"i am me" - team gb on the bbc

watching sunday nights spoty (that the bbc sports personality of the year) i thought the whole thing was excellent but i especially enjoyed the video featuring some of team gb's paralympic medalists.

to watch click here and skip to 37:24 on the video (or watch the whole programme!).

it reminded me of the brilliant advert for the gb paralympic team that came out just before the games back in the summer.

winters day over river orwell

poke the penguin

this is an awareness test

wisdom by andrew zuckerman

visit wisdombook.org for more about the film and accompanying book.
visit andrewzuckerman.com for more about the creator.

november 4th 2008

more at patrickmoberg.com.

governing people by patrick moberg

thought this animation was very apt with whats currently happening in the united states.

crowe lee deehan delap sodje (by keane)

this is possibly one of the funniest things i've ever heard in my life.

it featured on the 606 football phone in with danny baker on bbc radio 5live a few weeks back. basically a guy called "teletext alex" has replaced all the words to "bohemian rhapsody" by queen with the names of footballers. the song is therefore now called "crowe lee deehan delap sodje" by keane.

i will say no more, just watch and listen.



to follow teletext alex's new lyrics click here.

cricket season over for another year

it's over! the cricket season is completed (stop cheering mrs p!).

the final game last sunday against cavendish wanderers ended in defeat but was notable for two things. firstly i scored a personal best of 34 batting at number three. the other thing being one of our players managed to hit a towering six straight through a team mate's car window!

all in all a pretty good season for elmswell c.c. as we finished fifth out of nine teams. i think next season with a bit more luck and some better weather we could push for another promotion.

for a full run down of the league table click here.

for the record, this season i played 11 matches, batted in 10 innings, with 1 not out, scoring a total of 127 runs at an average of 14.11 with a top score of 34.

tony blair on the daily show

tony blair recently made a very interesting appearance on the daily show with jon stewart.

this show is more often than not the best place to get a realistic view of american (and often world) politics.

mr blair doesn't offer too many nuggets of wisdom (when did he ever?) as it seems more of an advert on his part to publicise his new course in faith and globalisation at yale university (weird hey?).

in my opinion the best point made during the interview was from jon stewart himself when he talked about the fact that in the end 19 people actually carried out the attacks on 11th september 2001. he asked is it possible to go to war enough, to make the world safe enough, that 19 people wouldn't want to attack "us" again.
(see 7min 50secs in on video part 2)

elmswell c.c. update

when i last updated you elmswell c.c. were on a 3 match unbeaten run in the league. unfortunately that came to an end in a fairly close game against earl stonham which we lost by 26 runs. we got back to winning ways the following week with a 5 wicket defeat of nowton.

in august the weather took its toll and we were unable to play any league games, losing 3 chances to gain more valuable points.

our first game after the rainy season that is the english summer came last sunday against tendring park. we had lost to them earlier in the season in a fairly close game that we really should have won. however this match turned out to be even closer.

we won the toss and decided to bat first. it all looked pretty bad when we collapsed to 72 for 7 after only 29 overs. but a stand of 57 for the 8th wicket brought us home with a very respectable 129 for 7 from our 40 overs.

tendring park started well but lost wickets at fairly regular intervals throughout their innings. they steadied the ship and with 12 balls left they were 127 for 8 - 3 runs for victory!

the penultimate over went for just a single - 2 runs to win! the final over started badly with a no-ball. this tied the scores, but if scores were level we would win as we had lost fewer wickets. no runs were added as we came to the last two delivers of the game. dan, our young bowler, then pulled it out of the bag. two wickets, both clean bowled, with the last two balls of the game! what a finish, and at 8pm (it was dark!).

we are now safely in mid-table of division 3 with only one game to go next week against cavendish wanderers. then the bat and gloves get a well earned rest until next season.

on the road again

yes it's official, i've started running again - and i have a new toy. it's called the nike+ and it turns my ipod nano into a kind of fancy pedometer that can measure my speed, distance, pace and calories burned as i run. i used it for the first time today and it worked really well.

