It only seems like yesterday that I was posting in August and now we are in the last day of November.

In between my wife had a bad accident which has kept her away from work. In a nutshell she damaged vertebrae in her back which have taken their time to repair. But repaired they have and she will touch wood be back at work on Monday.

Tomorrow I am due to have my triannual colonoscopy, not something I look forward to but something that three generations of my family never had.

Sport wise the autumn internationals have finished and Wales and France were both on the end of heavy defeats from Australia and New Zealand.

The football world cup draw is this Friday, the hype starts here.

Next time we'll look at film, books, tv and music for 2009.

Today is a reminder that summer is over and the autumn and winter will soon reach the Northern Hemisphere. It has been a few months since I posted and we have been so overtaken by events. We have had the horror and the outrage of an election in Iran which owed more to the bad days of the American South than it would care to admit. We have had the loons from Fox News throwing mud at the NHS as they seek to derail an Obama healthcare plan which doesn't exist on paper. Are the Angry White men from 1994 on the march once more.

We have seen the Americans throw more mud at the Scottish Executive over the release of the sole Libyan who "allegedly" blew up the Pan-am plan in 1987. That's just one Libyan and no Iranians or Syrians at all what so ever. I'm sorry for their loss but such people need to open their eyes.

We have had the Lions series in South Africa lost 2-1 with injuries to Gethin Jenkins, Brian O'Driscoll and Adam Jones which will echo through this season. We have had the rise of ESPN europe from the ashes of Setanta, time will tell if people whom pay to watch 46 games will still be there for 2010/11 & 2011/12 when there are only 23 games from the EPL on offer.

We have seen Tom Williams from Harlequins parlay his 12 month ban to a 4 month ban but with 2 & 3 year bans for the Physio and the coach.

We have seen the majesty of Usain Bolt at the World Athletic Championships and wondered about the talent of the young South African Castor Semenya the Womens 800 meter gold medalist.

Lastly we ponder the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, brother of JFK & RFK both allegedly taken down by lone gunmen before their time. Edward Kennedy survived the Chappaquidick scandal of 1969 to become a contender for the 1980 Presidency and who knows where history may have gone if he could have taken the Democratic Nomination ahead of President Carter. Might 12 years of Reagan/Bush have been averted with all that they brought with them .

THE Daily Telegraph came into receipt of a data disc which contained full disclosure of MP's expenses, those claimed for and those rejected by the Fees office. It appears that someone working in Parliament "whistleblew" on this infromation and passed this to a middle man who took the disc to various papers. As the middleman is Conservative, these were Conservative papers, The Sun, the Mail Group and the Daily Telegraph. For the first three days the story was relentlessly anti-Government, blow after blow rained down on the Brown Government. On the 4th day the story took a left field approach as the Torygraph went after Sinn Fein. Its MP's have never sat in the House of Commons from Countess Markiewicz in 1918 (the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons but not the first to take her seat) to Gerry Adams, however they were still claiming Parliamentary allowances for second properties.

By this time the public were becoming agitated as surely the Conservative Party and the Liberals could not be squeaky clean. Guess what they were not.

So what follows are some of the more ridiculous claims David Willetts Conservative £100 for an electrician to put in 25 light bulbs. Chris Hune, Liberal Democrat £119 for a Corby Trouser Press. David Heathcote- Amery Conservative, 19 claims over 4 years for Manure totalling £400.

Moving on from the Silly we have those who we won't be seeing after the next election, led by Speaker Michael Martin who led a four year campaign to keep a lid on things and became the first speaker in over 300 years to be removed from office. Ben Chapman, Labour, Claimed £15,000 of expenses for interest on a mortgage long paid off. Douglas Hogg, Conservative claimed for the costs of cleaning his moat, which would be akin to the one of you being elected to Congress and charging for cleaning the lake. Anthony Steen, had a full on rant and said it was none of the public's business if tax payer's money was used to inspect 500 trees on his estate and to guard his shrubs against rabbitts, as you will have summizied Mr Steen is a Conservative. Two Labour MPs David Chaytor and Elliot Morley are in trouble for claiming interest on mortgages which no longer exist. A similiar matter applied to Mr & Mrs Winterton who claimed more than £80,000 for a flat owned by a Trust which benefits their children. and of course John Viggard, Conservative who used his housing allowance to claim for a House on his duck pond for his ducks.


