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 category “Uncategorized”

18 May 2013

Batalha Monastery


Batalha monastery is in Batalha around 130 kms from Lisbon along a nice toll autoroute. In fact it is really the only major thing in Batalha. There is a nice hotel Villa Batalha and some nice restaurants, but without the monastery there is little to entice visitors. You cannot miss the monastery as it towers over the town and is a great landmark to find your way around.

The building took over 100 years to build starting in 1336 and represented the commemoration of a battle. An earthquake in 1775 did some damage and pillaging Napoleonic soldiers did rather more in 1811 but the restoration began in 1840 and was added to UNESCO world heritage sites in 1983. To view all the various segments takes around 2 hours and some degree of internal sat-nav. The Portuguese are not recognised for their signage skills and the first difficulty one has is finding the way in. The second one is to work out that although entrance to the main Nave is free, to get into all the interesting parts costs a mere 6 euros, but no-one actually tells you this. The ticket desk is in fact just that, a desk in the corner.  The interior is beautiful. There are many tombs and chapels and there is little point me detailing these as Wikipaedia does a wonderful job. I will only focus on the curious architecture around the monastery. Roads seem unfinished. Piles of sand seem randomly deposited on the road blocking the way for example to the only hotel in the town. The town has great sports complexes, football grounds, swimming pools and even an athletic track. What seemed missing was people. The place other than a few dozen tourists was empty. Cafes and restaurants all with nice smelling foods were essentially empty. Maybe the rain did not help. This is a place worth visiting. A night in the Hotel Villa Batalha. A dinner in a restaurant . A 2 hour visit to the monastery and maybe some coffee and people watching in the squares. I like this place. Even the graffiti is worth looking at.

Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead

Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Piles of random sand in random roads in Batalha

Piles of random sand in random roads in Batalha

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Soldiers in Batalha Monastery

Soldiers in Batalha Monastery

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Batalha Monastery Soldier

Batalha Monastery Soldier

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

IMG_1691Graffiti at the Monastery of Batalha

Graffiti at the Monastery of BatalhaIMG_1693
Batalha Tree

Batalha Tree

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

Batalha Monastery

 

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18 May 2013

Reflections from Portugal


Portugal is not a country that UK folks travel widely to. Maybe a trip to the Algarve or a cruising stop in Lisbon. After a short trip there I must report that this is a great country to visit and remarkably cheap. Arriving at Lisbon airport one is greeted by a slightly run down airport that is undergoing some sort of renovation but this is not Terminal 5. The facilities are a little jaded. Drving out of the airport one is in an industrial hinterland where some familiar and some unfamiliar names can be seen. But it is when one gets 30 kms outside Lisbon that the scenery becomes  green and old castles can start to be seen. There are mainly toll roads so driving 130 kms from Lisbon to Batalha will cost around 9 euros. The Portuegese in fact have invented the technology that allows a little electronic tag on the car windscreen that means that queueing at toll booths can be a thing of the past. The striking observations are what a hilly and mountainous country Portugal is. Just all up and down. Everywhere. The people are friendly but not all speak English. Some understand a lot but cannot speak much, but most smile a lot. Most things seem cheap. Around £1 buys you a bottle of water in a hotel room that would be double that in UK. Generally everywhere is more relaxed. On arrival at the hotel there is no interrogation about credit card etc, in fact no-one asked. Another quaint difference is that food is often served lukewarm rather than hot. Scrambled eggs and bacon at breakfast were if I were kind warm. I only got to stay in one hotel Villa Batalha hotel in Batalha. An incredibly good hotel, friendly, comfortable and with nice chairs and furniture all around, so no need to sit in a reception area such as is the norm in UK. The most striking observation however is that there are so few people around, now to put this into context this was 130 kms from Lisbon. But few cars, few people, little noise, nice looking sports facilities and so on. A place that is well worth coming, however one night in Batalha would be enough. Finally back at Lisbon airport, the airport lounges are distinctly not UK. A moany sort of woman asked for some healthy food, the stern girl said  “you can have an apple”, and meant it! A woman in Batalha was either dead or sleeping soundly outside presumably her souvenir shop, now that something we do not see in Primark or Costa!

Batalha

Batalha

Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead
Woman Sleeping outside a shop. Presumably not dead

 

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09 May 2013

Ariel Castro


May I humbly comment that when considering the appalling nature of this abduction in Ohio two things are astonishing. Firstly that it could happen in 21st Century. Secondly, that judging by the hairstyles of those originally arrested, there is clear evidence that no abduction took place of either combs nor hairbrushes. Image

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06 May 2013

The Best Alien Bookmark in the world


IMG_1530 copy

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01 May 2013

The Real Heroes of non-League football. Fans of Woodford Utd


Woodford united ply their trade in the EvoStik Southern, Central division. This is the eighth their of English football. Image Or at least they did this season. Having lost all 42 of their games played they will hopefully be relegated to a milder level of football next season. I took a look at their website. Interesting.  “All new players welcome. Just turn up at a training session”. Is this the reason they have lost all 42 games or as a response. I just wish I had got to see them play. Can they be so bad? Which part of the team is the worst. What does their programme say? What can their manager say? Do they have a manager? Do they invite managers to just turn up? All these questions. 

