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 “February, 2013”

13 Feb 2013
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Stockholm


SnowAlthough I have been to Stockholm a few times I have never truly appreciated what a pleasant city it is. This time snowbound, everything looked cute but everything worked. Trains and planes and cars were all on time, taxi drivers spoke eloquently and engaged passengers in meaningful conversation. The people all looked young. Maybe the old ones get locked away in some sinister plot. As one arrives at Arlanda Airport, they really do play ABBA music to welcome you and photos of famous people like ABBA and Roxette adorn the walls of the luggage reclaim area. T

There is a price to pay and that is literally true. This city is expensive and is best visited when someone is paying the bill. A Croque Monseiour would cost you over 12£. Coffee usually is around 4-5£. Hotels are pleasant places where receptionists are helpful and smile. They are also warm. One of main complaints this last winter has been arriving at Marriott hotels to find that the room heating has been switched off for seemingly the last millennium. On my arrival it happily gets turned on but then takes the length of my stay to warm the room up.

The characters in Stockholm also are straight from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I could have cast that film many times just by sitting in a cafe and looking around. Lastly the food. It is good. The restaurants have a kind of laid back attitude where service is good but not to the point of being obsequious. Tables have gingham cloth covers and serve you pretty much what you want. I had Meatballs. I could have had massive Steaks. This is a place to come back to, but please someone invite me and pay my bills while I am there. The street names are right out of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo like Sodermalm.

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13 Feb 2013

Dirty Pretty Wings


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13 Feb 2013
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London City Airport


The jury is out on this one. On the one hand it is easy to reach by train but on the other there are few lounges, highly expensive food and drink and not so many planes in the middle of the day. 

The cost of food is frankly startling here. For 16£ they were offering rich souls a take away pack in a hideous bag ( cooler bag I suspect) containing panini, water, popcorn and fruit ( 1 piece). Extraordinary. For almost 20£ one might have a real breakfast served in a restaurant that actually is a walkway, so an easy place to make and meet friends as they will practically be dropping in as you have your breakfast. 

Planes tend to be smaller, so space for luggage more limited. So, I really do not know if this a good or bad option.Not a cheap one though.What you see here is the free cabaret of watching the de-icing of planes. Quite like the look of that job!Imageo

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03 Feb 2013

Florence Train Journey in 2012


Once in a while I look at this photograph and laugh. These really were people, normal people, maybe, travelling from Pisa Airport to Florence. Surely it was the cast of Father Ted, Ab Fab and others? Image

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03 Feb 2013
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Candidates for the Most Ridiculous Lampshade in the world


This is a new annual competition I am running. Here is the first entry from Barcelo Raval Hotel Foyer in Barcelona. A life size horse, with the lamp coming out of its head. This one gets 7/10 for nonsense factor. Image 

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03 Feb 2013

Yoevil 3 Brentford 0. Divine intervention fell on the crowd but not the Brentford team


One of the crazy things in football is how Chelsea can be European champions, and even crazier thing is how one week Brentford can effectively beat Chelsea and then lose comprehensively to Yoevil Town. 

To be positive a visit to Yoevil is always pleasant, the roads lead straight there, car park right next to the away terrace for a mere 2£, decent programme, but Bees always seem to lose and never seem to have much luck. Essentially, that was the pattern from yesterday, and after Bees missed a few chances, the writing was on the wall. A lucky rebound for a first goal for Yoevil, a stunning volley for a second and a decent third. Brentford to me played the wrong team from the start with the wrong tactics with the wrong attitude. The pitch before the game looked good, but as soon as the game started it was clear it was a pudding of a pitch. Bees were well beaten, and frankly beaten on merit, effort and luck. Marek Stech the Yoevil keeper looked as good as I have seen this year, other than our own Simon Moore. 

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03 Feb 2013

How can football fans live their lives without Stewards? Let us rejoice in their wonder and let rays of sunshine descend onto their heads.


The importance of stewards at football is renowned. I feel so safe when I see the stewards, well trained in social and administration skills, and clearly combat at times too. However clearly those of a Divine nature have the same opinion as evidenced by a single ray of sunshine onto this Steward at Yoevil Football club yesterday.
What would we do without stewards? I must thank the ones yesterday for frisking me so thoroughly to ensure that I was not carrying in items such as plutonium or other radioactive substances, or maybe Semtex cleverly disguised as a football programme, or even a dreaded water bottle. Such attention to the important things in life makes me forgive them for not knowing where such unimportant things are such as gents toilets, refreshment kiosk or why they were attempting to cram a large cohort of Brentford fans into only half the terracing initially. Luckily I engaged them in some counting of numbers activities that extended beyond binary, and all said terracing was then opened. But feel free to suggest what they might have been searching me for?Image

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03 Feb 2013

Misleading Advertising. How can they get away with this?


Sunday morning just glancing through newspapers whilst waiting for family members to remove their hangovers and play Wi games. Different family members I must add. 

Sunday Times, travel section 3/2/2013. Page 9. Just read it and wait to get excited. Surrey is a grey kingdom today, damp and uninspiring. But hope is on the horizon. In the remainder of the travel section the theme is reductions in certain holidays due to low demand. For example 7 night cruises on great cruise lines ( not Costa for example) for as little as 599£. 

So wandering in front of my eyes I see an advertisement that clearly states. Atlantis. From only 199£ per person, 3 nights including half board and flights. Plus 6 other enticing either pleasant or free things to look forward to. Ridiculously cheap, yes. Unbelievable, yes. Both actually correct. Because in far more wordage in some minuscule font at the bottom to which we are directed by an asterisk, there are some more details to consider. Firstly the minor detail that this price is actually per person per night. Secondly this pricing is only for July. Thirdly various other caveats apply such as for some strange reason a flight supplement charged only for 12-16 year olds. Might this relate to the fact that they ” eat and play for free”. 

To me this advert is misleading and although I have  never done this before I am going to make a formal complaint to ASA. 

Why am I so concerned? I work in the Pharmaceutical industry and our advertising is complex, well vetted and there are clear guidelines laid down by ABPI as to how and what claims can be made. But this kind of advert would not be allowed. It is very misleading and to the casual eye would seem impossibly cheap I agree, but some things are these days, and secondly the asterisk does require decent eyesight to read the three lines of blurb and conditions. 

Lastly,I am surprised that the Sunday Times does not vet its own adverts more carefully. They have a duty to their readers. End of rant. 

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01 Feb 2013
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Reflections on Barcelona


Barcelona is known for many things, a cruise port, football team at Nou Camp, tapas, wine, sunshine and much more. That is all true. However whilst sitting on the upper floors in a hotel during a meeting it was sad to see groups of young people, mainly males, just sitting on benches and hanging round. Wasting time, nothing to do, nowhere to go, no money to spend. This was in an area only 200 yards from Las Ramblas. It real was striking that unemployment in the young is now 55% in Spain. It showed. That was my memory of Barcelona. Sad. Very sad. The impact has been acute for 16 to 24-year-olds, who saw the rate in the last quarter of 2012 surge to 55.13% from 52.34% in the previous three months.Official data showed that the jobless rate in the last three months of 2012 rose 1% to 26%, or 5.97 million people in the whole population.

No evidence of crime but strong evidence of a police presence. No one buying things in shops at all. A sad , sad, city at least in this part. ImageImagespain, unemployment, youth spain, barcelona, tapas, you camp, football, barcelona, squid, sunshine, espana, unemployment rate in spain

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