Reflections

We have arrived at the end of the first stage of the World Cup in Germany and half the teams are gone. From here on it starts to get interesting with a guaranteed result for every game no matter how long it takes or how unsatisfying penalties are.

But taking a step back, the long and winding European Rugby Union season concludes today with Ireland playing in Australia and France in South Africa. The French Championship ended a few weeks ago with B.O beating Stade Toulouse at Stade De France. Which is the excuse for the nudity at the top of this blog post.

The Basketball and the Ice Hockey in the US reached their natural conclusion. I apologise for confusing the Mavericks with the Cowboys. But they lost and Shaq and the boys won in 6 games.
As for the NHL, The Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup, the Hurricanes used to be the Hartford Whalers, that is one thing about US sports which I really don't get. In the U.K teams tend not to move, Wimbledon moved from London to Milton Keynes and have been relegated twice. Gretna which is close to the Scottish/English moved from the English Uni Bond League into the main stream Scottish Leagues and next season will paly in the Uefa Cup. Then again the US doesn't have relegation so a team like Accrington Stanley back in the Football League after 44 years couldn't come back. Though I know the Raiders went back to Oakland !!!!!!!!

In the U.K we are getting to the point where most of our good shows are either over or coming to a conclusion. Dr Who has three episodes of the second run to play. Last week's episode with Peter Kay seemed to have divided fan opinion between the old guard who hated it and the new fans who loved it. Given that Sky One and now Sky Three are showing Battlestar Galactica, I would reiterate my point that Dr Who is not the Best SF show out there just the best mass market SF show. I can't see ITV having the balls to show Battlestar Galactica at 8pm Saturday Night, even if they could buy the rights. 24 is three episodes from the end of season 5, whilst House finishes its second run next week. We still have lost admittedly with the really annoying 118118 sponser ads.

The French show i dwelt on last time is called "Engrenages" which has been translated as Spiral. Which of course is not an accurate translation as the french word translates to cog like, like the workings of a clock. Still we have 5 more weeks and I am looking forward to that. We also got to see the first part of Election Day on West Wing and show keeps getting better, shame it is nearly over.

More stuff in a few weeks.....