Random irritating rant #73

Have just been looking on a real estate agency website curious as to what kind of houses are currently available on the market. This is the first sentence from a house description

From the moment you step foot into this charming double storey Victorian terrace your invigorated with a feeling of tranquility.

Is there something wrong with me if that kind of commentary just totally pisses me off and would completely put me off using these agents because of it? I would consider the term 'invigorated with tranquility' as being a complete oxymoron, the experience of being invigorated does not leave one feeling tranquil! Apart from that though, it should obviously say you're invigorated, not your.

It goes on to make further appalling errors in spelling and syntax. Apparently the place has a stainless steal kitchen and each bedroom has there own built in robes. Due to the fact that the author has obviously never seen a comma before, apparently the balcony has a full bathroom.

It's just sloppy and it says to me that the author is an idiot, professional commentaries like this, especially ones that are trying to encourage people to spend one million dollars, should not look like they have been written by a Mongolian nomad child with learning difficulties.

If I was the vendor I would take my business elsewhere.

Have no doubt this is not an isolated case.

Claudia stood me up

I'm heart broken

It should at least be pointed out that it is an obvious credit to the Australian cricket team that England have cherished their victory over them so much. No other series win by England in recent years has caused such elation. So the very least the Australian team can take with them is that they are highly regarded by their oponents. In sport this is indeed a mantle that is earned.

My date with Claudia

At the risk of sounding bitter, which I am in no ways: the over-reaction to England's victory in the Ashes series has been excessive yet entirely predictable. England is a fickle nation in sport, although I would suggest no more so than Australia. There has only been interest in cricket this summer because England have been winning, congratulations to them, as they were certainly the better side throughout the series. However many rugby fans in this country well give testimony that this interest will wane. Those responsible for cricket in England must capture this patriotism and ensure that the country will continue to hold an interest in the game, otherwise these achievements and celebrations will be largely recrementitious.
The reason of course for celebration; is that England have triumphed over the team that has consistently the best in the world for the past decade. This calls for celebrations. But they have triumphed only once and by a considerably small margin. So these celebrations must be tempered. Yet the celebrations will be large because England have achieved something they have been trying to achieve for 16 years, and every time one fails to achieve something, it adds to the feeling of success when one finally does. It’s a little like a retarded school child finally passing his exams after being held back in class for 4 years, the celebrations will be great for him and he will feel extra special.

So well done England you have deserved your victory, surely though it will be an even greater achievement to retain them on Australian soil in 18 months time. Oh and for fuck’s sake stop singing Jerusalem!


By the way; my date with Claudia Schiffer is this Friday night.

South Africa

Recently I went on a trip to South Africa with a group of my friends. It was without a doubt the best trip I have ever been on. My mate Rob wrote a superb group email to all his friends describing our adventures. I couldn't imagine writing a better account than he has done so I will post his here instead (and quite frankly it saves me from having to write one out aswell.)
On a personal note, the red meat in South Africa is the most exquisite meat I have ever eaten. We had a great variety of succulent game meats, it was great to go out and see the animals during the day and then eat them at night. The steak that was available to us in Johannesburg however was second to none. We ate at some lovely restaurants that served the leanest, juiciest, tenderest most delicious steaks I have ever ever eaten. It is not hard to see how South Africa can make such big rugby players with meat like that around. I have found it very difficult to eat steak back here in London again after having tasted such perfection.

So here's what Rob had to say......

Well, if you haven't been jealous of my travels thus far you should definitely keep reading...............
As you know my latest safari was, well, a safari. Leaving London on Friday night with my good buddies JC, Rolly and Mike we flew south via Zurich, arriving in South Africa on Saturday morning. We were greeted at Johannesburg airport by our Sydney-based counterparts Chris, Brett, Graham and Duncan where we collected our 8-seater VW combi van and set off for the drive to Kruger National Park.
It was wonderful to see the guys again and we had a good opportunity to catch up at our overnight stop just a few hours from the park. On Sunday morning we were initiated with the "Kruger wake up" which saw us getting up and on the road before sun rise 6 days in a row! After crossing the bridge over a crocodile infested river we entered the national park and were immediately greeted by the sight of giraffes and elephants by the side of the road. Within half an hour of arriving in the park we had been treated to the sight of a huge bull elephant lumbering up to the side of the van and proceeding to walk down the road directly in front of us. This encounter was to set the tone for our week - we quickly dubbed ourselves the "Arsey Aussies".
Within the first day we had seen more rhinoceros than I knew were actually still alive, a stand off between a rhino and an elephant, and the amazing sight of a lioness drinking from a waterhole and then proceeding to walk directly across our path and off into the scrub where the circling vultures signified only one thing - a recent kill. On our second day we managed to see the "The Big 5" [elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion and leopard] within the space of 10 hours!.......
Driving around the park at your own pace is a wonderful way to view the wildlife and our marathon efforts were well rewarded. The highlights were far too numerous to list, but some standouts included:-
seeing a pride of lionesses (5) laying in a dry river bed enjoying the afternoon sun whilst their cubs (12) played in the sand like big yellow kittens;
watching a hyena stalk a juvenile leopard only to be chased away by the leopard's mother;
seeing a pack of African Wild Dogs (the rarest predators in Africa) laying by the side of the road;
going for an evening walk along the fence of our camp only to discover a rhinoceros grazing just 10m away from us with nothing but a wire mesh fence between us and this spectacular specimen;
on a guided night drive, spotting a young hyena pup playing with its older sibling in a culvert by the side of the road; and
seeing a giraffe drink from a waterhole [anyone who has seen such a sight will know that it is a completely absurd spectacle].
Thanks to some brilliant organisation from Chris we also managed to spend 3 nights in our own private camp. At least 20km from the next closest camp, we were able to see things in the early morning and late evening that no other park visitors could possibly have seen given the curfew restrictions at each camp. We enjoyed total serenity in our camp and, even entertained some visitors - some Vervet monkeys who took it upon themselves to go through the rubbish in our van and an early-morning visit from an elephant who, after breaking open the gate to our camp, helped himself to a drink by snapping the metal pipe of a water tap.
Luck was not the only factor in our many and varied animal sightings - we put in the hard yards, early mornings and stints of up to 8 hours in the van - but our good fortunes really shone through on our last morning. With only a 40km drive to the gates to leave the park we commented that [despite spending the entire previous day looking for one] we had not seen a cheetah and [despite seeing more than 30 females and cubs] we had not seen a male lion. Well, no doubt you can guess what happened, but you could not have scripted how amazingly it came about. After an unscheduled and almost avoided toilet stop, a cheetah [the rarest of the big cats] simply strode across the road not 100m in front of our van and walked off into the distance. Then, merely half a kilometre down the road, some people in a car flagged us down and told us to take the next right turn and - you guessed it - 5km down the road, sitting by a waterhole were 3 juvenile male lions.
Our safari was complete and as we drove slowly out the gates of Kruger we all paused in quiet reflection, admiring the wonders we had experienced being able to see so many wild animals in their natural environment, and then someone let out a ripper..............
The bad smells emanating from a van full of 8 lads chock full on a diet of beer and red meat set the tone nicely for our last few days in South Africa spent in Johannesburg - for, so far in all my worldly travels, I have not experienced a city with a worse character than Johannesburg. It was dirty and dusty, sparse and concreted, and the poverty and plight of the black population was clearly evident and further exasperated by the incivility of the white population. I really did struggle to find a redeeming feature of this characterless metropolis. However this did not detract from our breathtaking experiences in Kruger as we were in Johannesburg for a reason - to support the Wallabies.
After decking ourselves out in full Wallaby gold we went across the road from our hotel to cheer the players onto the team bus. My concerns were somewhat heightened when Jeremy Paul the Wallaby No. 2 descended the hotel escalator and looked up, surprised at our presence, he wished us "good luck today, fellas". We begun the dangerous journey through downtown Johannesburg into the battle zone known as Ellis Park. As one of a very small handful of Wallaby fans I can honestly say that I have never felt so intimidated in my life. The Bokka fans are aggressive and boisterous and seem to take delight in taunting opposition fans, but when you are outnumbered by about 65,000 to 100 the incentives to keep your mouth shut are as large as the sea of green jerseys all around you.
Unfortunately the team played poorly and were beaten comprehensively, but that is probably a good thing because if they had have won we probably would have been beaten comprehensively......... But at least we got our mugs on television - standing proudly and belting out Advance Australia Fair - surrounded by wildlife that would have fitted in quite nicely roaming the scrub of Kruger National Park. Surely we 8 can now say that we are TRUE Wallaby fans!........
Overall it was an amazing adventure and an experience that I am so fortunate to have been able to share with 7 of my closest mates. I look forward to showing you all my hundreds of photos and regaling you with many more stories and highlights.

