Havn't Written Anything In Far Too Long.

Not alot has happened since my last offering in early August of last year. Off the top of my head, all I can think of is more outrage over the war in Iraq/Afghanistan, a failed coup to oust Gordon Brown from the top of the Labour party and a lot of snow has lead the country to a standstill.

More importantly though, I've booked a few flights around the world. I shall be blogging from China, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and America (again) in the future.

Sunday Night Thought(s) 02/08

First off- the Ashes; crickets most interesting and exciting set of tests. Though there's a major flaw. The games are being stopped more often than not due to England's dismal so called summer, which results in a draw too many. It's not only boring but also slightly unfair. I have two relatively obvious solutions for this flaw.

a. Play during the rain- it'll make everything far more exciting and bring a new dimension to the sport. Perhaps this idea will do more bad than good, but it's surely better than paying to watch rain fall down on a field the whole day.

b. My second idea is slightly more practical and it seems so daft that it hasn't already been introduced. Why not play an extra day, if a whole day has been wasted? Seems logical, no?

Secondly (moving onto music) I'd like to express my sheer disappointment over the new Arctic Monkeys album, Humbug (to be released 24/08). On my first listen to the Sheffield quartets latest offering, I turned it off after only eight out of ten tracks; it pains me to say it, because I thoroughly enjoyed their first two albums, but 'Humbug' is awfully boring. Kudos to the indie band for trying something new out, but why fix something that isn't broken? The album moves along at a slow pace and apart from lead single, Crying Lightning, it's difficult to to tell one song from the next. Seeing as though I've only listened to eight of the tunes once, I'm willing to give it another chance, though I'm not expecting a miracle to change my opinions.

I'll finish off on a mini rant about the sad state of football; the sport I thought I loved is fast turning into a joke. It doesn't take a genius to see that the game is being taken over by money- it's a business, not a sport. And the sad thing is, many players aren't helping the situation. Salary caps are needed, smaller clubs hottest prospects need to be protected and perhaps even a maximum expenditure on transfers should be introduced.
It saddens me greatly that the club I support, Crystal Palace, are going to have to sell their young starlets to keep the club running. These players aren't going to learn their trade at Arsenal or Manchester United, they're more likely to go to the mighty Wigan Athletic or Sunderland. It seems obvious that these teenagers will start far more at Palace, they may even want to stay at the club but Mr Jordan (chairman) cannot afford to turn down a few million quid for an 18 year old. If we could afford to keep these 18 year olds, we'd have a greater chance in promotion. The sad reality is that Palace is nothing but a vicious cycle. We produce top quality players, see them for a year off the subs bench, see them for a year playing 75% of the games and then see them bugger off just to keep the club going. This is no fault of the player; it's the fault of the governing bodies of football, and sadly, I cant see it changing anytime soon.

Sunday Night Thoughts (Need to think of a more original title)

So, now our troops have started to (gradually) pull out of Iraq, the media focuses it's attention onto the everlasting war in Afghanistan. It is sad that we have to hear about the soldiers dying out there but it's no surprise and when they signed up to the army in the first place they knew a great risk was involved. Pulling out of the war against the taleban shouldn't (and won't be) an option. What's needed, is a greater number of men and far better equipment to fight and beat the nut cases who claim they are following Allah. It may take a long time but the results of winning this war will be a country mile better than those of if we pulled out today.

In a way, this war reminds me of the Vietnam war, which the Americans fought in the sixties and early seventies, to try and wipe out communism. The tactics of the opposition (the Vietcong in their case and the taleban now) were a too tougher match for the big boys. Another similarity is the pressure the media put on both the government, and to an extent, the army. 10 lives have been lost in the space of a week, but we must continue fighting the war that must be won.

Moving on to a completely different field...

Jack White has started yet another band, The Dead Weather, who release an album on Monday, which I have had the pleasure of listening to. It's a strange album to say the least; it must be if White is on the drum stool, whilst Alison Mosshart, of The Kills, leads on vocals. Queens of the Stone member Dean Fertita takes on rhythm guitar and White's fellow Raconteur Jack Lawrence sticks to his usual bass guitar. The album is nowhere near as melodic or catchy as say The Raconteurs, but really, I should be trying to avoid comparisons with the band members 'other' bands because this band are ever so unique. A blues feel carries the album from start to finish, as does Mosshart's growly vocals and White's perfect drumming. Only on the lead single, Hang you from the Heavens do we hear a glimpse of a commercial effort; the record holds so much originality , which is what makes it sound so strange. But this strange sound isn't a bad thing at all- it's pure genius.

Staying on with the music, I move onto what the whole world is talking about: Michael Jackson's death. How did he die? Was he murdered? Who should look after 'his' kids? Should we remember him as a pedophile? Or should we just remember him for his incredible music?

The answer is who cares? Just let the King of Pop rest in peace!

My final thought is on formula 1. I just cannot see how people can sit through this for a whole one and a half hours. For the majority of the time, the positioning of each racer is the same throughout the race (apart from when perhaps a pit stop is needed). The race is only exciting right at the start, when over taking is actually attempted and at the very end when the winner is decided. On the rare occasion that someone crashes into a barrier, the car explodes and the driver hobbles out- more excitement occurs (we don't want anyone hurt though, do we?). It's a sport for people with more money than sense. It is also one of those things that falls into the category of it not being a proper sport. Other sports like this include snooker, darts and bowls.

Some Thoughts on America.

