Winter Olympics: amazing.

I am not a big sports fan .  I do like watching on T.V. but I get grumpy at the football fanatics  who seem to think soccer is the only game in town.  I have just watched the Canada/U S A Ice Hockey  game from Vancouver and it was truly amazing. After watching the excitement and speed and skill of the game it is obvious nothing comes close to this for thrills and skill. I also watched some of the specialist ski and snow-board events and these people are either incredibly stupid or incredibly brave,either way they do stuff that just leaves me saying "how do they do that".In a world where war and hunger and injustice are rife it is encouraging to see nations competing in honest competition and following a principle where it is all important to take part.  Some of our over paid football players should take note. And how do you get the message to the terrorists of the world ?   

Creepy Babies Yes Creepy Babies.The Latest Marketing Tool.

They really freak me out they are so CREEPY. I remember the first time I was spooked by the creepy baby syndrome. It was a movie with a talking baby,pre CGI it looked like they has super imposed an adult talking mouth onto the baby head and it just looked weird. Just like Mr Ed the talking horse it didn't quite work. The one I hate right now has babies in a sort of skate board skate off and they sing and dance through a routine selling us bottled water you know the one filtered for thousands of years.  What I really really hate though is the ones where you only hear the baby voice but it is delivering an adult message.  The one I heard is for Mile Ready for Sports Relief a worthy cause no doubt but the baby voice makes me cringe.  Lastly there is the one where the baby is the boss of a toilet tissue company it annoys me greatly. I am sure there are lots more out there so let us know your best or worst one? My money is on the skateboard kids,  they head the creep factor stakes so far.

  Unless you know better. 

Tiger In More Trouble As The Ladies Line Up To Sell Their Stories.

Jamie Jungres herehas broke cover to sell & tell us all the lurid details of her relationship with Tiger Woods. Now I have no sympathy for Tiger, he more than deserves all he gets and if golf needs some one of this level of moral standing to sustain the cash flow well it is a sad day.  Should we question the motives of people like Jamie?  All of a sudden they want to spill the beans make a few pounds and achieve   what?  As always the only person maintaining any dignity in all of this is his wife Elin but,how long can she bear the embarrassment and shame he has brought to her life.  There will be more revelations in the Tiger saga and already there are rumours of hush money being paid in the U.K. and Europe to silence other young ladies.  All of this tells us one thing for sure, Tiger has a major problem only he can solve.  Elin may yet solve it for him.

Bog Snorkelling Championships of to a Muddy Start.

Bog Snorkelling must be an acquired taste I think.It's cold,wet, muddy, stinking and well, just mad. Championship Bog Snorkelling must be the height depth of madness? Not for this years 150 entrants in Wales. It got me wondering where all of these odd traditional contests and games come from like cheese rolling, wellie boot throwing , even the more traditional sack race and that old favourite of school sports days the egg and spoon race,my personal choice being the three legged race.There must be hundreds of these regional events and not all of them pure fun.  Dwyle Flunking sounds painful what is it?  Most of these probably started as pub challenges like arm wrestling but their true origins are lost in time. If you know of any real odd balls  we would love to hear about them. Oh and if anyone knows how bog snorkelling started  that would be great. 

Mike Perham Home to a Hero's Welcome. No such Luck for Miss Dekker.

Pleased to see young Mike Perham home safe from the sea. A hero's welcome greeted him and I guess we should acknowledge his achievement at 17 it is a remarkable feat. Back in November we grumpily questioned the whole motive behind these adventures.  Some readers agreed and now it seems the Dutch Government are concerned by the latest "Teen Adventurer" who want to sail around the world at only 13 years old. 

Laura Dekker seen here enjoying some media attention, has had her plan scuppered by the child protection agencies as too dangerous for a 13 year old girl.By contrast her parents seem unconcerned and share the young girls disappointment after all she was born on a boat. Again opinion seems divided.

Most people seem to share the view it is not quite sensible as she would not only be endangering herself but also those who would be expected to respond should she run into trouble. So  courage?  sense of adventure?   or   stupidity?  It's probably a bit of all of these factors we think a correct decision has been made in this case. Sometimes you need to protect people .....especially the young...from themselves.   

Eduardo Ban Should be the Start of a Purge to Clean Up Football.

Eduardo cheated plain and simple and as such deserves to be punished. What about Rooney? What about the fake blood rugby incident?  It is way past overdue that sports authorities started to take action on the cheats. It is so refreshing to see them exposed and hopefully shamed by their own actions. Managers should also realise that it is wrong to defend the cheats as this only makes them look like they actually condone this with cries of "witch hunt" and "disgrace".They seem to forget that the video evidence is judge and jury and we can all see who the cheats are. All genuine sports fans will applaud this type of action that exposes cheats who set out to gain unfair advantage by deception.  

Lets have lots more of this discipline across all sports maybe then we can get back to letting kids see that cheats do not win. 

Gerrard Claims "Self Defence" and "I Only Hit Him Once" M'Lud He Obviously Hasn't Seen The Video?

Any one who sees the CCTV footage of this scuffle in a bar will be in no doubt that Steven Gerrard assaulted Marcus McGee. McGee had already had an elbow in his face and does not seem to be posing a threat to anyone. Gerrard appears to take this advantage and punches the guy several times.  As far as I can see he is just making a further fool of himself denying affray and claiming self defence and all the other excuses he can come up with.  Just like David |Beckhams spat in L.A., these "professionals" need to rise above this type of thing and should not get involved. There may well be more to this particular incident but again you would think these "stars" would realise they are targets in the first place. Alcohol played a staring role in the affair and Gerrard says on a 1 to 10 drunkenness scale he was around 7.   So he will have a really clear memory of the events ......or maybe he should look at the CCTV footage.

Beckham Gets Reality Check At L.A. Galaxy return.

It was a disappointment  to see David Beckham losing his cool as some fans made their feelings known regarding his loyalty to L.A.Galaxy. Considering what he is paid compared to his team mates it was hardly a shock to see some fans voicing their protest at his on/off affair with their team. You would expect him to realise this and keep his head down and his anger under wraps but,the fans certainly got to him and he reacted in kind with hand gestures and challenges.  Just like the bankers who are back on the bonus trail the public are getting tired of over paid overrated people and are having their say. I think it is healthy and good for everyone, Mr Beckham however will not have endeared himself to the paying fans in the U.S.A. who expect and demand value for their  buck.    Look out for the Beckhams back in the U.K. sooner than later.       

Pamplona Outcry As The Bulls Run

I am lost for words on the running of the bulls in Pamplona. You pack city streets with onlookers and tourists. You then release bulls to run through the crowded streets where all sorts of things anger and upset them.  Somebody is going to get hurt.  Fatalaties are rare but this year has been different with fatal and injurious consequences for those involved.  Tradition ?Sport? Fun?

You cannot imagine the bulls get much out of it.

 

83 Stone Family (that's 1162 lbs) need more state benefits to survive.

                                                               Meet the Chawner family. Mum, Dad and the kids weigh in at 83 stone or 1162 lbs. They receive £22500 or $33000 per year in state benefits. No one in the family works and they claim their weight problems are genetic.  Serious Question:  how should we, as a caring society, deal with families like this?

Should we simply give them more state money to permit them to improve their diet?

Should we remove some of their benefits to encourage them to seek employment and maybe improve their mobility? Or are they really too fat to work? They do not seem to be suffering any distress at their plight, and it really is becoming difficult to find sympathy for people who contribute nothing to our society. The question remains however: what do you do with families like the Chawners? Is it fair that we take care of their needs, or is it time to try some tough love?