bleungberg.com

Olympic funding rows, a growing national debt, plus panic over swine flu deaths and H1N1 jabs.

Greetings from Vancouver, Canada, though at times, it’s no different to being in London. The Winter Olympics are just over 100 days away here and up at Whistler, and a few days ago, Bleungberg visited the CA$173m white elephant that is the Richmond Olympic Oval where the speed skating will take place next February. Whilst it certainly looked impressive, we couldn’t help but question the wisdom of spending that much money for a single event. Our voluntary guide (very enthusiastic, naturally) added that the entire building will become some sort of focal point for the local community after the games which, in our opinion, is ‘rather naive’ because the local population is predominantly Chinese, and Chinese people don’t ‘do community’. Bleungberg then realised that we are doing exactly the same in London, and if Vancouver is anything to go by, then those of us living in London will have to endure even more hassle and broken promises from 2011 including numerous road closures, diversions, traffic jams, tax hikes, fare rises, expensive tickets (always the first broken promise) as well as new transport links, random pedestrianised zones, gazillions of Olympic merchandise, sob stories, protests, silly torch relays and 300% hotel price increases.

Vancouver won the rights to host the games six years ago, and ever since Bleungberg’s first visit here back in October 2003, I’ve followed the Olympic developments with interest. One of the first initiatives back then was what to do with the Eastside of Vancouver, which includes the area between Chinatown and Gastown: THE worst area in the whole of metro Vancouver and a haven for druggies, hookers, homeless people and those who have been neglected by the city (the handicapped, orphans, mentally disabled etc). The provincial government was criticised right from the outset for the way they intended to turf out these ‘eyesores’ before the winter games in case Olympic visitors ’saw the ugly side of the city’. Well, six years on, we popped round to the area yesterday and these people are still there - dealing, soliciting, loitering, and smoking (very strong) cannabis in broad daylight. Why? Lack of funding and a collective will to relocate them. When Vancouver was awarded the Winter Olympics, the economy was doing well, and the government could raise money through land sales at the height of the boom. Unfortunately, British Columbia is even more incompetent than the British government when it comes to budgeting, and with the recession, they’ve no money left to deal with these ‘eyesores’. Opportunity missed.

We guess it’s the equivalent of the London organising committee saying they want to give the East End a good clean-up as it might look bad to worldwide viewers watching the marathon during the Olympics, and then say they have no money for it. Or any other hollow promises they might have. We have no doubt that any new transport links will be opened in time and will work supremely well before 2012 - anything is better than now. Vancouver’s new metro line opened early back in August and although it broke down last week, it’s brilliant for those of us staying in the southern suburbs though Vancouverites still criticise the transport brains for its routing - accusing them of favouring the south of the city over the more populated southeastern suburbs. In addition, metro and bus fares are going up - tomorrow….again.

Dammit, we’ve slipped into the Vancouverite psyche of only talking about the Olympics when no one outside of the city actually cares (likewise outside of London), and have left no time to tell you how beautiful British Columbia is. Or how it’s got the world’s best Chinese food, as well as lots of rain, seriously aloof people with some of the most obtuse and abrupt attitudes in the western world. we’ll leave all of that till the next time I’m here. With an ever-expanding family here, Vancouver is somewhere we’ll have to come back to over and over again, and may even have to move here eventually. Unfortunately though, Bleungberg are becoming less fond of the place. Retirement? - yes. Otherwise - no, thanks.

Goodbye for now.

‘Popera’ star Katherine Jenkins breaks down in tears when she recalls the horror of almost getting raped during a TV interview with Piers Morgan.

Ms Jenkins has a new album out now, available at £9.99.

Has she got the same PR as Katie Price?!

As they’d say here in Vancouver, “he’s gotten really fat lately”.

In the least appetising election since the great French farce of 2002, when le worm Jacques Chirac faced off and won against the racist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential race, we now have the sickly ultra-corrupt incumbent Harmid Karzai going up against the equally ultra-corrupt Abdullah Abdullah in the second round of the Afghan version.

Quite how the UN and rest of the international community can accept both these men’s candidacies is beyond Bleungberg.

Everyone knows how fucking useless and corrupt Karzai has been as president so he should’ve been barred from running again at the outset. It’s as if the international community is endoring his SEVEN years of FAILURE!

Abdullash x2, on the other hand, is somehow portrayed as the ‘clean’ candidate, when his own record in government is shady at best, whilst his henchmen have been conducting cash-for-votes with tribal leaders during the first round - often surpassing Karzai’s own corrupt practice.

With men like these, Afghanistan is and will be fucked for decades to come. Pakistan will then be fucked, and the whole world will suffer as a consequence.

Once again, well done UN(!). Fucking twat of an organisation.

And President Obama - you can start writing your LBJ-esq speech now for August 2011!

Marie Drucker - substitute news anchor on France 2 and all round gorgeousness.

Lightweight/underachieving US President receives the Nobel Prize for twitching, whilst in Copenhagen, the ever-corrupt and perennial-spineless IOC pandered to the Americans and allowed golf to be voted into the Olympic programme at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Barack Obama and Tiger Woods - two not-quite-black dudes who seem to have a hold on a whole bunch of Caucasians in Scandinavia.

When did the ‘Aryan’ race become so pathetic?

The ultimate journeyman tennis player, Ai Sugiyama, has finally retired after 17 years on the WTA tour.

Sugiayama has given Bleungberg a lot of pleasure over the years - even though they rarely ended in victories for the diminuative Japanese player.

Bleungberg now looks forward to seeing Ms Sugiyama without her trademark whitecap because, frankly, Bleungberg has no idea what she actually looks like. TV directors rarely zoomed in on her face, you see….

Anyway, thank you Ai!

For as long as Bleungberg can remember: the first Sunday in October means only one thing: the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris - Europe’s greatest horse race.

And the 88th renewal on 4th October 2009 must go down as one of the best of all time - no mean feat considering how many great Arcs there have been over the years.

Sea The Stars showed a jaw-dropping turn of foot to shrug off his illutrious rivals with contempt. And whilst the manner of his victory was indeed impressive, it was historic, too.

It’s incredible to think that no horse had ever managed the 2000 Guineas-Derby-Arc treble in the same season and those who had failed are still regarded as near immortals of racing: Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Dancing Brave.

It’s not uncommon for racing folks to resort to hyperbole so soon after a race, and it is usually advisable to have a lengthy period of assessment and put things into perspective before declaring so and so as the greatest of all time.

This time however, we can safely declare Sea The Stars as one of the greatest Arc winners AND racehorses of all time - on par with Nijinsky and probably better than  Dancing Brave, whose Arc victory 23 years ago set the benchmark for all to follow.

Sea The Stars has now come along to top them all - and with such ease.

Today’s victory was iconic, staggering and simply awesome. 88 years in the waiting - and a race that racing folks will talk about forever.

WOW.

Now pack him off to stud!