World in Union

The Rugby Guinness Premiership season started again this weekend and to celebrate, part of the opening weekend, was the "London double-header" at Twickenham. This involves the four "London" clubs playing two local derbies against each other, one at 2.30pm and then one at 5.15 pm. The first game was Saracens vs. London Irish and the second London Wasps VS Harlequins.

My friend John and his family are massive Harlequins fans and he suggested that a crowd of us go along and he arranged the tickets. Now I agreed not really thinking about the cost, but when he asked for £35 for me and both boys (£15 for me, a tenner each for Matt & Will), I was, frankly, amazed!

We got to the stadium at about 12.30pm and parked in a local college for a further £10. As the college had a large playing field we'd agreed to meet up there and have a picnic, before moving on to the stadium, where a small village of food and drink was set up. The major part of this was the Guinness village with food and drink stands, big screens and live music. Inside the stadium were even more bars! We had a perfect view although we were in the middle tier and behind one end

As John is a Quins fan we naturally supported their main rivals, namely London Irish in the first game. Now I've not seen much live rugby, but I know enough to say that "the Irish" started slowly and were 18-3 down by half time. Saracens who were the home team played good attacking rugby and scored two quick tries. The second half though was a different affair, with Irish far more focused and they slowly cut the deficit, by scoring two tries, but importantly missing one of the conversions and two penalties, all of which were fairly kickable. 18-14 down with four minutes to go, we were treated to a grandstand finish, but sadly no more points were scored. Kicking practice required this week as the missed points (8) cost them the game.

As our hosts' team were playing in the second game we, of course, all supported London Wasps (who used to be just Wasps, but as they play their home games in High Wycombe, needed to add London to their name!!!)

Quins have had a fair amount of publicity recently over the "blood gate" scandal, whereby their director of rugby, Dean Richards, initiated a scam where the Quins full back took a fake blood capsule from his sock, bit the end off and squeezed the blood into his mouth so that he had to be substituted and the replacement, a kicker, could take a vital kick. This would have worked perfectly had 1)Sky cameras not filmed the capsule being taking from the sock, 2) the full back hadn't winked at his mates as he came off and 3) the blood coming from his mouth was enough to have killed him if real! All has now been revealed and suspensions and sackings followed. Dean Richards's rugby career is effectively over.

This was Quins first game since the scandal broke and within 45 seconds of the start they were involved in more blood injury headlines! Clearly their Prop forward Robson decided that everyone should know what a real blood injury should look like and therefore proceeded to head butt one of the Wasps players in the first minute. Blood did flow, so we're now clear what the real stuff looks like and this was quickly followed by a red card!! 45 seconds into the season and Quins are down to 14 men! And now the bit you couldn't make up...the referee's name that sent Robson of was Dean Richards! I kid you not.

Somewhat surprisingly the 14 men played some great rugby and took a 12-5 lead. Not good for us Wasps fans, but slowly but surely the extra man started to have an impact and the lead was firstly reduced and then eradicated as Wasps took a game winning 26-15 lead.

As a football fan I was amazed that:-

• Four sets of local rival fans could all sit together in a stadium, drink copious amounts of beer and all get on well! (Imagine Arsenal, Spurs, Wet Ham Chelsea fans in a similar position, the end result would send the Newspaper editors into a tail spin)
  
• Drinking was actively encouraged with a bar no more than 20 yards from you at any time!!
  
• Returning to you seats with a drink was a good thing, not a criminal offence which would get you ejected from the ground.
  
• Two games of rugby only cost £15.
  

Salvation tambourine

I've just been to my first outdoor festival, namely the Greenbelt Christian Arts festival at Cheltenham race course. It was brilliant!

Here are some thoughts/highlights/comments.

• Getting up at silly o'clock on Friday to drive in convoy proved worthwhile and we managed to all camp together in an area not too far away from the action.
  
• I walked miles over the course of the week-end.
  
• The site was split into two main sections. The first was based around the main grandstand and facilities it enjoys. The second area was in the middle of the course and was made up entirely of an area of tents, stands and marquees. The main stage was adjacent to the grandstand in a large area where all could comfortably view the acts.
  
• Over the four days I saw (in no particular order) Athlete, Duke Special, Royksopp, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Sixpence None The Richer, One EskimO, Foy Vance, Martyn Joseph, The Apples, Reem Kelani (three times!), Cornershop, Peggy Sue, a classical concert of 13 pieces by Sir John Tavener and Foreign Slippers (including a girl wearing a hat with a tree on it!). That was just the music.
  
• I went to talks, comedy, a film, the pub (The Jesus Arms), drank lots of coffee and managed to eat and share great times with friends.
  
• I had not expected the range of food available to buy.
  
• Rob Bell was great to finally listen to and his talk ("Drops like Stars") and the "in conversation with..." were both excellent. As a liberal Church leader in USA, he said he was amazed at how free-thinking and ahead of the States, he found the UK.
  
• I didn't get to see either of Simon Mayo's items.
  
• The theme of the week-end was "Standing in the long now" which is a Brian Eno phrase and he was at one time keen to attend but in the end unable to be there.
  
• Robert Beckford has shaved off his dreadlocks.
  
• Both Beer and hymn sessions were hysterical. Imagine "Lord of the Dance" a la Chas and Dave!!
  
• We were very lucky with the weather, although waking up at three thirty in the night to put on another layer to keep warm, in August, is surreal.
  
• I decided before the week-end that Reem Kelani's Palestine folk songs were something I could do without but ended up seeing her three times while waiting for other things.
  
• You need to see the film, "the age of stupid". It's very scary re climate change.
  
• It's amazing in a crowd of 35000, how many times you bump into your children.
  
• What did we do before mobile phones?
  
• The toilets were ok, helped by also being able to use the "proper ones" in the grandstand!

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

Carry on my wayward son

Earlier this week it was announced that the major supermarkets had reduced their carrier bag usage by 48%, which is an excellent performance.

My involvement in this achievement has been to build up quite a collection of "bags for life" which I have acquired by accepting free ones and paying for some. They sit inside my front door in a box for usage. But sadly that is all they do. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I end up in the queue at the checkout and remember the pile at home.

I would like to say sorry to the world, I will try harder.