Knutsford, Cheshire

THE LEGH ARMS on LEGH ROAD in KNUTSFORD CHESHIRE



 Although I am a Scouser, I and the Lady of the Villa spent most of our time in the UK and in Knutsford Cheshire. We actually lived in Legh Road in Knutsford which is why this article in the local press caught my eye.

"A LANDSCAPING firm has been fined £10,000 after pleading guilty to destroying more than 20 protected trees in the Legh Road conservation area. A subsequent investigation by the authority’s tree officer found that protected species including oak, scots pine, yew and holly had been cut down and uprooted.
Other trees, including a yew, had been pruned without permission and the roots of a mature beech, holly and sycamore were damaged during the landscaping works in the autumn of last year."

We had a tree in the centre of our drive which we had attempted to have removed. No way would the council move on this. If I had had it chopped down how much would I have been fined for one tree?

Share Liverpool FC

I have been very interested in the Share Liverpool FC scheme ever since it began. I hoped, but never realistically, thought it would ever get a real hearing in the financial world that Liverpool Football Club seem to exist in at the moment. I even had the Lady of the Villa give me the £500 (see below) that is needed to become a shareholder as a birthday present.
So what is this scheme. In a nutshell
Share Liverpool FC are looking to raise £150 million from LFC fans to initially acquire, they hope, a 60% interest in the Club:

• Approximately £10 million to come from the sale of £500 shares in ShareLiverpoolFC on a one person one share basis (this would require at least 20,000 fans to sign up).

• Approximately £140 million to come from shareholding fans acquiring SLFC Loan Stock giving them a return of 2% a year

In addition;

• they would seek one or more commercial partners to invest £100 million for a 40% interest in the Club.

They  would also seek to negotiate with the banks to swap £100 million of their current debt for convertible Loan Stock in LFC. The banks would give SLFC the right to purchase this convertible LFC Loan Stock in equal annual instalments over 20 years. Following acquisition of the banks’ convertible LFC Loan Stock, SLFC could convert it into new shares in LFC, therefore enabling it to increase its equity interest over time to 71%.
The balance of the banks’ current debt of £250 million would be discharged (indirectly) from the £250 million of funds raised above.
These proposals would provide the long term, affordable financing our Club desperately needs and delivers ownership of Liverpool FC to a broad base of fans.
BELOW IS A DIAGRAM WHICH SHOWS THE STRUCTURE

It’s been quite a journey so far for supporters of Share Liverpool FC. The route has changed, for various legal and financial reasons, but its always the same destination: Fan ownership of Liverpool FC. I am all for that. I am ready and I hope they can find another 20,000 supporters to but their £500 in.

PIGS Austerity Drive

PIGS austerity drive country-by-country

For EU leaders the short-term goal is to restore confidence in the euro. A new austerity drive is sweeping across Europe, as governments struggle to trim huge budget deficits and the 16-nation eurozone races to reassure sceptical markets.
What belt-tightening measures are the PIGS EU member states taking?

PORTUGAL

The Socialist government of Jose Socrates has announced a range of austerity measures aimed at cutting the deficit to 7.3% this year and 4.6% in 2011.
Top earners in the public sector, including politicians, will see a 5% pay cut.
VAT will rise by 1% and there will be income tax hikes for those earning more than 150,000 euros. By 2013 they will face a 45% tax rate.
By 2013 military spending will have been cut by 40% and the government is delaying the launch of two high-speed rail links - the Lisbon-Porto and Porto-Vigo routes.

ITALY

The Italian government has approved austerity measures worth 24bn euros for the years 2011-2012. The cuts amount to about 1.6% of Italian GDP, and are aimed at bringing the deficit below the EU's 3% ceiling.
Italy aims to cut public sector pay and freeze new recruitment. Public sector pensions and local government spending are also being targeted, and there are plans to crack down on tax evasion.
Funding to city and regional authorities is expected to be cut by more than 13bn euros.
For the next three years there will be a freeze on public sector pay rises and cuts in public sector hiring, replacing only one employee for every five who leave.
Progressive pay cuts of up to 10% are planned for high earners in the public sector, including ministers and parliamentarians.
Retirement will be delayed by up to six months for those who reach retirement age in 2011.
Provincial governments serving fewer than 220,000 inhabitants will be scrapped, as will several publicly funded think-tanks.

