tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53756712237625061122012-01-15T08:25:41.676+07:00Klong - A Thai canal.Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.comBlogger2171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-84457351012042511322012-01-15T08:15:00.003+07:002012-01-15T08:25:41.687+07:00

Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Charlton Athletic.So we get the points in the first of two six-pointer games. Next week Wednesday's neighbours, Sheffield United, visit Charlton.Of course they are not really six point games. A win still only gives you three points, but the advantage gained by beating teams also vying for promotion can seem like double the points are on offer. The visit to Sheffield

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-49079345229646709542012-01-01T12:11:00.003+07:002012-01-01T12:46:56.578+07:00

So the last game of the year ended up with 1-0 loss to the Orient. The Charlton keeper was sent off very early in the game so there's an excuse. The shame is both Sheffield teams got three points. A win at home to Brentford is very much needed tomorrow.I have to add I have a soft spot for Orient. Many years ago I had an invite to their directors box for a pre-season friendly against I think

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-34670668123827876722011-09-06T21:48:00.002+07:002011-09-06T21:51:35.522+07:00

It had to be. We didn't get the three points, just the one. Sort of knew that was coming. Charlton 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday.Good point was that there was still a +14,000 crowd for a Monday night division 3 game.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-44448336562415627802011-09-04T13:57:00.002+07:002011-09-04T14:04:30.211+07:00

A good away win at Bury and a win over Reading in the League Cup on the Tuesday of the week before were very good. This week we have to wait for a Monday night game to see if we can keep up with the other two early leaders, Sheffield United and MK Dons (*boo). Our game is at home against the Sheffield team, Sheffield Wednesday, who are not known as pushovers but 3 points will put us as joint

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-2797306068300309482011-08-21T10:16:00.006+07:002011-08-21T11:04:31.401+07:00

I knew yesterday's game was going to be problem when earlier in the day my brother said that it was an almost guaranteed three points. I can't blame him saying that. Following a good home win against Bournemouth with two wins on the road, 2-1 over Notts County and 2-0 over Colchester, made a home game with lowly* Scunthorpe seem easy. It wasn't to be of course. A 2-2 draw still leaves Charlton

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-44547676294550226922011-08-07T09:31:00.005+07:002011-08-07T09:39:00.757+07:00

Time to start blogging again. A new football season kicked off yesterday, at least in the third division, aka League One. It's so early now, just the first Saturday in August. I have to admit other things have taken my concentration over the last two seasons, but during this one I hope to follow the games more closely.So Charlton beat Bournemouth 3-0. Couldn't ask for much better than that. I

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-24496244749404035062010-12-25T13:30:00.002+07:002010-12-25T13:32:06.903+07:00

Sad to say this is the only post I'm making for 2010. Not as many walks as last year. A merry Christmas to any readers who stumble upon this page and best wishes for the new year.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-55722187075595935512009-09-20T17:45:00.002+07:002009-09-20T17:50:20.011+07:00

Well Norwich managed an injury time equalizer to share the points with Charlton at Carrow Road. The 2-2 score line knocks us off the top of the third division table as Leeds well beat Gillingham. I managed to get the live coverage of the game on Radio London. I wonder if this was a jinx. Next week I won't listen, promise.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-9048406549132395982009-09-13T17:24:00.003+07:002009-09-13T17:29:16.547+07:00

Well the run ended yesterday. It would have been the seventh win on the trot if they had managed to beat Southampton but instead it was a 1-1 draw. From the sounds of it Charlton didn't play well in the first half and went a goal down. In the second half they were unlucky not to win after equalizing. Oh well, it had to end sometime and we are still top of the third division.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-39519704600529093522009-09-06T12:57:00.003+07:002009-09-06T13:01:26.781+07:00

Charlton's fantastic start to the season carried on when Brentford visited the Valley. 2-0 was the score. Next week we have Southampton at home which is very winnable. Leeds are also still on maximum points. Not going to say too much in case it puts a curse on.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-15795789322140470492009-08-30T08:38:00.003+07:002009-08-30T08:46:21.754+07:00

Well I hope not. Maximum 15 points from 5 games with a 4-0 win at Tranmere, but with two home games coming up even more wins are a strong possibility.The only downside is Leeds United are matching Charlton's pace. Now Leeds, with apologies to the good citizens of Leeds, are not Britain's best loved team. In fact they are way up there with ManU, Chelsea and Arsenal. This maybe truer for those of a

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-43053886308747767702009-08-23T08:14:00.004+07:002009-08-23T08:20:25.139+07:00

The perfect start to the new football season. Charlton, not at their best, beat Walsall 2-0. They still managed most of the possession and were ahead in all the stats except for fouls which Walsall won by a long way. The only other team with a perfect record in Division Three is Leeds. As they say in boxing, one of them has to lose the O. Let's hope it's Leeds, who still in my mind carry all the

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-44856789415181293832009-08-21T12:34:00.004+07:002009-08-21T12:50:50.486+07:00

Last season was one to forget, ending in demotion to the old Division 3 for the first time since I was a boy, which was a long time ago. Well at least we get to play with neighbours Millwall again.This season has started with a bang. Three wins with two of those on the road. There was our usual loss and early exit from the league cup, but it was a ManU style second team playing. The first game

