The World Cup

Most of England seems to be getting very excited about the World Cup. There was live coverage of the England team arriving at the airport, taking off and landing in Germany. There was a great satire on the England manager, Sven Goran-Erikkson, on the More4 channel here tonight. The Sven doc/comedy is well worth a watch when it is repeated on Thursday on Channel4.

I have a few World Cup feeds in my list on the right-hand side of this page. World Cup Hippo and the BBC World Cup weblog are especially well worth checking out.

Also check out the world cup podcasts from Baddiel and Skinner. The first podcast went live today and can be downloaded here. As with all their TV material, the podcast is highly amusing and entertaining. Listen out for the mention of 23niner when they discuss nicknames for players recommended by listeners on their web forum - they're reading out my comment. I was also interviewed and filmed in the German market in York City Centre today by Associated Press. They wanted to know my thoughts on the World Cup and the market. The footage would be mainly used online I was told, on sites like www.timesonline.co.uk and www.msn.co.uk. I've not found it yet but, all in all, it's been a high media day!

As for who will win the World Cup, your guess is as good as mine. I would bet against Brazil, just because they have won two of the previous three tournaments. There may be a surprise winner (by which I mean any team that isn't Brazil.) I think we are looking at Italy, Argentina, France or England. I think England will definitely miss a fully-fit Rooney. He will not be there in that condition whether he plays or not. As a big football fan I'm certainly looking forward to watching a lot of the games and have taken the opportunity to stock up with cheap beer!

Film Review - Thank you for Smoking

I managed to see a great new film free of charge at the weekend. Thank You For Smoking is a very funny satire about the billion dollar cigarette industry. It's always a pleasure for a film to be better than expected and I can see why the Sunday Times recommended it as the film to watch during the first phase of the World Cup!

Whitby Abbey Ruins

Whitby Abbey Ruins
Originally uploaded by 23niner.

To leave the Bruce theme behind, at least for one post, if you ever visit Northern England, I cannot recommend highly enough the beautiful ancient seaport of Whitby, on the North-East coast in North Yorkshire. It's in between my hometown of Redcar and where I now live, York. See VisitWhitby for full details. Both Kelly and I love Whitby Abbey. There is also the Magpie Cafe that serves the world's best fish and chips (we must go about 6 times a year!) and the Dracula connection (the original Dracula book was written in and partly inspired by Whitby.) Check out this great photosite on Dracula's Whitby.