Well it was a gloriously sunny morning and the tennis club was well located. I lost to exactly the same person I'd lost to at the journalists' tournament at Roland Garros. Well at least I discovered a new club. They say they just want the money. There's no waiting list and no interview. Oh the facility of cash. So I might give the Tennis club of Boulogne Billancourt a go for a year.
It's only two buses away from the radio station so it's easy to get to work afterwards. What could be better. Tennis and work all in the same sweep. You just know you want t.
The chumpions league is back with some very odd results. But as Jimmy Greaves used to say on TV: "It's a funny old game." Was that really Jimmy Greaves's coinage or was he just regurgitating some other wag?
Don't know. Will now go and talk to someone from Cricket Australia about their tour to India.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Monday, 15 September 2008
The Trial
And it only seems like yesterday that Man Utd were penaltying their way past Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League final. And it is starting up again on Tuesday. Well my heart is with Inter Milan this season because of that poor flunky Jose Mourinho whose brand of winning football was so ceremoniously booted out of west London for a brand of unwinning anything.
Well while the professionals are running around after a ball, I'm going to hit a ball with a tennis racquet. After not really having the game to advance further than the second round at the journalist's tournament at Roland Garros, I've pledged to be better for next year. So I am going to get some coaching and play more regularly because it's no point coming up with Federer like forehands if I can't then at least hit a vaguely competent backhand.
So to work. But before then another journalist tournament. This one's not far from Roland Garros. It is in the Tennis Club of Boulogne Billancourt. The fees make it seem snobby, just have to see what the reception is like if you want to sign up.
Question is do they stop at 4pm for tea. That's the sign of a decent club
Well while the professionals are running around after a ball, I'm going to hit a ball with a tennis racquet. After not really having the game to advance further than the second round at the journalist's tournament at Roland Garros, I've pledged to be better for next year. So I am going to get some coaching and play more regularly because it's no point coming up with Federer like forehands if I can't then at least hit a vaguely competent backhand.
So to work. But before then another journalist tournament. This one's not far from Roland Garros. It is in the Tennis Club of Boulogne Billancourt. The fees make it seem snobby, just have to see what the reception is like if you want to sign up.
Question is do they stop at 4pm for tea. That's the sign of a decent club
Saturday, 13 September 2008
The New Season
I can't believe it. It only seems like yesterday that the football team was being thrashed by any old iron. That was in the top division and the big time. Now it's back to division 2 and, I suppose, the little time.
After the second training session this morning, the new boots seem to be coming on well. I've also discovered the joys of the short passing game. I will advocate the pass and run offensive this season.
Whether I have the physique to do this only yoga and swimming will tell. But after three weeks at the Olympics, you have to dream.
After the second training session this morning, the new boots seem to be coming on well. I've also discovered the joys of the short passing game. I will advocate the pass and run offensive this season.
Whether I have the physique to do this only yoga and swimming will tell. But after three weeks at the Olympics, you have to dream.
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
The Upgrade
After all these years of not rushing to a plane. It was all wrong. I just needed to pay more to go business class.
For some reason I was put in there on the flight back from Beijing to Paris and 10 hours just flew past. I played with the chair settings. I was particularly fond of the setting for sleeping. So I pressed it and slept.
And then the one for being reclined and so on. Nevertheless I was overjoyed at the setting which meant I had to use two feet to get off the craft.
Perhaps this is what I've been missing over the years.
For some reason I was put in there on the flight back from Beijing to Paris and 10 hours just flew past. I played with the chair settings. I was particularly fond of the setting for sleeping. So I pressed it and slept.
And then the one for being reclined and so on. Nevertheless I was overjoyed at the setting which meant I had to use two feet to get off the craft.
Perhaps this is what I've been missing over the years.
Monday, 1 September 2008
The Tourist Departs
My time at the Courtyard 7 is at an end. I take a flight back home this afternoon.
One of the upshots of the trip has been that if I'm going to be up in the air, which I don't particularly like, then it's better to be in a plane than in a chairlift.
But obviously one has to do certain things to go and see bits of the Great Wall.
Taking such a contraption was never in my evaluation when it came to seeing such a piece of history.
Beijing has been a varied experience. Like any big city there is the new and the traditional. What will be interesting to see is how those two factors develop.
The Olympics site was all very gleaming but what now for the Water Cube? During the week spent here on holiday, I've been able to see the other side - the restaurants, the tacky bar strips, the hip zones and the corporate power sectors.
And obviously it's going to be the personal that I'll hang on to. It'll will always be questionable whether the Olympics should have been staged in Beijing.