Oysters

I have finally been forced to succumb to what I had been refusing to accept as a matter of principle. The shellfish that has been forced at us for some time now. Gradually they have been removing the means to survive without one. They make it all sound like such a good idea, save time, save money, save a soul etc etc. They have now removed all means for me to live in this city without that damn little shellfish.
It is now no longer possible to buy weekly tube travel cards. The only way one can buy a weekly travel card is if they have an oyster card!
Oyster is the smarter, faster, easier way to travel round London. Oyster is designed to make your life easier, blah blah blah.......
Basically the London Underground are trying to cut down on the number of paper tickets used. Oyster is an electronic swipe card that carries your ticket information. You can top it up online, or at auto machines at the station. You can use pre-pay that will just subtract the amount of your journey from your balance, or you can buy weekly, monthly or annual travel cards on it. You just swipe your card on the way in and out of the tube station. It sounds like a great idea, saves time by allowing you to not have to queue up for tickets in the morning etc etc etc.
I have never bothered with one of these and have stuck to using paper weekly tickets. Gradually though they made it harder for you to do this; by not making paper weekly tickets available from the auto machine etc. As of the 25th of September, you will now no longer be able to buy paper weekly, monthly or yearly travel cards, they will only be available to Oyster card holders. So now I have an Oyster card and will be able to enjoy all the benefits associated.
Transport for London and anyone whom they may care to share the information with, will now have a record of every single public transport journey that I make. If ever the time should come when I need to claim I was in a place that I was not, there will be evidence to prove I am lying. Now, I am not ever likely to claim I was somewhere I was not, but is that really the point?
The Oyster card is indeed a convenient way of ticketing, yet in our age of ever increasing dependence on technologies, each new convenience is also as system of monitoring and control. We might be 20 years after George Orwell first predicted; but the Big Brother state is looming.
Conservatives will suggest that if one is not doing anything wrong, then one has nothing to worry about, and what does it matter if there is a record of one's whereabouts. Those who are doing wrong will be caught quicker and the precious lives of the law abiding citizens of the free world will be saved. That may be the case but where to we go from here?
Once something is routine in our lives it is easy to consciously forget about it. We are becoming nearer to a cashless society; we use our debit and credit cards with increasing frequency. Each time we make a transaction there is a record of what we bought, where, when and how much. At this stage the bank only has these records, but how long before it is decided it is acceptable for other institutions to gain access to these. Already, companies use store cards to create a psychological profile of you based on the groceries you buy, with this information they will directly market products to you that they think you will be interested in buying.
The more technology eases our lives, the more our lives are recorded. This information is not readily available to anyone at the moment, soon it could be. Knowledge is power.
It's not such a bad thing though, with advancements in cloning technology, I could create an exact DNA replica of myself, then with all the information about my life, purchases, movements and behaviours recorded, I could program this clone to behave just like me. I could then send it out to work while I lie on a beach in Thailand.
Although, with a sample of my DNA, anyone could do this! They could kill me and replace me with my replica! Maybe they already have!
The possibilities are endless.

RIP Richard Whitely

It has been a long while since my last post. During that time I have been to Croatia and South Africa. The second of these trips was certainly one of the best trips I have been on. My mate Rob wrote a pretty good email to everyone about it so instead of writing my own, I'll just copy that one in another post.
Also in that time I was offered my position at work on a permanent basis; which I accepted. Subsequently I am a rather busy man at work at the moment and so I have not had the free time to update my blog as I did in the past.
Also in that time, I met the girl of my dreams - more on her in the future.

Today however I am having a duvet day - well I was feeling a bit shit this morning and I really couldn't face up to sitting at my desk all day and so I called in for my first sick day. So today, after my biggest fan again enquired about the absence of any posting, I am making a come back (again.) I bought a laptop a couple of weeks ago, so I can now post at home, which is proberly where I will be when I do in future.

And so, to the point: A few weeks ago Richard Whitely the host of one of the longest running shows in Brtitain; countdown, died. Countdown was the show to watch on a weekday afternoon. Anyone who may spend a day at home through temporary unemployment, sick days, or duvet days will tell you that it is just not the same without countdown. They will not replace Richard and the show will likely never return, this also means that we will miss out on everyone's favourite hostess; Carol Vorderman. At this time when Countdown should be on, I feel empty, something is missing. I haven't had lunch though so that might be it, but I would more accurately suggest it is the lack of me not being able to work out words with more than 5 letters in while those on tele always seem to manage 8. Oh well, I should really be at work anyway. RIP Richard Whitely

America F**k Yeah

Team America: World Police is certainly one of my favourite movies. Similarly South Park; made by the same people, is one of my favourite TV shows.

The only real purpose of this post is to upload a couple of avatars that I might use for a while. I'll backdate it and hide it away in archives.

TBH

It has been very hot in London this week. London is not the best city in the world to be in when it is hot. It is rather unpleasant having to catch the tube when dressed in a suit in this hot weather. I should not complain, but I do anyway.
The summer solstice was on Tuesday, just thought I’d mention that.
Next week I am going to the Coldplay concert on Monday, should be pretty good, I have been listening to their stuff a lot since X&Y was released. They are due to headline at Glastonbury tomorrow; I spoke to a friend at Glastonbury this morning who was soaking wet, as was all her belongings. It had rained torrentially over night and was still raining this morning. There were minor floods and two of the stages were struck by lightning. Glad I didn’t go now. Pretty funny though how we are all hot and bothered here in London and not too far away in Somerset, they’re cold and wet.

The Lions test tomorrow should be a good game. The wet conditions predicted should suit the Lions and it will hamper the All Blacks somewhat in their ability to play their expansive game. It is a good idea to play both Wilkinson and Jones at 12 and 10 respectively; both have excellent kicking games and this is how Woodward will try to win the game. They will attempt to kick behind the All Blacks’ back three and play for territory; thus Woodward has chosen experienced veterans in the forward pack, hoping for a solid game in tight and they will try to force errors from the All Blacks. Jones’s and Wilkinson’s kicking games will have to be spot on if they hope to succeed in this game plan, as it is unwise to kick the ball to the All Black backs and let them run it back towards you. My tip is for an All Blacks victory, if the conditions are poor then the margin will not be as great as it should be, but I am still giving the Lions a 12.5 points start. So tomorrow morning until around lunch time I will be a kiwi, I have even agreed to wear my flatmate’s NZ Maori jersey since he’ll have his All Blacks one on.

No blogging next week as on Tuesday I’ll be flying to Ljubljana, from there I will be taking a bus down to Split in Croatia and meeting up with my Cousin on Hvar. I will return to London the following Monday with a tan!

Go the All Blacks

Inspite of......

Tired and cranky this afternoon. Not much sleep last night; most of the day filled with pointless meetings with morons. Bah, and now the fucking fire alarm is going off. Going home now and going to run hard around the common, will make me feel great.

Life still good though

Mildly amusing fact #935

George Foreman had 5 daughters and 5 sons. He name all his sons George! George Jnr, George III, George IV, George V and George VI

And they said boxers were stupid!

That's not acceptable behaviour from a rock star!

Music, I have been listening to a few new albums recently. The new Oasis album: ‘Don’t believe the truth’ isn’t bad. It’s got their unique sound and a couple of the songs are really catchy – can’t wait to see them at V festival.
The new Foo Fighers album: ‘In your honour’ came out yesterday, I have only listened to it a couple of times, but it fucking rocks. Dave Grohl really belts it out; it’s another top quality offering from the Foo.

Then of course there is the much anticipated third offering from Coldplay: ‘X&Y’ They spent a long time making this one right, they pushed back the release date by three months to make sure it was just as they wanted. As a result of this it meant the release was moved to the next financial year, thus EMI’s profits forecasts went down, which sent the share price down and wiped about £300m off the market value of the company. It appears to have been worth the wait; the more I listen to it, the more I like it. It was always going to be tough to follow on from their previous two, but they have done well. The album has it’s own unique flavour, it represents a step forward for the band but it still remains undoubtedly pure Coldplay. There are some great guitar riffs in it and Chris Martin is really exploring his vocal range. It has also made me play their previous two albums again; I am definitely listening to a lot of Coldplay again, although happily for me, it is under much more jovial circumstances that the last time I played them ad nauseum.
Their concert in two weeks time should be fantastic, the only gripe I have about it really is that it’s on a Monday! I know they are playing Glastonbury the weekend preceding but surely they could have found another date to kick off their UK X&Y tour!! What kind of a pussy has their concert on a Monday? Well Chris Martin obviously. I mean, thanks for the music mate but you are such an annoying, bed-wetting, pussy; and stop writing things on your fucking hand; if you need to write something down, get a notepad, and if you want to mark your skin then get a god damn tattoo.
He doesn’t drink, smoke, take drugs or fuck groupies; what kind of a rock-star is that? Since when did famous people start behaving like good role models? Thank God for Noel and Liam Gallagher.

Hey Lyla!

The Happy Mondays

Damn, it’s 5:15, I had every intention of doing a large posting today, but I got sidetracked. Anyway, it was a weekend of the highest quality. In spite of the fact that it is Monday, I have been in an exceptionally good mood today; the kind of mood that can only be the result of pulling an outstandingly gorgeous girl over the weekend. I dare say that due to the number of repeat visits that have been scheduled, this good mood may last for some time.

New flatmates moved in on Saturday, 2 girls sharing a room that I personally don’t think is big enough for two sharers unless they are a couple. I’m pretty sure they’re not Sapphic but I guess you never know with these things. In any case, they have already put my nose out of joint, ever the diplomat however I will forget about it.

So briefly, things I learnt over the weekend:
- Jenga is far more challenging and fun, when under the influence of alcohol.
- I have a very high tolerance for Sambucca
- What happened last Sunday afternoon
- Matt Dunning can play at tight head
- Wendell Sailor can play rugby
- I have well built triceps.

For the second time in a week I actually bought a CD today. Got the new Coldplay album last week and today I bought the new Foo Fighters one. I can’t remember the last time I bought a CD, I usually just copy music to my iRiver from mates’ CDs and Limewire.
I just realised I wrote Damn, it’s 5:15. I’m usually rather pleased at 5:15 because it means it’s just about time to head. Which I am doing now… more tomorrow.

I'm Back

It has been a while since my last posting, I have been a little slack but mostly it’s been very busy at work. There is of course the consideration that I often start things and then lose interest after while. In fact that usually happens with everything, however this time it is not the case (yet.) One of the factors that lead to me starting this blog was that I had plenty of free time at work in which to update it; so I think I have an excuse for being absent recently.

