Snow in Motspur Park
A very Surrey winter morning with ice and snow unheralded. A cold station full of commuters and schoolchildren, early in the morning as the world wakes up.
Painting of Motspur Park Station in Surrey 2015 Winter
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
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Jack O’Connell signs for Brentford FC from Blackburn
Seems that Sky reckon the Bees have paid around £200,000 for the 20 year old 6ft 3ins 85 kg defender from Blackburn Rovers.He has had two loan spells with League One side Rochdale this season, making 20 appearances and scoring three goals.His only appearance for Blackburn was the Capital One cup defeat by Scunthorpe in August. Other loan spells have been at Rotherham and York. He has also been capped at England under 18 and under 19 level. In total he has made 59 league appearances in his career before the 2014-15 season. This season in 20 appearances in all competitions at Rochdale he has scored 3 goals, the first of his career with only 2 yellow cards. In the 2013-14 season he played 45 games, with 4 yellow cards and 1 red card. And in 2012-13 in 23 games he had only 2 yellow cards.
So in 88 games as a central defender he has only had 9 yellow/red cards, an impressive statistic. Blackburn Rovers signed Jack O’Connell in the summer of 2011-12.He went on to make 35 appearances for the Academy and Reserves sides in an outstanding first year that saw him play a key role as Rovers reached the final of both the FA Youth Cup and the Academy League. Then headed out on loan to Rotherham, York and Rochdale.
Rumours of Calum Ferguson coming to Brentford from Inverness Caledonian Thistle? Any Truth?
Media tonight are suggesting that Calum Ferguson may be on his way to Brentford Fc. His footballing statistics are somewhat curious. He is a 20 year old Canadian yet to make a first-team appearance, but has played 4 times on loan with Montrose last season, 3 starts and 1 from the bench, without scoring. More recently he has been playing in the2015 CONCACAF UNDER-20 CHAMPIONSHIP in Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica 9-24 January, 2015 for the U-20 Canadian.
His height is reported as 176 cms making him around 5ft 9 ins around 64kg and left footed. And he has a dual British/Canadian passport.
So, a curious potential signing, but the Scottish element suggests possibility here. Lets wait and see.
Amazing Superbowl Snack
This is the most amazing snack that will see even the most hungry American through Super Bowl and potentially through the whole of next season. Enjoy.
Huge Superbowl snack
World Food Photos. Like food, like photographs of food
Just a various eclectic mix of food photos taken in various locations. Nothing special. Just enjoy and be hungry.
Coconut Tart
Sliders and Beef Wellingtons
Ice and Snow. What can we learn from Scandinavia? Oslo airport. Gardermoen.
At around the same time Manchester airport was being closed due to snow and bad weather, the weather was not so different in Oslo and flights were leaving on time. Not so many are aware that Norway is the northernmost, westernmost and easternmost all all the three Scandinavian countries and has a population of only 5 million, mostly Norwegian people. And it also is a country without an official religon having separated from the church in 2012. And humble Oslo is only the 17th busiest airport in Europe with 24.2 million passengers in 2014. About half the airport operator’s income is from retail revenue. There are twenty places to eat or drink, in addition to stores and other services including banks and post. In all, 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq ft) are used for restaurants, stores and non-aviation services. And yesterday it felt like an expedition to get through the duty free zone to anywhere near a departure gate. But as Oslo airport is connected to 162 other airports, maybe I can excuse the retail element. This of course has nothing to do with why the airport functions when all others close down.
The reality is pride and equipment and foresight.In Nordic Countries, Skill at Keeping Airports Open Through Blizzards Is a Point of Pride. Winter can last 6 months and airplane de-icing starts in august.Across the chilly water, on the bleak Svalbard archipelago in the Norwegian arctic, winter temperatures can drop to -55C. In winter, airport employees work round-the-clock shifts, at the first sight of snow.
Another Nordic secret: pushing producers for absurdly powerful equipment. Oslo Airport runs two of the world’s largest self-propelled snowblowers, built by Norwegian airport-equipment maker Øveraasen AS. Only two other of the TV2000 units operate at airports; they, too, are in Norway.The 2,000-horsepower machines can shoot 10,000 tons of snow an hour more than 150 feet from the tarmac.
So we can say that foresight, effort and equipment play major roles in explaining why Scandinavian airports stay open , but also airport capacity . Heathrow for example, one of the worlds worst airports in my opinion, operates to 98% capacity and thus even small disruptions can be chaotic. Stockholm Arlanda has over 40 people dedicated to snow clearing during the winter.The airport has 18 PSB (ploughing, sweeping, blowing) machines. These are followed by snow throwers which move the line of snow left by the PSBs. Behind these come friction measuring vehicles that test the likelihood of skidding on the runway.
Brentford Fans Forum. A photographic record
Enough has been said about the excellent forum and the transparency with which questions were answered. There was also restraint shown by the fans in not asking any negative or difficult questions that also may have been on their mind. Please enjoy a few basic photos all sadly I Phone standard but nonetheless may give a view to those who were not there of what it was like.
The atmosphere was great, supportive and at times amusing, with the witty Peter Gilham in charge as always. Cliff Crown looking every inch a Premiership chairman. Honest and meaningful answers. David Weir looking like and sounding like a football coach. Great evening.
Mark Devlin
David Weir
Cliff Crown laughs at Mark Warburton budgetary ideas
Mark Warburton
Photographs of Food
Pan Fried Cod and Broccoli
Orange and Arctic char with an “air”
Chicken and Asparagus, with courgettes and roast potatoes
Sea Bass
Two Slags
Cottage Pie. Smallest and worst cottage pie in the world. served Dalmahoy Marriott
Custard Cream. Copyright Chris Bushe
Courgettes
Hong Kong Food , PuPu Platter and Deep Fried milk. What did the Hairy Angry Crab make of it?
I am sure that Chinese food is wonderful, it is just that to me it is not. I do not like the look of it, the smell of it, the taste of it nor the ingredients . Seemingly everything that I dislike gets included, mushrooms, prawns, shrimps, oysters, unspecified meats, raw meats, raw fish and so on……so although i seemed to survive 3 days there, i have lost weight, feel hungry and never really want to eat at/near/in a chinese restaurant again please. Things that I will avoid, Hairy Crabs, Angry Crabs, Pu Pu Platter, deep fried milk and in fact everything. And in fact my sympathy is with the crab, if I were a Dungeness crab, I too would be angry being plucked from my tank alive and eaten.
The saving grace were the chinese tarts, there were a lot of chinese tarts in the hotel, blueberry ones, and…
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A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
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