Cromarty Biggs: Powder Monkey on Kindle!

There being nothing of any note on television last night, I finally got around to putting my first book as my second book on Kindle eBooks. Cromarty Biggs: Powder Monkey was first published by Rain Publishing of Ontario Canada which has since ceased trading. However, they gave me the opportunity to get my work into the public domain, so I'll always be grateful for that. With the manuscript in Word format, it just needed a little tweaking to fit in with the Kindle formatting request and hey presto, the book is now available to purchase through the internet! I couldn't use the original book cover, as it's subject to copyright (but was my idea) so my daughter has promised to produce one for me. In the meantime, please feel free to take a look at it and feedback your thoughts. Fifty Shades of Grey started as a Kindle eBook, so you never know. Oh, and if any Hollywood producers are looking (or any movie producers from any country), with modern day CGI, it would make an excellent film!

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BBC Points West Sport - Swindon is in Your Region!

The most satisfying thing to emerge from this Christmas, apart from the fabulous roast turkey dinner my wife cooked, are the standings of the local football teams in their respective leagues. Swindon Town are flying high and are poised to gain promotion for the second season in a row. Paolo Di Canio will want nothing less than the next step up into the Championship, whether it comes automatically or via the play offs and, come May 2013, the club will be celebrating another successful season. The "unfortunate" thing about the following season will be that there will be no local derby between Swindon Town and Bristol City. Conversely, next season will not see a derby match between Bristol City and Bristol Rovers, the reason being that both the clubs from the city down the road are bottom of their respective leagues with only 19 points each to show for half a season's endeavour; City will be going down to League One and The Gas will drop out of the Football League altogether. Of course, the fans at the home of the real West Country Robins are besides themselves with...glee! Rockin Robin will have a lighter step when he performs his dance in the centre circle knowing that the Bristol clubs are on their uppers.

However, the one fly in the ointment for all this is the fact that the local BBC news programme seems to think that the only football teams worth reporting on are those west of Chippenham and give the cursory of mentions to the Town's success. BBC Points West please take note - Swindon is in your region!  

America's Obsession with the Gun.

Thomas Hamilton

Michael Ryan

In my lifetime, there have been three instances of deranged individuals going on a shooting spree on a large scale in the UK, massacring many innocent individuals. In Hungerford in 1987, Michael Ryan murdered 16 people and wounded 15 more before killing himself. The year 1996 in Dunblane saw the monster Thomas Hamilton shoot dead 16 children and 1 adult, and wounding 17 others before committing suicide. In 2010, Derrick Bird killed 12 people and wounded 11 others before killing himself.

Derrick bird

Yet, reports come from across The Pond of innocent persons being killed or maimed by someone with a gun at what seems to be an alarmingly regular rate. A look at the interactive map published in  The Guardian  gives a detailed breakdown of the murders in the USA for 2011; it's startling how many of these killings were carried out using a firearm of some sort. Interactive Map - Murders in the USA 2011

The recent killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut bears similar circumstances to the massacre at Dunblane. In both cases the monster involved targeted young children for whatever sick reason they had in their warped and evil minds. When the Dunblane massacre happened, my eldest child was of the same age as the children who died and it had a profound effect on me; how can anyone get their head around the rationale for a fully grown man taking guns into a primary school and killing toddlers who, full of innocence, had yet to learn the ills of the world? The children who died at Sandy Hook were the same age as my youngest child and the same thoughts are back in my mind.

The National Rifle Association (the NRA) in America guards jealously the right of its members to own guns . This right, it is argued, stems from the Second Amendment of the American Constitution (Bill of Rights) which states:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.




The interpretation of this simple sentence by the NRA is obtuse in the extreme as they use it to give credence for their raison d'être. It is obvious when one reads the Second Amendment that the authors intended that a Militia, or the people, should be given an unalienable right to bear arms rather than the individual. The context in which this amendment was written is off the back of what was really the first American Civil War, rather than the War of Independence, as the immigrant British subjects rebelled against the rule of the King and Parliament over the American colonies. At the time, even though the rebels had been victorious with the help of France, there was no standing army of note and this part of the Bill of Rights intended that all males of military age had access to arms if at any time they were called to be part of the local militia in time of any future war. This rationale served well for a democracy in its infancy during the later stages of the 18th century, but it is an irrelevance in the early 21st century where that fledgling country is now the foremost military power in the world. The need for all males of military age to be able to bear arms disappeared long ago.

