Month: October 2023

West London win

I have been following the early kick-off game on the BBC website. Another win, against the dominance of possession, amazing outcome.

SAT 28 OCT 2023PREMIER LEAGUE

Chelsea0 Brentford2

  • Pinnock (58’minutes), 
  • Mbeumo (90’+6minutes)

Chelsea 0-2 Brentford: Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbeumo score for Bees

By Joe RindlBBC Sport

Last updated on4 minutes ago4 minutes ago.From the sectionPremier League523

Ethan Pinnock scores for Brentford
Ethan Pinnock’s last Brentford goal came in a 1-0 win over Manchester City on the final day of last season

Brentford held on for their third Premier League win of the season as goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbeumo sank a wasteful Chelsea in the West London derby at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues, who missed several chances, were punished through Pinnock’s thumping header from Mbeumo’s wicked cross.

With Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez up the field for a late corner, Neal Maupay led a Brentford counter-attack and set up Mbeumo for the second.

Chelsea, who went closest in the first half when Noni Madueke struck the woodwork, slipped to a ninth home defeat this year thanks to some poor finishing.

Brentford keeper Mark Flekken was never truly stretched and the visitors defended resolutely before hitting Chelsea on the break.

RWC 2023

The World Cup is still going on. Last week was the QF round. Some disappointments in that.

But we were in Lyon for the groups stages, seeing Namibia v Uruguay and NZ v Italy.

The game between the two lesser teams was good entertainment- particularly for the first 60 minutes- until a spate of yellow/ red cards ruined the balance and momentum of the match.

The big game lacked surprise and competition. It was an All Black walkover. However, the atmosphere was good with lots of Kiwis and many Italians. Being close to Italy, Lyon has a strong Italian community related to previous migration. Also, the French locals sang their anthem powerfully.

Thanks to Raphael for picking us up after the the ABs game.

Garden update

The house in France continues to change though it is hard to keep track of it. It is easy to forget how things looked a few months ago let alone last year.

So here are some photos to show the new hedge that we planted yesterday. The grass area has been cleared progressively in the last few months. More area ‘reclaimed’ hopefully with the grass gaining presence over the nettles and the ‘wld celery’.

And the lastest for the pond which has had some lining added to help control the growth of weeds. I don’t think it will help with maintaing the level of the water. Mores stones added to the edge too.

And we have news trees- two pear trees which I hope with cope with the nature of the soil, grow and give fruit at some point.

Venice

A rip to the busy city. It was packed as you would expect, but in places not as much as you might fear.

A place to walk and take the vaporetto and enjoy the scenes from the water. We did not take a gondola at 80 euros for 30 minutes!

There is the beauty of the place; including the churches and art within.

St Mark’s

Cinque Terre

Last week we were there to enjoy the scenery and the walking. Which we did- but with plenty of other people. There were so many people in the villages and on the trains in between- ir was mad. It brought back memories of Amalfi.

The walking of the coast line was hard to very hard. Part of the usual track was closed for repairs after a landslip. A big job in progress.

The train trip after, our few days, back to Milan was not a great experience. Not a great advert for Italian railways.

Milan and Figaro

As ever I am late.

The following entries will not be in chronological orfer but will give some impression of recent events and activities.

We were in Italy for a week and the final night we went to the opera at La Scala- again- 5 years on. It was the night before our long train ride from Milan to Zurich, then Paris and finally Brittany.

I wanted to see The Marriage of Figaro. Shaz tells me we saw it in Wellington- i can just remember- and apparently we were not impressed then.

Certainly not impressed this time. The production seemed bland in its setting, very traditional – not attempt to modernise and give something different. The performance was too long and not helped by the fact the surtitles did not work in our box for the first act. I think for a place like the La Scala it either wants/ or is under pressure to do it the usual way- do not rock the boat. My memories of innovation are much stronger for NZ Opera.

Oh well- just remember- no more Marriage of Figaro.