Christmas Has....Unfortunatly....Arrived Already

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday was working the afternoon evening shift so was driving along from Sully in the Vale of Glamorgan to Bridgend. It's a journey which takes about forty minutes and it's OK enough. Though as I'm a cautious man normally allow myself fifteen minutes extra in case the unexpected occurs. (What it also does incidentally is give me a little bit of reading time before starting work).

Going to work on the afternoon/evening shift is a relatively calming experience because you're outside of the rush hour. For the most part the road I use is the A48 from Cardiff to Bridgend as what you're looking at here are fields, and more fields and even more fields. Though perhaps ominously along this route now are large signs announcing that the land has been purchased by so and so housebuilder. Something that bothers me as I suspect the houses being built are not for the people who truly need it. Anyway that's an issue for another day.

There are a few pub/restaurants along this route and at this moment the majority of them seems to be promoting this idea of kids lunches for a quid (you wonder why there's childhood obesity when kids can gorge themselves to the limit on what their stomachs and their parents' patience will allow). This time however was passing a particular pub/restaurant on the corner of an adjacent road.

This place in the seventeen years I've used this road was a pub/restaurant, a fish restaurant (which I thought was a one man operation until I saw a branch in Essex) something else which I've forgotten and now a pub/restaurant again. It's also in a relatively isolated spot, which presumably means they have to advertise deals/events as early as possible.

Yesterday however the part of the sign I caught was promoting "Christmas Day Meals".

And my thought was......kill me now.

Now regular readers will know that the older I get the more pre ghosts Scrooge like I am towards Christmas. Starting with the minor point that I'm an atheist. But the biggest thing I hate about the festive (ha!) season is the way that it seems to start before December. I get December/January for New Year. I accept that. But my mind wants to put blinkers on from January third until the thirtieth of November yet with every year there seems to be an attempt my mental barriers and go "Ho Ho Ho!" earlier. Every fabric of my being wants to shout "Bah humbug!" and run away.

This is August! Summer! (Or what constitutes for summer nowadays). Santa is already trying to get his claws into me already.

Mentioned this to my wife on return from work. "How much is it?" came the response. Given to be fair, that she does most of the Christmas cooking. Especially in the past few years when I've worked on Christmas day (that being the greatest excuse for not getting involved).

Power of advertising indeed.

Until the next time.

Perhaps The Welsh Should Be Less Nice Part Two: Billy Bragg And Jerusalem

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I was living in Thurrock Essex in the late nineties and my now wife was living in Cardiff whilst courting we had a long distance relationship. When she came down by train the last part of the journey was when I drove her to my home along the A13. This road was, at the time, for sheer misery of traffic the worst I knew.

Years later, now married and living in Wales. We discovered by accident that Billy Bragg had took the tune of Route 66 and adapted it to apply to the A13. It became instantly one of our favourite records as it took us back.

So it was a disappointment to hear on Twitter that in the Green Man Festival....in Wales....Billy Bragg chose to sing William Blake's Jerusalem.

Now it's important to begin by saying that I wasn't at the Green Man Festival and I'm not going to pretend I was. What has bothered me though is that at least on Twitter he seemed surprised by the reaction to it in Wales.

In Wales William Blake's Jerusalem is seen as an anthem to English arrogance. It doesn't matter whether that's fair or not, that is how it's perceived. Context is everything. For him to sing such a tune in Wales illustrates in another example that perhaps the Welsh should be less nice and like the Irish or the Scots assert themselves more. For whether consciously or not he didn't consider this context of singing an English anthem in a music festival in Wales to be of any issue.

In response to the criticism he received he queried whether it would have been appropriate to sing "A New England" in Wales. It misses the point of the criticism. What he should do when he next performs in England is to sing "Les Marseillaies" or "Deutschland Uber Alles". Perhaps then he would understand how context is everything.

He also queries rhetorically whether Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau should be sung in Twickenham. The answer is of course yes. In the same way that Jerusalem should be sung in the Millenium Stadium. Because in sporting events fans sing the songs of their team.

Now that I've thought about it properly Billy Bragg should when he next performs in England sing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau and await the reaction to that. I suspect that it won't be favourable. And why should it? Context is everything.

Ignorance of your audience is not a crime. But in Billy Bragg it's disappointing. It is perhaps a foretaste of any Jeremy Corbyn government. Hope then realisation that in reality for the Welsh and those who live here not to be treated as "and Wales" in any context just simply requires full independence.

Whether William Blake's lyrics are "progressive" as he claims is of no relevance under these circumstances. Not only is it perceived as an anthem to English arrogance but even if the lyrics are as he states then it would appear given the imagery that always surrounds it of the English flags and rolling hills that it's been taken over by the English right wing as well. If he wants to take it back to make it relevant for everyone all well and good.....it just should be done in England.

Until the next time.

Brian Aldiss. Two Examples Of What A Great Writer He Was

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Barkingside is near Ilford. It's in that area where Essex melds with East London. I won't say there is anything out of the ordinary about the place, It was when I was a teenager a place which bathed in its suburbia and was proud of it.

As a teenage boy though there was one building that was the exception to that normality. The library. It was large and circular. I loved wandering around the place. A lot of my reading education was nurtured there.

One of the books I took out of the library was The Brightfount Diaries. About life in a provincial bookshop in the fifties. Loved it. Knew what I wanted to be in life. A bookseller.

As is almost always the way things moved in my life in a completely different direction. But I never forgot the book or the effect it had on me. Tried in vain to get a copy many years later. The price however wasn't right. Stunningly high since it was no longer printed but obviously had the same effect on people as it had on me. It's resale value reflected the memories.

A few years back I finally got a copy. And did what I rarely do nowadays which is to reread a book. The irony though was that it was an ebook. One of the reasons why bookselling is no longer what it was in the nineteen fifties. I'm happy to say that I did not finish it disappointed, though I'd admit feeling more bittersweet given bookselling today.

Example two concerns the fantasy genre. I like Science Fiction, Am interested in the idea of parallel worlds. But the glories of different world fantasy novels have passed me by. Personally I find them indulgent pieces of comic book writing without the illustrations. You can tell that the Game Of Thrones phenomena has obviously taken a diversion when it approached me.

The Helleconia series though was different, I was hooked. And the reason why I was hooked was that the quality of writing made you believe in the world that was being shown to us.

So the writer of one of my favourite books of all time and of a series of novels that I enjoyed in a genre I normally back away from. Those examples show I hope what a good and wide ranging writer Brian Aldiss was.

RIP Mr Aldiss.....and thankyou.

Until the next time.

Murder He Watched (aka Watch With Mother)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I am, as I'm writing this, in Essex, collecting my daughter following her week and a bit long stay at my mother's who showed her the London sights. Come down one day leave the next.

It is always a pleasure to see my mother, but like all families that pleasure means tolerating things you wouldn't put up in anybody else (I'm sure she'd say the same about me.....but it's my blog so there).

What I was conscious yesterday evening was that one of those things was watching television. Now am not saying that my tastes are better but they are different. And as I don't see her on a regular basis I feel rude putting headphones on and shutting myself off from the immediate world.

So I have to go retro and watch with mother.

My mother, like many other sweet, shall I say mature?, ladies has a taste for TV crime series. The programme we watched together last night was Murder She Wrote. I could see why she liked it. Jessica Fletcher was clearly a role model for ladies of her years. Aged well, was fit and active, talented, wealthy but most of all mentally stable. With an intelligence to solve murders that the local police force in the village she lived in in Maine (that is to say geographically judging by the show bordering California) is unable to solve. This inability then being spread out across the globe to affect many other forces of law and order.

If this was real life of course her local police force would be under investigation for it's inability to solve crimes without the help of a pensionable amateur.

And as I'm watching this piece of utter drivel (one hour incl commercials) I think that a more realistic aged amateur detective would have more wrinkles, consider walking to be exercise enough and would be struggling to live on the pension. If that was on TV then I'd watch it willingly.

But don't think her taste is solely on American trash. There's Midsomer murders. The programme I watched as if in a coma with her last year. Set in the fictional county of Midsomer, the only county it appears consisting just of a collection of villages and no towns/cities, it follow the experienced detective and his sidekick as they solve murders in the chocolate box England they live in.

An England which incidentally (as I understand it) did not have anyone until fairly recently whose skin colour wasn't white

This is two hours of cliché English drivel. It drives my brain to mush. Where is Inspector Morse when you need him?

