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Former England striker James Beattie is back at Bramall Lane hoping to secure a long-term deal with his former club after an unhappy time at Rangers. Ian Appleyard reports.
SHEFFIELD United striker James Beattie wants Santa to deliver a return to first-team football over the Christmas and New Year period.
The former England international has still to play for the Blades – nearly a month after starting his second spell at Bramall Lane.
It has been a frustrating time for the 33-year-old who last played for the club almost three years ago this weekend.
Beattie, who has been hindered by a calf injury, made his 'farewell' appearance in a Championship game against Charlton Athletic on Sunday December 28, 2008.
He was sold to Stoke City for £3.5m just two weeks later – much to the annoyance of Blades supporters who felt the move signalled a lack of ambition at boardroom level.
Now re-united, if only in the short term, both the player and his club are in need of a lift.
One has been without employment since leaving Scottish club Rangers last summer and the other is seeking to bounce back from the shock of relegation to League One.
"As soon as I left Rangers, (Blades director) Scott McCabe was on the phone asking if there was any chance of a deal," recalled Beattie. "I decided to take a few weeks out to see my family because I had not spent much time with them while I was up in Scotland.
"I had a few family problems last year and I thought it was right to take a couple of weeks out just to see my kids. That was massively important at that time. But the pull of the game and wanting to play football again is huge. I also think my wife wanted me out of the house.
"We sat down and started talking weeks ago which is when a lot of the rumours started. I had been doing my own running down at Southampton and then spent a few days training with Bournemouth.
"But Danny Wilson (the Blades manager) came over to Manchester to see me. We had a really good chat and he let me know where the club was going and what he wanted from me. It took about 10 minutes. He made his mind up there and then that he wanted me to come. For about half an hour after that we just chatted about football, families, and all the other stuff that goes with it."
When Beattie last signed for the Blades, they had just been relegated from the Premier League and his £4m move from Everton smashed the club's previous record transfer fee.
He bagged 22 goals in his first season but the club missed out on the play-offs and sacked manager Bryan Robson.
The following season, despite making a stronger push for promotion, the pressure was mounting financially.
Reflecting on his departure, Beattie said: "It was a shock, a massive shock, when Kevin McCabe (the Blades chairman) pulled me into the office and said 'I'm going to have to sell you.' I said 'Why, when we are going for promotion?'
"It was one of those decisions in football that was out of my hands and I just had to go along with it," he insisted. "Although disappointed, it was still a great opportunity for me to go back into the Premier League. As it turned out, it was a good move and I was a great acquisition for Stoke. But I attended the play-off final (when the Blades lost to Burnley) and it was disappointing that we didn't go up."
Beattie scored seven goals to help keep Stoke in the top flight but was involved in a dressing room bust-up with manager Tony Pulis the following season. He signed for Rangers on a free transfer but spent the last few months of last season on loan at Blackpool.
"I have not really played on a consistent basis for two years now due to one reason or another," he reflected. "But I am delighted to be back with the opportunity to pull on the United shirt again.
"I always say to people that my first spell was one of the happiest times of my career. At the time, I was desperate to stay in the Premier League with Everton and the decision to step down to the Championship was a big one but I enjoyed it immensely. That was down to me doing well on the pitch and the club treating me how they did, the fans and everything. It was a good time and I want to try and get those good times back.
"Obviously, the club is in a different league now. There have been changes in personnel but the training ground is the same and the enthusiasm to do well is still there.
"My return has created a bit of a buzz, the fans have been singing my name, and it has given people a lift – but with that comes a responsibility for me to produce the goods. Naturally, there is only one person who can meet that expectaion and I welcome the challenge.
"It's been a while but I am sure the goals will come again," he said. "The lads create a lot of chances and if a couple come my way, I would back myself to score."
Whether Beattie will be available for next Tuesday's league game against Notts County depends just how quickly he recovers from the calf injury suffered two weeks ago in training.
"The gaffer has put the brakes on me and taken a far more sensible approach," he said. "He doesn't want me to come in and get injured even though I am trying to push it to change his mind.
"We have both been in football a long time and the sensible thing is to get conditioned before you go into any sort of matches. It will be running and then a few reserve games before stepping up to the subs bench or whatever the gaffer decides.
"I don't know what the future holds at this stage," he admitted. "It is a short-term deal but, if things go well, the gaffer says that he would like to keep me and I would be interested in staying until the end of the season at least.
"I have already been shopping a few times at Meadowhall and been approached by fans saying they are happy to see me. But now I just want to get back out on the pitch."