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-4285465950107984732009-08-21T12:12:00.006+07:002009-08-21T12:32:56.300+07:00

If you follow the small road, Lat Krabang Soi 54, from Onnut Road it becomes a much larger new dual carriageway and you will find Wat Hua Khoo on the right side at a junction of two canals. Outside the temple is a good place to park and skirting the temple walls to the south will allow you to access a walkway along one of the canals. Along this canal, and sorry as I have no names for the klongs

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-2488576375983671132009-08-21T11:46:00.003+07:002009-08-21T11:53:18.958+07:00

Over the last year I haven't posted either about my football team or walking along the Bangkok klongs. The football was because it was such a horrible season from the beginning and the walking because I did fewer and spent too much time on UK politics.Well I have still kept up walking new klongs although far from regularly but the next post will cover the last two Sundays east of the new Bangkok

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-5825557924845859972009-08-02T12:28:00.004+07:002009-08-02T12:40:21.423+07:00

There was a time not that long ago when you knew it was a Labour MP speaking on TV because he wore a red tie. Tories sometimes wore a blue one and Liberals any colour they liked, but for Labour a red tie was mandatory.This changed with New Labour. They no longer wanted to be reminded of the past, the history of the party. Red stood something. It was the colour of the worker's flag. It was the

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-6695671337449422352009-07-18T12:44:00.005+07:002009-07-18T13:06:05.352+07:00

I’m not sure when it really started. Was it Maggie bringing in Saatchi & Saatchi for the 1979 election? Certainly by the time Blair was aping Clinton with sound bites, spin doctors and the 24 hour grin we were well on our way. Even Blair’s career path of university to law to politics was the standard American one. Now I have nothing against America, I worked for US marine companies for most of my

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-76597137289453296442009-06-27T14:24:00.002+07:002009-06-27T14:27:47.311+07:00

Just put this over at Labourhome. Seems I'm blogging more there than here. Anyway this a copy of what I put up.Why has it become such a dirty word. Roy Hattersley tells of it being a non-word in the early days of New Labour after Blair had gained the leadership. One of Blair’s groupies told him off for using it. How strange, but then again how strange that Hattersley found himself ending up to

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-72716250304463615722009-06-13T15:50:00.003+07:002009-06-13T15:53:31.700+07:00

Another one I just put on www.labourhome.org. I like the crowd over there. It's stuff I've done before here but I still don't know the answer. Maybe a helpful banker will tell me one day.Show me the money!I need some expert help. OK, I know that the current financial crisis was caused by lack of regulation and allowing the markets to govern themselves. And I know that because we had to bail out

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-24002058365597268722009-06-12T09:04:00.004+07:002009-06-12T10:08:10.028+07:00

On today's BBC website there is a strange story of how Putin bullied and humiliated billionaire businessman Oleg Deripaska last week. On live TV, he stood over the embarrassed oligarch and forced him to sign on the dotted line to reopen an aluminium plant he had just closed. It was almost old Joe Stalin in action which is fitting as Putin does seem to show Stalinist tendencies.Maybe another

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-70102103841070684632009-06-11T13:01:00.004+07:002009-06-12T09:04:05.455+07:00

I do like seeing where our politicians came from. Gordon Brown turned his thesis on the Scottish socialist James Maxton into a book. At the time he considered him a hero. Now I suspect he would expel him from the Labour Party if he had a chance. I posted this on http://www.labourhome.org/.I read someone accusing Tony Blair of being a new Ramsay MacDonald a few years back. I think it's more Gordon

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-54690023957240930262009-06-11T12:56:00.003+07:002009-06-11T13:25:38.000+07:00

This is a copy of the first article I posted over at http://www.labourhome.org/. I thought I had better keep a record of them here too. Like the post before this, it's me feeling that the New Labour idea has lost any momentum and we just watching it die now.Is the experiment coming to an end?In 1994 the biggest experiment in British politics since the Second World War began. 15 years down the

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-16695942646129867462009-06-04T17:23:00.003+07:002009-06-04T17:55:07.849+07:00

It's had 15 years but with the first recession they have faced while being the government New Labour is falling to pieces. Now their spin doctors are trying to remove the "New"; if anyone's to blame, let it be the whole Labour Party. The Blairites are biding their time to put the knife into the Brown. Hazel Blears who has managed to fiddle £13,000 in taxes owed, goes in such a way as to make

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-77646145707699530442009-05-24T07:53:00.008+07:002009-05-24T08:54:14.044+07:00

Again I have to admit my interest in the Labour Party going-ons in the Erith and Thamesmead constituency is because for most of the time I lived in the UK my home was there. Yesterday's Evening Standard interview with Georgia Gould must give you a chuckle. Guessing that most things she does follow Daddy and his friends advice, the Blairite spin doctors got it wrong yet again.The Standard allows

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-50541645368750639382009-05-20T15:49:00.004+07:002009-05-20T15:55:52.963+07:00

Below is a quote from Roy Hattersley, I think writing in the Guardian. Now Roy could never be accused of being a rabid lefty so it's worth reading."When I was a member of Labour's national executive, Tony Benn would make long speeches about the plot to transfer all power from party members to the parliamentary leadership. Neil Kinnock and I shook our heads in bewilderment and mumbled about the

