Livin on a prayer

Fun day today at Bournemouth Air show.

This is a fairly new incarnation, devised by Bournemouth Tourist Board and others to generate income for the Town, during the "credit crunch". It is free and uses one of the Town's best features, i.e. the seafront to host a series of aircraft and helicopters to entertain the watching crowds.

I went with my friend Vicki, her friend Tina and six boys (including my sons). As the traffic was likely to be somewhere between "bad" to "stopped sufficiently to play football in the road" we decided to go by train and therefore the nine of us turned up at Chandlers Ford station at 10 am this morning. First surprise was the deal we were able to agree as a party of nine. Not too sure the rest of the queue were quite so impressed, but we all got tickets before the train departed, so no harm done.

All trains were on time and so an hour later we disembarked at Bournemouth station and after a stop at Asda to purchase lunch (and hoodies – it wasn't as hot as first expected) we walked the 20 minutes or so down to the main park to eat lunch.

Suitably refreshed we then wandered over to the seafront, just in time to see the start of the show, namely the Red Arrows. Now I've seen them before, but they are still amazing and the skill they use to avoid each other is incredible. Their display lasted 20 minutes and was riveting.

There then followed various other displays, including a Lancaster bomber, Spitfire and Hurricane, a helicopter display team, two bi-planes (with wing walkers) and finally a Typhoon Euro fighter.

The helicopters, while sedentary compared to the Red Arrows, was just as skill full and the pilots showed why, as a military weapon, they are so vital. After all, as the announcer was quick to point out, the Red Arrows can't fly backwards!

The Euro fighter was the final plane and was by far the loudest. It came sweeping across from the eastern end of the beach and then as it reached the pier turned out to sea, its engines burning orange as it shot out to sea and the noise was incredible. A further 5 minute show ensued, built mainly on how loud and fast it is, but impressive none the less!

The seafront and surrounding areas were packed and along the front were a good mile and a half of displays and attractions. In terms of bringing much needed cash to the area, it must have been a success.

We got the train home, I guess some people in their cars are still somewhere on the A31.

Stop making sense

Saw an interview with David Byrne on BBC this morning. Never really been a fan, but he was fascinating.

The interviewer, Sophie Rayworth, best known as a news reader, did an excellent job in letting him do most of the talking. The BBC also seemed to understand the size of star that they had and also devoted sufficient time to allow us to get to see the man underneath the image

At one point he admitted that when younger he may have had personality traits close to aspergers syndrome He also seemed fairly sure there would be no Talking Heads reunion.

Still crazy after all these years

So winter starts next Saturday as the Football League re-commences. The season starts at 12.45pm as Saints take on Millwall as St Marys in the first live game of the season. So before anyone else kicks a ball we may only be -7 points!

So how do I see this season? Well I have none of last season's hope, but as we were relegated, I also expect to be less wrong than I was then!

We start this season in a completely different state (& league!) than a year ago. Then, we frustratingly played some great pre-season football especially against West Ham (and again a bit later against Birmingham in the Carling Cup). All too quickly the cynics were proved correct, however, as the youth and inexperience (and some injuries) proved that we were too weak for the Championship. While JP seemed to talk a good game, in reality the financial peril that club was in (and of which we were mainly unaware) meant that he, and latterly Wotte, had little option than to opt for youth. That it had an unhappy ending is an understatement.

So season 2009/10 starts with Saints in League1, but now we have a proven English manager, no financial worries (but a 10 point deduction) a new wealthy owner and a fairly threadbare squad. Some of last season's problems remain in that defensively we still look vulnerable to crosses (no jokes) and scoring goals looks dependant on adding to the squad. The charade of administration and funding the overheads while we found a buyer has robbed us of one quality player and a striker who did know where the goal was. There is also no guarantee that others won't leave before the end of the transfer window. Both Saganowski and Rasiak have been expected to look elsewhere, having spent part of last season out on loan. While the financial need to reduce the wage bill is gone, sensible financial control may suggest that we could get either younger or better strikers for the same or less money. Time will tell.

Our new manager Alan Pardew has put his back room staff together and his main priority will now be strengthening the squad and, for once, some money may be available, again time will tell.

In reality this should be a season of consolidation, with our first task to get to 0 points as quickly as we can. Thereafter mid-table mediocrity seems the best we can hope for, but who knows. If we get a tall defender, score some goals and confidence begins to build then maybe, just maybe we could squeeze into the play-offs and that, as we know, is a lottery thereafter!!!!

Show me

I'm not sure that Twitter is fully understood as the concept that it is.

Too many cynics are writing it off as a waste of time. The comment most heard is " why do I need to know that so and so has just driven to work". Well true you don't, so don't follow that person. As Twitter gives you the right to follow who you want to then you're in control.

Where it really works however, is in following the news. Most media outlets have a Twitter feed that you can follow. This means that you can keep up todate across a number of websites through Twitter (especially useful if using a phone). The tweet will give you the bullet point headline (& maybe a bit more) with link to the website if you want read the full story.

You do need to review who you follow as some people do tweet too much and can be a pain. But that is easily solved by stopping following them!

After all without Twitter I would never have heard this joke. "my mate's wife has left him. Took his Bob Marley CD's and his satelitte dish - no woman no sky!


-- Post From My iPhone