Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and now Libya. Where will it end?
Of course I thought the world had gone to hell in a handcart when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas if you prefer.) In my whole memory up to then the British Army had not been involved in a full blown shooting war. (Now it seems they’ll never be out of one.)
Then there was the fall of the Berlin Wall and all that followed.
I remember once seeing Enoch Powell on Parkinson and laughing at the old codger when he referred to the “Dutch East Indies.”
Now it’s me who is a bit of an old codger. I still think of St Petersburg as Leningrad as that was its name when I visited on a school cruise in the 1970s.
I have to scoff though when Mr Irresponsible and his sidekick William Hague stand up for the rights of street protestors.
That’ll be fine except when it occurs in the UK then, eh?
OK, arrest people who break the law by smashing windows or throw stuff and the like, but what is kettling and thumps on the head or back with a truncheon if not repression?
And kettles boil, do they not? Or is that the object of the exercise?
On a sudden impulse we went to Edinburgh on Sunday morning. (Well the good lady wanted to return an item to a shop.)
It was a pleasure not to have to fight our way through crowds on Princes Street as we would have on a Saturday.
I had the camera along and ended up taking 46 photos.
This is the war memorial that stands on North Bridge (the one above Waverley Station.) The uniforms are of the South African War/Wars.
If you read the writing (click on the picture to enlarge) it’s not just to commemorate those wars but also engagements in Afghanistan (nothing changes, eh?) Egypt, Chin Lusha, Chitral and Tirah.
This bottom picture is of the plaque below the memorial. It commemorates the laying of the foundation stone of the North Bridge by some local worthy.
Africa Cup of Nations, Final, 11th November National Stadium, Luanda, 31/1/10
A forgettable first half, followed by an upturn in the last twenty minutes as Ghana started to push forward having restricted Egypt and making them resort to handballs and falling over in the penalty area.
The goal when it came was a beauty, though; exquisitely taken by Gedo.
Ghana may be dark horses in the World Cup if they forsake the caution they showed here. They’ll have a fair few experienced players back by then.
Strange that Egypt are so strong in the Cup of Nations and can’t seem to qualify for the bigger event.
Africa Cup of Nations, Semi-final, Ombaka National Stadium, Benguela, 28/1/10
Well: if the first sending-off ruined the game, the second killed it as a spectacle.
Full of incident of course:-
four goals, three sendings off, a player seeming to try to headbutt the ref. I’ve never seen that before. (But I don’t frequent the parks much.)
Egypt were the better team in the first half but only because Algeria were happy to sit back and not take the game to them. The last ten minutes of the half were something else.
Seems like refs are refs the world over.
The first sending off was harsh as the booking before had been for nothing. It was compounded by the way the penalty was taken, though. I was under the impression that the taker could not stop in the run-up to the kick; which Hosny did. The Algerian keeper appealed for the infringement which wasn’t given, while the goal was. (He should have played to the whistle of course.) I’ve looked at the law relating to penalties on FIFA’s site. No mention of the taker not being allowed to feint in the run-up. Did they change this sometime recently?
The keeper lost the heid, which he then tried to put on the ref but he was only booked.
At the start of the second half Algeria were looking quite good to make a game of it, pushing forward in a way they hadn’t at eleven men apiece, but the Egyptian second goal – lovely finish by Zidan – obviously made Belhadj lose his cool. At nine men and two goals down there’s not much hope. The game was done.
By the end it had degenerated into farce with the ref making up for not sending the keeper off by …… sending him off.
No sooner had the tedious process finished than Motty was at it again. England willl win it, he said.
At least Alan Shearer and Mark Lawrenson went for Spain and Brazil – though, historically, Spain have an even poorer World Cup record than England. (Not so in European Championships, of course.)
There was a degree of unseemly euphoria at England’s “good” draw and first place in the group was taken for granted. Already it was so-and-so (possibly Germany, though the likely alternatives, Australia – even Serbia and Ghana – could be tough prospects) in the last sixteen and France in the quarter finals.
Let us be clear about this. The USA are no mugs. They could have won the Confederations Cup last summer. If the USA play to form, England will be stretched to beat them. Algeria beat the African Nations champions, Egypt, to qualify and Slovenia may well spring a surprise.
[By the way, judging by how France struggled to qualify, they will only get to the last sixteen if Uruguay and South Africa are mince. I expect at least one of them to be tougher.]
As for the quarter finals, that will be your lot. Overseas it usually is.
Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg: Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Tshwane, Pretoria
In the words of Sir Alex, “Football. Bloody hell!”
A six goal swing is beyond remarkable.
I spent the night game-hopping and managed to catch four of the goals live and the other two on the first replay.
Italy did not defend like Italy. On the other hand Brazil attacked like Brazil. Italy reverting to white shorts and socks improved neither their luck nor their performance. Buffon was in brown, though; it really is very strange.
Egypt’s goalkeeper El Hadary saved them from a worse defeat even if he made a mistake for the first USA goal.
Italy looked tired to me. They do have an ageing team and it was only two days since their last game. They did have a few chances to score but couldn’t convert.
Egypt were right on it, though. Their goalkeeper, Al Hadary, had a couple of good saves. Egypt took the one clear chance they had – more what Italian teams are supposed to do.
The commentators, though!
How much more patronising can you get?
Is it really a surprise that Egypt won this? They gave Brazil a fright, after all.