But I have to watch. I'm with my mother.

(As a quick aside the only time I've ever willingly watched it was in Italy. British TV programmes watched overseas is some sort of electronic comfort blanket. A programme you'd cross the street to avoid in Britain suddenly becomes interesting).

The other crime programme my mother watched is Taggart. A show that I liked in the beginning but seemed at the end to be performing some sort of cull on the population of Glasgow. Do you know who my mother has also made a fan now? My daughter.

Suppose these things jump generations.

Until the next time

Plaid Cymru "the establishment"? Pause,Reflect,Laugh Your Head Off

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Since the general election the Welsh Labour has gone cocky. It has an I'll deserved swagger given that it's unexpectedly good showing was apparently due to a man they had for the most part ignored in the campaign.

This cockiness yesterday has seemed to have reached it's pinnacle at a Labour tour of marginal seats where there was a rally yesterday in Bangor where the headline act was Jeremy Corbyn. One of the seat they're targeting in the area is held by Plaid Cymru.

During the rally yesterday the media got a quote from Anglesey MP Albert Owen  who said that Plaid Cymru were "the establishment" in North West Wales.

Now let me stress one thing first. I've never been to North West Wales, I've no idea about the situation there and more local Plaid bloggers can discuss this in detail. But that said it's clear that Mr Owen was very careful with his words. For he knew that if he'd said that Plaid Cymru was the establishment for all of Wales then the gasps at his bare faced cheek would've been heard across the country.

For I'm not saying anything surprising when I say that it's Labour in Wales who are the establishment. But perhaps you would be surprised if I say that they deserved to be there. After all they were the party which sought to improve the living standards, education and health of the people.

But that was then and this is now. Welsh Labour now (the party remember not of Corbyn but of Blair)  are the party of arrogantly incompetent. Complacent in the assumption that they will get the majority of Welsh votes come what may.

And now Welsh Labour have ignored the dream and aspirations of it's voters. Regular readers will know how I've chronicled the big project s of Bridgend council whilst seemingly turning a blind eye to the town. Or how Rhondda Cyon Taff  council  seem to think that the wellbeing of the South Wales Valleys will be unaffected by a mass closure of libraries in the borough.

Nationally Wales under Labour has an  education  system amongst the dunces league of the world. There are cuts to the health service and an economy which is on a precipice to disaster due to Brexit and an apparent lack of planning for the consequences.

So the Labour establishment have failed all of Wales.

Ironically should there be a fresh general election in the next few months the Labour party have a chance of increasing their Welsh voters if the people feel there is a chance of toppling the Conservative government in London. But after that, when Labour's popularity wanes, that will be the moment for Plaid Cymru to use all of it's energies to appeal to the disillusioned Labour voter.

It can be done. Success for Plaid can be achieved. But it requires patience.

Plaid "part of the establishment"...... Pause reflect laugh your head off.

Until the next time.

Crazy Like A Fox (Or How International Trade Might Eventually Cause The Breakup Of The UK)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I suspect most people in Britain have learnt more about trade deals since the EU referendum than we have ever wanted to know. But essentially however complicated it will be dressed up any UK trade deals will boil down to a few facts:

1) The UK government will sell to anyone. No matter what evil stench they produce.

2) The UK government is desperate ......and the rest of the world knows it.

And in that atmosphere we have learnt that the current secretary of State for trade, Liam Fox, is seeking cabinet approval that any post Brexit trade deal will not need the approval of the Welsh and Scottish devolved administrations.

Presumably the reason for this is that should the UK sign any trade deal with let's say Ruritania he doesn't want any delay before waving to the TV cameras that he has in his hand "a piece of paper" and possibly hyping up a document that on closer examination may lead to trade surrender.

But the approval of the Welsh and Scottish administrations are there for a reason. They will know the effects of any agreement on indigenous industries and the local area so it is their duty to protect them from the consequences of a botched deal.

Let's give an example. I've heard more than once Nigel Farage talk about "New Zealand lamb". But should the deal be flawed it might endanger the Welsh lamb industry. It might allow for the flood of cheap lamb without any reciprocity. Would London be able to do its research on the Welsh lamb industry without consulting Cardiff? I have my doubts.

Now we all know what the Brexiteers will say. This a matter for London and not  Cardiff/Edinburgh. Fox is pursuing the will of the majority of the British people. However we all know that the Scots sort to remain and everywhere else in the UK people voted for the destination but not the route to get there. Also the Cardiff/Edinburgh governments were democratically elected as well. They have every right to fight for the people living in Wales/Scotland.

The Brexiteers will also say that the Celtic regions can be represented by their respective  Secretary of States. However these men are not democratically elected by the entire people of the countries whose offices they hold. If we take professional slimeball Alun Cairns Secretary of State for Wales as an example I've explained in an earlier post how he considers the London imposed building of super prisons as a business skills opportunity. He's not a man of the people but a Conservative freak

Within the EU regional governments were able to block trade deals they saw as damaging to their locality. It would be a great irony that after "taking back control" it would be London that would take it back from Cardiff/Edinburgh as well.

So let us say that trade agreements are reached that damage industries and consequently regions in Wales/Scotland. What this will cause is resentment/then anger amongst the people there. The call will rise for the people living in Scotland/Wales to break free of London rule because of the consequences of any botched trade deal. These people will vote for independence in their lives because London rule damaged their and their families' future. This will not happen at breakneck speed....but it will happen.

I've explained before that those of us who believe in independence do not want a scenario where it's achieved through the misery of decent people suffering as a result of London policies. But should the input of Cardiff/Edinburgh regarding trade deals not be sort now it's consequences will be felt across the whole of the United Kingdom later.

Until the next time.

Early Morning With The Flemish Professor

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

My eyes are awake but I know it's too early for outside it's dark.

I try to go back to sleep. I need to go back to sleep. For although Saturday night will be doing absolutely nothing (wife will be out at a kid's party) the day will be busy.

It's useless. I'm awake.

Regular readers, to be fair regular readers for a long time back,will know that insomnia hits me from time to time, meaning that I'm in this zombie like being of too awake to be sleepy and too sleepy to be awake. If this was six months ago my actions would have been to get out of bed, make myself a cup of tea and watch a recording of a sports game, mainly football.

But that was then. I knew that there was only one programme for me that I've recorded....and I wanted to watch it that evening.

So I try to go back to sleep. Think sleepy thoughts. It's night out there. I went to bed as late as possible (11:30pm) so that this wouldn't happen......because it already did this week.

But it's no use......I'm awake.

Do you know, apart from the state of limbo that your body feels, what is the worst part of insomnia? It's that moment when you find out what the time is. I switch on my Kindle.

3:48am. Four hours twelve minutes and now I'm awake. What makes it even more worse is that as I have things planned for Saturday morning the alarm had been set for six. Summer (if you call the past few months that) is going soon. The sky is black and daylight will not be expected for a while.

Part of my insomnia routine will never change. I make myself a cup of tea. Priorities.

Could go on the laptop. But my mind's not really with it then. There really is no other option to pass the time. It's the programme I'd been saving to watch that evening, Professor T, a Flemish crime series in the Walter Presents foreign language stable of TV shows from Channel 4.

Without trying to spoil the plot essentially the series is about an idiosyncratic college professor of criminology with OCD issues who helps the Belgian police solve crime. I could go further but it wouldn't be fair to those who didn't see it.

Now let me make a few things clear. The show has echoes of Monk (which I didn't like) and Perception (which I did). It is however (judging on the first episode) more realistic (this episode was about a series of rapes in a college campus - I cannot recall a crime series showing the long term effects on rape on its victims as vividly as this one).

Neither am I going to from on high pass final judgement. Am old (way old as it happens) enough to realise that for TV series the real test for the first episode is whether you'd want to watch the second one. In that it passed with flying colours.

As I finish writing this the sun has come out. I should go back to try and sleep again but it's too late. I've a busy daytime and a nothing obvious Saturday night to come (Nothing planned to watch on TV...unless West Ham win....please..... when Match of the Day will become compulsive viewing).

Still thankyou Professor T for helping pass the way too early morning.

Until the next time.

Why Plaid Cymru Should Not Panic Part Two: Leanne Wood's Tweet

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

You may remember a few week's ago I chatted about the hyping up of leading Plaid Cymru member Rhun Ap Iorweth's comment that he would like to be leader of the party should Leanne Wood step down. That proviso, crucially, was not part of the BBC News website headline.

