A Summer of Sport. Was it Really up to Much?

This blog started out with the joke. It had to be a good joke to get me to blog again, so its worth waiting for.

Secondly, I have an apology to make to you, and my other reader. A summer galavanting in the south of France and I forget about the pair of you. Fear not, I'm back, and on the dole, so I have a lot of time to make it all up to you!

And now for the hard part of writing the blog after all this time.

Its been a great summer for sport. Hasn't it?! Well let's go through the sports one by one.

Football: The European Championships.

Good points:

• A further reminder that England are not as good as the papers seem to claim.
• A thrilling final, in which Spain gave another masterclass.

Bad points:

• Uefa seem to suggest betting underpants were twice as bad as racism. 
• BBC documentaries claiming all Eastern Europeans are racist.

Cricket: South Africa tour England, and the thrilling climax to the Country Championship Division 2

Good Points

• Any two from three teams could go up with the final game still to play in Division 2 (including Yorks and Derbys)
• Seeing bowlers like Steyn, Morkel, and Kemar Roach in England

Bad Points

• Tim Bresnan missing a potential 2nd Division title to play in an 11 over a side game for England.
• Only 6 Tests, compared to 14 limited overs games. I'm not even calling for more tests (although there should have be a five test series), but stop the daft limited overs cricket and let players actually play for their counties. 

Athletics and The Olympics and Paralympics.

Good Points

• Usain Bolt. Proving you may be the fastest man over 100m, but you still cant resist the Swedish Women's Handball Team. 
• Mo Farah. An asylum seeker from Somali inspiring a generation of children to be active.
• A raised public interest, and appreciation of paralympians, and people with disabilities. (Including the boo-ing of George Osbourne) 

Bad Points

• Royal Mail charging some people with vandalism for painting Post Boxes gold, yet paining others gold themselves.
• Patriotism. 4 weeks of humanity at its best, and most people saw it as a chance to brag about how much better people from the same bit of soil did in comparison to everyone else.

Road Cycling

Good Points

• A deserved winner of the Tour de France, leading to a resurgence in the popularity of sideburns!
• A person appreciation for myself, from one of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team cars near the top of the first climb on stage 2 of the Tour of Britain. (He tooted the horn because I was waving a Basque flag!)

Bad Points

•  Drugs continuing to taint cycling's reputation. Alberto Contador winning the 2012 Vuelta a España after only being suspended for six months on drug related grounds, and of course the Lance Armstrong affair. 
• A win in the Tour de France leading to more popularity for an already arrogant team, and increased publicity of Sky.

Tennis - Not for me!

So, sport. There has been a lot on the box all summer, and we seem to all have enjoyed ourselves. Will it have made any difference to us in the long run? What have we really learned?

I've learned that road cycling is a lot more complex than men in lycra on bikes. I've learned I still don't know much about Judo, but you can win by ippon, whatever that means. And finally I've learned that one of the volleyball team wears a different colour, and they are the defensive player.


And now the much awaited joke:

What is the difference between roast beef and pea soup?

Any one can roast beef.....



Keep the faith.

Thing to do instead of writing a dissertation (all from personal experience!)

Not really the traditional style rant this time. Just a list of things I've done, and you may want to consider, to help me avoid doing any work!

