Quintin Jardine's blog

Scotland Rugby’s newly retired stand-off, Dan Parks, seems to be taking some stick for leaving the international game after having something of a howler against England rather than before it. Unfair. He didn’t pick himself, the coach did, and he didn’t rip the starting jersey from the hands of a younger, fitter, and now better player, the coach did that too. Remembering that Parks carried the side through the 2010 international season and won three man-of-the-match awards out of five, he should be leaving with our thanks ringing in his ears, not complaints that he played one game too many.

The Tramuntana, our north wind from Hell blew all night, rattling shutters and everything else, to the extent that sleep was impossible. When we looked out this morning we discovered that it’s wrecked half the garden. Not pretty.

‘The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.’— Gustave Flaubert

Actually Gus, it’s the art of summoning up the energy to begin and the willpower to see it through to a conclusion.

Thank you, kinswoman. Once a J always a J. I love our motto: ‘Cave Adsum‘, which, roughly translated, means ‘Watch it, I’m here!‘. Mind you I have never worked out how our family came to be a Scottish clan. As I understand it, the first record of its British existence has us among William the Conqueror’s invasion force at the Battle of Hastings, although there’s a theory that before that we were Norse who settled in France. I have no idea of the basis on which the current  ‘Chief’, young Sir William  Jardine, Baronet, lays claim to that title, but here’s a suggestion. How about having an election for the position? When that happens, I’ll be open to nomination. Let the word go forth, until it reaches Applegirth.

A point for all the low foreheads to note, and try to understand, along with the football truism, ‘They don’t boo bad players’ (other than Vinnie Jones). Over the last two seasons, Manchester United have conceded 0.86 goals per game in the Premier League when Rio Ferdinand has played, compared with 1.15 without him. To save them doing the sum, that suggests that in a full season, he would be worth + 11 to United’s goal difference.

While Paul L was on the way to winning, our little Mia and her parents were stopping over in Doha Airport, on the way back from holiday. At one point, when Dom was away somewhere, Frida was sitting with the wee one, who is four months short of two years old, very blonde, very gorgeous and very lively. They were approached  by an arab bloke, who leaned over Mia, peered at her and asked if she was a boy or a girl. When Frida told him, he said, ‘Too many girls in the world,’ and walked away. She and Dom were really upset by that incident, and so am I, so upset that I’m not going to tell you what I’m thinking. But possibly, you can guess.

Well done Scotland’s own major winner, Paul Lawrie, in striking a blow for all forty-somethings by winning the Qatar Masters yesterday. Okay, there will be those who will say that it was only a three-round tournament, but I doubt if that will  worry Paul as he banks the money, benefits from the world ranking points and enjoys his extra year’s tour exemption. He will point out also that he won by four shots, which doesn’t leave much room for doubt.

I didn’t see all of the Chelsea Man U game, but I saw enough to make me very angry. Every time Rio Ferdinand touched the ball he was booed loudly by the Chelsea support. Why? Because he is the brother of Anton, who is at the heart of the John Terry controversy, the person whom Terry is accused of abusing racially. In his prime Rio was a far better player than any defender in the Chelsea squad, and even now probably still is, so perhaps jealousy had a little to do with it. But I don’t believe that it had. No, I see it as the unacceptable face of English football coming to the fore yet again, giving force to Rio’s suggestion last week that perhaps institutional racism persists among its followers, for all the multi-ethnicity of its players.

A friend has just asked me to circulate the following, which has been sent to parents by her daughter’s school. Happy to do so, Pat.

Facebook’s Timeline: information for students

What is Facebook’s Timeline?

Timeline is one of Facebook’s biggest developments and changes the way your

Facebook page is displayed. Every post, photograph, comment, status and

other update you have ever posted will feature in scrolling chronological order,

telling a story of your life.

Can I opt out of Timeline?

Timeline will not be optional. Even if you don’t choose it now, your account will

be switched over to Timeline in the near future. You can turn it on early but

you won’t be able to turn it back off.

What you need to know about privacy

Timeline changes your Privacy Settings, including settings for past posts, images, tags and updates.

By default, Facebook chooses Public or Open Privacy Settings for you when you

switch to Timeline. It can be risky to accept Facebook’s default

Public or

Everyone

privacy settings. You might end up sharing personal, private

information with strangers. Click on

Privacy Settings and work through all

options carefully to tidy your Timeline before it goes public. What you think is

Facebook-worthy now might embarrass you in the future. Many universities

and employers now check Facebook profiles to help them choose the right

candidate.

