YesBut that was the first week of July.

Gosh isn’t 2007 passing quickly. How time flies when you are having fun.

This has been a mixed week. First the very good news; the release after 114 days of Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent kidnapped in Palestine. It was nice to have such good news in the middle of the week. Up until then it had been a disaster: having travelled to Wales for some summer sunshine, all YesBut and friends got was rain and more rain. If that wasn’t enough, while in Wales, YesBut and co. had to rely on the local library for internet access. Last Saturday the system crashed. Every morning and afternoon YesBut trooped bravely through the rain and wind to the library in the hope the system was up and running. Access was finally re-established with cyberspace late Wednesday afternoon; and so albeit belatedly the winner of last week’s YesBut’s Caption of the Week Award could finally be announced. Congratulations b.t. bear(esq.).

It was a relief to get back to London on Thursday and the comfort of a familiar computer and (keeping my fingers crossed) reliable internet connection. In the words of Simon & Garfunkel - Gee its great to be back home. Home is where I want to be . . .

I play a game when choosing the photo for YesBut’s Images, to see how far I can push the limits before it becomes impossible to think up a caption, I guess I found that level on Friday, when no one posted a caption. But given the floods that have occurred in the UK over the last two weeks, plus London depends on the protection of the Thames Barrier from being flooded; the photo and the title was very appropriate. But there were great captions posted on the other days, so why not click here and choose your nomination for the Caption of the Week Award.

Not much time to spend on the computer today. For the first time ever, the Tour de France cycle race is starting from London. So Mrs YesBut has made the sandwitches and Mrs Mop has filled the vacuum flasks with tea, and we’re all off to see the cyclists’ wiz past.

UK Spring Bank Holiday - yuck

In early April I was in Wales; I posted a blog to say how un-seasonal the weather was. More like July - children eating ice cream, women in short sleeved tops. It turned out to be the warmest April on record. People were talking about a long hot summer with the inevitable restrictions on water use.

Then came May - it has behaved like an unruly mixed-up teenager, throwing in-turn sulks and tantrums. The beginning of last week it was wet and cold, but by mid-week it started to warm-up. But by Saturday afternoon it was back too heavy rain and cold.

Yesterday was Whit Sunday more heavy rain, and today is Spring Bank Holiday, which normally is the time when the UK starts to stir and prepare for hopefully an inrush of summer tourists. When I say hopefully, I’m reporting the tourist industries view. Me - well anybody who has read my previous blogs know I really detest tourists; they make my life a misery, blocking up: the pavements, access areas to Underground stations and shops. Sorry about that little rant - no I’m not sorry, if I can’t rant on my own blog, then where can I rant?

As I was saying London and the other tourist attractions around the UK start opening up. Deckchairs are put out in parks - though this year with the hot April they were put out a month early. In seaside towns small hotels wake up from their winter hibernation.

For future reference of overseas tourists to the UK, please take note - it doesn’t matter how much you read about it being warm and dry in the UK, remember, whether it’s the Spring or Summer Bank Holiday, in the UK,

Bank Holiday = guaranteed rain.

For years, why it rained on Bank Holidays, remained a mystery. Then YesBut’s top investigation reporter discovered the truth. The owners of London’s tourists’ attractions don’t want tourists to go window shopping in Oxford and Regent Streets or sunbath in the parks. They want the tourists to dig deep into their pockets and pay to go into their attractions. So for a week leading up to Bank Holidays they employ a group of shamans to do rain dances and cast rain spells.

Last Thursday and Friday Trafalgar Square was covered with turf, to convert it into a “Village Green”. The idea was to demonstrate how London is made up of a number of villages which have grown together to form an urban conurbation. But each retains its own individual characteristics; Chelsea is unmistakably Chelsea, while Hampstead with its heath has its own unique character. Well if they had left the turf there for yesterday and today the rain and trampling tourists would have converted Trafalgar Square into a Chinese paddy field.

This morning as well as the rain the tourists will have to cope with gale force gusts of wind.

YesBut global warming - easy solution declare everyday a Bank Holiday.

Click here to see YesBut’s Image of the day.

Have medical prescription will travel

On 1st April NHS Prescription charges in England increased to £6.85 per item. On the same date medical prescription charges in Wales were scraped.

If you live in London and have more than three items on a prescription, it will be cheaper to buy an Advanced Return train ticket and travel to Cardiff to obtain your prescribed medication, than go to your local pharmacy..

Sunday there was a program on BBC Radio 4 “Battle for Birth”, looking at the history of maternity practice in the NHS. Even within the last thirty years expectant mothers, as a matter of routine had to suffer the indignity of being shaved and given an enema. It was NHS policy for all women to give birth in Maternity Hospitals; and they were not allowed out of bed for two weeks after giving birth. How things have changed; today because of financial constraints 9 out of 10 NHS Health Trusts in England and Wales cannot afford to run antenatal classes. A recent survey by the Royal College of Midwives revealed two-thirds of maternity units are understaffed and an additional 3000 midwives need to be recruited.

