England

I have always wanted to visit England Scotland and through my job at Rostad Tours I now have that opportunity. After a overnight flight I arrived in London a day earlier than our group so I decided to visit the office of JacTravel our local tour operator in England Scotland. After a 9 hour flight and checking into my hotel room I headed back to the Heathrow Airport to embark on my first Tub

On the last Sunday in April we were blessed with a rare gift from the UK sunshine We decided to make the most of it and go for a day trip. We decided to head to the old cathedral city of Canterbury with history dating back to the 1st Century. Canterbury is in South East England about 1.5 hours drive from London. The highlight was of course the cathedral. It is the oldest Christian structur

This is part six of a long conversation. The previous installments can be found here, here, here, here, and here. SpursFanTN: As a Spurs fan, I get to see a lot of beautiful plays. But I pretty much have to watch them in real time as Sportscenter is much more enamored with the most recent Lebron dunk. Last year was the most beautiful run of highly choreographed, dominating basketball on the offensive end of the court that I've ever witnessed. But it is hard to pick a play, or a moment, from years of greatness. So I'm going to going to go with two plays, neither of which had any meaningful impact on the game, but both stick in my memory. The first is the most unexpected, and the second was just plain amazing. So, um, Hi, my name is Steve, and I'm a Matt Bonner fan. I've been sober 18 months, but sometimes I just get an urge to take just one more sip of Matt Bonner kook-aid. I can't help it. In a lot of ways Matt Bonner reminds me of my brother, you know, if my brother was a foot taller and a sandwich connoisseur from New England. I think a lot of the criticism leveled at him is warranted, and I would even say that for a few years, he was content with his game. But I think he really worked on his game and conditioning in the off season, and during the regular season even, when he wasn't seeing a lot of minutes. Anyway, he's a great guy, with a great attitude, without a shred of athleticism, that has found a place in a very athletically competitive industry. And I like to see him be successful. The second is just Manu being Manu. I love Manu. He's been my favorite player for years, and it is difficult seeing him at the tail of his career with a body that won't do what his heart wants to do. Ginobili plays on the edge. He does risky things that result in turnovers, or awesome, game changing plays that get the fans involved, that elicit involuntary exclamations, that make you come up out of your seat, or shake your head marveling, or in the case of the clip I'm going to show you, makes you think, "What just happened?", followed by a euphemism of some kind, you know, like, "Holy cannon-fire, Batman!", or maybe something more conventional. Game 2 is over. And it was closer as we expected. Z-Bo said that after Game 1, he couldn't sleep. And he didn't turn on ESPN or any other sports channel because he didn't want to hear them talk about the game. I saw Henry Abbott interviewing some Spurs super-tweeter. He said that when the Spurs lose, he is so frustrated he hits things sometimes and it takes him days to recover. Man, I totally get it. I feel the same way after a loss. I am a Spurs fan. As far as I know, "fan" is short for "fanatic". I guess that's me because there is no other way to explain my behavior. I am emotionally invested. Losing hurts. When I used to play, I would do a Kobe (minus the media circus and grandstanding), and would follow up a loss with an extra hour or two of free throws and shooting around. That made me feel better. I could DO something productive with all of that upset energy. I have been known to do the same after a Spurs loss, as if my improved shooting would somehow help the team. It didn't, but still made me feel better. I'm not a screamer and I don't hit things, so when I can't do a shoot around, the emotion I'm feeling stays pent up inside and I'm agitated, irritable and even short with people for a few days, until it bleeds out. I'm a voracious Spurs news reader, watch video, listen to podcasts, but I do NONE of that when the Spurs lose. I can't stand it. I don't want to hear about it. I just wallow in despair and frustration. I have no idea how those other PtR guys write game recaps. I couldn't do it. It's crazy. Maybe it is emotionally immature, I don't know, I'm not an expert on such things. But that's the way it is for me. I can watch football, baseball, golf, soccer, volleyball, tennis, and have a blast, appreciating the play of both sides. I can watch other NBA or college basketball