Having studied the laws each state has put in place in order to regulate gun ownership in the USA, the one thing that comes to mind to someone who lives over The Pond is that the rules are complex and disparate from state to state. The one thing that needs to come from the tragedy in Newtown is a complete overhaul of the American gun laws and a uniform approach across the whole country. As an outsider looking in, this is what I would do:

1. Repeal the Second Amendment - it is archaic and irrelevant to American society today
2. Have an amnesty whereby gun owners are given a finite amount of time in which to hand in their weapons
3. Compensate gun owners for their loss in the form of tax breaks or government bonds

There will be exceptions to the blanket ban as some persons will need to have firearms as part of their job - farmers, forest rangers, etc, but anyone found to be in possession of a firearm after the amnesty will be breaking the law and subject to arrest.

With regards to Wayne La Pierre's recent comments on behalf of the NRA (put an armed guard in every school), this would simply raise American children in a climate of fear from the day they start school. Who really wants their four year old to see firearms on display as they enter the school system for the first time in the autumn?

Is it Back Me or Sack Me at Swindon Town?

Like most Football League managers, Paolo Di Canio holds a pre-match press conference on the Thursday before Saturday's game. This usually allows him time to convey his thoughts in an English vernacular that he has obviously picked up during his time as a footballer, plying his trade both in England and Scotland, rather than as a student in a classroom learning how to conjugate verbs. The resulting transcript may sometimes have to be read two or three times before the gist of what was said comes through. Other times, the diatribe that the Roman produces as he fulminates on the latest issue that has got his goat needs no explanation; whether his statement needs translating or not, an annoyed Paolo Di Canio is a spectacle worth watching and listening to!

New Swindon Town Chairman,
Sir William Patey

"Oh, b******s!"

This was fine and dandy when all was right in the world of SN1 and Jeremy Wray was the Chairman of Swindon Town. Supporters of the club could listen to the Thursday rant and know that Mr. Wray was there to take Paolo to one side after his meeting with the hacks and calm him down with a soothing word or two in the fiery Italian's ear. Now in Sir William Patey there is a new Chairman at the foremost club in Wiltshire and a stricter regime in the boardroom. This is what makes this week's railing at the internal politics within the County Ground a little more disconcerting. Not since Glen Hoddle's tenure as manager has Swindon Town had someone whose own ambition has been the catalyst for success, dragging the team kicking and screaming along with him. League One consolidation may be the official aim of the club for this season, but for someone like Paolo Di Canio, a student of Bushido, continuing the momentum from the success of his first season as manager of Swindon Town and achieving back to back promotions is the one and only goal for this year.

So, the report in the Swindon Advertiser today makes for unnerving reading. (Adver Report - Di Canio's 20 Minute Rant). The team are in a healthy position in the league going into the Christmas fixtures and it is imperative that Paolo Di Canio is in place to steer them through what can be a difficult time in the season. However, reading the news item, it would seem that the Swindon Town manager could be having a crisis of conscience, his own ambitions seemingly at odds with the directions he is being given by the board. Hopefully, all will be resolved as soon as possible at SN1, but, unfortunately, there is no longer the sage advice of Jeremy Wray to counter the emotional outburst from the already managerial legend that is Paolo Di Canio.    

Where has Swindon's Monkey Gone?

The 1993/94 Premier League season evokes mixed emotions in the hearts of Swindon Town fans. Following the outrageous demotion from the then Division 1 in 1990 after beating Sunderland fairly and squarely at Wembley, the club and supporters finally got the reward of being allowed to be part of the top division of English football by beating Leicester City 4 -3 in the play-off final for 1992-93 (Division 1 = the Premier League when all was equal in the world of football and before Murdoch had ruined the chances of the national team ever winning anything by diluting the top division with foreign imports...ask your Dad). The excitement was palpable, until Glenn Hoddle left to manage Chelsea and Colin Calderwood, the talismanic captain, signed for Spurs. Suddenly, the forthcoming season seemed a little more daunting as the club's leadership was decimated and John Gorman was asked to pick up the reins and manage the team. Although fair reward for the dour Scot for his help in getting STFC to the promised land, his relative inexperience at such a high level was to be part of the club's downfall during the 1993/94 football season. It was 15 games into the season when Swindon Town finally registered their first win at the top level. That match was at home to Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday 24th November 1993 and the Town did the double over them by beating the West London club 1 - 3 on Saturday 30th April 1994 at Loftus Road. That record, 15 games without a win from the start of the Premier League season, has been an ignominious blight in the club's copybook for over 19 years...until yesterday!

The monkey on Swindon's back packed his bags and was seen heading off down the M4 in the direction of The Smoke, a copy of the London A to Z clutched securely in his hands. He has now taken up residence in London W12 and will be seen clinging to Harry Redknapp as, ironically, it is Queens Park Rangers who now have the dubious honour of being the team with the worst starting record in the history of the Premier League. Yesterday saw QPR draw with Wigan Athletic and achieve the dizzy heights (or should that be nauseating depths?) of playing 16 games from the start of the season without a win.  