IRELAND

The Irish government has presented three austerity packages in just over a year.
In December the budget for 2010 slashed government spending by 4bn euros, cut all public servants' pay by at least 5% and reduced social welfare.
The measures include cuts of 760m euros in social welfare and 960m euros in investment projects.
Child benefit is being cut by 16 euros per month, bringing the lower rate to 150 euros per month and the higher rate to 187 euros per month.
A carbon tax has been brought in, set at 15 euros per tonne of CO2.
The Irish deficit currently stands at 12% of GDP. The government aims to cut it in stages, to reach 2.9% in 2014.

GREECE

The Greek government has pledged to make drastic spending cuts and boost tax revenue in return for a 110bn-euro (£95bn) bail-out from the EU and International Monetary Fund.
Greece has started drawing on the bail-out money because a sharp downgrade of its sovereign debt rating made its borrowing costs soar.
The aim is to slash the budget deficit from 13.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) to below 3% by 2014. The EU's stability pact sets 3% as an EU-wide maximum for deficits.
Greece has started cracking down on tax evasion, and on corruption within the tax and customs service. It will also curb its widespread early retirement schemes. The average retirement age is set to rise from 61.4 to 63.5.
Under the plan to slash the budget by 30bn euros (£26bn; $37bn) over three years Greece aims to: scrap bonus payments for public sector workers; freeze public sector salaries and pensions for at least three years; increase sales tax (VAT) from 19% to 23%; raise taxes on fuel, alcohol and tobacco by 10%.
The harsh measures have already triggered a wave of public sector strikes and violence on the streets of Athens.

SPAIN

Spain's austerity drive includes a 5% cut in public sector pay, starting in June. Salaries will then be frozen for 2011.
More than 6bn euros will be cut from public investment and some pensions will be frozen. In all, the spending cuts will total 15bn euros in 2010-2011.
Smaller savings include an end to the 2,500-euro cash payout for new mothers, known as "baby cheques".
The long recession left Spain with a swollen budget deficit - more than 11% of GDP, way above the EU's 3% target.
Spain's public finances have come under intense scrutiny since the Greek bail-out deal, amid fears that Spain could be the next "weak link" in the eurozone.

Catalonia bans bullfighting

The parliament of Catalonia has voted to ban bullfighting - the first region of mainland Spain to do so. The vote took place as the result of a petition brought to parliament, signed by 180,000 people who say the practice is barbaric and outdated. The ban takes effect in January 2012.

In Wednesday's vote, 68 backed a ban, 55 voted against and nine abstained.

But while the official debate is over animal rights, many believe this process is an attempt by nationalist-minded Catalans to mark their difference from the rest of Spain by rejecting one of its best known traditions.

Jealousy my heart is filled with jealousy

One of our friends who blogs under Urban Dirt (see side panel) always seems to have any number of comments on any blog she writes and posts.
How does she do it? Does she write the comments herself under my assumed names? Does she have a legion of friends to help her?
I am very Jealous Mic!

Foreign Holidays by Brits down

The Lady of the Villa and I have had more than the usual number of visitors this year due to the World Cup. However, generally we have noticed that the bars and restaurants are not as crowded as normal and feel that the visitor numbers are falling. this was confirmed after a scout around the internet.
Trips overseas by UK residents fell at the fastest rate on record last year as the recession slashed travel and made families opt to holiday at home. Official data released confirms the picture of what many referred to as the ‘staycation’ trend in 2009, as visits abroad fell by 15% from the year before to 58.6m. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that this was the biggest drop since records began in the 1970s.
The decline in visits abroad and to the UK in 2009 follow a long period of growth that only started to tail off in 2007. This decline in visitors will be another massive blow to the Spanish economy, if it is kept up this year. And on first hand experience it does not look good for the bars, restaurants and stores in my part of Spain.

Spain Austerity Plans

Spain says it will cancel or delay a fifth of planned public work projects as part of an austerity plan aimed at reining its bloated budget deficit.

Development Minister Jose Blanco said Thursday that of 1,116 approved infrastructure projects, 230 would be scrapped or delayed for one to four years.

The decision is part of the government's austerity plan to cut spending by euro15 billion ($19 billion) this year and next in a bid to slash the deficit from 11.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2009 to within the EU limit of 3 percent by 2013.

The government recognizes the measures may hamper economic recovery.

Labour unions and construction companies say the measures will not help ease Spain's soaring 20 percent unemployment problem.

Weather in Spain 19th July 2010 – 25th July 2010

Monday: Hot with a temp of 32C. Very hot overnight with a temp of 25C.
Tuesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Wednesday: Hot but slightly hazy. Daily temp of 30C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.
Thursday: Very Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Friday: Cloudy start giving way to a hot and sunny day. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 21C.
Saturday: Very overcast to start but later very sunny and very hot. Daily temp of 29C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Sunday: Hot and sunny all day. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.

