Ride Bull Gives You Wings

Say "Olé" to 2009 (will be the year of the Ox, according to the Chinese horoscope) and "good-fly" to 2008!

Have an oxellent 2009!

SHOE-TING THE PRESIDENT

Recently this year, we had Golden Boy Cristiano Ronaldo winning a golden boot - that was certainly noteworthy and something few people expected; but now we have something that tops that by a shoe heal. Actually two.

This is something that kicks the socks out of Ron's story, because this is about the pair of shoes size 42 that were swang at George W. Bush's head in Iraq and went around the world!

The Iraqui jornalist deserves kudos for the brave move and the excellent pitch that nearly got the retiring President right between the eyes - that was a heck of a shot and any baseball fan will admit that, but W. still got some cool moves of his own and ducked the passing shoe-t... great stuff and highly entertaining. We really have to offer kudos to W. for taking the incident with humor. Shoes were not his size, lol!

There was no real danger for W., since the shoes were not loaded, but the U.S. president could have had a taste of the deadly mass destruction gas his administration were looking for after 9/11, had the jornalist managed to toss at him his stinky socks...

Golden Boy's 2008 Other Awards

I bring you now, first-hand, other awards that C. Ronaldo has won this year, in addition to the Ballon d'Or:

- Le Tete de Ballon (The baloon head)
- Metrosexual of the Year
- The Award for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd least humble footballer
- The Toddler's Vocabulary Award (much disputed and coveted in the football world)
- The IDIOTTO (I've done inough olready; taking time off)*


* hopefully, to improve his spelling and diction.

Feel free to add others. After all, if he wouldn't be special, the world wouldn't waste so much time paying attention to Ron...

Snap Out of It Ron

This is not about Ron winning yet another award, albeit this one is the European Footballer of the Year; this is about a puny kid who grew up playing football on the streets tourists don’t visit, in Funchal, Island of Madeira.

From a young age, he looked promising, so he was brought to Lisbon aged 11 to be schooled with other kids like him and to develop his football skills. He achieved the second goal with distinction. The first goal, not so much. But who needs that when you have the respect and admiration of everybody around you for what you can do with your feet…
Doors were opening wide for the lad and he was barely 18. His dad, however, would not live to see “the boy wonder” turn into a global phenomenon, and too often, a prima-dona…

His father-figure has since become Alex Fergunson, his manager at ManU. But it is a tough job to baby-sit a young lad (23 y.o) that had a meteoric rise to fame and stardom. Especially if his humble beginnings were in a country that has once gain a position of prominence by craft and hard-work but then tossed it away due to self-indulgence.
C. Ronaldo is a tragic reflection of Portugal.

Portugal is a little Napolean - small, provincial, full of complexes; but sees itself as a giant and tries to measure up with the large countries of Europe. This often leads to frustration, followed shortly by poor self-esteem.
However, once and again, someone breaks away from this pattern and actually becomes one of the best in its trade. Voilá, presto, an instant big-headed Portuguese is made for the world to gasp upon, to love or to hate, whatever you fancy.

There are exceptions, of course. Say Figo, for instance. So there is no excuse for Ron to be an arrogant di**. Or dumb. But he can't be bothered and isn't the least worried, just as long he has people backing him and excusing his tantrums.

Quite frankly,C. Ronaldo and Mourinho, they both seem immune to negative feedback. They just believe in themselves too much to care what half of the world thinks (tinks, as they say) about them.
It is also true that some people are just plain jealous, but more and more people who closed an eye to Ron’s controversial behaviour in face of his football merits, are beginning to get fed up with his attitude as he’s not performing anymore and is letting us all down. However, I believe Ron will bounce back as he’s overdue to mature any day now..

Please forgive some duplication, as I already posted about this subject before.

Ps – Players of all nationalities dive, feign injuries, and use a all range of unsportsmanlike tactics to get leverage - let’s not get cocky and xenophobe about it, as I am tired of seeing that sort of fabrications being attributed merely to Southern-Europeans.
The difference is others may get away with it, because they are not Ron.

He still needs to man-up when things are not coming out right.
If he’s the best, then he has to step up and act like he’s the best.
So far, he’s not even on the same level as Figo used to be.

Peep Show

For those unlucky enough to be unfamiliar with the brilliant Channel 4's comedy, the show it's about two brits with bad teeth who share an apartment, and their relationship with other brits with bad dental care.

