Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the month “September, 2012”

30 Sep 2012

Final thoughts on Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Do you want to pay 9p for a litre of petrol?


The two days I have been here have been interesting although I am not sure I have seen much if any of the kingdom. My conclusions are simple that I like the people or to be precise I like the men. They are more humble than I would have predicted, not all but most and interesting human beings. I hate the roads they are full of cars and bad driving. Yet astonishingly I have not seen a single accident. The reasons for the roads? Easy. The price of fuel is incredulously cheap and each family has 2-4 cars. Women are not permitted to drive so a second car is needed for the driver who drives the women.

The whole women thing takes some getting used to. In the audience for my talk tonight ( they like the term talk and not the term lecture) were no females. To have allowed them to be present would I was told have needed special governmental permission. I did see around 10 females arrive and sit down, and one was of european origin, but then they vanished. At the end of my ADHD talk I realised where they were, in a separate “womens room” presumably watching the slides on a monitor. Yet on the Saudi Arabian airlines flight this morning the cabin attendants were all female and wore no specific coverings of the face. Maybe I need to understand a little more.

Saudi Arabia is not a small country with a constantly growing population of 28 million inhabitants of whom 8.4million are non-nationals.  The two largest cities are where I have been staying, Riyadh 5 million and Jeddah 3.5 million. The native name for KSA is actually Al-Mamlaka al-‘Arabiyya as-Sa’ūdiyya (I have to admit to copying and pasting that one).

Geography was never my strong point but it is interesting to note the size of Saudi Arabia when compared with the other Gulf countries that surround KSA. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Arabian Peninsula. It occupies an area about the size of the United States east of the Mississippi River. Saudi Arabia’s population is 28 million, including 8.4 million foreign residents (2010 census),  and its capital city is Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia’s geography is diverse, with forests, grasslands, mountain ranges and deserts. The climate varies from region to region. Temperatures can reach over 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the desert in the summer, while in the winter temperatures in the north and central parts of the country can drop below freezing. Saudi Arabia gets very little rain, only about four inches a year on average.

green background, with in white letters the Muslim creed in Arabic: “There is no god but God: Muhammad is the Messenger of God.“
I will definitely return and would encourage others to do so.
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30 Sep 2012

By the seaside. Jeddah in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)


Jeddah is about 75 minutes flight from Riyadh and very different. Firstly it is by the sea and I know that as I can see the sea from my window on the 6th floor. The humidity is incredible, so different from Riyadh which seemed pleasantly warm although around 30 degrees even in the evening. Lots of usual signs appear for Domino’s pizza, Subway, McDonalds and many more. The driving here is incredulous. I would issue a challenge to anyone to determine in the first 30 minutes of being in this city which side of the road they drive on. At one moment this morning my taxi on the right hand side was passed on its right hand side by another vehicle. Each and every car has serious dents and paintwork needs and I can see why. Most cars are Hyundai, the Elantra seems popular and most cars are white which is a big mistake as the sand everywhere soon turns them a kind of beige colour.

The hotel I am in, Crowne Plaza seems excellent and its location at the end of a dusty bumpy road is just odd. So, sadly with no swimming items I can neither go down to the sea, though suspect that oil tankers might be my company there nor go in the swimming pool that can be seen below. But the last bit of good news if you are listening Marriott hotels, is that the room wi-fi is totally free and excellent quality. That alone would make me choose this hotel. Simples…….

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29 Sep 2012

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Playing in a sandpit.


Arriving in Riyadh early in the morning is an interesting experience. This last week has been occupied with trying to get a Saudi Arabian visa to come over for the weekend to give a couple of lectures as invited to do so on ADHD. This is a complex effort to do and I am eternally grateful to Ahmed at A and M visas who guided me through the whole process, submitted the visa on monday and had it back in my hands on wednesday.

