First In A Series Of A Few – World Stadia

And to kick us off, City of Palms Park, Fort Myers, Florida

I visited this lovely venue a while ago…. nice place. Go Red Sox!

Lighthouse…More….

This one, a way away, can be found in Port Fairy, Victoria.

Just For Mr O

Cape May Lighthouse on a Sunset Cruise…

Like it Mr O?

The Former Mayor Of London – Much Missed

In April 2007, the former Mayor of London, in conjunction with some muppets from the Metropolitan Police, decided, in its infinite wisdom to close the Tidal Flow on the northbound Blackwall Tunnel permanently.

Since that date we have had the usual doublespeak about their being no extra delays, no change in the traffic at the tunnel blah-di-blah-di-blah.

My journey to work by car used to take 40 minutes tops. In extreme cases an hour….

This week.

Monday – Left home at 8:05 a.m – arrived at office 9:20 a.m.

Tuesday – Left home at 8:00 a.m. – arrived at office 9:05 a.m.

Wednesday – Left home at 9:00 a.m. – arrived at office at 10:20 a.m.

Now some (ZS) will say, and they have their point, that tough for driving a car, and it isn’t up to people to make that easier for you. And yes, even a bad day like this would match a normal commute time for me by public transport. But what puts me off public transport so much is the sheer ignorance of it all. Take the Grove Park to Lewisham train service. There isn’t one in peak time until 9:24, and if that is at all late, so am I. Take the 6:30 from Lewisham to Grove Park – the last time I got on it, it had four carriages! F*ck sake. And where does inflation factor in on these fare increases. My single to Lewisham has gone up a mere 5%, while a single on the DLR or the Bus has gone up by 10%. Jesus.

No, they made it hard for drivers through the tunnel out of spite. Sure, cite your safety reasons, but if using the southbound tunnel was so f*cking dangerous then we should never be allowed to use the Rotherhithe Tunnel unless it is made one-way.

I’ve heard rumours that the buffoon is going to open up the tidal flow again. What the hell is he waiting for? Every time I go to work, that vindictive prick with the vain streak is costing me half an hour of my life stuck in traffic being cut up by obnoxious Beamer and Merc drivers, or psycopathic Transit Vans. Thanks.

I’m now off home to be cut up by those monstrous coaches who don’t give a f*ck about cars. Much like our former mayor. Much missed.

Short on Inspiration These Days

As life settles down, and the beloved hopefully settles in, and we get the puppy that is currently ill at Old Windsor, and we can get the UK wedding sorted, and we can get our trip up north in February arranged… oh you get the drift. Life is in flux at the moment.

Some observations though from actions etc. in the past few days.

January = Travel Guides on sale. I love these books and will buy up loads on the cheap if available. Add Eastern Europe, Finland, Iceland, Borneo and East Africa to the list of publications. Anyone who has travel guides and they don’t want them, and know me, let me have them!!!

I got a chance to watch Hoffa at the weekend. I vaguely remember seeing it a while ago, and Dmitri not quite as old got me it for Christmas. I was really disappointed by it, to be honest. I then watched Oceans Thirteen, but never really got into it – a combination of factors thwarting my enjoyment of the movie

The Cup has no teams in the draw lower than the Championship. Depressing. But, of course, the TV channels are salivating as not one big boy has gone out yet and they’ve all been kept apart in the 5th round should they make it. I’m thrilled.

Superbowl on Sunday. I’ll tape it and watch it on Monday if the beloved lets me.

For those of you who may not know who he is in Blighty, I suggest you gen up and find out about Rod Blagojovich. Absolutely insane.

Enough. Uninspired Dmitri is signing off….

Some WindyBricks Stuff

Well, three more points gained on our travels as a 2-0 win at TherebeaMondeo in the backwaters of TherebeaMondeoshire recalled happy memories of a 4-0 victory at Ted’s Show Jumping Street many moons ago when The Bold Argonaut scored a couple of goals in the highlight of his chequered career at our homely club. Goals last night from Here and Back to Palace and The Scottish Lord were fine reward as the WindyBricks sit in 5th with two games in hand on those around them….