The article then interlinked it with an unnamed Plaid Cymru AM expressing dissatisfaction with Ms Wood's leadership. I'd wondered whether there was an attempt to put two and two together and hype it up to five.

Well it appears that another storm in an espresso cup has surfaced in an attempt to undermine her. It was to do with her tweet commenting about the terrible attack in Barcelona and speculating whether "far right terrorism" was responsible.

The amazing thing about that tweet was the reaction of the UKIP and Conservatives. They objected to the words "far right".

So let's pause here. UKIP stated that the tweet was "an outrageous smear". The fact though is it wasn't outrageous because it wasn't a smear at all. Does anyone in UKIP seriously believe that people looked at those horrible scenes in Catalonia and thought "Well that's obviously the work of a UKIP member"?

It's also important to remember that the UKIP leader in Wales Neil Hamilton (and I knew UKIP in Wales would decline the moment they elected him as leader) is no stranger to controversial comments, for example suggesting that Leanne Wood was part of a political concubine to Welsh Labour leader's Carwyn Jones' harem.....yes I know.

The reaction that was even more astonishing though was of the Welsh Conservatives whose leader, Andrew RT Davies raised himself from whatever he was eating to condemn it as well as other Tory AMs.

But why? Why would the Conservatives be bothered by the use of the words "far right"? Are they not of the mainstream right? Why get bothered over something that does not refer to them at all?

I'll speculate on that later.

So would BBC Wales report this whole issue as that of UKIP/Tory manic overreaction at best/ deliberate ploy to smear Leanne Wood at worse? Of course not. Instead they treated these hysterical responses with a seriousness it did not deserve and again in passing linking it to these rumoured criticism of her leadership.

Time for speculation: I've said before that Leanne Wood is an asset to Plaid Cymru and is popular. I would argue that the reaction of UKIP/Conservatives is an acknowledgement of that. Plaid should not succumb to the hyping up of nothing and panic.

There is a reason why the political establishment want Leanne Wood to resign as leader....they're afraid of her.

Until the next time.

When A Book Is Bad Because You're Stupid

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

What If by Randall Munroe is finished. The book that gives "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions" is now, done, completed. The book which, you may recall from an earlier post, a colleague practically mauled over when I was away from work.

I should have let her continue.

Essentially this is "Scientists go wild". This is fine by me. I'd rather have them give answers to questions for situations that will never exist than threaten to unleash some dangerous virus unless they have control of the planet.

As I see it. For the general reader there should be two types of Science books. The first is designed for non scientists but for people interested in a particular subject (eg global warming).

The second is the sort of book which starts from the premise that the reader should be treated, at least in the beginning as a five year old when explaining a subject. And the reader is not insulted about this. We know nothing. You the scientist are there to guide us.

Now this book is "omnibus science" in the sense that to answer the questions being posed (on a particular website as it happens) such as "How many arrows would it take to seemingly blot out the sun?" various science subjects are used.

The trouble with that approach for the general reader is that although you might, for example, be interested in information technology it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be interested in chemistry. So to grab your attention it has assume you're thick as two planks and stay there.

And let me make things absolutely clear here....I'm thick.

The book suggests it will help you. There's cartoons for those who need pictures (me) . While all the questions are wacky enough plus even pop culture references to Star wars to tempt you along the way.

What Mr Munroe does however is start chatting to you as the village idiot (please continue Mr Munroe I don't mind!) but as the answer to a question goes on he gets more and more scientific and technical and well.....my brain hurts.

Consequently he loses that question to me. Multiply that by most of the questions and that will give you an actual and theoretical computation that he's lost me as a reader.

So this is a bad book. It fails for me....because I'm thick......sorry.

Until the next time.

A Trip To Treorchy

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Regular may remember that earlier this year I had mentioned that should my wife die before me I'd decided to move to Treorchy in the Rhondda Valley. A remark met with amusement,derision and snobbery by some (note the word some in that sentence) people in the Cardiff/Vale area.

Well today (Thursday) with exactly nothing to do (well there's paperwork but that can wait for Friday) for most of the day and by myself I decided to wander round the town given that such opportunities are rare nowadays.

Why do I want to move there. Well quite simply I'd use it as a base to wallow in sights that make the South Wales Valleys the Welsh Tuscany.

Imagine waking up to that

The town itself is rather interesting. For although it has a Boots an Iceland and a Superdrug for example the majority of shops are independent. Also many of them fly the Welsh flag, a gesture I took to show pride of their roots and have no political connotation at all.

Flying the Flag

And Again

The interesting shop in the above photo is one on the right. For though it's a Butcher's it's signage is completely in Welsh. Which is impressive.

People in the South Wales Valleys take this sort of view...



...or this...



...in their stride...including the lady in the local chippie where I had lunch which is called....

....A Fish Called Rhondda!!!

And time for another Treorchy view



Now of course nothing is perfect. Along the walk I found myself in the nearby village of Ynyswen. I saw this.

Note the sign for Courage beer

What makes this particularly sad (and it reminds me of a similar building I remember in Newport where I might have said the same thing) is that you realise it had a happy past.

And I'm not going to gloss over the economic problems the region faces. But what the Valleys has is community. Real community. Not the community of a newly built estate but that of people who appreciate everyone in their area .

I enjoyed my brief time in the Valleys today. Next time I visit it'll be for longer and will take in a wider area. What it taught me today though was that my intention to move up there to Treorchy remains strong.

Until the next time.

No Football On This Blog For A While, Time To Be Very Sully

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I am conscious that it's been a while since football has made an appearance in this blog. There's a number of reasons for that, working most Saturdays, house hunting and the lack where we live at the moment of a decent internet signal on the TV for BT Sport have all conspired to reduce my footy watching for a while.

However where I live now I'm conscious of a number of football teams that play relatively nearby. Of those that I'm aware of there's Barry Town United AFC, Dinas Powys FC, Ely Rangers FC and Cardiff City. Neither have I forgotten Newport County AFC, Penybont FC and the team I've decided to follow as much as possible Ton Pentre FC. There seemed to be more opportunities to spectate now.

For this Wednesday however in the early evening for a six fifteen kick off I was off to see the nearest team to where we're renting at the moment, Sully Sports FC. Part of the South Wales Alliance Premier League, as I'm sure you knew already. The ground is a tolerable walking distance from where we live, but the journey the journey is awkward so I drove there.

So then part of the Vale of Glamorgan, no hint of my previous seventeen years in the Bridgend area, if it wasn't for their opponents, Pencoed Athletic FC, and I think you can guess where they're from.

To reach the ground you go through the car park, down the path where it's advised that children are welcome but not dogs (fine by me). Everything I should also mention was free.

You then approach the stand but cannot help looking at the pitch first. Or rather beyond it.

The Sea,The Sea

I mentioned to a few people in conversation that this must be the only ground in Britain where the ball boys are also lifeguards. They don't get the joke.

It's then I'm conscious that I've underdressed. The skies were blue when I'd left but now are black. I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt. It's cold, windy and I'm an idiot.

Anyway to the stand....past the container.




At the stand found I had company.

I'd no idea whatsoever

Someone on Twitter told me that it was a Horcrux. Google tells me that it comes from Harry Potter which regular readers will know I've never read out of principle (It's for kids! I'm fifty three). So I'm still none the wiser.

I brought What If? by Randall Munroe to read during the break. But as you will see as I go on I didn't have time to look it. So all I'll claim is to be the first person to have brought a copy of a Randall Monroe book to a Welsh football game. No I'll go further I'll claim to be the first person to have brought a science book to a Welsh football game.

History In The Making

So there was I, a man in a short sleeved shirt in unshort sleeved shirt weather. Only now do I realise how I looked like the weird oddball that evening.

About to Start

So the match, along with my ninety minutes plus of double pneumonia began.

It wasn't long before a man I'd assumed to be the Pencoed Athletic manager was shouting at a player for "quicker communication". He being blessed with never having the need to use a microphone to be heard. Indeed the entire three man management team seemed very emotional. Constantly waving their hands to show where the ball should've gone. Except that is when the instruction was to "open this way" when oddly enough the hand gestures were conspicuous by their absence.

The Sully management team consisted of a small man and his bodyguard type assistant who was the one mainly shouting out orders. Given that he'd the look of a man who would have been the maniac cop in any TV series interrogation of the bad guy I'm sure the Sully team carried out the orders as well as possible.

