Britain’s Got Talent Finals 2012

Regular readers may recall that I was blown away by two acts in the initial auditions of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent. I blogged about them here. This year has undoubtedly been the best ever for the range and quality of the talent on offer. Nu Skool and the Loveable Rogues were fantastic as were The Mend and Ryan O’Shaughnessy but I still felt that either Only Boys Aloud or Jonathan and Charlotte should win.

The winner in the end was Ashleigh and her adorable dog Pudsey and I wish them all the best. My two preferred acts came in second and third; not bad as I picked them from the very start!

Britain’s Got Talent – 2012 Initial Auditions

This year’s series of the reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent started last weekend. Last year I felt that many of the wannabe’s were pretty average and no-one particularly stood out for me. This year could not be different. I was really impressed with several of the acts putting themselves forward last weekend.

Two acts however really stood out. The first was the amazing Welsh boy choir “Only Boys Aloud”. They performed “Calon Lan” in Welsh:

The second act was not one which caught anyone’s eye to start with. The programme showed audience members dismissing the act by their appearance and Simon Cowell making a dismissive remark. I really thought that people would have learned from the shock that people got when Susan Boyle opened her mouth and began to sing. Anyway see what you think:

Amazing or what?

It seems that “Only Boys Aloud” have been going for some time and I found this promotional clip from them which you may enjoy:

Happy New Year – What Will 2012 Bring?

Happy New Year to all my readers!

2011 was a difficult year in so many ways. The new Coalition government was getting to grips with the problems left by the previous Labour administration, only to then have the troubles in the Eurozone added to  the picture.

Here in Reading we had the local elections which saw the collapse of our Lib Dem coalition partners and then the Greens allowing Labour back into control of the town through the back door! We barely had time to understand the problems locally before we had to hand back the reins. Yes we made some mistakes but I think the general thrust of what we were doing was what was wanted locally. The Lib Dems who were in the Cabinet were good and sensible partners in administration but their lives were complicated by some internal difficulties in their Group.

Within my portfolio of Strategic Planning and Transport, we secured the £10.6m for Reading Station, implemented the biggest changes in the town centre in living memory, completed the Junction 11 upgrade, started the process of removing unnecessary existing traffic lights, stopped the planned removal of the roundabouts at TGI’s and Caversham Bridge, cancelled the closure of Chatham Street slip roads and the planned new traffic lights on the IDR next to Broad Street Mall, froze most car park charges, implemented a new tree strategy and planted dozens of new trees, made the S106 system more transparent and properly recorded, reviewed and revised the residents’ parking zones and rules. Not bad for one year! And that was despite spending a disproportionate amount of time on the Shinfield Road scheme that Labour left me.

It is my biggest regret that I could not find a way to stop it or at least reverse its most damaging elements. It was impossible to do so when Labour and the Council’s transport officers were so wedded to the scheme’s implementation. Taking a proposal to Cabinet which did not have technical endorsement from the professional transport planners would have been impossible and would certainly not have passed. That is why the Transport Research Lab report was so important, as it gave a second opinion and Officers agreed to accept its findings. Whilst it is the case that the report did not recommend removal of the lights, it did state that the there was no real difference between the lights and the roundabouts in safety terms. Labour could use that important finding to justify to Cabinet removing at least one sets of the lights – something I would have done had the coalition still been in control.

Anyway 2012 should prove to be an interesting year! There will be local elections in Reading in May, in which the Lib Dems will probably again lose all the seats they are defending. Labour will also probably lose the third seat in Park to the Greens. We will fight hard to stop Labour gaining any more ground in Church ward, with the long serving and very local Councillor Azam Janjua.

In London Boris Johnson will be fighting to retain the Mayoralty against a Ken Livingstone who is now very much past his prime. It should be a win for Boris. There will then be the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June, swiftly followed  by the London Olympic Games. Both events will ensure that the world will be focussed on the UK for the period and should lift the spirits of a nation still suffering the hangover of Labour’s economic mismanagement.

Internationally there will be elections in France and the US, both of which will be important to the UK. The Euro crisis will rumble on unless the major nations in the Eurozone get a grip. There is a real danger that Greece could end up suffering a military coup if domestic discontent is not well managed. Russia is set for a Presidential election which Vladimir Putin hopes will put him back into the top role. Widespread protests in Russia are unlikely to derail his plans but could act as a check on his ability to get his own way.

I can say with some sense of certainty that the world will not come to an end in December 2012 but much will have changed by the end of the year.

Will Ed Miliband still be Labour leader?

Will the Conservatives continue to defy political gravity and be level pegging with or ahead of Labour in the polls?