Tour de France

This years Tour ends today as it has done since 1975 in Paris.The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race that covers approximately 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) throughout France and sometimes bordering countries. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages. Individual times to finish each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner at the end of the race. The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears a yellow jersey.
It has in recent years been subject to many stories of doping, always denied, but more and more riders have been tested and found guilty, in the winner in recent years. It is not hard to understand why doping is used. The Tour must be the ultimate test of a bicycle riders endurance and the temptation to use performance enhancing substances or methods to ensure a ‘finish’ never mind a win must be strong.
I get to watch the race live on Eurosport when I am at the gym in the afternoon, my pain is absolutely nothing compared to the pain those riders must be in. I at least can finish when I have done my hour!
I take my hat off to those guys on the Tour. Fit they are.

Seven EU banks fail stress tests Five from Spain

Seven of the 91 European banks that underwent stress tests have failed the health checks, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) has said.

They include five Spanish banks - Diada, Espiga, Banca Civica, Unnim and Cajasur. The other two were Germany's Hypo Real Estate and Greece's ATEbank.

The tests assessed banks' ability to survive future economic shocks. The seven banks would need a total of 3.5bn euros (£3bn) of new capital to meet the standards required, CEBS said.

Afghanistan

I cannot understand why we are still in Afghanistan, in fact I cannot remember the reason why we went there in the first place.
So many British lives have been lost in the years since British forces arrived in the country. Maybe arrived no longer fits in with the people of Afghanistan, maybe, just maybe they think we are an occupying force.
We, along with the Americans seem to be throwing money and lives at whatever the problem is. It’s time for a total rethink on the situation. I know that we are ‘planning’ a total withdrawal in a couple of years, once Afghan forces can take over responsibility for ‘security’.
But security of what? The Country from Invasion? Security from the Taliban?
We seem to reequipping and training these new forces, that in my opinion will just disappear once the Americans and British have gone. Because there is no money to made once we leave. Corruption starts at the top and goes all the way to the bottom, with hundreds if not thousands making money from the USA and the UK. Once we start to leave so will the so called country leaders, off to Switzerland, with their secret accounts.
In the meantime lives are being lost for no reason that I can see.
Defo time to go. Now not later.

Owner of a Broken Heart

The youngest daughter turns up today. Sadly she is currently the owner of a broken heart.
The Lady of the Villa and I have to help repair it.
In the tool box is, in no particular order, Love, kind words, a princesses bedroom, wine, vodka, sunbed, chocolate cake, trips out, nights in and hugs.
We love you H!

Gazpacho Soup

This is a brilliant soup for a hot day. If you cant chill it for a few hours or overnight add a few ice cubes. It’s much better cold.


8 Tomatoes or a large tin of Plum Tomatoes
2 Small Cucumbers
1 Clove of Garlic
1/2 Onion
2 Green Peppers
3 Spoons Olive Oil Vinegar, salt, pepper and water.
Cooking Instructions:
Apart from the above ingredients you need a blender. To prepare a good Gazpacho is a simple and quick job. First Clean and chop the vegetables. Then puree all ingredients in a blender.
Strain, discarding any vegetable pieces that did not puree fully.
The Gazpacho is best served cold. Drink a nice Spanish wine with your homemade Gazpacho to have the full Spanish experience!

Caveat emptor - Let the Buyer Beware

Ryanair has again been reprimanded for misleading customers with low fare offers, a watchdog has found. Two newspaper adverts for the airline offered £10 one-way fares, with the small print explaining that the offer was subject to restrictions. The Advertising Standards Authority, following a complaint by EasyJet, said that the "ads were likely to mislead".
The complaint concerned £10 one-way fares to Gothenburg and Dusseldorf. The small print said that the offer was subject to availability and excluded fees and charges.  EasyJet challenged the availability of the fares and queried if they included taxes, charges and check-in fees or were misleading because the ad did not state the relevant travel dates. Ryanair told the ASA that more than 10,000 seats were available to Gothenburg and more than 22,000 seats were on offer to Dusseldorf.
The airline said there was no requirement to include in adverts the specific travel dates for offers, but said the campaign was for flights between 1 January and 28 February this year. But the ASA said in its report that readers were likely to believe the £10 deal was a fixed price, rather than for specific dates.
Caveat emptor - Let the Buyer beware comes to mind here. All the so called low cost airlines always add on charges somewhere along the line, the final price is always nearly twice the ‘Headline Price’. In my opinion they get away with murder on advertising. They may ‘charge’ X for the flight in the Ad but taxes, booking fees, bags etc soon double the flight charge. This should be stated up front.