I went to see the Socceroos play the All-Whites last night at Craven Cottage. The Australians finally managed to turn relentless pressure into a goal in the 86th minute to win the game 1-0. Overall it was a pretty poor quality match, comparable to a match between two teams in the bottom half of the Championship. I hope the Socceroos will perform better at this month’s Confederations Cup and they certainly have a long way to go if they want to think about competing with the 5th place South American side in November for a World Cup berth. It was a pretty good atmosphere with the stadium about two-thirds full and plenty of support from the Aussies. Craven Cottage though has got to be one of the worst football stadiums I have been to. Sure it is quaint and picturesque; nestled beside the river in the gardens of Fulham Palace, but it is antiquated and falling down. Even with recent improvements, it should still be condemned; I cant’ actually believe a Premiership side plays its games there. I’m sure Roy Keane has had plenty to say about the quality of the facilities there compared to those at Old Trafford.

Still with football; there are still 64 days until the Premiership starts again. I am suffering withdrawal symptoms already. Although my attentions are mostly with rugby at the moment and I am excited about the impending international season in the southern hemisphere; I do not see rugby as a football substitute. Indeed it is an entirely separate passion altogether. No there really isn’t a substitute for the Premiership in the off season, I will just have to enjoy the nice weather and long hours of sunshine until it returns….. wait, hang on, where do I live again?

So still busy today, but have managed to find time to squeeze in this update before the weekend. Most of the end of year stuff is out of the way now so I shouldn’t be as busy as of next week, expect more frequent updates to return.

A reasonably quiet evening for me tonight, I will be proving my commitment to the Wallabies by getting up at 6am to watch the game versus Samoa. It is of course immediately followed by the Maori vs the Lions, should be a cracker. Not a bad way to start the day at all.

I win

So very busy at work at the moment; Mostly involved with correcting the mistakes of other people, who know that you’re going to correct their mistakes and so don’t bother doing it properly in the first place. So thus the reason for my lack of posting but I think I’ve said that before. Anyway, hopefully I will be a little freer next week.
In the mean time I would like to post that my letter won TNT’s letter of the week award this week. Hooray. For that I win a 3 day shamrocker trip around Ireland worth £79, not transferable. I doubt if I’ll actually use it, but it’s really the fame I’m after!

The Stormers?

Another letter in to the TNT:

I would like to apply for the position of TNT rugby correspondent. I assume that this position is now available and that the person who supplied TNT’s 2005 Super 12 predictions has been sacked. It was brave in the first place to tip that the Stormers would win the competition. Given their ignominious end to the campaign with a 75-14 loss to the Bulls, placing them in ninth spot on the ladder, the credentials of TNT’s tipster must be questioned. History suggests that you’ve got a 50% chance of getting it right by tipping the Crusaders to win at the start of the season.

Hope it gets published

88 days to go

The football season is practically over; the final round of the Premiership was completed on the weekend. Pretty exciting stuff on the last day to round things off, mostly at the foot of the table with all the 4 teams at the bottom a chance to stay up. Of course only 1 was going to so well done to West Brom, they were the only one of the 4 to win their match, thus becoming the first ever Premiership side to be bottom at Christmas and stay up.
Anyway, so apart from the FA Cup final this weekend and the Champions League final next Wednesday, the football season is over. There are 88 more days until the Premiership kicks off again, how will I cope with the absence of football? Well it shouldn’t be too much of a problem, international Rugby and Cricket will fill the void I’m sure. The Lions tour of New Zealand will be starting in a couple of weeks, followed by the Tri-Nations, as well as the much anticipated ashes series where England will no doubt fail to achieve the high levels of expectations that have been placed on them.

England of course are shooting themselves in the foot, months before the ashes even begins. Shane Warne is currently captaining county side Hampshire; he is taking a shitload of wickets and last week scored his maiden first class century with a 107 run knock in only 72 balls. The other star performer for Hampshire has been Aussie test batsman Simon Katich; also scoring runs freely and getting comfortable playing on English wickets. Brad Hodge and Mike Hussey are among other Australian squad members currently playing in the English county season.

Obviously county sides are free to recruit whomever they wish for their 2 allowed overseas players. However if I were involved with English cricket this year, and wanted to see the national side take advantage of their best opportunity of ashes success in years; then I would be making sure Australians stayed the hell away from cricket pitches here until they have to stride out to the centre on day one of the first test! Least of all Shane Warne, one of Australia’s main weapons, the most successful bowler ever in the history of cricket, who’s bowling the English have never been able to come to terms with. Shane is getting comfortable playing in England again, he’s getting used to the pitches, and he’s sending down plenty of deliveries to batsmen who are going to have to face him for their national side in July and August. He’ll be used to the way they play their strokes against him and will search for weaknesses he can exploit. By the time the ashes come around, he will be well and truly practised against England’s batting line up. Well done Warnie and all the other Aussies playing county cricket this year.


Work is pretty busy at the moment as we are reviewing a lot of end of year reports, thus the reason for the sparseness of my postings recently.

Black Friday

Money was a never ending object for you from the start
Picture of your only loving sister
That you just fucked up

Typical
Chemical
What you got?
Bitten by Black Friday

Electrical
Predictable
What you got?
Bitten by Black Friday?

Yeah
Bitten by Black Friday
Yeah

Could you be the only precious liar that I ever knew?
Yeah all the school girls disposing the lies
So watch the last one you use

Typical
Criminal
What you got?
Bitten by Black Friday

Electrical
Subliminal
What you got?
Bitten by Black Friday

Yeah
Bitten by Black Friday
Yeah

Typical
Chemical
What you got?
Bitten by Black Friday

Electrical
Subliminal
What you got?
Bitten by Black Friday

Yeah
Yeah

The only thing I'm going to say about the election

There has obviously been a lot of talk abou the fact that Labour has been returned to power for a record third consecutive term, and much of it has been about how their majority has been reduced significantly. The government now has a 67 seat majority which is down 45 from the last term. So much have people been used to New Labour holding power by such large majorities, that people are now suggesting that Tony Blair has something to be concerned about, and that it is the start of New Labour's decline. It's worthwhile pointing out that there have only been three parliaments in the past with higher majorities that Labour's current 67 seats; two of those have been Labour's last two terms, and the other belonging to Thatcher's government from the 1983 election.
A large reason for Labour's loss of seats this time has been the public backlash to the invasion of Iraq, and a growing general dislike for the Prime Minister. By the time the next general election is upon us, it is unlikely Blair will still be PM, Iraq will not be an issue any more, and Labour will probably win again. Unless......

I would also like to say that in a nation where there are three major political parties; Britain must use the preferential voting system that is used in Australia to elect individual seats. This would provide an outcome that is much more indicative of the public's wishes.

No thanks we don't need any more

I would like to reference this article in the Sydney Morning Herald. The international aid agency Medicins Sans Frontieres is handing back a large percentage of the money it received from the public for the victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Reason being, they have raised far too much. Now, people generally gave me looks of scorn when I joked that with all the fund raising going on, they would end up having more money than we do. Only now that appears to be true!!! This all really goes back to what I was saying in my very first blog posting. The positive note on it is that it appears most people requested their donations be diverted to other programs.

Taking the bait

So I set the bait with my letter in last week’s TNT and it got a bite. There were a couple of letters in regards to the Corby case, one particularly refuting my claims on Indonesia being uncivilised.

I sympathise with Schapelle Corby and her family, but I would resist isolating Indonesia as an “uncivilised” and unjust country as James Cameron does (‘Corby’s last chance’, Inbox, TNT 1131). Neither Britain, America or Australia have justice systems anyone could be proud of as they make the most marginalised in society scapegoats. Britain has a history of turning on others like the Irish and now Muslims, subjecting them to bogus courts. Is Australia’s justice system transparent, free and fair? Can everyone be sure they will receive a fair hearing with decent legal representation? We need to get off the high horse and live by the values we believe in. Margaret Boulos, London

A pretty good response actually, I agree with her entirely. Still, it was pretty much the exact reaction I was looking for so, mission accomplished.

Monday on a Tuesday

The pagan beginning of summer was heralded with a glorious bank holiday weekend. The sun came out to play, meaning everyone drank outside instead of in. Suffice to say my liver and I are not on friendly terms at the moment.

My letter about Schapelle Corby was published in the TNT, although it didn't win letter of the week. That always seems to go to some crap letter that's harping on about something everyone else has been writing about for weeks. Anyway, I am hoping I have courted a little controversy by taking a not so subtle dig at a country of 235 million people. With any luck someone will reply with a letter of their own next week and a thread may even be started. Or extremists will hunt me down and blow themselves up on a bus going past my house.

A commanding win by the Tahs on the weekend, I know everyone isn't saying much too soon but they are going to wipe the floor with the Reds on Friday.

My tip for tonight's Champions League semi second leg at Anfield: Black armbands worn by Liverpool players and a minute's silence because the groundsman's dog died, and Chelsea win 2-0.

Another letter to the TNT

Schapelle Corby's trial in Bali has just finished and there should be a verdict in a couple of weeks. I've been following the case in the papers for a while, and despite the fact that I am the least sympathetic person I know, I actually feel sorry for her. Some of it born out of irritation for the Indonesians as I know they're not too fond of Aussies, and the last pictures I saw of a Denpasar court were during the trial of the defiant Bali Bombers. Some Indonesians have a lot of resentment towards Australians and it seems to me that they just want to put her down. They have given her no opportunity to gather any evidence to prove her innocence, and standard procedures that you would have expected to be followed by sensible authorities have simply been ignored. The girl is clearly innocent, anyone can see that. The prosecution don't seem to care though, but then again, their job is to prosecute, not to care. But I am so irritated by the case they have put against her, and their blind flipancy of any evidence and common sense to the contrary.