Will the “Arab Spring” continue to unseat autocratic leaders as it rumbles across the Middle East and North Africa?

Will Obama prove to be a one-term President like Jimmy Carter was?

Feel free to post your thoughts for 2012 below.

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas. This year it seems that we are destined for a very mild Christmas unlike the previous two years. As a result the homeless and those in fuel poverty will find the season a little more bearable. If you do have an elderly neighbour please do drop them a card or find out if  they need anything. This year I have sent far fewer cards and have instead made a donation to a charity which works with those who find Christmas more of a struggle.

At this time of peace and goodwill to all men, normal hostilities are suspended and when I have collected together the Christmas cracker jokes I will post them, as I have done in some previous years.

Anyway have a great Christmas and here’s hoping for a happy and successful 2012!

I Am Back

Apologies to readers for my absence recently. I was amused to be told that one local blogger has suggested that I have been “gagged”. Fortunately no-one has ever attempted “gagging” me. The truth is rather more prosaic; after a week’s holiday I had busy week which was then followed by a two week work residential training course with limited access to the Internet.

This caused me to miss a number of events I would usually attend such as the Remembrance Service at Brock Barracks. However, I was able to observe the commemoration of the sacrifice of so many, with my work colleagues.

More to follow when I have time. Meanwhile don’t believe the ill-informed, gossip merchants!

World Population Reaches 7 Billion

The human world population is estimated to have reached a new record total of 7 billion. For many people this is bad news and indicates a growing threat to the natural environment and resources. However, despite increasing by another billion since 1998, it is not all bad news. It took 13 years to add another billion, whereas the previous billion took just 11 years. It indicates that at last the rate of increase is slowing and the projection suggests that the next billion will take 14 years to add.

Reuters have a very good graphic which can be found here and which I have reproduced below:

Joe McElderry – “Classic”

I have been thoroughly enjoying the second album released by X-Factor winner Joe McElderry. The album “Classical” is a radical departure from his previous pop releases and follows on from his fantastic performance on “Popstar to Opera Star”.

It contains classical favorites such as “Nessun Dorma” and my personal favorite “Va Pensiero”. There are also well known songs you can sign along to such as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the film “The Wizard of Oz”.

Interestingly there is an adapted version of Nessun Dorma in English and the theme from the film Titanic “My Heart Will Go On” sung in Italian!

The tracks on the album are:

Canto Della Terra

She Was Beautiful (Featuring Milos)

Over the Rainbow

I Dreamed a Dream

Time to Say Goodbye

Il Mio Cuore Va (My Heart Will Go On)

Hear My Prayer (adapted from Nessun Dorma)

Solitaire

Dance With My Father

Va Pensiero

To Where You Are

Bonus – Nessun Dorma (Original)

It is a fantatsic album, combining some of the best of classical music favorites with more than a hint of a modern style and backing. I think it will be popular across the generations and gain Joe a whole new following.

My recommendation? Buy It!

Beautiful Cornwall

I have just returned from a lovely relaxing weekend in Cornwall staying with some friends who run a guest house down there. I went to Cornwall for the first time just a few weeks ago and fell in love with its wild coasts and countryside. Being a Dorset boy, I am used to parts of the West Country but for some reason had never ventured as far as Cornwall before. The attractions of the south east are often over-rated and quite a few people I know have given up the rat-race to set up their own business with a more gentle pace of life.

While I was down there it was nice to have a look around some of the attractive small towns and visit some of the local sights. Yesterday I went to the stunning Lanhydrock House near Bodmin (right). It is essentially a Victorian reconstruction based on a Jacobean house which burned down in 1881 and was beautifully rebuilt and refurbished with many then “modern” features such as an extensive system of fire prevention measures and internal fire hoses. The house which had been the home of the Robartes family for several hundred years, passed to the National Trust in 1954. It is a fantastic time capsule of genteel living, with extensive kitchens and servants’ quarters, and some superb furnishings, pictures and antiques. It is well worth a visit.

Today Bude had a fund raising event for the RNLI which was attended by thousands and involved displays on the canal and kayaking sports events. Some hardy souls braved the Atlantic wind and cloudy conditions to demonstrate RNLI techniques for rescuing swimmers in distress. I was pleased to make a small donation to the cause.

I hope to go back down there again soon and further my exploration. If readers would like to suggest any places that they have visited and enjoyed I would be interested to hear.

A Great Holiday in Marmaris, Turkey – PART 1

I have just returned from a wonderful week’s holiday in Turkey. I had never been to Turkey before and ended up booking this holiday because it was cheap! The holiday was in the south western harbour town of Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast where daily temperatures are 30 degrees plus.

