sierra_le_oli

Interesting pattern of damaged wall around an Underground sign:

Outrage on Twitter over Thierry Henry's handball during extra time in France vs Ireland last night, which knocked Ireland out of the men's football World Cup. It made me have a look at the video and I must admit I wasn't expecting anything quite so blatant.

The French captain owned up to the handball after the match but said he's not the ref. [Edit: To clarify, Henry said it touched his hand. That's all. Which is not precisely what happened.]

There goes Fifa's Fair Play Award. Except if you look at their site, it's either not mentioned or referred to as a decisive "moment of drama".

The French press haven't been kind about their team. Libé leads with "La main de Thierry Henry qualifie la France pour le Mondial 2010", which is pretty clear. Le Figaro's front page: "Mondial 2010 : la France se qualifie sans gloire ". Etc, etc. They're also clear that Ireland was the stronger team.

I feel sorry for Ireland and can't help but hope that France's stay in South Africa next year will be a short one.

It was too early in the morning to be having heart attacks, but being awake turned out to be worth it as the All Whites beat Bahrain to go through to the men's football World Cup in South Africa next year. Still can't quite believe it. The last (and only) time NZ qualified was waaaay back in 1982.

My brother's a little weirded out by seeing guys he played with or against in the team, but very proud. The few names I knew are via him. But I can add Mark Paston to that now, for saving a penalty at the start of the second half and keeping it 1-0. A draw would've seen the last World Cup berth go to Bahrain. Heart attack!

P.S. Thanks to London, for providing some atmospheric thunder during the game. :-)

Montevideo gets a good stomping on. This was originally made for a music video, interspersed with shots of the band, but the plain version's best.

Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!) 2009 by Fede Alvarez


I can't imagine the budget was huge, but hey, it's always fun watching places you know get trashed by giant robots.

Apart from leaving Amnesty wonderful books, people leave wonderful things in the books. Photos, letters, tickets, drawings, etc. This is one of the oldest finds and still one of my favourites:

"To Rosalie with lots of love from Elisabeth"

Googling turned up a little bit of info on the photographer, Philip Gotlop, but nothing on her.

For a while I wasn't sure what to do with all these finds, but I've finally started scanning in some more of the best and have put the first dozen or so in a found objects gallery. Let me know what you think!