effected their brains :lol:

The eggnog and fruit cake obviously effected their brains :lol:

 

 

The SUN have even mentioned it now.....defo too much of the good stuff as Xmassy time..... :P :P :P :P ......back to normal I guess in the New Year.......... ;)

I don't even know who Gavin Henson is :lol:

 

But good to see Rob win something I guess :P

I don't even know who Gavin Henson is :lol:

 

But good to see Rob win something I guess :P

 

He plays rugby for Wales....I did not know that he was a bit of a ' hobo'....I think he is like a big kid..... :P :P :P :P

2007 IN REVIEW: MUSIC

The Toronto Star.com | entertainment | Age of confusion

 

NEW REALITIES

 

Ninety per-cent of people who download music don't pay for it.

In 2007 more than 750,000 albums were released worldwide (by mostly independent artists via the Internet), compared to 38,000 in 2002.

The Eagles' Long Road Out Of Eden, is available exclusively at Wal-Mart and on the band's website. It has sold two million copies in the U.S. since its release Oct.30, and 1.5 million elsewhere.

Ninety-six per cent of all music revenues worldwide still come from traditional retail sources.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sources: Billboard Magazine, Canadian Recording Industry Association, Recording Industry Association of AmericaThere are more albums being released today than ever before, yet the industry as we know it has never been more vulnerable. Where is it headed next?

 

Dec 27, 2007 04:30 AM

Greg Quill

ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

 

With the drastic decline in the sales of physical music recordings – CDs, to you and me – finding alternative methods of paid distribution has become the overwhelming obsession of the international music industry, and in 2007, a matter of life and death.

 

The undeniable reality is that CD sales continue to fall so dramatically – down 20 per cent from 2006, and down 35 per cent in Canada – that the industry as we know it may soon collapse completely.

 

Insiders and trade magazines are already predicting a bad New Year for the once mighty EMI Music, one of the world's five remaining major labels, after the recent loss of Radiohead, Paul McCartney and rumblings that Robbie Williams is quitting the roster as well. Warner Music, already stripped to the bone, is also struggling to survive.

 

Other majors are continuing to grapple with the new reality by applying "aggressive pricing" policies, offering some new product for as little as $6.99, compared to $15 just a year or two ago. But they can only last so long on such minimal profit margins, according to trade analysts.

 

Retail music outlets, too, are victims of the trend. Canada's largest two chains, Sam the Record Man and Music World, closed shop in 2007, unable to sustain themselves on sales decimated by the effects of uncountable Internet retail operations and free music downloading practices. The growth of music sales in big-box stores like Wal-Mart and unconventional venues such as Starbucks only added to the woes of CD store chains.

 

Industrial attempts to reverse the trend have stalled or failed. Awareness campaigns tried to recalibrate the moral compasses of "pirates"; CDs came loaded with copy protection codes; legislation to outlaw peer-to-peer file sharing was enacted; and the industry went after free music users and distributors with litigation.

 

MUSIC 2.0

 

But 2007 also saw the emergence of several novel experiments that point the way to a new world of possibilities in the way new music is bought and sold. In October British rock band Radiohead pre-released their new album In Rainbows, with just 10 days notice, as a download on their website, at a price determined not by the seller, but by the buyer. What makes the Radiohead experiment so noteworthy is that this is the first time a platinum-selling band has gone the pay-what-you-can route with a new release.

 

Not that the results are particularly encouraging. The British trade press reports that six out of 10 Radiohead fans who downloaded the album opted to pay not a penny.

 

It's not a new idea. Canadian singer-songwriter Issa, formerly known as Jane Siberry, forsook physical retail methods a couple of years ago and made her entire repertoire available only on the Internet in digital form and at donation-based prices, a move that freed her of the costs of manufacturing, storing, shipping and marketing her CDs. Results, says the peripatetic troubadour, have proven she's on the right track.

 

"I want to treat others the way I like to be treated," goes her official manifesto. "Responses such as `I can't believe you're letting me decide', or `I am so relieved not to be treated like a shoplifter who will steal as soon as someone turns their back,' confirm for me that this is how I want to do things, come sink or swim."

 

Renegade Canadian roots music star Fred Eaglesmith, who enjoys the benefits of an equally diverse and devoted fan base, did the same thing in 2007 with his album Milly's Café, then, as Radiohead plans to do early in 2008, followed through with the launch of a physical CD.

 

Grammy-winning Canadian singer/songwriter/producer Daniel Lanois has just pre-released his sixth solo album, Here is What is, as a $9.99 digital download exclusively at redfloorrecords.com. The novelty is that it's the first digital download in both audiophile-quality WAV format and the more conventional, compressed MP3 format. A CD version will also be available at traditional retail outlets March 18.

 

American bands Wilco and R.E.M., among many others, continue to release albums free on their websites to entice fans to purchase their back catalogues.

 

Some well-established artists, those who can afford to produce their own recordings, bypassed the major record companies entirely, opting instead for either an exclusive deal with a big-box retailer – following the trail Garth Brooks cut a couple of years ago, The Eagles chose Wal-Mart for their comeback two-CD set Long Road Out Of Eden – or with a lifestyle-enhancing specialty product franchise operation.

 

Joni Mitchell got lots of publicity when her 2007 opus, Shine, was released exclusively on Starbucks' in-house Hear Music label, where her CD was racked alongside the coffee retailer's stock of classy blues, jazz and roots compilations. Paul McCartney also released his 2007 studio album, Memory Almost Full, exclusively through Starbucks.

