Last night was the last night (of the Stockholm Film Festival).
We went to the Grand cinema to see Great World of Sound. Unfortunately, the only great thing was in the name. The cinema room was about 40sqm and packed and the screen was about 2m away from the front row. We were in the second row.
The film was boring and seemed to lack a storyline. Maria fell asleep in the middle and the biggest relief was the closing credits. Not my cup of tea.
Just incase anybody wasn’t sure how all the group systems worked in the world-cup qualifiers, they use the same system as in US94. Here is a video from Alan Partridge who explains it using a simple “Soccermeter” method.
Haha, that’s class. My favourite has to be the group colour coding…
“Red, Yellow, Blue and Red again”
The football never ends here at GaryWritesABlog.com!
Today is the draw for the 2010 world cup qualifiers. 53 European countries will compete for 13 spaces at the finals in South Africa.
Scotland is in the second seeded pot so I thought I would try and predict who we will play against. Unfortunately both Sweden and England are in the same pot as us so we can’t play them. Thats a shame ‘cos we’d whip both of them easily…
Pot 1
Italy, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Croatia, Greece.
Pot 2
England, Romania, SCOTLAND, Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland, Sweden, Israel.
Pot 3
Norway, Ukraine, Serbia, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium.
Pot 4
Slovakia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, Moldova, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Belarus, Lithuania, Cyprus.
Pot 5
Georgia, Albania, Slovenia, Latvia, Iceland, Armenia, Austria, Kazakhastan, Azerbaijan.
Pot 6
Liechenstein, Estonia, Malta, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Andorra, Faroe Islands, San Marino.
My Prediction for Scotlands group is…
Spain
Scotland
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
San Morino
I’m not sure why I think these teams will be drawn together, it just feels right somehow. If this is the group, I think that we would win it quite easily 
Last night it got pretty cold, down to -6 overnight. This morning it was frosty and bright sun so we went downtown and had a walk around.
In NK, the big departement store, Santa was sitting under a giant Christmas tree and was busy making sure all the children had been good this year.
In the old town, Maria met one of his little helpers who was inexplicably driving around on a Segway giving out caramelised almonds. Don’t think that Rudolph would approve.
The moon was coming up over the Grand Hotel as we headed towards the Christmas market in Stortorget in Gamla Stan.
Walking back through Kungsträdgården, the main square had turned back to it’s winter use of an ice rink. Maria is threatening to take me ice skating soon, but I remember last time when I went skating and was terrorised by the small children skating around at 100mph while I inched along, struggling to keep upright.
One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much recently is because I have been busy working on a project that runs alongside the Stockholm Film Festival.
Tonight me and Maria took the chance to go and see one of the movies and we chose “Hallam Foe” a Scottish movie about a teenage boy who gets up to all kinds of shenanigans. Before the movie started, the director got up and gave a wee speech and thanked everyone for coming. I’m glad to say that he didn’t need to be embarrassed as the film turned out to be funny and the acting was great so the whole audience enjoyed it (but I think I was the only person who could understand what the character played by Ewen Bremner was actually saying ).
Have a look at the trailer and see what you think!
In the U.K, the government put the names, addresses, bank account numbers and national insurance numbers of 25 million people onto a couple of CD’s and stuck them in the nearest post box.
Amazingly, 1 month later the records of 7.5 million bank accounts haven’t reached their destination and are being described as “lost”.
It just goes to show what a danger a scheme like an national ID card would be. The naive people who say “If you have nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear…” should start to consider whether they want the government to start collecting, burning onto CD and posting your biometric data around the country. First class stamp, though…
Would you trust this man with you and your family’s medical, social and life history on a data chip?
From the book “Delete This At Your Peril – One Man’s Fearless Exchanges With The Internet Spammers” by Neil Forsyth.
The 29-year-old Dundonian invented a bloke called Bob Servant, to frustrate and ridicule crooks who tried to rip him off.
Here are just a few of the emails.