As a supporter of Swindon Town, I would like to say thank you to QPR for taking this record off us. Derby County have the lowest points tally for any Premier League season, but we just need to lose the goals against record (100 for 42 games) and the therapy will be finished...any takers?

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Jahmene

I don't really watch the X Factor; that time on a Saturday night is usually a signal for me to put my earphones in my phone and catch up on something on Youtube whilst my wife and daughter experience the warblings and strangulated tones of those folks who think they can sing. Car crash television is not something I would call entertainment. However, this year it's different for us yokels in deepest, darkest Wiltshire. One of Swindon's sons is in the final and he used to work in Asda just down the road. Jahmene Douglas has a very real chance of winning and setting himself up for a life-changing career. Good luck to him; I said he would win when they showed his audition, so I wish I'd put money on it! He was back in town yesterday and visited his old place of work. You could tell he was due to arrive, because, as my wife was trying to pay for her groceries at the self serve till, none of the Asda "Colleagues" was available to help her when the automated till refused to take her £20 note; they were all staring out of the window cooing over the imminent arrival of their ex-colleague. Apparently the crowds were 4 or 5 deep outside and there was quite a smattering of males amongst the throng. Somehow, I don't think they were there to see the petite warbling sensation from the home of the Great Western Railway. 

The presence of a certain Pussycat Doll in the guise of Nicole Scherzinger was most probably the draw for these members of the Jahmene Posse stood 

outside Asda, shivering  in the cold December afternoon.

Footnote: Is it just me and my teenage son who, when saying the name Jahmene, can't help saying it a la Michael Jackson in "Bo Selecta", with the obligatory epithet on the end...Google it and you'll see what I mean.

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Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff

Not one to shirk a challenge, Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff took to the ring for his first, and possibly only, professional boxing match. The fight wasn't pretty and Freddie's punching style was a bit suspect at times, but he showed that grit, determination and hard work can get a person to places they might not have thought possible before. One of England's true sporting heroes, Flintoff was floored in the second round by a left hook from Richard Dawson, his American adversary, but he got up to receive a points decision after four, two minute rounds of hard graft. His post-fight interview is worthy of a look on Youtube, as Freddie comes across as very humble in his moment of glory, attributing his win to not only the months of training he put in, but also to the team of trainers led by Barry McGuigan who guided him in his quest to become a professional boxer.
My point is not to encourage people to become pugilists, but rather to take heart from Freddie's endeavours and take up a challenge, something that they might not have thought they could do. What will you do?

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Blogging

Why blog? Blogging is akin to a writer sending his brain for a workout down the gym, keeping the grey matter in trim ready for the day when its owner decides to sit down and continue with his main writing project. Whereas a post for one's blog can take mere minutes to compose and write, the very act of writing allows the mind to tick over and exercise it in the machinations of composing sentences, prose and plot lines (and drivel sometimes!).

  The brain needs activity just as the rest of a person's body needs exercise to remain healthy. In my view, writing a blog keeps the synapses in the brain active and ensures that these electrical connections keep firing at the optimum level.

Read my book...it's a good read!

Family life can get in the way of a writer's desire to sit down and add to their manuscript, as this activity can take up several hours of the aspiring author's time (writer's block notwithstanding). The pressures of home life, everyday living and having a real job cut into the quality time a writer needs to devote to their book/screenplay. So, until your time management provides a viable window of opportunity in which to sit down and add to the magnum opus clogging up your hard drive, a few minutes spent blogging will keep your brain active, alert and focused ready to spring into action when the time is right to crack on with that best-seller.

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Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones, Harry Redknapp and Other Wrinklies

The Rolling Stones

The first thing to say is, I wish I'd been there. What am I talking about? The Rolling Stones concert at the O2 Arena. The music of Mick Jagger and his beat combo has been a subliminal backdrop to people of my generation since our birth in the sixties. As we've grown up through each decade, the one constant has been the music of The Rolling Stones; always there, frequently changing to meet the tastes of a new generation, but somehow remaining the same. The only contemporary band that may emulate their longevity is U2, but Bono and the boys have a way to go before they reach the dizzy heights of 50 years in show business.

Reality check, though. If your septuagenarian grandfather was to ask you if you'd like to come to a concert put on by him and his elderly friends, you'd think he was nuts. But, when you think of Keith Richards on stage strumming to Undercover of the Night, Charlie Watts beating out a rhythm on the drums and Ronnie Wood looking like his face has been carved out of a gnarled tree trunk, age has no meaning and you appreciate the music for what it is.