1. Wash a car
2. Read a book about a former German international goalkeeper
3. Organise a book collection
4. Make a cup of tea
5. Go to Tesco (any supermarket will do!)
6. Play Football Manager 2011
7. Organise another book collection
8. Look online for new caving gear that you know you can't afford
9. Go on a two day caving course
10. Write this blog
11. Sort out the paperwork for the job in France you start in a worryingly short amount of time
12. Count how many days you have to do the work
13. Work out how many words you have to do per day to reach that target
14. Go to watch Sheffield United away at Brentford
15. Get back from Brentford and go to a party
16. Plan a last big night out before you go to France
17. Take three trips to the Post Office just to sent off your caving log book
18. Do four loads of washing in the space of a day
19. Clean an entire kitchen
20. Move a TV into your bedroom, and claim "the background noise helps me work"
21. Watch three seasons of How I Met Your Mother in two days
22. Take Cool Running and Zombieland on DVD round to your mates to watch in one evening
23. Make another cup of tea
24. Text your mates (a lot)
25. Go climbing
26. Play Cricket Captain 2005
27. Wash your climbing rope
28. Go up to uni in an attempt to work and end up having many pints of John Smiths and several games of pool
29. Argue with a Puegoet dealer
30. Play Water Polo
31. Learn how to play FIFA 11
32. Play Forza 3
33. Design a bouldering centre
34. Apply for jobs
35. Watch livestreams of FC Sankt Pauli
36. Bet on the Highlanders winning the SuperXV
37. Take the mick out of Laurence
38. Watch SuperXV highlights
39. Go visit my senior lecturer, who is never in
40. Play Pokemon Red on your old Gameboy Color
41. Make even more tea
42. Cook some food
43. Go out and buy Cadbury's Cream Eggs because the advert was on
44. Watch E4 for about four hours a day
45. Check how many people read your blog everyday
46. Buy and read The Independent
47. Read many different blogs, including the BBC's blog on South American football
48. Watch the African Cup of Nations Final
49. Look at studying a Masters at the University of Otago, Dunedin. 
50. Promote your own blog

Happy Procrastination!

Find me on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/KeepItClassicBlog. Like it and inflate my ego some more!

Don't worry, there's still a joke!

There was a motorbike accident outside my house yesterday. I went running out shouting "stand back, let me through!" One women turned and asked "Why? Are you a doctor?" "No." I replied, "but that is my pizza!"

Keep the faith

:)

Channel 4: Insightful Documentaries or Right Wing Propaganda?

During the course of this week Channel 4 has come a little bit of pressure over three different programmes. It all appeared to start with an article in The Independent on Monday explaining the controversy around the ever popular My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (http://www.independent.co.uk/hei-fi/news/big-fat-controversy-over-gypsy-documentary-on-c4-7293992.html?origin=internalSearch). Things didn't get any better for Channel 4 when they aired their "documentary" Proud and Prejudiced. According to left wing groups this gave a boost to right wing extremism (http://uaf.org.uk/2012/02/irresponsible-c4-programme-gives-boost-to-edl/). Because we all know that three's a charm, Channel 4 managed to give an unfair image of the city of Bradford in its show Make Bradford British (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-17211995).

Starting from the top then. The show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is not a show I watch, at all. As an outsider to the programme it would appear that Channel 4 wastes an hour (or however long it is) of people's lives by showing them wealthy Traveller families spending large amounts of money on, what main stream society would call, unusual things. In my humble opinion that would seem like main stream society thinks that its a good use of an hour to have a good laugh at unusual customs. If someone who has watched the show wants to correct me on that, then feel free, but as committed as I am to writing a good blog, I refuse to watch even one episode of the show in question.

There has to be a moral issue as to whether this kind of show is acceptable, but that is not the main problem I wish to talk about. The problem that spoken about in the article that came out this week, is the negative impact that this show is having on the rest of the Traveller and Gypsy communities. This is the start of the reoccurring theme in Channel 4's shows. This show is appearing not to give the audience a rounded view of the situation and is not informing its viewers that the Traveller and Gypsy communities are some of the most deprived in the country. It is actively leading to some of the small minded British public being prejudiced against communities and, in some cases, acting on these prejudices. This is aiding the lack of understanding of other cultures and the lack of integration into society for some.

Now to a show I have seen. Proud and Prejudiced. When I watched this I was caught in two minds. Having heard what the leader of the EDL had said then you could understand some of what he was saying. There are even things that I found myself agreeing with. This worried me. I fear, as it appears Unite Against Fascism do, that a lot of people will agree with what he says and believe that he is right. The one thing I hate more than right wing extremist is the Islamic extremist that make the fascists look good. I have to agree that in Luton, where this programme was filmed, there are problems with integration. This show by Channel 4 has focused on both sides of this specific problem. What it hasn't done is given balance. It has not show examples of integration in other areas of Britain, and it has given a balanced, left wing, political view of the situation.