The Management....Sully are in Red

With about ten minutes of the first half to go. The Sully number ten had noticed that the Pencoed goalkeeper was out of his line and lobbed a ball over him. It was dramatic. It was a goal. It was one nil Sully.

A Few Stills From The Game....Yes I was That Close

Grey clouds Up There

More Goalmouth Action

And it stayed like that until five minutes before half time. Where if I understood it right from the Pencoed fans by me Ash crossed and Dunc connected to score. Could have been the other way round. Forgot that. And as to how, a shot or a header .....no idea....the Pencoed Management team were in the way.

One all is how it stayed at the end of the first half. It all seemed very fair to me. Sully seemed like the team with the skill but Pencoed were the more physical. It made predicting the outcome difficult.

For me though at that moment it didn't matter. I was cold I was hungry I wanted chips.

Now to explain the place to get the chips was a stall by the car park. From there the only view of the match was what was now the Sully goal. I'd expected the break to be fifteen minutes so imagine my shock as the lady was frying the chips when I saw the radioactive orange sight of the Sully goalkeeper. The second half was starting without me.

So there I was. Walking back to the pitch. Chips in hand.

Nice Chips At That

Passing through instruments of sporting torture.



And was just ready to see the ball go into the Sully net. Two-One Pencoed.

From that moment there was a clear change in Pencoed. Winning seemed to make them more relaxed. They were now matching Sully in the skill department. There was I could recall a piece of skill that produced a round of applause from the Pencoed management.

They were happy.

Behind the Sully Goal and The Man In Radioactive Orange

View from seaside of the pitch

The Sully side of the pitch....where most of the second half action was

Final Few Minutes 

With about ten minutes to go Pencoed scored a third. One on one with the radioactive goalie the player elegantly slotted the ball passed him. The best goal of the game.

Party time amongst the Pencoed posse began in earnest. One of the Pencoed management fell over. No one cared. Shots hit the bar. They knew they had won and were playing with the happy abandon of the school playground.

Sully however were deflated and you could see it. Their management hardly said anything after the third goal. They knew it was pointless.

Three one Pencoed was how the match finished. They deserved their victory.

So thankyou Sully Sports FC and Pencoed Athletic FC. For the neutral like me it was an enjoyable game to watch.

I'll just make sure next time I'm in Sully I dress a whole lot better.

Until the next time.

So With Regard To Transport In Wales....The Price Is Right ...It Should Be A Case Of Skates Off

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As regular readers will know when I lived in Bridgend I always wondered at how the arrogantly incompetent Labour Council assumed that if you ignored the basic realities of people's lives and just went for grandiose gestures then things would work out fine.

Doesn't matter that they've allowed Bridgend town to rot almost beyond repair and fearful what any diminution of production in the nearby Ford plant would mean to the area. Oh no. Instead you build funky new flats for "young professionals" to do whatever "young professionals" do or move the town centre library away from the town centre. That should sort things out....look at this new building here ...not the number of closed businesses over there.

And then Labour was surprised when it lost overall control of the council?

Well it appears that First Minister has taken a leaf out of the council's tactics (he is after all AM for the area). We are as people living in Wales supposed to ignore the lacklustre way the country is being run. We are supposed to ignore a stagnant economy, We are supposed to be grateful for the glories of Labour in the past and ignore the mess they're making of the nation in the present. We are supposed to ignore the years they have had in running our children's education which has proved to be so incompetent the Minister now responsible is a Libdem

"Look people of Wales." Labour will say "Look at this. We don't have an economy minister. We do things even better here. We have an "economy and infrastructure minister. Look at that...you're impressed huh?"

And the man given this grand title is Ken Skates (whose business card is probably the most impressive in Cardiff Bay if judged solely by words needed to fill it).

Today Plaid Cymru AM Adam Price has said that the portfolio is too wide ranging and that transport should be hived off from Skates' responsibilities. Of course he is right. Women (and certainly my wife) will say that men cannot multitask. What should be crystal clear though is that aside from leaders no minister whether male or female should multitask. They should focus on their portfolio which should be as specific as possible.

Perhaps Carwyn Jones should look at a dictionary. The words "Economy" and "infrastructure" means completely different things. By themselves they are massive undertakings to administer. Together Ken Skates would have to reveal a big S under his shirt to show he's capable of doing this superhuman task. Unfortunately events would suggest Skates is all too human.

I won't go into detail at the risk of boring you, but there are issues regarding the next rail franchise (an argument between the UK government and the Assembly) which a transport minister would look at intricately and also the cancellation of the electrification of the railway line between Cardiff and Swansea by London). But how can he deal with that properly when there's the minor matter of the economy to consider?

The Welsh road system is a mess at the best of times. The bus service outside of the major towns is patchy. All this shows integrated Welsh transport hub is but a dream. Then there is the proposed South Wales Metro Link. Which seems all very flashy but makes me nervous should there be any issues with cost increases down the line. It needs someone with their Skates on...wait a minute he's doing something else.

Speaking of flashy projects there was the Circuit For Wales that Labour eventually scrapped. If Bridgend Council had control of the National Assembly that would have passed through with no qualms. I'm in no way an expert, but from what I saw on TV I think the scrapping of support for it was correct. However it took a very long time (starting before Mr Skates was minister) to make the decision....as if he was too busy on other issues.

As I've said the Welsh economy is in a delicate state at the moment. The effect of Brexit on Welsh and international businesses based in Wales has yet to be foreseen (though regular readers of this blog will know of my concerns regarding Ford and Bridgend) . You would hope that the economy minister is making plans to cover all eventualities. He should. Perhaps though just like the Welsh government reaction when Tata steel proposed the closure of Port Talbot steelworks or when Tesco announced that the call centre in Cardiff will close next year the stable door will be shut when the horse has gone far, far away.

(A quick aside a spokesman for Mr Skates said "It is disappointing that Plaid Cymru seem content to use an important situation like this to play political games and exploit a situation for their own narrow ends" .  Thus saying how dare an opposition AM oppose Welsh Labour. well.It's the job of an opposition to oppose...particularly when an obvious way to improve the situation is staring people in the face)

So First Minister, forget following the tactics of Bridgend Council. Go back to basics. An economy minister, a transport minster. Accept that the Price is right and it's just a case of Skates Off transport.

Until the next time.

Brussels Would Listen To A Welsh Brexit Minister......Trouble Is London Wouldn't

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have written before about the consequences about Brexit to Wales, with emphasis on the issue of the Ford engine plant in Bridgend. So it was interesting to hear the views of the Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies (RT I would assume standing for Rotund Tummy) who suggested that Wales should have a Brexit minister because it was too much of a job for the Labour First Minister to handle by himself.

On the surface this seems to be a good idea. Unlike their Scottish equivalents the Welsh government seems to have provided a squeaky mouse approach to the approaching cliff face jump. Indeed I have argued that they seem to lack a clear approach to any damage that the lack of EU money/business investment would cause Wales.

An example that came to light last week was the criticism of the Welsh Labour govt for their lack of communication with Irish ministers over the effect Brexit would have over the channel crossings through the Irish sea. Just taking the effect on the Welsh side the damage to the ports involved could have a knock on effect to economies of Swansea and Holyhead. But from Cardiff Bay apparently hardly anything, why should they care indeed when ferries won't spoil their privileged and subsidised view.

Bridgend to the Valleys, Rhondda to Holyhead. All of Wales will be affected in one way or another by Brexit. Possibly disastrously given the Rip Van Winkle approach currently being acted upon by Welsh Labour.

Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru have set out a post Brexit future for Wales. But of course Plaid are not the government and consequently are unable to get actively involved in the process.

So a Welsh minister targeting the needs of Wales post Brexit seems not unreasonable. And to go back to the example of Scotland (and to digress here how pathetic Welsh Labour really are in battling for Wales in comparison with what the SNP are doing for Scotland) even they have a ministry for Brexit

Unfortunately negotiating with Brussels, or at least being part of David Davis' negotiating team, is not what the Rotund Tummy one had in mind. Instead the Welsh Brexit minister should give "strong and constructive representation" to the UK government negotiators.

And therein lies the problem. For if Welsh Labour government input is to be fed through a Conservative Westminster administration we all know that the interests of Wales will be ignored. For if the interests of Wales were listened to "Super prisons" would not be built and the railways would be electrified.