Letter to IT Support

Dear IT Support,
Eighteen months ago I upgraded to Girlfriend 1.0 from Drinking Mates 4.2, that I'd used for years without any trouble. However, there are apparently conflicts between these two products and the only solution was to try and run Girlfriend 1.0 with the sound turned off. To make matters worse, Girlfriend 1.0 is also incompatible with several other applications, such as Lads Night Out 3.1, Football 2 and Playboy 6.1.
Successive versions of Girlfriend proved no better. A shareware program, Party Girl 2.1, which I tried, had many bugs and left a virus in my system, forcing me to shut down completely for several weeks. Eventually I tried to run Girlfriend 1.2 and Girlfriend 1.0 at the same time, only to discover that when these two systems detected each other they caused severe damage to my hardware.
Sensing a way out, I then upgraded to Fiancée 1.0 only to discover that this product soon had to be upgraded (at great cost) to Wife 1.0. I reluctantly agreed to this because, whilst Wife 1.0 tends to use up all my available resources, it does come bundled with FreeSex Plus and Clean House 2000.
Shortly after this upgrade however I then discovered that Wife 1.0 can be very unstable and costly to run; For example, any mistakes I made were automatically stored in Wife 1.0's memory and could not be deleted. They then resurfaced Months later when I had forgot about them; Wife 1.0 also has an automatic Diary Explorer and E-mail pornfilter and can, without warning, launch Photostrop and Whingezip! These latter products have no help files and I have to try and guess what the problem is myself.
Additional costly problems are that Wife 1.0 needs updating regularly, requiring Shoe Shop Browser for new attachments and also Hairstyle Express which needs to be reinstalled every other week. Wife 1.0 also spawns unwelcome child sub Processes that also drains my resources; It also conflicted with some of the new games I wanted to try, stating that they are an illegal operation.
When Wife 1.0 attaches itself to my Audi TT program it often crashes or runs the system dry. Wife 1.0 also has a rather annoying pop-up called Mother-in-Law, which can't be turned off. Recently I've attempted to try Mistress 2000, but there could be problems, a friend has alerted me to the fact that if Wife 1.0 detects the presence of Mistress 2000 it tends to delete all my MSMoney files before uninstalling itself.
Any Ideas?

Weather in Spain July 12th 2010 – July 18th 2010

  Monday: Very hot with a temp of 33C. Very hot overnight with a temp of 25C.
Tuesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Wednesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C
Thursday: Very Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 34C, the hottest day so far. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Friday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 21C
Saturday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C
Sunday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C.

Boarding Pass to Disappear

As a frequent flyer I was very interested to read this, again from the Internet, but from the Daily Telegraph.

The humble boarding pass is becoming the latest victim of the aviation industry’s drive towards a paperless future. Instead passengers will use their mobile phones to board an aircraft, with the device being read by a scanner at the departure gate.

It will mean that passengers will no longer rummage through every pocket at the departure gate only to find the pass has been used as a bookmark for a paperback bought 20 minutes earlier but now searching for their phones.

British Airways mobile phone boarding pass will make its debut on the iPhone soon Monday, when it will be available on flights on the Heathrow – Edinburgh route. Other airlines, such as Air France, have already introduced the technology, BA has gone further incorporating the pass as part of an all-singing, all-dancing application. The airline believes a mobile phone cannot only carry a boarding pass, but just about anything else a passenger might want.

Its software developers have developed an application which will not only contain the boarding pass, but also flight information, frequent flier points, check-in times and eventually boarding gates and boarding times. BA’s iPhone boarding pass is expected to be ready for all domestic destinations by the end of August and for the bulk of short haul routes within six months with most long-distance destinations are expected be incorporated by the middle of next year and the United States by the end of December 2011.

The key to the introduction of the mobile phone boarding passes is the development of a new generation of scanners which can read different airlines’ codes.

Underpinning the drive for the new technology in the aviation industry is an attempt to simplify the process of going through and airport cutting out the delays which have infuriated passengers across the world. Even saving a couple of seconds on processing an individual passenger can make a dramatic difference to the length of queues.

It is among a series of developments which airline passengers can expect over the next few years, with carriers also looking at putting radio tags on luggage to prevent bags being lost.