On Saturday, though, at the bottom of the boat, the WindyBricks fans had a bit of bovver. Now I’m long since going to games like this – frankly this club is not my life any more – and when I did Iwould defend “my boys” to the hilt. Now I’m more likely to be described as not “Real Windy” by all and sundry because I discovered I had a life, and especially by yoofs who think its cool to take drugs, or older gentry who believe I am “two-faced”. I digress. When are we going to actually take a stand and say that although many revel in the image, it is getting boring defending ourselves. It really isn’t big and clever smashing up grounds, it’s dull. These same people who want law and order to those people not indigineous to this fine land of ours are the same defending this drivel. Sure, I’ve no doubt it weren’t all one way, but I’ve seen it. I was at Principal Road when Joe Potato Head stoked the fire, and WindyBricks poured kerosene on it. I saw the nonsense. It was dull then. It is dull now.

Still, what do I know. I’m just a tired old has been, who couldn’t possibly understands what goes through the heads of the yoof at WindyBricks.

Anyway, it is a big game against the Firewall Favourites from the Land of the Integrated Iron and Steel Works (O Level Geography) (and I don’t mean Llanwern or Port Talbot) on Saturday with us both on a bullseye of points and looking forward to the rest of the campaign. We suffered a 3-2 reverse at the New Show Ground earlier this season, so it would be nice to turn them over, seeing as how we have most of the top teams to play at home for the remainder of the season. Crimson Snide would be moaning about that…..

Sick Of Apologising…

I am just about fed up with this nonsense. What? Me fed up? What could I possibly be fed up with?

Let me explain…

For 13 years I was a good boy in the eyes of the righteous when it came to travel. Indeed, in that time, I only ever took an aircraft to go to a wedding in Northern Ireland and a work trip to Turkey. Then, as the cost of flights for long-haul destinations and my salary at work moved into the same disposable income sphere I thought of travelling to further away. Then the budget airline boom hit and cities nearby in Europe were now cheap and accessible. The memories of trips to Barcelona, Milan, Lisbon, Berlin, Alghero, Dublin, Oslo and Budapest are memorable, enjoyable and educational in many ways. The chance to experience different food, sights, drink, entertainment and sport is one of the great opportunities offered to us all. Formerly the preserve of the rich and upwardly mobile, now us oiks can do it.

Now my opportunities are likely to diminish with wife and pet in tow (and I’m very content with that), I am going to fulfil my wanderlust vicariously with books, magazines, TV shows and a new outlet, exhibitions. To this end I think I’m off to the Times Destinations show at Earl’s Court next weekend.

So when I read absolute bollox, sorry for swearing, like this old shit on their site, I really wonder why I should bother. This patronising load of old cack, written by some f*cking bunch of do-gooding twats makes me want to heave. These are the same people who probably f*ck of on some trip to France by Eurostar thinking it makes a world of difference, and then tell me I’m evil for taking the plane to Brittany and saving a good few hours and quid.

No. I’m not apologising for flying to Australia and taking internal flights. By plane from Adelaide to Perth was 3 hours and £100. By train it was two days and £300. I am all for direct flights, not because they are the most carbon neutral, all a load of old cobblers anyway, but because it minimises the chances of my baggage being lost in transit, and Changi airport apart, it isn’t really a pleasure waiting in an airport lounge.

Plan your route to minimise carbon emissions – travel by train and public transport where possible, and minimise internal flights. Try our ‘I don’t want to fly’ holidays or there are some great ideas for train travel almost anywhere in the world on this web site: http://www.seat61.com/

Minimise flying time and stopovers – the worst carbon emissions are emitted during take off and landing. For the flights that you cannot avoid,offset the carbon emissions of your flight using our carbon calculator. That way the money is invested in carbon reducing initiatives around the world, offsetting the emissions caused by your flight. Read our view on flying here.

