Does Trump Have A Brain?
In this report from the BBC, about the opening of Donald Trump’s new golf course near Aberdeen, there is these two paragraphs.
The development at Menie has been controversial, with environmental campaigners opposed to the construction of a course on protected sand dunes.
However, Mr Trump said he believed he had created the world’s greatest course.
I know nothing about golf, except a few good jokes, but no sporting venue could be called the greatest in the world, just after it opened. If I take my local football stadium, the Emirates, where Arsenal play, it was designed to be one of the best club grounds in the world and it is certainly good. But no Gooner would say it is the best for a few years yet, until he or she has visited every club ground with a capacity of over 60,000 or so.
Trawl the Internet and there is a lot of deep discussion about this golf course. I have read some tonight on respected web sites and I can’t get it out of my head, that the development has annoyed too many people to succeed. As I said, I know nothing about golf, but many others do and they will build developments, that will appeal to Trump’s target market. If they are better courses, the punters won’t go to Trump’s course. Trump should also remember he’s not dealing with bumpkins in the Southern part of the United States, but proud Scots, who don’t like being told they are wrong. Has he ever watched Local Hero?
I also feel that Trump is going to have to fight the dunes at Menie. I used to live at Felixstowe and I know Suffolk isn’t Scotland, but the dunes there had a mind of their own, which didn’t help the golf course by the Deben.
Trainers Boycott Race at Worcester Over Low Prize Money
It had to happen, as after all bookmakers can go off-shore to avoid paying tax and the levy, which funds prize money, but trainers can’t train horses in Gibraltar and fly them in for the race.
Unless a solution is found, racing will die in the UK and the mugs will bet on football, videos of horse racing and flies crawling up the wall.
If the British public reckon bankers are an evil lot, then they should take a strong look at bookmakers.
Swiss Prosecutor Says FIFA Took Bribes
It would appear from these statements by Swiss prosecutors, that FIFA was as bent as a nine-bob note when it was run by Joao Havelange. In a well-crafted phrase by an old accountancy mate, many at the top in FIFA have been screwed, glued and tattooed.
How far is this investigation going to go?
Fifty Shades of Grey on the Tube
This morning,as I went to the dentist on the Central line, I noticed that the young lady next to me was reading a book. But not just any book, but Fifty Shades of Grey.
It’s funny, but I don’t think a man would even have read Lady Chatterley’s Lover on the tube even a dozen or so years ago.
When To Have Children!
I was 21 when we married and my wife was a year younger and at Liverpool University, which I’d just left.
By our mid-twenties, we had three small children, I’d started a successful programming business and my wife was on her second first degree in law at University College London.
By our early forties, she was a very successful barrister and I was a partner in a company that changed the way large projects were handled throughout the world.
In the last five years, my late wife and our youngest son have died from cancer and I’ve had a serious stroke.
So life has been a roller coaster and like all good London mongrels, I’ll win the fight in the end. But neither of us ever regretted having our children early.
Is This Bad Summer Caused By Climate Change?
It may be but there are many other factors at work.
I went to a lecture given by an eminent scientist from Cambridge about the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
He said that much of the trouble around the nuclear power stations was caused by inadequate sea defences against a known risk. However in Tokyo, everything swayed, but there were only two deaths, as buildings were designed to withstand a much larger earthquake.
The moral is that we should build to withstand the worst that nature can throw at us.
So that means no building on flood plains and probably moving some of our most picturesque villages to safer places.
Incidentally, my father always said that if you buy a house, make sure it’s on high ground and doesn’t get flooded.
James Miller
Reading Your Partner’s Messages
There has been a bit of a discussion, about celebrities reading their partner’s text messages and e-mails.
My late wife, C, never learned how to read or write text messages, much to the dismay of her work colleagues and friends, so they used to send any urgent messages to me anyway.
I wish she was still here, so I could still pass them on as necessary.
I Didn’t Have A Bad Weekend
It could have been better, if Murray had won, instead of lost to Federer, but I doubt there is any player, who on his best form could have beaten Federer on Sunday. But as Jeff Tarango predicted, the roof issue was against Murray.
But then we did have the wonderful victory of Marray and Neilsen winning the Mens Doubles.
We did at least thrash the Aussies again, during breaks in the rain at Chester-le-Street.
I did enjoy the cable-car in the rain too.
And especially, the pop-up museum about Crossrail and the archaeology.
But otherwise I was just reading the papers, feeding myself and watching television.
At least we have the Olympics coming up.
The Anonymous Widower 