Bloody immigrants

I can't believe we allow any damned foreigner to come into the country, steal our jobs, our food, our houses....and our women.  It's a disgrace.  They're just slackers.  I'd put them all back on a leaky boat to where they come from.

Anyway, here's a picture that's currently being used by the Tirolean Tourist Board to promote the region.  The skier on the right is McFred.  What a fine lad...and how adventurous of him to have got a job in Austria last year, found somewhere to live whilst he romanced the local girls and enjoyed the local cuisine.

Completely exhausted

I've somewhat lost the thread of this post which I wrote a week ago and then forgot to post...it may not be finished, but I don't have the energy to re-read it....

We had a somewhat eclectic weekend the one before last.

Friday night was high culture with a performance at the National of Ballyturk.  I hadn't been paying too much attention so had assumed it was a dance piece called Ballet Turkish.  We were four rows from the front which is normally good, but in this case it was a bit of a shame.  I have developed this incurable habit of dropping off during Act 1 of anything, and this was a one act play.  I'm sure it's the perfect actors play, and the parts were played very well, especially Stephen Rea who we last saw on TV in the Honourable Woman.  But, but, but you know it's emperors new clothes when even the programme says you don't need to understand it to enjoy it.  Essentially from start to finish it was two men screaming at each other.  That was the performance.  Two of us 'got it'...it was inside a traumatised child's head.  You may enjoy it, and I wanted to but no.

Saturday evening was spent in the company of John Richardson who is a very funny man indeed.  I'm not a great one for stand up comedy, but he pulled it off very well and it was a very enjoyable evening thanks to my friend Graeme and his girlfriend Vetty.  They enjoyed themselves too, but the evening ended badly for them when they returned to their parked car to find they had a flat tyre...and no spare.  We'd already left so didn't find out until later when we were cursing the rubbish Tube service.  We got home about 11.30, they finally arrived home at 2.30, short of £200.

That was unfortunate for Graeme, as the next day he was taking part in a 45 mile cycle from Palace (Buckingham) to Palace (Windsor) (Yes, I know it's a castle...don't split hairs.

I arrived nice and early at the start line clad in lycra...the penalty of being sponsored by a corporate.  Still I was able to take this view from Waterloo Bridge.  Glorious eh?

We all set off for a very, very pleasant ride through the south of and west of London...the absolute highlight for me was to see the stags in Richmond Park which were absolutely magnificent...I wish I could have got pictures.  Here are our team:

I was lucky enough to be caught by one of the professional photographers

I was pretty relaxed at the end as it had all been done at a leisurely pace...