Let the Games Begin

During Roman times many gladiatorial games were held in the coliseum in Rome. These games were held for many reasons: for victories by the roman army, Emperors Birthdays and to keep the populous distracted, under control and quite.
Now that our games, the World Cup is ended, the populous are now turning their attention to other more economic matters. Spain and Greek governments, amongst others, have announced strict austerity measures to get their economies brought into line with EEC rules. Now they have to implement them.
Meanwhile, Spanish unions are planning strikes for after September this year. Why so far in advance; they don’t want to upset the holiday season which runs from August through to September! Their main gripe: that of redundancy pay for laid off workers being reduced to 33 weeks from 48 weeks for each year of service.
Reform of many of Spain’s employment laws are needed to bring the austerity plan to fruition. However,the courage to enact change can be costly. Then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder loosened Germany's heavily regulated labour market as part of social spending reforms he undertook in 2003 and implemented for the most part by 2005.
Economists say the changes helped get the German economy on track before the recent financial crisis. But they hurt Schroeder and his Social Democrats politically — in 2005, voters dumped him and Angela Merkel became chancellor.
Will Spain (and the Greeks) do it? Maybe if we can bring the Olympics forward a couple of years!

The end of e-mail?

Sheryl Sandberg  chief operating officer of the world's biggest social network Facebook, says e-mail is a dying means of communication.

She bases that assertion on the behaviour of the nearly 500 million users who gather on Facebook. Speaking at the Neilsen Consumer  conference in Las Vegas, Ms Sandberg claims: "If you want to know what you'll be doing tomorrow, look at what teens are doing today."
Ms Sandberg, claims that only 11% of teens use e-mail, preferring text messaging and social networks. Even though 90% of e-mail may be spam or other useless twaddle, it is hard to believe it is nearing its sell-by date.
A report by the Radicati Group says that e-mail is still on the rise and projects that e-mail accounts will increase from 2.9 billion today to over 3.8 billion by 2014. At the same time, social networking is predicted to climb from over 2.1 billion accounts in 2010 to over 3.6 billion by 2014.
e-mails, in my opinion are still and will be for the future (10 years ahead), the main means of intra company and company to company communication. Texting is the teens way of communicating, but, commerce will always stick to the written word and not texting. I cant see the end of e-mail, just, as I cant see the end of letters (snail-mail).

England v Iceland

To boost morale of players and fans the English Football Association are trying to arrange a friendly against Iceland at the end of July 2010 and prior to the start of the European Championship.
They are also hoping for games against ASDA, Tesco and Morrison's.

World Cup Memories

They Think its all over…….

1. Greens howler of a save in the group stages
2. The Vuvuzela noise
3. Ghana’s last kick penalty miss
4. Only one goal from England in the group games
5. Ronaldo’s big spit at the camera
6. Empty seats at some big games
7. The ‘goal’ that never was for England v Germany.
8. Germany beating Argentina 4-0 (bye bye Hand of God)
9. Not many outstanding games
10. My pathetic tipping

It is now.

Who lent them the money

Liverpool FC’s American owners borrowed “too much” money when they bought the club, the boss of the bank which loaned them the cash, has said. The bulk of the Reds’ £237m is owed to the government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Tom Hicks and George Gillett incorporated their borrowings into the club’s debt and the interest costs have seen the original figure soar. RBS and another lender, Wachovia, were originally expecting £100m to be repaid this summer. But in the spring, they allowed Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett another six months to find a buyer for the club and repay the debt.
The RBS chief executive Stephen Hester said before the credit crunch too many businesses, including Liverpool FC, took on too much debt. He said: “With hindsight, I think there are some businesses which borrowed too much money and Liverpool FC was one of them.”
His comments came less than 24 hours after Anfield chairman Martin Broughton admitted there had so far been no offers for the club. But he added: “There are a number of interested parties. There is no specific deadline. We are looking to the middle of July-ish for a first round of bids. This is an auction. When the winning bid comes through, we will do a deal with the best bidder. The best bidder may not be the highest bidder. This is more than just money. It is about the stadium development, it’s about the team, it’s about the whole piece. Once we go through that process, the best bidder gets it.”
So RBS lent the Americans the money, because it was a good investment, at the time. Now it is not. So who is at fault? The borrowers or the lenders? Do they care? NO. Why because they will get their money back: the fans will stump up the money eventually, through ticket sales, Club shop purchases and maybe, just maybe, buying out the club or part of the club with the right owners. More on this option later.
RBS will bet there money back, no doubt. They have made enough in fees and interest to make a profit. However, the objective will be to get the loan repaid anyway they can to save any embarrassment, oh, and their bonus.

World Cup Final 2010 – Match Report

Andres Iniesta struck a dramatic winner late in extra time to give Spain World Cup glory for the first time but condemned the Netherlands to their third defeat in a final.

