Welsh Cavalry

The Queen’s Dragoon Guards were given the freedom of the city of Cardiff in 1985. To mark the 21st anniversary, there was a parade around the city on Friday. They would have done it last year but they were otherwise tied up with an ongoing spat in Iraq.

As well as three divisions of the regiment, there were scimitar tanks and the regimental band in the march through the city. A flypast was perfectly timed to coincide with the Mayor’s inspection of the troops.

The regiment is also known as the Welsh Cavalry, although the horses have long since been replaced by tanks. One spectator told me that her 18-year-old grandson was on of the regiment’s tank drivers who saw active service in Iraq. At 18, I’m not sure they should have a licence to drive cars, let alone blooming huge tanks. Apparently he gets paid just £12,000 for the chance to lose his life in battle.

Signs that spring is here

St David’s Day came and went with barely a mention. BBC Breakfast spent 5 seconds on the fact that 1 March was St David’s Day and 10 minutes on the fact that it was World Book Day. The campaign to have the day marked as national holiday in Wales (er, a Principality holiday, surely?) garnered just 11,000 names and sort shrift from the UK government.

(By contrast, the petition on road charging collected 1.8 million names, but that campaign didn’t get anywhere either.)

The best sign that Spring is here? Baseball’s spring training is underway. As well as my usual TV fill on NASN, I’m hoping to get to see a couple of games out on the West Coast during our honeymoon trip to California.

Links

Google Maps Mania is a blog which has a bunch of links to Google Maps applications. Very interesting.

Where did it all go wrong?

A quick comparison of British and foreign footballers.

Ten years ago Tottenham Hotspur had two goalkeepers, Ian Walker and Espen Baardsen.

Walker in those days said his greatest ambition was “to be marooned on a desert island with an endless supply of lager, women and Sky TV”. Ian recently checked into Tony Adams’ Sporting Chance Clinic suffering from depression, after a spell in Las Vegas. He visited there on a property investment trip but instead met and shacked up with an exotic dancer, without telling his wife and children.

While at Spurs, American-born Norwegian Baardsen took an Open University degree in social sciences and economics. He retired aged 25, saying he had lost his passion for the game and spent a year travelling the world. Baardsen now works for London based asset management firm Eclectica as an analyst, after training at a Hedge Fund. He says his preferred reading is Milton Friedman and Immanuel Kant.