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India's 2017 oil demand growth posts lowest gain since 2013
- By Reuters |
- Jan 11, 2018
- Last Updated at 17:27 IST
SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI - Indian oil consumption in 2017 grew at its slowest in four years, according to government statistics, hit by the government's demonetisation move and a tax increase that knocked the gain in fuel use back to a modest 2.3 percent.
The low growth also coincided with another year of weak, albeit improving, new vehicle sales.
Last year's oil demand was held back "by headwinds from demonetisation and a new goods and services tax," U.S. bank Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients.
India imports almost all of its oil, shipping in around 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in 2017, according to trade flow data in Thomson Reuters Eikon.
"Gasoline demand rose 7.4 percent, or 41,000 barrels per day, down from 12 percent growth in 2016 as demand was affected by demonetisation at the start of the year," the bank said.
India in late 2016 pulled all 500- and 1,000-rupee notes out of circulation, crimping retail and wholesale markets.
"The demonetization exercise hit consumption, particularly in the first half of 2017. We are likely to see better growth this year," said Sukrit Vijayakar, director at Indian energy consultancy Trifecta.
India also saw some structural demand changes that affected the use of refined oil products.
A government push for household to use more liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has India challenging China as the world's top LPG importer.
This has come at the cost of a straight 15-month decline in jet fuel and kerosene demand in India, Morgan Stanley said.
Also, "naphtha demand ... was down 8 percent for 2017
as a whole, possibly driven by more LPG use in petrochemicals," it said.
For 2018, energy consultancy FGE expects India's oil demand growth to improve to 4.3 percent.
"India's fuel demand will rebound in 2018 because of policy initiatives by the government and the country's economic expansion," said Senthil Kumaran, senior oil analyst at FGE.
"Higher purchasing power of consumers along with rapid growth in rural infrastructure will drive two-wheeler and passenger car sales," he said.
India's slow oil demand growth has surprised many, given the country has often been touted as the next China in terms of rising oil consumption.
Yet the oil demand figures correlate with slow, albeit improving, growth in a related field: car sales.
India's new passenger car sales in 2017 broke through 3 million for the first time, reaching 3.23 million cars, according to the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers said on Thursday.
That means India broke a previous record of 2.8 million in annual new sales from 2012.
The figure, though, remains far below China's new car sales of almost 3 million a month.
The low auto sales are partly explained by India's annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) being merely a fifth of China's. Fuels at Indian petrol stations are also much more expensive.
If an Indian citizen with an average salary buys 10 gallons of gasoline per month, that would represent nearly 30 percent of the person's income, while the average Chinese would fork out just 5 percent, data from statistics company Numbeo showed.
However, India's lacklustre auto sales may pick-up as its economy continues to grow strongly, at over 6 percent per year.
Trifecta's Vijayakar said car and motorbike sales in India "have shown good growth in the last few months ... (and) should be better this year."
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The Big Stories
Suryadev Banda...
Financial Indep...
Will Modi-magic fuel Nifty again?
- Yes
- No
- Can't Say

subset: commoncrawl


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Despite having had the idea (and even name) for this blog several months ago, for some reason or another I've had a bout of writer's block that's rendered me pretty much useless on the internet, full-stop.
So here I am. A twenty-something, size 20(ish), 'fat' girl that enjoys maybe one too many maltesers but also has a keen interest in creating a style that suits which doesn't involve tents, beige and linen trousers. Utter those three items to me and away you'll be sent. There's no room in my wardrobe for drab, thanks. I'm big, not boring.
Having always been 'the fat kid', I have struggled my way through fashion considerably: from adopting baggy t-shirts in an attempt to hide myself, to fully embracing Clarissa Darling's 'anything goes' approach – both resulting in many a faux pas.
Cheap, cheerful and chubby, I'm hoping this blog will be a chronicle of my struggles and successes in a world where fashion still fails to fully acknowledge fat.