As peep show viewers, we have access to their inner thoughts and the hilarious situations they get into.

A must see, a million-laughs TV comedy and a loud cry for an orthodontist!

Go-bama

There hasn’t been many times in my short life that I felt like history was in the making, right before our lives. There has been a few isolated events but nothing of this sort. There has been few men in history that have brought such a stir and such a seemingly unstoppable wave of worldwide support and expectation, with so little. Such man is a mere candidate running for the presidency of the good old U.S. of A. That man has been liked to John F. Kennedy, the first and last American President to move the world opinion and being herald to the level of pop star.Such man is Obama. Barack Obama. 'Nough said.

If this man was running for the hypothetical role of World Chairman instead of President of the USA, he would win by a landslide, no doubt about it.Being the US, he still has to run against prejudice and some darn stale pilgrims, as well.

Nevertheless, he seems to be winning.This is already a major victory for the US, and if Obama does win, then it will be a major victory not only for him and America, but for the all world, for it will mean that humanity is slowly but steadily advancing towards its adulthood...That's why I'm not concerned if Obama-president will not fulfil all the (high) expectations, as change does not happen overnight.

What I'm concerned about is that like Kennedy, Obama may find a premature end...However, if Barack Obama stands for something, he stands for HOPE - the kind of hope that brings people together and a better world. Thus, I would like to say: "Ich bin ein Barack Obama supporter"!
Go Obama! Win it for us!

It's time. See you in the Oval office.

Algarve is All This & Much More

Spoiler: Left out the sunny beaches and the gastronomy, and other typical sights such as lobster-red boozy tourists and girls in thongs...

The Real Mcolon

Soon to be released in all major European languages, a new book aiming at casting more light over the 500 year-old myth surrounding Christopher Colom(bus).

Including the latest DNA tests, The Portuguese who discovered America will allow you to discover the real identity of the man famous for re-discovering America.

Ps - It will also reveal embarassing to Americans, hehe. But not to worry, Australians also had to re-write their History on account of the always-there-first Portuguese...

Dude, Where's My Flag?

Red, Green and Yellow are usually colors that you find mostly on African flags.

Portugal got its current flag in1911, when most of the best colors and patterns had already been taken, but that's not why Portugal has such a tasteless flag.

In 1910, a coup d'etat was enforced by the republicans who eventually overthrown the monarchy and decided to get a new flag.
Normally, in such situations, the national colors are kept and only the symbols of the deposed regime are eliminated, eg. a star or a crown.

However this was not a overwhelming popular movement but a minority-led "revolution", hence the traditional national colors that had nothing to do with the monarchy but with the country's history (white and blue - the former represented the parliamentary constitution), were replaced by the colors of the republican party's flag. (Something similar happened in Russia, during the Soviet Union years, but even there normality has been restored, ultimately...)

What is worst, this has been covered up and the green has been camouflaged under the false allegation that "the green represented the fields of Portugal (mostly brown) and the red was the blood shed for the country"...
And by the way, the royal symbol, the crown, was replaced by a Masonic symbol, a globe or armillary sphere, that in spite of being a symbol of the Portuguese discoveries, its current meaning is actually related to the secret societies that conspired to bring down the monarchy and are responsible for bombings, and for murdering the lawful head of state and his son in 1908.

The sad part is, this fallacy is still being fed to people today, taught in schools and perpetuated shamelessly...
That's Portugal for you... a schizophrenic country under sedation, looking for its long lost identity...

The Game in Spain

Congrats to Spain, for the brilliant victory on the Euro 2008 cup - they were outstanding and didn't leave any doubt of the fairness of their success, unlike Greece for years ago...

Just went to show what an opportunity Portugal squandred at home, in 2004... and it won't be easy to have another shot at playing a final again, let alone winning it...

Anyway, Spain did show the way. They have given a master class in how to deffend and attack, all wrapped in class and humble work...
The "Spanish carrossel" (the way they passed the ball around) reminded me of the Portugal's style of the early 2000's - the team had players like Rui Costa, Figo, Joao Pinto, Sergio Conceicao, Pauleta... in their prime.

I guess it was proven that a good team needs to have a good goal-keeper, as well... one that is not only good on penalties, taken by English players, that is.