Apparently the economic minister in the National Assembly sits on a pan UK committee on Brexit...a committee that has not met since February. The UK govt has just taken the Brexit ball and run away with it, if only it knew what to do. "Constructive Ambiguity" is how the UK Brexit secretary is describing the negotiations with the EU at the moment. This is of course gloss marketing speak for "We don't know what we're doing and we're making it up as we go along".

(And having spoken of the shame of Welsh Labour. Is it not equally shameful that the EU. Now a group of twenty seven states have got it's act together  unlike the British Conservative administration?)

Perhaps the Brexit ministry feels that consultation with the Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns is sufficient. A man let's not forget so sensitive to our European neighbours that he called Italians "greasy wops". It says enough about the Conservative party that a) he got away with it and b) got promoted.

Wales voted for Brexit but they didn't vote to take back control and then find London controlling the negotiations and aftermath that directly affects it. If it turns out to be the disaster us Remainers predict, then resentment will grow and with that a rise in the Welsh Nationalist movement. Whilst I believe in independence for Wales there is no member of Plaid Cymru who would wish the economic disaster that might lead it there for it's effect on the people living there.

So for the wellbeing of the UK as a whole, Brexit ministers from all the regions should be listened to and be part of the British negotiating group. Unfortunately we all know that won't be happening.

Until the next time.

So Randall Munroe. Can Science Give Me A Solution To Stopping Someone Mauling My/YOUR Book?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So picture the scene. I'm at work. As regular readers will tell know, I bring a book with me to read during the breaks. On this particular day that book turns out to be What If? by Randall Munroe. One of the books borrowed from Sully library. A tome which gives "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions" such as "Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off-planet?"

Anyway there's a moment when I have to go outside for a few minutes so leave that book out of sight and do what I have to do.

On returning to work however I see a sight that set all readers on edge. My work colleague for the day is just sitting there with the book in her hands!

It's my book! Oh alright not my book. But I'm it's custodian for a while. Not her. Moving the pages as if it's her's

So there she stands and starts to chat about Mr Munroe's work.

"It's a good book" she says. Implies that it's been read....by her.

But I think she's lying. Why? Because of the way it's being examined. The way she's looking at it, as if for the first time. If I see something that I've read before then unless the pages of this edition are embossed with gold and the illustrations have been done by Leonardo De Vinci then it's ignored. You don't see a book you've read in a bookshop and say "I'll just reread one of my favourite passages as I'm passing". You're after something new.

But there she is, reading it, turning the page without a care. Well certainly not caring about me anyway.

Feel like shouting "give me back my book!" But of course I don't. It's a reader thing. As if in a literary way she's breaking and entering to somewhere I'm currently living in.

It is however a workplace environment. Diplomacy means I have to stay quiet. After all one day she might be my boss.

Eventually work calls her to put the book aside...not where I'd left it in the first place....instantly the book's in my workbag.

So Mr Munroe. Is there a scientific way you can stop someone from mauling your book (literally here your book) at work without risking your job? I think I speak for all readers that this is an important issue.

Until the next time

Have I Been Persuaded By Jane Austen? Well....

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So picture the scene. I'm at the rented apartment from doing the afternoon/evening shift at work. Daughter is on her tablet. Wife, who moans when daughter or me are online, is on the laptop playing Mahjong.

I go to my normal returning from work routine. Ask loved ones how they are (incidentally never argue when you've just returned to work late at night. Your brain....well my brain anyway...is not up to it). Go to the toilet (TMI? Sorry). Change my clothes, contact my mother in Essex and ping a microwave meal (I've boiled it down to two. Beef Lasagne or Spaghetti Bolognese

And what then? It's about eleven pm. I have to stay up for about an hour before going to bed to rest my wide stomach. So what do I do? Normally I'd watch something on YouTube or Netflix and nod off on the sofa, or listen to a downloaded programme on the BBC radio iplayer and nod off. But not this day, Saturday. For my Kindle has told me that I've only half an hour left of Persuasion to read and I'm going to finish it come what may.

This task then, the reading equivalent of having a walk after dinner (it's after eleven at night I'm not walking out), is completed. From never reading Austen I've now read two of her novels in a short space of time. Things and indeed me have certainly changed recently.

Having said that, and mentally registering your round of applause, regular readers of this blog will remember my rather ambivalent view of Emma. That I did not dislike it but didn't feel as if I was reading great literature either. Thus Jane Austen was part of that group of writers such as  F Scott Fitzgerald and Anton Chekhov that I was literary Switzerland towards.

Now I have read two Austens I must be to the majority of the male population a freak. A male not in the artistic or educational worlds who has read two Austens?! Clearly to most men that and the fact I wear glasses must make me an expert on the subject.

So let me start by saying this. I much preferred Persuasion to Emma. It is a book with less of the Austen clichés. Less dances,less indeed a dance of manners.

Perhaps more importantly however it has a character (which I'm not going to spoil  by revealing here though obviously you can surmise it's a woman) that the reader can root for. Whilst there was no one I actually hated in Emma, it did thinking retrospectively lack that emotional hook.

And that central character is believable as well. There is no way that Gwnyeth Paltrow could justifiably played her without being laughed at all the way to the goop. Out of curiosity after I read the book I checked who played this person in the 1995 film adaptation. She seemed exactly the right fit to my imaginary picture.

But.....

The other thing that I've realised having read two of her books now is that Jane Austen characters rarely go beyond second gear emotionally. No throws of passion or spasms of anger. To me as a reader this seems irritating and unrealistic.

Still, what do I know....being a boy. (an old one admittedly) ?

So Jane Austen stays for me in a state of literary Switzerland. Which as I've said before is more difficult to explain than disliking her because if you're neutral towards a writer there's more chance that you've missed something (you dislike a writer them there are weapons you have to explain why).

Now to the next book which turns out to be David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It's been a while since I've read any Dickens ( so many books so little time) so I'm looking forward to reading it.

Now tying up the loose ends I've also finished The Golden Rules of Blogging (& When To Break Them) by Robin Houghton. To be honest all it taught me is that if your blog is not a business then the best rule is simply trial and error. Adhere to the "rules" and you will just miss the fun of creating and running it.

Until the next time.

To Westminster It Appears Wales Is Only Good For Prisons

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

New prisons are being opened and built in Wales. The first question is why Wales is being targeted in this way? Is it that the Ministry of Justice (who has control of the justice system in Wales) feels that if a prison is in Wales it's a case of out of sight out of mind?

For this post I'm going to concentrate on one. The proposed building of a category C prison on disused land on Baglan in Port Talbot that will house 1,600 prisoners (let's face it though that is likely to increase because of overcrowding).

Local residents oppose it and yet the Ministry of Justice in Westminster, who have full control over the justice system in Wales (unlike Scotland) want to push it through thus changing the character of the area in an instant.

Now Baglan is near the M4 which would probably partly explain the choice. Of course being near to the motorway would make it easier to drop convicted felons at the prison. Conversely if a prisoner is able to arrange an escape then it'll help him get out too. Many towns are relatively close by as well as the cities of Cardiff and Swansea so it'll be easy to hide out for a while.

The proposed prison will be near a bird sanctuary,industrial estates, residential areas, houses and most disturbingly of all schools and a care home. and whatever some glossed up management type will go on television and try to reassure he/she will never be able to guarantee that a jail, even a new one, will be escape proof. Consequently local residents will be living in fear, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is fear, because their neighbours will be criminals.

What I'm going to say next I was told on Twitter, so it comes with the health warning that I've not checked on this, but it was said that some of these prisoners could come as far afield as Birmingham. My first reaction to that was what? If it is correct that English convicts (as opposed to English people living in Wales who are convicted) are being dumped to Wales what greater show there can be of the contempt Westminster shows for the land and people left of the Severn Bridge. There are many areas in England that this prison could have been built on, driving along the M4 I've noticed that Bath to Swindon seems relatively empty to me for example. But no. Jettison people far away from their locality to Baglan and who cares what people there think.

There appears to be a split within the Labour party on this issue. Whilst not opposing the principle of a prison being built in the area the local Assembly Member is against the particular sight chosen for the reasons I gave above as is the local MP. Yet astonishingly the Labour run Welsh government is apparently minded to sell land selected for the prison. According to the BBC website a Welsh government  official said that a new prison would bring "economic benefits to the area".  Really? Apart from taxi firms and cafes what businesses will continually thrive because of the presence of the prison? In fact the area will decline because people will avoid the prison if they can, property prices will fall,householders and local businesses will seek to move away, no new investment will want to move in and so a downward spiral for the area will begin.....because no one wants to have criminals living nearby.

