i think most people find their lives boring, and work breaks up the tedium of their lives. some will go to football matches.

london 5.37pm 11C sunny but windy sunday 2019 sunrise 6.40am sunset 7.30pm

the wind makes it a bit chilly today. though it is quite a low temperature , being 11C, when u compare with 19C yesterday.

its been cloudy earlier in the day, though now it is blue sky and still very bright even now. that is the most obvious effect of the change to summertime.

this morning, i had wanted to take the bus to the paddington library, but all the buses were disrupted, and there seem to be a lot of people at the bus stop, so much so that the no 2 bus that normally is quite empty, were so full that they are refusing to take any more passengers even though people are getting off the bus.

seeing the buses so crowded, i thought i had better go to the library by tube, but when i walked up to pimlico station, it was closed.

when i did get the bus to victoria , i found out that there is no tube service between victoria and brixton on the victoria line. and the tube services northbound were disrupted.

someone who was waiting  on the platform  told me it is the wembley football game that is causing all this , with the weight of supporters heading to the stadium for today’s match.

so i decided to abort my trip to the library. i was thinking what is this with human beings wanting to watch football matches. i think it is quite silly to travel miles to pack into a stadium to watch a football match, a bunch of people chasing after a ball, all trying to aim it between two posts. have they got nothing better to do? and i have to answer myself and say, yes, they have nothing better to do.

when u think about it, most people really have boring lives where the highlight for them is a football match where they can rub against each other and sing songs, and cheer or groan. if people are not working, almost all will find their lives terribly boring, i bet. 

added 8.06am monday 1.4.19. i read today about a mum being neglected when her husband decided to go to that wembley football match instead of be with her on mother day. and the other mums not sympathising with her.

football match

london 3.44pm pimlico library. 21C sunny wednesday 2018

i missed my wednesday circuit training, because i thought i had a follow up hospital appointment in the cardiac clinic today. it was at the same time as the circuit training. but when i went to the hospital, and asked at the cardiac clinic desk, i saw on their notice board that dr clapp was not in. he was the doctor whose clinic i was booked in for. so it looks like a mixup. i have another appt in oct, and that was recorded. this one was not on at all, as evidenced by the doctor not being in. ah well, i was not too disturbed as i dont have any problems with the medicine, or anything and it can wait till oct for the follow up. 

added. 10.35pm. today was also some good news in that all 12 boys and their coach who were trapped in the cave in thailand were rescued. so that is good.

but bad news in that just now the semi final with england and croatia, ended with croatia winning 2-1. so that means england had lost the chance to be in the finals. it would be nice to get to the finals, but the chance of winning the cup is slim, as france is really a good team. i think france will win it. 

i went to the supermarket at about the time of the match and it was very quiet. and from the bus, i could see a crowd of people in the pub, and even outside it looking in at the match. so many will be disappointed that england is not in the finals. but i am sure they all enjoyed the anticipation and the hope. 

too much football for a month

london 6.32pm 22.3C sunny 2018

its hari raya puasa today, but you wont notice it here in uk as they dont celebrate it. however, the malaysian group here have organised a dinner tomorrow, in a restaurant in harrow. harrow is way out west of london, but i guess it is better value than if they hold it in one of the central london malaysian restaurants. i think it is also a good thing to give some business to the outlying restaurants outside central london. there are 24 people booked to go, and there is a waiting list. i am not one of them, haha. too lazy to go there.