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-51837001942230378322009-05-20T11:12:00.007+07:002009-05-20T11:43:03.282+07:00

So Gordon Brown has asked Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) to decide which MPs should be deselected. The sub-committee which will do this will chaired by Blairite Kath Speight, (see picture), the NEC's chairperson. We can expect then that those close to Brown and Blair will escape punishment by the party. I would be very surprised if the NEC went after Hazel Blears, Jacqui Smith, Tony

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-89733928658658058452009-04-30T10:24:00.003+07:002009-04-30T13:45:36.412+07:00

Brown lost the vote on new Gurkha immigration rules, quite rightly in my opinion. See my post two back. What was interesting was the numbers of the Labour MPs either voting against or abstaining. If my arithmetic is correct of the 356 MPs they have 83 didn't vote and 27 voted against.Now it might be too much to ask for that wowser Phil Woolas and his boss Jacqui Smith resign. (She has quite a few

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-41078856526341927852009-04-26T11:57:00.004+07:002009-04-26T11:57:00.706+07:00

What Brown, Darling, Cameron and Osborne have in common in this financial crisis is it was correct to save the banks and because of the cost of doing this with taxpayers money things like health and education will be cut. The differences will be in how big the cuts are. The Tories are reverting to old style Thatcherism so forget all about the hug-a-hoody PR.I read on the BBC website that

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-44711435348057886062009-04-25T10:23:00.005+07:002009-04-25T10:43:06.699+07:00

From Wikipedia - Wowser: The Australian writer C.J. Dennis defined it thus: 'Wowser: an ineffably pious person who mistakes this world for a penitentiary and himself for a warder'.So what is going through the mind of Immigration Minister Phil Woolas? He says that in a worse case it would mean 100,000 immigrants coming in if he allowed ex-Gurkha servicemen to settle in the UK. I just saw him on TV

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-42147704843574496912009-04-19T07:34:00.006+07:002009-05-20T11:39:55.860+07:00

If I lived in the UK it would probably be back in my old home in the Erith and Thamesmead constituency. Right now I would really be pissed off as the New Labour leadership tries to fix the selection of the next Labour candidate against the wishes of the local Labour members. First the London party takes away control of the selection from the local party and declares it an all women shortlist.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-72787584407032763202009-03-18T10:59:00.011+07:002009-03-18T12:05:40.273+07:00

I have been getting a little too one-eyed recently and allowing my dislike of New Labour and the sleaze around them to miss some important choices coming up ahead. The Tories and New Labour are beginning to split away in how to deal with the economic crisis. Up until now Brown, and Blair before him, have been following the economic ideas of Milton Friedman who inspired Thatcher and Reagan. This

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-40590041536414512302009-03-17T10:48:00.006+07:002009-03-18T08:10:41.959+07:00

Gordon Brown, quoted on the BBC website says the following. "Laissez-faire has had its day. People on the centre-left and the progressive agenda should be confident enough to say that the old idea that the markets were efficient and could work things out by themselves are gone."Unfortunately this statements negates the economic policy that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came in with 12 years ago

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-60467980040341779142009-02-14T16:25:00.007+07:002009-02-14T17:09:23.444+07:00

Guilty Men was published in 1940 naming and calling for the retirement of those politicians responsible for the policy of appeasement with Hitler's Germany. Within weeks it had sold over 200,000 copies. It would be interesting today to see who would be named for responsibility of today's economic crisis. James Crosby, pictured right, would be an easy target. He was in charge of HBOS during its

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-21906880523992792009-02-01T16:10:00.003+07:002009-02-01T16:20:08.467+07:00

New Labour is in trouble for its spin again. "No more boom and bust" is already haunting Gordon Brown and they let him have "British jobs for British workers" in his party conference speech. Now that construction workers are going on strike in agreement with him, do the spin doctors feel foolish or are they too thick skinned.What was this British jobs for British workers meant for; what does it

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-37386240079579809282008-12-11T17:18:00.005+07:002008-12-11T17:50:32.186+07:00

I'm the same age as Gordon. I thought he was younger. As a young man I was a revolutionary socialist, but now I believe in reform and a mixed economy. Like many as I've grown older I guess I've moved to the right. I know there are exceptions like Tony Benn, but this cooling of revolutionary ardour does seem quite common.What I can't imagine is ever catching up with Gordon's rightward shift. Am I

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-4531906225192228542008-10-24T14:36:00.003+07:002008-10-24T14:58:07.711+07:00

It didn't take long. The doctor of spin is back. This week he tells us that there is no turning back on New Labour policies. At the same time his name comes up in dealing with Russian billionaires, he tells us first that we must move forward with privatizing the Post Office and that the economic crisis is not the fault of market forces but of regulation. You can read this on the BBC website and

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-36873614275303382842008-10-24T12:08:00.004+07:002008-10-24T12:40:01.271+07:00

A bad week for Charlton. Not only did the team roll over for Bristol City but yesterday came the news that Dubai wouldn't be buying the club. I suspect there are not many smiles on those associated with the club but someone who should be happy is Alan Pardew.I suspect that, with the poor results from last season and so far this one, a new manager would have been the first signing of the new

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-89836135549955307922008-10-21T15:14:00.001+07:002008-10-21T15:14:00.389+07:00