Shandong young man Xu Shuai and his English wife From QQ: English Woman Who Married Shandong Man Encounters Forced Demolition, Relies on Foreign Nationality to Protect Husband [...] One day in 2011, Xu Shuai’s father received a land acquisition phone call from the district committee, 700 yuan of compensation for each mu [a Chinese unit of area = 1/15 of a hectare or 1/6 of an acre]. Xu’s father cherished his family’s first-class fertile farmland, [so he] haggled over the price: Each mu of land could earn 1,500-3,000 yuan in pure profit each year, so 1,500 yuan per mu would be better. The request was denied. The other side left a message: Their land would be taken in 3 days, and if they refused to give up their land at that time, they would be arrested. Xu’s father had a heart condition, and became afraid. He discussed with his son: We don’t have any connections, let’s just give up the land. Xu Shuai began to complain. He called the city mayor’s hotline, the Public Security Bureau, the Land and Resources Bureau, but all their replies were the same: They say they’ll arrest you, do you have any proof? They say they’ll confiscate your land, but have they done so? “No, not yet, they say ‘in 3 days’.” “Then call us then.” The only “proactive” reaction he got from his complaints was from Baidu Tieba. Xu Shuai wrote: “I’ve already called and told my wife: Stay and live well in London, England, don’t come back, raise our child, and find a good man to remarry. I’m already tired of living, so the day they forcibly take my land, I’ll fight with my life…” At the time, because they had no “Certificate for Having A Baby”, they were worried their child would not get a hukou after being born, so Xu Shuai’s wife Joanne [Margaret Noble] returned to England to give birth. However, their status as an international family and Xu Shuai’s characterization [of the situation] as a life and death struggle attracted attention, and some foreign media called for interviews, resulting in the town leaders to hurriedly placate him: Stop making a fuss, the land requisition can wait for a while, we won’t take it for now. “Suddenly I felt like the sun was shining, felt that there was still had a bit of hope in this social system, that it wasn’t that dark/black.” The other side yielding left Xu Shuai feeling embarrassed: “I think that land developer isn’t bad, having built a road for our village. I think development is a good thing, attracting businesses and money to develop the economy, improving the conditions of our village as well as providing jobs for our villagers. I’m a man of the modern age, my head isn’t stubborn [clinging to the past]. I said to my father, let’s sign it, because although the land acquisition is illegal, the advantages are bigger than the disadvantages…” Still at 700 yuan per mu, Xu Shuai’s land was expropriated. The bonus was that Joanne no longer complains “there’s mud as soon as I step out the door”, but the cost was “your family is now on the blacklist, be careful in the future”. Xu Shuai’s classmate who worked at the village committee reminded him as thus. Weifang city Fangzi district Dongwangsong village young man Xu Shuai married a Western wife! This is unprecedented in their village. 2010 March, this brown hair, blue-eyed young woman from London has already lived in the village for several months. Joanne experienced China’s many diverse interpersonal relationships and etiquette. [Photo: QQ] One year after the land acquisition dispute, Xu Shuai’s grandfather wanted to build a house on his old house’s foundation. To make sure everything was done properly, they submitted to the village an application for building construction, and paid the 200 yuan fee. Xu Shuai says, the village’s response at the time was: The land is yours anyway, go ahead and build it. However, when the house construction was half-way through, “some people came from the town and held my grandfather down, then

Just last season, Richard Seymour was one of the highest paid defensive linemen in the NFL. He had been one of the highest paid for a number of years and at one time perhaps he deserved it. Those days are gone for Seymour. They actually lasted longer than they should have because of the hefty contract he received from the Raiders when he was acquired in trade with the New England Patriots where he hadn't made a Pro Bowl in three seasons. When he arrived in Oakland, he was already on a downturn but was still considered among the best defensive linemen in the game. The problem was, there was no way he would still be worth his contract by the time it was up and so his eventual release was inevitable. In last year's training camp Seymour was seen standing on the sideline more than he was actually practicing. In previous seasons, he was among the veterans who got regular days off practice but last year on top of those days, he was also battling chronic knee pain. Midway through camp, Myself and Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle spoke with Seymour. At the time, the hot story was about how he said he thought the Raiders could be a top 5 defense and he even used the Patriots as an example of how a defense could be underestimated. Not only was the Raiders defense just as bad, if not worse than expected, but Seymour was ineffective with those bad knees the first half of the season before being sidelined for the latter half. But it wasn't Seymour's controversial prediction that stuck with me from that conversation. The part of that conversation that I couldn't really stop thinking about was when Vic asked him about being the highest paid defensive lineman in the league. He insisted that he was no longer the highest paid player, citing Julius Peppers and Mario Williams as having surpassed him. Then he joked that "I need to load back up (laughs)... The guys came and took my throne away.... I'm looking to get back, yeah." I understood it as a joke and didn't make anything of it, but something still seemed unsettling about a player, especially one nearing the final years of his career, focusing so heavily on who is making more money than he is. Now 33, if he were to still be under contract with the Raiders, he would again be the highest paid defensive lineman. His salary against the cap was set at $19 million. The Raiders had put a playing time clause in his contract that would give them the option to void it while taking a $13 million bath and they exercised it. Not that they had much choice, that is still a much needed $6 million savings. It is about nine months since he joked about being the highest paid defensive lineman and over four months since his contract was voided and remains unemployed. Then this week, for the first time, news came out of him visiting the Falcons. Seymour lives near Atlanta in the offseason so Initially it seemed his becoming a Falcon was going to happen. However, shortly thereafter things broke down and word is they couldn't agree on financial details. There are likely two things at work here and they are both classic Richard Seymour. 1) He simply wants too much money. 2) He doesn't want to sign with a team until OTA's and minicamps are over so he won't be required to show up and practice. Most likely it's a combination of the two The humble pie is bubbling and he will be served it soon enough. He has to realize he is not the player he once was both due to age and injury and he will have to be content with the gobs of cash he has already made in his career (even when he was undeserving) because it's that or forced retirement from football.

