After cutting my lengthy locks for summer, I constantly reach up behind my head to feel the ‘phantom hair’ that’s no longer there. I think it’s now a bit too short, in a style that’s best described as a ‘neither-here-nor-there’. Amongst other things, my sister’s now joined the ranks of unemployed MSc holders. I’m not sure if McDonalds is planning to expand in India. But atleast they can reat assured that the talented labour pool is now in place.

A quick cheer for Mexico, they showed Brazil on Sunday that just having (great) flair is not enough; if you come up against stiff defense, you need to be able to zing in crosses from the wings. You can’t always feed the killer pass in a crowded box, and you can’t always play narrow. I didn’t see a single useful cross coming in from the wings in open play, Ronaldinho’s corner’s mostly didn’t clear the first man, and Adriano couldn’t even get the ball past the first defender. Solid show by Mexico, and this isn’t the first time they’ve beaten Brazil either. Brazil seems to think that they can just play into the goal, and they often can. But if a few key players are not 100% like Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano, Roque Junior, etc. were, then this style of playing becomes difficult, and they need an alternative style to fall back on.

A rich defense lawyer (let’s call him NK) prevents celebrities from getting their just rewards for speeding on the roads in their super-charged babe-magnets. This was the latest topic of ITV’s ‘Tonight with Trevor MacDonald’ programme (I can’t link to it beacuse, unlike the BBC, ITV has a pointless website). When NK was asked if he ever had any moral difficulties in helping them get away scott-free, he said if he did, he wouldn’t be able to perform as a defense lawyer. So that’s a ‘no’ then. Funnily enough, one prosecutor for the Crown said that NK was performing a valuable role in exposing the weaknesses of their prosecuting service. But don’t we already know that the rich are not treated the same in the eyes of the law? – Disgruntled.

UKTV History (those of you who bother to read this stuff will know it’s one of my favourite channels) is doing a Blue Planet weekend. The Blue Planet is a nature documentary by ‘Old Aunt’ BBC about the water bodies of our planet, and the life in it. Best of all, it’s narrated by Sir David Attenborough, who symbolises the genre for me. Ever since I was a child watching the Discovery channel, and setting up my 60-kilo (seemed like that) JVC video camera on its tripod in front of the telly in a room darkened with pillows stuffed around the corners of the curtains where chinks of light were prone to escaping and ruining the quality of the recording at the exact spot when the pride of lions were settling in for a spot of luncheon on a still-struggling wildebeest because there was something wrong with the video recorder that had a tape eject mechanism that could kick like a mule and was just about as reliable as one too, I associated that calm voice with good viewing. I think he deserves a knighthood for his work. What? Ok, give him another then. Today I was nestled in the comfort of my sofa (it gives in welcomingly like a familiar lover. For imagery, think about the hippie girl in the sofa in ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’) with the long-distance television-operating-gadget and my copy of Sir David’s autobiography called ‘Life on Air’. Bliss! Also a quick thanks to the BBC for all the great documentaries.

This site has loads of free e-books, I would recommend it to anybody. A top 100 list shows what people around the world have been reading, and funnily enough, the Bible is at 39 and the Quran at 40!

I was watching a telly programme on UKHistory about Mr. Julius Caeser yesterday. Fascinating stuff! One thing that really stuck in my mind was one commentator/history professor saying “Rome never had a problem controlling her far-flung military commanders. It was when they got back to Rome that the problems began”. Haha, I love that kind of logic! Another related point I’d like to mention is that a sure sign of big-headedness is when people refer to themselves in the third person, like Caeser often did. Shakespeare conveys this beautifully many times; once just before Caeser’s assassination, when he is at his most intolerable

“Are we all ready? What is now amiss
That Caesar and his senate must redress?”

For more Julius Caeser and other Shakespeare works.

I also must add that if history were taught with computer graphics and whatnot like on BBC & UKHistory, I would’ve loved it. I was born in the wrong age 😦

I’m sitting in K2, feeling the pressure of having to post something here, but not quite having anything interesting to say. Reminds me of someone saying “If you can’t speak well of someone, don’t speak at all”. Have to rush home, weather’s absolutely the pits (well, it has stopped raining) and my new bicycle being a macho off-roader with tyres that would suit a Land-Rover, it doesn’t handle particularly well on smooth, city roads. So I have to be careful when it’s wet, ‘coz then the only parts of the tyres that are in contact with the road can collectively fit under the fingernail of my little finger. That’s front and back tyre both. Had a game of squash with Tracy (hence the title of the post; it all comes together, just be patient) and then a double cheeseburger from Pizza & Co. Ioannis dropped by, and they’ve gone back there for dinner!