also, you might have notice the little widget on the side of my blog page. this will keep you all updated on how well my runs are going and if i'm getting any quicker. if i start to flag or get lazy you have permission to get onto me.!

waterlog by roger deakin

i have just finished reading the excellent "waterlog- a swimmer's journey through britain" by roger deakin. it's an excellent travel book with a twist in that the author writes about his journey as he swims through britain.

his love of the natural world and his passion for it's conservation comes through strongly and if you are an east anglian (a person from east anglia) like me then you will be familiar with many of the places he visits in our region.

i'd highly recommend this excellent book as a great read that leaves you feeling that you've swum every stroke with the author and enjoyed all the sights, sounds and smells that he did.

elmswell c.c. make it 3 wins in a row

with two wins added to our record since i last updated things on the cricket front, we've now made it three wins in a row in the league.

a good performance with the bat (including a 24 from me!) saw us beat second place
cavendish wanderers by 3 wickets a fortnight ago.

then last week we were fortunate to accept a win on a very wet weekend as horringer had to concede the match due to them being unable to get a team together(not really a win i know but they all count).

tomorrow we play earl stonham in what could be a very close game in the battle for the second promotion place in division 3.

well done mrs p

well done mrs p for completing this years race for life in ipswich.
it was more of a swim for life with the heavy rain that fell pretty much all the time but that didn't seem to slow anyone down.
congratulations to mrs p, colleen (see pre-race picture above), and all those who took part in ipswich and across the country.

mrs p's race for life sponsorship page

mrs p is going to be running the race for life this year and it would be great if you could sponsor her and help raise lots of money for cancer research uk.

please click here to go straight to her sponsorship page and donate securely online.

its for a great cause so please give as much as you can.

thank you

new iplayer beta

the beeb have launched the latest version of their iplayer in beta format. it comes with a much better menu and radio and other cool stuff. give it a look, its the bee's knees!

who is going to win euro 2008?

so who is going to win euro 2008?

its been one of the best football tournaments for a long time (perhaps because england weren't there!?) and the final takes place this sunday in vienna's ernst-happel stadion between germany and spain - but who is going to take home the trophy? (the one pictured above is the subbuteo version but i thought it looked cool)

to help you decide have a go on the "i vote" at the top of the page.

elmswell c.c. update

hello all,

i feel i have been neglecting my blog a bit so thought an update on the cricket situation was needed - so here goes.

on sunday 11th may we played edwardstone away and lost by the rather large margin of 6 wickets. we batted first but only managed to score 99 runs (i contributed with a second ball duck!). needless to say they didn't take long to knock those runs off (21.5 overs actually).

the following week (18/05/08) we were at home to bury st edmunds academy team and guess what? we lost again, this time by 31 runs.

now on 25th may we managed to avoid defeat against top of the table hadleigh. this was due to a great performance from the weather which meant the game was cancelled!

our next game was on 15th june at home against tendring park. they batted first and posted a good total of 193 for 3. we gave chase and game up 15 runs short. it was a real good effort considering we had a very depleted side.

now this week we got ourselves back to winning ways with a great performance against horringer. we won the toss and batted first. both opening batsmen scored over 50 and we finished on 168 for 5.

our bowlers then set about demolishing their innings and they finished 76 all out.

we're now in 6th place in the league with 9 games to go.

our next game is this sunday at home against 2nd place cavendish wanderers.

no news? if only

elmswell c.c. back to winning ways

elmswell cricket club got back to winning ways last sunday as we beat nowton cricket club. nowton batted first and we demolished them, all out for 74. we then made short work of our target and i didn't even get a chance to bat.

we're now sitting pretty in mid-table of division 3 after two games. next up its our first away game at edwardstone and the weather forecast looks like sunshine all they way!

off to a losing start

better late than never but i thought i'd post our result from last weeks cricket match.

earl stonham batted first and posted a score of 189 for 4 from their 40 overs. we bowled well and with a bit more luck we'd have had a few more wickets. i played pretty well behind the stumps and took two catches.

our innings was a tale of two halves. we raced to 100 runs off the first 20 overs and then had a bit of a collapse in the second 20 overs. after 40 overs we had reached 186 for 8, just short of the target. i hit a pretty good 13 runs in the rain.

overall not a bad result for our first game of the season and even thought we lost we picked up a few bonus points which always come in handy at the end of the season. we currently sit 5th out of 9 in division 3.

next game is against nowton at home. hopefully we can do a bit better this week and get a win this time. i'll let you know how we get on.

