Sunday 24 January 2010

New sporting year

IT may only be January, but a New Year means that there is a whole new year of sporting events to look forward to.

The Australian Open tennis started on January 18 and will continue until the 31st. Last year Rafael Nadal won and he beat Roger Federer. In 2009 Andy Murray was favourite, but hopefully this year he can become the first male British tennis player to win a major since Fred Perry in 1936.

In March the Formula 1 season will get underway on the 14th at Bahrain. It would be good to see more British success and Lewis Hamilton will have a new McLaren team-mate this year in Jenson Button.

Argentine Angel Cabrera will defend The US Masters in April. April will also see The Grand National (10th) and the snooker World Championship, which starts on the 17th.

In June Roger Federer will attempt to defend his Wimbledon crown. And England will try and win their first trophy since 1966 at the football World Cup in South Africa.

The Open will return to the home of golf, St Andrews, in July and I will be sorry if Tiger Woods is not playing again by then.

I think Colin Montgomerie will prove to be a better Ryder Cup captain than Nick Faldo. I am sure he will be able to inspire the Europeans to a win at the event in Wales in September.

In 2010 the Ashes will be played in Australia. England regained them last year, but they will find it more difficult to repeat the feat Down Under, where the Aussies have not lost an Ashes’ series in 23 years. The first test will take place in Brisbane on November 25.

Sunday 17 January 2010

What makes us happy

A NEW survey has said that a good night’s sleep makes us really happy.

I would agree with this up to a point – there is nothing better than waking after an early night.

But I think there are more important activities to me, such as spending time with family and friends.

Or maybe enjoying a good tasty meal, I also like chocolate treats throughout the day.

Meanwhile it was a novelty to see heavy snow this month – children were able to build snowmen and have snowball fights, but it led to some dangerous roads and pavements.

Many pavements were turned to sheet ice and there must be ways to tackle the ice on the pavements.

People’s leisure time was also interrupted too with football games cancelled and golf courses closed. In many cases the only sports that have been able to be played are indoor ones like snooker.

Finally I enjoyed Lynda La Plante’s The Red Dahlia on ITV recently.

The first episode was gripping and was acted very well.

But as soon as the murderer was revealed in episode 2 I lost some of my interest.

Let’s have more shows like this on TV.