 

And to kick off their reunion tour, 1990s British pop band the Spice Girls chose lingerie boutique chain Victoria's Secret as the sole distributor of their greatest hits album – in-store and online.

 

The success of these new marketing models has yet to be assessed, but already they have changed the way music sales are reported, collated and charted. Billboard magazine, the music industry bible, abandoned its long-established veto on charting single-source releases late in 2007 to accommodate the Eagles' triple-platinum sales through Wal-Mart.

 

THE FUTURE

 

But big-box and specialty-product chain options are only viable for acts with existing mass-market cachet, says Shauna de Cartier, founder of Toronto-based independent label/management company Six Shooter Records.

 

"Retail hasn't been open to emerging and middle-ground artists for a long time, nor has commercial radio," adds de Cartier. "You won't find Six Shooter music in Wal-Mart."

 

With digital download sales accounting for as much as 50 per cent of her company's revenue, and the rest from off-the-stage sales at shows by her constantly touring acts, de Cartier doesn't even think in conventional music industry language.

 

"The future of music sales is the Internet, whether we like it or not. And independent labels have to develop other streams of revenue – management of their artists, publishing, merchandising, instant CD-ROMs or USB memory-stick recordings of live performances, anything in their arsenal – just to keep going. It's the new reality."

 

Part of the new reality is also accepting that peer-to-peer (free) music file sharing is here to stay, and that trying to eradicate it – "by scare tactics, education initiatives, legislation and law suits" – will only go so far.

 

Still, she says, "I don't believe in giving music away. I do everything I can to protect the rights of the creators of the music we sell."

 

She believes that what's needed to offset the massive revenue losses attributable to downloading is a small pass-through fee, "a few dollars," collected by broadband telecommunications providers that would be divided on a pro-rata basis among labels and artists who sell their music via the Internet.

 

"The pervasive notion among music users is that because it's on the Internet, it should be free. We are culturally wedded to the idea. We can't change that. But we don't seem to mind paying large amounts of money for access to the Internet. An additional charge for blanket coverage of downloads may just be music's commercial future."

 

Terry McBride, head of the Vancouver-based Nettwerk Music Group, has been promoting this idea, among others, after seeing it work in China, where compensation for the use of intellectual property at universities is covered by a small addition to tuition fees.

 

"If this principle were applied worldwide, it would amount to literally billions of dollars," says McBride, who believes a "market solution" is both preferable to legislation and litigation and necessary to the survival of the industry.

 

"You sell music not by trying to control it with copy-protection locks and threats, but by monetizing the behaviour around it."

 

While international CD sales have fallen 20 per cent in the last two years, and digital sales have risen by only 5 per cent, McBride points out that profits on digital sales are 50 per cent, compared to 15 per cent on CDs, which incur physical costs not applicable to digital music.

 

"By engaging the audience, making their music available for remixing, running a shirt design contest, and helping fans become marketing partners, Barenaked Ladies had their second (most profitable) year in 2006. Since 2003, 60 per cent of our revenue is now from digital sales. That's not great, but we're getting there."

 

Toronto-based artist manager-publisher Larry LeBlanc is skeptical about the Internet solution.

 

"Ninety-six per cent of all music revenues still come through traditional retail, even though stores are fewer and there are fewer and fewer selections," he says.

 

"And specialty marketing isn't a new idea ... it was used generations ago by jeans manufacturers and soda pop companies like Coca Cola, which paid for the Guess Who and The Staccatos (later the Five Man Electrical Band) to record a platinum-selling promotional album in 1967.

 

"With all the publicity Mitchell got for the Starbucks deal, she has only sold 19,000 copies (of Shine) in Canada and just 72,000 in the U.S. McCartney's album did only 500,000 in the U.S. and 31,000 in Canada. Starbucks is in the business of selling coffee; music is an enhancement, a sideline.

 

"What these (experiments) do is signal to the industry that there are many alternatives available. You don't have to go the old route."

Edited December 27, 200717 yr by scorpionstingray

 

http://www.myparkmag.co.uk/articles/celebs...ig-comeback.jsp

 

Robbie Williams' big comeback

27 December 2007 - Robbie Williams is reportedly planning a huge musical comeback in 2008.

 

The singer - who recently came to the end of his four-year recording deal with EMI - is said to be so jealous of his former Take That bandmates success he is plotting his revenge by planning a comeback of his own.

 

A source close to the singer said: "Things haven't been going that well for Robbie recently and he's been having a bit of a break from recording.

 

"His last album, 'Rudebox', was panned by critics, which was made worse by the fact Take That are doing so well, without him.

 

"Robbie has now decided enough is enough and it's time to reclaim his crown. He is working on new material and he reckons this is the best stuff he has ever come up with. There could even be another hit like 'Angels'."

 

Robbie's comeback plans come as Take That are reaching new heights with their reunion.

 

Their track 'Rule The World', written for the film 'Stardust', is hotly tipped to be nominated for Best Song at the Oscars, while their album 'Beautiful World' is still in eighth position in the UK album charts - despite being released over a year ago.

 

Frontman Gary Barlow recently rubbished rumours Robbie - who quit the group in 1995 - would be rejoining the band for a one-off performance, saying: "There is no place for Robbie in Take That anymore."