The flight is an overnight flight of 6 hours from Heathrow and landing around 6 am means the temperatures are already around 29 degrees. Driving seems interesting here. In the short term car park most cars are white and most/all are dented. The huge concrete pillars are all dented and scratched with car paint visible. The driving style resembles Stock Car racing. The lanes seem to be randomised to 3 then 2 then 4 then 3, which makes for an interesting drive. First impressions are that I am in a huge sandpit, which I am of course, in the desert. All the buildings are essentially built on sand on rock and there is a lot of building going on. A huge Hummer car passes with what looks like a mural of Gaddafi on the back. I don’t know enough about history or politics to know whether this is correct or likely, or if it is someone else. What I do know is that writing an address on an envelope must take a long time here with huge long road names mostly named after Saudi princes.

The place is a mixture of Saudi nationals in traditional headdress ( looks kind of smart to me, could be tempted) and westerners. There is little interaction other than the few undertaking business activities. My only dislike so far is that all food is served lukewarm but some of the Saudi desert pastries are delicious and I suspect highly calorific. This Marriott hotel is in many ways just like many others in UK and EU with the exception that no bar is obvious.

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29 Sep 2012

Reflections of Dublin


In the last 24 hours I have seen and met more strange people than in the preceding 6 months. An overnight trip to Dublin is to blame. Where to start? Well why not with a taxi driver who clearly had adult ADHD. He spoke at me the whole journey that was sadly longer than it should be due to the hideous friday evening traffic, shouted at various other cars and vans relating to perceived driving crimes against him, asked me to look at the strangest cars and have me compare some Avensis with some Passat for some reason………Impulsive, hyperactive and judging by his driving inattentive as well. Then there was the woman in my meeting who looked exactly like Margaret Thatcher, younger version around 40 years, but splitting image. Put her in Madame Tussauds and there would be no difference.

Then there was the large woman at the airport. Her waist size was over 100 inches. I noticed her because she was unable to sit in a chair without taking up 2-3 seats and I hoped vehemently that she would not be seated next to me on the plane. In fact she was a few rows ahead and spilled out at least 12 inches into the aisle and was unable to put down her armrest in the aisle.

But the food must also be mentioned. The traffic in Dublin was appalling, taking over 90 minutes to get from the airport to the city centre. But greater was my horror when I saw my proposed menu for dinner. Included were raw beef, squid, goat and rabbit. These are not foods that regularly grace my table, the cat maybe but not mine. Luckily the magic word chicken popped up and all was relieved. Thats French restaurants for you.

Overall, Dublin is not a bad city but is is very busy and seriously lacks the Irish charm that might be associated with Cork or Galway. I feel that I can say this being Irish, and anyone who doubts this can trace my family history back to and well beyond Charles Kendall Bushe who was Lord Chief Justice in Ireland in the mid-1980’s. He is written about in James Joyce novels and is described as morally perfect. Well something like that anyway, but I would say that.

Should you visit Dublin? In my view yes if you have lots of money or others are paying, but no if you want charm and to see real Ireland. Others may and do disagree. The streets were full of folks celebrating Arthur’s day, the annual celebration of Arthur Guinness. Well maybe that is a good reason to come along but bring a full wallet and watch out who your taxi driver is.

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28 Sep 2012

British Airways First Class Lounge- Reflections in a wine glass


After a good many life years I have finally got to be allowed into a first-class lounge. I will not bore you with the details as to why but it is a curious place. Hundreds of bottles of wine and champagne but with hardly anyone drinking. Most travellers are sitting or lying around with varying degrees of pained expressions that suggest terminal constipation. Maybe there is a rule that ” though shalt not smile in first-class”. Or maybe the butler does it for one?

Big chairs, huge piles of newspapers and magazines, uncrowded ( but there again who in their right mind with a life to live wants to be flying out of Heathrow on a friday evening?), lots of biscuits ( few less now that I have arrived) but no smiles and eternal warmth .

Curiously there are two life size horse statues guarding the way in and numerous other artistic efforts.