What is certain is it's a brilliant place to be.
One of the upshots of the trip has been that if I'm going to be up in the air, which I don't particularly like, then it's better to be in a plane than in a chairlift.
But obviously one has to do certain things to go and see bits of the Great Wall.
Taking such a contraption was never in my evaluation when it came to seeing such a piece of history.
Beijing has been a varied experience. Like any big city there is the new and the traditional. What will be interesting to see is how those two factors develop.
The Olympics site was all very gleaming but what now for the Water Cube? During the week spent here on holiday, I've been able to see the other side - the restaurants, the tacky bar strips, the hip zones and the corporate power sectors.
And obviously it's going to be the personal that I'll hang on to. It'll will always be questionable whether the Olympics should have been staged in Beijing.
What is certain is it's a brilliant place to be.
Friday, 29 August 2008
The Desertion
I have been so busy being a tourist that I'm not performing my prime function in life which is to keep an update of said blog.
Rapidly doing the things which must be done such as the Great Wall. This was a trip organised by the hostel where I'm staying.
The bus was scheduled to come at 7am and we left at about 7.30 and it was due to leave Mutianyu at midday and we left at 12.30pm.
I was scheduled to leave Leo's hostel on Tuesday but I am leaving as soon as this downpour is finished.
Too many little things are going wrong with the room so I figure it is best to get out while I can still recommend the place.
It has been a friendly little haunt but sadly I am too old to endure the compilation of little things.
This has made me wonder about my own stolidity and the like. But the upshot is that I've found a place which is around a courtyard and the rooms are, on the face of it, superior so with just over double the outlay I'm going to be getting a quadrupled aesthetic experience.
And so off I go to Courtyard 7. I like the sound of it, the Courtyard 7 it sounds like a team of superheroes.
Or perhaps the title of a kung fu movie.
Rapidly doing the things which must be done such as the Great Wall. This was a trip organised by the hostel where I'm staying.
The bus was scheduled to come at 7am and we left at about 7.30 and it was due to leave Mutianyu at midday and we left at 12.30pm.
I was scheduled to leave Leo's hostel on Tuesday but I am leaving as soon as this downpour is finished.
Too many little things are going wrong with the room so I figure it is best to get out while I can still recommend the place.
It has been a friendly little haunt but sadly I am too old to endure the compilation of little things.
This has made me wonder about my own stolidity and the like. But the upshot is that I've found a place which is around a courtyard and the rooms are, on the face of it, superior so with just over double the outlay I'm going to be getting a quadrupled aesthetic experience.
And so off I go to Courtyard 7. I like the sound of it, the Courtyard 7 it sounds like a team of superheroes.
Or perhaps the title of a kung fu movie.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
The Tourist III
There was more sightseeing since this is the nature of the game. Have got free travel on the subway - a legacy of the Olympic Games and this gives me free access to all the famous monuments. These sort of freebies have made me become a complete capitalist and I take the taxi places because they're cheap too and I get to see the upstairs rather than riding downstairs.
I suppose I could say I'm helping the flow of cash. Whatever. Saw an 18 metre high Buddha as given by the seventh Dalai Lama to an emperor back in the 18th century - a time when everyone was getting along.
It is quite spectacular. Carved from a single chunk of Tibetan white sandalwood. Took two years to build and three years to transport to Beijing.
There's steady work.
That was at the Lama Temple. After years of seeing the Peking Opera in London and Paris, I saw the Peking Opera in Beijing. It was loud and good and just what I needed as the new National Theatre was exceptionally disappointing.
I got there as it was just closing down the public viewing areas. And I didn't fancy going to watch Turandot there. So I ended up at the Chang An Theatre listening to people pull faces and do their Noh thang.
Off to the Wall tomorrow. That should be great.
I suppose I could say I'm helping the flow of cash. Whatever. Saw an 18 metre high Buddha as given by the seventh Dalai Lama to an emperor back in the 18th century - a time when everyone was getting along.
It is quite spectacular. Carved from a single chunk of Tibetan white sandalwood. Took two years to build and three years to transport to Beijing.
There's steady work.
That was at the Lama Temple. After years of seeing the Peking Opera in London and Paris, I saw the Peking Opera in Beijing. It was loud and good and just what I needed as the new National Theatre was exceptionally disappointing.
I got there as it was just closing down the public viewing areas. And I didn't fancy going to watch Turandot there. So I ended up at the Chang An Theatre listening to people pull faces and do their Noh thang.
Off to the Wall tomorrow. That should be great.
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