The opposite score to last year and not a good time to not only lose but have two men sent off. If we were meant to be showing the Dubai Royal Family why they should buy Charlton instead of Everton/West Ham/Newcastle/Liverpool/Portsmouth, we didn't do a very good job.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-25035032635344048372008-10-20T14:27:00.008+07:002008-10-20T15:14:10.752+07:00

I liked John McCain! I really did. I had seen him on Jon Stewart's Daily Show which we get out here on Sundays with CNN. Compared to the recent US Republican presidential candidates he looked like a breath of fresh air. Hinting at a liberal position on everything except Iraq, and even there he was saying the war was a mistake but the increase in troop levels was to set the conditions for a

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-57625186875583574362008-10-17T10:26:00.001+07:002008-10-17T10:28:13.383+07:00

None is a fairly safe prediction.From Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd -Some will rob you with a six-gunAnd some with a fountain penAnd as through your life you travelYes and through your life you roamYou will never see an outlawDrive a family from their homeThis was written in the thirties during the depression which hopefully the politicians will not let us fall into again. I think it would be

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-6012074384872755902008-10-07T15:09:00.003+07:002008-10-07T15:21:30.369+07:00

Yesterday I posted that Mandelson coming back into the cabinet must have meant that the ultra-Blairites had cut a deal with Brown. To add strength to that supposition we have one of the Blairites, George Howarth, on the BBC's website saying that he no longer wants a leadership election. Are there really no Labour MPs that will at least put up a fight, even if just over fear of losing their seats?

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-42976342584021570142008-10-06T14:11:00.003+07:002008-10-06T14:11:00.844+07:00

Gordon Brown, and Tony Blair, were not the first Labour leaders to continue Thatcher-like policies after they replaced a Tory leader. In fact Thatcher-like policies didn't start with Thatcher but were a throwback to a much earlier age.For some reason UK TV is going through a period of re-examining Doctor Richard Beeching's destruction of the postwar nationalized British railways. It's about 45

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-42349620532130160932008-10-06T13:02:00.003+07:002008-10-06T13:02:00.691+07:00

Well this was unexpected. Probably the most disliked man in any of the previous Blair cabinets shows up once again. I guess it explains why Brown was given an easy time by the Blair groupies at the Labour Party Conference. He's cut a deal to let some of them back into power. No matter what personality clashes there were, it wasn't hard politically as Brown invented the New Labour idea. I see

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-1558514399453794392008-10-05T17:29:00.002+07:002008-10-05T17:37:47.889+07:00

Well my stubborn determination to link to Frankie Valley's old website in the hope he would finally go back to it has finally faded. The link is now to his newer Doctor Kish site. Can't blame him for wanting a life outside of blogging and he and the others who write on Doctor Kish still have the best Charlton site, but maybe one day he will back in all his glory with a daily post on

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-40258068703726836662008-10-05T13:18:00.004+07:002008-10-05T13:39:37.832+07:00

A win was most needed after a strange run of results. Since my last Charlton post we had lost a home and had an away win, an away draw and an away loss. I will list them below.Doncaster Rovers 0-1 Charlton AthleticNottingham Forest 0-0 Charlton AthleticCharlton Athletic 1-2 Sheffield WednesdayCrystal Palace 1-0 Charlton AthleticOf course, it's the last one of those that hurts as we lost to our

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-58232702526048392062008-09-14T13:36:00.007+07:002008-09-14T14:31:04.297+07:00

Of course looking closely it was always a nonsense idea. It would be hard to make a case for it even just for good economic times. There never was any logic to it. What was the market? How was it controlled or who controlled it? The forces are spoken of in almost mythical terms and the idea of their supremacy followed with a religious fervour. There is no science to it. The people in the City who

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-88818183960458894672008-09-14T13:15:00.003+07:002008-09-14T13:36:16.415+07:00

So we lost the two games on the trot and the first loss at home. Now with the previously referred to mood swings I should be in a really pessimistic mood, but football fans have to learn to deal with this otherwise the suicide rate would ten times its present one.How it's dealt with is by using the "Dunkirk spirit". No matter how bad it is today and how much worse it will look tomorrow we know we

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-19173310335530906662008-08-31T08:32:00.005+07:002008-08-31T09:37:59.432+07:00

Somewhere in Eton College the pupils are taught to cover up each others weaknesses from public scrutiny. This becomes a real danger when you have a great many of them holding major civil service and political positions and this could be the case if David Cameron is elected as the next prime minister. I suspect London will have to pay a quite high price for electing the old Etonian clown Boris

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-51132577335004638822008-08-31T08:24:00.003+07:002008-08-31T08:30:06.094+07:00

We won this fixture 2-0 last season, but from the few reports I have read today we didn't deserve any points from yesterday's game. Well at least I can expect all 3 points on the next game with the way our results have been so far this season; played 4, won 2, lost 2.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-2416150882188312442008-08-25T10:15:00.002+07:002008-08-25T10:20:44.634+07:00

Great result, I looked at the goals this morning (Monday) from a torrent download. Week to week mood swings could be here for the season or has Charlton discovered the midfield mix which will supply the strikers with plenty of chances consistently. Let's hope so. Still it must be boring supporting the Uniteds and Chelseas of the world.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-11260542656815348772008-08-17T11:14:00.005+07:002008-08-17T11:38:22.085+07:00