After spending a fortnight in various places around the USA: Wichita (Kansas), Kansas City (Missouri, not so obvious), Oklahoma City (Oklahoma, obviously) and Dallas (Texas). I saw how different the country is from the UK; their accent and dialect, driving skills (or lack of) and the size of both the country (and the people that live there).

America is obviously a vast place and naturally the population of major cities such as Dallas live in a more frantic way than those of Andover, just East of Wichita. A frustrating difference between the two nations is the way in which the Yanks drive. I know there are many shocking drivers in Britain, but I think the Americans top the amount of those shocking drivers! It could probably be argued as a good thing, but the majority stick to the speed limits far too much- it soon becomes clear that they’re all scared of the ‘state troopers’. Most people wait at a junction about three times as long as they really need to and then slowly creep out onto the road. However, the most infuriating part of their driving habits is that not one driver has any lane discipline on the freeways; the left hand lane (remember they drive on the ‘wrong side of the road) is often being hogged by a 40 something year old women on her phone, who has no awareness of anything around her. She’s put her 4x4 in cruise control and unless I flash repeatedly, there’s no way I’m going to get past 80. So I opt for almost every time this happens, I opt for the route of back to the right lane, speed past the middle aged woman too busy on her ‘cell’ to concentrate on the road, and back to the left lane. The freeways even have signs saying ‘’all slow moving vehicles stay within the right hand lane’’. Perhaps the Americans can’t read. Or, the more likely scenario; a lot of them are oblivious to anything else on the road.

‘May I have a bottle of water please?’

‘What?’ ‘

May I have a bottle of water please?’

‘A bardle o’ wawderr?’

I would have never have guessed that the American people actually speak the English language. The differences in the way we nations speak is huge. It’s not just the obvious different in our accents- it’s the vocabulary used. There are obvious words, which we know, such as soccer/football and petrol/gas. But it was when I ordered a KFC that I saw an amusing difference. For some bizarre reason a big bucket came with a number of ‘biscuits’. Now, firstly I thought I was going to get a packet of chocolate digestives to eat after my chicken. How wrong was I- I receive 2 scones with some honey and butter, to be eaten parallel with the chicken. I soon discover that there is no such word as a scone but they are in fact ‘biscuits’. My family who I’m visiting keep repeating it is not a scone, which I try and argue, naturally. I loose this battle because they (obviously) have a completely different word for what us Englishmen would call a biscuit. Ah, yes, a cookie- how could I forget? But the most concerning thing is why they are eating these so called biscuits with a KFC. Madness. Although there are many words we have inherited from the Americans (awesome, dude, rad and jerk to name a few) I most certainly won’t be picking up words with completely different semantics attached. I found it very odd that a lot of the Americans I interacted with, including the family I was staying with, found it difficult to understand my accent. Is a plain Surrey tone really that difficult to grasp? Perhaps I spoke too quickly; I dread to think how difficult it would be for a Geordie and a Texan to understand each other.

It is strange how different parts of America are to the United Kingdom. It really is a completely different a culture, a different way of life. There are obviously many aspects of life in the USA that are similar to our lives in England, but the different aspects are surprising. I think the size of the place has a lot to do with it; it’s as if they have too much space. And because of this great amount of space, many parts of America look exactly like a part you’ve just driven through- especially the suburbs of the major cities. Take Dallas and Oklahoma City for example; even though the Dallas outskirts sprawl for far longer, many parts of them could easily be in the outskirts of Oklahoma city. Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, American Bank, Ford, KFC and QT line the grid like streets. And as much as I like the USA, it would be nice if these suburbs had a little more character. Come to think of it though, Dallas had some rather nicely designed houses in their suburbs…

I believe there is one last thing which interests me about America: sport and it’s popularity. It is a known fact that American football (NFL) is the most popular sport in the country, followed by baseball, then basketball, ice hockey and lastly (our favourite) soccer. I will always find it difficult to grasp the fact that American football is so much more popular than the football the majority of Brits grow up to love this side of the Atlantic. Their answer is that football is ‘boring’, it is too ‘simple’ and not enough points or goals are scored. What? You have to be joking, right?. Nope- the Americans prefer a sport, which stops at least every five to ten minutes, and has so many rules I doubt even the players understand all of them. Now, if I’m being perfectly honest, I do enjoy watching American football (I’d be terrible at playing the game) and I do think it’s an exciting and interesting sport, but I just cannot understand why football/soccer is so unpopular in the States- the game moves faster than that of the American game, it’s smooth, it flows and well, it’s the beautiful game right? Not to the Americans. But I’m hoping all will change soon; many more kids are playing it in school, watching it on TV and showing far more of an interest than the adults who are too busy eating hot dogs while another fat man attempts to smack a ball with a bat over a fence (even that’s more exciting than football/soccer to the ordinary American). On Independence Day I was pleased to find that the youngsters at this party were far more eager to play football/soccer than American football. Some of them were rather good, but lacked any organisational concept of the game. I’m sure as coaching becomes better at schools, the standard of football in America will become far better, and hopefully the MLS will be able to compete with the giants of Europe. Time will tell but in my lifetime, the average Yank will either rather watch TV adverts every five minutes (American football), clap along to god awful organ music (baseball) or watch tall men run up and down to ‘put’ a ball into a hoop many times (basketball).

The Americans may find driving difficult, they may find speaking the English Language even harder, and they may not be enjoying the most exciting sport but I actually really like the place. The people are polite, most the country is clean and I felt safe everywhere I went (apart from once when a homeless man was following us underneath a freeway in Dallas). Maybe I’ve just been treading in the right places or bypassing the right people? But until my next visit, I don’t think I can slag the country off too much…