Ask to see the tour operator’s policy for responsible tourism. Allresponsibletravel.com members have to have one. Make sure it explain show they minimise environmental impacts and support the local economy.

These people make me sick – they want you to come along to a travel exhibition and then promptly make you apologise for doing so. I’m sitting here in my office and watching the flights go past into City Airport and on the Heathrow flight path. They are still going whether I fly on them or not. If everyone follows their advice, the airlines would have no profitable routes for travel and we’d be stuck here and you wouldn’t have travel exhibitions except for the millionaires who own their own aircraft giving us slide shows.

I saw last night, on travel channel, a woman on global trekker interviewing a green freak in a redwood tree. Doesn’t she see the f*cking irony….

It makes my blood boil.

Its like the row this weekend over BBC not showing an aid appeal for Gaza. BBC put up the defence that it did not want to take sides in a political dispute. I mean, you can call that as you want, but you have to admire the sheer absence of irony from these cretins demonstrating against the BBC’s decision… I mean, it is a decision based on not taking sides and these chumps make it political… Our old mates Socialist Worker were there…

Are people too busy being do gooding busy bodies to notice that the ordinary person in the street doesn’t give a f*ck about their agenda and would like to watch TV without being preached to over a dispute where both sides are in the wrong and we are all a little bit fed up with it as one implacable enemy permanently has the hump with the other implacable enemy! We are all fed up with the do gooders telling us to fly is bad, when the IPCC jets around the globe on climate change conferences. Bali, Hawaii…. The WORLD! We are fed up when the BBC tells us that fat people should really just do us all a favour and die – this morning, we should not eat kebabs.

I’m with this satirical site on this matter and it has a quote that resonates clearly in the Dmitri household. It applies just as much to the do-gooders as it does to the government that actively encourages them, and funds them..

“How’s about this? As an adult, I think a reasonable daily limit is me drinking as much as I fucking want.

“If it affects my work I’ll get sacked. If it affects my relationships I’ll be all lonely and sad.

“And as for my health, following a quick glance at my tax bill I’ve decided that the NHS will treat me and the government can keep its fucking opinions to itself.”

Amen!

Admin Privileges

As administrator, and sole author, of this blog, I’m privy to a lot more behind-the-scenes stuff than blogpsot ever gave me. It is why I have so much more time for wordpress than blogspot, but that’s another thing.

I get to see who links to my site, how many hits I get, what are the most popular posts, and what searches they use to get here.

On my list of searches today is “Chris Hollins twat”. I put that in google and my blog is the third one down! What an honour.

My antipathy to him carried through from my last blog, and I’m surprised that no references to the chump come up on google.

I’m wittering here, as I’m finding it hard to write much on the seven world at the moment. I’m sure when baseball starts up and the WindyBricks play I’ll be doing my thing, but at the moment it is tough.

The New Hell Hole

For the spawns of Satan…..

A stadium built to make the rich richer, and to perpetuate the myth that money buys you World Series titles in this decade…..

The New Dawn or An Empty Vessel Making An Enchanting Noise?

A momentous day has come. Today the United States of America will welcome the 44th President of their nation into office with a much awaited and heralded inauguration. Millions will attend. Journalists will fawn and go weak at the knees. The people will look on in reverence. For a saviour has come to this troubled land, divided by the evil Bush and his neo-con army. Oh, I forgot. He’s not white. This is indeed historic, but as someone so succinctly puts it, a black man is treated with far more reverence than a woman of any description on the US political scene. During the campaign the candidates were tripping over themselves not to get embroiled in race issues, and quite rightly so. But it was also a clear aim of the Obama campaign to point out when any minor issue could be construed as racist and shout out. Of course racism has no part in politics, but when he wins, don’t slam it down our throats about his colour as a positive when it is absolutely verboten (as it should be, in case I’m misconstrued) to be a negative. I don’t see black. I see USA’s Tony Blair.