Shooting fish in a barrel - there are some thing that are so easy that you don't get many points for doing them, something like pocketing a white ball in billiards. One of these is criticizing Charles Windsor, (aka Charles Philip Arthur George Saxe-Coburg-Gotha). So Phil Woolas I'm not going to give you much of score going after Charles, or should I say 'Chuck', to be like Philip James Woolas

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-69171133123246280712008-08-17T10:59:00.004+07:002008-08-17T11:14:00.803+07:00

Well all the good feelings I had of the coming football season last Sunday took a bit of a beating over the intervening seven days. First on Tuesday was being knocked out of the Carling Cup by Yeovil and then yesterday losing at Watford.I know from the blogs that Charlton fans say we didn't play that badly yesterday and that the officials were 'homers', but having listened to an old (1992) Danny

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-20543538757733101522008-08-10T08:32:00.003+07:002008-08-10T08:40:55.384+07:00

Apologies to Swansea supporters as yesterday I tagged your team Swansea Town when of course you are city. I have nothing against Swansea, although many years ago I did use a cellar drinking club one afternoon where they had old bus seats perched on beer kegs to sit on and the beer was in plastic glasses long before the rest of Britain went that way. Still it's Swansea City and you were unlucky to

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-49315551282057569802008-08-09T16:07:00.003+07:002008-08-09T16:23:12.668+07:00

Today there's no politics in this blog. No attacks on Gordon Brown, Tony Blair or their groupies. Not even a curse on New Labour. Why? Because today is start of the Football League 2008-2009 season. Swansea are visiting Charlton and it will give us an idea of what sort of team we are following this year.Last season was disappointing with a 11th. place finish when the hope, if not belief, at the

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-39599715173742975982008-08-08T12:57:00.006+07:002008-08-08T14:50:52.585+07:00

With no written constitution and laws dating back to the Middle Ages or earlier, it is no surprise that at times the British courts hand out some strange punishments. The rule of law in Britain has always been based on the protection of property. After all the rules were made by landed aristocracy who wanted their property, belongings and serfs protected.In these more modern times I suspect that

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-82423041607602627562008-08-03T09:00:00.002+07:002008-08-04T09:17:51.860+07:00

Like the newspapers I'm getting my obituary column ready early. It seems that in government and at the palace there is talk about giving Maggie Thatcher, Hilda to her friends, a state funeral with all the trappings that Churchill got.Now I don't want to throw cold water on that idea but I have a much better one. How about a new national holiday instead. We could have this on the first day of May.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-55134965635816946152008-08-02T10:13:00.006+07:002008-08-02T10:45:40.953+07:00

This week we had two major oil companies declaring extra high profits, Shell and Exxon. Exxon actually set a record high profit in the US for all industries, not just oil. There had never been a profit result that high before.This blog in March gave the head of Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, the title of "an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism" first awarded to Tiny Rowland by Edward

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-80451528070730587742008-07-26T12:48:00.005+07:002008-08-02T12:17:55.111+07:00

Labour is in danger of matching its 1931 election results if it can not hang onto the safe seats in Scotland. Back then, after Ramsey MacDonald had deserted the party, they were reduced to 52 seats. With the Gordon Brown impersonator, Wendy Alexander, as leader of the Scottish Labour Party is it any surprise that Labour lost its traditional support in Glasgow? (I wrote this without even realizing

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-66718902232827289002008-07-21T08:31:00.004+07:002008-07-21T08:56:33.760+07:00

As a young man I criticized Labour for being reformist rather than revolutionary. Now, much older and liking reformism, I can't find any reformist tendencies in New Labour. The closest we get with get to any reforms after 11 years in government is more Thatcherism in privatization. Although often called reforms what Thatcher was doing was turning the clock back to days of more laissez faire

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-80339705313119807292008-07-16T12:01:00.003+07:002008-07-16T12:22:41.404+07:00

What's in a name. Privatisation, selling off the family silver, selling the crown jewels, all pretty much the same thing. We can add Brown's favourite, "public-private partnership", to that list. We have to remember that he is a Thacherite when it comes to the public services.We are told that private companies are more efficient than public ones, so why is it that every time we hear a public

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-82417766062946618042008-06-30T16:43:00.003+07:002008-06-30T17:10:39.471+07:00

I watched an Alexei Sayle documentary about Liverpool last night. In it explained how Liverpool still largely boycotts Murdoch's Sun newspaper because of their coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Well that got me thinking;-)The London Evening Standard's coverage of the London Mayor's election was one-eyed, vicious and untruthful as they fought to get Boris Mugabe Johnson elected that

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-4617755857967127032008-06-07T15:03:00.006+07:002008-06-07T15:55:00.177+07:00

First a couple of direct links to posts about 1968 on Jakartass's blog, his own and a post from David Jardine.Reading the both the blogs and the comments made me think a little deeper on what did happen back then. Of course just one year didn't change the world as we know it. What made the change was something that had already started by then. When people criticize the often flawed heroes of

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-50242012958218684762008-06-04T12:06:00.003+07:002008-06-04T12:35:31.247+07:00