Again Channel 4 is helping small minded Brits to form incorrect prejudiced views, and in the case of this show it is given them a way of gaining large scale media interest. Two right wing extreme views is not balance. The show made no attempt to even look at the wider Muslim community and the way many of them integrate into British society. The other problem with this show is that on the multiple occasions that the EDL leader showed his true thug colours, no more said about it. He claimed to impersonate the fascist that murdered 76 people in Norway, he also accused someone he did not know of being incestuous and finally he complained that the police tried to arrest him after he broke the conditions of his bail. These are not appropriate things for a man of political power to be doing. The show made no attempt to further this point.

Finally we come to a show that airs tonight (Thursday). The title Make Bradford British already implies that there is something un-British about the city of Bradford. Not much can be said about this show until it has been shown. The worry is that it will give an unfair portrayal of the city, but there is still the hope that it will actually identify the positive aspects of such a diverse community. Given Channel 4's current record, I don't hold out much hope of that.

So in response to the question asked in the title. Right wing propaganda is probably too strong, but times of recession always lead to an increase in extremism, and increased awareness of the far right through the media probably will lead to increases in their popularity.

The conclusion? Well Channel 4 has done some very good documentaries in the past, but it needs to be aware of the impact they can have on society, especially in challenging times, and I feel it owes it to the public to at least provide balance.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the joke. It's the only thing that keeps you reading the blog!!

NGAB.
That's bang out of order!

Racism in Football: Heading back to the ‘Bad Old Days’ or just another media feeding frenzy?

As someone who is both a passionate football fan, and a committed anti racist it goes without saying that I find racist incidences at football matches to be absolutely abhorrent. Nearly as nauseating however is the self righteous commentary on the subject from the worlds of media and politics. In light recent of high profile incidents (documented to such a tedious extent that I’d rather watch paint dry than discuss them in this blog) it’s suddenly in vogue for everyone to give their two penneth on the topic.

To give a couple examples; culture secretary Jeremy Hunt (a Freudian slip on Radio 4 a couple of years ago being the most apt description of this character) has announced a conference on ‘Racism in Football’ “to ensure that the sport is not dragged back to the bad old days." Quite how Mr Hunt is qualified to comment on “the bad old days” is beyond me given that he claimed the Hillsborough disaster was caused by hooliganism. Just in case the conference wasn’t far enough removed from reality it will be chaired by Mr Cameron himself.



Despite the obvious temptation to turn this blog into some good old fashioned tory bashing, I should state that I’ve found bourgeois liberal commentary obnoxious. Deborah Orr of the Guardian saw fit to write on February 17th that “Racism, quite clearly, has not been "shown the red card". Racism, quite clearly, has not been "kicked out of football."” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/race-is-a-myth-deborah-orr?INTCMP=SRCH)

Until I’ve seen evidence of Deborah Orr, Jeremy Hunt or David Cameron muttering obscenities in Birch Services because they’ve just wasted huge amounts of time and money travelling to watch their team implode at Burnley on a cold Tuesday night, then their views on football are no more valid than my views on nuclear physics.


Despite media hyperbole, racism in football has actually followed a fairly predictable path. It reached its peak in the 1970’s and 80’s. Unsurprisingly this coincided with the far right’s most visible presence in British society since the days of Mosely’s blackshirts. To give a rough idea of the extent to which these were the ‘bad old days,’ a number of clubs including Leeds United and Chelsea had evident links to the National Front. Racist chanting and throwing bananas at black players happened on numerous occasions. From my perspective, given my affection for Celtic, the most sickening of these events happened in 1987 when Rangers’ player Mark Walters was pelted with bananas. It is however incorrect to suggest that everyone attending a football match during this time was a far right inspired racist. It’s interesting to note that even some hooligan firms of the era included members of various races.



