Archive
How many?
Further to ‘Here I go again’, the answer was around a dozen. However some may have been American, in which case they might take home with them my thanks to Dr Bose, for his excellent headphones.
Not sought after
Sometimes, methinks, we should be left with our memories, and our 1960s vinyl albums.
Not fine at all
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24117963
When a person, even an eccentric like Paolo di Canio, can be fined £8,000 for speaking the self-evident truth, the body that imposes the penalty needs to take a serious look at itself.
Sadly missed
And so the Champions League proper is with us again. But this season it just won’t be the same.
Here I go again
Bound for Girona via Newcastle this afternoon. I wonder how many school age kids will be on the plane this time.
Contemptible
No contest
I’ve just read David Cameron’s passionate defence of the Union in today’s Sunday Herald., all 130 words of it.
A year until the vote, but the question is very simple. Will Scotland continue to be dependent on a Westminster government, run by a gang of old Etonian prefects or, God forbid, the limp-wristed Ed Miliband, or will we stand on our own two feet and build a society based on fairness and equality for all?
Mystery
A disturbing story. I will watch this with interest and wait to see how long it is before some enterprising soul writes the novel. It won’t be me, out of respect for the family.
Meantime, Kenneth is right. The Crown Office cannot let this go without further investigation. If Ayrshire had a more locally accountable police force, it might help.
Mano en mano
For those of you who think that independence movements are just people blowing off steam . . .
Yesterday was the annual National Day of Catalunya; by coincidence it falls on 9/11. This year it took on extra significance because of an organised public demonstration in support of a binding referendum on Catalan independence, not simply the consultative poll that has been proposed, and ignored by Madrid. The idea was that people should link hands all along the road that runs from the French border to the territory’s southern limit. They made it work: an estimated 1.8 million people of all ages and stages turned out in one of the most impressive and peaceful displays of national spirit that I have ever seen.
There’s no way that we in Scotland could link hands from the Shetlands (making allowances to the water!) to Gretna Green, but I hope that Blair Jenkins and his team are looking at the precedent that’s been set.
Bloody Stirling
Heading for the airport in three hours, en route for Stirling tomorrow and the second Bloody Scotland, our very own annual crime festival. I’m on in the opening event, a thorn between the two roses that are Lin Anderson and Alex Gray. The kick-off time is 5pm in the Albert Halls. On Saturday, at 2pm, I’m in a second event with Jason Webster, a very bright guy with Spanish connections that are far stronger than mine.
Events like Bloody Scotland aren’t made by the authors they attract, but by the people who turn up to hear them, question them, throw fruit at them . . . okay, skip the last part. If you can get to Stirling this weekend, but haven’t bought your ticket yet, please do. We’re nothing without you.
I’m free
Sorry I’ve been off piste for a few days. I’ve been working rather hard to finish the first draft of something that will not see the light of day until late 2014. I’m there now, but it’ll be a formidable edit.
Fuzzy
Only one Man U signing yesterday, and Moyes is getting stick. Actually folks, it’s Ed Woodward, the Chief Exec who does the business, not the manager, so cast the stones in the right direction, eh, but at the same time congratulate him for refusing to shell out £16m for Baines, at his age.
New music while I work
Thanks, Dom, for introducing me to Nuria Graham, a half-Irish half-Catalan lass, with a big guitar and a big voice. First Tracks, her demo album will be available for sale soon on her website,
http://www.nuriagraham.com/en#!index
More than a Katie Melua clone; much more.
A tall ordure
It’s all football today.
I see that a former FIFA World Player of the Year has left Madrid and gone back to AC Milan. Probably just as well; here in Spain nobody was ever too keen on inviting ridicule by wearing a replica shirt with ‘Kaka’ on the back. It reminds me of the time Celtic signed another Brazilian, name of Scheidt, and had to plead with the Scottish media to call him by his first name, Rafael.
¿Que?
I am reasonably up with it on football matters; I played the game in a very minor way until only a couple of years ago, when my body suggested that it might like a rest, I watch a lot and I read a lot about it and all its modern intricacies and intrigues. I have just finished a book called ‘I am the Secret Footballer‘ and soon I will start another called ‘The Secret Player‘, which my friend Martin, who edited it, assures me is even better.
For all that, there is one thing I cannot understand. Leaving the cash involved aside, for that is just silly and a reflection of the fact that today’s industry is mostly about screwing money out of the fans, can someone please explain to me how a presumably sane man could pay more for Gareth Bale than for Cristiano Ronaldo?
Double fault
Anyone noticed that Rory McIlroy’s decline has been more than matched by that of his girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki, once the No 1 player in her sport, now well down the rankings?
I have a theory, and it is this: mixed doubles involving golfers and tennis players never work for either party.
Deja vu
It seems that we are being told, on the basis of top-quality US intelligence, (Does that ring a bell?) that the Syrian President possesses weapons of mass destruction, and has used them against his opponents, killing innocents in the process.
It seems also that our government is going to join the US and anyone else who can be recruited in ‘punishing’ him, by launching massive missile strikes against his country, a tactic which will lead inevitably to the deaths of still more innocents. Change a few names and we could be back where we were ten years ago.
Will a missile strike bring back the dead? No, it will only add to their numbers. Will it bring the regime to heel? Unlikely; but it could provoke them into doing the same again . . . that’s if it was them in the first place and not the rebels. So why has David Cameron suddenly become a war-monger? Hasn’t he cast an eye upon the haunted figure that is Tony Blair today, to recognise the danger to his reputation?
Can we have the referendum now please, before Scotland is sucked into another Westminster War?
Meldrew mode
Okay you’re going to call me a grumpy old ******* but here goes anyway.
Yesterday evening we flew from Newcastle to Girona; on a rough head count as many as 20% of the passengers were children of school age, holiday bound. It may be they were all going on five day breaks and will be back when the English schools reopen on Monday, but forgive me if I doubt that. Yes, I know that holidays are more expensive in July and August than in June and September, but parents are legally obliged to present their kids at school during term-time and, I would suggest, morally bound also.
I would suggest that UK-wide education authorities should station observers at all airports, because for too many people, when it comes to a choice between sunshine and education, stupidity rules.
Pointed
Someone in Pointless must have read my post earlier today! Nonetheless your record still isn’t good, folks.
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