Sport TV Golfe

Its nice of the Sport TV guys to dedicate a whole channel to the golfing nuts among us. When they presented the channel on Friday, they said that it would be free to Sport TV subscribers until the end of February. I wait to see what will happen then.

They were a little unlucky in their first day, with the Bob Hope Classic, bought from the Golf Channel, unplayable due to heavy rain in the American desert. American golf broadcasting is frustrating at the best of times, with an excruciating ratio of adverts to live action, so watching repeats of the little golf that had been possible was awful. On the other hand, the Abu Dhabi tournament made good watching, despite having to view it live and the highlights only a few hours later.

As it happens, I am quite happy to pay for 12 months of Sport TV subscription just to watch the four Major tournaments. They added to that last year with the FedEx Cup playoffs. I watch virtually no football, except sometimes the Champions' League matches and gave up on Formula 1 long ago. So we'll see if they expect me to pay more to watch non-stop golf, because that would be a little optimistic. If I can subscribe to only the golf, that will be the way to go.

Rewarding Incompetence

It is quite unbelievable that anybody, especially a supposedly intelligent economist such as Cavaco Silva, might even consider that Pedro Santana Lopes should have his invaluable services to the country recognised by the award of an official honour.

His time as mayor of Figueira da Foz and Lisbon was characterised by public works carried out but not paid for, leaving both cities in a financial mess, then he moved on to be the shortest serving Prime Minister since 1981 years, dismissed because his government was unable to ensure the stability necessary for it to function properly.

Well known for being entitled to a full state pension at 49 since years as a member of parliament count double, his self-interest is beyond doubt, as seen in the last council elections in Lisbon, where he only reluctantly took up his place as an opposition councillor, stating that he would be concentrating on working for Lisbon alongside his professional activities as a lawyer.

All in all, another confirmation that to get on in life competence is far less important than political connections.

Afonso de Albuquerque

The biography of Afonso de Albuquerque by the English historian Elaine Sanceau is impressive for two reasons.

Firstly becasue it tells the story of a larger-than-life figure who had to battle all the time he was in India to dominate a vast area of sea and coast with only a handful of men and ships, beset by political intrigues from within and without. His achievements in conquering costal cities, persuading local warlords that he represented a major international power to obtain their cooperation to build fortresses and charge taxes, while all the time having to contend with disloyal subordinates, jealous of his position and authority, are worthy of such a dedicated work of research and presentation.

Secondly, the extracts of text and facsimilies of original documents reveal the huge amount of painstaking work that must have gone into decoding and cataloging hundreds, if not thousands of documents to produce this definitive biography. That rigour occasionally results in a rather dry read, but our difficulties pale into insignificance if we consider the author's task.

A fascinating biography of a truly great man.

Death is All Around

No I'm not referring to the situation in Haiti, nor the ex-colleague's funeral that I went to yesterday.

Our one year-old golden retriever, which is not that fast and makes as much noise as a tank approaching, manage to catch a pigeon on Wednesday. It must have been old and/or sick to not escape.

Fortunately, we found the dog before he made too much mess and I got to dispose of the bird when I got back from work - wonderful!