Everything will be all right tonight. Everything will be all right tonight. Or so I keep telling myself, as Ulster prepare to turn and face the strain of Leinster at the RDS. Let’s hope that Ulster can put Big Brother under pressure. It’s simple, really: all we have to do is win. But hope, boys, is a cheap thing, cheap thing: we are the dead.
While Ulster have lost Stockdale to injury, one South Effrican is back for us.
But one of Them has apparently recovered from yet another head injury.
Give me steel, give me steel, give me pulsars unreal
In other news – newsman wept (with joy) as he told me – a familiar face is returning to Cardiff.
Someone’s back in town the chips are down
I just cut and blackout
I’m under Mulvihill’s influence and my honour’s at stake
Today is David Bowie’s birthday, in case anyone was wondering.
Onna telly this week
Friday 8th January
| Glasgow v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Leinster v Ulster | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Bath v Wasps | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
| Sale v Worcester | 20:00 | BT Sport Extra |
Saturday 9th January
| Zebre v Treviso | 13:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Newcastle v Gloucester | 14:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Griquas v Cheetahs | 14:30 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Exeter v Bristol | 16:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Western Province v Sharks | 17:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Dragons v Ospreys | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Cardiff v Scarlets | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Connacht v Munster | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 10th January
| Harlequins v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 16th January
| Glasgow v Edinburgh | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
OT – the British government did not try to find ways to fund famine relief, as they were in the grip of liberalism.
After a couple of years, under pressure, they decided to send Indian corn to feed Ireland. Two problems with that: they had no distribution network, so it barely penetrated beyond the coast, and the Irish peasantry were not equipped to process corn. (Does any of this sound familiar?)
I’ve not heard of this landlord theory before. Sure, there might have been some landlords in that situation, but I think most of the emigrants to the US were a result of a family cobbling together whatever means it had to send its youngsters there.
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And re supporting PIRA: as I said, most Americans didn’t have a clue what it was they were actually supporting, except ‘freem fighters’. Pretty much everyone with any white blood thinks they are ‘Irish’, but most couldn’t find Ireland on a map, and didn’t understand the conflict, if they’d even heard of it.
(Probably a bit different in, say, the Boston area, which really does have a large contingent of Irish emigrants and their offspring, and which also was a bigger source of funding.)
There was also a good bit of royal-family-love going on with the same people, who didn’t seem to understand that England doesn’t own all of Ireland any more. They would have put the Daily Express to shame with their Diana-obsession.
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This is a good listen:
https://theintercept.com/2020/12/30/intercepted-darryl-li-jihad-us-empire/
Has a transcript as well.
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thaum,
“Then it was a case of, ‘oh fuck, what do we do now?’” I agree with this. Also, there quite a large dollop of ‘what can we do now?’.
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TomP – yes, exactly. PNAC and all that.
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OT – Re the anti Brit sentiment in Irish America my brother in law had to overcome this directly when marrying a Floridian girl. It didn’t help that he’d previously been divorced but he slipped the Catholic Church a grand and got a pass.
It’s fine now amongst the siblings apparently.
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I remember reading that a surprising proportion of Irish-Americans are not Catholic. Less surprising when you find out where in Ireland their ancestors came from mind. I have no idea how that plays out with regard to attitudes to Irish issues in the last few decades, would be interesting to know.
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The road workers – and almost all the roads/pavements seem to be under construction all the time – bring barbecues to make their lunch.
Think I’ve mentioned this before, but I was watching a cooking programme where the guy was in BA ploughing his way through mountains of beef. He asked the chef if they had any chicken. The deadpan response was “This is a meat restaurant. Chicken is not meat.”
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Craigs, maybe the Floridians just didn’t like your brother-in-law and being a Brit was a convenient excuse?
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Anybody been to Sri Lanka? Looks like a lovely place too. I’m getting serious cabin fever now. Almost a year since I last travelled outside of SA, as opposed to spending on average 3 to 4 months outside the country every year.
