I seem to be really enjoying the Beijing Olympics, the Gold Rush has been great to watch, now anyone who knows me will know I am fiercely British (English mainly but will accept wins from the lesser parts of the Union), and I have a fair amount of friends who are from Australia and New Zealand, nothing gives me greater pleasure than us to beat them, its more fun to beat the Aussies as they appear to be the brashest of the lot, your average Kiwi is an accountant (in my experience) and reasonably sensible and knows not to gloat too much, they do get a bit chipper just before the Rugby World Cup until after a few games they realise that as usual the buggers will choke! But the Aussies are a totally different breed, they are the best as far as they are concerned, saldy this no longer appears to be true, us Poms have been chipping away at their brashness, starting in 2005 with the Ashes, granted the 2006 ashes was not altogether successful! but we will draw a veil over that. At the Olympics usually the Aussies destroy us in the medal table, but this year its all gone a bit Pete Tong for the poor ex cons, in Athens the Aussies ruled the cycling, but in 2008 our team of wiped the floor with them, now the Aussies are bleating that we bought the medals, as we have scientists and the like as part of the team, now correct me if I am wrong is that not what the Aussies did in the build up to both Sydney and Athens? and there was me thinking we were the whingers! other than chunter on the Aussies have been a little reticent of late... long may it continue, what I really hope for and believe is possible, is that we will regain the Ashes next year the reason? simple they no longer have McGrath, Warne, Langer and Gilchrist, 4 world class players who have all retired, and not sufficiently replaced, the current Aussies are trading on past glories and I look forward to seeing Matty Hayden looking as glum as he did in 2005!

Whilst we are on the sports subject, Charlton give me grave cause for concern, your average Charlton fan expects Promotion either automatic or via a trip to Wembley, slight drawback in these expectations....the team is crap, they are now buying players from Southend for gods sake! and strikers from non-league, a lot of this has to do with the fact the club nearly went into administration in the summer, luckily in the past week two of the higher wage earners were shunted out the door marked exit, firstly Amdy Faye scarpered to Stoke, how this man can call himself a footballer I will never know! an absolute shocker of a signing, totally useless lacking in any bottle of class, and then Jerome Thomas somehow has managed to get a loan arranged at Portsmouth, how the feck has he managed that? he has all the talent but clueless as to how to use it, A Premier League player? my arse is he, his perfomances in the Charlton team have been underwhelming, the deal is a years loan with an option for Pompey to buy him, which is the problem with the deal, Pompey will see what a waste of space he is in a year and we will have the player back again :(

Now there is a birthday in the family as my sister in law hurtles towards her freedom pass (not quite there yet, sadly age may be getting to her as she seems to confuse Lords with Lourdes) I may devote a page to the various hair colours she has had over the years! then again I may not, as the memory of the helicopter I gave to Tom one Christmas is still fresh, as the presents to my son will testify! So happy Birthday!!!