So again, another letter from me to the TNT. I've taken a dig at the Indos, I hope it gets printed:

Schapelle Corby has made her last plea of innocence to a Denpasar court. Her whole trial has exposed the complete farce the Indonesian judicial system is. The prosecution and the authorities have ignored every scrap of evidence that may have proven Schapelle’s innocence; even refusing to have the bag of marijuana she was allegedly carrying finger-printed. Had this incident occurred in a civilised country, she would not have even stood trial. Her fate is in the hands of the three trial judges, I think most of Australia hopes they will see some sense and find her not guilty.

Victor Hugo Morales

I really haven't been in the mood for posting in the past week. Rest assured though I will pick up again shortly. In the mean time I am going to post this.

...la va a tocar para Diego, aqui la tiene Maradona, lo marcan dos, pisa la pelota Maradona, arranca por la derecha el genio del futbol mundial, y deja el tercero y va a tocar para Burruchaga... Siempre Maradona! Genio! Genio! Genio! ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta... y Goooooool... Gooooool...

Espectacular! Viva el fútbol! Golazo! Diego! Maradona! Estoy emocionado perdonenme ustedes... Maradona, en una corrida memorable, en la jugada de todos los tiempos... barrilete cósmico... de que planeta veniste? Para dejar el camino tan simple, para que el país con el puño apretado, gritando por Argentina.... Argentina 2 - Inglaterra 0... Diego!, Diego!, Diego Armando Maradona... Gracias Dios, por el fútbol, por Maradona, por estas lágrimas, por este Argentina 2 - Inglaterra 0...

Weekend at Bernie's II

Now that the hype surrounding the Pope’s death has died down a little, it is no longer too soon to speak ill of the dead. So before they get around to electing someone to take his place, it’s time to slag off Pope John Paul II.

Karol Jozef Wojtyla was an ultra conservative. As leader of 1.1 billion Catholics he failed utterly to move the church forward with the modern world. Instead clinging to antiquated ideas that are becoming increasingly out of place in today’s world.

Chief amongst these ideas is the issue of contraception; quite simply, it’s a no-no. What idiocy! Not only had the Pope’s church condemned the use of contraception, but actively took steps to prevent its use in third world countries. Countries where poverty is rife and is only increased as a result of more children being born. How many times have we seen aid groups advertising on television for donations, giving us a sob story about some poor guy who can’t afford to feed his 14 children? Let us also not forget how his church has condemned condom use in a world where there are 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS and a further 15 million children who have been orphaned by it. How many people has Pope John Paul II condemned to death for not allowing the use of a piece of latex? What purpose does it serve to oppose condom use anyway?

So you can’t use a condom and now you’re up the duff. According to the Pope, tough. You sure as hell aren’t going to have an abortion, that would be akin to murder, extermination, on the whole it’s pretty much full scale genocide! This time, our old friend Karol reckons it’s the same thing as the Holocaust. Although it seems to me that it’s a little easier to dispose of a few foetuses than it is 6 million fully grown human beings. Even for a pregnancy as a consequence of rape, even if it were a child whom the pregnancy would more than likely kill, no abortion under any circumstance. Why so much protection for a miniscule collection of cells?

It is possible for the church to move with the times, however slowly they may chose to. They’re not burning people at the stake any more for not believing what they say (although you can never be sure.) Galileo was right when he said the solar system was heliocentric, the Catholic Church said he was wrong and threatened to kill him if he didn’t renounce his claims. I’m pretty sure they agree with him now (although you can never be sure.) So as the world moves forward, we all realise that the things we used to be sure were right, weren’t actually at all. The Catholic Church seems less willing to do this and still insist that the meanings of a book written thousands of years ago be taken on face value.

What is probably most appalling about the moral authority with which the Pope wielded with his ideology, was his continuing failure to act against Priests around the world who have sexually abused small boys. Not only was no action taken within the church to prevent the continuance of this behaviour, but steps were taken to actively cover the whole thing up. Instead of Priests being shame and ex-communicated from the church, they were promoted to higher positions, or simply left to continue destroying the lives of children and their families with whom then were entrusted. The Pope turned a blind eye to horrific crimes against God, all the while condemning homosexuality as evil.

The most ridiculous thing about all this is the concept of Papal infallibility. Needless to say John Paul II was a staunch advocate and heavy promoter of this. Wouldn’t you too if you were the head of an organisation that insisted that whatever you said was correct and un-opposable by anyone, ever! What an utterly ridiculous and preposterous notion. Hmmm, now where else in the world would we find this kind of leadership structure, oh I know, North Korea. It sounds to me like the Vatican City is a dictatorship! Come on George W, let’s see you bring your democracy bandwagon into this town!

As I write this the conclave are in the process of electing a new Pope. The big question is whether the ultra conservatives will get their way and elect someone to keep the church in the dark ages; or will the cardinals see sense and elect a reformer to bring the church into the 21st century.

Stupido Commentatori

Football commentators piss me off. Actually nearly everything about football pisses me off, including the fact that I can't stop paying attention to it.
Anyway, when the Milan derby game was abandoned last night, the ITV commentators were really giving it some. This is how the minute by minute match reporter on Guardian Unlimited commented on it:

ITV2 commentators Peter Drury and Jim Beglin are on the verge of exploding with pompous, sanctimonious wailing and righteous indignation at the outrage that is unfolding before them: "But what about the children?"
Where's Bono when you need him?

I bloody agree, and it's not as though we haven't seen this kind of thing before, and it's not as though we haven't seen far worse from this from the English. Not that I condone what goes on, in fact I think it's rather silly, but let's have far less sanctimony from English football commentators especially.

The Guardian goes on to say:

Anyway, it's only several thousand plastic bottles and a big cloud of smoke - hardly an unprecedented event at a Milan derby. Far be it from me to condone this kind of guff, but Inter's fans do have every right to be upset, as their side has been robbed by referee Markus Merk tonight. He failed to send off Andriy Shevchenko for a blatant headbutt before the Ukrainian scored, he denied Inter a penalty and then disallowed a perfectly legitimate goal by Esteban Cambiasso. Is it any wonder they've got the hump?

Hmmm yes, well I've said my piece about referees before

If only to prevent us being subjected to more of this idiocy, let's hope there is no trouble tonight at the Stadio Delle Alpi

The Darwin Awards

Two men and their dog were found dead in a remote part of the Australian Great Sandy Desert the other day. These men had set off in a 31 year old Land Rover along a particularly unforgiving track, without enough water or petrol to even reach the next filling station. They had not told anyone where they were going or how long they would be gone. They did not take any maps, nor was their vehicle equipped with a 2 way radio. They had only a mobile phone with them and I doubt whether Telstra has service in that area.

Now, without going as far as saying these men deserved to die, the gene pool is surely better off with them removed.


Moving on to another person the gene pool could do without; Clive Woodward has announced his 44 man Lions squad for their annihilation at the hands of the All Blacks in a couple of months time. This number may increase to 45, 46, or 47 depending on whether a number of England has beens, who haven't played in ages, can prove they are fit enough to sit in the stands with a red blazer on. It is also worth noting the Woodward's entourage includes no less than 26 coaches.

The headlines yesterday were of course devoted to Jonny Wilkinson, in so much as the fact he has been left out of the squad, but has he? Well basically no. If he can prove his fitness between now and then, he will be included, the other fly halves though have been told that they will not be automatically looked over if Wilko is fit. I have written about whether it is a good idea for Jonny to play or not before and my opinion is still the same.

There has been some dissent from the other home nations that Woodward has favoured his home country. Despite the fact that England are no longer a very good rugby side, 20 of the squad are English, 11 Irish, 10 from the Grand Slam winning Welsh side, and 3 Scotsmen making up the 42nd, 43rd and 44th members of the tour. There are more players in the squad from Sale Sharks as there are from Scotland, leading some people to suggest a bias towards Zurich Premiership teams. These people did obviously not watch any of Scotland's 6 nations tests this year.

It is easy to see where Woodward is going with his selections; he is trying to get a mix of youth and flair that the Welsh have shown us this year, and combine it with the experience of his England buddies who know what it takes to win. He is going with a tried and tested formula, he thinks that experience is what he needs to win a third test decider in the biting wind and rain in Auckland.

I think though that Woodward is still clinging too much to 2003. His England team no longer exist. There are still a number of those players included in the squad, but many of them have not been playing for England, or have not been playing regularly at all. The squad may have a core of players who have experience and know what it takes to win, but at the same time, the inclusion of these players can also create a team that the All Blacks will know how to beat. With many experienced players in the side, the All Blacks could well be thinking better the devil you know than the one you don't.

I can only consider that there were not more Welsh players in the side because Graham Henry knows many of the players from his time as Welsh national coach, and would therefore know their weaknesses. All the same though, Woodward's squad does not surprise me but I honestly think he is off the mark.

Verdict: clean sweep to the All Blacks

It doesn't matter if you're black or white

A friend of mine is having a little trouble with some of the things his colleagues are saying at work. He is a white Anglo-Saxon, born and raised in Australia; both of his parents were born in Britain, where he is now living. Generally as Australians living in London, we are subjected to some anti-Australian banter here and there from the natives. Most of the time it’s pretty friendly and we give as good as we get. I get the impression though that in my friend’s case, it has risen to a level above what can be construed as friendly banter. On a number of occasions my friend has expressed his distress to me at being continually subject to snide remarks and sly comments about his nationality.
Most Australians are more than happy to make jokes about themselves and their own country; it’s one of the things that make Aussies generally laid back and friendly people. What are being said to my friend however, are not jokes and are certainly not funny. Psychologically I believe the reason for these comments, mostly from one or two individuals, as an attempt to exclude my friend as they regard him as a threat to their status and as a result of themselves harbouring feelings of inadequacy.

