The beautiful game

24th July 2010

One of the best things about where I live is the view. Good is a given - it's got to be special to even catch our attention. We've gotten a little spoilt for choice.

I took the photographs, God made the sunset.

Leap Year

I was watching a movie titled 'Leap Year' which was notable only for showcasing gorgeous scenery of Ireland and having a passable song listing including this absolute gem, which I've been listening to for the whole day :

Pre-season Talk

Spain may have won the World Cup, the Netherlands may have played in the final, but a perusal of comments from football fans would indicate that it is Germany who have caught the imagination with their attacking play.

Germany - attacking play. Imagine !

While it would be lovely if Sir Alex could sign the two poster boys of the German youth movement, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller, squad needs and finances dictate that only one is a feasible option.

Thomas Muller was playing at right midfield where Utd already have Valencia and Nani. And if switched to forward, Utd have Rooney, Berbatov and a bevy of others waiting in the wings (Owen, Hernandez, Macheda, Diouf and Welbeck). Let's not even talk about how much it would cost to buy a Golden Boot and Young Player award winner who is only 20 years old !

Ozil, on the other hand, would seem a natural fit to take the place of an aging Paul Scholes. And since he is in the final year of his contract with Werder Bremen, there should be some sort of discount on his price. And I know that SAF is interested in Ozil as Utd have tried to get him into their youth team before.

So, come on, Fergie !

Sign him up.

Imagine what he could do with your chewing gum !

Happy Talk

I was trawling a list of the songs that reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart (here) when I came across a long forgotten song (for me). Since then, I've been listening to it for the whole day. It is one of the happiest songs I've ever heard. So now, I present to you Captain Sensible's "Happy Talk" :



You've got to have a dream
If you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true ?

That's turning the 'dreams come true' concept on it's head.

The song originally came from 'South Pacific', a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. You can see the movie version here. Maybe it's me, but the movie setting places the 'Happy Talk' phrase in a very different context.

A point of interest in the Captain Sensible version is that the 3 girls doing his backing vocals were not just back-up singers. They were actually a band called Dolly Mixture, and they once had a supporting act called ........ U2.

I love this song.
I think it's Happy.
Dream thinks it's Gay.

on Germany's exit from the World Cup .....

It's a little belated, but I finally got around to have octopus ......

Midnight Memories and Joey

When stumbling across this song, Brian and Michael's "Matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs", I'm reminded of the Radio 4 DJ who first introduced this song to me : Joey.

Joey used to host a programme called "Midnight Memories" which ran from 12.00 am till 3.00 am - can't remember which day of the week. He spun some really good stuff, mostly concentrating on oldies. What I especially liked about him was that he regularly spun stuff that I had never heard before, like the aforementioned "Matchstalk" song. Of course, with that time slot, I usually fell asleep after a while.

I wonder what's happened to Joey since ....

This song is about an artist called L. S. Lowry. His most famous works depicted urban landscapes peopled with human figures often referred to as 'matchstick men'. The paintings were usually of Salford and surrounding areas in Manchester, England, where Lowry lived. The video shows a selection of his paintings.

When we were in Manchester, we had considered going to a theatre and galleries art centre in Salford called The Lowry. Whether it was time constraints or logistics, we never went there. Now, knowing the background to The Lowry, and the fact that it houses the largest public collection of L.S. Lowry's paintings in the world, I wish that we had made more of an effort to have visited The Lowry.

I miss Sunday nights ...

I used to look forward to Sunday nights. It was usually the time to rest at the tail end of the weekend, the calm before the storm that Monday brings ........ but most of all, I looked forward to the music on Sunday nights.

Sunday was when Alan Zachariah and Rizal Abdullah would come on at 9.00 pm till 12.00 pm to spin 3 hours of very old, wonderful music. The very fact that I couldn't recognize most of the songs that they were spinning merely added to my enjoyment. I've heard many of the more popular songs of the 60's till the 90's and hearing 'new' old songs on those Sunday nights brought much pleasure. Of course, since the programme concentrated on songs before the 60's, it meant that the songs were almost always soothing.

And they always closed the programme with Acker Bilk's 'Stranger on the Shore'. That was bliss ....

Yes, I really do miss those Sunday nights. It's a pity that Radio 4 chose to end the programme.

Sunday night, 2230 hours

After a fruitful weekend filled with fun and outings, the kitten is tired and on the way to dreamland.

It's times like this that I wish that there was some way for me to bottle up the moment so that I can re-visit it one day or to share it with family and friends. Alas, all I can do is take a photo.

the Maradona ponders ....

He still hasn't decided whether he's going to quit yet but ............. my two cents' worth is that he should.

He hasn't turned out to be as bad a manager as I expected. Having said that, he certainly has weaknesses, and leaving the team would give Argentina a chance to install a REAL manager as opposed to appointing a beautiful illusion of wonderful past memories.

Anyway, I found this website which did a detailed tactical analysis of the match here.

Yet Another Step ...

It had to happen sometime, and it did on Thursday, 1st July 2010 - Catriona's first day in pre-school.

on the way out

outside the gates of the kindy

.........

the playground setting outside was an attraction, but there was no time for that

getting her instructions

Before she started, we were mostly worried about her nocturnal sleeping patterns. Not sure how, but that was righted in the space of 2-3 days .......... so everything's good to go now.

don't blame referee for England exit

see how's the players react only hours after the exit...... and you wonder why England lost to Germany. Spoiled brat....