A tennis moan

Just a short one. I'm not that bitter, but life is unfair. Take the Australian Open, won by Novak Djokovic in just under 6 hours. It sounds amazing, 6 hours of hardcore, nail biting tennis, but the truth is, well, it wasn't.

At 2-1 in sets to Djokovic all the comments from the tennis pundits (and public) are highlighting just how average the match is. I kid you not, there were no comments about it being a high quality match. Then suddenly, the report afterwards claiming it was '5-set epic', then John Lloyd saying it was 'Djokovics greatest ever match'!!! How can it go from dull to the greatest in 2 sets??

6 hours sounds impressive, but remember 5 and a half hours of it are resting periods for either a towel, a drink, a change of ends, a choice of balls, come to think of it, anything they like really. It takes forever to serve because they miss once, then go through the motions again.......

My point of slight bitterness isn't that SCOTLANDS Andy Murray once again gets to a semi-final of an open, once again failing to live up to any potential. In the meantime in NY, considered a 'squash major' is the US Open, more correctly called the Tournament of Champions, there was a more important battle going on.

The final was contested not only by two ENGLISH men: These men are one and two in the World, plus this final would decide which one would top the rankings next month. Four English men made it through to the quarter finals, yes, thats half of the people left. The depth right now in ENGLISH squash, not bloody Scottish, is amazing. It's a true 'golden era' for England in squash right now. Guess what? A useless Scot gets more coverage for not even making a final, than the 2 best in the World, from England in a sport that doesn't require you to take breaks every 30 seconds, once some poor kid has just given you a choice of balls to hit.

The names are now (again) World number 1 Nick Matthew and former (last month) World number 1 James Willstrop. Forget Andy Murray, check out a real sport, with real athletes and real home grown talents.

UB40 and dogs

No, not related, but something to talk about.

Firstly, the dogs!! We don't have pictures or videos, but next time there will be. Basically we went to a 'Sennenklubb' meeting, where all breeds of the sennenhund family (all 4) meet up and well, let the doggies loose.

We hadn't been to any of these meetings before, and as I'm just not a fan of such weird dog-related things. However it wasn't quite as I had imagined. There weren't actually any bizarre, self-obsessed people, hell-bent on living through their little poochies making up for some lost inadequacies that they forgot to either live or pass on to their children........

Instead, there were some quite normal, laid back people, who simply let their little (or quite big actually) 'babies' loose. It's quite enjoyable watching the funny goings-on of a pack of (similar) dogs, possibly 15 strong. Quite a sight if I may say so myself.

Bizarrely, our dog looked the most puppy-like, even with the youngest around 8 months. It's funny to see an almost 2 year male, bound around like a puppy, yet being one of the biggest dogs there.

What was also interesting, that another male was there weighing around 60kg. The owner had told us that this dog was the same weight and size as Charlie (45kg) up until 3 and a half years old, then suddenly a growth spurt ensued. If this is true, we could be in for a shock.......

Funnily enough, the only other dog to scoop mouthfuls of snow as he layed down or ran around was this other rather large male.......funny coincidence there.

On a completely unrelated note, we saw one of the most successful bands of all time, in a tiny venue in my home town, right here in Uppsala. Yes, UB40 came with all 10 members and a lot of dodgy brummie accents....

Despite the lack of English skills, the singing and entertainment was second to none. I've never seen any reggae type music (whatever you class them as really) live, but it was quite chilaxing. Very tight music and good singing = good combination. Some classics were played and some new stuff, with that calming reggae beat. Think Johanna enjoyed it too, and no we weren't the youngest either: There was quite a mix of ages and backgrounds, considering these guys are 55ish, there weren't so many 40 year old, wannabe-menopausal women screaming after the 'hotties'......

They played for nearly 2 hours by my timing and overall, had a great time. Would definitely recommend, even if it isn't your thing. Any well played/well sung music is always good to see live, doesn't really matter who it is......so long as they don't lip sync and pretend........so forget pretty much all current music, you will have to go back a few years, may be try UB40 and see how you fair.