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Jan
12
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I've been following some of the Beckham news over the last couple of days.
Not everyone gets it yet. The move isn't about directly raising the standard of soccer in the US - it's about raising the profile so it can compete with the other major franchises. It's about showing the US that soccer too has it's share of Ferrari driving rock stars, earning 8-figure salaries (and even more from promotion and advertising).
At the level that Beckham is used to playing at - he's at the end of his career (as a player) - he's 32 years old !! He's been warming the bench at Real Madrid and hasn't won anything for 3-4 years. Moving to the US is a fairly well trodden retirement plan for European soccer players
So, don't expect him to make a big splash on the pitch - he's not a one-man-team like George Best, Pele, Maradona and Ronaldo. His impact will be on greater acceptance of Soccer in the US. For that I'm thankful - even if we have to put up with a couple of years of obnoxious Beckham Frenzy.
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Jan
11
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I'll soon have three things in common with David Beckham - we both have young kids, play soccer (football) and live in California. I should add - our soccer careers followed very different paths.
So a personal message to David - if you, Posh and the kids (Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz - see I even looked up their names) need somewhere to crash while the new Beverly Hills pad is being fumigated - you don't even have to ask - we'll clear some space in the play room; it would be our pleasure to help out a fellow Brit.
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Dec
31
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I started this last year and though I'd do it again.
Best Moment
Last year it was a toss up between Jack learning to use the potty and England qualifying for the World Cup. This year - the kids win again - this year (over the course of a long weekend) - my five year old daughter Lilly learned to ride her bike without training-wheels. Watching her cycling off into the distance made me feel very proud. If anyone needs advice on teaching kids to loose the training-wheels - leave a comment.
Worst Moment
Watching England's performance in the World Cup and realizing we were going to blow it.
Best Blog
I still read many of Sun's bloggers but the one blog I have read consistently is Seth Godin's.
Best Gadget
Last year it was my (very inexpensive) GPS receiver for my Treo - something I still use a lot of the time - and something I find invaluable when travelling. This year it's pretty tricky. The two contenders are my home SunRay (something I use every day and I still think it's one of those game-changing products that way too few people are aware of); the second is the Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote (a Christmas present) - five remote controls was driving my wife crazy - harmony has been restored. I think the Harmony wins.
Worst Gadget
I had to think hard about this one. This is tough - it's my beloved Treo650 that I've ranted about over the last couple of years. Here's why. I recently had to replace my Treo (having dropped it too often) - before I shelled out $300 I looked at a couple of other smartphones and they all make the Treo650 look really dated. The reason I stuck with the Treo is that I have 3 or 4 applciations I use a lot that aren't all available on other (newer) models and makes. Unless Palm gets their act together - it's probably the last Palm I'll buy - the competition looks too good. My initial infatuation with the Treo meant I tollerated the crashes and out of memory errors - not any more.
Best Book
Last year this was easy - this year I'm struggling between Blink and Freakonomics - looking at my Audible library - I gave Freakonomics 5 stars vs. 4 for Blink - so Freakonomics gets the prize this year.
Best Film
No films really stood out this year - though I've enjoyed watching TLOTR trilogy again - now in HD (OK - upconverted DVD). I'm going to break the rules a bit and vote for Lost - over the Autumn we watched the entire Season 1 & 2 on DVD (via NetFlix) and season 3 on HBO - I can't wait for it to restart in February.
Worst Film
Da Vinci Code - I enjoyed the book and decided to get the DVD as my wife hadn't read it. Great story, great actors - what happened ?
Best Application
I've been using Google calendar for the last six months and have completely given up the various other calendars I'd been maintaining. It almost rocks and I have high hopes for it continuing to improve. I just hope Google doesn't become big and evil - I'd hate to have to look for place to park my appointments.
Biggest Disappointment
World Cup 2006 (Soccer / Footie). England had some of the most hyped and over-paid players in the game and played like a bunch of guys who hadn't played together before. Overall - the tournament was great - and England's part was pretty minor.
Have a great new year, Rich.
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Jul
6
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I'm using Sun's mandatory July shutdown to catch up with various things.
For example, I've just uploaded a selection of pictures from our May / June trip to the UK. We actually took over a thousand pictures so at some point I need to weed out the best couple of hundred and delete the rest.
We didn't really do much sight-seeing in the UK - we we're mostly there to see friends and family, that said we did see a side of England we've not seen for sometime (and our kids have never seen) - that is rural Somerset. We mainly stayed with friends / family but also rented two cottages. The second and the best was Nailey Farm (just outside Bath) which was spacious, very well decked out, had stunning views and a working farm for the kids to explore.
The farm is just across the valley from St Catherines Court (an impressive pad owned by Jane Seymour which you can rent for $24k a week!!).
I guess we were lucky with the weather - the first week was crap (wet, cold and windy) the remaining two or so weeks we're absolutely stunning (by any standards).
My next job is to download and burn our video (2 tapes) onto DVD.
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Jun
15
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Well, England have somehow managed to scrape through to the next round of the 2006 World Cup with a pretty unconvincing 2:0 win against Trinidad & Tobago. Looking at the situation another way - we managed to get through without playing as a team - if we actually find our form; how knows what we can do. Rooney got 30 minute run-around - which is good - I think Sven is being smart holding Rooney back until he's really needed. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the rest of Group B - that will be mostly decide today when Sweden meet Paraguay.
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Jun
6
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I'm about 2 weeks into a 3 week vacation back to the motherland (England) - we've been staying in some fantastic cottages in Wiltshire and Exmoor visiting friends and family. I haven't spent more than a couple of days in the UK in the last 4 years so this trip has been interesting. Some immediate things I have noticed that have changed are :
- Cigarette smoke - Northern California is pretty much cigarette smoke free - you rarely smell it unless you go looking; it sounds like the UK is heading the same way in the future.
- Cars have gotten smaller - nearly every manufacturer has a range of minis - mini-MPVs, mini-hatchback, mini-minis, etc. They all look pretty cool and nicely designed - I'll try and take some pictures. Contrast this to the US where cars seem to continue to get bigger (and less efficient).
- Things are expensive - this isn't just due to the weak dollar - everyone seems to complain about he price of everything. See the picture above - that's a $100 tank of petrol.
- The beer is still way better than the piss served up in the US
I have started posting pictures of our trip to Flickr (as bandwidth allows).
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Jul
29
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There are many variations of pancakes around the world, but here's my favourite - typical of the kind eaten in the UK on Pancake Day / Shrove Tuesday but they make a great family breakfast (kids can help). You'll need :
- 110g of plain flour
- a pinch of salt
- 2 large eggs
- 200ml of milk + 75ml of water
- 2 tablespoons of melted butter
OK, here's the fun bit - after cooking one side for a couple of minutes - you HAVE to flip or toss the pancake to cook the other side (be ready to scrape bits from the ceiling and floor)
You can keep the pancakes warm enough so you can all eat together but they don't keep well for more than 30 minutes or so. The filling is the most important piece; my favourite is creme fraiche and strawberries - if you can't get creme fraiche (or have an aversion to really unhealthy stuff) then plain yogurt will do (as per the pic.) Of course when I get back to work next week (after 2 weeks of paternity leave) I won't have time for such luxurious breakfasts nor will I have time to blog about it !
