The price of fuel continues to rise.  And I can’t see it coming down soon.

Did you see any of that guy Lesley who was chaplain in Alaska for a while and states there is a fair bit of oil stashed up in Alaska?  Shocking stuff.

Anyway, I had a bang into the back of another car last week and having the car off the road has allowed me to see things from another angle.  The whole car owning and running thing costs SO much these days I am seriously considering giving it up.  In the short term anyway.

Just when the high price of fuel is becoming “the norm”, the realisation of the cost to repair a car – from only a minor bang – has really stuck with me.

I just wonder how we all survived on public transport, without mobile phones.  Heck, without broadband internet.  People, in general, take so much of what is amazing for granted these days that I’m not sure we could undo any of it, even if we wanted to.

I also heard a saying the other day, relating to changes in technology.  “Just because we CAN change something doesn’t mean we HAVE to.  But, we always do, as NOT changing is like admitting we want to stay as backward neanderthals in this world of flat-out, race for survival and constant improvement.  Well, in my eyes, not every improvement is an improvement.  IF you know what I mean.

We are creating a monster people!!

We are left with Germany vs Turkey and Russia vs Spain to decide who will play the final next weekend.  Not a final four many would have picked but the neutral, like the Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English for example, have still got a bit of “who really cares” entertainment to enjoy.

I’m sure most English football fans will be against “ze Germans” for all the old stupid reasons, and a few good ones as well.  I know the Spanish have been well supported since the tournament began but I did think they would trip up against the Italians last night in their quarter final.  They didn’t.  They have played consistently well and are looking very good.

The gamblers will have Germany vs Spain as the final but the two outsiders, Russia and Turkey will be up for proving them wrong. Turkey wetre 66-1 and Russia 25-1 at the offset so will be surprising winners either of them.

I personally took a bet on the Turks (at 16-1) after their amazing defeat of the Czech Republic in the group stage.  Now with only about 10 or more of their squad unavailable through injury and/or suspension, there may have to be a special dispensation from UEFA to give them a team to play against the Germans on Wednesday.

When it comes to winning tournaments after playing only reasonably well until the final stages, Germany are simply the best.  They are also, in my opinion, perennially lucky and will need very little extra in that department to book their place in next week’s showpiece.  I’ll stick with the Turks being luckier though  – taking them to extra time and penalties, where anything can happen – and expect one of them to meet Spain in the final.

The past two weeks of football has flown in and, to my reckoning, only two “boring” games were played out.  The divide between the best national football teams in Europe is now so thin that any team arriving here came with a chance to go all the way.  Let’s hope the Turks can mimic the Greece team of four years ago and be crowned Euro 2008 champions.

I’ve got a £10 bet that says they will.

Interestingly, this year the men’s and ladies’ champion will win equal prize money, each pocketing £750,000 – around $1.5million – if they come through 7 rounds of tennis.

Personally, I think this is equality gone a bit mad.  The men play best of 5 set matches and the ladies best of 3.  How can they possibly be valued as worth the same?  Add up the predicted hours on court and it is anything but equal.

Now, I personally adore the scantily clad beauties in their all-white outfits screaming and grunting their way around the grass courts of Wimbledon – but enough about the men.  It is the ladies tournament that has a plethora of young, stunningly beautiful, athletic and (most impressively) highly competitive females who will be all out for a final place on July 5th.

Forgetting the huge prize money for a moment, the top 20-30 girls are capable of beating each other on their day and we should expect some smiles, cheers and plenty of tears over the tournament.  The competition is, quite simply, fierce.

Which may make me feel slightly more sympathetic toward the equal pay they will now receive for their efforts.  Only slightly though.

My personal favourite is Jelena Jankovic and there are at least ten others that I enjoy watching, not least of whom is Maria Sharapova the highest earning ladies tennis star – whose beauty and presence has bewitched many a male (and female?) since her arrival on the LTA tennis tour.  I expect these two to play well – and I personally hope so as they are worth dodging work for an hour whilst they show off their skills.

This year, I also expect the Williams sisters Serena and Venus to go close but will be hoping Jankovic can better her great tournament last year, where she got to the quarter finals of the ladies sngles and won the mixed doubles with a Scotsman, Jamie Murray.

As a fellow Scot, I hope Jamie’s brother Andy can stay clear of injury and get a run going through the men’s singles – with Jamie likely to do well in both doubles competitions.  To have a Scotsman, never mind a British male, do well at Wimbledon is fantastic.  To have two of them – brothers, no less – progress into the second week will have a great effect on the youngsters looking for role models and give the game of tennis another huge boost across the UK.

I cannot see beyond the world’s top three for the men’s champion though.  Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic – in that order – should provide the winner this year.  If Andy Murrau makes up the other simi-final spot, it will have been an entertaining Wimbledon 2008.

Myself, I’m old enough and ugly enough to know that my biggest kicks will come from the smiling beauties of the opposite sex screaming and grunting their way around Wimbledon in search of that bumper paycheck in their make up, mini-skirts and ponytails.

Game on!

This guy, Eldrick “Tiger” Woods is something else.