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It certainly looks like a better place to score a mountain of runs than it used to.
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Yeah, England looking completely in control here. Sri Lanka’s batting is weak though – SA rolled them over inside 3 days twice here in the last couple of weeks.
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Deebs – noted as an acceptable line to take with my daughters future partners.
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Simon Jenkins, despite the writing style, is making sense in the Graun today.
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CMW, when did England last tour Sri Lanka? I’m fairly sure there’d have been Murali tormenting them and perhaps Lasith Malinga too. Root’s 158 is now the highest score by an English batsman in Sri Lanka.
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OT, the word landlord is doing a lot in that theory. There were landlords and landlords in Ireland at the time. My general feeling is that the Irish were very numerous in the States and less controlled than they would’ve been in Imperial territories. Plus, they were in competition with other ethnic groups in the States and were viewed with distrust/hatred by the (White Protestant) American Establishment and Know Nothings alike so it makes sense to band together and to forge a strong Irish identity through clubs, education and politics, which has become an Irish American identity over time.
Another thing American rhetoric was strongly anti-(European) imperialist for such a long time that being anti-British imperialism in Ireland makes double sense. It marks you as irish but also that you are part of the American way of thinking. It’s pretty hypocritical of the Americans but y’know they were rivals to Britain for a long time before Britain accepted the US’s superior power and so kidded on with that “special relationship” talk.
Finally, it was much easier to have contact with home than it was for Irish emigrants to Australia, for instance, just because the transport and communication links were so much better.
I know there were a fair number of Irish people fighting on the side of the Afrikaners in the 2nd South African War (1899-1902), although there wasn’t much emigration to SA from Ireland. They were vastly outnumbered by the Irish serving in the British Army in the war.
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Deebee, 3 years ago. England cuffed them 3-0. I have no memory of that tour at all.
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3 years ago? Don’t remember it either.
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I’ve been to La Paz, Deebee, while backpacking around South America for 6 months. Left and returned three times before finally leaving for good. Don’t know about ‘magical’, but it was definitely one of those places that you can’t mistake for anywhere else.
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The main street food was pollo con papas fritas, or else banana chips. Also Saltenas, which are cornish pasties filled with boiling water, an olive, and a lump of boiled spud. Bite into one and a cascade of boiling water rushes down your chin.
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Yup, Jenkins is right. I’m in shock too. Stopped clock and all that though.
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Bite into one and a cascade of boiling water rushes down your chin.
You doing public service announcements BK?
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Deebs – yes: chicken is often the vegetarian option.
BK – in Argentina they have empanadas for street food, which are similar to pasties.
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BK – sounds very different to what they were punting on the telly! The views of La Paz were all from above the city, mostly in the evening or night, so it looked wonderful. Food was quite similar to other countries in the region, just with a local twist. The Colombian food critic when they did Colombia was convinced that their food (Colombia’s) is the best in the world. Didn’t really look that brilliant to me.
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Best street food I’ve had was in India closely followed by Thailand.
And by a long way the best street food in India was in Punjab and Amritsar. Soup, tandoori fish and randomly a guy selling eggs at about 2am.
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Would like to put that to the test in South America and more of Africa though.
My feet are itching.
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Best street food I’ve ever had was arancini, as loved by Montalbano.
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Haven’t England also been to Sri Lanka and come home without playing in the meantime?
The last tour the main Sri Lanka bowler would have been Herath I think who would be a big step up from this lot even if he wasn’t Murali.
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Colombian food is a mixed bag, Deebee. The stuff in the interior is pretty rum but stuffed arepas are yummy. In Medellin the signature dish is Mondongo, which is a tripe soup. Yuk. In Bogota we had really good tamales and my missus liked the ajiaco, which is a chicken dish. We also went to a town a short bus journey from Bogota and had quite a dull beef dish but with good vegetables. On the Caribbean coast in Santa Marta and Cartagena the food was sensational. Well worth a visit.