We booked through Thomas Cook, who I have always found to be very helpful and friendly. The flight was from London Gatwick to Dalaman airport in Turkey, arriving in the early hours of Sunday morning. It was a 90 minute coach journey from Dalaman to Marmaris and we stopped off at a very nice truck stop on the way where we got some tasty Turkish chicken wraps. The journey took us up into the mountains above Marmaris on some roads with very steep drops down one side. It was noticeable that Turkey seems to be investing a lot of money into widening and improving its major roads. Almost the entire journey was on roads that were in the process of being widened from single to dual carriageway, or had recently been resurfaced. The quality of  road surfaces was much better than in neighbouring Bulgaria, with the exception of the surface over bridges, which for some reason remain poor and very bumpy.

We arrived at the Club Atrium Apartments in the centre of Marmaris and got our heads down pretty much straight away. It was warm and breezy even at night and we left the door to the balcony open to get the fresh air. Within an hour or so that was proven to be a mistake when the local mosque broadcast a very loud call to prayer at about 4.30am! Somehow I didn’t imagine that in secular Turkey this would be a regular feature.

The following night we joined a tour of the local bars led by Thomas Cook holiday reps. The first one was on a boat which set off into the harbour with several hundred drunken teenagers on board. Once the boat returned to harbour we slipped away from the group and went for a more peaceful walk around the harbour bars and restaurants which almost hide the old town of Marmaris comprising many tiny narrow streets around the old castle. The annoying feature of the area is that every bar and restaurant has people at the front inviting customers into their premises. Every possible ruse is used to get the attention of passers-by, making it almost impossible to inspect a menu a prices without being pressured hard to enter. After a while we got used to it and developed a more easy ability to say “no thank you”.

On Wednesday we took a bus to Ephesus as part of a pre-booked excursion. The trip was three hours each way and involved heading up into the mountains and along the coast. We were accompanied by a genial Turkish tour guide who styled himself as “Moses” and proceeded to lecture us on the benefits of democracy over Communism and Fascism, as well as the history of Asia Minor from prehistory through the Romans and Byzantines to the modern Turkish Republic. He also touched on the perils of separatism, citing Sctland, Ireland and Wales as examples! We moved north away from the hot Mediterranean climate and into a more temperate zone where “Moses” explained that in winter there was snow and where citrus trees would not grow.

We arrived in Ephesus (“Efes” in Turkish) to park with hundreds of coaches in a huge car park. “Moses” led us through the entrance gates and down a tree-lined  avenue towards the ancient city. We arrived at a collonaded street which used to lead to the harbour of Ephesus, wher “Moses” explained that the original city of Ephesus was sited on a river mouth which silted up and became marshy necessitating the re-siting ofthe city further inland. Behind us was a colossal amphitheatre which has been calculated to seat at least 25,000 people. “Moses” explained that in Roman cities amphitheatres were designed to be able to seat 10% of the adult population.

The group was swiftly led up another marble paved street, though a triumphal arch, to the splendid facade of the Library of Celsus. This was the third largest library in the ancient world behind only Alexandria and Pergammon. The facade is the most commonly known image of Ephesus, standing two stories high and with many of its original carvings and statues still in place. We were then taken up another street and into a set of public latrines which would have sat around 30 men around a pool containing baby dolphins. They were next door to public baths and a series of temples to various deities. The ruins are spectacular but I was struck by the sheer quantity of beautifully carved stone and marble lying around, and the volume of broken pottery littering the ground. In some cases the archaeologists have reconstructed buildings from the plentiful remains and more are in the process of being reassembled.

The most striking remains for me were the terraced houses cut into the hillside off one of the main streets. A team of Austrian archaeologists have been excavating one large section of them for over 100 years and have discovered large houses, with marble and plaster lined walls and remains up to two stories high. I was stunned to see brightly painted rooms, marble and mosaic floors, and pillars all still in place. The whole area is covered over with a roofed structure and glass walkways have been contructed to allow visitors to see what is below as well as around the walkways. The terraced houses are subject to an additional 15 Turkish Lira which was well worth the entry cost. Most of our group did not bother with them but I am delighted that we did. The houses are of a standard which I imagine is only replicated in towns like Pompeii or Herculaneum in Italy.

I was so enjoying seeing the terraced houses that we lost track of time and had to almost run back to the coach where everyone was waiting for us in order to head back to Marmaris. There was no time to explore the amphitheatre or the rest of the site. I could have happily spent the rest of the day there!

I will post a further instalment on my holiday experiences shortly.

