The waters around you have grown

Once upon a time I knew the ninety-two home venues of the teams in the Football League. They were constant, reliable, Swiss clockwork even. A few stadium disasters later grounds got upgraded and things changed. Some of them changed names. For a traditionalist like me 1987 was a Bosman year. This was the year a team got promoted from the Conference (second tier football or League 5 in other words) and the bottom team in Division four got relegated. Now, every year there were new grounds to learn and we lost some of the old ones. Since 2003 two teams now get promoted. Continue reading “The waters around you have grown”

Dias Medievais

Soooo!  It’s late Sunday afternoon.  Flocks of house martens and bee-eaters are circling colourfully and noisily overhead.  A slight breeze is keeping the ambient temperature just on the bearable side of 40c, yet Das Fürballen are crashed out panting on their backs, trying to stay cool.  Lewis Hamilton has just won the Belgain Grand Prix, although why that drab, rainy little country warrants a Grand Prix is quite beyond me, so let me tell you instead about  a sortie we undertook last week, Thursday to be precise.

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Continue reading “Dias Medievais”

Martine & Ségo

Having read many negative remarks in England about President Sarkozy, I thought that you might like to consider the alternative. The picture shows Martine Aubry, leader of the French Socialist Party, alongside Ségoléne Royal, in the jacket, who stood against Sarkozy for the presidency. I seem to recall someone in England remarking that she added glamour to the contest.

Martine Aubry was, of course, the minister in the last Socialist government that introduced the near ruinous 35 hour week. It is said that she later claimed not really to have believed in the measure, but was reluctant to rock the boat. Such qualities of leadership are rare: thank goodness. For her part, Ségoléne dropped a number of clangers when overseas, most memorably perhaps when visiting China. She praised the Chinese for the efficiency of their legal system which dealt with cases far more quickly than the French courts. Mmmm!

Perhaps this will help fellow bloggers to understand why I am pleased that Sarkozy won.

Wye Canoe?

You know those nights when you can’t sleep, so you get up but you know damn well, that being wide awake for a couple of hours before the tweety birds start up will not augur well for the day ahead?

If I am awake, I think there is an outside chance something useful will occur. I might write something unexpectedly inspired, read something moving or learn something new.

It was precisely one of those early mornings when I learned the ‘J’ stroke. Just to be clear, I’m not referring to some intimate personal therapy demonstrated on a dodgy pay-for site, but the movement you make with a canoe paddle so you can steer your vessel on a straight course from one side of it without having to paddle on alternate sides. Perhaps I didn’t put that very well but in essence, it kind of avoids having to zig-zag down the river in your canoe narrowly missing hitting the banks on either side. Continue reading “Wye Canoe?”