Quotes from the first two articles I read on the BBC website today.On plans to bring private companies in to run NHS trusts - link to the article.And Geoff Martin, head of campaigns at Health Emergency, predicted there would be an "almighty row" over the plans. He added: "The government's suicide mission to alienate core supporters takes another leap with this effort to privatise the NHS on a

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-70396107032432356942008-06-01T15:31:00.003+07:002008-06-01T16:00:00.307+07:00

I've been trying to ignore it, but quite correctly many bloggers are remembering 1968 like Jakartass. It was a momentous year for those who were there. I was 16 and although I didn't get to the Grosvenor Square anti-war demonstration in March I did get to almost all the others that year. The UK wasn't as exiting as what was going on in France, Germany, the US and Czechoslovakia but a generation's

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-7360077361460506572008-06-01T15:04:00.003+07:002008-06-01T15:21:30.186+07:00

I haven't been exercising enough. Last weekend I managed to get a walk along our local canal, Klong Banma. I hadn't done this walk for a few months and found that much of the vegetation had been cut back and near the railway a new housing estate was being built. The site is on both sides of the klong and it looks like the builders only have road access on the western side. They have put in what I

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-36710962698386150412008-05-26T08:24:00.005+07:002008-05-26T08:43:56.885+07:00

I have to be honest, Boris gives me someone to really dislike for the next 4 or 5 years or whatever the mayor's term is. On the BBC website it says that this old Etonian will not renew the deal with Venezuela that supplies cheap diesel for London buses to fund half price fares for those of the capital's citizens on income support. In return London was supplying expert advisors to Venezuela on

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-52365081775018956152008-05-17T18:03:00.003+07:002008-05-17T18:12:44.842+07:00

Gordon Brown has now come out rebuking the Burmese generals for killing their own people, this time by ignoring their plight rather than by shooting them. Aid needs to be forced through and if this means air drops without permission, so be it.The US and the UK were quick enough to go into oil rich Iraq. I don't expect them to do this in Burma but the least they could do is support the opposition

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-54433139793088040442008-05-14T10:01:00.004+07:002008-05-14T10:27:46.882+07:00

Frank Field certainly has it in for Gordon Brown. This is not a man to forgive and forget, in fact there is something old testament about him. I'm not sure politically where he comes from but I suspect his religion is what leads him into not accepting the usual politician's compromises. The government is backtracking and some of the backbenchers knives are out. It's hard to see how Labour will

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-9036925179404825382008-05-12T10:42:00.004+07:002008-05-12T11:27:22.011+07:00

It's funny how sometimes an idea seems so clear that you can't figure out why others haven't already picked up on it.So yesterday I drove with my youngest daughter to the National Museum. It gave us a chance to try the GPS on the new top of the range Nokia N95 8GB she had given me. We parked on Sanam Luang, the royal fields used in the yearly rice ploughing festival. While walking to the museum

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-91191887037912664882008-05-03T17:51:00.006+07:002008-05-03T18:25:27.454+07:00

We went back out to the Klong Saen Saeb about 7 kilometers east of Minburi to finish off the last bit of that end of the canal with a footpath. We had got this far last month. It was only 5 kilometers there and back with a good footpath on either side but not a lot of interest except the canal here is well stocked with fish by the looks of it.Klong Saen Saeb, MinburiAfter the walk we drove

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-85528526733665423812008-05-03T06:43:00.003+07:002008-05-03T06:53:15.812+07:00

I just took down the Stop Boris graphic. Must admit I'm surprised that London voted how it did. I thought Ken could win in spite of Labour's problems. The outer suburbs seem to have put in a strong Boris vote so it might be a council tax vote also.I suspect this is the end of any progressive London policies on public transport and pollution. Boris really is a throwback to a much earlier time. In

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-85667499072593207872008-04-28T16:49:00.004+07:002008-04-28T17:00:05.563+07:00

As you age so mortality touches you that little bit harder. In the Western world, unless you are unlucky, your youthful brushes with mortality are as that oldest generation to which your grandparents belong begins to pass away. By the time you are late middle age the brushes are getting wider and you might even have played with it yourself. You begin lose friends of your own age. Now the Who's

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-20011801860788449042008-04-18T08:23:00.003+07:002008-04-18T08:40:00.158+07:00

On today's BBC website's front page is news on two Labour women MPs. The 77 year old Gwyneth Dunwoody died and the 46 year old Angela Christine Smith didn't resign her junior government job after all.I suspect both of these women are to the right of where I stand on many issues. One will be remembered for taking on the party leadership while the other will have to pull something out of the bag to

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-18266166636179873882008-04-16T16:03:00.003+07:002008-04-16T16:14:53.051+07:00

It looks like Boris Johnson is being found out rather quickly. I don't think keeping him hidden away will fool the London voters. I suspect that David Cameron and the Tory leadership never thought Boris, or BoJo to his friends, would seriously challenge Ken Livingstone.Now he is in with a chance Cameron has problems. Does he keep Boris quiet and hope to win on an anti-Ken vote, but then face a

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-39980711447932620342008-04-16T15:47:00.003+07:002008-04-16T16:00:23.526+07:00