However, the treatment of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin during the recent campaign shows America is not ready for a woman president, or even vice-president. The treatment of both by the media and the Obama campaign was barely concealed sexism. Say what you like about both candidates for their respective roles, and yes, Palin wasn’t ready for the cut and thrust of the V-P campaign, but they were both infinitely more experienced in office than Obama who had two years as a senator. Palin actually had to be Governor of a State, and Clinton has been a senator for longer than Obama. Why did Obama win the vote in a sparse Democrat field which had adulterer while his wife dies John Edwards as the third best? Perhaps because his party were more attracted to a black man as president than a woman.

The media queued up to hit at Clinton, and yet treated Obama with kid gloves – it was incredible watching it as an outsider. Obama was not subjected to the venom of Katie Couric’s interview with Palin, nor the constant Hillary bashing from CNN and MSNBC in particular – but Fox were also as culpable. When he won the nomination the media then went into overdrive about the guy’s charisma et al…. When Palin entered the race on the McCain ticket, the media were queuing up to attack her for the lack of experience Obama shared. How can you odds the different treatment?

I’m no expert on US politics, but many know that Mrs Dmitri is an American. From the outset she was anti-Hillary. She’s never liked the Clintons, and the mere mention of Bill has her “spitting feathers”. She’s a voter for the other ticket in a state where her town only is the republican stronghold. When she meets friends of mine they say “do you really vote republican?” as if she’s voting for the anti-Christ, and can’t believe an intelligent person votes for “that hick idiot”. We Brits are a little bit precious about all this. After all, since 2003 we voted back in Tony Blair in 2005 and he was every bit as responsible for sending our troops to Iraq as Bush was in the US, so let us not take the moral high ground on this. We can vote for, and re-vote for someone with the same detrimental marks as Bush.

Some say it all comes back to Florida in 2000, and the fact Bush lost the popular vote. Yes, we in the UK can lecture anyone on voting systems with our joke. We have a parliamentary democracy that allows a party with 35.3% of the vote 356 seats and a comfortable working majority, and a party with 32.3% to have just 198. I’m no fan of the Conservatives, but that’s a joke. In the US, because their system runs slightly different to ours, and Bush lost the popular vote, we think he’s an illegitimate leader. Or is it because the narrative in Florida is that Bush stole that state when Gore actually won? According to my American sources, every count that went ahead in that state proved Bush did win. We might not like that story, but we can’t keep going on about it. I thank God that eco-freak isn’t in charge.

 Then we have the Bush is stupid line, he’s an idiot, a hick, a dolt with his finger on the button. Again, we are precious, aren’t we? Look where our bright sparks have got us, presuming a man who ran Texas and then the USA canpossibly be thick. We can waffle on about how the Americans got us all into this nonsense, but our banks were doing the same as them, and our government spent all the money when times were good, so that when the bad times came, we were even more up excrement creek without a propulsion instrument. Sure, Bush doesn’t come across well to us, but then again, the UK news media has never been that sympathetic to him even in the light of September 11. The agenda has always been here that he got to where he is by nepotism, by appealing to American base instincts and fears, and that it is wrong for the Americans, the world’s most successful nation whether we like it or not, to put themselves first and damn the rest.

Silly election result check – 2001 – Labour 43.2%; Seats 413 (around 65% of seats); Conservatives 30.2%; Seats 166 (around 25% of seats). Balanced eh?

I have had the good fortune to spend time in the United States in the past two years. I have a deep love of the country. You know I love their sport because they believe sincerely on competition over domination. I love their concerns over their freedoms – they will fight to keep the state out of their affairs while this country does nothing when we want to bring in rubbish like ID cards, 42 day detention, traffic cameras, CCTV on every corner, the state peering into your lifestyle. We look on haughtily as the Americans are portrayed as fat, ill-educated, hicks who get up to all manner of stupidity and craziness. We sneer at their tastes, we turn our noses up because so many don’t want to go outside their cosy little box in rural Kansas or wherever.