Spain, who conceded only two goals during the tournament, deserved their victory after gradually taking a grip on a tense and bad-tempered contest that produced 14 yellow cards with Johnny Heitinga sent off on 109 minutes after picking up a second yellow card.

They had a glorious chance to take the lead in the second half but Arjen Robben, could find no way past Spain captain Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos was equally culpable of a glaring miss for Spain when he headed over and substitute Fabregas, as with Robben before him, also failed to convert a one-on-one chance.

But apart from that I can only remember the constant fouling, the bickering and the showing of the yellow cards and a dismal first 45 minutes. Howard Webb, I thought had a good game under very trying circumstances.

Spain also became the team to win the World Cup having scored the fewest number of goals - finding the net eight times in their seven matches. The previous mark was held by three teams, including England in 1966. But that final eas a cliff hanger not like this one.

Weather in Spain July 5th 2010 – July 11th 2010

Monday: Very warm with a strong breeze. Temp of 30C. Cool overnight with a temp of 18C.
Tuesday: Wind dropped so its hot and sunny. Daily temp of 33C making it the hottest day so far. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Wednesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 23C
Thursday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 27C. Warm overnight with a temp of 19C.
Friday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 33C. Warm overnight with a temp of 21C
Saturday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 21C
Sunday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 32C. Warm overnight with a temp of 18C

World Cup Final 2010 - Preview

Tonight, 19:30 UK time, 20:30 Spanish time, the World Cup final will take place and the winner, in my opinion will be Spain. But what do I know?
I am expecting a good open game with more than one goal and no extra time and penalties. Not expecting much am I

Spain are getting stronger each game while Holland are the Mr consistent of this World Cup. Having lived in the Netherlands and attended football games in Den Haag (the Millwall of Holland) I know the fans are great supporters and will be behind the team. Living now in Spain I know first hand how much this World Cup win would mean to them and the fireworks displays will be something to watch.

However, it is all about the players and I feel Spain have the stronger squad and the flair players and although Holland have some strong players and a fantastic team mentality, I am putting flair above this team mentality. Spain to win.

It’s Doom I tell you

European banks have cut back on their lending to each other - so no trust there -and are now dependent on some $900 billion in emergency financing from the European Central Bank for cash flow.
European banks’ losses from the last financial crisis will hit $1.3 trillion by the end of this year, according to the International Monetary Fund’s latest forecast—35 percent more than the USA. total. While Europe’s banks were just as aggressive as America’s in gambling on toxic debt, European governments have hardly done anything to clean up the mess.
European lenders are increasingly nervous about the money they’ve ploughed into over indebted countries in the EEC. Together, Europe’s banks have funnelled $2.5 trillion into the five shakiest euro-zone economies: Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain (the PIGS).
French banks have been the most reckless, increasing their lending to Greece by 23 percent, to Spain by 11 percent, and to Portugal by 26 percent since the start of the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the ECB rated Greek and other troubled bonds as “risk free” and provided banks with cheap cash to buy them, encouraging subprime countries to borrow heavily at artificially low interest rates.
After the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. and British regulators ran public “stress tests” to separate good banks from bad ones, and then forced unviable ones to restructure and recapitalize. As a result confidence in the functioning of banks has largely returned. In Europe, Bank stress testing is being performed behind closed doors, results are expected late July, but not the criteria used. Because of this no one knows the true health of Europe’s banks and the crisis festers.
Whether Europe’s banking problems will now turn into a full-fledged economic crisis depends on whether the Europeans finally get serious about cleaning up their banks. Spain has begun to deal with its troubled cajas—local mortgage banks that bet the house on the country’s now collapsed real-estate boom. France, Germany, and Spain now say they will allow stress tests of some of their banks. However, they have not agreed on which banks will be included, how tough the tests will be, or whether they’ll be made public. Nor have regulators said what will happen with the banks that fail. Few critics now trust the Europeans to resolve their problems.
Already, jitters over bad debt in Europe are affecting world economic. If EEC countries don’t come to terms with their own financial problems soon, the world may have another full-blown banking crisis and Europe is to blame. The euro will collapse, Greece will default, followed by Spain and maybe all the PIGS.
Its all doom, DOOM.

England Team reach World Cup Final

Howard Webb of England will referee the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, soccer governing body FIFA said in a statement.