While Gordon tries to be the better Tory than Cameron I wonder if he remembers what he wrote in 1986? Already on the opposition front bench for Labour his biography of the Scottish socialist James Maxton was published. Below is Brown quoting Maxton."Round about Westminster, there hung nearly 800 years of hoary tradition. The rule driven into them from the day they arrived there was 'never mind

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-45040912518993565162008-04-13T14:18:00.005+07:002008-04-13T14:35:34.087+07:00

It's Songkran in Thailand today. That's the Thai New Year festival when everyone throws water over each other. Of course the traditional practice is to gently pour water over the hands of your elders, but out of the streets is pure fun and anarchy. It coincides with the hottest part of the year and it is very hot right now. So no walk this weekend or I might end up looking like the picture from

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-25279957243694135322008-04-11T13:18:00.003+07:002008-04-11T13:22:16.253+07:00

It seems that my view of the Jeremy Paxman's BBC London Mayor's Election debate is a fairly widespread one regarding Boris shooting himself in the foot. Anyway with the election only a couple of weeks away I thought I had better put a link in to a pro-Ken blog on the sidebar or you could just click here.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-43523998415186070782008-04-11T12:54:00.004+07:002008-04-11T13:09:45.907+07:00

Here's a link to yesterday's Bangkok Post Outlook section article on a klong community at Wat Sai. Building a watergate had almost destroyed their traditional way of life. I suspect it wasn't so much the watergate as the bureaucratic control of the opening and closing of the gate. The men at the various gates do not have the authority to do this without the say so of someone behind a desk working

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-41190990429905870232008-04-09T14:52:00.004+07:002008-04-09T15:12:12.143+07:00

I just watched Jeremy Paxman and the three main candidates for the London Mayor's job debating on the BBC. I must admit a few months ago I thought it was a no contest which recent polls show isn't the case. Also I thought the Tories had put Boris up as a bit of a joke candidate, just like when it was going to be Jeffrey Archer.That second bit hasn't changed - he is a clown. God help London if he

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-32869124432993389212008-04-09T12:39:00.005+07:002008-04-09T13:17:15.582+07:00

I do think the Chinese leadership have done well, far better than Yeltsin did in Russia, in leading their country towards a mixed economy. What they fail to understand is that most people outside of China have a much higher regard for human rights than they have. Protests on the Oympic flame's route through London, Paris and San Francisco caught the Chinese government ill-prepared. Now it just

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-90802069935909797052008-04-09T11:03:00.004+07:002008-04-09T12:09:36.303+07:00

Back on the east side of the Chao Phraya River last Sunday with about a 7 kilometer walk along the klongs of Samut Prakan. Heading west we reached the intersection of Sukhumvit and Srinakarin Roads so we were still outside of Samut Prakan's old town. Click on the Google Earth picture below for a better look at the route shown with yellow dots.Again this week I had company which was good as it

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-37092760929636423562008-04-04T09:25:00.004+07:002008-04-04T10:00:49.930+07:00

So Max Mosley is the son of Oswald Mosley. I didn't know that. I could have looked it up on Wikipedia as it's there.For those who don't know, Max Mosley is president of something called the FIA which governs Formula 1 motor racing and other motor racing competitions. Oswald Mosley was of course the head of the pre and post WW2 fascist party in Britain. He was married to one of the Mitford sisters

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-16943422188575812542008-03-31T17:04:00.005+07:002008-03-31T17:51:05.037+07:00

On Sunday I had a chance to take a friend out to the Jesada Technik Museum in Nakhon Chaisri and then onto Nakhon Pathom for a bit of a walk. An early start meant we got out of Bangkok quite easily but we did hit traffic out of town and on the way back. It's so hot at the moment that everyone with a car is trying to get away on weekends.So first the Jesada Technik Museum. This is a place for

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-17331449773554623562008-03-31T13:36:00.003+07:002008-03-31T13:46:35.609+07:00

Not much exercise on Saturday. A drive over the new bridge to the Chulchomklao Fort navy base for lunch in their seafood restaurant and then a drive out on some of the small roads going west from there. Going along the northern bank of Klong Sapphasamit and turning right just before the cement road runs out at the large rice mill takes you on some small roads back towards the river. Close to the

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-29944280043437081102008-03-29T08:44:00.005+07:002008-03-29T08:52:08.990+07:00

Not really Harry Potter's fault here in Thailand but he did help. I went to the Bangkok International Bookfair yesterday to meet some people. In Thailand we always have the book fair during the school summer holidays; it's our very hot season here. There were tens of thousands of kids, mainly teens, camped out on every available bit of floor space and they were reading! I hope there are similar

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-50174231909492676382008-03-29T08:40:00.003+07:002008-03-29T08:44:48.433+07:00

I have been thinking about splitting this blog. Maybe my minority views on UK politics don't really fit in with canals and walking although that's where I fine tune them;-) On the internet we tend to niche everything. The more we niche the easier it is for people to find us. So maybe I will take new political posts onto a new blog. I will ponder this some more.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-59135236165885257372008-03-29T07:52:00.006+07:002008-03-29T09:38:49.362+07:00

I couldn't let the British Airways Heathrow Terminal 5 story go by this week without a comment. I live in a third world country where two years ago they moved from one airport to another 25 kilometers away overnight and still had passengers flying with their baggage the next day. So why couldn't British Airways, and maybe the British Airports Authority (BAA), get it right?Well you would have to