Harry Redknapp

Harry Redknapp has the look of someone who is in a constant state of  somnambulism, his hooded eyes giving him the appearance of a person who is ready to drop off to sleep at the slightest invitation. Rather than hold down a managerial position as have the likes of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, Harry seems to be a journeyman, taking his coaching skills and knowledge to whichever football club offers the right terms and conditions, and try and get them some form of glory, whether that be keeping the club up or vying for some form of silverware. He will have his work cut out with Queens Park Rangers, though and it will be interesting to see how he can succeed where Mark Hughes failed.

Other Wrinklies

The above two stories serve to illustrate that some things can be better the more they mature. The Rolling Stones may be aged, but their music endures and the quality of their live act is appreciated by their fans 50 years after they took their first step along the road to stardom. Love them or hate them, Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp must have what it takes to allow them to ply their trade in the top level of English Football for decades. Perhaps we all need to take a look around us and appreciate the "Wrinklies" in our midst rather than dismiss them as the elderly. If we're lucky, we all hope to live to be active wrinklies ourselves one day.

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And the Weather Forecast for 2012...Wet!

The British have an obsession for discussing the weather it's true. This year, 2012, has given us more than enough ammunition with which to continue a discourse on the vagaries of our temperate climate. The way people go on about it, though, you'd think the country has never suffered a downpour or any other form of precipitation before. This year has been unusual admittedly, but the clue is in the term temperate. A dictionary definition for temperate is:

• moderate in respect to temperature; not subject to prolonged extremes of hot or cold weather

This doesn't preclude the UK from bouts of wet weather and 2012 has seen us have more than our fair share of downpours since late spring/early summer. The end result of all this water falling is the inevitable flooding as the water courses fill up, the ground gets sodden and there is just nowhere for the excess water to go. The thing about this is that we're supposed to be surprised whenever it happens. We don't have the monsoons and the tragic flooding that occurs in countries in tropical climes, such as Bangladesh, but the UK is a damp place in which to live. 

Syr Dar'ya River Floodplain, Kazakhstan (NASA, International Space Station Science, 09/30/10) (Photo credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center)

But, if people were to cast their minds back to their first geography lessons, they will remember, as I do, "The Life Cycle of Rivers" (and I don't mean my kith and kin!). Downstream from their sources, rivers tend to swell and in the middle course have floodplains which get swamped occasionally during wet spells in spring and winter. This is good for the land as silt and nutrients are spread across the nearby land making it productive in respect to growing crops, etc. Unfortunately, these areas are generally where human populations have settled and grown over the centuries. And, as the towns and cities have increased in size, the rivers are engineered such that the floodplains are protected from flooding by banks and walls and the problem is pushed upstream and further downstream. Concreting over the land reduces the area over which the land can absorb excess water and the surrounding areas get sodden. Lo and behold, we have floods. 

With December, January and February around the corner, the next thing we're going to suffer from is a couple of days of snow; the weather has to be bad for Swindon to get any of the white stuff, though. The country will grind to a halt, flights will be cancelled and our Scandinavian cousins will look across the North Sea, cast their eyes to the snow and ice covering everything, which is the norm in that part of the world, get on with life and mutter that the British are a strange breed!

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David Beckham Signs For...?

David Beckham, multi-millionaire and England football icon is leaving LA Galaxy and looking to fill his twilight years (footballing career-wise) back in Europe. He doesn't need the cash, but obviously wants to leave the game having had one last hoorah, hopefully back in Blighty. So where is he looking to to park his Zimmer frame and produce some free kick magic on a cold Saturday afternoon in winter? Sam Allardyce has expressed an interest in taking him to Upton Park and West Ham United is his local Premier League team. Paris Saint Germaine have been wooing him as well. But, as hinted at above, David Beckham is in the enviable position of being completely minted so doesn't need to return to European football in order to boost his pension portfolio. So where off the beaten track would be good for him to take his trademark free kicks?

If Beckham has any ambition to get into the world of coaching or football management, why not team up with an ex-West Ham player and fellow exponent of practice, hard work and 110% dedication to the cause. A Beckham/Paolo Di Canio coaching relationship would be symbiotic for both parties; Beckham would learn the techniques of a burgeoning management talent in Di Canio and the Swindon Town manager would  secure a formidable midfield acquisition, whether used as a "super sub" or for 60 - 70 minutes of a match. So, don't be surprised if in the not too distant future, David Beckham is pulling on the sacred red shirt of Swindon Town and running onto the hallowed turf at the County Ground on a blustery afternoon in January!

Well, we can dream can't we?

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