Great Britain versus America

Now don't get carried away with the title, im not suggesting a massive dust up between Brits and Americans involving blood and bullets. Im talking about the much less lethal sport events and how we differ in what we enjoy. (Mind you sporting events can turn out pretty lethal in their own way.)
Here in good old Blighty the most popular sports are football (soccer) and cricket, with rugby and perhaps snooker also having a healthy share of fans. Whilst across the pond our American cousins prefer NFL (American football) baseball and basketball. Golf is enjoyed on both sides of the Atlantic but really can't compete with football, British or American.
But there is no avoiding the sporting snobbery which exists between the two countries. Some examples; over here you get people laughing at the MLB (Major Baseball League), calling it 'rounders', or we call the NFL (American football) rugby for softies who have to wear pads and helmets. And don't ask about the ridicule that NASCAR enjoys ('enjoy' probably being not the right word.)
And in the United States cricket is too boring and the five day games are not to their liking. Also soccer is too soft Stateside. (I agree with them there.)
Its great to hear of 'crossover' fans like someone in Arizona loving rugby or someone in Haverfordwest having a baseball fixation. At times the differences in sport make for a successful translation and people simply 'get it.' I myself am a good example because I love a decent hockey match or a quick blast of basketball on a games console. In fact videogames are a great way to introduce people to new sports, it was certainly my gateway into golf, basketball and NFL.
I think the only sport which has been hugely popular in both countries is wrestling and thats more pantomime than real sport. Im not bashing it, im simply saying its not a sport like rugby or NHL.
Its a shame a lot of us will not even attempt to get into a different sport or try to understand them better because if we did the sports would get new fans and more appreciation. Everyone would be a winner. I urge you dear reader to try it sometime. Maybe a Brit can get into baseball or somone in the USA get a taste for darts. It must be so bland being a sporting snob.

I Pledge Allegiance To....Anyone

One of the greatest mysteries of this world has nothing to do with black holes or the undiscovered creatures of the ocean. Its a lot closer to home actually and lies with that horrible sport of football. (Okay it can be any sport but its more prevelent in the game our American cousins like to call 'soccer'.) Football teams to be precise and why people who were not born in say Manchester support that particular team? Why do Welsh people support a team from England? Why do they wear the colours? And why do I care? Well that ones easy - because its annoying!
And I know it shouldn't bother me what other people do and who they support. They're free to support whoever they like and thats quite right, they are. Same as im free to whine like a brat on my own slice of teh interwebz.
Swansea is the nearest 'big' football club to people in Carmarthenshire, yet every day all I see are Chelsea or Manchester United jerseys. Why?? You have no connection with either place if you were not born there so you CANNOT POSSIBLY feel the same emotions when you win or lose that people who were born/live there feel. And I know this to be true because I used to 'support' the Colorado Avalanche ice hockey team but it was an empty support so I quit.


real Scarlet runs in my blood

The only sporting team I have ever REALLY supported and FELT passionate about is the Scarlets rugby team and im proud of the fact I attended Stradey comprehensive school which was just across the road from the legendary Stradey Park, the Scarlets former ground before the move to Parc Y Scarlets.
I know more than my teams history because I was brought up in Burry Port, a mere 7 miles from the club and I understand its ysbrid (spirit) and the hwyl (cheer) we get everytime we score a winning try. When old players like the late, great Ray Gravell or others write books about the Scarlets I know all of the in jokes and the grounds and pubs they mention. Someone born in Carmarthen but following Aresenal can't say that. For them the support is very distant and they know nothing of the local spirit. Its a hollow thing for sure.
I can't get my head around wanting to support Manchester United and the like, unless of course its purely for glory. And a glory hunter is a sad person. At the end of the day, to someone supporting far away teams, a win or loss is the same thing. Its simply numbers to them. Its probably similar to catching fish only to toss them back.
I fail to see the pleasure in glory only and to grow as a human you need to experience failure and defeat also. Perhaps there lies the answer, those knuckleheads with pot bellies in Manchester shirts who come from the beautiful wilds of Wales haven't grown up yet.

A Two Wheeled Addiction

Before I begin (are you sitting comfortably with a chilled beer?) let me just say that I rarely watch television. If its not sports or decent documentary then im not interested. I can list how many programmes I do watch on one hand; Bones, Coronation Street, Prison Break and er....thats it. Oh and Ice Road Truckers! But now I can add another television MUST WATCH in the form of the fantabulous and most excellent Sons Of Anarchy. Seriously, what a f**king kick ass show!
It first got aired in 2008 but due to hardly bothering with television I missed it. Yes even with all the internet trailers and adverts flying about. I had seen a few photos knocking around and loved the tattoo designs but it wasn't until a few friends on a gaming forum started raving about it that I started to take a serious interest in those guys of SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original.)