Timeline’s 7 days

Once you switch on Timeline you will have 7 days until it’s published. That gives you one week to check all

Privacy Settings, delete anything you no longer want and tidy your page.

What now?

You can choose to convert to Timeline now or wait until it happens automatically.

Once your Timeline is switched on, use the 7 day preview period to tidy your profile before it is published.

Check the Privacy Settings of everything you’ve ever posted before (Past Posts). Remember that unless you

change Privacy Settings, items you would like to keep Private may become Public.

Summary

1. Learn as much as you can about Timeline before you sign up, especially Privacy Settings

2. Plan how you want your Timeline to look

3. Use the 7 days to delete anything that might embarrass you in the future – how will it look 10 years from

now?

4. Check every Privacy Setting carefully

5. Only once you’ve checked everything will you be ready to publish

Reference

Timeline puts your life in Facebook’s hands

by New Scientist 07/01/2012

Facebook Timeline Looms: What You Need To Know

by PC World 29/01/2012

12 Things You Should Know About Facebook Timeline

by PCMag 25/01/2012

Facebook Security Best Practices

from Sophos

Thanks, Margaret. It’s important to AJ and to me that everyone is pleased with the service they receive from CampbellReadBooks, so I’m happy to hear that you were. Every one of my titles bought from there will be signed, it’s probably the only store in the world that will stock my entire backlist, and pricing is competitive also.

I should have mentioned that one thing I seem unable to get on Canal + is cricket. Mind you, at this moment, I’m not looking too hard.

Last year I binned Sky TV in Spain, (where you’re not supposed to have it anyway, but many ex-pats do) reckoning I could get through the winter with just a Freesat box. Wrong. My spirit is weak. But I haven’t gone back to the Dirty Digger and son, no, I’ve signed up for Canal +, and after the inevitable teething troubles I can report that it’s better. There is even a clever wee button on the remote that allows me to select the original language when available. Most of the time I don’t use it, though. ‘Sac d’esquina’ sounds so much more interesting than ‘corner kick’, and a Targeta Roja means ‘You’re off!’ in any language.

No more snow overnight, and much of it has blown away, but where it’s sheltered the ground is still white. Not going to get much above freezing this morning afternoon, then seriously cold overnight. Most of us are thinking back to March 2010, and hoping, ‘Not again.’

It’s snowing in L’Escala. B*gger!

I’m going to be sorry when the Harry Redknapp trial ends. A TV comedy drama in the making, if ever there was one. However the big question for Harry and his benefactor remains. Are  the jury laughing?

Had some great news about five minutes ago. Shirley Gash is going to be a granny. Hey, Tracey!

You’re email address doesn’t tell me where you’re located, Robin, but if you’re in the UK, all my work is available already in ebook form, via Waterstone,WHS and Amazon, apart from the two most recent titles and they will be, very soon. If you’re in the US, that’s another matter, but again, that should be resolved within the next couple of months

Start of the shortest month of the year and Skinner 23 is on track. We even have a provisional title. I wish the same was true of Primavera 4; there’s some good healthy debate going on about that one.

We all hate Fred Goodwin, don’t we.  We all know he was the guy who led the Royal Bank of Scotland to disaster through what we are told was his overweening ambition, lack of business acumen, being a generally adulterous shit, et cetera. And we’re all glad that he’s suffering the ultimate indignity of being stripped of his knighthood. And having that slimy little bastard James Matthews turn up on his doorstep with his Sky News camera. Sure of course we are. But wait just a minute.

The last guy I can recall having such humiliation heaped upon him  was Sir Anthony Blunt,  Master of the Queen’s Pictures. Blunt was a traitor, the fourth man after Burgess, Maclean and Philby.

Is that where we’ve put Mr Goodwin? If so, and if it’s fair, should he be there alone? Fred didn’t apply for his K, somebody put him up for it. Why isn’t that person being publicly pilloried for such an awful error of judgement? And what about Sir Mervyn King, the Guv’nor of the Bank of England, the superspiv on whose watch Fred got away with it for a while? When will he be reduced to the ranks for his undoubted maladministration? How about never?

I know that in the current climate this is a minority view, but I happen to believe that in doing this, Cameron has commited a truly petty and shameful act.

Just  heard a BBC Reporting Scotland piece on Broadcasting Tax non-payers. The three biggest civic offenders, they said,  are Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Fuksik, those are our three biggest cities, so that’s hardly surprising. My old friend Stan Taylor must be birling  in his box at that sort of shoddy editorial control.