Welcome to my blog. I post on this, roughly once a week (it does vary). I sustained a 'Traumatic Acquired Brain Injury', and a six month coma from a 'road traffic accident' whilst cycling, in October 2006. I spent the following 4 years (22-26yrs old), in a combination of hospitals and rehabilitation homes. Now, I have been living independently in Surbiton, England since October 2010. This blog begun life in December 2010, as i realised that there are many people worldwide that i want to share experiences with. I know that, as a wheelchair user, I am obviously not as mobile as i wish, so, use the internet to connect to you. I enjoy letting my thoughts represent through type. I type honestly. As numerous readers, as well as email recipients, will understand, I find typing to be very therapeutic. Thank you :)
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Friday 23 November 2018

We can progress further!

- Speaking the truth --
- Nothing yet --
- Strange noises -- 





Mission successful. I had crouched down by the side of the road in the Alps.
'G'WANNN DAVID!!'
The  photograph that I took of my hero David Millar, climbing up to La Toussuire in 2006 Tour de France.



A super interview, originally linked through the ’London Real’ website, in a post here, from a couple of weeks ago, can now be watched through YouTube.
A super interview, because David Millar is such an honest and direct bloke, with a supreme love of professional cycling. He is vastly experienced and is in no way scared of speaking the truth


Respect.
David Millar - London Real





...............................................................................................Football
OK, England won!.. No, we finished top of our group.
What did we win?... Nothing yet, but we can progress further!

...UEFA Nations League


... What is the basic format?

  • The format of the UEFA Nations League features promotion and relegation. The 55 European national teams have been divided into four leagues in accordance with UEFA's national association coefficient rankings on 11 October 2017.

  • League A includes the top-ranked sides and League D includes the lowest:

League A
Group A1: Germany, France, Netherlands
Group A2: Belgium, Switzerland, Iceland
Group A3: Portugal, Italy, Poland
Group A4: Spain, England, Croatia

  • Teams have been split into four groups of three, with the group winners then contesting the UEFA Nations League Finals (semi-finals, third-place match and final) in June 2019 to become the UEFA Nations League winners. One host country will be appointed in December 2018 from among the finalist teams.
  • The four teams that finish bottom of their groups will be relegated to League B for the 2020 edition.
  • The top four ranked teams that do not qualify for UEFA EURO 2020 will enter a play-off in March 2020, with one finals place on offer.
_________________________________________________________________________________

League B
Group B1: Slovakia, Ukraine, Czech Republic
Group B2: Russia, Sweden, Turkey
Group B3: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland
Group B4: Wales, Republic of Ireland, Denmark
_________________________________________________________________________________

League C

Group C1: Scotland, Albania, Israel
Group C2: Hungary, Greece, Finland, Estonia
Group C3: Slovenia, Norway, Bulgaria, Cyprus
Group C4: Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Lithuania

  • Teams have been split into one group of three (containing teams from Pots 1, 2 and 3 only) and three groups of four.
________________________________________________________________________________

League D
Group D1: Georgia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Andorra
Group D2: Belarus, Luxembourg, Moldova, San Marino
Group D3: Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Malta, Kosovo
Group D4: FYR Macedonia, Armenia, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar

  • Leagues A and B consist of four groups of three teams
  • League C comprises one group of three teams and three groups of four sides
  • League D is formed by four groups of four teams
  • The League Phase Draw for the UEFA Nations League took place at the SwissTech Convention Centre in Lausanne on 24 January 2018.
  • In each league, four group winners are promoted (or play in the Finals) and four teams are relegated for the next competition to be played in 2020.
  • The overall UEFA Nations League rankings will determine the composition of the draw pots for the subsequent European Qualifiers.
In addition, the UEFA Nations League will provide teams with another chance to qualify for the UEFA EURO final tournament, with four sides qualifying through play-off matches which take place in March 2020 .

A couple of key links...
  • How ‘the league phase’ finished in 2018...

  • Ten stunning goals from October's Nations League games...



I am English, England will always be ‘my team’.
I am a strong lover of  ‘gli azzurri’ (Italia), and a fan of ‘les bleus’ (France). I hope that I have a team to support!



Giorgio Chiellini - Classiest and best defender in the world (in my opinion)
'Giorgio', My Bialetti - Alpina Moka has been named after the star (also ‘born’ on August 14th)!



OK. I am embarrassed by the following note...
(Noisy) WinterPB in gym
Psychology of a keen cyclist
I had a target on the gym-bike, in the ‘YourHealthcare/NHS’ NeuroGym. I had reached this goal last week, so raised the bar higher, increasing the target this week. There were less users in the Gym this Monday, because of public-transport delays. Therefore more time was spent setting up, on the gym-bike. A couple of sprint-bursts (of about 45seconds), allowed me to set up my position for max-output. Then a 10 minute sprint involved me making strange noises at a max effort - 100% focus! Embarrassing but a ...
Success!! :)
____Next week?


Go Geraint!!

‘G’ deserves such incredible respect, for targeting a successive Tour de France victory, in 2019.
‘Thomas suggested that a second Tour de France victory would be an even greater achievement than his maiden victory. "If you look in the history books, the last man to retain it after winning it for the first time was (Miguel) Indurain, back in 1991-92. So it kind of shows how rare that is," Thomas said.

The whole station, of BBC 6Music is such a wonderful fountain of new music. Introducing new sounds to me, so regularly. 
All are brilliant, but one DJ who stands out for me, is Marc Riley. Applicable everywhere, there are songs i dislike, or cannot feel an attraction to, but he always seems to play absolute gems, often hidden in his evening show!
Thank you Marc!

The following artist was introduced to me, on his show, last week...
Julia Jacklin - Body (Official Music Video)




A chance to look back in the history of this blog!...





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