So far, my friend has not drawn attention to the fact that he is upset about this. He does not want to cause any trouble and it is obviously not worth his while to start putting people in the office offside. What would happen though if he did report the matter to senior management? Perhaps the parties involved would be told quietly that they should give it a rest for a while. I imagine that would be the extent of it.

Pretty much everything that has been said to him could have equally been said to someone of any nationality in the exact same context. He is being victimised purely on the basis of his nationality and it is causing him distress and discomfort in the workplace. What would happen though, if my friend were black, and he were not from Australia, but an immigrant from the Caribbean? I can tell you that the shit would hit the fan! There would be massive repercussions for the company and those involved. The offenders would be sacked in an instant; my friend could resign stating he could no longer work in an environment where he was being racially vilified. He could then take the company to court because of this and more than likely win his case and receive a large amount of compensation. The case would be reported in the press and the good name of the company would be sullied. The whole experience would cause not only financial damage, but also long term damage to the company’s good will.

So what’s the difference? There is none. The treatment that my friend is subject to is no different at all to treatment that would be labelled racist and totally unacceptable were the colour of his skin different. Racism and discrimination is such a highly sensitive issue in modern society, minor indiscretions are zealously reacted to. The treatment my friend is subjected to is totally unacceptable. Whether it is racist, culturalist, nationalist, call it what you will it is all the same thing: discrimination and vilification based on something the victim has never had any control over.

Just quickly...

With the General Election coming up in less than a month, my vote will be swayed by whichever party can promise to enter more five pound notes into circulation. It is an increasingly common occurrence to pay for something and expect a fiver change, only to be told they have no five pound notes; thus ending up with a pocket full of one pound coins. This is bloody irritating and something must be done about it. I encourage everyone to write, call, email the Bank of England to ensure they put an end to this travesty!



I have just finished reading the final book of Dave Pelzer’s autobiography. A very compelling read, the three books cover Dave’s life from when he was a small boy and brutally abused by his mother, through to his successful life as an adult. As with a lot of books, there are a couple of pages at the end of the book devoted to ‘About the Author.’ I thought this was a little strange in this case because I had just finished reading an AUTOBIOGRAPHY! Was not the entire story About the Author? Needless to say, it did not contain any information that I hadn’t already read.

Weekend at Bernie's

Ok well it had to be mentioned eventually; The Pope has died. It was in the morning on April 2 that the Vatican announced his death. For a while there I thought they were going to tell us all on April 1; then tell us all it was an April fool and in fact the Pope had died quite some time ago and, Weekend at Bernie’s style, had been puppetted about via an elaborate system of wires and pulleys.

I am told also that the Pope was catholic, in spite of this though he didn’t seem like such a bad dude. He was a voice of opposition to war and used his position of power to promote the cause of peace. He also played football, ice hockey and rugby in his native Poland, and that’s all right with me!

During his last days, one particularly poignant statement he made was “Do not weep for me,” and rightly so. The mourning thus far has been relatively sensible, the guy was clearly suffering throughout the last few years of his life, and if you believe like many people do, he has clearly gone to a better place. Needless to say though, many women in small South American villages will wail uncontrollably at the feet of Virgin Mary statues for some time to come. This leads me to suggest that in general, Christian society does not deal with death particularly well. Obviously it is painful to lose a loved one, but for so many people who say they believe in God and heaven, it really shouldn’t be that difficult. Surely if heaven really is the wonderful paradise that it’s claimed to be, then we should be happy for the dead, and our grieving is purely a selfish feeling because our friends or family aren’t around to keep us company any more.

Here in of course lies the purpose for religion. What would so many millions have to hold on to were it not for faith? The concept of an omniscient god and an afterlife, gives people a purpose for their lives when perhaps they would otherwise have none. Belief gives people comfort and gives people a reason for their existence. It is, as our old friend Karl Marx (who may or may not have also been Santa Claus) said; ‘the opium for the masses.’ Perhaps somewhat more critically he also said; ‘Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.’

So is religion a product of evolution? As the human mind evolved over time, so did more questions arise and so were more answers required. How many billions of people could not live their life without purpose and without the comfort that they were loved unconditionally by a higher power? Is this belief required for the human species to evolve successfully? Regardless of whether a god exists or not, it is worthwhile noting that religion was not created by a god, religion was created by humans.

Normal Service Resumed

It's Monday again, normal service has been resumed. Deciding that it was merely an April fool's joke, I cancelled my trip to Sudan and got pissed instead. The problem with Sunday sessions is having to get up for work the next day. It does however give a perfectly good excuse to usher out the door the girl who slept in your bed last night; who you swear looked a lot more attractive yesterday after 8 pints of lager. This concept should no longer surprise me.
In any case, I was fine today, just not really on the ball. That was really the case with everyone else too. I was stoked on Friday night when I got home and found the Waratahs game was actually going to be shown on tele in the morning, not so stoked about the result, but not too worry there were still some positives to come out of the game. I personally blame Mat Rogers for the loss; his presence was really needed this week and he let the team down by not being fit for the match, he's soft.

There's plenty to be said about the important events over the weekend, but I'll do that tomorrow.

The End of the Line

After only a couple of months of discursive therapy, this blog is closing down. Today will be my last posting. I would like to thank the few of you who have read my ranting and raving over the past couple of months, this blog has been an enjoyment for me as well as an outlet for some of my energies.

Next week I will be flying to Sudan where I will take up a post with the Red Cross in the Darfur region of the country. Many hundreds of thousands of people have been slaughtered through government sponsored genocide. Many many more have fled the area as refugees leading to one of the worst humanitarian crises of recent times. I will be assisting to deliver food and aid packages to those refugees.
Something must be done to help these people and I can no longer stand idle while the rest of the world ignores.

I hope to blog again in the near future and hopefully recount my experiences in Sudan. Needless to say I will not have the time nor access to the resources to continue this blog in the way I have enjoyed doing so over the last couple of months.

So it is today, April 1, that I bid you all a fond farewell. I hope my writings can be a part of your readings again some time in the future.

Good luck and God bless

Praise be to Jesus

Last Thursday night (being the start of the weekend) I was out for a friend’s birthday drinks. It turned out to be a reasonably late night and so as we were in the northern end of town, I ended up crashing at my mate’s place in North London.
We had a full English the next morning (well it was lunch by then) and I then made my way to the tube station to head home. On my way I passed a large group of gospel singers, spreading the word of God, singing loudly and generally being rather annoying. Can’t they give it a rest for once and leave people alone, I thought to myself. It was not until a few hours later when I was sitting at home that I realised it was Good Friday.

So fair enough these people were out celebrating a Christian holiday and giving thanks to Jesus. We have a lot to thank Jesus for; if it weren’t for Him, we would have 4 less public holidays every year. There would be no post Christmas shopping sales either! So for dying on the cross so we could have a few more hours sleep on days we would otherwise have to be at work; thank you Jesus. On the other hand, I am a contract worker and don’t get paid if I don’t go to work, so thanks for nothing pal.


If you look in the top right hand corner of your screen you will see the button to click to read the next blog. Chosen randomly, it can make for some interesting reading. Many of the bloggers I have noticed are Christians and are using their blog to spread the word. Good for them, they can write whatever they like, however I’m going to leave the comments open on this post, in case any of them surf my way and want to give us their thoughts.

Actually most of the bloggers are Americans, and Americans always seem to incorporate God and/or Guns into whatever they’re doing. Strange mix really isn’t it?

A published writer

It was a pretty slow start this morning, after 4 days off. Didn’t do all that much over the weekend but did spend Sunday afternoon in Southend, one of the many places in Britain that can truly be called Chavsville. I hardly had any emails in my inbox this morning, I really must write to people more often.

Evening’s are getting longer now, summer time has arrived so no sunset until around 7.30, and getting later.

My letter was published in today’s TNT, interestingly enough right next to the letter of a friend who was also writing about rugby.

It’s detox week this week, no beer from Monday through till Friday after work; wish me luck.

Pigs and pig skins

I am still alive. Rob brought back the product of his pig killing adventures, mostly in sausage form. We were treated to photos of the event, from collecting the live pig to the dinner plate; we then sat down to eat. The sausages were quite tasty actually, and did not cause us food poisoning, despite what could be described as questionable hygiene standards in the Czech Republic. Needless to say they had not been declared to customs on the way into the country, but from live pig in Prague, to sausages in South London is a pretty quick turnaround.


This week there has obviously been plenty of reporting on the six nations tournament, and obviously with the Lions tour coming up in a few months attention is focussed on who should be selected. Many pundits have given their starting Lions XVs, obviously now with quite a few Welsh players in them. What I found utterly astounding is that so many rugby commentators can still claim that Jonny Wilkinson should be the starting fly half. The man has not played a game of international rugby since the world cup, and in that time he has only played a handful of club games. If he is fit for the Lions tour, it will be only just in time. No matter how good a player he used to be, such a long stint on the sidelines will, at least initially, prevent him from playing to the best of his abilities. Wilkinson will not have the match practice or fitness to competently fill the number 10 role. To overlook Stephen Jones for the starting position, for a player who will have not played a rugby international in more than 18 months, is sheer lunacy.I can only see a detriment to the team if Wilkinson is selected ahead of Stephen Jones, however knowing Clive Woodward, it will be of no surprise. If it is the case, the All Blacks will have him for dinner (breakfast UK time.)