What do they think of us? They like us but Americans look on us with pity – a once great nation becoming a socialist hell hole with the state poking in wherever they want and the borders open to all sorts of people who hate our way of life. You might disagree with that perception, but what makes you think their points are any less valid than our view of them? I can hear some saying, if you like it so much, go and live there. I might. At the moment though I am a Londoner born and bred and despite everything the politicians and the do-gooders are imposing on me, my love of the city and my roots make the draw to hard to ignore. But what am I getting here. I’m over-taxed compared to the States. I am over-monitored compared to the States. My freedom of speech is more constrained compared to the States. The service ethic in this country is appalling compared to the States. The infrastructure is atrocious compared to the States. Don’t even talk about petrol or food prices, or the price of clothes and everyday items. Americans come over here and say “everything is so expensive”. Why does it have to be that way?

And now America has elected a leader that will deliver “change”. He is bringing his people “hope” and a “new direction”. Us Brits should be sitting here and going “yeah, yeah, yeah – we heard it all with Tony Blair”, but we aren’t. The media is lapping it up. Look at the BBC site today…High hopes, new era, legacy of Martin Luther King, all that old swaddling. What we are facing is a world with economic ruin all around, where banks can’t seem to understand the mess they have put us all in and governments sling our taxpayer pounds and dollars at them in greater quantities with no apparent reward or sign of hope. I haven’t heard a thing that this new Messiah is going to do to get the world out of this hole, except change and hope. Maybe I haven’t been listening, but if this is Bush’s fault, and of course in some part it is, how is Obama going to save us? He can’t do it with charismatic oratory or woolly concepts of change and hope, and what on earth is his track record on matters such as this as a two year junior senator of Illinois? To me it looks like putting someone in charge of the space shuttle having had two years Cessna training.

Why are Americans, and the world putting so much faith into this guy, and why is he getting the adulation of a world before he has even taken office.

Contrast this…. Bush in 2001

With this…. Obama today and then go back…

And better still, this…

Oh yes, indeed. The hoopla and the hype goes into overdrive. I could go on all day about how I think Obama is a leap in the dark for a nation that probably needed an experienced b*stard to get America through this crisis, but then I’d be accused of selling out my roots. I could go on about how Obama’s inauguration led the London News section on BBC this morning, and BBC London’s programming all day on the radio, when it isn’t what local news is for. I could say how the whole of the media seem to be tripping over themselves to fawn after the bloke before he’s achieved anything in office. I’ll bet some will think I am being racist for not naturally adopting the “Obama is Great” line when everyone else seems to be.

I asked Mrs Dmitri what it would mean to her. “I’ll probably be taxed more” she said. “And all his election proves is that as long as you are a man, you can become President. We still can’t vote for a woman in power.” When asked if she’ll be watching the inauguration, she said “I hope Location, Location, Location is on”.

I hope Obama is a success, because if he is, we will all benefit. I don’t have curlish, vindictive desires to see him fail. As Dennis Miller said “I want rid of the hatred in my country. There’s been too much of that for the last 8 years and it has to stop.” The left in America want the right to get behind Obama, when the left did nothing but undermine Bush. Why should they? But the need for a successful path through these economic times crosses political divides and if Obama is a success, it will help the UK economy, ergo me.

He’ll have a honeymoon period. He’ll ride out early potential storms as easily as he rode out Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and his changing tax plans. He’ll be greeted like a rock star around the world, as a symbol of change. But if the economy keeps going downhill quicker than the ski-jumpers at Innsbruck, that honeymoon will be over. You can only blame Bush for so long when your party has controlled Congress. I give it a couple of years. I hope for all our sakes, sincerely, that I am wrong. Never have I wanted to be wrong more.

A Little Monday Music

Here’s one from the obscure pile. Dark Globe’s “Break My World”

Some Kanye West – with Daft Punk. You can’t knock Mr Bangalter….

And on the subject of Mr Bangalter…

ARMAND!