Webb will be assisted by countrymen Darren Cann and Michael Mullarkey for the July 11 match at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

World Cup Week 4

Best Player of the week: Schweinsteiger
Best Team of the week: Germany
Best Howler of the week: The last kick of the match penalty by Ghana
Most annoying thing: The noise from the Vuvuzelas
Best Coverage overall: BBC
Best Anchorman: Adrian Childs, just
Best Match to Watch: Netherlands v Brazil
Worst Match to Watch: Ghana v Uruguay (I had Ghana in a sweep)

Achtung Baby!

I was busy yesterday, doing urbanisation committee things, so I could not write this till today. The day before the semi final between Germany and Spain. The villa opposite was suddenly occupied by Germans. They immediately stated their intentions.
 
They raised the Fussball flag at the top of the stairs and claimed it for Germany. Nobody on the urbanisation is Spanish, but, they got a few looks from the Brits. All in good fun.

Here is the flag in close up. However, it does not fly proudly after last nights defeat it has been folded up ready for the next World Cup!

Thats two semi finals called correctly!

Prescott the Traitor

Labour John Prescott is to be ennobled today.

Traitor to your class, your union and your party.

Hypocrite!

Summer Classes for Woman

THE ADULT LEARNING CENTRE
REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED
By Friday July 6th 2010

NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL
OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM

.

Class 1
Up in Winter, Down in Summer - How to Adjust a Thermostat
Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hrs beginning at 7 PM..

Class 2
Which Takes More Energy - Putting the Toilet Seat Down, or Bitching About It for 3 Hours?
Round Table Discussion.
Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12 noon for 2 hours.

Class 3
Is It Possible To Drive Past a Tesco Without Stopping?--Group Debate.
Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10 AM for 2 hours.

Class 4
Fundamental Differences Between a Handbag and a Suitcase--Pictures and Explanatory Graphics.
Meets Saturdays at 2PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5
Golf Clubs--Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Bathroom Cabinet?
Examples on Video.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours At 7PM

Class 6
How to Ask Questions During Commercials and Be Quiet During the Program
Help Line Support and Support Groups.
Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7PM

Class 7
Can a Bath Be Taken Without 14 Different Kinds of Soaps and Shampoos?
Open Forum.
Monday at 8PM, 2 hours.
 

Class 8
Health Watch--They Make Medicine for PMS - USE IT!
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9
I Was Wrong and He Was Right!--Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6PM Location to be determined.

 
Class 10
How to Parallel Park In Less Than 20 Minutes Without an Insurance Claim.
Driving Simulations.
4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.

Class 11
Learning to Live--How to Apply Brakes Without Throwing Passengers Through the Windshield.
Tuesdays at 7PM, location to be determined
 

Class 12
How to Shop by Yourself.
Meets 4 wks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours at 7PM.

Upon completion of any of the above courses, diplomas will be issued to the survivors.

Gadgets – I love ‘em

This the Dyson Air Multiplier fan created by British entrepreneur James Dyson. People wonder how on earth they work. The Air Multiplier works by sucking in one unit of air at the base, using a hidden fan, and pushing it out at speed through a thin gap in the fan's ring. The expelled air is pushed out over an airfoil-shaped ramp (similar in shape the wing of an aeroplane). In doing so, surrounding air is drawn into the air flow, so by the time the cool air hits an office worker's face, it is the equivalent of 15 units of air.  

The fans are very pricey (£200), but they look fantastic and sexy. And they create a bit of magic in your home.  

This is the Spanish equivalent, comes in many sizes and materials and is much cheaper than the Dyson Version.

Barcelona bans Bikinis

Authorities in Barcelona, fed up with tourists wandering the streets in their swimming costumes, are preparing a massive campaign to convince them to put on clothes when they leave the beach.
"We want to make people understand that it's an attitude that we don't like, that it's not banned or punishable but that it's something we don't think is civil," a spokeswoman for the city hall said Friday.
Municipal authorities in the Spanish city have already printed posters showing a couple in swimming costumes with a red line across it, along with another couple dressed normally but without the red line.
"In the coming weeks we are going to put up the posters in the metro, buses and in all public areas," the spokeswoman said.
"And the mayor has sent letters to businesses, hotels, bars, restaurants ... encouraging them to download the poster and paste on their walls."

Tip Rubbish

Before the World Cup started, I tipped, England (a heart pick), Brazil or Spain to win the world Cup.
A week to go and only one left!

I could not tip rubbish! So my tips now are:

Uraguay v Holland semi final with Holland winning
Germany v Spain semi final with Spain winning.

Germany v Uraguay runners up match with Germany winning

Spain v Holland final with Spain winning


But what do I know?

