OTA Wordless Wednesday

The Sage Centre, Gateshead, yesterday morning

coast to coast (kinda)

Today, after I'd finished in Newcastle, which is very close to to the east coast of England, I had to travel west to Lancashire and to within 3 miles of the west coast.

A small loop the loop to get out of Gateshead and then I was on the way through County Durham, then part of North Yorkshire partly along the route of a very ancient and characteristically straight Roman Road. Next to some very pretty Cumbrian countryside including a picturesque run through the Eden valley and across the back of the Pennines hills, which run north to south in the upper part of England.

My journey was in early evening, there was sunshine and not much traffic on this drive across farmlands, lanes, small villages and past ancient pubs as I traversed the full breadth of England (admittedly at one of the thinnest points).

I arrived at my new destination, refreshed from a great summer evening.

up north

'Up North' is a variable expression in English.

As a Londoner from North of the River Thames, 'Up North' generally means above Watford, which is about 20 miles north of London itself. A South Londoner would regard 'Up North' in much the same way as 'North of the River' (Thames) and a North Londoner (and taxi drivers) regard 'sarf of the river' as a somewhat unknown area.

But today I've been properly 'Up North' in Gateshead - which is adjacent to Newcastle, in the quayside area by the rather spectacular theatre complex known as 'The Sage' - and I know its proper North because there's a famous landmark called 'the Angel of the North' which is slightly to the south of Gateshead and Newcastle.

of Pimms and nuns

This afternoon will be Pimms time. And Pimms were giving away nice Pimms jugs to mix the drink. So a number 1 Pimms comprising 5 parts lemonade, 2 Parts Pimms and 1 part gin, plus mint, orange, lemon, apple, cucumber and a tiny amount of lime. Oh, and ice.

Then I will be programming Sky plus for a complicated week. I'm partly away travelling, and in addition to soccer which I can watch wherever, I will want to see "The Convent" with wild women's poet Vik and others showing 40 days and 40 nights in a strict convent in Arundel. Its up on the BBC2 web site and also on BBC's religious site! Take a look at the trailer!

rashbre.tv: fruit

A wonderful, hot afternoon, time for a fruit drink and a neat rip-off of the Sony commercial. Click the television to view.

soccer options

Since I started my posts about this not being the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006, I seem to have been collecting rather a lot of hits in the search engines. I think my continued references to Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006 seems to have created many inadvertant references to this site.

How could I have guess that this would have happened?


So, I got to thinking. There are people who really enjoy soccer and there are people who prefer to go shopping. Oh and there are Americans who kinda don't get the European pre-occupation with this sport (or cricket or rugger).

Anyway, I decided, for the duration of the Official FIFA World Cup Germany 2006, I would have an optional facility on rashbre central, so that those of you who like soccer are satisfied, but those who prefer a more soccer free zone (like craziequeen) can still feel satisfied if they pass this way.

So I have made the top corner of my banner optional. Sure, it drops down with a modest reference to England who will win the World Cup, of course, but if you prefer non-soccer then simply mouse over the image and a normal rashbre central header will re-appear.

I hope this caters for most tastes and I will continue to post in a suitable random manner on topics other than soccer.

All *Blog* Stars

Well I'm flattered to have been asked to join the All *Blog* Stars after an email invitation. I've added an initial post and wish every success to this new enterprise!

UPDATE: Revised logo:


Tag: allblogstars, allstars

sven its good its really good

Dieser Bild is nicht meinem. Ich habe es an flickr gefunden nachher Ich "fifaworldcup" angeclickt. Aber es gibt der Atmosfer des Mondial ganz gut. Hier is die erste Spiel des Deutschen und sie haben 4:2 gewonnen.

So, as Claudia seems to be enjoying the few moments of the World Cup in German hands, we look forward to saturation coverage on all media over the next four weeks. And don't forget, this is not the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006, but along side the hoses of the holy in the world cup universe reportage, I shall do my best to keep a blip of relevant news.

Tag: world cup, Claudia Schiffer, Mondial

FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 Results

I thought it would be a useful service to calculate the results of the Official FIFA World Cup Germany 2006. So, sitting at my friend's granite kitchen countertop, I decided to use some rudimentary statistics for this, which have been partly gleaned from the local betting shops.

I then took the average of everyone's odds to work out the order that everyone will be knocked out and who the winners will be. So here's a preview of the England / Brazil final, and due to a small statistical error at the moment it shows Brazil winning.

I will fiddle systematically reanalyse my computational error later so that the correct result shows England winning. I suppose this is good value for Germans, though, because in order to become third they will have to play an extra game after they get knocked out in the semi-finals.

OTA: Wordless Wednesday

Team Practice

Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006 ?

With all this talk of the FIFA World Cup, I thought I'd better point out that this site is not the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006. The Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006 is at another location on the internet.

I also noticed that the fifaworldcup.com site seems to be different from the fifaworldcup.yahoo.com site although they both seem to have similar content apart from the advertisements.

I expect anyone searching the internet for the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006 will find all kinds of other sites which also reference the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006 and that this may create a few false hits in the search engines.

It will be even more confusing if the same sites referencing Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006 also reference Rooney or maybe Beckham (that's David Beckham), the well-known captain of the England World Cup Squad. With the England World Cup team in Germany already, preparing for the FIFA World Cup and the descriptions of the England team on many internet sites, I expect the differences between the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006 and some of the others won't be so obvious.

So I recommend that people use the FIFAworldcup.com site which is the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006, rather than one of the copy sites or sites just trying to get gratuitous hits from the numerous search engines looking for the Official FIFA World Cup Germany Site 2006, as people try to get updates on the FIFA World Cup or on the England Team which we often refer to as the England Squad, led of course, by David Beckham.

Tag: world cup, FIFA, England, FIFAworldcup, Beckham, Rooney

pretty cosmic

Going North into Scotland, as I did a few days ago, means it is easier to see the Northern Lights. This Aurora Borealis is caused by solar flares sending charged particles into the Earth's magnetic field.

As well as seeing them, it is also possible to hear them because they are really very low frequency radio waves which encroach into the aural spectrum. The sound phenomenon is known as "Dawn Chorus" and can sounds like flocks of birds singing as well as clicks and strange metallic raining sounds.

The bursts of chirps and squawks seem to suddenly commence, and over the course of two to five seconds, weaken and fade away, then repeat over again, often in different pitches.

Think of it as the sound of stars.



Tag: cosmic, stars, sun