Monthly Archives: July 2012
Making Haye in the rain!
Tonight, in the world of Boxing, David Haye, the man who is impossibly good looking for a boxer, put his reputation (and perhaps his life) on the line to fight Dereck Chisora, the man who threatened to shoot him in February! At stake were the WBO and WBA international heavyweight titles.
In a very wet Upton Park Chisora was first in the ring to the sound of extremely loud boos from the crowd. Then came Haye, bounding in to his signature theme “Ain’t no stopping us now” while the crowd chanted at Chisora “Who are you? Who are you?”, leaving us all in no doubt as to who the crowd wanted to win!
Chisora had predicted that he would win this fight in the 7th round. In the end though it was Haye who was the victor in the 5th – it was an incredible finish with classic stuff from Haye, a left and right combination straight from the textbook. Chisora’s legs went and Haye finished him off within 10 seconds. Haye was ecstatic, Del Boy looked a broken man.
Congratulations David – looking forward to the next one – but will it be against Klitschko?
Cracks are appearing in the glass
The term Glass Ceiling refers to “the seen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The Glass Wall – Refers to the phenomenon of high rates of women advancing to executive positions but only in certain industries.
Throughout history women have become aware of the strains being put on them and have begun to fight it. An example of this would be Hillary Clinton’s run for presidency, which is often seen as the highest glass ceiling in America. While many women have already broken these barriers and have successfully become CEO’s of companies, putting a woman in the White House remains the ultimate challenge.
It was with delight, and not a little amazement, therefore to discover that the TUC, which throughout its 200 year history has always been “also known as the Men’s Movement”, has chosen a woman, Frances O’Grady, to be its new leader.
Ms O’Grady (age 52) has been an active trade unionist and campaigner all her working life. As Deputy General Secretary of the TUC since 2003, she led on winning the 2012 Principles of Co-operation Agreement with the Olympic Authorities, guaranteeing on-site minimum standards for local jobs, health and safety and the London living wage. Ms O’Grady has also led on industrial policy arguing the case for a strategic approach to rebalancing the economy in the wake of the financial crash. Fair pay remains a core ambition and she represents the TUC on the Low Pay and the High Pay Commissions, and on the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards. Frances is a strong believer in protecting the public service ethos, opposes privatisation and leads the TUC campaign to save the NHS.
There is no questioning her credentials or her suitability for this role. A little part of me can’t help but think though that they thought they were appointing a Francis instead of a Frances – nudge, nudge, wink, wink!
Steer clear of Beer!
Perhaps as a result of the lack of investment in recent years, a road in Devon has been closed indefinitely after part of it collapsed. Cracks – thought to be caused by persistent rain – began to appear on Old Beer Road in Seaton on Wednesday and within 48 hours part of the road had collapsed and Devon County Council is now concerned more of the road could disappear. Members of the public have been urged to stay away from the “potentially dangerous” road.
The council said the road had dropped by about 1m (about 3ft) in the past 24 hours and barriers had been put up to prevent any access.
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- Old Beer Road Wednesday 11th July 2012
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- Same road, 2 days later 13th July 2012
But perhaps more sinister forces are at work? Surely it is no coincidence that the road collapsed on Friday 13th? The curse of paraskevidekatriaphobia strikes again!
Let the train take the strain?
In the last week I have spent upwards of 40 hours on various trains, travelling around the country as part of my latest consultancy assignment.
It started last Thursday when, with about half an hour’s notice, I had to make my way from my home in Glasgow to a hotel at East Midlands Airport for a briefing at 8.30am the following day. After discovering there are now no flights at all from Glasgow Airport to East Midlands Airport (despite the fact that I have done this journey before!), I had no option but to go by train. This was my journey:
18:00 Get dropped off at Mount Florida Station for train to Glasgow Central and pick up tickets
18:40 Take train from Glasgow Central to Warrington Bank Quay – running 12 minutes late for no apparent reason
21:20 Arrive at Warrington Bank Quay and take a taxi (in the rain) to Warrington Central
22:03 Take train from Warrington Central to Nottingham, although this train was in fact running 20 minutes late – no explanation given
01:00 Arrive at Nottingham and take taxi to hotel at East Midlands Airport
01:30 Check into my room at the hotel
Fortunately my journey home the following night was made easier when one of my colleagues very kindly took me to Warrington Bank Quay so all I had to do (after a 3 hour drive) was to take one train back to Glasgow before getting home at some time around 10.30pm – exhausted and none too pleased to have to take the very same journey again two days later as I needed to be back in Nottingham for 09:00 on Monday morning!
