A spectacular end to the day as I strolled home. Bright orange and blue-grey waves of cloud against the pale blue sky and yellow horizon. Best of all it comes for free.

In Poor Health

According to the news, our National Health Service is on the point of collapse. So what? That's business as usual isn't it? The media have made claims of impending disaster for decades. Face it. For all its good work, the NHS is a disaster. Mostly because the people telling the media how ramshackle it all is are the very same people running it and seeking bigger budgets and pay rises. I suspect the system might not be as healthy as it could be (pun intended), but that predictions are management-speak for "We want highly paid sinecures".

Am I sounding cynical?

A National Hero Service

Perhaps I was being harsh about the NHS. It's just that it never seems to live up to that quaint fifties movie image that politicians want us to believe that their reforms will return it to. But then we have other heroes to praise today, like that bus driver in Teeside who defied an icy hill and got his passengers to their destination despite horrible conditions. i know only too well well how difficult it for us British to cope with icy conditions on the road. Ice? It's just not British! Well done that man.

A Nation Held In Second Place

Typical. After all the hullabaloo about staging the Olympics in London in 2012, after all the promises of labour politicians and our idiosyncratic London mayor, it turns out that 2012 will be held in french. French? Oh come on. We defeated the French all over Europe on land and sea for centuries, knicked their empire, and they insist our capital must place the french language first where the games are concerned.

Wellington must be turning in his grave. There's a slightly suspicious story that our traditional two-fingered salute evolved from taunts of medieval english bowmen, in that the French were supposed to cut off the 'bow fingers' of any archer they caught ("Look Frenchman, I still have my fingers!"). I am so tempted.

Football Game of the Week

I saw the floodlights switched on last night as I passed the local football stadium whilst going home. Apparently our First Division team, Swindon Town FC, have been defeated by Crawley, who aren't even a league team. Lucky for them they're not French, so I have better things to moan about.