The fresh fruit is top notch as well.
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Best street food I’ve had has been in Thailand, China and Vietnam – all superb.
Craigs, in Africa, Senegal has great street food and I’d imagine that some of the North African places do as well, but for the most part you don’t really want to do street food too much here, unless you’ve got the constitution of a rhino. I’ve done a fair amount in places like Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, which is pretty spicy, interesting, but very low quality meat (fish can be pretty good) and in East Africa – Ethiopia very good, Kenya and Uganda variable (but better quality meat), Mozambique superb as long as you’re not in Maputo. We don’t really have a street food culture in SA, unless you’re in the townships, but even there it’s more likely to be shebeen food. Not too bad.
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I thought Trescothick had got a bigger score there than 158, but I’ve had a look and am wrong. He did get a hundred in the series they won out there when Hussain was captain so I suppose my memory wasn’t that bad. Sri Lanka team at that time had a load of good/great players.
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Craigs, I had a mutton bunny chow in Durban that I remember with great pleasure.
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Deebs/Tomp – when I went to SA it was a school trip (I know) so I didn’t make any of the decisions but I would love to try actual SA food. Most of what we had was deliberately tame.
Ethiopia, Kenya and Senegal look good shouts. One day I will do my motorbike journey through these places.
Morocco is good but not a patch on India.
Laos and Cambodia were very nice too. Although, after 4 weeks without western food pringles and coke made a great combination at a bus stop in Laos.
I must be the only person on the blog who appreciates tripe.
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I must be the only person on the blog who appreciates tripe.
You certainly do, Craigs, you certainly do.
TomP, bunny chow is fantastic stuff. Did you ever get to have a Gatsby in Cape Town?
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Ethiopian food is superb. Drooling now.
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@craigs
At my school we just went to Chester Zoo.
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Deebee, we did. From a place in Wynberg cos we used to stay in Claremont. I had a steak one one time and a mutton curry the other. Yummulicious.
Our big place in Greater Cape Town was Kalky’s fish and chips in Kalk Bay. A really great place. We also had some food in a place in the Bo-Kaap that was gorgeous. There’s a good Ethiopian on Long St that I’d recommend. See also at the bottom of the Caledonian Rd in London.
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Had a vague memory that Herath retired during the series against England. It turns out he did after the first test so I guess he didn’t have much effect on that series. Rest of the bowling attack was a bit more experienced than this one though I think. Ben Foakes scored a hundred and looked the part. Got dropped in favour of poor keepers who were struggling with their batting for his trouble.
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Always blow on the pie, Craigs. Safer Communities Together.
Typical that other countries brag about their empanadas while we pretend that we’re not hoovering up mince pies at every opportunity, and now fill them with butter chicken and thai green curry in an attempt to appear more cosmopolitan.
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Chile’s smaller empanadas are a clear winner, with their greater pastry-to-filling ratio. Bolivia’s are just horrible, which is probably why they named them after the Girl from Argentina.
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Best street food I’ve ever had is a large lamb shish kebab with extra chilli sauce on my way back from the pub.
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Can claim to have eaten at late hours in Bougis Steet in Singapore before it was demolished – fascinating, wonderful and sometimes a bit intimidating (first choose your monkey!).
Food eaten open air is always the best.
I would love to explore Middle Eastern cooking
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Tbh, Austin had all of the above plus bbq.
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Ticht – was it from a can or a shop?
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*van
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This guy does great falafels
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TomP I went to the restaurant below many years ago when I was in Cape Town with mates. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. They did a lamb dish with honey that you wanted to guzzle down in one go, but simultaneously didn’t want to eat too quickly so as not to finish it.
http://mesopotamiakurdishfood.co.za/
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I think we have a venue for the next blog meeting.
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Ah, the great tragedy of not being able to both have one’s metaphorical cake and eat it.
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Could always use the Roman’s solution. order 10 portions and eject between courses.
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