today is also the start of the world football matches for the world cup. the opening ceremony and first game has just been broadcast live on bbc. i did not bother to see it, but simon saw it. i dont know who won. haha. and not bothered to find out. i think this world cup happens every 5yrs, 4yrs, ( i found an entry i made in 2014 about it)but i dont recall it was so much featured on tv the last time. that must be in 2013. 2014. perhaps the bbc had not paid so much to televise it live that time and so lost the rights in the bidding to broadcast it live. this year they have got lucky and got it. perhaps with all the controversy of it being held in russia and russia being so hostile to gays, so much so that they are advising gay fans to not go there to see it, so maybe it is not so attractive to the tv stations to bid high price for the rights to broadcast it. whatever, we are now getting a lot of these matches being broadcast live by the bbc and clogging up the program guides. this year i know usa lost the qualifying matches so are not going to be in the running for it even. it just goes to show the usa is not really that big a fan of soccer. i wonder if there are live matches of the football being broadcast elsewhere in the world. maybe it is over the internet so people from other parts of the world can watch it. the time difference with russia makes these matches happen in  daytime in uk, rather than in the early hours of the morning.

the newspapers are so short of news, they are all printing out the timetable of matches and giving it as a free supplement. newspapers are always on the lookout for news to print. but summer time, everyone is not making news. 

 

 

BBC Sport – Jose Mourinho ashamed by Chelsea FA Cup loss to Bradford

BBC Sport – Jose Mourinho ashamed by Chelsea FA Cup loss to Bradford.

i am not a football fan but i think i can get an inkling of what it must feel like to be one when i read this.

football as played in the uk is unpredictable.

you would think it a foregone conclusion that all those big guns would get into the finals at least, but not at all.

that is why i think the FA cup is truly the embodiment of what football should be like. its very much true to life. unpredictable. mourinho should not feel ashamed, english football is precisely so likeable because of this. that david can triumph over goliath.

chelsea was fronting their reserves team, those who are not loaned out to other teams. (it seems chelsea has so many players on their books they lend them out to other teams, just to give them matchis practise and keep them playing, so this reserve consist of those not in demand for loaning out) wanting to give their first team a rest. but if u look  at it logically, that team never have a chance to play as a team regularly. you can lose skills that way. that is what u get for being too rich and have too many expensive players on your book.

it might be a blessing in disguise for chelsea. they now dont have to exhaust their 1st team players in the FA matches, as we can see now it is not always possible to run the reserve team. There  are many of these matches, you have to play away and home matches , and gruelling on players; now chelsea can concentrate  on the Euro cups.

google went crazy with doodles over the world cup

london

i opened the page and since it always go to the google page i saw today’s google doodle. real complicated one today. a doodle within a doodle which seems to go on and on .

then i saw a symbol on the right side and i click on it and saw the whole lot of google doodles for the world cup came up. 62 doodles just on the world cup alone.

some i have seen , quite a number i have not, even though i open google everyday .

sometimes there were 2 doodles in one day. those guys are sure working overtime to produce such an abundance of doodles .

Now i am using chrome as my browser,  the google search page comes up every time and so i get to see the doodles. in the past, using windows, i seldom go into that page unless i am searching for something. 

Today is the finals match between germany and argentina. (germany won) even me who is not interested in football has got interested in it. not many events get this world wide attention, great for advertisers with adidas sponsoring both teams , they will get a lot of exposure than their rival, nike. (recently the world finds out how nike is pronounced … like nikey.

recently i went into a adidas store in westfield and was amazed at the variety and styles of the clothes there. even i was tempted. haha. i was wearing a adidas football short which i got free. my friend who works in a charity shop said they were throwing it away… i know… i am the kind of guy who  wear clothes that even charity shops throw away, haha. but it was a real nice pair of adidas. it was white though, which is difficult to wash and stay white.

sponsorship money is huge. this says adidas recently signed a 10yr $1.3billion deal with manchester united paying $128million a year . this compare with them paying real madrid $53million a year. no wonder football clothes are so expensive.

all the more surprising that i got 2 adidas football shorts for free, discards from the charity shop. this was 4yrs ago.

Though i have not seen any adidas football shorts for sale in charity shops since.

experiencing

london

You heard of the advise that u seek experiences rather than things. so u spend money on experiences like holidays, or travelling, or hearing a concert, or musical , or play, or seeing a cinema film. people say experiences last a lifetime of memories, whilst things after u acquire them the novelty rubs off quite soon.

maybe this advise do not apply to buying a chromebook (or laptop) as it enables me to experience lots of things on the internet. so right away i can prove that buying things can be worthwhile so there is an exception to that advise.