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23 Sep 2012
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RIP Hedgepig the Hedgehog


Hedgepig lived in and arguably dominated my study for the last year. He rarely bothered to get up and communicate with me in the day but at night would spin round on a massive hamster wheel and make other peculiar noises. He ate crunchy cat food and mealworms whenever these were available. To be honest not an awfully cuddly type of pet as he reversed whenever picked up. He used to huff angrily at anyone invading his territory a large cage but eventually called a truce and rarely bothered to spike anyone. Most of his life he lived in a red slipper and today he was buried in the garden in his red slipper. He was a tame hedgehog not one “caught:.  I think he is an African Pygmy hedehog? He was given to us for safekeeping about 18 months ago when his owner went over to Mexico. We will miss him, a more photogenic hedhog there will never be.

 

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22 Sep 2012

Brentford 1 Oldham Athletic 0.


As usual a personal perspective on a game that I watched. The general feeling was that this game played in nice sunny conditions was quite entertaining. Brentford won the game with a neat goal from our midfielder Adam Forshaw, a young player signed from Everton recently. There were lots of chances, we took one and Oldham took none. So end of that. But four aspects of the game are worthy of scrutiny.

  1. The referee was frankly poor to appalling. Not only did he make any number of poor decisions but failed to talk to the linesmen. Sitting as we do 10 rows back we see things that linesmen must see, they really must. Why do these officials not communicate far more? The gentleman below is not one of the officials today I should add.
  2. Adam Forshaw was the best player on the pitch by a mile. Not only did he score a neat goal, but his passing was premiership quality. Simon Moore in goal will become the best keeper in League 1 and it is difficult to see how Richard Lee will get his place back.
  3. The routine pushing and niggly shoving by oldham reminded me of Division 4 football 30 years ago. They set out to irritiate and destroy any football by foul means and they got away with it. I now have some comprehension as to why their crowds are so low. Would I watch them again? Certainly not. Can I mention that a ticket to this game would cost £22.
  4. At 70 minutes into the game with Brentford winning 1-0, Uwe Rosler took off a striker and replaced him with a full back playing in midfield. So the reality was that we spent 20 minutes in our own half defending a 1-0 lead. Not entertaining. And not right either. Football although a tribal passion should be entertaining and is likely to be more so with two strikers playing in a home game than with one or none.

    Griffin Park

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22 Sep 2012
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The World wide Web. Spiders and their contribution


Usually none of the family are fond of spiders but last week I kind of came to admire them. Watching them spin webs in the garden connecting plants and pots to make amazing works of art called Webs. The intricate patterns and their patience suggested that ADHD does not exist amongst the spider fraternity.  A few photographs to demonstrate their artistic triumphs. By accident I partially destroyed one of the webs, maybe even this one photographed here and I felt rather guilty.

Spider

Spider at work

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16 Sep 2012

Sutton 1 Havant and Waterlooville 1


I do try and be positive about football particularly as it costs good money to get in, in fact this game cost 12£ to get in ( only 2£ for children), 2.50£ for a programme ( not really worth it, full of adverts and little real information or news) and 3£ for a burger. But this really was one of the worst football games that I have seen for some while. Let me try and itemise my grief:

  1. Many/most of the players did  not look fully fit. Some looked considerably unfit and overweight.
  2. The style of both teams was kick and run, followed by kick and dont bother to run. There were significant areas of the pitch that were unused all game
  3. Both goals were of a shabby kind. The own goal scored by Sutton was patently ridiculous. The keeper could and should ( and maybe did) call for the ball, instead the centre half seemingly made a decent finish in his own net. The sutton goal was kind of ridiculous. The ball ricocheted around in the box, hitting random players and the posts and eventually somehow went in.
  4. Neither team tried to play football as I know it

In fact this game was one of the most dire games I have seen for many years. Even at this early stage of the season I can confidently predict that both these teams will be at the wrong end of the table.

On the positive side though, this is a great little ground to watch football in but it does help if you a Sat Nav to help you meander your way to the toilets. They are complex to find. Worth a visit, but maybe on a different day. I will come back later this season and see whats changed.

