TREE MASSACRING IS STILL WELL AND HEALTHY. Torquay have joined the anti tree brigade.....they have been cutting down 100 yr old Palm trees.....isn't that a feature that Torquay has been well known for over the years ?
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vetoed the EU's €50 billion package to the Ukraine. How can the EU have a friend of Putin running an EU member state......talk about the enemy within. Add to that the USA Republicans stopping the Ukrainian cash flow with their demands regarding the flow of Mexicans etc across the border and Putin can claim that Christmas has come early.
Just reading the Times’ sports pages. Football administrators, doncha jus luv’em? FIFA is about to announce dates for its 32 team Club World Cup in the US during the summer of 2025. This will be sandwiched by the 2024 Euros and the 2026 World Cup. The EPL will restart less than a month after the end of this tournament. In March, FIFA announced a player wellbeing task force. It hasn’t met yet, possibly because no members have been appointed. EUFA meanwhile has decided to waive its own rules that limit its president to three terms with a maximum age of 70. This will allow the current incumbent to stand for a 4th term. What’s the point of having rules…..?
I thought now might be a good time for some harmless male fun, How a man makes a sandwich. My only reservation is cutting the crusts off. Real men don't cut the crusts off.
As a diversion from our managerial goings and prospective comings, the European Supwr League is back on. The European Court has ruled that its banning was a restraint of trade by EUFA and FIFA. Real Madrid and Barcelona are the prime movers in trying to revive the proposal with the other clubs having run and ridden under an onslaught from fans and the media.
It's hard for the big clubs to see beyond the flashing neon money signs....no concern for the rest of the football family would ever cross their minds.
Christmas looking a bit iffy for our clan getting together this Christmas. Our son and daughters family are getting together with us......this was planned for my sons house about a mile from us....my daughter lives just two miles away. Our daughter in-law has to test herself each day for Covid....she works with sick children...quite often terminally ill.....she was positive last Tuesday...and today her daughter tested positive. This grandaughter spent last evening with us and my daughters son.....so all three families might be affected. Mrs Plym who is on strong medication for malfunctioning kidneys....will be on a low immune system position at present....so we're not sure if at present she is alright or not....she did give our grandaughter a cuddle last night as she left. So we might be having a very quiet Christmas.
Covid is still out there so it's best to be careful if you or others around you are at higher risk. If only you'd asked, I think we've got a hundred test kits stashed somewhere, what with one working in education and the another with the elderly right through the crisis! Both were testing 3 times a week if I remember, whether feeling ill or not.
I've put this in... "Other Stuff"...I know it's football and could have gone into ..."Winter News"... but didn't feel that it is genuine enough for that honoured position. Man City....Champions of England.....Champions of Europe.....Champions of the World. Final played in an Arab country...Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.....This was accomplished through an Abu-Dhabi royal and his trillions....but no sign of City's owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed who started it all at the match......but his Abu-Dhabi chief lieutenant, and City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, represented the ownership in the Fifa VIP line-up. Saudi-Arabia is set to rule out a LIV Golf-style financial backing for the latest European Super League despite monitoring the project closely in 2021. Those with knowledge of the state's Public Investment Fund also dismissed involvement given its rapid progress establishing itself with Fifa.....As well as hosting the Club World Cup this week...the nation is the sole bidder for the World Cup in 2024. Will world football survive ....golf has succumbed to their money....world boxing is nearly succumbing....cricket has avoided up to now.. with the help of the Indian league. I must admit I haven't noticed Saudi-Arabia dabbling yet with Tiddly-Winks, Snakes & Ladders, Draughts, Chess, Cluedo or Monopoly.....but give them time. The death of fossil fuel use... might save the world from the Arabs taking over everything.....they would be welcomed to pay my Gas and Electric bills if they're passing this way with a little bit of their loose change.
Well for the first few decades of the internal combustion era, western nations (and the UK in particular) pilfered natural resources at will. I’m not sure we’ve yet fully recognised the dangers of reliance on such materials. For oil historically, read rare minerals needed for electronics, batteries etc in the future. The oil producers have great wealth because they have what we need and that’s the way of the world. We need to let them invest it in the new infrastructure we need to give them an income stream going forward and give us what we’d struggle to afford ourselves. That’s fair and sensible. They are rich and influential countries and deserve their place at the top table. Giving it to them might help ease tensions that otherwise give rise to violence. The problems with many sports lie with its internal structures. Corruption and cronyism in its administrators and greed, vested interests and opportunism in its club owners.
When I was doing my National Service...1960/62 out in Aden....big oil had not really taken off....these gulf states.....where just seen as "up country" territories' that we would send service personnel on three month detachments...mainly servicing radio aerial system's etc....no need for any heavier military presence in those days. One of the biggest problems in Aden was the thousands of young men and hardly any available women.....in the town you would find Arab men standing in alleys...offering us their sisters to give you a good time....if you come with me.........Of course the end result for any idiot who took up the offer was the sudden appearance of the military police......who had been quickly informed that there was military personnel off-limits......we all new what would happen....but there was always someone stupid enough to fall for it.....and the penalty was harsh for those that where caught.
Wishing you all a happy Christmas and a trouble free New Year. Mrs Plym and I are hoping for a better year ahead.....the last five months have been difficult for Mrs Plym.... her kidneys have not been working very well... causing oedema problems in her legs and giving her water blisters that turned infectious and time in hospital......but the strong medication she is taking has brought her kidneys up to roughly 50% efficiency and we hope that will improve over the coming months. Also wishing that Argyle settle down into a strong mid-table situation and with their new management team plan for a more successful 2024/25 season.
Thank you. Might be all round my sons tomorrow....if grand-daughter tests negative in the morning.....if not a smaller gathering around my daughters......five of us instead of nine.
My sons family sent me a picture this morning of four negative Covid test results. So all nine of us around there for Christmas dinner......because of the re-organizing we sat down at 5pm for our meal. Sorry to hear your brothers news notDistant.
