The Country is grabbed once again by Olympics fever as team GB are once again demonstrating how government funding can make a difference if channels to the right people.
We have had some strange medals too: trampolining, rugby sevens, wind surfing ,tennis and golf, none of which are long term Olympic sports.
I am also enchanted by the modern pentathlon, which is alleged to mimic a typical battle. Jump on a horse and ride to war, swim a river to join in and shoot and fence to survive, then run like hell to get to the next gig. Really well thought through!
The thing that has got my goat though is the number of people in the crowd, the athletes and support staff who hold the Union flag the wrong way up. The wide white stripe should be on the top at the flagpole end, or by the white tape if hand held.
It is flown the wrong way up legitimately to indicate a ship is in distress, team GB seems fine so let's fly the flag accordingly.
Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label olympics. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 August 2016
Tuesday, 5 April 2016
Penang Penang ole biscuit barrel
Not sure why I called it thus but the title has a Monty Python/Monster Raving Looney Party feel to it. Maybe its bit of a Brexit influence too.
Anyway here we are on the beach at Batu Ferriggi in Penang, Malaysia. It's a bit of a time warp as far as I am concerned.
I was last here in 1982 with a chum, Neil Brown. We travelled to Singapore in the days of Boogie Street and Change Alley before taking the train to Butterworth via Kuala Lumpar. In those days you then got a ferry to Georgetown,the Penang main town, but now there is a choice of two bridges.
We are staying in the Rasa Sayang hotel which was here all those years ago. We stayed then in its sister hotel, the Golden Sands. That hotel was demolished to extend the Rasa, with a new highrise Golden Sands built further up the beach.
When Neil and I were here we were in the middle of a Holiday Superstars competition modelled on the cult TV programme of the same name.
Neil won the skyscraper race up 20 stories of our condo in Singapore. I won the swimming. Then in Penang Neil won the squash and tennis. We then played a game of chess using the giant hotel garden set which must have lasted four hours. I won that by a whisker. The other events have been lost to time.
We also guested in the nightly footie roll up at Fort Georgetown with the locals a couple of times, before getting up at 03:00 one morning to watch Englang v West Germany in the World Cup. The locals all chipped in so the match could be screened live by satellite. They were delighted two English joined them!
The old Georgetown is now a UNESCO World heritage site, sadly swallowed up by the new developments of 40 odd years building.
This visit is a bit of r & r prior to a trip to Hong Kong for the rugby sevens. It will be interesting to see the event prior to its debut at the Olympics in Rio later this year.
Anyway here we are on the beach at Batu Ferriggi in Penang, Malaysia. It's a bit of a time warp as far as I am concerned.
I was last here in 1982 with a chum, Neil Brown. We travelled to Singapore in the days of Boogie Street and Change Alley before taking the train to Butterworth via Kuala Lumpar. In those days you then got a ferry to Georgetown,the Penang main town, but now there is a choice of two bridges.
We are staying in the Rasa Sayang hotel which was here all those years ago. We stayed then in its sister hotel, the Golden Sands. That hotel was demolished to extend the Rasa, with a new highrise Golden Sands built further up the beach.
When Neil and I were here we were in the middle of a Holiday Superstars competition modelled on the cult TV programme of the same name.
Neil won the skyscraper race up 20 stories of our condo in Singapore. I won the swimming. Then in Penang Neil won the squash and tennis. We then played a game of chess using the giant hotel garden set which must have lasted four hours. I won that by a whisker. The other events have been lost to time.
We also guested in the nightly footie roll up at Fort Georgetown with the locals a couple of times, before getting up at 03:00 one morning to watch Englang v West Germany in the World Cup. The locals all chipped in so the match could be screened live by satellite. They were delighted two English joined them!
The old Georgetown is now a UNESCO World heritage site, sadly swallowed up by the new developments of 40 odd years building.
This visit is a bit of r & r prior to a trip to Hong Kong for the rugby sevens. It will be interesting to see the event prior to its debut at the Olympics in Rio later this year.
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Gold......
We are in the lull between the Olympic Games and the Paraolympic Games. The gap has been filled by a riveting final test match between England and South Africa.We were fortunate to be at Lords on the Saturday as is our tradition, and its fair to say that the Safa's just played the better cricket and deserved to win.
I suspect the Kevin Petersen saga will run and run, and it must have had an affect on the England camp and the way they performed, however, I would like to congratulate Vernon Philander for winning man of the match, and almost putting this web site on the map big style, a cricketer and a philanderer, now he would not have been the first!
The whole success of Team GB has once more focused the political radar on sports fields and physical exercise in schools. We all know there are too many fat kids about, but in many cases they take the lead from their parents. It is they who buy them playstations, x-boxes and Nintendos and are happy to leave little JoHannie to become a coach potato. I wonder if we will now see more and more children being attracted to social clubs to try to emulate the recent stars we have all see strut their stuff very impressively on the biggest sporting stage.
Rory McIlroy must have felt a bit miffed that not too many people were watching when he won his second major, the US PGA Championship, which concluded during the closing ceremony of the Olympics. The lure of the Spice Girls reunion was just too much for some people.
They tied in the themes quite well in the ceremony, just missing the opportunity to have Duran Duran perform Rio as the link up to the 2016 Games. We are already making plans to go, principally to watch the rugby 7's. it will certainly not be as ferocious as the Paraolympics version aka Murderball.
So as the footie season kicks off again with the usual petulance and cheating lets see if some of the Olympian fair play and sportsmanship is able to filter through society and make everybody strive to do that little bit better, but always within the spirit of the game.