So naturally people are up in arms there is a sense of throw the rascals out which matches the 1974 Congressional elections after Watergate. In polls taken people are demanding an election now and not next June which is the latest that the law will allow. David Cameron is demanding an election but he would. If he had a case he should raise a no confidence motion in the Government . Except the last time I looked the Goverment Majority was still over 50. David Cameron has done very well out of this, he has only lost one of his men to this scandal and "Duck man " and "Moat Man" who would be percived as Knights of the Shires who might cause trouble down the line have been removed. Cameron is now asking for Independents not to stand against the Conservatives but to join them. The political class as a whole looks damaged. Who benefits, UKIP an Anti EU party best described as former Tory Poujardists . The sort of people who think that married women of a breeding age should not be employed as they get preganant and become entitled to Maternity pay with all the problems that brings with it. The Greens, possibly, hopefully and of course the unwashed "we not really Neo Nazi " British National Party.

This is not to deny that any of the above is not serious and that some or all of the above wouldn't benefit from a little prison time, but who are the real criminals. Fred the Shread the former Chief Exec who ran Royal Bank of Scotland into the ground still has his pension, his large house albeit with a few broken windows and his liberty. The Hedge Fund Managers who short sold the Banks are still at large and many are demanding their bonuses.

One of the members of the House of Lords was interviewed on the BBC News Channel, the Lord admitted being paid £64,000 and getting expenses of £64,000 per year but it emerged that his interviewer, no one who anyone had heard of on what is a cable news channel, think of one of the alsorans from CNN or Fox News was being paid £93,000 a year. No one is laughing now ........



Speaking of which during the period 2001-2009 Dick Cheney was an almost invisible saturnine presence who would not say boo to a goose but out of office plenty of geese are scared.

Leinster won the Heineken Cup and the NBA playoffs have reached an interesting stage. Our pictures this time reflect this.

This weekend sees the Lions Tour start in Rustenburg, Wales in Canada plus the Top 14 semi finals and the Super 14 final between the Blue Bulls and the Waikato Cheifs . There is also some football on Wednesday and on Saturday.

See you in June .

Spring arrived last week as we celebrated Easter 2009. The long sleaved shirts have been put away for another year.

Since we last spoke the Six Nations came to an interesting end. Wales lost both to France 21-16 on a Friday night in Paris in February, just how cold was that and then with the last kick of the game they lost just to Ireland who win their first Grand Slam since 1948, and their first Triple Crown since 2007 and their first Championship since 1985 and the days of Michael Kiernan, Nigel Carr and Brian Spillane. Since then we have had a round or two of the Magners, this has to be nailed on for Munster right now. The quarters of the Heineken Cup which saw wins for Munster, Leinster, Leicester and Cardiff Blues who did just for Toulouse. Yesterday the Blues beat Gloucester 50-12 to win the EDF in the last form that we know it. The English are not too happy and the Cup will now be played during the Six Nations and the Autumn Internationals. So there goes the Blues chance of retaining. Still here is a picture of the immense Paul Tito with the trophy.

Possibly I get a bit cynical and think that the boys could have scored more. Perhaps Roland might have asked his assistant to investigate Allen's push on Lee Halfpenny perhaps he could have carded Allen and Lamb for their antics. The evening saw the Ospreys win at Parc Y Scarlets it was good to see a crowd of over 11,000 at Parc y Turco makes a change from 4 fat blokes with body odour who won't sit next to each other, won't even sit in the same row!!!

American Sports in the form of NHL & NBA are now into their playoffs and yesterday Chicargo beat Boston, what has suprised me is how far and how fast Detroit Pistons have fallen to become 8th seed in the East. Whilst the Lakers continue to dominate in the West they may come across a banana skin by the name of Portland who have a good home record aginst them. We shall see.