Britain’s Got Talent – 2011 Auditions

In the last edition there was one contestant who stood out for me as head and shoulders better than the rest. Jai McDowell (24) belted out the anthem from “Chess” stunningly well and received a well deserved standing ovation:

“Wicked” – The Musical

Last night I went to the Victoria Apollo Theatre to see “Wicked”, the award winning musical which has been taking the theatrical world by storm. I had heard much about the show and how so many people raved about it but didn’t really have much concept of what it was all about. Essentially the show tells the story of the witches of “Oz” and their development into the characters we see in the classic 1939 film. However, whereas the film has very two dimensional characters which are essentially good or bad, the musical shows those characters in a much more nuanced light.

The wicked witch of the west is a troubled individual who has tried to fit in and do good but been spurned and hurt by those around her. Glinda the good  witch of the north is a ditzy blonde who just wants to be popular. The show tells the tale of how they grow up and go to school together. It weaves in the wizard who is similar to his film persona but also explains how the tin man, lion and scarecrow are created. There is a major twist in the plot at the end which I won’t spoil for anyone who has yet to see the show but it took me by surprise!

The performances were superb, the staging and costumes were fabulous and at times the whole theatre seemed to be part of the set. The flying monkeys were well portrayed and there were several real “wow” moments such as “Defying Gravity” when the witch of the west rises above the rest of the cast without any visible means of support.

I enjoyed it from start to finish and can recommend the show to anyone who has enjoyed the film in the past or who likes spectacular shows. One warning though, it will change your perspective on the film for ever!

I hope to go back and see the show again some day soon.

Caption Fun

A reader has sent me the following photo taken in Wakefield referring to Ed Balls’ constituency office. It would be a good one for some fun captions!

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

On Saturday night I went to the Hexagon in Reading to see Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s superb musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat” as produced by Bill Kenwright. It is great that Reading continues to attract professional shows of this quality and I was very lucky to get two good tickets.

When the TV show “Any Dream Will Do” was on, I was a big fan and voted for Keith Jack to win. Since Keith has now taken over the Joseph mantle from the eventual winner Lee Mead, I was keen to see him perform. I was not disappointed.

The show has all the well known songs and some fantastic costumes. The show is fantastic fun, combining the story of Joseph with a wide variety of musical styles and some very humorous moments. Keith was great as Joseph and was supported by an excellent cast.

Me meeting Keith

At the end of the show there were reprises of the best known songs and the guys playing Joseph’s eleven brothers came down from the stage and danced and sang amongst the audience, much to the delight of one young lad in the row in front of me. After the show it was great to meet Keith Jack and thank him for having signed my programme in the interval!

The Hexagon staff were all excellent and it was good to catch up with some that I knew when I used to perform on the Hexagon Stage with local theatre groups. Sadly it was the last night for “Joseph” in Reading, otherwise I would have been tempted to go back again.

Merry Christmas to All My Readers

May I wish all my readers a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

Traditionally Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill to all men. So I will avoid the temptation to include any political comment! Suffice to say that usually hostilities are suspended for this festive season.

I was delighted that yesterday (Christmas Eve) I had the most people viewing my blog of any day so far. I had over 2,100 hits yesterday which is hugely more than expected, or than experienced in previous years. Thank you!

Anyway, have a great Christmas and let’s look forward to a productive and successful 2011!

Two Years Old Today

It was on 18 Dec 2008 that I embarked on blogging for the first time. Having seen lots of other blogs and being encouraged by friends who blogged, I found a format and launched with an article about the speculation surrounding a possible early General Election. I stated my view that Gordon Brown would not dare call an early election and that he would wait until the last possible time in Spring 2010.

Since then I have written almost 1,000 postings, mainly about politics (local and national) but also opinion polls, film reviews and defence issues. There have been over 3,000 comments and almost 370,000 hits in that time. On the busiest day for hits (27 Sep 09) there were 1,738 page views. The busiest month was May 2010 with 24,613 hits. The most read article was on Samoa deciding to switch to driving on the left with 10,447 hits. At the moment I am getting 500-900 hits per day.

There are times when finding something to write is a chore but mostly I find subjects that I feel motivated to comment on. Occasionally I have to restrain myself from writing on some issues, particularly when I disagree with the Coalition government nationally or our local coalition but generally I feel it is better to comment in an open and frank way when I am motivated to do so. It is great to hear from people who read what I write and in almost every instance they are friendly and share my love of debate. However, there are a small number of unpleasant commenters who prefer to hide behind anonymity. They usually damage their own arguments by their confrontational approach but it is mercifully rare that I have felt the need to block a comment.

I am surprised that some respected bloggers have decided to call it a day but understand the occasional frustrations and burdens that blogging brings. I am still enjoying my blog and very much expect to be here in two years time. Do keep reading and commenting, and most of all keep dropping me notes with useful information and suggestions!