Don't mess with these hairy chaps

Sons Of Anarchy (God thats an awesome title) was created by Kurt Sutter and it revolves around the lives of a motorcycle gang (sorry CLUB) who have a hand in various interests like gun running and basically protect the fictional town of Charming in the non fictional California. Protect it from other unsavoury gangs and crooks that is.
The gangs (sorry CLUB) protagonist is Jackson 'Jax' Teller who has read his fathers story (he helped found the club) and is now questioning his role as Vice President and the way SAMCRO is heading. His step-father Clay is the gangs (sorry CLUB) president and he prefers the violent ways to get things done. Its The Sopranos but with less Italian Americans and more tattoos.
And boy does it work! I thought a drama series about hell's angels would be all bar room brawls and rock music, and while theres nothing wrong with that stuff it would make for tedious drama. This is anything but tedious. Its well written, runs at a great pace and the cast is fantastic! I wasn't sure I could believe Katey Sagal as the tough wife and mother of two of the top guys of a motorcycle gang (sorry CLUB) after her stint as Peggy Bundy (Married...With Children) but she is a revelation and plays her part BRILLIANTLY as Gemma Teller Morrow. As does Charlie Hunnam who plays her onscreen son Jax Teller. (I was happy to discover he's British.)
All the cast are wonderful from Ron Perlman's ruthless Clay right down to the shows creator Mr Sutter who plays perma incarcerated Big Otto and seldom does a show get a quality of cast this good.
Oddly enough (and true to my NEED IT NOW nature) I have still not watched an episode on a television channel, I just went and bought Season One on DVD, then as soon as the show got its oily hooks into me (after half hour of the Pilot episode) I rushed out and bought Season Two. I don't think I could stand to watch the episodes once a week on television because they are so gripping and once Ive watched one I NEED to see what comes next. Thats why with the second season im watching first episode, 'Albification' straight through to closing episode, 'Na Triobloidi'. It simply must be done because im greedy when I discover something new that I enjoy and have to have my fixes all in one, juicy go.

The Swinging Man

Oh they hung Hanratty
by the neck 'til he swung dead,
some claim he was an innocent
but the gallows guts were fed.

Supporters included scouse Lennon
and his little yellow wife,
but it was all in vain
and to the noose James gave his life...

@Steven Francis poems 2010

Slipper. Sandal. Noose.

One of my quirky little dislikes are slippers and sandals. I cringe (yes really) whenever I see people wearing them. Weird huh? It must be one of my highest ranking strange dislikes, but its a very real one let me tell you. Its been with me ever since I can remember; Id go into newspaper shops to get mints on the way to school and if I spotted anyone in the shop wearing slippers (which was quite often being it was only 7.30am) I would shrivel my snout up and think 'urgh!'
And I think sandals are even worse. They truly are the devil's footwear, which is ironic really as its Jesus who is famed for sandal wear and I see Satan as more of a cowboy boot fan. Summertime on a beach was 'interesting' for me; watching all kinds of foul sandal designs being paraded by pot bellied men with labradors. Or hippy looking women in plait skirts and pearl bangles.
The simple fact of the matter is, a sandal on her foot can reduce even the worlds most beautiful women into plain old frumps. Katherine Jenkins, Lena Heady, Meryl Streep, Dame Helen Mirren, bombshells all in my eyes but as soon as one of them dips their foot inside a sandal my insatiable desire for them suddenly becomes very sated. Eww ladies (and men) put them away for Heavens sakes! You would look more appealing in saggy tights and a pair of workmen's gumboots.

Calcutta - Red, White and Blue

So the tories pledge to spend more on the armed forces and cut child benefit from 18 to 16? Along with other cuts and 'savings'. And as is the way of political parties the Conservatives blame other parties for the mess Britain is now in.
It never occurs to them (ALL parties) that the United Kingdom has been in decline for YEARS, and the fault is on the greedy plates of the lot of them, no matter what their allegiances. Nevermind about daft sounding things like 'The Big Society' and promising a brighter future (don't they all?) Lets get this country FIXED once again, not rolling along on soundbites and dunderheaded gimmicks.
Cutting help from those who need it and building fantastical (and fairytale) schemes is not any long term help to anyone. We have had these schemes since I finished school over twenty years ago and a lot are in the same place. Britain is quick becoming a mess of a country where we employ yoghurt knitters to censor nursery rhymes and pound the drum of political correct while not doing very much for the core of society.
Crime, as I have written elsewhere, is at an alarming high and the ridiculous sentences are only ever going to make the numbers RISE, never lower. Education is a shambles; have you tried getting children today into classic literature? Or ask them to point where Oman is on the map? Even try showing them a picture of Margaret Thatcher and watch the bewilderment in their eyes. Lets be honest here (and I know politicians struggle with that word), if the face you are showing youngsters today hasn't been on dire rubbish like the X Factor or adorned the side of a MacDonalds carton then they will struggle to recognise them.
So never mind with cuts and gimmicks, there are people who genuinely need help in this country and taking from them is the easy way, which in the end solves NOTHING. Crime and education ought to be the first fixed but of course they're much too hard a problem for politicians who are only in their profession to get what they can from it. They serve THEMSELVES, certainly nobody else. Blinding the population with smoke and mirrors, and all that achieves is suffocation and blood.

The River Ryder Splosh

Well here it is, the opening day of the first Ryder Cup in Wales and the rain has stopped play at 10am. Who would have thunk it? The only good thing to report is the fact that Europe are UP in the first few holes. But its a very miserable beginning for us Welsh. First impressions are a huge deal in sporting events (indeed in everything) and I can't help thinking that this near biblical downpour has put a severe dent in our 'Welsh welcome'.
How different it would have been if this had been held in the glorious June we had here in the valleys. Don't forget dear reader, its not only the golf that we have been promoting here, its everything Welsh; our countryside, splendid castles, coastline and wonderful places to visit. Of course it would have been better if everything had been bathed in sunlight rather than grey, soupy rain but on the bright side (no pun intended) we must make the best of it.

*Rain Intermission*

Seven hours later and 5pm, the rain has finally found somewhere else to irritate for now Wales is awash with not glassy puddles but sunlight, blue skies and calm conditions.