Awesome Springboks

I grew up in Zimbabwe which is the first country on the Northern South African border. Consequently I have always been a fan of South African sport, be this golf, tennis, cricket or rugby and many other sports besides.

It often amazes me that no matter how well they do, they are not quite considered as the best. The classic example is with the rugby team known as the Springboks. They have won the world cup twice and are the current holders, which should speak volumes. But no, the New Zealand, All Blacks are the better team, irrespective of whether they win the world cup or not. Well, well, well, in the current Tri-Nations series, the All Blacks have currently lost twice to the Springboks. Yet the perception still entails that they are the better side.

I can't make peace with this and am the first to say that All Black rugby teams are great sides. No question in my mind about that. However, fair is fair and this Springbok rugby side is in my opinion, in a class of it's own.

Next up they take on Australia and I cannot see them getting the upper hand and believe great things are yet to come from this Springbok side provided they do not have a spate of injuries. As I said earlier, fair is fair so let's put this to rest. The Springboks are the better side. Just look at the scores.

What is truth?

Ever since Pontius Pilate first uttered these words, it is a question which has been haunting mankind, and it is still true today. About 25 years ago I read a book by Ayn Rand and towards the end there is a quote from Aristotle, a great mind. I was so impressed by this and used to know it word by word. But I'm getting on in life and can only now remember.

" For a principle which every one must have, who understands, anything that is. Is not a hypothesis. Evidently then, such a principle, is the most certain of all. Which principle this is, let us proceed to say. It is, that the same attribute, cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject in the same respect."

For some reason this always made immediate sense to me and still does.

So, what is truth?

In the defence of the Eel

For the last year and a half I have fallen on hard times. I lost my job and because of the recession, my age, my disability, it became almost impossible to find work. So being some what at a loose end I began playing around with the computer to pass the time and give me something to do apart from the housework.

Somewhere in amongst all this I came across a site called Squidoo owned by a world renown author and computer marketing expert and I started writing short stories about some of my life experiences.

It's a wonderful, sharing, helpful community and in the process have made many friends, albeit only online. One of these people has been unfailingly kind and helpful to many people here. By all accounts she has not had the easiest of lives and has personal problems, not least being an inability to talk to people. Now I am not exactly sure about this but I think she has what is known as Aspergers Syndrome.

Be that as it may, she writes beautifully and is very talented, her pseudonym here is Eelkat. Apart from having her home burnt down and living in a tent, recently she penned a story about this. This has fallen foul of her leaders in her church who are harassing her and threatening excommunication.

That such things can happen today in a first world country and to a lovely, vulnerable girl, is quite beyond my capacity to understand. So this is just a small post for you and to let people know, that you have more friends than perhaps they realise and they had better thread warily.

Postcript on the Golf and cricket

Following up on my last post and two things are done and dusted. Firstly England won the second test and deservedly so. It's certainly going to liven up the series.

Then of course the British Open Golf. Who would have believed it possible that a 59 year 10 month old man who had a hip replacement recently would lead for four days. It went to the wire and he played one bad shot in all that time, which was his second to the green on the eighteenth. All he had to do was make par and the tournament was his. Astonishing.

As it turns out he bogeyed it and had to play a form of sudden death which he lost. As far as I'm concerned he never lost. Rules, rules, rules. But how I like to look at it is, in racing terms. One doesn't re-run a hundred metre dash when one cannot separate the winners or worse still have a re-run between the two winners of lets just say 20 metres. No sir, it's a dead heat and both won.

If I was Tom Watson, that's how I would be consoling myself. If I was Stewart Cink Iwould be thinking. I made a birdie putt on the eighteenth under huge pressure, so I also deserved to win.

Anyway congratulations to Stewart Cink on being a worthy British Open golf champion. To Tom Watson, thank you for giving me four of the best days of my life. What an inspiration.

