how bad is commentary on the channel that is not the BBC?

most of the tripe is talked by this man… after which Pleatisms are named… such as describing Carlos Tevez as “unknockdownable”… nice

almost a rival to Iain Dowie’s “bouncebackability“…

suggestions? (other than listen to 5 live!)

my musings in the amazon fantasy league and my very own predictions compo™ have led me to what looks like the equivalent of an InterToto place… hopefully one last push will elevate me to the dizzy heights of a UEFA cup spot… the shame…

well, yes. the world cup has been on! only two matches to go. Italy have been, in a way, the surprise package. We all know they have quality. Many people stick to the aged sterotype and brand them as defensive or negative, but have they watched this world cup? Italy have been inspired, playing with many attacking players. But they have been able to do this as they have a solid base to build from. This base is built around one Fabio Cannavaro, who has been immense, THE player of the tournament. Those around him have been inspired, Gattuso, Buffon, Nesta/Materazzi, and the fullbacks Zambrotta and Grosso.

As a fellow central defender I can see how have a solid spine just enables all the other players to do the flash stuff. Someone like Zidane or Klose will take a lot of the accolades for their attacking performances, but we know where it’s really at!

Italy have been the better team throughout the tournament, which worries me. France then might sneak through as under dogs, which would be a shame as they have only played one decent match, against Brazil.

Over 1400 80s Music Videos here… Enjoy the hair!

Here’s the start of an interesting mouth full XI! Suggestions welcome.

Guagua (Ecuador)
Yapi Yapo (Ivory Coast)
Pimpong (Ghana)

Can we put together a squad that would be a nightmare for commentators?

The World Cup. Yes, it is. Fantastic to be able to watch football on tap basically! Sometimes the interesting games end up to be the ones involving the most random countries. But what of these random countries? How could you find out a bit more about their political, socio-economic, and any other situation? Here’s how.

A great accompaniment to the great festival of football. Will try not to let it dominate my life for the next month… but be great to see if the likes of Spain and Ukraine who hold so much promise can perform. Also great to laugh at the FIFA rankings as teams that are allegedly part of the Top 10 in the world, get gubbed by most of Europe!

Game to play. See how long it takes ITV (other channels are available, thank goodness) to mention England or ’66 – no matter what the game is.

I read a book. No, I really did! Danny Wallace and the centre of the universe. It made me laugh, out loud, several times, much to the bemusement of the passengers seated around me. You see, it said it was a quick read, and it was! So I bought it, and read it, after taking off from Stansted, finishing just before landing at Glasgow. The book is very funny. A mayor claims to have found the centre of the universe. Can you disprove him? Well then, it must be true! You can see more here.

Those boys I spoke about earlier, they left the stadium very politely and efficiently! Well, they were Austrian! There was no shouting, swearing, fighting, calling of police… What a difference to over here. All the children who we saw out and about were very polite, friendly and listened to the adults who looked after them. Families seemed to spend quite a bit of time doing things out and about, together… without squabbles or having to take E4 or CBBC with them…

This seems to happen a lot on my trips away… I come back seeing more and more negatives in UK culture. I guess we only see a small tourist friendly picture when away, but things seem so apparent back here. Perhaps it is just big city life?

Graz is very clean and efficient. People seem very relaxed and the cafe culture is definitely dominating the streets. A lager and a cigarette seemed to be the must have deal for the locals, any time of any day! Graz is a pleasant city to explore, the old town is all very low level with red roofing all around… and then they decided to do this:

The upside down blue football boot / zeppellin with chimneys / big blue slug is an Arts Venue. Not quite sure what to make of it: definitely very bold anyway! Thoughts?

“How many of your team have played in the European Cup?” their manager asked are rather stunned looking Neil. “None!” he replied, “how many of your players have been out all night?” our team organiser furthered. Apparently none. Also, apparently seven to the first question. A little more apparently these two factors played a significant factor in the victory of the Austrian Allstar XI over the Wales Supporters team. Still, how many people can say they played against Hans Krankl?

We were in Austria, Graz to be exact. Wales had arranged the most random friendly against Trinidad and Tobago. As usual, the keen supporters (insert appropriate alternative such as nutters) travelled to support. Some had travelled randomly from the Basque and Catalan regions, via France, Germany and Andorra. How very European. Wales had played a Basque XI the previous weekend. Talking of European, most of the Welsh fans in the Irish bar in Austria were besotted with the Bosnian barmaid.

We even made the local paper! Flann O’Briens was most accomodating. International superstar DJ Brother Phil was given the Friday night to play with the jukebox!

Randomly, the Welsh fans were segregated (from the 7 TandT supporters who had made the journey!) and had to view match from behind a big net. Nice. But why? There were few people there (well done to those Austrians who turned up) and TandT aren’t exactly our greatest rivals! There was some trouble. Four local boys (can’t say lads, as they weren’t old enough) were escorted from the ground by a small security guard, much to the delight of the Welsh lads they had been “abusing” (in German, so we didn’t know anyway), who responded with lovely songs alng the lines of “does your mummy know you’re here?”, “Go to school, go to school…” etc. More on this later!

(photos taken with my phone – not bad)

As predicted, Finland (see below) stormed the Eurovision! Lithuania proved to be the other stand out act, unfortunately, their prediction that they “are the winners of the Eurovision” did not come true.

In what my brother billed as the Opressed Nations World Cup, Wales defeated a Basque XI with a Ryan Giggs (above) strike. Maybe they should play the winners of Tibet and Nicaragua in a world play off? Next stop for Wales (and me) is Graz, Austria, where they will (obviously) play Trinidad and Tobago!

I also spent time in Cellardyke (yep, the bird flu capital of Scotland) with Gareth ‘n Jane who have recently moved there. We also munched on world famous Anstruther fish ‘n chips, before I headed to Dundee to see some rather fine art, at a Fine Art exhibition! Lovely, what.