And you know what? On a small scale the consequences of such a rash and ill thought judgement by people motivated by ideology, greed or just stupidity will be exactly what hard Brexit will cause Britain in the future. Perhaps Baglen is a shape of Britain to come. For Brexit read Baexit as Baglen radically moves away from what it once was and changes for the worse.

Also remember that both the Welsh Labour government and the slimeball Conservative secretary Alun Cairns sights "economic benefits" for Wales in supporting the new jail. Ironically the site chosen was near a closed down factory. The Welsh economy should be fuelled by the production of assets not the keeping of criminals . This is quite seriously pathetic from those in positions of power.

The people of the area need politicos who actually care about their interests not just in a bogus economic argument that seems to me to have ignored the bigger overall damage. It seems that the only consistent support they have had is from Plaid Cymru. Local people in Baglen appear to have been trampled on thus far. That is just an injustice.

Perhaps in the case of Baglen that for Westminster since they can't use New South Wales to house criminals Old South Wales will do instead

Until the next time.

As Nations Go The Brink Of Nuclear War....Let's Talk About Hilary Mantel And P G Wodehouse

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So for the past few days the world has to face the serious possibility of war between the United States and North Korea. Who knows how this will pan out. Let's just hope that both nations will wake up to the cliff edge they're walking towards. After all it will be far more than just those two countries that will be directly affected. And indirectly every country in the world.

And what of course this proves also is that fat men with stupid hairstyles should not be allowed to lead nations. Remember that when Boris Johnson tries to be British Prime Minister.

Let's then drag ourselves to the more civilised pursuit of reading books then. First off being Hilary Mantel's collection of short stories The Assassination Of Margaret Thatcher......oh.

When you read a well known author for the first time, as I will go on about when discussing P G Wodehouse, their reputation precedes them. Sometimes it's very difficult to shake that off as you're going through the book. With Mantel it wasn't that difficult. She's known for historical fiction, indeed have given out the Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4 on the subject, revealing a voice that could be best described as a gentle Dalek.

These short stories though are set in the late twentieth century to the present day. So they're relatively modern which meant I could approach them relatively fresh. There are ten stories in the book, but one, Comma, I'd already found out was about child cruelty. Wasn't going to read that. So I'm chatting about the remaining nine.

Three of these Hilary Mantel stories had, much to my surprise some of the worst writing I've read since reading Sam Allardyce's autobiography........

(I'll pause here. I'm going to claim to be the first person able to put Hilary Mantel and Sam Allardyce in the same sentence. Now I've done it twice)

.....the writing was that bad I noticed it.

Two of the stories were inconsequential. What I mean by that is that was that my reaction at the end was to mentally shrug my shoulders.

One was well written but had a surprise ending so disturbing I wish I hadn't read it.

Three (the final three as it happens that includes the Assassination of Margaret Thatcher) were truly engrossing.

So a mixed bag then. I can't say I really have an opinion of Hilary Mantel after having read the book. Seems I'll need to read another one to have an opinion of her. Not today though. The next tome that I took out of the baby collection of books that is Sully library is this.

Cecelia Ahern - How to Fall in Love

Now this is an unexpected experiment. Regular readers to this blog would know how I've gone on about male readers avoiding female writers because the covers were too "girly" and argued that Marian Keyes is a far better writer than her chick lit covers would suggest. Well here's a book that the old me would have avoided by a famous "chick lit" writer. So we'll see how I get on.

With regard to the Kindle The Man With Two Left Feet And Other Stories by P G Wodehouse is finished. Every one of my prejudices were confirmed. Young men just want a good time, upper class men are mainly stupid, young women are pretty, old women are battleaxes, life is just froth. Problems just go away like that.

Even attempted suicide, suicide, is treated as if it was mere whimsy. Goodness only knows how he would have dealt with nuclear war.

So as you can guess I hated it.

The next on the ebook pile is Persuasion by Jane Austen. Thus far (early days) I prefer it to Emma.

Until the next (hopefully not radioactive) time

Why Plaid Cymru Should Not Panic

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

This is another of those occasional posts which I'd not intended to write but Twitter and it's 140 characters brought to my attention. It was a link to a BBC News website whose headline was Rhun ap Iorweth " would consider running for Plaid leader". Rhun Ap Iorweth being a leading figure in Plaid Cymru.

It caught my attention as an English Plaid member. Has Leanne Wood resigned I thought? Is there going to be one of those summer party leadership election battles that pass the media's time until September?

No.

It turned out that the headline was Sun/Mail like in it's distortion. If you read it what was said it was that he would consider running for the party leadership if Leanne Wood steps down. So let's pause here. A politician is asked a direct question and he answers it directly. He would consider being leader of the party but will not threaten his leader to get the position. If he was a football player, let's say for West Ham United, and was asked if wanted to be captain one day, he'd say of course, but that doesn't mean he'd stab Mark Noble on the way to the post.And yet the headline by itself implies something much more dramatic than what was actually said.

Rhun Ap Iorwerth also "admitted" that he wanted to be First Minister one day. Admitted? Was there torture involved? Again a politician is answers a direct question directly and it's as if a whole squadron of cats have been let out of the bag. Personally someone with ambitions for himself and his party should be applauded for therein lies motivation to succeed.

What worries me about this article is the way it was mischievously interlinked with a call by an unnamed Plaid Cymru AM for a fresh leadership contest with Leanne Wood to step down. Now let's say for the sake of argument this unnamed AM exists. The argument that is used is concerning the "disappointing" Assembly, local and general election results and that Plaid needs a fresh approach to go on. It also says she has lost the confidence of the other AMs. Personally I do not know but would doubt the last point. Political schisms in any party are rarely contained for very long and this would have surfaced a long time.

Am I reading an attempt to put two and two together and hype it up to five?

With regard to the various election results. Plaid under Leanne Wood have improved it's position from the dire state she inherited under Iuean Wynne Jones. It might have been slower than some people would have liked, but it's still an improvement. Leanne Wood is a popular asset to the party in a way that Carwyn Jones is not. I wish her to stay as leader but should she leave with any hint that she was pushed out then not only would the party be damaged in the eyes of the electorate but the next leader will face very high and possibly in the short term unrealistic expectations.

And if we focus on the results of the last general election as I've written before Welsh Labour were lucky. They were able to profit from "the Corbyn effect" even though they are the party not of Corbyn but of Blair. By the logic of the unnamed AM the disappointing regional and general election results should mean that she immediately resigns......the person I'm referring to being Nichola Sturgeon.

But politics is cyclical. The consequences of Brexit will mean that the Labour position will be just as disastrous as the Tory one. Welsh people and people like me who live in Wales will seek an alternative. Welsh Labour fears Plaid Cymru because it reminds them of what they once were, not the incompetent mess they have become. Plaid Cymru, if the ultimate vision of an independent Wales making decisions for the benefit of all the people who live there not a Cardiff Bay elite will become more attractive in such a future.

So Plaid Cymru should not expect an easy few years....but should not panic.

Until the next time.

Hockey Sticks At The Ready

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's Sunday and I'm wandering around YouTube looking for free live sport. Normally there's a cricket or football game that I can cling onto (have to work out what Romanian team to support) but find myself surprisingly stopping at women's hockey. Why would I want to watch a sport I've little knowledge of  and not taken any interest in the past? Well it's in Cardiff (Wales were playing), I noted that this game is part of a tournament, and my daughter plays hockey at school.

In other words I've a plan to knock off another day from the summer holiday.

This tournament is called Eurohockey Championships II. It involves eight nations just below the top tier. For the moment they are playing in two groups of four before everything then goes into the knockout stage. The reward for the final two is entry into the elite group of nations.

There were two matches on Monday. The first we would miss and it didn't matter anyway. The second however was France Italy. This was good because in the absence of Wales we had a team to support in view of our ancestry.

Just to give you a clue...

"Italia! Italia!"

So found ourselves in Sophia Gardens at around five thirty in the evening. Also home for Glamorgan Cricket Club it's a complex that houses the Welsh Hockey HQ with it's own (much smaller pitch). Had our hot dogs (which tasted better than the Five Guys thing at the Red Dragon Centre on Friday)soft drinks and we were ready.