NHS National Health Service is a misnomer, it should be PCHS Postal Code Health Service.

France 2007 RBS Six Nations Rugby Champions

Five weekends and fifteen games later, it’s all over and France is the 2007 RBS Six Nations Rugby Champions.

But what a final Super Saturday, with three teams fighting for the title. First into the ring was Ireland vs. Italy in Rome; they had to win by a large margin to put the championship out of French reach. With 80 minutes up, instead of being contented with the margin they had Ireland went for another try, only to fail and see Italy score a try, making the final score Italy 24 - 51 Ireland. The gauntlet had been thrown down; France would have to beat Scotland by 24 clear points to win the championship.

France looked to be cruising easily towards to a well deserved Championship. Then in the last few minutes of the game Scotland scored a try to reduce the margin to 20 points and give Ireland the Championship. We then saw a sustained French effort - with 80 minutes up, they had to ensure the ball remained in play and score a try. Under the pile of bodies on the right, is the French hero Elvis Vermeulen scoring the try which gave France the Championship.





All eyes then turned to Cardiff for the Wales vs. England match. England could still win the championship if they beat Wales by 54 clear points. Not a realistic possibility, and even less so when Wales went 15 to nil up.



In Wednesday’s blog I unfortunately said, Shane Williams had the opportunity to make himself Prince of Wales - I must have put a jinx on him. He did his normal electric runs, but instead of passing the ball for what would have been certain tries he held on hoping to score himself. As a result, at half time instead of being well out of reach Wales were only 3 points ahead.


But another Prince of Wales was crowned. With a contribution of 22 points James Hook was magnificent as indeed were the Welsh pack.










At the end, but to the relief of the Welsh Nation and particularly the Welsh Coach Gareth Jenkins, Wales won 27 - 18, avoiding the Wooden Spoon.









The Welsh fans were overjoyed, you would have thought they had won the championship, not narrowly missed finishing up with the wooden spoon






At the end of the day, in an empty stadium the French team was presented with the trophy.











Now we look forward to September & October and the World Cup.

Marriage on the rocks?

It was reported this week that the number of people marrying in England and Wales is the lowest since records began in 1896. There are many theories being put forward for this, including women’s growing sense of independence.

Many couples say “we don’t want to go through all the fuss and expense that marriage involves”.

There would appear to be two images of marriage:

• An act of making a life long commitment to each other.
• A romantic image of “The Big Day”; the most important day in a girls life, large flowing dress, horse and carriage taking her to a picturesque village church, grand reception with the latest fad a chocolate fountain.

Marriage is the former not the latter. There is no need for a grand ceremony costing thousands of pounds. The average cost of a wedding in the UK is £15,000 (US$29,500). With the spiralling cost of housing, making it difficult for first time buyers to get onto the housing ladder, it would make more sense to put the £15,000 towards the deposit for a house.

Fortunately there is no tradition in my family of large weddings - in deed the contrary. My parents had a minimalist wedding - my father met my mother (for the record I wasn’t to appear on the seen for another three years), at the Registry Office and in the presence of two witnesses got married. Afterwards he went home, and she went back to her home - two months later they told their families that they were married and finally moved in together.

It was similar when I got married; it was done in front of two witnesses - followed by no reception or honeymoon. When my daughter got married she wore a white two piece suite that she could wear on other occasions. There were about twenty people present, the reception was held in her in-laws house, and my wife did the catering - a nice simple affair. After lunch we all went out for a walk.

Why bother to go through a marriage ceremony? People say “in five years time, I don’t want to be tied to someone I no longer love, just because we’re married”. I found marriage to be a support not a constraint. In the first year of every marriage, there are strains imposed on the relationship. You are starting to learn to live together, starting to think about what is good for the both of you, not just what is good for you. It’s easy to think “this isn’t working” and walk away. Marriage makes you think twice. You might say, “If you need the prop of marriage you couldn’t have been in love”. All I can say is I’m more in love now than the day I got married.

Six Nations Rugby Championship - 2nd Weekend

Today England is playing Italy, and Scotland playing Wales. Tomorrow Ireland is playing France.

The Italians like playing with the sun on their backs, so the cold winter weather of the last four days would not be to their liking. After last weeks game against Scotland, the English supporters were singing the praise of their team. But really the Scots were so weak; no concrete evidence of a recovery can be taken from the game. It will not be until 24th February when they play Ireland that the strength of the English team can be measured. Unless England beat Italy by a margin of over 30 points, it will be seen as a poor performance.

Wales should beat Scotland, but they are still weakened by injuries. After last weeks defeat Scotland will be playing for their pride. Whoever loses today their season will be over, and it will also dent their confidence leading up to the World Cup, to be played later this year.

Tomorrows game is really juice, both Ireland and France have the potential to not only win the Championship but achieve the Grand Slam (winning all their games).They are also the two Northern Hemisphere teams who have the capabilities to challenge, if not New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Ireland have suffered a big blow losing their captain Brian O’Driscoll due to injury. The French like the Italians play their best rugby when they have the sun on their backs. Its finely balanced, hopefully its going to be an open running game.

