not so long ago

NOT SO long ago the right to receive a state pension from the age of 65 seemed inalienable.

Not so long ago, there was no easy way at all to publicly shame a celebrity pig or even any ordinary pig.

Not so long ago, it seemed China might finally be ready to take on a larger role.

There was a time not so long ago when such news would have sent Chelsea fans into paroxysms of panic.

NOT so long ago the word "Vietnamese" was almost inevitably accompanied in press reports by the phrase "boat people" .

Nowadays, people tend to write letter by computers, there was a time, not so long ago, when letter writing was a real craft.

Not so long ago, it was the stuff of nightmares: you pick up the landline and there's no dialling tone.

Not so long ago, the industry wisdom on plug-ins was that they represented a fringe technology, too expensive for mass production.

After all, there was a time, not so long ago, when people ran their businesses without the help of strategy consulting firms.

THERE was a time not so long ago when European policymakers believed trade imbalances were only a problem for America and China.

Not so long ago, the consensus was that $1, 150 an ounce or so might be a top for gold.

Not so long ago, such a movie would not even have been made, let alone been backed by the government.

Not so long ago every country felt it had to have its own steel giant, even if it was government-owned and losing a fortune.

In a nation that not so long ago hounded "capitalist roaders" , the concept of private enterprise is becoming accepted.

There was a time, not so long ago, when any Chelsea supporter would be ecstatic about that prospect.

Not so long ago, Britain was held in such low esteem in Iran that it was simply dismissed as the "little Satan" .

Not so long ago, the young men in the village could make a living out of fishing not a fortune, but a living.

This couple had a new suite of furniture not so long ago, and now they have got a new car; things must be looking up with them.

Not so long ago, crises that had nothing to do with investment banking engulfed whole elements of the sector.

Ireland, hailed as the Celtic Tiger not so long ago, is now struggling to avoid bankruptcy.

They are playing with so much confidence . Not so long ago Scotland were on a downward spiral under Berti Vogts . Now it's so different.

Not so long ago Germany, racked by guilt over the Holocaust, would have rushed to quash such chidings by the EU, but no longer.

Not so long ago neuroscientists, too, were guilty of victimizing the mentally ill and the imprisoned in the name of science.

Cyberspace, not so long ago, was a specific elsewhere, one we visited periodically, peering into it from the familiar physical world.

It's capital is Urumqi, which not so long ago was an important oasis on the Silk Road.

We must ensure that unearned revenue is not recognized up front, as it inappropriately was by certain high-tech companies not so long ago.

What makes Japan's story so much more frustrating is that not so long ago, the nation was at the forefront of change.

That's pretty forward thinking for a publication that, not so long ago, was still blocking access to their content on the Web.

Not so long ago Beijing routinely protested its anxiety not to disturb the established international order.

but then it was hard not so long ago to imagine him giving most of his money away.

Not so long ago, the rich world used to regard emerging economies as risky and unstable.

Not so long ago Britain's political establishment was laid low by the media furore over fiddled parliamentary expenses.

Not so long ago, I would have thought new technology would have affected the electronics department or our dotcom business.

I attended a school prize-giving ceremony not so long ago and the guest speaker was Andrew Becroft, who had a severe stutter as a child.

Not so long ago the election seemed likely to turn on Iraq.

Not so long ago, northern Chinese winters meant one thing: cabbage, day in and day out.

Sharing sovereignty was not so long ago seen as a multiplier of power and influence.

It is not so long ago that Paris and Berlin wanted to talk to Beijing about China's human rights.

Not so long ago governments around the world stepped to in rescue capitalism.

Not so long ago, he could have counted on the support of SADC leaders, many of them fellow veterans of anti-colonial struggles.

BRIGHT and crisp high-definition (HD) images, a luxury not so long ago, are fast becoming standard in consumer electronics.

And not so long ago, it was a staple on the American table.

Not so long ago, Berlin depicted the financial crisis as an Anglo-Saxon problem.

Not so long ago, there may have been room in the world for only one true international currency.

Not so long ago, for most people, listening to the radio was a single task activity.

We recall a time of greater love in the food and in the lives of all humans as a result and not so long ago.

Not so long ago, Japan was seen as the next (economic) number 1.

NOT so long ago, most fund managers riding the private-equity wave were squeamish about appearing in public.

Not so long ago, government-controlled companies were regarded as half-formed creatures destined for full privatisation.

Not so long ago you had to worry about us, because we got too many goals against us.

Not so long ago, news was a highly profitable business.

Not so long ago, this small clique could mould the world according to its predilections.

Not so long ago I was an expectant father.

Yet, not so long ago, I. B. M. 's corporate survival was at stake.

The fear is that such an emphatic win will reopen divisions in what not so long ago was South-East Asia's brightest democracy.

Crisis has forced us to think what, not so long ago, was unthinkable.

Not so long ago Japanese wives put up with any amount of infidelity and abuse.

At one stage not so long ago, Chelsea were 18 points clear and Mourinho was confidently talking of wrapping up the title by Easter.

Not so long ago insider trading was perfectly legal in the City of London.

Not so long ago, this ungainly partnership was faring poorly.

Remember not so long ago we looked at flux of a two-dimensional field of a curve.

Not so long ago many wise people thought Mr Berlusconi was doomed, too.

Not so long ago, 6 percent was considered a disappointingly high unemployment rate.

Not so long ago, moderates still had clout in the Sunflower State.

I put a video series on my blog not so long ago, and it got 6, 000 views in two weeks.

Turns out Hayward, now 6-8, was a 5-11 junior tennis player not so long ago, competing in mixed doubles with his twin sister, Heather.

Not so long ago, most mortgages were of the 30-year fixed-rate variety.

Those were such happy times and not so long ago. How I wondered where they'd gone.

It was on TV not (so) long ago.

The Nordic crises were not so long ago, yet they seem a world away.

Not so long ago I had to go to special post offices to make calls to relatives and friends abroad.

We were dreamers not so long ago.

Not so long ago, the world lamented its broken continent.

What immediately comes to mind is that a video I saw with an eight-year-old friend not so long ago.

McAllen's situation was worse not so long ago.

Those were such happy times & not so long ago.

In the not-so-long-ago days of yore, the people of the world were illiterate, and in need of entertainment.

Not so long ago finding a TV programme was easy.

NOT so long ago television was scary.

Not so long ago we've featured 25 Creative and Original Mugs.

Those were such happy times, and not so long ago.

And not so long ago how i wondered where they'd gone?

Not so long ago this room, with its Arabic texts and Webster's dictionary, was for studious children. Now it is home to prisoners of war.

Not so long ago, pessimists were counting Hong Kong's last days as a financial centre.

And yet it was not so long ago that most food in Hawaii was grown upon this land;