On her self titled album Julia Fordham once sang "where does the time go". if I knew I would tell you.
The weather and the return of Dr Who, Warehouse 13 and Eureka tell us that the autumn is here. We have had all manner of stuff the declaration of GOP candidates for the 2012 US Presidential Election. Riots in the major cities of England with apologies to Leeds and Newcastle and places down south like Plymouth and Reading and Swindon etc. The Rugby World Cup 2011 starts in New Zealand, tomorrow, today and Wales go in with decent form, possibly the best form since 1999 when we lost to Samoa and the Convicts. Who knows.

As for the NFL , this is not a bold tip but Baltimore Ravens is it your year ????

It has been a long time between Blogs maybes too long so this time we shall just look at Sport and save the Pol and tv and films and music which this year is Lady Gaga and Adele until another time. The moldovan euro entry appears elsewhere.

So Sport Man Utd won the premiership and then got spanked by Barcelona. Leinster won the Heineken Cup with Harlequins winning the Amlin, Munster won the Magners and to complete a piss poor season Wales came 4th again in the Six Nations, although 3wins from 5 games sounds better than 2 from 5 but we did lose at home to the English for the first time since 2003. England won the Championship but no slam. As for the NBA it is rewind time to 2006 as Miami this time with added Lebron face Dallas with Dirk. And on a sad note Stockport County finished 92/92 and are relegated to the Conference, which may be the kick they so badly need. of course if it hadn't been for re-election they might/ought/should have been there ages ago. But that's life.   

So we have arrived at the end of another year and so here come the lists in no particular order.
Films  5) The Girl who kicked the Hornet's nest. 4) Watchmen 3) Girl with the Dragon Tatoo 2) Avatar 1) Inception.

TV   6) 24 5) Dr Who 4) True Blood 3) Fringe 2) Spartacus 1) Wallander  with a nod to The Walking Dead which only had six episodes and of which more can be expected next year. What ever happened to the UK debut of Hawaii Five O remains to be seen. Praise also for the cliff hanger to Haven.

Music 7) Only Girl in the World - Rhianna  6) Alessandro - Lady Gaga 5) Well, Well Well - Duffy. 4) 7th Avenue - Bruce Springsteen 3) Slow - Rumer  2) Future Soul Song - Prince 1) Its not War - Manic Street Preachers.




Unfortunately Blues fell foul of two French refs in their games with Northampton Saints so there will be no European Trophies in 2011. So here is a picture of the boys in Marseille

Happy New year.

 

There have been several articles about people neglecting or abandonning their blogs. Surfice it to say after 6 months in which I have groomed the cat, played a lot of Blackout Rugby, watched in horror at the antics of the Con-Dem Coalition, and visited the Mold Food & Drink Festival, here we are . 

The subject this time is TV, this year has seen an 11th Doctor, the end of Lost (in a Church) the end of Ashes to Ashes (in a pub) the cancellation of Caprica (going too far back with the old prequel stuff) and some good stuff.
It is too early for me to comment on "the Walking Dead" but what we do have for your consideration are the following:

Fringe now into series 3 shown on Sky closely after it is shown on Fox and why not. The first epsiodes are split between our universe and an alt - universe from whence the surviving Peter Bishop hails.

True Blood - Shown on FX in the UK, Sex, Violence and Fangs and why not, however I have to ask am I the only one who finds the British born lead made of wood .

Spartacus - Shown in the UK on Bravo, home of the brave and Dog the Bounty Hunter. The first few episodes seemed to be like a bad comic, it became thanks to the leads, like Rome with added Sex & Violence and a warning to viewers at every add break.

Wallender - that's with a V, The original and the Best, okay not the original, the second swedish attempt but very very good all the same.

So with this blog comes some pictures and next time, hopefully next week we shall talk about sport in the meantime I have to watch some Zombies.

   

Dear All

It has been over a month and what have we seen the English based coalition government preparing to slash and burn, can anyone guess which bits are going to get s&b yes Labour bits and rather suprisingly LD bits as well. methinks Clegg needs to tell the Tories that he has a seat in Sheffield and that going home could be difficult in future and that if they cut the Public Sector in West Wales there might not be many Welsh LD's next time, whenever that is ? Presumably when the English right wing Tories decide that they have had enough of Clegg & Co.

Still on a lighter note Cardiff Blues beat Toulon in Marseille to win the Amlin. Stade Toulouse beat Biarittz in the H Cup final , this is France where alcohol publicite is banned.  The Ospreys won in Dub to win the Magners playoff . On the International Front, Scotland beat Argentina 2-0, England shared a series with Australia, Wales lost to Bokke B and are now facing up to the All Blacks down under its not pretty but its not 1988.

The LA Lakers beat Boston in 6 games winning the last two at the Staples. Kobe now has more rings than Shaq but still less than Michael Jordan. He is the same age as me you know give or take an hour.