Humphrey Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008)

Humphrey Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008)

the world became a slightly less funny place today.

we'll miss you humph, "until next time!"

it's almost time

the new cricket season is almost here! ( i can just hear mrs p groaning in the background)

at 1:30pm on sunday we (that's elmswell cricket club) will begin our season with a home match against a team from earl stonham.

i'm really looking forward to it but at the moment i'm not getting too excited as the weather forecast is not too good. hopefully, all being well i will be able to put an update on hear with how we got on asap after the game.

also, i've put a little poll on this blog to find out how people think we're going to get on so feel free to cast your vote.

"well done"

well done to over 34,000 people who completed the london marathon on sunday.
it never fails to amaze and move me watching the masses of people complete the 26.2 mile course.

congratulations and remember, only 376 training days until the 2009 london marathon.

happy april fools day

the sound of leather on willow

its getting closer, i can almost hear it, the sound of the new cricket season for elmswell cc looming on the horizon (can a sound loom on the horizon? well you know what i mean!).

our first match is a friendly against lavenham towards the end of april and i'm really looking forward to it. not sure if mrs p is but i think she secretly likes the lazy sunday afternoons watching us play.

this season we're in division 3 so things are going to be a bit tougher i think, and we've also decided to enter this seasons cup competition too just to spice things up a bit.

anyway, i'll be keeping a record of our games on here so be sure to come back every sunday night (or bit later in the week if i'm too tired to blog) to find out how we're doing.

did you know...(no.8)

... tonight is the lenten moon? well you do now!

i actually got this fact from a really cool allotment blog called bean sprouts.

basically this is the reason why easter is so early. easter sunday must fall on the first sunday after the first full moon after the equinox. as the equinox was yesterday and the full moon is tonight then this sunday is easter sunday! easy hey?

also (bonus 'did you know' coming up!) this easter is only one day short of the earliest that is possible (22nd march). however, this won't happen until the year 2285 and it won't be on 23rd march again until 2160.

east fife fizz goes flat

poor old east fife football club have been banned from celebrating their championship success with the traditional shower of bubbly.

it appears that the problem was nothing to do with the contents of the bottles but the bottles themselves. according to officers from central scotland police the law states that glass containers are not permitted inside sporting grounds.

i can just see it now, lewis hamilton wins the british grand prix and is handed a plastic bottle of bubbly, with the plastic cap removed for his own safety!

cool video

i now know what i want for christmas

me and mrs plowy have recently been stocking up on equipment to start going camping when the weather warms up. on my travels through various camping and outdoor equipment websites i came across "the largest swiss army knife in the world", namely the wenger giant knife for sale at wiggle.co.uk for the bargain price of £445.50. just imagine the fun you could have one one of those!

chicken out!

i've been watching the chicken out campaign on channel 4 and it has really opened my eyes to the way chicken is farmed. the programme was fronted by hugh fearnley-whittingstall of river cottage fame and showed the differences between free range and intensively farmed chickens. it made some good points about how buying free range chicken need not be greatly more expensive than the bog standard variety.

he also tried to get interviews with the major supermarkets in the uk but they were unsurprisingly reluctant.

give the campaign website a look and and show your support by signing up!

2008 - the year of the allotment

as we don't have any major events planned for this year, mrs p and i are hoping to make 2008 the year of the allotment. we popped down to our plot last weekend and had a good sort out. it wasn't looking too bad (pictured) so we gave it a good weed and cleared a few brambles etc. we've got some good winter/spring vegetable seeds, things like beans, radish etc so they'll be going in soon along with the much needed pigeon protect, which might include a homemade scarecrow.

watch this space to watch things grow (fingers crossed)!