Anyway, i thought i shall get the experience of going to a cafe and having a cake and coffee just like what so many experience all over this city of london and which most people enjoy everyday. I thought i shall see what it is all about as i have not done this for ages. i felt it was not worth the money.

 a few days ago on the day i received the john lewis vouchers for free cake and coffee in their cafe, i redeemed the july voucher and had my first free cake and coffee with them at the oxford st store.

(today i read that oxford st has the highest recorded amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the air of all the places in the world. oh dear. am i worried? should i be? how dangerous is nitrogen dioxide? nitrogen is the largest amount that constitutes the air we breathe.  wikipedia says nitrogen dioxide has an acrid smell and is a intermediate product in the production of nitric acid. but when i ws in oxford st i did not smell anything acrid in the oxford st air. they said the high amounts was caused by  the NO2 spewed from the engines of the  buses that jam up the street everyday. )

but lets get back to the cafe experience. well, it is a nice experience, though i will be happy to get it once a month using the vouchers rather than everyday. i suppose it is the location too which enhance the experience. i am sure it is more of an experience to have that on a sidewalk table in paris, say, or even along the old compton st in soho than up on the 4th floor in john lewis, even though u can chose a window seat and look out over the roof tops.

 i had cheesecake and a cappuccino , though the cappuccino is not really like a normal one. not frothy enough. it would cost about £6 i think. it is an average price for london i think. not really worth it if i have to pay that but can’t complain if it is free.

There is no wifi in that cafe so there was nothing to make u linger there, unlike a side walk cafe. I am not the only one using the voucher. a elderly couple were ahead of me and they handed over the voucher expecting it to apply to both their cakes and coffee but of course it did not. it only applies to one. but they also selected sandwiches and barquettes for lunch so i guess the aim of the free vouchers has been fulfilled. it is to bring people to the store and to the cafe and hope they will buy lunch there. The cashier showed them a voucher meant for two, but theirs is like mine, and it is for one.

maybe for my next voucher redemption i shall go to their store in westfield stratford and see if they have a better selection of cakes and coffee there. it is also redeemable in the store in kings road, in chelsea. That is a much posher store, so maybe their cakes and coffee is much better. 

Talking of experiences, there is the one about watching a football match on tv. last night was the life broadcast at 9pm on my tv of the brazil -germany match. quite a shocker , simon was watching it, and he told me germany scored 4 goals in quick succession. it must be quite a sight to see, though i missed it. haha;. i dont mind. but it must be terrible for the brazilian fans. after that i had a look in, and i can see the brazilian players were just demoralised. 

belgium 2 algeria 1

london

I usually ignore the world cup matches. but yesterday simon was excitedly viewing it on our big screen tv. and when algeria scored the goal he told me someone offered to buy his 11-1 bet for algeria to win. He bet £10, and the guy who contacted him on the betting site offered £35 and simon said he promptly took it.

Simon said an algerian friend of his told him the team will score one goal but lose the game as belgium is the better team. well it turned out he was right.

this morning i looked at the score and belgium won. He had the same thing happen to him with another match and he did not accept that offer to buy his bet and regretted it when he lost all . 

It is the first time i heard of the betting that can go on with these matches. I daresay everyone and their grandmother knows this. haha.

i should have known. now it becomes rather more obvious why so many are so keen to watch these games. they are betting on the outcome that is why. silly me to think they just like to watch the game for its own sake. now i know why i dont bother to watch these matches… it is because i dont have any money on them.

I suppose u have to admire the ingenuity of humans; if there is money to be made , you will always find some people will find those opportunities and do it. That online betting enables people to bet against each other and brings them together , taking a cut of all the bets. 

 Simon tells me that this year’s world cup is more exciting than the previous one, 4 yrs ago because so many goals are being scored. it is great to see goals scored but also more scope for gambling… 

a surprise phone call from florida

London
I just had a call from a friend in fort Lauderdale, florida. it is 8.14 pm here and I googled it and found it is 3.14 pm for him. It was a surprise that call, as my friends don’t call me. We usually email each other.