The website tells us that Paul Oddy is both the mnager and the Team Administrator, and guess what there is a link if you want to apply to be a team administrator. The league table tells its own story. A negative goal difference of 164 over 42 games does not bode well. Scoring only 21 goals also does not suggest that the forwards run riot. The forum on the website has one posting from a ” new fan” who lives in Bolton and will try and see a game. On researching a little more they play in a town called Woodford Halse, near Daventry. The ground allegedly has a capacity of 3000 but last weekend their crowd was 42. 

It is proving difficult to find out exactly how and why they are so bad. There must be salient reasons? But on a website at 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/jobs/woodford-united-football-club-urgently-need-new-players/1004522429

We can start to see why. This is an advert for new players.

Woodford United Football Club play in Woodford Halse, and are members of the Evo Stik Southern League Division 1 Central. 

The club is currently bottom of the league with 0 points, and change is urgently needed. 

That is why the club is looking out for new players from the Northamptonshire area (and other areas too!) whom would be interested in playing football with us. The club is seeking players mainly in the 16-25 age range, although players aged 25+ will be considered. 

All the club asks is that you are fit and able to withstand the challenge of Southern League Standard football, and that you are willing and dedicated to training and playing. 

Players in ALL positions are required, and Football CV’s should be addressed to the following: 

FAO Mr. Andrew Worrall (Club Chairman) 
Woodford United Football Club 
Byfield Road 
Woodford Halse, near Daventry 
NN11 3QR. 

You may also contact the club via 01327 263 734. 

Strictly no time wasters, many thanks. 

 

Now having read all this, there is an alternative view from ENTS.com ( incidentally a website that I like that brings news of bands and gigs. But maybe their football acumen is not so good? They write this.

 Home of Woodford United Football Club, members of the British Gas Business Southern League – Division One Midlands, and one of the most successful and thriving clubs in the region – a club at the very heart of its community.

22. Woodford United 42 0 0 42 21 185 -164 0 0
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29 Apr 2013

Waterloo Station. No room to build another one.


London is officially full. A few awful I Phone photos today coming into land. How crowded is our city? Hardly room for the Shard.

Shard

Shard

waterloo

 

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29 Apr 2013

Embraer 190 SR


A pleasure to travel on this aircraft  today from London City Airport to Glasgow. What actually struck me was that the legroom if you sat in seats 2 C and D was phenomenal. They literally were missing a row of seats. This had another benefit, that the trolley that normally wrecked havoc as it went up the aisle with passengers coming down the aisle, could be parked in there, allowing folks to skip happily into the toilet. The two rules of flying that cannot be broken are that firstly one should carry every item from the household onto the plane and secondly that all passengers must visit the toilet at least once.

What however I did not know was that the aircraft series has been in production since 2002, and 908 have been delivered. They seat between 94 and 114 . My one today seated 98 according to British Airways.

There is however a little safety information to digest according to Wikipaedia.

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24 Apr 2013

The price of Ice Cream


Walking along the small high street of a surrey town I happened to glance in at a cafe shop that recently started up, selling mainly coffee, cake and a few other items. Few tables outside on the pavement and looks overall quite nice. What however caught my eye was the price of a single scoop of ice cream or ” italian gelato” as it was described, a single scoop was £2.21.  When did this happen? Recently Iceland were selling huge packs of white Magnums for 4£ and that got you I recall at least 8. A huge 2 litre tub of a nice ice cream like Kelly’s cornish can often be got on special offer for as little as 2£. Crazy pricing. Let me know the most expensive scoop of ice cream that you know of, outside of central London or other touristy areas.

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13 Apr 2013
1 Comment

Portsmouth Fans at Brentford v Portsmouth


The behaviour of the Portsmouth fans was not impressive today. They arrived at the game knowing that the Supporters trust would most likely be able to buy the club and essentially they could consider themselves as shareholders. They were in good voice but then their chanting became foul mouthed and abusive for no good reason. At the end of the game they invaded the pitch and some then went on to start fighting. Just to put this simply, they are the worst set of fans that I have personally seen in League 1 for many years and no doubt will continue to grace League 2 next season. The sympathies I held for them have vanished totally.

photo3 photo4

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12 Apr 2013

FIMO Clay Models


FIMO is a brand of polymer clay that one buys in little brick sizes not much larger than a matchbox. All colours. Recently the 12-year old has got heavily into making small models. Gradually she has become more adept and uses scalpels, watches YouTube tutorial videos and generally more proficient. She now has become excellent at making these tiny models each around 2 inches tall maximal. Today she has produced various little cakes. a narwhal, HelloKitty cupcakes and other interesting little items. Here are a few samples of her work. Do spread the word.

FIMO Model

FIMO Model

FIMO Model

FIMO Model

FIMO Narwhal

FIMO Narwhal

FIMO Models

FIMO Models

FIMO Cake

FIMO Cake

FIMO Models

FIMO Models

FIMO Rabbit

FIMO Rabbit

FIMO Rabbit

FIMO Rabbit

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