Moving onto the situation in recent years and again the racism in football has taken a predictable route. Just as British society in general has adopted ‘official’ anti racism, so has football. This is not to say that racism has ever been completely removed from football, just as it has never been completely removed from society. The difference however is that overtly racist language has become culturally unacceptable. Overtly racist chanting has in general disappeared from British football, to the extent that racist comments are now highly likely to be challenged by other fans at football matches.


Unsurprisingly though, reactionary and ignorant views haven’t disappeared from football, just as they continue to appear in the Daily Mail and other sections of the reactionary press. No amount of empty statements from Cameron and co will come close to challenging these views. Instead these views are most effectively countered by anti racists providing concrete alternatives. The most effective example I know of comes from a group close to my heart, Ultra Sankt Pauli, who regularly invite asylum seekers to attend games with the group. This not only aides integration of asylum seekers into German society but helps to breakdown prejudices others have about the asylum seekers themselves. In conclusion, racism in football can only genuinely be defeated by football fans themselves, obscene political posturing offers no solutions.


And the joke: I was walking through a car park the other day, and saw a sign saying ‘Thieves operating in this area.’ I thought that’s handy for the surgeons, gives them time off to steal people’s cars.

Valentine's Day: The Elitist Holiday

Now, this blog. It's not written because I'm single or because I'm bitter. It is, however, written because I am both of those things!

This is going to be an attempt at a full length blog about how Valentine's day should be banned on grounds of political correctness!

According to our good friends at Wikipedia there are 14 different saints by the name of Valentine, there is very little known about the two St Valentines that are "celebrated" on the 14th February. One of them was from Rome and martyred in around AD 269. The other was from Terni and was a bishop. Both are buried on a road north of Rome. The 14th February was apparently celebrated as a saints day as early as 496AD, and it's association with love and romance in the middle ages. By the 14th Century when it was linked with love, the differentiation between the two saints was lost.

Before doing this little bit of research into Valentine's day I used to blame capitalism. I'd probably have even found a nice excuse to blame Thatcher! But I have now found that this goes deeper into history. Chaucer is to blame for the origins. There is no recorded link between Saint Valentine's day and love and romance until Chaucer wrote about it in "Parlement of Foules", which he wrote in 1382. From there it was only going to get worse!

So that's the history. The main reason that I feel Valentine's day should be banned is that it is, as the title suggests, elitist! Christmas and Easter may well be Christian holidays, but all school kids get that time off and we all feel we are allowed to eat chocolate at those times of year. Valentine's day on the other hand, excludes so many people, mainly us single people! I think we all remember the "news stories" telling us how Brits can't celebrate Christmas because it is a purely Christian event.

There are some people out there who, no doubt, are happy to be single, and some of them may even like to rebel against a couples holiday. I feel, however, that we should spare a thought for those who aren't happy about being single. Maybe some people have just lost love ones, in one way or another, and I'm sure they'll tell you that they not need a nauseating corporate event to remind them of this fact! Most of us find we can't truly ignore it too. I gave it a good effort, most of my close mates being single, and the decision to celebrate a friends birthday instead, but any trip to a supermarket was a constant reminder that you're all on your own, and any look at your Facebook reminds you that someone you didn't really talk to in school and haven't seen for years is very happy on their Valentine's date.

I actually feel that even if I was in a relationship I'd still feel the same about this! If I were to be romantic on Valentine's day (hard to imagine I know), then my girlfriend would clearly be thinking "why is he not like this all the time?" This putting pressure on myself to keep up the act! On the other hand, if I was not romantic on Valentine's day then it would put excess pressure on a relationship that has to deal with all the other modern pressures too.

To conclude I just want to quote a lyric from a Beautiful South song. "You know when romance is dead, your makeup's in a tool box somewhere in the shed."

And the joke:

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Shut up you daft bugger, lay your domino."

Don't Listen to His Moaning

If anyone hears Laurence Perks complaining about having wet hair or a wet ear then tell him he deserved it!!

If he waves a tea towel in your face and then wont let you dry your hands on it then I was well within my right to dry my hands on his head!!