We have been friends when he came to live in London so many years ago. Like so many who come to London attracted to its cosmopolitan life; but he has advanced in his career, as one of the vice presidents in a huge international hotel chain.

Now he is based in fort Lauderdale, and have bought a house there, with his partner. He tells me the americans are very willing to spend, and on organic food and luxury items. He was based in germany once upon a time, and he tells me the germans are not so willing to try new things.

I said maybe the germans are not so susceptible to the marketing hype. It sounds like the americans are influenced by the advertising, and pressure from their peers, willing to take on 3 jobs just so they can spend.
After all it says it all when people will buy coffee at a star bucks at 10times the cost of making it at home. I wonder if there are also that many of those types of people in London as well.

Those customers must be a dream to have. And it seems americans are like that.

Being in the hotel trade he is able to say it is doing well. People are willing to indulge themselves and treat themselves.

Well, even though I am thrifty I can see the economy loves people who buy and spend, and I am all for those people doing it. Haha. It gives the place a buzz and makes things busy and companies are able to keep in business. Lots of people buying and spending means the place is providing jobs and services and they feed on each other.

I have been to fort Lauderdale, and it is a lovely place, rather similar to south beach in miami, (though not many art décor buildings like south beach and south beach might be more vibrant). But the ambience is the same, with a beach culture.

It is difficult to keep away from the beach, as it is the centre of things. Not such a good thing for those of us who don’t like the sun, like my friend, and I. I told him just slap on factor 50 sun screen. Haha.

There are a lot of cruises depart from fort Lauderdale. I think Americans are mad about ship cruises. There are cruises catering to gays. I went on one once. it was a gay cruise to the caribbean.

My friend says there are lots of Cubans there who provide the cheap labour and make things cheap for the rest. We all know food, eating out , fresh produce etc are cheaper in usa than in uk or Europe. And of course their junk food is cheaper than in uk or Europe.

Though I still prefer living in London. Haha. Maybe I am biased, but I like the tv here. My friend says the tv there is dire. He gets the news on internet and use kindle to read the economist and other papers.

I don’t know if he read novels on his kindle. I told him I love being able to borrow new and latest books from the library. I don’t think they have that in the states.

Ah well, the usa is up and coming now, he says. Everyone ones to invest there. And when I read that china , asia , India , are all going through a potential downturn, it is not surprising usa is attractive to park your money. That might explain why twitter can be valued so high, even though it is not making a profit.

Even the eurozone is not so good it seems. Though we hope uk is still good.

I am glad to be living in London. It might rain here and we might panic over the odd hurricane, but it is nothing like what is happening in phillipines now.

Our rain only dampens the odd procession, like today, when it rained on the lord mayor’s parade. Haha.

I went to the library, to read the Saturday papers. Returned 3 books, Saw the new style independent(newspaper) with the title all down the left hand side; and noticed the size of the words in the main body of the paper is so small, I gave up reading it. They will have to do something about that I should think.

Then I went swimming and the pool water temperature is so warm, quite lovely even though it is not very good for serious swimming. I left my swim trunks in the shower area and only realised I don’t have it when I came back and have to walk all the way back there. I figured no one will take my swim trunks, they are size small, and they will be wet and I was right . Haha. They were still there when I went back about 1hr later. The place is heaving with people so I am glad I had my swim earlier.

I started my swim at about 11am, finished swimming at 11.30, showered , came out and stayed in the cafe (croissant/ bagel /cereal plus tea/coffee for £2.99. buy them if u can to give them some business; fortunately they did not mind me waiting in there till the rain eased up.) because it was raining heavily. I forgot my raincoat. It was hanging to dry at home. When the rain lessened , walked back and returned around 12.30pm. So u can judge from this that I live very nearby.