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-51151873827403296342008-03-23T17:45:00.004+07:002008-03-23T18:49:00.612+07:00

The province of Samut Prakan, like Bangkok, spreads across both sides of the Chao Phraya river. It sits at the mouth of the river between Bangkok and the sea. Since the recent industrial ring road bridge, and even more since the new Bangkok Ring Road bridge have connected both banks of the river below the city, new places of interest have become easier to access. One of these is the Chulachomklao

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-61951353361432714032008-03-23T17:35:00.002+07:002008-03-23T17:45:36.757+07:00

It's hot in Bangkok right now. Everyone is complaining about it. Weekends it becomes more noticeable as we are out of the office air-conditioning. Being hazy I left my hat off for some of yesterday's walk and burnt the top of my head. I get lazy, find more to moan about and even Charlton can't help me. A one-one draw with West Brom doesn't help. It's good not to be losing but now really only wins

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-1166916126896042282008-03-21T11:06:00.005+07:002008-03-21T11:39:24.623+07:00

So the British banks have gone, cap in hand, to Mervyn King at the Bank of England. These bastions of the British establishment and great supporters of the Tory party have been caught short. The very fault that Cameron is been attacking Brown for, not putting anything aside for the bad times, is what he friends in the banks have done.I don't believe anyone thought that economically we would

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-19706704367312502412008-03-20T12:35:00.003+07:002008-03-20T12:44:16.697+07:00

Congratulations to the 19 brave Labour MPs who voted against the government on Post Office closures. It's going to be interesting to see Brown's response. Does New Labour seem to have far more Stalinist tendencies than old Labour?Good to see Diane Abbott in the list - I enjoy watching her and Portillo with Andrew Neil on the BBC. Not surprised that ex-post office worker's union leader, Alan

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-35462967046998949352008-03-17T16:55:00.003+07:002008-03-17T17:04:43.477+07:00

I'm all for. Make all the school kids swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen, or a King Charles or William or whoever. Being a English republican I figure that should just about finish off the monarchy in the UK as that generation are empowered.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-75302278499175920552008-03-16T12:03:00.006+07:002008-03-16T17:26:35.364+07:00

Yesterday's walk was about 9 kilometres from and back to the truck on Klong Saen Saeb. This canal is 170 years old and was built to move troops faster towards the eastern borders of the then Siam. You can get the history on Wikipedia here.The walk covered an section of the canal going east from the watergate called GP8 on the eastern side of Minburi town. I had pleasant company so spent a great

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-69205895887900977702008-03-16T09:57:00.001+07:002008-03-16T09:59:54.181+07:00

Hard to find any positives to take out of this result. The manager, Alan Pardew, seems to be trying to find some on the BBC website. Good luck to him.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-5590095365388297532008-03-12T17:56:00.003+07:002008-03-12T17:59:32.975+07:00

Another loss and the second loss to Burnley this season. We are 10 points behind the second positioned team and even the play-offs are looking a bit dodgy. Not a happy supporter today.

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-90012644631938693872008-03-09T19:20:00.008+07:002008-03-09T20:40:58.059+07:00

This weekend I finished most of the top end Klong Song Ton Nun and walked a large part of Klong Bueng Khwang. (I guess that seeing as I don't put a "h" in klong I shouldn't put it in Khwang either but I will go with the spelling on Google Earth for now.)These were longish hour-and-a-half walks through almost entirely Moslem rural communities. The growing of grass turf was something I hadn't

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-14370656769674180422008-03-09T18:50:00.004+07:002008-03-09T19:14:30.719+07:00

In the early seventies Edward Heath, probably the last "One Nation" Tory prime minister, called Tiny Rowland, (a horrible little shit in charge of a company called Lonrho), "an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism".35 years I would like to give that title to the boss of Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen van der Veer. While we are giving out this title let's give honourable mentions to the US

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-19414800579455353742008-03-09T17:31:00.003+07:002008-03-09T17:44:34.359+07:00

Well the dream is dead. I no longer think we will get one of the two automatic promotion spots this season. Unlike last time we were relegated we haven't kept an almost intact team from the premier. We have a virtually brand new team, thankfully as last season's team was just not good enough for the Premier Division wages they were getting paid. This new team might make it, but probably not

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-31813416069820752172008-03-05T20:58:00.003+07:002008-03-05T21:23:31.860+07:00

Last three games were lost to Blackpool, beat Sheffield United and drew with Bristol City, and so goes Charlton's season. Just not consistent enough for one of the top two spots and automatic promotion to the Premier League. Then again they just needed to win 3 of the games they lost to be top of the division.Still it might keep us away from Richard Scudamore, that spin doctor in charge of the

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375671223762506112.post-10984498642022618072008-03-02T15:55:00.002+07:002008-03-02T16:21:20.823+07:00

Klong Song Ton Nun is another canal that links to the two large canals running east from Bangkok, Klong Saen Saeb and Klong Prawet Buriram. This one is almost due north of the new Bangkok airport. It runs parallel and just west of Rom Klao Road that goes to Minburi. With walks on Saturday and Sunday all I have to walk is the last few kilometers at the Minburi end.There are quite a few communities

Les Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17837044003424177148noreply@blogger.com0