I once met a girl in a gym, we really hit it off and started kissing. After half an hour I stopped and said: "I'm sorry, this is just not working out."

Keep the faith!!

Got to love winding the Daily Mail readers up haven't you?!

Back again for another blog. This one is all in direct response to an article that has appeared in the press recently. There are other versions of the same article, but here is the Daily Mail's take on it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2094305/Menna-Pritchard-26-defends-rock-climbing-TODDLER-strapped-back.html.

Now the background information to my response to the article is this; I am a rock climber, with my Single Pitch Award (one of the rock climbing qualifications), and I also happen to know the person in question. I admit from the outset that I do not know her very well, but I study the same degree at the same university and she is the year below me and it would be fair to say our paths have crossed. Given that information, it may explain why I'm so quick to comment on the subject.

To start with I want to get my only real criticism out of the way. The picture that has cause most problems has been the one of Menna climbing with her daughter, Ffion, on her back. Now in this picture, two out of the three people are wearing climbing helmets, the problem is, it is Ffion that doesn't have a helmet on. My comments on this are that maybe Menna has been a little short sighted here, in that this is the picture that she shared with friends on facebook. At the time she could never have known that the picture would have become as public as it has. I do know where the picture was taken, and have climbed there myself, so I do know what the conditions are usually like at the crag. I also have a good understand of the rope system in place for that climb. What I can't pass comment on are the specific conditions on the day, or the anchors used to fix the rope in place. What I do feel the need to say is that when top roping at Three Cliffs Bay I would not wear a helmet, unless in exceptional circumstances. Every climber will have a different attitude to wearing a helmet, and my question to Menna would be that if she felt it was necessary for her to wear a helmet, then why had she not made sure Ffion was also wearing a helmet. I would especially want to ask this, as my attitude towards helmets are that if I don't think I'll need it then I won't wear it. Menna may hold a view that she has bought a helmet and so she will wear it, and that she would still have done this climb if she didn't have one.

Now for the positive.

As touched on above, the climbing that was taking place was one of the safest ways to climb, if not THE safest way of climbing in the outdoors. Climbing for me has been one of the most important things I've ever done. The personal and social benefits of climbing on me have been, on occasions, the only things I've had to get me through the darker times. The people close to me will know first hand how a good day on the rock can really change my view on life, and how frustrated I can get when I can't climb as often as I'd like. What I hope happened in this situation is that Menna was provided with a wonderful opportunity to combine her love of adventure with irreplaceable learning for a young child. Studying the course that both myself and Menna do, we are both well aware of the host of advantages that the outdoors can offer. We have also been taught to critically evaluate the risks we take, this is why I am sure that Ffion's safety will have been the most important consideration for Menna before entering into the "risk" situation. I am not a parent myself but would like to think that any decisions made by parents would have their children's well being as the highest priority.

My views as an overall?

Menna has more than enough knowledge to have made a well educated and safe decision for her child, she was also climbing with other experienced climbers who would not have put anyone at risk, especially not a toddler. If the well being of Ffion, and young children in general, is what is important, then why has the media felt appropriate to intrude on a young family and place them in a media spotlight.


Before this blog was posted I spoke to Menna about the issues. She explained to me that she was still wearing the helmet from the earlier climbs she had been doing, and if she has just been doing the bottom ropes (not top ropes as I stated above) with Ffion she would not have worn her helmet. She also explained that this is not a regular event. At this particular time Ffion had shown an interest in going up the climb, and after deciding it was safe Menna only climbed part of the route before being lowered down. Finally Menna has said that "The photo was stolen from my blog and sold without permission. I am seeking legal advice about this. Words were also lifted and misquoted."

I realise that this has been my best effort yet at a serious blog, but there is still time for the much anticipated joke!!

I went into the airport last week and said "I want this bag to go to Rome, this bag to go to Amsterdam, this back to go to Berlin and I want to go to Paris."

"I'm sorry sir, we can't do that" replied the check-in staff.

"Well you managed it alright last week!!"

Keep the faith!