I took a different route on Sunday, leaving home at 4:00pm and arriving at the hotel at 11.30pm. The same colleague took me to Warrington Bank Quay the following afternoon and I arrived back home in Glasgow for a brief sleep at around 10:30pm before setting off again the next day (Tuesday), this time to Elgin!
Setting my alarm for 5:15am, I then caught the 7:06am to Inverness and then another train to Elgin, arriving at 11:41. After a day of meetings I then returned home, via Aberdeen on this leg of the journey, and was back in my flat at about 10:00pm – extremely tired and emotional!!!
I know you’re mostly sitting down while on the train but it is an extremely stressful and tiring experience as people who commute regularly using this mode of transport will probably concur. It would be less stressful if the train companies could make more of an effort to run the services on time so that you’re not scared of missing the various connections that might mean you being stranded miles from your final destination in the dead of night. If they could also make sure there are enough carriages for the amount of people using the service that would also be helpful, thus avoiding the dreadful congestion on board and making the journey so much more comfortable for everyone!
Moan over – perhaps next time I should just take the car?????
Incredible photo!
I subscribe to a website called www.photobotos.com which is a site where you can see one photo every day and read the story behind it.
The photos are always good but today this picture of a Great Ape really caught my imagination.
The photographer, Steve Mackay, calls this photo “Life Sentence” and says:
“This is Djanghou, a captive, adult male, Western Lowland Gorilla. The title is purely for effect, the Zoo this shot was taken at (Howletts) is doing fantastic work regarding conservation and it’s animal care……but I’m sure many of us feel that captive animals (especially complex and intelligent creatures like the Great Apes) are a shadow of what their wild selves should really be!, so this is the idea behind the image (and not a slight on the efforts of the Zoo that this Gorilla lives at).”
For more of Steve’s images take a look at www.stevemackayphotography.com/
Independence Day
And so to the 3rd in my series of “On this day in History”.
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence on July 4 1776, declaring independence from Great Britain.
Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions and political speeches and ceremonies. In addition there are usually various other public and private events celebrating the history, government and traditions of the United States.
Historians have long disputed whether Congress actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, even though Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin all later confirmed that they had signed it on that day. Most historians have concluded that the Declaration was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.
In a remarkable coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, but another Founding Father who became a President, James Monroe, died on July 4, 1831, 
thus becoming the third president in a row who died on this memorable day. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President, was born on July 4, 1872, and, so far, is the only President to have been born on Independence Day.
Poor Barack Obama – he was born on 4th August 1961 – exactly a month too late !!!
The reign of Spain continues in Ukraine
So that’s it – the end of another tournament and Spain are the worthy winners, beating Italy 4-0 to enter the record books as the only team to win 3 consecutive major international competitions, Euro2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro2012 – quite an achievement for a team often described throughout this competition as “boring”.
Well they were far from boring tonight. If you watched the game you’ll know that this was a game totally dominated by Spain from the start and their passing game meant Italy had very little chance of doing anything on the rare occasions when Spain allowed them to take possession of the ball.
Leading through first-half goals from David Silva and Jordi Alba, Spain’s victory was sealed when final substitute Thiago Motta was stretchered off, leaving the Azzurri to play the final half hour with 10 men. And just to rub it in, Chelsea duo Fernando Torres and Juan Mata scored in the final minutes to complete a sensational victory.
Former Arsenal player, Cesc Fabregas, got his own back. In his post-match interview with the BBC he said:
“It feels really, really amazing. It’s one of the best days of my life. “I don’t think we realise what we’ve done. But in time we’ll see what we’ve done. “Are we boring? People who think we are boring, I don’t think they understand the game.”
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