The Football World Cup is taking place in South Africa, England have been wretched and meanwhile we the British licencse payers have been force fed Three Lions etc till we puke .

So next time we'll look at Politics and TV, the end of most things for the summer. I am forced to add Brothers & Sisters series 3 to space things out .

Keep the Faith.

 

Lakers' experience, crunch-time cool simply too much for Jazz - Frank Hughes - SI.com

The good news is that the Lakers swept the Jazz 4-0 and play Phoenix in the Nba West Final. The bad news is the next UK government will be an Axis of Weasels as the Liberals hook up with the Tories. The Labour Party lost over 90 seats and Plaid could not take Llanelli, Yns Mon, Aberconwy or Ceredigion. shame !!!! As for Sky News its starting to look like Fox both Kay Burley and Adam Boulton need to reconsider their careers. 

So there you have it if the Tories win your hamster's are toast !!!

V Diana is a hungry alien

So this time its looking at various books of note since the turn of the year.

I have recently completed Larsson's Millenium trilogy. These have all proved to be enjoyable reads. The tale of the second book is such that it will put "The Wiild Bunch" to shame and I await to see what Yellow Bird made of the second book when the film comes over to Britain in due course.

Currently I have gone back to "A team of Rivals " by Doris Kearns Goodwin. This is a detailed account of Lincoln's presidency and his initial election and how his rivals for the Republican Nomination came to form part of his cabinet. This goes beyond Obama rewarding Mrs Clinton but rewards for all the other candidates !!

We still have not been to the Cinema that many times but have instead re signed up to Lovefilm.com. This is one of several companies others such as Amazon, Play & Tesco's are available. You subscribe and they send you Dvd's through the post. So far we have seen Cinema first,

Avatar, Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Terminator iv, Sweeney Todd, Letters from Iwo Jima, the Boat that Rocked and thanks to a free film from Sky Box Office Julia & Julie.

Next blog up is Politics see you then .

So today is the second of May 2010 and the Football season is nearly over. All Chelsea have to do is not fall over to reclaim the title which they last won 4 years ago and bring to an end Utd's run of 3 championships on the bounce which ties them with the great Herbert Chapman's Huddersfield and Aresnal team's of the 1920's and 1930's, the Liverpool teams of the 1980's and of course earlier Utd teams. This Utd team have not been good enough to consign those other teams to history and they have not recovered from the loss of Ronaldo and Tevez. Coming 2nd will serve only to galvanize them on. In Rugby France won the Grand Slam as has happened after Lions tours 1998,2002 okay in 2006 it was only a title but you see where this is heading. The European finals have been decided Stade Tououse vs Biarittz. I saw Stade at Stockport in January. The Amlin final will be between Toulon and Cardiff Blues. You will recall on January 1st they were lucky to get DDIM !! in a 26-0 beating from the Ospreys. So here are some pictures, now I have some catching up to do so tomorrow is tv & Movies and the Big Pol so keep in touch.

Hywl

je      

so we have a new decade to think about with the end of the noughties.

For what it is worth are a few notes

TOP tv

1  24
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Dr Who

Top Music
1 Hey Ya - Out kast
2. Travelling soldier  - Dixie Chicks
3. Your love alone - Manic Street Preachers.

Top Film

1. Return of the King
2. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
3. Der Leider Das Anderer

I'm back from  Wales having seen the Blues humbled by the might of Ospreylia the final score line in Cymraeg was both brutal and truthful.

Gweilch  Daudeg Chwech  Gleison  DIM !!!!!!!

To be honest they did very well to get DIM !!

Here is a picture of Tom Shanklin in the Snow

More on 2009 next time

HNY !!

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

December Thoughts



Due to structural changes at my workplace this blog went MIA for a few months but we are now back to muse on items.



The election, well I'm very pleased by Obama's win and the scope of his win, the first Democrat to win in Virginia since LBJ. the first Democrat to win North Carolina for an age. However unlike Bill Clinton he did not win Arkansas. The state that brought you Brown vs Board of Education Topeka, a major civil rights Supreme Court Case.



On a sporting note the Seahawks are having their worst season since 1992, but the Lakers currently 24-3 are having one of their best and its Boston not Santa who is coming to town on Christmas Day. As for Traditonal European Sports. County are now up to 5th in Division 1 which is quite an acheivement. The Blues won in Biarittz last Saturday and are played 4 won 4 this season in Europe , their magners form is awful and tonights performance against the Scarlets was pretty wrteched.



So here are some pictures from the stuff we missed and I'll be back to round up the year before its gone.



Merry Christmas / Nadolig Llawern.

Lyndon Johnson - Daisy

Plan B, the clown Palin wants to put Nato Forces in Georgia