After that, I went home and stayed in. didn’t feel like going out in the rain. I do think the rain must affect custom, there must be less customers if it rains.

It’s a nice life. Even though reading this u might not think so. Haha.

BT(British Telecoms) used to be a telephone company but today it has gone big time. it has bought for $1billion over 3years the broadcasting rights for live football beating Itv and sky… it doubled sky’s $500million bid. Since BT started giving away free sports coverage with its broadband package, it is wanting such a deal, and it being so rich, $14 billion turnover, compared to sky at half that, it can easily out bid both. So does it mean no more live football matches on tv? hooray…haha.

the clubs in uk share this jackpot with the uefa. when chelsea won the champion league in 2012, they got 60million euros. and each country has its own jackpot. no wonder no club wants to upset uefa. the winning money will double now.

(i know it is about $900million, but it just goes to show how blase i have become about these big numbers, so that  it being out by $100million i can ignore. haha.

my speedos.

i have often wondered why no one had bought the FA matches. maybe they do not belong to  uefa. yet FA matches are more thrilling because more liable to upsets. like wigan beating manchester united. in this year’s FA cup final. i only know of it because i was reading the comments on the BT buy. maybe that is why the big football clubs dont like the FA cup. haha. the winner of the FA cup gets about £2million.

Correction. it seems BT allready has the right to broadcast FA cup for 2013/14. by buying ESPN.  

poisoned chalice

London

It is 11.30 pm 5.12.12 now and the temp outside is supposed to be about 1.2C according to the weather website.

Inside, the card thermomether that I got from the nhs is between 15C and 12C. Or at least that is what I assume, as I can see both these numbers appearing.

But I don’t feel cold at all. That is normal , but what I meant is that I don’t feel the furniture is cold. Usually that is the only way I can tell it is really cold. Haha.

My heating is not on and since I have not need to do that for 4winters already, (even that one where they say it is the coldest for 100 yrs ; cannot remember which winter that was as they have said it more than once before.haha) I am confident this year will be the same.

Oh I just realised I have a hot water bottle at my feet . So maybe that is why I don’t feel the cold.

I read in the papers today that the average household is spending about £65 a week on the house with utilities bills, mainly heating accounting for £22 a week of it. and about £54 a week on food.
Their utilities bill is huge.

My electric bill is £20 a month and that is for everything electric in the flat. granted it is not used for heating.

But people esp those with children always think their children will die if the house is not heated up. Then the children run around lightly clad and catch cold easily the moment they get out and the sudden change in temperature.

And even my nhs card thermometer, (they give it out free) tells me next to the 12C mark …’too cold, increased risk of heart attack and strokes in vulnerable people‘.

With advise like that no wonder people over heat their houses.

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9721747/Household-spending-rises-as-costs-of-basics-soar.html

Added today 6.12.12
Temperature according to the website is -1C outside. It is 12C inside my flat.

Didn’t feel that cold and I opened my windows a notch to get some ventilation. It still didn’t feel that cold even then.

Read this about some ec countries not entering the Eurovision song contest for 2013. Greece, Poland, Portugal and cyprus. They not only don’t want to pay £100,000 to enter, but are afraid of the £60million bill if they win and have to host it.

Here is where winning is losing. It is silly to enter a competition wanting to lose, just because it costs more to win it.

A bit like the Olympics hosting. Brazil got the poisoned chalice next Olympics. Suckers. Haha.

I wonder when it will dawn on these suckers that they have been conned into paying for something that does them no good.

The uk is now counting the costs of our Olympics. Haha. The extra cost for security is the one that killed all the carefully thought out calculations. We are all glad it is over and for heavens sake if anyone ask us to bid again, knock that person on the head quick.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2012/dec/05/end-eurovision-song-contest

Some people don’t know what they are asking. Beware of what u want, u will get it. (And then wish to god u have not got it).

Football is a strange thing.
Chelsea were the champions last year, but today I read that even after winning 6-1 , they are not going to play in the knock out matches.

So just because u won last year does not qualify u to defend your title next year.