Iran | The Ball is Round

I’m one of these people who lets their heart rules their head. I’d like to think of myself as a romantic. The Current Mrs Fuller would call me stupid, but I always have the best intentions at heart. So after flying 6,736 miles without much sleep it was probably a but silly to go to the pub at midnight to watch the German game. It was even sillier to decide to stay up and watch the next game at 3am, especially when I was getting up at 7.15am for a full day of meetings.

I sold it to myself that this was the best World Cup ever, and even the prospect of Iran v Nigeria wasn’t going to buck the trend of incident- packed games. OK – hindsight is a wonderful thing. It was terrible. At least the first hour was anyway before my head took over my body, slammed shut my laptop and put me to sleep.

So consequently, trying to find five things that inspired me is going to be difficult. The quote from the BBC that they “performed diligently, with Queiroz getting the best out of a group of players who stuck rigidly to the tactics employed” basically is a polite way of saying it was awful.

So I’m not going to give you five things from the game, but five facts from Singapore:-

1. It’s not illegal to chew gum, despite what you may believe. It’s illegal to throw it on the floor;

2. It has the highest open rooftop bar in the world – Altitude. Not one for those with a fear of heights at 282 metres in the sky;

3. Symbolism of the National Flag: Red symbolises universal brotherhood and equality of man while white signifies purity and virtue. The crescent moon represents a young nation on the rise and the five stars signify the ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality…..apparently

4. The world domino topple record (303,621 men) was set in Singapore on 18th August 2003 by a 24-year-old woman from China;

5. The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. The ingredients are gin, Cointreau, cherry brandy, Dom Benedictine, pineapple juice, Grenadine, Angoustura bitters and limes. It also costs the same as a small terrace house in Runcorn.

Beer World Cup? At 3am? Under Sharia Law….er no.

I wasn’t the only person who threw myself head first into the Olympics and Paralympics, searching out daily availability for tickets and willing to see everything and anything. Brian Parish, the brains behind the Daggers Diary went to almost an event a day. One of these was the final of the 7-a-side football on the last day the Park was open.

After the excitement and drama of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, arguably the best seven weeks of sports seen in this country draws to a close. Both events have created new heroes for the British sporting public to follow, admire and emulate, and after all of the fears about transport, security and almost everything else, I would say from what I have seen, that it seems to have gone fairly well.

From a British point of view, there have been new heroes created, some have re-enforced their higher status, and some have probably increased it. Expect an increase in the popularity of Bradley and Eleanor as babies names over the next year or so.

There were disappointments of course. The GB men’s football team suffered an entirely foreseeable exit on penalties, while the women’s team, having done the hard work by beating Brazil and topping their group, then blew their chance of a medal in the quarter final against Canada. Whether either GB side will appear again is a matter for much debate. Continue reading →

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Five things from….Iran 0 Nigeria 0

Seven and the rampant tiger