As we entered the pitch both teams were training and the announcer was giving out the teams. There was a group of young Frenchmen to our right. You could tell they were French by their tops (a giveaway that) and the way they cheered when every player from their side was mentioned (one I noticed that received a whistle). However when it was time for the national anthems it was they who belted out Les Marseillaise with commendable gusto more I noticed than the team. The Italians ladies (dressed in white) sang their tune as loud as possible as if their lives depended on it.

"Allez le Bleu" shouted one of the Frenchmen as the match started. Or if you can imagine a surprisingly gruff voice "ARRLLLEZ LE BLEU!!".

And indeed France in the beginning did attack. So much so that my hockey ignorance began to show. There was apparently a foul on a French player in the Italian half. Ah I said to my daughter "a free kick".

Well she gave me a look of utter contempt that only a teenage girl could give.

But after this French pressure Italy a few minutes later scored.

"Italia! Italia!"

The French tried again. Just missing the goal whilst the Italian goalie threw herself spectacularly across the line.

Soon after I started clapping. Italy scored with a goal a few yards from the halfway line. It was spectacular....but no one was celebrating....cue contemptuous daughter look two. She tells me that you have to be in the semi circled area to by the net to score a goal. 

Ahh right....

There then was an altercation. A French player fouled an Italian who turned round and raised her stick. Before it turned all martial arts though they were both sent off. Didn't seem to bother Italy though. A run off the wing, a cross from which a strike by an oncoming Italian player caught the defence and the goalie off guard. The most football like goal of the game.

Moments later there was a third. A back flip of the stick to the net. 3-0 Italy. And that was the score at half time.

"Italia! Italia!"

The Italians spent half time by the pitch. The French ladies went off to their French dressing room presumably to be shouted out with various French swear words by the French coach.

If there was swearing though it didn't work. Four minutes into the second half Italy scored again. Soon after that there was a penalty  that made it five.

Even the sin binning of an Italian player didn't matter. Just like football when a team tries to throw everything but the kitchen sink to try and retrieve itself from a bad scoreline leaving itself venerable to opposition attack. There was a one on one between the Italian player and the French goalie. I'll give you another clue what happened.

"Italia! Italia!"

To be the Frenchmen I mentioned earlier still shouted support to their countrywomen...just a little more muted with every goal that crossed the line.

And before the final whistle there was another ....seven nil ....."Italia! Italia!".

It's not for me to talk about either team's chances in the tournament. I lack the knowledge to say anything about that. Except in retrospect the fact that the Italian ladies sang the national anthem as forcefully as possible unlike their French counterparts was perhaps a sign that they were a team. Which (let's face it the French lost seven nil!) their opponents really were not.

I must admit I enjoyed my first hockey game and more importantly so did my daughter. Unfortunately work means I can't go to any other match but we'll see whether the wife can take her in the next few days.

Oh yes just one more time.

"Italia! Italia!"

Until the next time.

Welsh And Sports Direct

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

You know there is a thing about walking into a Sports Direct store. You feel uneasy. There is such a bad background story now. The owner Mike Ashley having to make radical reforms to the way staff are treated there due to the stories of bad working conditions. You feel somehow complicit walking in. As if you're being friendly with a Victorian mill owner

Now let me make it clear. It's been a while since I've entered a Sports Direct. But the last time I did I got the sense that there was a lack of coordination. As long as you could pile it high and sell it cheap it seemed as if it didn't really matter where you put the items for sale. It really seemed a mess to me.

Anyway Sports Direct are in the news for a different reason in Wales today. Apparently there was a notice in company notepaper in a Bangor store banning the speaking of the Welsh language for "company business" for various reasons citing specifically health and safety.

Now Sports Direct are denying that this is company policy and are investigating. But before we chat about the note directly let's say this. Even if, say, the notice was fake and this was the work of some disgruntled English only speaking employee or a monoglot practical joker like all well organised pranks it was believed automatically. And the reason was because you wouldn't put it past Sports Direct to act like this. That you see, whether justified or not, is what a bad reputation does to a company.

And let me make my views clear. The one and only time in a work environment that people have to speak English is if there is a work related conversation and an involved non Welsh speaker is in the room. That is it. To deny the speaking of Welsh in any other context is to take away people's basic human rights.

In this notice whilst it states that speaking a language other than English could pose "various risks" to the company the only one actually highlighted is health and safety. This is of course rubbish. Not only are there bilingual signs available but also in the event of a fire, ( in a store let's point out that literally puts clothes for sale up to the ceiling) does anybody really believe that a Welsh speaker would shout "Tan!" before shouting "Fire!" Women children and Welsh speakers first? If you really believe that then obviously still you still vote UKIP.

I have written before of how the speaking of Welsh is slowly becoming an act of rebellion in the light of apparent pressure by mainly right wing ideologues. If this is now affecting business then this disease is spreading.

If this notice is proved to be true and the company doesn't act I would not advocate a boycott of Sports Direct. People's jobs might be on the line. Instead what I'd suggest, and if I next go into Sports Direct this is what I'll do, is to insist on being served by a Welsh speaker only even if my Cymraeg is not fluent. If more people do this perhaps the native language of Wales will be appreciated by those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Until the next time.

How Spiderman Saved The Day......But

Hello there. Hope you're feeling today.

Before we talk about all things spidery on Thursday went to the adoptive prefab that is Sully library to pick a new non fiction book to borrow.

As it happened went for two.

The non fiction section started with travel books. Most of them being guide books. The only "travel" book was Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson. Trouble is...I've read it.

Then came I.T books...Windows 8 for beginners and IPAD for seniors were some of the more trendy tomes until the old eyes saw this

The Golden Rules Of Blogging by Robin Houghton

Who knows it might make me a better blogger?

There was though the need for a second book. This was the next one on the shelf.

Randall Monroe - What If?

The blurb says it's about serious scientific solutions to absurd situations. We shall see.

Right that's all things bookish dealt with today. Let's turn to the original World Wide Web Wonder.

So far my daughter has not had a lucky summer holiday. Her friends in her new school have gone away (her turn is to come) and if the weather is any judge late July/August appear to have gone on a break with October having filled in for them. So she hasn't really gone out much anywhere so far.

On Friday the wife was working but I was not so decided that we'd see a movie. My original choice was a Japanese anime movie at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff that I knew was on the day before. Thought it would be different. So that was the plan.

However there turned out to be a problem with the plan...in a nutshell what happens on a Thursday stays on a Thursday. The anime wasn't showing  on Friday.

So looked at what was on at the local Odeon cinema in the Red Dragon Centre just outside Cardiff. Showed the timetable to my daughter and told her to pick a movie we'd go and watch together. She picked, much to my surprise, Spider-Man Homecoming.

(A quick digression for those of you wondering why I didn't make her see Dunkirk the answer's simple. This time I wanted her to watch what she wanted and not force her to seeing something that she'd grudgingly watch. Personally it seems to me that all of the family should watch this together and not treat it as a refuge on a rainy day)

Anyway back to webby guy. Asked daughter why she wanted to go and see something that she'd never given any hint of liking before. There were two reasons:

1) Spider-Man is "hot" (My daughter is fourteen)

2) Zendaya is in it.

Now taking these two things in order (and thus a pre review of the review of the movie). You would have to ask a gay version of me in an alternate universe as to the "hotness" or otherwise of Tom Holland who plays Spidey. What I will say is that neither he or any other of the actors playing students looked like the fifteen/sixteen year olds they were apparently playing.

With regard to Zendaya (star of Disney channel comedies that all seem to merge into my fifty three year old brain into one amorphous mass) it's not spoiling the film to say that her role was so insignificant she could have tweeted it in.

The movie incidentally had a 12A certificate. One of the reasons was because of a "mild sex reference". As it happens it was the only bit of the movie that made me laugh.

Anyway off we went to the centre. Essentially a place to spend your money on various things such as a cinema, casino ,bowling alley plus various restaurants. Got the tickets then took some lunch at a place called Five Guys. Let me describe the lunch one hotdog each, fries for her and a soft drink. The food was OK but nothing special. It was also more expensive than the cinema tickets!!

Eventually it was time for the film. Daughter having armed herself behind Dad's back with a large and stinky box of popcorn (FYI I hate popcorn)  It wasn't full,or half I'd say about a quarter if that. First came the ads, then the trailers...a new Thor (Chris Hemsworth is also "hot" apparently) a Justice League of America that seemed to be filmed under a shroud it was that grey. And there is a Gerald Butler film out soon as well. Gerald Butler, star of that Boss aftershave commercial where he talks absolute twaddle as if it was in the Bible.