Last night there were two separate attacks on mosques in England. An incendiary device was brought into a mosque in Braintree Essex and in Gillingham Kent a window was broken and a bookcase with copies of the Koran sustained damage. This comes in the wake of protests by the far-right English Defense League. Protests, which, at times grew violent. Law enforcement tried to contain the protesters and there were multiple clashes. All of which is in response to a gruesome horrifying murder and act of terror on Wednesday, when a British soldier was run down by a car and then attacked with a meat cleaver.Lee Rigby, a father of a two-year-old, had been working in London as an Army recruiter. He was near his barracks when he was attacked. The mourning for Rigby is still fresh, as is the shock over the alleged suspects. Two British men who were shot by police and are now under armed guard at a hospital: NBC News understands that the two men are believed to be Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale. One of the suspects is believed to have converted to radical Islam 10 years ago. And one of the suspects created a truly surreal scene in which he approached an eyewitness and evidently confessed and declared his motivations.More...

Wayne Rooney has handed in a transfer request at Manchester United, this we know.The 27-year-old, who has won five Premier League titles and a Champions League at Old Trafford, is clearly ready for a new challenge, and Paris Saint-Germain are reportedly keen to offer it to him.The Guardian reports PSG are prepared to match Rooney's estimated wage of £300,000 per week at United. The transfer fee being mooted is around $60 million (Bloomberg).French champions PSG would be looking to pair Rooney with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the maverick genius who led their quest to the French title and Champions League quarterfinals this season.Will Rooney take up their offer? And, if he does, what would United stand to lose without him? What might they gain?Equally, let us consider the implications for PSG should Rooney swap England for France next season.In this clip, B/R's Will Tidey breaks down the implications of a possible deal and weighs up the likelihood of it coming to fruition.

It was meant to be the beginning of a long weekend, and England was ready to embrace an early summer holiday. Instead, there is anxiety and confusion in the aftermath of the murder of Lee Rigby, a young soldier brutally killed in an attack involving a self-styled radical Islamist wielding a meat cleaver on a London street on Wednesday. Police were preparing to deploy 1,000 officers, backed by armed response units, as the far-right English Defence League announced it would hold demonstrations against Islam. The terror threat level in the U.K. was “substantial,” in the middle of its five rankings. On Friday, RAF Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to escort a passenger jet flying from Lahore, Pakistan, after reports of unspecified threats. The plane made an emergency landing at Stansted airport with 300 on board. Police officers boarded the Pakistan International Airlines flight and took two British men, aged 30 and 41, for questioning on suspicion of endangering an aircraft. Meanwhile, the family of Rigby, a 25-year-old drummer, spoke at a news conference in the Manchester area, describing their grief at losing a young man who had fulfilled his ambition of joining the army. His crying wife Rebecca, mother of their 2-year-old son Jack, said she was shocked that he survived a tour of Afghanistan only to be murdered in London. “I am proud to be his wife and he was due to come up this weekend so we could continue our future together as a family,” she added. Police said there has been an autopsy but the cause of death “has not been confirmed.” The two main suspects who were shot by police at the murder scene are recovering in hospital and have not yet been questioned. They have been named in the press as Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale. Adebolajo, described as a Nigerian convert to Islam from a devout Christian family, was identified in a video holding knives and justifying the attack as an assault on the West as Rigby lay dying nearby, not far from the Woolwich barracks. The propaganda value for other radicals has been high and there was an increase in chatter on extremist websites calling for copycat crimes, said Maajid Nawaz, a former jihadist at the Quilliam Foundation think-tank in London. “We can see the tempo being raised,” he told the Associated Press. “One of the reasons why these guys acted in a theatrical way was because of the propaganda effect so others would be inspired to do the same thing.” The English Defence League had its own response ready. Leader Tommy Robinson tweeted: “Lets hope lees death is the beginning of the end for militant islam! Let his death not be in vain!” The organization promised to hold several demonstrations in the coming weeks. Two British mosques have been attacked and national religious leaders have tried to calm tensions. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, top official at the Muslim Council of Britain, appeared jointly in Leicester on Friday and condemned Rigby’s murder. “I want to recognize the response of churches, mosques and other faith and civil society groups, as well as those of brave individuals who have done so much to bring our communities together at this time,” Welby said. The political fallout continues. Andrew Parker, the head of domestic spy agency MI5, is expected to deliver a report about what the intelligence services knew about the two Woolwich suspects — who had been on their radar for up to eight years — and whether the tragedy could have been prevented. But most British people were trying to get on with their daily life, said Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Edinburgh. “The best thing to do is carry on and condemn where condemnation is needed but also put it in some kind of perspective,” she told the Star. “There is genuine shock but it’s not panic on the st

U N I O N J A C K CARVED FROM CURLY RED OAK BY BAZZA. INSPIRED BY THE TRAGIC MURDER OF ONE OF OUR ARMY GUYS OUTSIDE WOOLWICH BARRACKS EAST LONDON A COUPLE OF DAYS BACK… HOPE IVE DONE IT JUSTICE.IT STANDS 9 INCH HIGH & 12 INCH ACROSS.BAZZ WINDSOR WEST LONDON ENGLAND www.woodengiftworkshop.webs.com

The New England Revolution will hold try-outs for its three Revolution Academy youth teams that compete in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy in the coming weeks. read more