Jaded

Yeah so I've got the Monday blues as usual, I didn't quite realise our Sunday lunch at the pub with the flatmates was going to turn into a marathon drinking session, but never mind.
I will have to brave the crowds at the gym tonight, Monday night is always really busy and you often have to wait for the equipment. I usually don't go on Mondays because of this reason but I have other commitments the rest of this week. After the gym though I'm off to Rob's place. He went to Prague on the weekend to visit a friend with whom he killed a pig (yes that was the intention of the trip) So tonight we will be feasting on the result of this slaughter.


I usually flick through the TNT on Monday's, it's not a bad read. Occasionally something bothers me enough to write in to letters about it. This week, in response to a sentence in an article about Andrew Johns, I sent in the following.

I find it very difficult to understand how Andrew Johns can be regarded as the best player in either rugby code (TNT 1125.) Andrew has never played Rugby Union before, people merely assume that as he is such a quality league player, he has what it takes to be the best in union. The ARU decided that he didn’t when they blocked the Waratahs’ attempts to sign him late last year. Whether he could play the game or not is irrelevant, Johns never has and never will have anything to do with Rugby Union so let’s have an end to these ridiculous claims.

I could rave on for longer about this matter, but I have to keep the letter brief and succinct so it will be printed. It really does piss me off when people say Johns is widely regarded as the best player in either code. I don't regard him as such and neither does anyone I know who supports Rugby Union. In fact I would go as far as to say it is insulting to suggest that a player, who has never had anything even remotely to do with Union in his lifetime, could be regarded as the best player in either League or Union. We don't want him to have anything to do with Union either. He might have the skills, but he doesn't have the passion and the instincts for the game, that course through the blood of all true Rugby people. Besides, I find it hard to believe anyone who spends all their time on the treatment table can be regarded as the best at anything... cough cough Jonny Wilkinson.
Oh and Willie Mason, you can piss off too.

So staying with Rugby; well done Tahs, good win, played as a team, probably should have picked up a bonus point but apart from that. Well done Wales, played some great rugby throughout the tournament and throroughly deserved their grand slam. And well done Don Cameron, kicking off Uni's Shute Shield with the first try of the season.

The ramblings of a tired man on a Friday afternoon

4pm. Officially an hour and a half until the working week is over. Unofficially more like an hour and a quarter. I’m having a strong coffee now to pick myself up, had a couple of pints at lunch and that always makes me feel sleepy in the afternoon. It’s actually pretty difficult to get back to work after that, you just hit the wall. I’m going to go to the gym straight after work though, I like going on Fridays because it’s quiet and you generally don’t have to wait to use the equipment. I’ve stared varying the exercises I do so it all doesn’t become monotonous. I’m also doing my dips unassisted now, which I think is pretty impressive. It’s quite funny that when I look at myself in the mirror, the satisfaction I get from seeing the results I get from the gym, is tinged somewhat by the fact that I am sickeningly pasty and white.


I am appalled but not in the slightest way surprised that the US are going to start drilling for oil in Alaska. They’ll get maybe a six-month supply of oil from the place and despite backer’s claims that modern drilling equipment is far more environmentally friendly, irreparable damage will be caused to the area. Of course we will not stop until we have sucked every last drop of oil from the earth, and the earth will run out of oil within my expected lifetime. At the moment there is little sign of a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Dubya has insisted that drilling there is in the interest of security. This is of course the standard excuse for everything nowadays. Now whenever you are asked to explain pretty much anything, the statement ‘It’s for security purposes,’ seems to be infallible.

All the world’s energy problems could be solved by perpetual motion, then we need not worry about drilling for more oil. To do this I think we need to apply a law previously discussed in this blog; Sod’s Law. For example, if you drop a piece of toast, sod’s law states that it will always land buttered side down. When a cat falls, its body is designed to twist so it will always land on its feet. Now if we can attach a piece of toast to a cat’s back, buttered side up, and drop the cat; the two aforementioned laws will cause the cat to spin endlessly. If we can somehow harness this perpetual motion, we will have little further need for fossil fuels.


The laws of physics do not allow for perpetual motion. However the problem is infinity. The impossibility of perpetual motion and the concept of infinity are mutually exclusive. We cannot create perpetual motion because of entropy, however the concept of entropy must preclude a finite universe. I wrote this second point down a while ago when it came to me, despite the absence of any scientific data, I think it is conceptually a valid idea.


Again we will not see Mat Rogers turning out for the Tahs tomorrow. Perhaps he is at the tattoo parlour getting drawn on again. I noticed in the last game he played, he was sporting a large tat in calligraphic writing along the inside of his right forearm. These are quite popular amongst footballers and other people with absolutely no taste or style. But what does it say? Well Mat has shown again that his sense of originality applies only to his skills with a football by permanently marking the phrase C’est la vie on his arm. I wonder what else he had on the short list before deciding to go with that one. More that likely this phrase means a lot to him, as it’s what he says to himself every time he gets injured. Well done Mat, you have shown us so far this year that you are a great footballer, but you are also a total dickhead. But hey, that’s life.

Right, I’m going home.

The Craic

Saint Patrick; Patron saint of plastic paddy pubs and large novelty Guinness hats. So yesterday was one of the world’s favourite national days St Patrick’s Day. Everyone likes St Patrick’s Day, because everyone likes the Irish, and everyone likes getting pissed. St Patrick’s Day gives everyone an excuse to get pissed, most people don’t need an excuse, but having one takes away the guilt.
In the end it wasn’t the most raucous evening, I teamed up with my Irish mate James and we started at London’s oldest Irish pub The Tipperary. The plan was to go from real to plastic paddy and make our way to an O’Neils or such via a few other places on the way. We did this, fuelled by some good old fashioned Irish stew and plenty of pints of the black stuff.
Armed with our novelty Guinness hats, we marched through the West End singing Ireland’s Call. As it turned out there was a huge cue to get into all of the plastic paddy pubs in the west end and buggered if we were going to wait. But there are plenty of pubs around, and plenty that sell Guinness, so all was not lost.
So cheers to the Irish, may only cowards go to battle wearing armour.

What made the evening possible was the weather. After those few weeks of chill, the weather has turned very pleasant indeed. Winter is over, the over coat will be packed away and with summer time starting in a week, bring on the summer!!!

Gosh darn those big macs are healthy

Last Tuesday in the US, McDonalds launched a massive advertising campaign urging Americans to fight obesity by eating healthily and exercising.

Ummmm, does anyone else see a problem with this picture?

Isn’t that like the porn industry sponsoring the silver ring thing?** Or a cigarette company encouraging people to get more fresh air?

Pretty soon McDonalds will be sponsoring Lent.

McDonalds also announced sponsorship contracts with Tennis’s Williams sisters. Now these two sold out long ago, but surely this one takes the cake, I mean, burger. Here’s a message to all those young aspiring athletes for whom Venus and Serena are role models: They didn’t become champions by eating big macs!

** The Silver Ring Thing is a ‘head in the sand’ initiative from America, (the world leaders in teenage pregnancy) to try and encourage young people not to have sex until they are married. Whether it is a good idea for these people to breed at all is another matter, for another day’s blog.

Just Call Me Del Boy

Ticket touting update:
I advertised my spare ashes tickets on thegumtree; to test the water I put them on at six times the face value wondering if there’d be any takers. The first response I got was an email from some twat asking whether I was having a laugh, and that anyone paying that much would be “stupid or a desperate aussie spending their hard earned barman wage.” I agreed with him saying you would have to be stupid, but there are plenty of stupid people out there and, if he looked on ebay, he would find plenty of people willing to pay that much.
I left it over the weekend and come Monday, had responses from 3 people all saying they would buy them. So applying what little I actually remember from my unfinished education in Economics, I let demand increase the price and reposted the ad.
Shortly I had another interested party. After a quick phone call and a bit of haggling, a deal was done. The buyer (English geezer as opposed to desperate Aussie barman) was willing to drive into town and meet me near my office, with cash, the next day.
And so the transaction was completed at lunch time today; a little bit dodgy making a cash transaction out in the street, but I felt like a regular Del Boy Trotter after that with a wad of bills held in a paper clip in my jacket pocket. Of course the next place I went was the bank to deposit the cash equivalent of 650% of the face value of two ashes tickets.
The story however does not end there. My friend, let’s for these purposes call him Rob; also was fortunate enough to have 2 tickets. He too is coming on the SA trip and will thus be selling his tickets. So after discussing my wheeling and dealing with him, I advertised his tickets on his behalf. Shortly after, he received a call from the same person who purchased mine, willing to buy his for the same price. The story I got was that he was going to treat his son, Rob’s story was the grandparents. In any case, we don’t care what he does with them, we’ve got our money and we both think it is a stupid amount of money to pay for tickets to the cricket. The black market price may go up as the test draws closer, but tickets are being sold by ticketing agencies now, for the same price we received for ours. So I’m happy, what it all really equates to for me is free flights to Johannesburg. Now that’s what I call budget travel.

It's just not cricket

It’s funny how some things seem to come at once. After having booked our flights to Yappieville on Wednesday, I returned home to find an unexpected letter waiting for me. (I get so little mail I usually know what it is before opening it.) So anyway, I waited a few minutes to increase the anticipation – such is the thrilling existence of my life.
The opening of the letter was met with a somewhat maniacal laughter from me (I should be a mad scientist) when I found what was inside: 2 tickets to day 3 of the first Ashes test at Lords!
Lords don’t do their ticketing on a first come first served basis, they operate a ballot system just like in the Olympics or World Cups. I had entered the ballot back in November, but they only let you apply for a maximum of 2 tickets per person. Typical bloody Lords, how is one supposed to attend a cricket game accompanied by only one other person? It’s just not cricket! Spectating at a cricket game requires at least half a dozen boozed up blokes and no shirts. What are we supposed to do with just one mate along, watch the game?

