That Bloke In The Big Smoke

As you know, my three favourite sports are cricket, football and tennis. It's been an eventful week for all three and the teams/sportsmen that I support. It started with Liverpool's victory away at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge last Sunday, continued with Roger Federer's demolition of Rafael Nadal during the week and subsequent unbeaten run to his 100th professional tournament final, 70th career title overall and record-breaking 6th ATP World Tour Finals success. In between, there were two close finishes in the Test cricket matches between South Africa/Australia and India/West Indies. Neither of the teams which I wanted to win succeeded, but both matches were a fantastic advert for the game's longer version. Then to cap off the eventful week, Liverpool became only the second club in this season's Premier League to take points off leaders Manchester City, in a game we really should've won. Not a bad way to lead myself into starting a new temp job tomorrow morning!

WIKILEAKS:
16 DEC - The rights and wrongs of hacktivism (Economist)
16 DEC - Art imitating life: Funky new ad puts a spin on personal hygiene and politics (The Express Tribune, Pakistan)
14 DEC - Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange: Michael Moore (Huffington Post)
10 DEC - Ron Paul’s Passionate Defense Of Julian Assange And WikiLeaks On House Floor (MEDIAite)
09 DEC - Pakistani media publish fake WikiLeaks cables attacking India (Guardian)

LAW:
16 DEC - Top judge complains about 'sex with corpses' rules (Daily Telegraph)
16 DEC - Court backs tourist ban for Dutch cannabis coffee shops (BBC News)
15 DEC - Tweeting in court: why reporters must be given guidelines (Guardian)
14 DEC - Qatar: A centre for 'quality' international dispute resolution? (Guardian)

TUITION FEE PROTESTS:
14 DEC - Let’s get London’s riots into the right perspective: Simon Jenkins (London Evening Standard)
14 DEC - An attack on the royal carriage by angry protesters. Sound familiar? (Guardian)

UK:
14 DEC - 'We the people' deserve something better than a high-class villain's charter (Guardian)
13 DEC - Toby Ord: Why I'm giving £1 million to charity (BBC News)
06 DEC - Medieval Britons were richer than modern poor people, study finds (Guardian)
03 DEC - Woman dials 999 to report snowman theft in Kent (BBC News)
03 DEC - Christmas with a German accent – the PR ploy taking Britain's towns by storm (Guardian)

INDIA:
03 DEC - India's third richest man gives £1.27bn to children's education charity (Guardian)
19 OCT - Indian man of 100 goes back to university for PhD (BBC News)

OTHER:
12 DEC - German man castrates teenage daughter's 57-year-old boyfriend (Daily Telegraph)

SPORT:
18 DEC - Liverpool fans outraged after Paul Konchesky's mum launches Facebook blast (Daily Mail)
16 DEC - India enter Formula One limelight (ESPNstar.com)
09 DEC - The top 10 worst misses in football history: your votes are in (Guardian: Sports Blog)
17 SEP - Blackburn's Sam Allardyce 'more suited to Inter or Real Madrid' (Guardian)

Thanks to the non-stop Oman Air flight, it took me less than 12 hours door-to-door. Just in time to watch Match of the Day! YNWA

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the ref that it wasn't a booking." -Tom Nycz-Losi

I'm not happy. He's good, but I don't like players who subscribe to the Van Bommel School of Fair Play. Makes Materazzi look like a saint.

Savour the moment. It's not often you'll catch me singing praises of a Red Devil but what can I say? It's World Cup O'Clock. A time when club loyalties are set-aside as national passions take centre-stage. And boy, do I want my England to bring the trophy home. But we won't. Not without Paul Scholes to pull the strings in midfield. With Barry missing the first game due to injury, Carrick out-of-form and Hargreaves not even in the squad (and rightly so), we really could've done with Scholes services. He maybe 35 and he may have played his last game for England in 2004, but few could argue with his stellar form this season. Phenomenal to say the least. He would've been the perfect foil to Lampard in central midfield, marshalling the troops, with Gerrard either playing off Rooney or in an upfield left position. Unstoppable, I say!

But why isn't he in South Africa? Because Capello called on him too late. Granted it was in May, but still. It's the fuckin' World Cup. Even Carra said yes, so why not you Scholes? The mind boggles. Cunt. England will not win the World Cup and it's all Scholes fault. Oh well, I suppose it was asking too much of me to set aside club loyalties, World Cup notwithstanding. At least Gerrard will be captain. And we all know what that did to his Liverpool confidence. Hopefully he can finally translate it onto the grandest stage of all. It's now or never mate.

COME ON YOU THREE LIONS!!!

This is why I love living in Europe. One of my best mates supports Blackpool FC. They play in the second division of English football but this was their last game of the season and their biggest in decades. The last time The Seasiders played in the top division was 1971. They got relegated immediately and as recent as two seasons ago were languishing in the third division. But since surviving by the skin of their teeth last season, The Tangerines have ripened just in time to qualify for the Premier League play-offs next week. Today's game was crucial because if they drew or lost and Swansea had beaten Doncaster, the Welsh club would've qualified instead. As it were, The Jacks were held to a frustrating goalless draw at home, unleashing a fantastic sea of emotion at the Prince of Wales pub near Victoria Station. Not only is it a Blackpool supporters pub but the pub landlord and his assistants are all lifelong supporters! The game itself was rather boring, even though Blackpool found themselves behind early in the first half. As the second half progressed, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. But cometh the hour, cometh the man. Brett Ormerod's full-length diving header secured the long-awaited equaliser and calmed everybody down a bit. But the fans wanted a winner. As the match entered the final few minutes, bitten nails were flying everywhere.

Everybody with iPhones tried to find out what was happening at The Liberty Stadium, but as it happened, we all found out their result by the reactions of the fans on the telly! In the end a victory wasn't necessary and Blackpool now meet a certain Nottingham Forest in the play-offs. I know who I'll be supporting, and it ain't the men in orange ahem, tangerine. I got told off for saying that today! So even if Blackpool get through that, there's still the play-off final at Wembley to deal with in two weeks. Either way from what I saw this afternoon, whoever qualifies is probably going straight back down. I got home to watch the Man Utd-Sunderland game and it was noticeably three notches quicker and of much better quality. Oh and we did our bit to help Chelsea move closer to the Premier League title. But is it the end for Rafa?


Blackpool fans waiting in anticipation for the final whistle, and the result at Swansea.


Job done! Swansea draw, Blackpool through, best day in a long time. Long night of drunken revelry!