MORE ARMAND! SPIN SPIN SUGAR>>>>

And laugh if you want, but we all have a guilty pleasure, and I genuinely quite like this guy’s stuff. Manufactured maybe, but he’s not bad…

BT with another member of the bloke above’s group…

That’ll do for one night……

A Brilliant Advert For The NFL

That was a brilliant NFL game, in the NFC Championship. The Arizona Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in a superb game and have shocked the world by getting to the Superbowl. Kurt Warner played magnificently, linking up with Larry Fitzgerald for three TDs, and the Cardinals battered the Eagles in the 1st half, leading 24-6, but the second half saw the Eagles rally, and take a 25-24 lead on three touchdowns (two without additional points after them). When DeSean Jackson took the touchdown in that gave the Eagles the lead, it looked as though momentum had carried them to victory.

Warner and his offense then took the team on an 8 minute drive culminating in a Hightower TD on a screen pass from Warner which was duly two-point converted. Faced with just under three minutes to go and 80 yards to advance, the Eagles drive stalled on a controversial non-pass interference call. Arizona ran most of the time off, giving the Eagles nine seconds to concoct a miracle – which they could not.

Sport is amazing, and American sport does this year on year. It is what happens when a nation puts the competition as the product, not the big teams. This is the football equivalent of Coventry City (sorry, best example) winning the league. They’ll play the Steelers or the Ravens in the final – neither are from New York or Chicago; Los Angeles doesn’t have a team; New England never made the play-offs; and Americas Team are a disorganised dysfunctional rabble who imploded. No-one is surprised that the top five contains the usual big four in English football. New England, arguably the Manchester United of the NFL, missing the play-offs is like Manchester United missing a Champions League spot. It is why American sport is so fantastic. Enough. I tipped the Ravens to beat the Steelers. I won’t be watching this game as it is so late, but I’ll see the result in the morning!

NFL Predictions

Predicting scores is facile, so I go for the two results and a few comments on the manner I see the game going…

AFC – Ravens at Steelers. Cards on the table, I predicted the Colts to win, but have always had a sneaking suspicion that the Ravens would be dangerous, and so it has proved. The Steelers have had a charmed life in some of their games – most notably against these Ravens, and I fancy their luck to run out in a low scoring game. Ravens to win in a defensive battle.

NFC – Eagles at Cardinals – The surprise team against the team lucky to make the play-offs. Fate, chance, and destiny seem to point to the Eagles who knocked off the Vikings and reigning champs Giants with relative comfort on the road. The Cards, touted as the worst team ever to make the play-offs won handily against the Falcons and shocked the world with a demolition job on Carolina on the road, fuelled by Warner and the hugely impressive Larry Fitzgerald, as well as Jake Delhomme’s meltdown. The Cards seem a too good to be true story so I’m going for the Eagles, although if they lose, the beloved will be happy.

By Popular Request

A colleague down t’pub on Friday was amazed that I am so interested in lighthouses. I brush off some old cobblers about phallic symbols, and certainly will have no truck with Jonathan Ross’s guests on his comeback show, but I would like to share with you another picture of a lighthouse.

British vintage, grey skies, cold weather. Portland Bill….

WindyBricks Win On Scottish Lord’s Header

Well, it came to pass indeed, that the WindyBricks promotion bandwagon encountered the Plassie Scousers in League One action this afternoon. It was particularly interesting for me in that I knew a relative of the visitors centre-back and it was funny texting them during the game. But enough.

WindyBricks won by a solitary goal. The pre-match entertainment celebrating the explosive axeman’s record brought out luminaries like King Ralph, My Grumpy Bro, The Legend Over The Stove, and The Gangly Youth riding horseback. All nice. Pity we played rubbish in the first half.

At the interval our divine inspriation, Mr Donkey, took off waxachump and the baba fusewire, for Abs from Five or Blue, and our new player, Christopher Lambert’s Afro-carribean offshoot. The opposition had made hay with the Fawlty Gripper, our ex-loon, causing merry hell. The game was decided when a neat passing move allowed Dartford Bob Dog Tablet to cross well for the c the Scottish Lord to power a header past Mr Money in the visitors net. 1-0. An eccentric referee did much to cause concern to all parties, but WindyBricks held on and won 1-0 to go third.

Pip Pip.