He is giving the other pro golfers EVERY chance to get close to him and he still dominates the game of golf with hunger and determination which only he – since the days of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer – continually surpasses.

Playing in the US Open with a knee injury which would stop most humans from even leaving the house, he won the 2008 championship with what was ultimately a BROKEN leg.

Ahem, a BROKEN leg. A double hairline fracture of the fibia I subsequently heard but this along with the cruciate ligament damage he reported has been carrying – and aggravating – only rubs salt in the wounds of his competitors.

Just how do you get cose to this guy, short of dismembering him? Even then, I would be concerned by leaving him with any limbs to come at me with. – Prosthetics are amazing these days so Tiger would still be a short favourite if he stood on the tee of any golf course.

I once coached a guy with a prosthetic arm to shoot archery and after a while, he was average at worst. Give Tiger a couple of months and he’d be right back to frightening the life out of his competition. The guy will not lie down!

These other guys must be in awe (and distress!) when Tiger continues to play with such utter mastery of his game. His mental capabilities would have been tested to the extreme on top of what I can only imagine was excruciating pain physically throughout five rounds of golf. Walking, swinging, walking, swinging.

Fans will only hope no real long term damage has been done through these amazing efforts. How many pain barriers he went through is anyone’s guess.

If he were British, he would already be getting fitted for a suit to meet the Queen and receive his knighthood and it would be Sir Tiger of the Woods. And deservedly so.

As far as sporting idols go, who can compete with Eldrick “Tiger” Woods now? No one on my watch!

I haven’t even checked when the last time I posted here.  I’ve only been comig over to delete spam posts about wonder pills and “hot” videos of some kind.

They all seem great, it just that this place is for my (sporadic) posts – and no-one else’s.  I guess that’s one thing I can be sure of.  I won’t be moderating untold posts about the real content of this blog as there isn’t much to comment on.  Yet.

I can’t promise the posts will be anything other than sporadic but I will, from this point forth, try to come over more regularly – when I’m feeling like a coiled spring – and vent my spleen.

Right now, I’m busy trying to get my new linking business going, which means getting rid of the many distractions in my every day life adn getting in touch with as many prospective clients as possible.  Doing all this from my office/bedroom is a challenge but it is getting more achievable by the day.

Today, I have a list of prospects to research and contact, a website to update and I hope to get a hot office address by the end of the day also.  I am sure this will bring clients to my door more steadily than pitching to a non-responsive list of prospects I have pulled from the ether or speaking with people I know – which is all I have managed thus far.

Here’s to a blissfully productive day – and a blissfully lucrative one as well.

I’ll be back here to vent my spleen before anyone notices.  Of that, I’m more than sure.

Keep fighting the good fight guys!!

I suppose one resolution of mine should be – and will be – to rattle out some random comments here on something resembling a semi-regular basis.

Things should improve mightily now that I am into the new year with vim and vigour, hoping for all my dreams to creep that little bit nearer to being realised.  Here’s hoping!!

One rant for today.  I live in the UK and find our justice system “crazy” sometimes.  The US system baffles me and I guess it is only some stories which I really pick up on now and again.  This one had plenty of UK coverage so I know a little more about. Kenny Richey, a Scot living in the US, was released today from a US prison after serving 21 years for a crime.  He was on death row and at one point was said to be an hour from death.  His guilty verdict was overturned last year but was appealed.  ( I must admit I do not know or understand much of the US justice system!  This case has many more points which I cannot fully explain.)  Anyway, his release was finally sealed when he signed a plea of “no contest” today for which he was sentenced to 21 years, which he has already served.  An interesting compromise in my opinion.  No one is to blame, no one needs to pay any more.  Let’s pretend it never happened!

This is for a crime he NEVER admitted to, eventually had a guilty decision overturned on, and avoided the death penalty being administered on several occasions – on occasion by the closest of time margins.  It’s interesting how the system is always working for, and against, someone.  Today was just Kenny’s day I guess.

Ah well, they say it’s a marathon not a sprint so in the long run he may still be a winner.  He’s going home to Scotland and I’m sure he will find the next phase of his life equally testing.  Too much freedom can be as claustrophobic as no freedom at all.  Or so I’m told.  Maybe in a couple of years I’ll ask Kenny Richey what he thinks on that one.  He’ll certainly know more than I do about it.

Rant over.  I’m off!

Keep fighting the good fight folks!!

 …and season’s greetings.

Anyway, I’m having a non-stop James Brown tribute day, as the great man left us this time last year.

I’ve got around 65 tracks to hand, on CD.  They have all been played once - almost, about 7 tracks to go.  Currently on “Static” – pure class from the man.

 For all us “Santa Claus is no longer coming to visit” brigade, or indeed the Christmas non-followers, the Godfather has brought some long needed focus for the day’s tone.  I think so anyway!  Whatever you’re own faith may – or may not – be, James Brown brings unmatched energy to his work. 

Otherwise, a slow day is planned.  Much food, some light reading and plenty more James (Jim to his ‘friends’) throughout.

 Be sure to have a great James Brown Tribute Day, whether you get to hear the great Godfather of Soul today or not.

Peace.

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