It's going to be a tense afternoon watching Wales, but first the England vs Italy game.

Did you hear that thump; it was England falling to ground after spending last week in dreamland.

It was as if there was an invisible wall at the Italian 10 metre line through which England could not pass. They had to wait 35 minutes before they got into the Italian 22. Up to that point Wilkinson had kicked penalties at the 3rd, 14th and 24th minute. On the 37th minute Italian forward Marco Portola was sin binned for 10 minutes. In the 39th minute Jason Robinson went over in the corner for a try, which Wilkinson failed to convert, making the half time score England 14 - 0 Italy.

Fifteen minutes into the second half Wilkinson put over another penalty. Virtually all the play in the second half took place in the English half. The Italian pack had full control of the game, and England looked devoid of ideas. Italy got their reward in the 65 minutes with a try under the posts. In the 73rd minute Wilkinson put over his fifth penalty, to make the final score England 20 - 7 Italy.

Two statistics say it all, in the second half Italy had 75% of the possession and territory. Though they won, this was a reality call for England, last week’s performance was a false dawn, in reality they have made little progress since their Autumn Internationals dismal performances.

In the other game of the afternoon Scotland started strong with Wales conceding penalties at the 5th & 18th minute. Wales got a penalty back at the 24th minute to make the score Scotland 6 - 3 Wales. Scotland got a further penalty in the 36th minute, with Stephen Jones putting over a penalty just before half time to make the score Scotland 9 - 6 Wales.

In the second half Wales lost control of their own lineout and Scotland dominated possession. However even when Wales were reduced to fourteen men in the 57th minute with the sin binning of Rhys Thomas Scotland failed to score a try. In the second half Scotland scored 4 penalties to Wales’s one, making the final score Scotland 21 - 9 Wales.

The win will give Scotland confidence for their match against Italy in two weeks, while Wales are left to lick their wounds and pray for inspiration for their visit to Paris.

Wales vs. Ireland

Wales own Barbie Doll Katherine Jenkins set the scene with her rendition of the Welsh National Anthem. But within 45 seconds of the start of the game Welsh feet were brought back to ground with an Irish try. Given such a start in previous seasons the Welsh spirit might have dropped. But not with this team. The forwards in particular put on a demonstration of fast movement and ball handling which was rewarded by three penalties. Even though Wales dominated the play the Irish backs always looked that they had the potential to break through the Welsh defence. This came in the 32nd minute with a try in the corner by O’Driscoll, converted by O’Gara. The score remained at Wales 9 - 12 Ireland at half time.

Within two minutes of the start of the second half Czekaj following a grubber kick was tackled without the ball. Surely a penalty try or at least a penalty, but the referee inexplicably gave a scrum in Ireland’s favour. There then followed an exhibition of rugby which was a showcase for the sport. Wales did everything but score. But as in the first half, the threat of an Irish breakthrough was always present, and true to form in the 71st minute O’Gara scored a try in the corner which he converted. Despite all Welsh efforts the score remained Wales 9 - 19 Ireland.

As Welsh supporter I can honestly say I am not disappointed by the Welsh effort. The pack played their hearts out, Peel once again demonstrated he is the No1 Inside Half in the World. The only question mark is against Stephen Jones the Welsh Captain - can he retain the Outside Half slot, is he capable of making the breaks necessary to unleash the Welsh backs? The fact he is the Captain might be the only reason he retains his place.

If Ireland keep their heads they can go on to win the Triple Crown and possibly the Grand Slam.

Next weekend its:

England vs. Italy
Scotland vs. Wales
Ireland vs. France

Is blogging just a big waste of time?

Spent yesterday afternoon trying to attach a counter to my Web site. Puzzled why it needs to have so many noughts as hardly anybody visit’s the site.

By now, World wide there must be at least one hundred people producing blogs. I guess all the blogs are recorded somewhere on papyrus or vellum. But what will happen when more people start producing their own blogs? The only solution will be to store them on a Sinclair ZX 81 computer. But the day will come when another ZX81 will be required. Until one day there will be a room full of them just dedicated to storing blogs?

But what will happen when the room is full? The choice will be either to delete all the blogs and start again, or buy a bigger computer. Before that day comes, action should be taken to save all blogs. We should have a Save the Blog Day. When people will pay to wear red noses, and the money collected can be used to purchase floppy discs to store the blogs on.

I see the day, when there will be so many floppy discs the parts of Wales not flooded to provide water for England, will be used to store all the floppy discs.

Some lucky person will be able to say, my blog discs are stored in Llanfairpwllgwyn-gyllgogerychwyrn-drobwllllantysilio-gogogoch.

Blogging is the modern day equivalent of sacrificial fires. As in days of old, worshippers felt good lighting their fires, but only achieved in contribute to global warming. So too bloggers feel good producing all their unread blogs, while hastening global warming.