A Match Report…

With my focus increasingly moving towards the cricket blog, and with the really pleasing interest shown in its early days (more hits in the first week of that then in the first month on seven and seven eighths) it is tempting to neglect this blog. But I promise I’ll try not to as there is so much to moan about other than cricket! You can write only so many articles moaning at Australians and trying to put ZS right on where he is so wrong.

Windybricks won against the gang from the darting palace in the Football Association Challenge Cup 3rd Round Replay, brought to you in association with whichever corporate no-mark the same said Football Association have sold their soul too in the desperate scramble for another pile of cash. We shalt not know said reward for the courageous 3-2 victory until the victors of the match between the bottom of a boat and Noviodunum. The Darting Palace boys took the lead last night, but Jock from Duty Free scored a first goal for the club to equalise rapidly thereafter. The Bricks took their first lead when the explosive axeman broke the scoring record of the Norfolk Cuddly Toy to much joy from many who wished the latter deceased after his move and profession of support to the Occidental Cured Pork. Old wounds and all that. The lead lasted not long as the plucky table footers notched another equaliser, before the American with no nutritional value put us ahead for good shortly before the end. The magic of the cup. Make sense of that?

Another Sad Loss

You know the people who you never met, but thought you actually knew. Well, I felt a little bit like that about David Vine who died yesterday (it was announced today by his publicist). When icons like him, and in the sporting world of the BBC in the 70s and 80s he was just that to a sports-loving child like me, it is as if some of my childhood has died with him. I used to watch Ski Sunday, with Franz Klammer, Peter Mueller and even British joker Konrad Bartelski flying down Kitzbuhel and Wengen and such like as he commentated away and it felt like the end of the weekend. David Vine in winter was the harbinger of miserable days at school the next.

 

He was the snooker man for donkeys years, and had that offbeat manner when presenting the show, but he always appeared to love what he was doing. He was the early anchor of Question of Sport, which was essential viewing with him and Coleman, now a laughing stock under giggles Barker, and he did so much more.

 

As I said, as if a bit of my childhood has passed into the afterlife when people like him depart this earth. You really thought you knew him, you never really got annoyed with anything he said, he was authoritative, dispassionate and yet you sensed he truly loved what he was doing. A model for would-be anchors now – you aren’t the show, you are not the reason people watch, you are there to help the viewers along. Top man, many memories.

How Did We Lose In Adelaide – Blatant Cross Promotion

Lots going on over at the other place, with updates on world cricket, my views on the KP debacle,  a live blog from part of the 20/20 international yesterday morning, and the first part of my account of the 2006 Ashes disaster in Adelaide…

All can be found on “How Did We Lose In Adelaide“

Photos Of Stop 4…. Key West.

So we got on the boat after Cozumel to be told it was too windy to dock in the Bahamas. So we returned to Key West where I got a little intoxicated again – as I had done the week before when we visited it before the cruise.

Photos…

1. En route – Land Ahoy. Cooooooooobbbaaaaaaaa

2. Duval Street, Key West…

3. Church

4. Parrot

5. Silly Drink

7. Big Boat

I have pics from last year as well….

9. Boat

10. House

11. Bar

12. Sunset

Much Overdue – The Third Stop On The Cruise

Some photographs from the third stop on the Norwegian Pearl’s sail around the Western Caribbean. We stopped at Cozumel in Mexico – or rather an island off the coast of Mexico. We took the option of the excursion to snorkel off the south of the island driving in jeeps – a solo traveller, Rachel, acted as our driver. More on Cozumel if I ever get around to writing a full match report.

Photos.

1. A Depressing Start

2. A Mayan Ruin

3. A Haven For Crocs

4. Crocs

5. More Crocs…

6. Nice Beach7. Lighthouse Addict…

8.  Such a beautiful colour..

9. Mexico Forever

10. Lizard!

11 A Last Look At A Lighthouse

12. Nice View From The Watchtower

For those of you looking at these photos, the majority are taken near Port Celerain, on the southern tip of this map.