Weather in Spain June 28th 2010 - 4th July 2010

Monday: Overnight Thunderstorms gave way to a warm but cloudy day with a temp of 30C. Warm overnight with a temp of 22C.
Tuesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 20C.
Wednesday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 29C. Warm overnight with a temp of 20C
Thursday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 31C. Warm overnight with a temp of 19C.
Friday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 28C. Warm overnight with a temp of 20C
Saturday: Hot and sunny. Daily temp of 30C. Warm overnight with a temp of 21C
Sunday: Overcast with a strong breezer. Temp of 26C. Cool overnight with a temp of 15C

Dumb and Dumber

Roughly one-fourth of people in the USA don’t know that the original settlers declared its independence from Great Britain, according to a new Marist poll, which says 26% of people in that country don’t know that the USA declared its independence from Great Britain. That includes 20% who were unsure and 6% who thought the U.S. separated from another nation.
So what country do people think the U.S. achieved its independence from? Among the countries mentioned were France, China, Japan, Mexico and Spain. The poll surveyed 1,004 Americans in June and had 3% margin of error.
Having lived in America, this comes as no surprise, The hourly news consists of one half hour national news, a half hour local news and before it closes 60 seconds of World News, and that’s on ABC, NBC, CBS etc.
Most Americans never leave the USA, few have passports and really don’t care about the rest of the world, unless it’s fighting (peace-keeping) there.

The Times are a changing

The Times has introduced a paywall due to falling advertising income and has begun charging readers to access its online content. Access to the Times and Sunday Times website cost £1 per day, or £2 a week if readers sign up to a subscription.

News International, which owns the papers, announced plans to impose charges earlier this year in response to falling advertising income. Currently the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal are the only major papers to have similar paywalls.  All other national papers offer free access to their sites, but are likely to watch the launch of the Times paywall closely.

As a long time Times reader who used the site daily, I cant see any advantage in paying the cost. The site is warmer and easier to read, but, adverts still invade. You can get all the news from other sites, free, the opinion columns in the Times seem to owner orientated and not independent like they used to be. No more the Thunderer.

Time to move on, money in pocket!

Vuvuzelas

This is what all the noise is about in the World Cup. During the games from South Africa you can clearly hear them. They sound like bees or very angry flies.
I hate the noise they make.
God help anyone who brings them to any Liverpool game that I attend next season.

World Cup Week 3

Best Player of the week: Tevez
Best Team of the week: Argentina
Best Howler of the week: England “goal” that never was
Most annoying thing: The noise from the Vuvuzelas
Best Coverage overall: BBC
Best Anchorman: Gary Linaker
Best Match to Watch: Slovakia v Italy.
Worst Match to Watch: England v Germany for obvious reasons

Liverpool’s New Manager – Roy Hodgson

This Appointment seems like a step in a 'cheaper' direction, as he will bring a smaller backroom team (not like the Benitez entourage) and he will be able to work on a smaller budget which, let's face it, is the reality now.

However, he is good friends with Kenny Dalglish and I think, well I hope, we can expect to see Dalglish being more involved in the first team.

It might just be a return to the old boot room philosophy we loved at Anfield and, to be honest, still yearn for.

Best of Luck Roy. You and the fans will need it.

Books read in June 2010

Not so many this month as the World Cup is taking up leisure time!
The Nitpickers Guide for Next Generation Trekkers. Phil Farrand. I bought this book for a few pence at a charity stall. For the money its been a hoot. It goes through every episode Of Star Trek: The Next Generation and identifies all the mistakes in continuity, script, clothes and between episodes. Defo a nerds book but fun also. 2.5 stars
King Rat. James Clavell. I had not read this book for ages. It tells the story of the Changi  prisoner of war camp in Asia. It is a great story well told and is the first of James Clavell’s books (Tia Pan, Shogun etc.) on Asia. The characters are human, complicated and exciting and you cant wait to see what happens to them. 4 Stars.
The Sharpe Companion. Mark Adkin. Another book difficult to find. I bought this on eBay second hand. This book is a companion to the Sharpe books of Bernard Cornwell of which I am a fan. It provides a detailed historical and military guide to that best selling series of novels. Only for fans of the series. I hope to use it when we explore Northern Spain. 4 stars.
The way of Shadows. Brent Weeks. I bought this book via an e-book library as it was the first of a trilogy and found out this part is 500 pages. It part Tolkien, part Harry Potter and oddly addictive. The story in the first book is about a young orphan boy from the poorest area growing up as a ‘wet boy’ or assassin meeting along the way wytches, woryms, mages (all spelt as is), ordinary kings and god kings. Will I get the second in the series? I don’t know. 3 Stars.