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This video will not leave my blog okay?
I know I know.. the dance was cheesy, the music was cheesier, but I felt such a patriotism at the performance because the dancers were all so supportive and determined and friendly. So what if things fell apart and problems arose? Nothing could stop us.
(Yuck cheesy dance moves.)
It was fun and I think I might do it again next Canada Day (:
Today I'm going to go see a movie with a friend!
The Last Airbender. I was an avid watcher of the cartoon series about a year ago, cuz you know, i'm a kid at heart, so even if the movie has gotten some bad reviews, I'm still going to go see it :D
J. and I were going to dress up but he wimped out ("I don't have access to the Drama room's costumes anymore" via txt) so unfortch I can't show you some awesome cosplay that I was planning out with only my own articles of clothing and some scary makeup. lol


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The fourth of October is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). The Church commemorates him already on the previous Sunday as one of the greatest saints, who gave human dignity and hope back to the poor, the dispossessed, the despised and the persecuted. In doing so, by the way, he supported alone the collapsing building of the Church – as Pope Innocent III saw in his dream, as seen in the Assisi fresco attributed to Giotto – thereby giving an example for the following centuries as to what should be done by him who does not want to abandon this permanently shaking building.
The weekend before the Feast of St. Francis, the Pope visited Georgia, where on the first day he and the Chaldean and Assyrian Christian refugees from Syria and Iraq prayed together. During a ceremony sung in the Chaldean and Aramaic languages, as reported in the Italian Franciscan publication San Francesco, he gave a homily referring to St. Francis:
"Our Lord Jesus! By Your glorious passion defeat the hardness of hearts fallen into the captivity of hatred and selfishness. By the power of Your resurrection liberate the victims of injustice and oppression. Through the fidelity of Your coming annihilate the culture of death, and shine on the victory of life. At the foot of Your cross unite the many innocent victims, the children, the elderly, the persecuted Christians. In the light of your Easter embrace those who are deeply wounded, who have suffered violence, who are deprived of their liberty and dignity. Show the strength of Your country to those who live in uncertainty, to the exiles, the refugees, to them who have lost their faith in life. Spread the shadow of Your cross on the peoples living in war, so they find their way to reconciliation, dialogue and forgiveness. Give the taste of the joy of Your resurrection to the nations annihilated by the bombs. Remove the destruction from Iraq and Syria. Unite under Your kingdom Your scattered sons. Support the Christians living in diaspora, and give them the unity of faith and love."
In preparation for the feast, the Italian Franciscan province erected a monument in the middle of the large square before the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, as if in memory of the poor manger, which was set up for the first time by St. Francis in Greccio. The weathered boat, only seven meters long, landed on the shores of the infamous Lampedusa in southern Italy with nine refugees on board in March 2014. All nine survived the trip. They were lucky. On the same day, writes a signboard placed in the boat, another boat perished on the Aegean Sea with seven Syrian refugees on board, another one in the Gulf of Aden, with forty-two people fleeing the civil war in Yemen, and one on the Albert Lake with two hundred and fifty one people, including fifty-seven children, who tried to reach the Ugandan shore in flight from the war in Congo, which has killed so far five and a half million people:
"This boat, set up in Assisi, in front of the Monastery of St. Francis, symbolizes all the other boats that safely reach the other shore and those that sink on the sea. It is an unnamed boat, which only carried nine refugees, but it symbolizes all the thousands of people who need help and who are in need of and entitled to international help. Jesus wants to be born in the darkness of this boat to bring us the light and peace."
Andre, die das Land so sehr nicht liebten. Music: Zupfgeigenhans, text: Theodor Kramer, fleeing the Anschluss (1938)
|Andre, die das Land so sehr nicht liebten
War'n von Anfang an gewillt zu geh'n
Ihnen – manche sind schon fort – ist besser
Ich doch müsste mit dem eig'nen Messer
Meine Wurzeln aus der Erde dreh'n
|Others, who did not love this country as much
were willing to leave from the beginning.
Them – some have already left – it is easier,
but I had to unearth my roots
with my own knife from this soil.