FROM HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS JACK THOMPSON
Dear sir,
My father was a wealthy traditional ruler who was poisoned to death in Togo. Before he died he told me of £75m kept in a security company. I now seek a foreign partner where I will transfer the proceeds. I am willing to offer you 20 per cent as compensation for your effort.
BOB SERVANT
I have decided that I want 40 per cent. Not a penny less.
JACK THOMPSON
Dear Bob,
I will offer you the 40 per cent. Please send your full name, contact phone number, account number and country.
BOB SERVANT
40 per cent sounds right. However, as the taxman tried to turn me over back in ’89 when I was coining it in from the cheeseburger vans, can I have my share in diamonds and gold?
I can shift it gradually through pawnshops in Lochee. Or livestock (lions). My neighbour, Frank Theplank, has a private zoo.
JACK THOMPSON
Hello Bob,
I can now pay you through livestock. So you can keep them in your friend’s zoo. Send me your details and I will send photos of lions.
BOB SERVANT
Jack,
Thanks for putting my mind at rest and letting me know what a lion looks like. I had it in my head that lions wore spectacles. Just popped my head over the garden wall. Frank is excited about the lions. Are they male or female lions and do they talk?
JACK THOMPSON
1. The lions are all male. 2. I don’t think I have ever seen a lion that talks. I don’t know if you are also interested in leopards?
BOB SERVANT
Frank will take two leopards and one elephant. He is sure he saw a talking lion once.He says it reminded him of Jim McLean, the old Dundee United manager. He will take four lions, two leopards, one elephant,one alligator, two parrots, one hedgehog.One lion should talk.
JACK THOMPSON
I will only be able to get four lions, two leopards and one alligator. The rest will take some time to find. Please send £1700 now so I can send the lions and leopards to you. I think one of the lions may talk a little.
BOB SERVANT
I’m not sure about a lion that only talks a little, I’d like one that isn’t so shy if possible.
JACK THOMPSON
What is happening? I don’t sell animals. I only said I could get some lions to help you. Then you say you need a leopard. Now you are saying the lion has to talk? What is this madness? Send me the £1700 immediately.
BOB SERVANT
Jack, What does the lion say when it talks? I am just checking that it won’t get me into any fights.
JACK THOMPSON
Bob, let’s get straight to the point. The lions and leopards are here with me.They are friendly and one of the lions talks. Send me £1700 so I can ship them.
BOB SERVANT
Jack, bad news my friend.The guy at the bank said I cannot send you any money as I do not have any in my account.
JACK THOMPSON
Do you still need lions and leopards? I will send them for free but just send £700 for shipping to Scotland. Do it today.
JACK THOMPSON
Bob? No Reply
After a terrible start, the Scotland players done us proud and played a blinder against the world champions. In the end, it wasn’t to be and we fell down 2-1 thanks to an extremely dodgy injury time winner.
Can’t blame the ref too much though, ‘cos they had a good goal chopped off and our goal looked a little offside to me. Still it was a tearful end to two years of the best run of achievements in Scotlands history. World cup qualifying starts at the end of next year
Haven’t logged a blog for a while, cos I’ve been working hard, but also cos I’ve been in Scotland!
We flew across last Friday and on Saturday we took Maria to visit Stirling and the Wallace monument. Neil and my Mum came with us and it was a windy but fantastic experiance!
Great view from the top looking across to the mountains in the west, the hills in the North, the Sea to the East and the city to the the South.
In the evening it was time for a ceilidh which is a traditional Scottish party with music and dancing… And sandwiches… And cakes… And whisky of course…
Neil and I got dressed up to look the part, but I think the biggest hit was Maria! She was never off the dancefloor and stripped the willow with the best of them!
Already bored with GaryWritesABlog.com? Then why not try reading the whole thing in Jive talk thanks to the people at www.gizoogle.com.
Just click here for the Jive conversion.
On the internet, it is scary what you find some times.