Clarke Masters, Havant goalkeeper. Ex Brentford

Sutton Goalkeeper

Missed the ball

 

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10 Sep 2012

Windsor Football club


In the midst of madness there still exists some sanity. Windsor are a small club that arose from the ashes of Windosr and Eton who became bancrupt, defunct, whatever you wish to call it, a few years ago. They had a humble existence in the leagues maybe three levels below the football league. Crowds were maybe 200.  They reformed and now play in the combined counties league, and were/are strongly tipped for promotion, at least until last saturday. The chairman , a man called Keith Stott decided immediately to withdraw the entire playing budget. This makes great sense. non-league football would be so much more attractive without elegant sponsors crawling in, donating crazy sume of money to small sides, then whe their business goes wrong or they lose interest, the club folds. Plenty of example of this.

I have only been to their ground once a few years ago and saw a cup tie there. I recall a nice small ground and decent burgers, the ground sits next to windsor Great Park. Lets hope this trend continues. Many/most non-league clubs have crowds less than 200. This effectively means gate money around £1500 every fortnight. This does and should fund a club. If there is none left for “wages” then thats the right decision. Truro football club will be the next to fold, and guess what happened there.

 

This below is copied from their website. Spread the news

 

Windsor F.C. Refocuses on Stag Meadow Regeneration & Self-Sustainability

Windsor F.C. today launched a new initiative to reinvigorate its primary objective of creating a self-sustaining Football Club and Community Stadium at Stag Meadow. The campaign which will be run under the following theme…

Inspiring the next 50 years of footballers!… was inspired by Founding Director Kevin Stott’s personal experience of the London 2012 Olympic Games. He said, ‘I was lucky enough to attend 2 Gold Medal winning events by Team GB. What struck me most of all was not just the performances, but the importance of creating a legacy from the games by, as the organisers put it, ‘Inspiring the next generation of athletes.’ As I drove home I realised that as a club we had lost our way a bit and where in danger of becoming a little too focused on the first team at the expense of our primary objective of creating a self- sustaining football club. This will not only allow us to inspire the next generation but the next 50 years of footballers in Windsor and the surrounding area.’

There are now 36 teams playing under the Windsor F.C. badge from the age of 6 upwards and the Stag Meadow regeneration plan could see all of them playing at Stag Meadow with the intelligent installation and utilisation of the latest artificial playing surfaces.

Stott continued; ‘As you may recall when we started the new club last season, we set a competitive first team budget on the back of a business plan that showed self-sustaining income streams being generated by October last year through the installation and hiring out of artificial 3G Pitches. Despite everyone’s best efforts we still have some way to go before we can realistically expect these pitches and income streams to be in place…

… I committed to fund the new club’s start-up costs and playing budget for the first season only because we were determined not to re-create a club reliant on a ‘benefactor’ for its future. Whilst we have made good progress in terms of the plans for the regeneration of Stag Meadow, it’s proved much more time consuming that we at first thought and the club is still someway away from being able to comfortably support a progressive self-sustaining playing budget.

We have taken the view that our management and financial resources would be best spent at this time on the regeneration of the Stag Meadow in order to create the self-sustaining income streams. Once this is achieved and our legacy is in place we can then revisit the plan to create a flagship first team that will also help inspire the footballers of the future.

In light of the above and after much discussion and no little heartache we have taken the decision to withdraw the footballing budget for the remainder of the season. I had a meeting with the players after Saturday’s game to explain the situation and it’s now up to them if they decide to stay or go. If they stay, they stay we our blessing – if they go they go with our blessing. In any event they have committed to fulfil next Saturday’s F.A. Cup tie against Didcot Town.

I’ve also spoken with Keith (Scott) who has decided that next Saturday will be his last game in charge. I would like to go on record to thank Keith and Jim (Melvin) for their contribution to date. It was no mean feat to achieve the runners up spot in the Combined Counties League Premier Division during our first season as a club.’

The Club has already started the process of recruiting a new Manager who will take charge of his first game at Stag Meadow on Monday 10th September against Egham Town kick off 7.45 pm.

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