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Even now, almost three weeks later, it's hard to believe she's not here with us. She was an amazing woman, who from the day I met her (almost 18 years ago) has treated me like her own granddaughter. I am thankful that our girls got to spend the time they did with her. She will not be forgotten, she will live on in our memories and most importantly through the photos and stories I have captured for the girls.
For this week, I wanted a way to honour her. One way I did that was including the colour purple. It was her favourite colour. It's actually one of my favourite colours too, I wear a lot of purple. And so does Cayla! Ever since Cayla was born, when I would buy outfits for the girls, Alyssa always got pink and Cayla would get purple. We actually all wore purple to her funeral. I took a picture of the outfits I bought for the girls to wear. I also included a picture I took of her last spring while she was knitting. And then I had the girls hold my favourite picture of them with her. Again, so very thankful that they spent so much time with her.
Thanks for looking!


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A 55.7-kg child is standing on the outer edge of a merry-go-round that has moment of inertia 591 kg⋅m2 and radius 2.40 m. The entire system is initially rotating at 0.180 rev/s. Find the angular velocity if the child moves to a final position 1.10 m from the center of the merry-go-round.
Physics question?
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Who can say? Not I. Not I.
2017 is nigh.
I am inspired to do low-carb starting January 1. It's coming out of my own desire to do it and not, I believe, out of this sense of needing to have a resolution. Not out of habit. It's, instead, coming out of my own personal sense of needing to start the year working on myself because I want to see improvement. I want my life to be better, goddamnit, fabulous, even. Not choosing food to serve as an external release valve on all of my emotions. Of wanting to be able to get myself moved out of this limbo. I know that there's a big event coming on the 9th where food will be funky. I know my birthday is coming again. Yet, I want to do this. I want to have a year-end change. It's time to start pulling out the motivational picture albums, the MyFitnessPal, the FitBit or some form of pedometer and get to be excited about progress again.
So, I can't do it all at once. But water, cutting carbs, tracking food and posting daily on MFP about it. That's a path towards something. You will see me doing that, failing, upset, excited, not doing what you think I should, working really hard, being all over the map. But this is my intention.
I also pledge not to eat out more than once a week. That's mostly about money, but I also eat so maniacally, it's a way to help myself, too.
Just to reiterate, changes are going to happen here because…they have to. I can't do another year of just posting moaning screeds. It's a waste of my talents. I need to read. I so need to be reading so that the well has something other than marsh water to draw on. I can't do better unless I do differently, so the post will happen in essence via MFP or me writing. I will be here weekly to spaz and cross-post, but it won't be like it is now.
That scares the everloving shit out of me. I might accidentally just post. I don't know.
Computer Time
The reading and the writing and the not just spending whole days restarting Civ IV games. I have to be conscious of how much time I cede to this thing. Even just waiting for people to respond to messages. It's endless at times. I mean, I love it, it's comforting, but it chains my ass to the bed for ages. I can't be chained like this forever. Nothing is forever.
Every day we start over. The hand hangs out of the carriage and is grabbing in all directions. But I am sure that I like myself better for just that little bit of trying I am doing. So, I say how do you do, and I try and make jokes, and I try and express interest and comb my hair and buy (with gift certificates) new dresses and be cute and willing. And we'll see.


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We are able to work with those experiencing a wide range of psychological conditions in anxiety disorders, depression and trauma, in both individual and group context. Our training enables us to make an assessment of each individual's circumstances and apply a specific or integrated therapy according to each client's needs.
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Please refer to the British Psychological Society for further details.


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More Featherstitching on this hem!
And tucks with pretty lace.
With a sweet, sweet sleeve!
It was another Bishop Style with Smocking!
Oh, the fabric is dreamy….
All Designs Are Copyright Protected copyright 2014 Jeannie Baumeister
So lovely. I find myself imagining a pudgy little baby in them....and it makes me smile.