I suspect the Kevin Petersen saga will run and run, and it must have had an affect on the England camp and the way they performed, however, I would like to congratulate Vernon Philander for winning man of the match, and almost putting this web site on the map big style, a cricketer and a philanderer, now he would not have been the first!
The whole success of Team GB has once more focused the political radar on sports fields and physical exercise in schools. We all know there are too many fat kids about, but in many cases they take the lead from their parents. It is they who buy them playstations, x-boxes and Nintendos and are happy to leave little JoHannie to become a coach potato. I wonder if we will now see more and more children being attracted to social clubs to try to emulate the recent stars we have all see strut their stuff very impressively on the biggest sporting stage.
Rory McIlroy must have felt a bit miffed that not too many people were watching when he won his second major, the US PGA Championship, which concluded during the closing ceremony of the Olympics. The lure of the Spice Girls reunion was just too much for some people.
They tied in the themes quite well in the ceremony, just missing the opportunity to have Duran Duran perform Rio as the link up to the 2016 Games. We are already making plans to go, principally to watch the rugby 7's. it will certainly not be as ferocious as the Paraolympics version aka Murderball.
So as the footie season kicks off again with the usual petulance and cheating lets see if some of the Olympian fair play and sportsmanship is able to filter through society and make everybody strive to do that little bit better, but always within the spirit of the game.
Friday, 15 February 2008
Talking 'bout my Generation
I saw a trailer for a new film last night. Its call 'The Bucket List' and features two old guys working out what they still had to do in life before they popped their clogs. It got me wondering.
I had a list when I was at school identifying bands I wanted to see, and sporting events to go to, and much of that list was successfully ticked off. I got to see The Stones, The Who, Simon and Garfunkel and Led Zep, and went to an England International at Wembley, and the League Cup Final, under whatever guise it was called then.
I never saw Cream, although I have seen the sum of its parts separately since they disbanded, and I have not been to an FA Cup Final as I vowed only to go when Spurs or Argyle actually made it there.
So if I started a new list, what would I put on it?
Well the Cup Final would be a carry over, although I have seen Argyle win at Wembley in the playoffs some years ago, Spurs getting there is a bit out of my hands though, so it would be sensible to include events over which i have some control.
I decided to start learning the piano when I was 40, with a view to being able to go into a pub, lift the lid on the beer stained Joanna and bash out a tune before I was 50. I missed that deadline big time, but am still persevering. I will be able to do it one day.
All golfers want to shoot a score lower than their age, on current form I would need to live into my eighties to do that. It could happen though, check this interesting article out about age expectancy.
Holidays have started to be linked with the bucket list. I want to cruise to Alaska while there is still ice up there, and visit the Indian sub-continent, probably to watch some cricket. Seeing Aussie play in Aus would be good too, although whether they would better the Windies in St Lucia for atmosphere, I am not sure.
I have done an Olympics, and seen the All Blacks in Auckland and attended a Rugby World Cup or two. The kids are all reasonable settled so there is not anything I particularly need to do for them over and above the usual parental bit. It would be good, though, to see a grandchild play or perform on a major stage or sporting arena, something else over which I have no control though.
Culturally, I have done the last night of the Proms a couple of times, but never been to a ballet or opera, Paris or Rome seem good venues to do that in. I have stared in wonder at the Grand Canyon and taken the tram to the top of the Peak in Hong Kong.
So it looks like I need to spend some time getting my top ten together, and then hope I don't find a bucket where a footie should be, in the foreseeable future!
I had a list when I was at school identifying bands I wanted to see, and sporting events to go to, and much of that list was successfully ticked off. I got to see The Stones, The Who, Simon and Garfunkel and Led Zep, and went to an England International at Wembley, and the League Cup Final, under whatever guise it was called then.
I never saw Cream, although I have seen the sum of its parts separately since they disbanded, and I have not been to an FA Cup Final as I vowed only to go when Spurs or Argyle actually made it there.
So if I started a new list, what would I put on it?
Well the Cup Final would be a carry over, although I have seen Argyle win at Wembley in the playoffs some years ago, Spurs getting there is a bit out of my hands though, so it would be sensible to include events over which i have some control.
I decided to start learning the piano when I was 40, with a view to being able to go into a pub, lift the lid on the beer stained Joanna and bash out a tune before I was 50. I missed that deadline big time, but am still persevering. I will be able to do it one day.
All golfers want to shoot a score lower than their age, on current form I would need to live into my eighties to do that. It could happen though, check this interesting article out about age expectancy.
Holidays have started to be linked with the bucket list. I want to cruise to Alaska while there is still ice up there, and visit the Indian sub-continent, probably to watch some cricket. Seeing Aussie play in Aus would be good too, although whether they would better the Windies in St Lucia for atmosphere, I am not sure.
I have done an Olympics, and seen the All Blacks in Auckland and attended a Rugby World Cup or two. The kids are all reasonable settled so there is not anything I particularly need to do for them over and above the usual parental bit. It would be good, though, to see a grandchild play or perform on a major stage or sporting arena, something else over which I have no control though.
Culturally, I have done the last night of the Proms a couple of times, but never been to a ballet or opera, Paris or Rome seem good venues to do that in. I have stared in wonder at the Grand Canyon and taken the tram to the top of the Peak in Hong Kong.
So it looks like I need to spend some time getting my top ten together, and then hope I don't find a bucket where a footie should be, in the foreseeable future!
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