A celebration of life

Have been out of touch lately. The Lions rugby is done and dusted. However my wife's sister and her husband came to visit us from New Zealand ( another great family who were ousted from Zimbabwe ) and we hadn't seen them for 9 years. How time flies by. As it turns out the two sisters have always been very close and from the word go I always got on with her and her husband. What times we have had and what a pleasure it was to have them and their youngest daughter, now sweet little sixteen. We laughed from the moment I picked them up at Dublin airport until the moment they left. Unfortunately my favourite Uncle died two days before they left and I was heartbroken by this. Consequently I had to get them up to Dublin earlier than expected, so that we could attend the funeral and what a lovely service that was as well. My Uncles son is a world renown musician and he conducted an orchestra during the service and also had his youngest son play a solo piano piece flawlessly and heartrendingly beautiful. My Uncle would have loved it.

I also was trying to become a Giant at Squidoo and by some stroke of good fortune managed to achieve this status and also had the accolade of having one of my articles, awarded a purple star. The highest honour of all. I'm flattered.

Since, some great things are happening. Being a lifelong cricket lover there is nothing better than the Ashes cricket tests between England and Australia and the rivalry is intense. As it turns out the series is finely poised with the first test being drawn and England currently in the driving seat in the second test.

Then there is the start of the Tri-Nations rugby series between the giants of the Southern hemisphere, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand won the first match against Australia this morning.

Not least the British Open golf with Tiger Woods missing the cut and a 59 year old man, Tom Watson still joint leader after day two. What a feast of great sport and what a celebration of life.

The Lions in South Africa

Up until now I have been quiet about this. Normally I like to make a prediction prior to matches starting like I did with Ireland winning the six nations. Initially my gut feeling was that it was going to be 1974 all over again when a not so highly rated Lions took on a very highly rated South Africa and gave them a hiding.

But as I said I kept quiet and it's not to late yet except I've missed out on them being all conquering. The first game they played against very mediocre opposition they won, in the end the score was flattering and they got away with this by the skin of their teeth. The same day the South African provincial side the blue bulls ( historically one of the strongest provinces ) took on the New Zealand provincial side the chiefs in the final of the Super Fourteen. The blue bulls gave them a comprehensive hiding and I came to the conclusion. That if that is the strength of South African rugby at provincial level, then this Lions side has no hope.

Since then the Lions have played two more games against provincial sides, won one convincingly and the other by a stroke of good fortune. I'm not impressed. Tonight at 6pm Irish time the Lions take on my favourite South African provincial side, the Natal sharks. It will be the first time they come up against a strong side and I cannot wait for it to start.

I'm not sure how to call the game but it will be an indication of what this current Lions side is about. The only other thing I can say is that choosing the final XV for the first Test is going to be a selectors nightmare. Consequently I am going to try and pick the side on this blog and then see what the official version is.

Stay tuned, but in the meantime enjoy the games.

An English Gentleman

A few days ago something strange happened to me. I noticed someone had written a blog post about me and this completely took my breath away. It was unnecessary, but having said that I have to admit that I was delighted. Life can be strange as I do not even know this person and have no first hand experience of him. However I first came into contact with him at the Squidoo forum. Not only is he intelligent, erudite and many things besides, it was his sense of humour which got to me and this underlies most of his work. Because it appealed to me, I immediately clicked on his avatar to be able to see some of his work and I was not disappointed, in fact I was enthralled. From here a slow but sure friendship developed, albeit only through modern media and the internet in particular. He's clever, he's erudite, but I think he cannot suffer fools gladly and besides that I think he loves to throw in a bit of controversy, just to liven things up a bit. This often gets him into trouble, but it's what makes me personally laugh. In my experience, he has never done this to demean anybody, but it gets things going and then somebody says something to which he retaliates and of course takes the blame. That's why I like to call him An English Gentleman.

Believe you me I have led a topsy turvy life and have seen both the best and worst of human nature. One of the strongest tenets I have come across through all this is, " to have a friend, first you must be a friend." It stands to reason therefore, that what this gentleman did for me with his blog post is a perfectly obvious example of this tenet.

As an English gentleman he is widely travelled and he writes beautiful and compelling articles about all this. Earlier I said he had a gift and his gift is with words but never underestimate the underlying humour. You don't believe me? Then if you want to think a bit, laugh a bit and sometimes have the blues a bit. I suggest you type in Bardiness to your browser and go have a look at his blog. Finally thank you for being a friend.