Now as it turns out, when we were planning the trip to South Africa, we realised that it clashed with the first test. We hadn’t had our tickets allocated yet and it didn’t really require much thought to decide the trip was worth missing out on the cricket. I’ve been to an Ashes test at Lords in 2001, and the fifth test is on at The Oval so there’ll be plenty of chances to see the cricket.

It’s funny that these tickets should turn up on the same day we confirmed we wouldn’t be able to go. So I guess I’m stuck with two tickets to the first Saturday of the Ashes series, does anyone want them?
Well of course someone does. This year England have probably they best chance of beating the Aussies than they have had in the past 15 years. Although I probably have a better chance of dating Claudia Schiffer this year than I have had in the past 15, but that doesn’t mean it will actually happen. But blind faith pushes up ticket prices.
I think it is highly likely I will be able to sell the tickets for at least a 500% mark-up. That should almost cover the cost of my flights! I'd better work on my cockney accent first; 'anyone need ticke's? buy or sell ticke's, anyone need ticke's?'

Oh did I say sell the tickets? I meant I would give them to someone and then charge a few quid transportation costs!

That creative streak

Catching the tube home late in the evening is always amusing. Invariably many people are on there way home from an evening that has involved alcohol. So most carriages have some kind of dirty old man / sad pathetic loser, trying to chat up the nearest female. Most of the time the ladies are good natured about it and are pleasant in return. It is amusing though to observe the inebriated man oblivious to the woman squirming in excruciating awkwardness.

Last night I boarded the train and found myself overhearing such an exchange. There were two ladies in question and they appeared to be involved in the fashion industry in some way (although definitely not as models.) So these two ladies were suffering some Billy Mitchell look-alike and appeared to be talking about the creative side of the industry. This guy says: “I’d like to be creative, but I don’t have a creative streak in me.” Nice one dude!
So it got me thinking, I’d like to be a movie star; but I can’t act.
Or maybe a rock star; but I can't sing.
Or even design an inter-galactic spacecraft; but I don’t have a creative streak in me.


Moving on..........

The man in football with the best name: Bayern Munich player Sebastian Schweinsteiger. In German it means Pig Climber, must have been hell in the school yard.
Second Prize goes to PSV's Jan Vennegor of Hesselink. Damn that's a cool name

Bored to tears at work

I don’t want to write here about sport all the time but last night’s Champions League tie between Chelsea and Barcelona cannot go unmentioned.

So there I’ve mentioned it.

No but really, it was a great game to watch. The league leaders from Spain and England dishing up a six goal thriller, with a dash of controversy is what the champions league is all about. Barca can be a little aggrieved as it did look like Carvalho fouled Victor Valdez for Terry’s winning goal. Even more so considering all the whingeing that came from Mourinho after the first leg. Chelsea though deserved to win and I’m pleased to see them through. Petr Cech was outstanding in goal, making some fine saves that kept Chelsea in the match. Saves that probably wouldn’t have been saved by Roy Carroll, Tim Howard, Jerzey Dudek, Jens Lehman or Manuel Almunia.
While Chelsea and Barcelona served up 9 goals in their two legs, Man U and Milan gave us 2. Man U are out, can’t really blame the goalkeeper for letting a goal in if the rest of the team aren’t going to bother scoring any.


It’s so easy to book airline tickets these days. We don’t even need to ring travel agents to get quotes. As with pretty much everything else these days, it can all be done on-line. There are loads of sites to book holidays through, there are even sites you can go to that will do a comparison of all the prices being offered on these sites.
So I’ve been doing my research, finding which is the best price for our trip to South Africa in July. Yesterday I had singled out the best deal and was ready to book. One of my mates wanted me to wait until today, so he could see what the flights were before I booked them.
As is with a lot of these booking engines, the prices fluctuate based on how far away the trip is and how full the flight has already been booked. I was a little hesitant to wait until today to make the booking, I knew which one I was going to book so why take the risk that the price might go up. But what difference is one day going to make?
This morning I ran the particular flight search and was horrified to find the price per ticket had risen 25% overnight! I ran the search again and again hoping to get different results but there was no way I was getting yesterday’s price. I was kicking myself. So I took a few moments to compose myself and started looking for another deal. In a real anti-climax to this story, I managed to find flights with a different carrier on another website, which in the end turned out to be slightly cheaper than the ones I had originally planned to book.
So all’s well that ends well, we’re flying Swiss now instead of Lufthansa as originally planned. All that’s left to make this story interesting is for the Lufthansa flight to crash!

Carcinogens

Apologies to my regular readers (whom I'm sure I can count on one hand) as I have not been actively blogging the last week or so. In any case, the barren streak wont continue, I just haven't been in the mood. Anyway, it's time for quick piece of classic cynicism.

Recently a large number of food products have been called off the shelves as they contain the food dye known as Sudan 1. Now would be a good time to make a joke about how these food products are causing mass genocide in a large North African country, but I wont.
Apparently, Sudan 1 causes cancer; well, that's the theory anyway. Of course so does bloody everything else. Every day there is another report about something we do that gives us cancer. Soon, we'll be told that everything gives us cancer, which is probably true. Pretty much everyone dies of cancer nowadays, the only people who dont, are people that wind up dying of something else first.
I'll take my chances with the Worcestershire sauce.

Ok it's 5.30 now so I'm going, I'm sure I could rant on about this for longer, but not today. I will post more tomorrow and even though Champions League is on tonight, I will try and post about something else as well as football.

Tips for tonight: Milan 1 : 0 Man U - Milan Qualify
Chelsea 4 : 2 Barcelona - Chelsea Qualify

Oh and message to David Campese: Shut up, nobody gives a shit about what you have to say anymore, has-been.

Pictures of new cars

I've not had much news the past couple of days and have been a little busy at work to post any thorough comments, so here's posting version lite:

Good to see Ireland and Wales win on the weekend, if Ireland can beat France next weekend it will set up a great Grand Slam decider in the last round. Wales performed outstandingly in the second half to come back at France and win the game, well done the Taffs. England played well against Ireland and still lost, so they couldn't make excuses for their loss and say they played badly, but they did anyway and this time blamed the referee. The Scotland v Italy game was abject. A disgrace that it should actually be called an internationaly rugby game, both teams were so afraid of losing that they were too scared to play. There really are not enough adjectives to describe how terrible it was. A stellar performance on the other hand by the Brumbies in their match against the Crusaders. Even with key injuries in the first part of the game, they showed they have the depth, and experience to come out on top. Larkham and Gerrard lead from the front. The Brumbies are pure class and are the kind of team that all others should emulate. My early tip for 2005 champions.

So enough about rugby. Apparently over the weekend my parents bought a new car. I know nothing more than that it is a blue Mercedes A Class. I opened my emails on Monday morning to find a picture of it emailed to me by my Dad, no explaination provided. Guys, I know you'll be reading this, so let's have some details please!!!

Oh, I have also discovered that leather soled shoes are crap in the snow.

Don't tell me the score!

A winning start for the Tahs!
All reports suggest it was an outstanding performance from club rugby's favourite son, Mat Rogers. One game down, only three more to go before his season ending injury wrecks our chances of winning the title.
While the match was being played on Friday evening in Sydney, I was at work on Friday morning in London; so I didn't get the opportunity to see it. I did however follow the occasional updates posted on the NSW Rugby website and thus knew the outcome when the match was over.
A very close friend of mine, who is a passionate rugby fun, does not want to know the score. He hopes, although he does not know for sure, that a pub somewhere in London will be showing a replay of the game, around Wednesday next week. He has requested that all his friends, many of whom are also passionate rugby and Waratah fans, do not tell him the score. He already has a voice message on his phone from a friend of ours back in Sydney, and will be getting his girlfriend to screen the message in case it contains any reference to the result.
I can understand where he's coming from, watching a game of sport is far more exciting when one doesn't know the outcome. It's perfectly reasonable to miss watching a game on a Saturday afternoon, and request not to be notified of the result so one can watch the replay in the evening. Surely though, asking your mates to wait almost 6 days without mentioning the match is a bit much? This is the first game of the Super12 season we're talking about here. Rugby is a big part of our social circle, asking us not to talk about rugby is almost like asking us to not talk at all.
Essentially this is all a big burden for me to shoulder It is not necessarily about temptation and wanting to reveal the result, but it will be a conscious effort not to slip into what would otherwise be a regular conversation.
Although I think he's a bit bonkers, I'm happy to play along. I cannot however, guarantee this will still be the case when the season is 12 weeks old!


Ok well after writing all that down, I just thought I'd email the text of the posting to my mate just so he could read my comments about him before I posted them. What I forgot when I did this was that I revealed the outcome at the beginning of the post. Stupid me. So now after having written that whole spiel and saying I wasn't going to tell him the score, I just did.

Funny though, if he hadn't been so adamant that he didn't want to know the score for 6 days, I would never have written this post, and never revealed the result.

I do feel bad though. Sorry Buddy

Soap Opera

For English teams, last night’s Champions League matches were characterised by two common events, a Roy Carroll howler, and Anders Frisk playing for the television cameras.

A side that is trying to win the European Cup, cannot afford to have a goalkeeper prone to such errors. The defence must take some of the blame, Seedorf should not have been allowed to shoot, but it is a shot that should have been saved, and not fumbled into the path of Crespo. Again, the defence should have reacted quicker to clear the ball, but the shot was hit straight at Carroll and he should have caught it. Petr Cech would have caught it, Iker Casillas would have…… Peter Schmeichel would have.

