If only...

Irish sea dog - one, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

... Thierry Henry had held his hands like this well-behaved Irishman yesterday evening, maybe Ireland would be going to South Africa and not those wretched French!

Hard luck on Ukraine and Russia on missing out as well.

I am hoping to go to South Africa sometime next year but I see a colleague has already picked teh favoured February slot (cold here and warm there!) so maybe I will have to wait until the summer or go there the year after... a pity!

So it looks like Belgium will give Europe its first President

The Pied Piper of Antwerpen, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has dropped out of the race to be European Council President - just as EU leaders meet to decide who to appoint.

The Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy is widely expected to get the job, with French and German support.

So Sarkozy and Merkel get their way, by having someone who will not put them in the shade. Wow! We really can be proud of our European leaders.

Belgium is a country which is being torn apart, has a string of corruption and paedophilia scandals behind it, has ultra-racist parties getting lots of votes, is wideky known as the centre for gun-running and weapon trading in Europe, if not the world, has a massive budget deficit and receives massive funding from the EU. Just the right country to give us our President.

(No offence meant to any Belgian friends who might be reading this).

To Stop Terrorism, Trade Fairly

Old boat in Berbera dry dock, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

The New York Times published the following in April 2009: "Navy Seal snipers rescued an American cargo ship captain unharmed and killed three Somali pirates in a daring operation in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, ending a five-day standoff between United States naval forces and a small band of brigands in a covered orange lifeboat off the Horn of Africa."

The very words "pirates," "daring operation," "standoff," and "brigands" were typical of the U.S. media; they made it sound as though white-hatted cowboys had ridden to the rescue of a town besieged by Billy the Kid and his gang. Having lived in that part of the world as an economic hit man, I knew there was another side to what had happened. I wondered why no one was asking about the causes of piracy.


For the rest of this article please follow this link.

My colleagues

My colleagues, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

The CEMEA Finance Team... as photographed (with my camera) by The President and CEO of our one billion dollar company!

We have (left to right) Norway, 4*UK, Poland, France, South Africa, US, me!, Spain, Holland, Italy, Greece, UK*2, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Germany (via Kazakhstan)

We had our meetings these past two days in London, here are my colleagues!

Who is this chap?

Who is this chap?, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Someone is very desperate to know who this person is. If you know, olease get in touch. Thanks!

Kosovo elects

Prizren - cute kids at the market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

International monitors say they are generally happy with the way Kosovo's local elections were conducted.

European monitors said the poll - the first since the country declared independence from Serbia last year - met many international standards.

Good luck Kosovo with your independence!

Zenyatta wins the Breeders Cup Classic

Down at the Odessa racecourse, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Zenyatta wins the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita, making it 14 wins out of 14 races in her career. Another all-time great, just like Sea The Stars was this side of the Atlantic. Two in one year.

Zenyatta is a great gand-daughter of the mighty Troy, who won The Derby in 1979, the year I first took a major interest in racing.

He sired Helen Street who won the Irish Oaks in 1985 , when Fred and I were on the beach at Trevignano Romano on Lake Bracciano near Rome.

She eventually produced a horse called Street Cry, who raced in the US and who won the Dubai World Cup a few years ago. He is now the most successful stallion worldwide and had the winner of The Melbourne Cup (the race which stops Australia) on Tuesday in the shape of Shocking.

Humbler fare in Odessa this afternoon with a programme of trotting races...

The Opera House in Odessa

Odessa in the sunshine!, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

We were taken to the Opera when we were in Odessa. There is a very beautifuil Opera House there and this was the first time that I have ever been to an opera. The opera was The Barber of Seville, by Rossini, performed by a local opera company.

The songs were sung in Italian and there were translations into Ukrainian on an electronic board above the stage. I did not understand either. The programme included a short synopsis in English which I didn't quite understand either as it all seemed rather complicated.

As a result I fell asleep about three times during the performance.

Still, the building was impressive, even more inside with lots of gold plated statues based on themes from Shakespeare's plays. And it was fun drinking champagne and eating caviar in one of the intervals!

Recycling in Odessa - empties

Drinking in Odessa - empties, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

garethbee says:
this is a classic, excellent pic Charles!

CharlesFred says:
Thanks, this was an unavoidable shot, although for some reason, I did ask the premission of the drunks sitting next door if I could take it....

steblina says:
This is the receiving center of empty glass bottles. Prices on the bottles show how much they will give you for particular type of bottle. 20 coins (kopeykas) = 0,20 hrivna, 18 coins, 15 and so on. If you have collected 10 bottles of Heineken, you can sell them and get 1 hrivna.

CharlesFred says:
Oh! I see! That explains why the bottles were empty - ha ha! I was thinking that the prices were a bit steep (high) if those were the prices for the beer...

Thanks for the info!

gert55 says:
great...something to think about :-))... interesting capture!

halifaxlight says:
funny commentary and interesting bottle collection

Vitamin C to see away the flu

Vitamin C to see away the flu, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Ukraine has been brought into a state of panic, mainly by the politcians scare-mongering people, by closing down schools for three weeks, putting travel restrictions on people and having the World Cup qualifier against Greece played to an empty stadium. There are elections in January and this is seen to be the start of electioneering. Apparently the price of garlic and citrus fruits have escalated in recent days. Looks like we left just in time!

Further tales from the Flea Market in Odessa

Further tales from the Flea Market in Odessa, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

At the Flea Market

At the Flea Market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

All Soul's Day

Autumnal Odessa, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

As the leaves fall off the trees, as they do all around Europe at around this time, we celebrate the dead and departed. Adopted by the Christian Church over a thousand years ago, it is not hard to see its pagan/natural origins.

Autumnal Odessa

Autumnal Odessa, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

I am not having much luck in photographing the autumn here in Holland, as it looks better in the sunshine and the sun only seems to shine when I am at work! This is nto so bad, as I have an office facing south so I get the sun beaming in all day, keeping me nice and warm, not to mention a bit sweaty!!!

So, here is a nice autumn scene from Odessa (where it has become much colder since we left, apparently). I thought these looked a bit liked coiled snakes in the sun...

Happy Halloween from Odessa

Happy Halloween from Odessa, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

I love the colours on this photo, taken at the Flea Market in Odessa last Saturday.

Jumping - on the beach at Illiychevsk

Jumping - on the beach at Illiychevsk, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

From a week ago:

Thank you all very much. It was a really great afternoon on our last full day in Odessa. Sergey had been a most wonderful host and it was so good to end with a nice jumping session on the beach!