The Anonymous Widower

Am I About to Pay for my Olympic Tickets?

When I log in to my Visa account, transactions don’t appear immediately. I do find this a bit strange, but it is the way it happens.  After all if I draw money out of a cashpoint and then look at my account on-line, you can see the transaction virtually immediately.

So this morning, it would appear that there are some transactions to be processed on my Visa account for about £800.  I did order about £3,300 of Olympic tickets, which may seem a lot, but I’ll never see another one and I knew I’d only get a percentage.  So it looks like I may get about a quarter!

May 28, 2011 Posted by | Finance & Investment, Sport | , , | Leave a comment

FIFA In Meltdown

Hopefully!  But accusations are coming thick and fast. Not even the president is immune, if this BBC report is right.

To me, Sepp Blatter lost all credibility, when he failed to back goal-line technology, which in a similar fashion works so well in rugby and tennis. Read his Wikipedia entry and make your own conclusions.

I particularly like this bit.

In the 2006 FIFA World Cup after a controversial second-round match between Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw referee Valentin Ivanov issuing a record 16 yellow cards and four red cards, Blatter was said to have lambasted the officiating referee, and said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance as a referee. However he later regretted his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov. This apology was never given, and the referee was removed from further officiating. Also during the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in Germany, Blatter’s absence during the prize-podium event was noted and criticized in international media. It was claimed that the reason Blatter did not attend was because he was upset that Italy won instead of France. Blatter later apologised and said the reason he had shunned the presentation ceremony was because he was afraid of being whistled.

Let’s hope that FIFA sort out all of the accusations to every real football fan’s satisfaction.

May 28, 2011 Posted by | Sport | , | Leave a comment

My Hopes For Tonight

I was asked by a Manchester United fan last night, who I’m supporting.

Here are my thoughts as I put in a post to the BBC.

As someone, who spent his childhood on the terraces at White Hart Lane, at University supported Everton, and now support Ipswich, I could only give my full backing to the referee and hope that he gives the various cheats and divers the decisions they deserve.

I haven’t changed my thoughts since, but after Manchester United put Ipswich down with a non-goal, I really hope Barcelona do it in style.

May 28, 2011 Posted by | Sport | , , | Leave a comment

Food At Wembley Tonight

Breakfast on BBC Radio 5 Live was talking about the overpriced snacks at the stadium. Here’s a letter I sent in.

It’s not only over-priced, but as a coeliac, there’s nothing there that is gluten-free. So the last time I went I starved. Scunthorpe is much better!

I suppose UEFA have got to  raise the money to fund their lifestyle someway.  So they’re not as much a disgrace as FIFA, but give them time, to either sort themselves out or learn.

May 28, 2011 Posted by | Food, Sport | , , | Leave a comment

Manchester United Set A Good Example

There are pictures and a long report in the Daily Mail about how Manchester United took the train to London for Saturday’s Champions League Final.

I can remember when football teams regularly took the train.  In fact on one trip down on a Saturday evening from Darlington, I shared a carriage with the Millwall team that has just beaten Newcastle United in the FA Cup.

May 27, 2011 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

A Superinjunction Everybody Can Disclose

Popbitch, which is best described as a gossip site, has bought a racehorse and called it Superinjunction.

It hasn’t been entered yet, so it is not in the various on-line racing databases.

You can inquire about a piece of the action by e-mailing superinjunctionthehorse@gmail.com.

May 26, 2011 Posted by | News, Sport | , | 2 Comments

Memories Of Deauville

With the G8 summit being in Deauville in the next few days, I’m reminded of a few stories from  the French seaside resort.

The first time, C and I went, we drove along the coast after taking her first red Lotus Elan over on the ferry. It actually was the only overseas trip we did in the car, before she replaced it with the one that I still own.

We did all of the usual touristy things, like seeing the Bayeau Tapestry, the Mont St. Michel and the port of Honfleur, but two things stand out.

When we went to the races, we parked the car next to a Ferrari Testarossa.  It was immediately surrounded by French kids, which I think says a bit for the pysche of the French, who tend to prefer the small and perfectly formed like Piaf and Sarkozy. 

We also were sitting in a cafe in the main street, enjoying a good lunch, when a guy drove up on the opposite side of the street in a BMW convertible and showed everybody how to park a car in a space that was a metre or so too short. He just shunted the cars in front and behind until the space was large enough. Everybody in the cafe enjoyed it and gave him a good Gallic cheer, when he locked his car and walked away. Unfortunately, we had virtually finished lunch and had to move on, so we never saw the end of the story.

We did go to Deauville a couple of years later in my Cessna 340A with our middle son and his friend, Andy, for a day at the races. We had a good day, but at the end of the day we were treated to one of the worst displays of bad manners I’ve ever seen.

When you want to leave a small airport, you fill in all the appropriate paperwork and then go to your aircraft, request permission to start your engines if required and then when that is complete, you request permission to taxi. Deauville was quite busy that day, with several aircraft wanting to leave. So as you do, we just formed an orderly queue until ATC gave us permission to enter the runway and takeoff.

But this wasn’t good enough for one American.  He just passed the queue in his private jet and to various cries of “Sacre Bleu!” and “You don’t have permission!”, he just lined up and took off. What an idiot!

When the man died a few years ago, I actually felt relieved that such a rude man had gone.  It is very rare that I do that!

Sadly there are many more rich, famous and very rude these days.

May 26, 2011 Posted by | Business, Sport, Transport/Travel, World | , , , , , | Leave a comment

QPR Put Up the Prices

It was inevitable, that a higher league would mean higher prices at QPR.  The fans are not amused.

Here’s hoping that some of the money raised will be used to remove some of the dereliction and danger at the Away End.

May 25, 2011 Posted by | News, Sport | , | Leave a comment

More on the Olympic Tickets

I have posted about the non-arrival of my Olympic tickets before, but tonight I got an e-mail describing the latest progress. This is an extract.

Thank you for applying for London 2012 Olympic tickets. As you will be aware, we have started to allocate tickets and are now taking payment from Visa credit and debit cards, as well as banking cheques and postal orders.

The vast majority of payments will be taken by next week (31 May), with the entire process completed by 10 June.

We will contact you before 24 June to let you know if you have been successful and, if so, which tickets you have been allocated.

So it does appear something is happening at last.

I do suspect though that lots of speculators have applied for lots of the major sessions and this is clogging the system up.  We do know that things like the 100m metres final have been seriously oversubscribed.

May 24, 2011 Posted by | Sport | , | 2 Comments

Those That Hide Will Eventually Be Found

There must be a joke going round about Ronnie Biggs, Saddam Husein, Osama Bin Laden and Ryan Giggs, as all of them have tried to hide from their misdemeanors and have eventually been found.  Or in the footballers case, found out, as it was usually obvious where Ryan was, at least once or twice a week.

Truth be told, Ryan should have stuck to the day job!

The lawyers will be sad though, as they don’t like losing a client with more money than sense.  On the other hand, they will have the divorce to look forward to!

May 24, 2011 Posted by | News, Sport | , , | 3 Comments

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