Manchester United were knocked out of the competition last year by eventual winners Porto, when, in the last few minutes of the game, Tim Howard parried a relatively simple shot into the path of Francisco Costinha, who gave them the goal they needed to advance. Man U are by no means out of it, it is not often that a team goes to the San Siro and gets against such miserly defence, but if any team can then it’s Man U.

Perhaps it is unfair to heap so much blame on goalkeepers. Perhaps we should blame the strikers for not converting their chances, it’s not entirely fair; a mistake by a striker doesn’t generally appear on the score sheet, whereas a goalkeeper’s mistake does. However, all great teams are built on a strong presence in goal.
I do not think that the current Man U team is inferior in quality to the side that won the treble in 1999, and dominated the premiership in the 90s. The big difference however, is in goal. Man U would never have been so successful in the past if Roy Carroll was minding the nets instead of Peter Schmeichel; and they would be a far more successful side currently, with a goalkeeper of Schmeichel’s quality. It is as simple as that! There are quality goalkeepers out there, and Manchester United are not a poor club!

Roy Carroll has twice refused a renewal of his contract at Old Trafford now, I wonder which clubs will want to sign him instead. Perhaps he should consider not wearing the number 13 on his back!



Chelsea were unlucky to have had Didier Drogba sent off last night. Both challenges that brought him yellow cards were rather innocuous, and both may not have brought cautions from a different referee. For the second caution, Drogba instinctively went for a 50-50 ball with the goalkeeper, he made contact with the ball only and, if anything, Valdez clattered into Drogba when he realised he didn’t have the ball. Anders Frisk produced a yellow card, which then became red. Goalkeepers are a protected species.
Most will say that Drogba was unfairly punished, and I agree, especially since that diving little shit Deco wasn’t booked in the first half for one of the most blatant acts of simulation you’ll ever see. But after picking up his first caution after 15 minutes, he always looked like picking up another one, especially with Anders Frisk blowing the whistle.

For a long time I have always had a great deal of sympathy for referees; I was a referee myself once upon a time. It is a thankless task, nobody is ever happy with a referee’s performance. At all levels, referees give up their Saturday afternoons so we can play, only to be abused by players, parents, and fans alike. We must always remember that without referees, there would be no football. There are many credible refs who love the game and want to put in as much as they have gotten out of it.
There are also many referees who are complete arseholes. These are the men who seem to end up officiating at the top level.

It takes a particular type of person to become a referee at the top level. Are these the type of people that we want refereeing the games that mean so much to so many people? It is similar to government; it takes a certain type of person to become a politician, however, these are not necessarily the type of people we want running the country.

Most referees are failed footballers. If they were any good at football, they would be playing the game instead of officiating it. Most referees are also short, ugly, and bald. When you consider how much money, how much passion, and how much emotion is vested in football matches, it is frightening to think how much power these short, ugly, bald, failures actually have.

The best referees are the ones that nobody ever talks about, the exception perhaps being Pierluigi Collina. The fans are there to watch the players, not the ref, but the refs just cant handle that; they grew up dreaming of playing in front of thousands of cheering fans, and they want some of the spotlight too!
They revel in the power they have to change the course of a match, the power they have over millions of dollars worth of talent; they envy that talent and all that it brings. The players earn more in a week than these refs do in a year, the players are idolised and championed, the players have little respect for the referee. The referee wishes he was a player, but he feels he has the next best thing, power over them. They are out there in front of thousands of cheering fans, just like they dreamed of, and they want to be on television too.
I’m sure the referees are not consciously thinking these kind of things when they brand a controversial red card, or rule out a goal that should have stood. All these emotions are exist in the subconscious, are a part of the referee’s personality, and are what shapes his decisions on the field.

Anders Frisk is one of these refs; he blows his whistle too loud, is far too flamboyant, and pulls his shorts too far up his arse. I think he wears his shorts this way in order to cause enough pain to his rectum, so as to put him in the right mood to officiate the way he does.
In the earlier stages of the Champions League, at half time in a match at Roma, a spectator threw a coin from the stands, which hit Frisk right between the eyes, and gave him a decent cut. Nobody should condone this kind of behaviour from fans (he was caught and has now been signed by the England cricket team) but when referees like Frisk are concerned, we can sometimes empathise.

Who wants a job where they are constantly subject to constant abuse, harassment and death threats? These people do, they are small in number, but play a huge part in making football the soap opera it is. Forget about Eastenders, this is one soap opera that just keeps people coming back for more.

Hump Day

Tie update: Only one of them was ruined and I didn't really like that one anyway. The others were well salvaged with a few minor stains on the back of them so.......... I still think I'll make a trip to TM Lewin

Champions League last night, Arsenal have been compared to Only Fools and Horses; you know what's going to happen, but you watch anyway, and laugh.

Champions League tonight!!! Should I be surprised that more London pubs are showing the Man U game as opposed to the Chelsea game? I suppose not, there are probably more Man U fans in London than Chelsea fans (damn I hate Man U)
Anyway, Barcelona v Chelsea is definitely the pick of the competition, the league leaders in Spain and England, the people's club vs the person's club. My tip: Barca 2 : 1 Chelsea.
In the other match: Man U 1 : 1 AC Milan

Thank god the Champions league is back on, the premiership was getting dead boring there for a while.

A great article as a follow up from my Mr Grumpy post.

Wednesday's over, it's all downhill from here.

London Snow

We got some proper snow in London last night for the first time this season. Enough to settle on the grass overnight, and enough to make the pavements icy enough to slide to the train station instead of walking.

I always find snow in London has two effects:

1) It makes everyone just a little bit cheerier, at least at first. Let's face it, snow is fun, pretty, it makes the cold bearable and it's a hell of a lot better than rain. The usual grumpy population of London seem to be just a little bit more willing to let the corners of their mouths turn up into what might be contrued as a smile. The snow though could last here for a couple of weeks and I'm sure by that time peoples attitudes will have changed.

2) Everything stops working. This also happens in the summer if it gets too hot. Britain is not a country built for exteme temperatures (although what is classed as extreme here is not necessarily the case in other places.) Britain works best in mediocre weather, not too hot and not too cold, which is great. Although for a week or two each year, it gets too hot or too cold and then everything stops working.

This same sense of mediocrity can also be applied to Britain's sporting teams, consistently average with everyone feeling relatively comfortable about that. Occasionally though, as with England's 2003 Rugby team, things do move beyond mediocrity, and they perform very very well. Once this has happened, in keeping with the consequences of extremes in the weather; everything stops working.

Mr Grumpy

Ok so I admit that this is what I look like most mornings, but Monday mornings in particular, and this Monday morning more so.

My first task this morning was to take my ties to the dry cleaners. Yesterday the various laws of thermo-dynamics, gravity and stupidity conspired against me, all in the form of a full Grande cup of Americano coffee. The aforementioned item had just been re-heated in the microwave, thus weakening the stability of the paper cup. My grip on the cup, which would have otherwise been sufficient to safely transport the vessel, turned out to be inadequate. The culmination then of various laws of physics as well as our old friend Sod’s law, caused the cup to slip, my fingers to burn, and the entire contents to spill into the top drawer of my bedside dresser, which had been opened, but not closed, only a few minutes previously.

Shit… no wait… Fuck!

So anyway, this particular draw contains mostly important things: Passports, Birth and Citizenship certificates, letters, work, etc. Fortunately for these documents, the majority of the liquid was soaked up by the collection of rather expensive ties that I own, and wear to work on a daily basis. Some cleanup of my paper work was required, and it reminded me of those school history projects we once had to do, when we spilled coffee over the papers to make it look like it was an old manuscript (that had been found in the basement of a Starbucks.)

So to the dry cleaners this morning I went. The guy near my local tube station wanted to charge me £3.50 per tie, which I consider nothing less that extortion. Fortunately, the place near my office charges a slightly more reasonable £2.49. Makes me think though about the rules of bargaining, when you start off with a completely ridiculous offer, and then put forward the one you actually want as a ‘compromise.’

So watch this space, I have resigned to the fact that half of them will probably be ruined, and a trip to TM Lewin may be required in the next few days, and knowing me I will probably end up buying some more shirts while I’m there.

If this all happened in America, I’m pretty confident I could sue Starbucks for failing to put a warning on their cups; stating that their structural integrity could be adversely affected, if warmed in the microwave.
£1.70 for another cup of coffee
£19.92 dry cleaning costs
£200 replacement ties
Legal costs
£1,500,000 for emotional distress and punitive damages.


I was going to write about what else makes a Monday morning even more unbearable, ie; having to commute to work on the London Underground. I really do find this a distressing experience at times. I have however said to myself I will try and hold off for as long as possible before launching into a tirade of vitriol on the subject. I have recovered from this morning’s journey and so I feel I can wait a little longer. Again though, watch this space.

Derby matches

Ok so this was just going to be a comment about a previous posting but it may as well be a new posting altogether.

Further to the whole foreign football thing, there is a big Lancashire derby this weekend in the FA cup with Burnley and Blackburn facing each other. Traditionally these two clubs have not gotten on well with each other and so the atmosphere is expected to be heated.

I often wonder how people who support clubs that are only 8 miles away from each other, can despise each other with such vitriol, when there are so many other people in the world to hate. Surely it would make sense for such close neighbours to band together and perhaps hate supporters from clubs in say, Bulgaria.

In any case it will no doubt be the fans who provide the atmosphere for this weekend's match, but with the topic of foreign players being talked about these days, how many of the teams' players feel the intensity of a derby game like the fans do? With Burnley being a Championship side anyway and this having a majority of British players anyway, it may not be the best example; but do Arsenal's entirely foreign team care that much about their local derby against Spurs when they come around?