And then....at last....the film.

And let me stress at the outset I hated it. The overall reason being all the changes they made to Spider-Man since I read the comics as a child. There are many examples that I could use which would spoil the movie so won't go there. Here though are three that are not spoilers.

1) Spider-man had Spidey sense. Where he would get a tingle of upcoming danger. Well that's gone.

2) In this movie Spider-Man doesn't have a sidekick so much as a helper. But in the comics (should I be saying "graphic novel" now?) the webmaster swung alone.

3) Finally Aunt May was a wizened white haired old lady with a heart condition. Not a description anyone would ever give of Marisa Tomei.

But the point is this. The opinion of a fifty three year old man with nostalgia issues does not matter. The audience this film was catering to was represented by the fourteen year old to my right....and she loved it.

So thank you Spider-man for giving my daughter an enjoyable afternoon at the cinema........and for making me feel very, very old.

Until the next time.

On A Cover Spoiling A Book, Library Crisis, The Dangers Of Forgotten Wells And On Avoiding The Wodehouse Until Now

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Since I last chatted a number of books have been finished. Time to take a deep breath and begin.

Totally Wired by Andrew Smith. The first book borrowed since I joined Sully library is now read. Here's my suggestion about it.

Avoid the cover.

On the cover of the book I borrowed it implied a general investigation into the dotcom crash of the early nineties. But although there is an explanation of events at that time, it's to put in context the creator and company that it focuses on Josh Harris and Pseudo.com. I didn't realise this until a third of the way through. Thinking "Well I get Josh Harris when do I get to the others?" felt quite irritated until it dawned on me that the cover had led me astray.

Perhaps (I don't know) the UK publishers felt that unless you were that technical geek interested in internet American history the book would be avoided by the great British public. This could be true. But for me it spoilt the book as my mindset was on one route because of the cover whereas it was taking a slightly different journey.

(As a quick aside the only internet or even information technology advice I will give people is. If a geek describes to you a high tech future in whatever form then believe in the geek. It will happen. You might not want it to happen, you might not want your life to be monitored by a mainframe in Vladivostok, but it will happen. However it will never, ever, happen at the speed they will tell you though. That one piece of advice that was given to by a geek and I pass it on to you).

Totally Wired is actually worth a read once you realise what it's really about. I'd recommend it.

Had a library crisis last night. Came home after the afternoon/evening shift knowing amongst other things I'd be off to the library tomorrow to borrow the next non fiction book. But, disaster.....my library card was missing.

That's right the library card I had waited for, made an effort to get, was gone. WAS IN A PANIC! Before I pinged myself a microwave meal at ten forty five pm was hunting it down and accusing wife/daughter of having hidden it. Why am I like this? Why am I obsessing over a library card? Is there a hidden meaning? Where is Freud and Jung when you really want them?

Anyway I gave up last night when hunger took over as a concern. Then, as it eventually does, sleep.

What did I do first thing this morning? Hunt for the card again. And you will be happy to know my mental state is back on track as I found it, sticking out behind a furniture cabinet like a naughty schoolboy. Must have dropped after the wife moved pile of papers it was on. Panic over. Better put it in the wallet now. Don't judge me. At least it's not drink or drugs.....it's reading.

On the ebook side of things finished Our Italy by Charles Dudley Warner. Italy in this case meaning California. I won't repeat what I've written before about it except that if you want to give a present to a Californian Geography teacher with a taste for local history then this is the book to get. Otherwise avoid..

Next up turned out to be a ghost short story from H G Wells about a man who knowingly spends the night in a room. I won't spoil it further except to say that once finished you will be severely underwhelmed. Unless he wrote it for money it was the most pointless ghost story I've ever read. It was as if he was thinking "I'm H G Wells. I've revolutionised science fiction novels, I done works of social commentary, I can write a ghost story. How difficult can it be?"

Well if The Red Room is anything to judge by very difficult.

H G Wells is remembered for specific Science fiction novels as well The History Of Mr Polly and Ann Veronica. A lot of his other stuff is forgotten. Having read the bonkers and racist When The Sleeper Wakes and now this could it be that most of his work was forgotten because it was rubbish? An experiment for another day perhaps.

So am now reading The Man With Two Left Feet And Other Stories by P G Wodehouse. I've never read a P G Wodehouse book before. No let me be even more clear. I've avoided them. Whether it was in the library,bookshop or online Wodehouse works were to be swerved from. Why? Well the impression the covers (we come back to that again) as well as short snippets on TV whilst channel surfing gives is that it's the chocolate mousse of literature. Easily consumed and as quickly forgotten. There always seemed to be better things to read.

As for Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. Well if Jeeves really was the one with the brains he would've thrown Wooster into jail whilst taking part in the glorious revolution of the masses against their capitalist oppressors. Instead he serves an idiot.

But I haven't read the books....this is just an impression....and this collection was free.

Will chat properly when I've finished it but on a scientific survey of having read two short stories....my prejudices remain.

Until the next time.

A Further Thought On Ford in Bridgend And Caitlin Moran To The Rescue With Old Technology

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday was Saturday and just after lunch had to drive from where I live now to the outskirts of Bridgend town to begin the afternoon/evening shift of work. Normally my choice of  radio station of this journey is BBC Radio 4 ( the station coming back varies, but that's unimportant here) solely because I can catch up with the news at one the next time world events and me meet on these shifts will be when I've finished at ten in the evening.

The programmes before and after the news normally just wash over me. And so it should have been this time. Being a Saturday afternoon that was Any Questions where a panel answer audience questions on the issues of the day. Normally it's too predictable to be of any interest to me and occasionally annoying when a particular guest I don't like turns up. Here it was Julia Hartley-Brewer, a talk show host who can be best described as a toilet trained Katie Hopkins.

Now one of those questions was of the government's plan (and the fact that this government has a plan over anything is astonishing in itself) that no petrol or diesel cars would be sold by 2040. It appears that similar moves are being made across Europe (taking back control...ha!). The point though is whatever the timescale and how it's implemented it does appear that the future is electric. Cars will be humming to a different beat.

It was when they had finished discussing this issue that I passed the turnoff to the Ford Bridgend plant. Only then did my brain join the dots. Something I already knew but didn't register properly before.

It's an engine plant.

I have written before of my belief that the UK and Welsh governments need to move now to secure the future of Ford Bridgend. If motoring is to be electric then investment needs to be made now to make sure that the factory and the jobs are safe. The plant will need to be updated to cater for electric cars in order for it to be relevant in this new age. Ford will want incentives to do this and too be honest money should be thrown at them to be tempted to do this and fend off the consequences of Brexit. Because if the technology goes to a country in the EU, then whatever the enviornmental benefits of electric cars are the environmental costs to Bridgend will be disastrous.

Both the near closure of the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot and the closing down next year of the Tesco Call centre in Cardiff revealed governments (particularly that of the Labour run Welsh administration) that were seemingly caught out by events. Here they have time to seriously make an effort to secure the future of Ford Bridgend.

But the clock is ticking.

And to lighter matters.

Have finished Dostoevsky's The Idiot. Don't really need to say any more than I did yesterday. You know I liked it.

The next ebook on the Kindle pile is Our Italy by Charles Dudley Warner. first published in 1892. Only in this case "Italy" turns out to be California. If I understood the logic correctly. California is like Italy because of it's varied climate and landscapes. Thing is. In Chapter One there is mention of the Mojave Desert. No Geographer me but at this moment at least, before global warming changes things beyond recognition I don't recall Italy having a desert. There is also at least one moment where Europwe is compared unfavourably with the sunshine/drought/flooding/forest fire state. When you read it my first thought is "Then why the title Charlie?"

But let's be fair here. The target audience for this book now are probably Californian Geography teachers with an interest in local history. My lack of any real interest is probably because I'm so far away from the core demographic I'm in a different continent...which literally I am....specifically in fact the Italy with rain that is Wales.

Anyway I have 29 minutes according to my Kindle to go. I know this because that was the moment when a sign came up saying that it needed charging during a break at work. But unexpectedly there was a backup. Moranthology by a hardback book I'd bought yesterday in windy Porthcawl and had left in my work bag. Yet again in Ms Moran has come to my reading rescue. Not just because there was something to read but also that it's so damned good.

Until the next time.