Moving on Facebook had an application which asked for your top 5 of things. One of the more interesting ones was TOP5 Beers. So here it is

1. Brains S.A

2. Wobbly Bob

3. Kwak

4. La Morte Subite

5. Old Tom

An interesting call where the two communities in Belgium tie with the North West but Skull Attack comes out top.

Another interesting list which it requested was top 5 tv which is heavilly influenced by my current viewing habits which saw

1. Battlestar Galactica

2. Damages

3. Fringe

4. Engrenages

5. Lost

Last year we were denied Season 4 of Bsg as Virgin and Sky were engaged in their petty dispute which saw the viewers as the victims. This meant that last year Damages & Fringe tied as favourite show, this year BSG came back with a storming conclusion, the other shows are good just not that good . Engrenages has been repeated on BBC 4 and with my latest gadget I have managed to copy the episodes onto a dvd. And lost has improved and continues to gow on me. As for Dr who, easter saturday saw the first of the 4 specials in lieu of a series whilst David Tennant played Hamlet at Stratford upon Avon. And it was good, but in the words of "dead ringers" Docotr #10 is "Jarvis Cocker in space" but not for much longer. It was good and for terrestrial it was very good SF but not better than BSG, Fringe or Lost from that genre right now.

Speak to you all soon when I will look at the Politics situation both here and abroad.

See you soon

This week I have celebrated another birthday pedwar deg chewch ano .

Since the last posting, Obama has been formally inaugurated, though how many times he took the oath is moot. The stimulus package has passed a nasty racist has been outed at the New York Post. Like anybody gives a **************** what the New York Post thinks. Wales have won their opening two matches of the 2009 Six Nations, Scotland away in Murray field and England at home at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff. However Ireland look good and this thing may have legs. Also looking good are the Lakers having beaten Boston away in Beantown for the second and final time in regular season. Pittsburgh beat the Cards to win the Superbowl, we shall draw a veil over any mention of the Seahawks 2008/09 season and wish them better for next season. I keep looking at Cameron's Tories and am drawn back again to the Wendy's ad, the best you can say for the Cosnervatives is that they are not the Government, which is a very bleak prospect, their is no audacity of hope here just an absence of beef. and when they do become Government we shall see, not a lot.

So to take us forward here is a picture of President Obama.

So now it is 2009 and the end of Dubya's 8 years in the White House can be measured in days.

We look back at 2008 and consider that this was the year when America had its First President of Colour, well mixed race anyhow. Senator Obama (note the Irish origins) became the first Democratic nominee since LBJ to win Viriginia and North Carolina . He also won in stacks of other more obvious places. The solid south may not be solidily GOP anymore but Arkansas is still in the GOP camp as is pretty much most of Dixie. The repellant Saxelby Chamberliss was returned as a Senator for Georgia after a run off . However Ted Stevens did lose his senate seat in Alaska thereby sparing us Senator Palin !!.

The Seahawks went from bad to worse in their worst season since 1992 but the Detroit Lions finished 0-16 which makes them the worst NFL team ever !!. Meanwhile the Lakers are astride the NBA rankings. Why ? because they win at home and don't lose to poor teams take note Boston Celtics. Back here Man Utd came back from Japan as World Champions and County despite losing 2 on the bounce are still 7th. As for the Magners League let us draw a veil, the Ospreys are top and The Blues are 9th and facing a play off in Italy if they are lucky .

Moving on a New Doctor Who actor has been cast in the form of Matt Smith, aged 26 he has managed to annoy a few of the blogerati and those who see him as Tennant Lite. I would hope he gets a fair chance. To date he hasn't been saddled with Colin Baker's costume or Sylvester McCoy's scripts or schedulling time. His quirkyness hints at early Tom Baker and we know how good that got was due in part to the acting but also the writing, directing and production. There are those that will whine about a female Doctor. Well I'm sorry you are stupid and desrve my contempt for your lack of knowledge of the basic premise of the programme. As for the Doctor being black, well there were no black Vulcans before Tuvok and no Black Romulans before Sirol, so never say never. But i think the first Black time lord we saw was in "The Sound of Drums" and not before that. So Happy New Year to all and may we get what we desire and want this year.

Hywl