Yesterday marked the end of the inaugural IPL 20/20 series in India. I watched the game and it was exciting after it's own fashion, which I'm sure pleased the organisers who would have been dreading another one-sided fizzle out to the competition. The cricket was ugly, but this is something that now comes with the territory. Matches are regularly decided by "unrecognised batsmen" fluking the ball to fine leg.

I don't really mind watching it but I hope it doesn't deal the much-hyped death blow to test cricket. That is a completely different game altogether. People unfamiliar with cricket often don't understand the sport because they don't grasp, or haven't been told that the five day game is a strategic effort, depending on many factors other than just trying to cream the ball over the boundary ropes. It involves strange notions such as survival. It requires a strength of captaincy not part of the shorter game, where rather simpler tactics rule.

Its instructive that this is happening, and being driven by the sub-continent where love of spectacle and firecrackers seems to outweigh any desire for content and substance. Cricket has come to Bollywood. This sounds elitist, but I don't intend it to be. I just don't want Test cricket to suffer - I hope there is room for both.

As an indication of what we might lose, think of the great writing that has been inspired by test match cricket. The journalism and commentary of John Arlott and Neville Cardus for example. I cannot imagine the short game inspiring anything like that. What is there to talk about other than who hit the longest six? You cannot ponder about the decisions made on the basis that the pitch might take spin on the fifth morning. Or rejoice in the heroics of Atherton batting for 2 weeks to save the Johannesburg Test.

Maybe people got tired of the dominance of Australia recently (the introduction of the 3 day test match!) but there are signs that this is coming to an end. In the Carribean at the moment there are even some signs that the West Indies are starting to become a cricketing unit once more. I hope so - we need them

Here's a quote from John Arlott, (paraphrased) that sums it up for me. (Oval test W Indies v England, 1963)

"Lock runs in and bowls at the end of a long spell. Sobers hits the ball in the direction of the Houses of Parliament, but it doesn't go that far, and they run two. The umpire takes of the bails and that'll be tea on day three"

No posts here for a while - I've been busy with the photoblog and work, of all things. However a minor incident this evening prompts a wee post.

Waiting for the train in Zürich I was mindlessly thumbing through the DVDs outside a shop. I'd picked up "The Motorcycle Diaries" and had almost finished when up popped "Cutlers Last Stand" I had a bit of a double take, never imagining that Ivor had even ventured beyond radio, the stage or indeed the sitting room. So I bundled it with Che's road trip and went to pay for it. The guy behind the till became quite animated and started asking me questions in Swiss German. On demanding Deutsche or English it transpired that he was desperate to know more about this Cutler person. "Who was he?" "What does he do" (Did, I had to correct). The reason for this was that he had been bombarded with people asking him the same questions, obviously after buying, viewing and trying to comprehend Ivor's rather idiosyncratic take on the world. I think the wee man would be amused by this result of exportation

I couldn't really help much however, just said "Well he was Scottish, you know" which probably did nothing for intercultural understanding

The Swiss elections have returned increased support for the right wing SVP People's Party as expected. Centre left Social Democrats lose out, and the Green party also gains. I think this reflects the general feelings of the people I talk to.

A few things to note. The effect of this inside Switzerland is totally different to it's portrayal by foreign media who have jumped on the bandwagon rolled out by the unfortunate, although maybe highly calculated media campaign. Characteristically the Swiss are being labeled racist and fascist by people who don't really know the country. Sure there is xenophobia here - show me a country where there isn't - but the move is driven more by the fact that the Swiss are proud of their country and any perception, rightly or wrongly that it is going downhill will provoke a reaction.

It also however marks a bit of a change in Swiss politics where major issues are polarising opinion and sides are being taken in a normally consensus-driven system. Maybe other parties will take the lead of the SVP in future

Before anyone jumps to conclusions remember that Swiss politics has a lot of checks and balances - especially compared with the sham democracy that exists in the UK for example. So the SVP are not swept into power, but will probably have 2 out of 7 votes in the Assembly. In addition of course major legislature changes will always be subject to referendum - try getting Gordon Brown or the like to trust the people to make any decisions. (Or rather Rupert Murdoch)

It took a long time for the debris of political correctness to wash up on the shores of Switzerland. I wish I'd collected all the examples of non-pc Swiss advertising that I've seen. Recently the forthcoming elections have thrown up some more.

Migros, one of the supermarket chains appears to have got into bed (sorry, wrong metaphor) with some of the candidates. This young lady for example is a candidate, and also it appears a Migros customer.

I couldn't help wondering if Gordon went down to the Kirkcaldy Co-op and asked them if they had any Union Jack boxer shorts.. damn, I wish I hadn't thought that thought - the image is going to take a long time to wash away. And in any case there ain't going to be any election..

Something which amuses me, and which, perversely, comforts me in these days of middle age, is discovering how many of the certainties I have harboured and cherished over the years are just plain false.

I discovered another one reading an LRB article about the history of the Proms. The jingoistic anthem "Rule, Britannia" has been a regular feature of the Proms concerts, dreadful as it is from a musical point of view. As a Scot, I am less attached to it than my cousins south of the border, but I still thought I knew the words, or chorus anyway. "Rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves.. etc etc". Written in the 18th Century the words are actually "Rule, Britannia, (Britannia) rule the waves" - the second Britannia being a popular addition, but the key misreading is the change from "aspiration" to "certitude" in the case of "rules". Interesting, eh?

There are a lot of other interesting things in this article. People in the UK know all about the riotous behaviour of the promenaders at the Last Night - feet-stamping, shouting etc. It amused me to read how one conductor of this occasion decided that the best way to confound the practice was to introduce a theme in 5/8 time. Did it work? Did they care or notice?

So here's a musical quiz. Do you know another popular tune written in 5/8 time? I'm sure there are many, but the one I'm thinking of is the "Waltz" from Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony. Try dancing to that my twinkle-toed readers

Looking back on this blog and more especially my Zurich photo blog, it's fair to say that the impression given is of grumpy old ex-pat slagging off the home country. To redress this I've decided to post a few entries here with memories of what I remember and covet most of the UK. Also, as I can be seen as an English bashing Scot, many of these are related to my southern cousins.

Ivor Gurney is a name unknown to many people familiar with the war poets such as Owen and Brooke and composers such as Finzi and Butterworth. For me however his verses and settings are perhaps the best that this period in English music has to offer.

I was reminded of this by the recent flooding in the UK and pictures of the Severn in full flood around Tewksbury. Gurney, and Elgar of course were children of the Gloucestershire countryside and their music and words reflect it.

Image courtesy of http://www.net42.co.uk/

Gurney set a poem of his own, "Severn Meadows", which is a deeply personal evocation of the landscape, but I have always liked his setting of F.W Harvey's "In Flanders".

In Flanders

F.W.HArvey

I'm homesick for my hills again - My hills again!
To see above the Severn plain,
Unscabbarded against the sky,
The blue high blade of Cotswold lie;
The giant clouds go royally
By jagged Malvern with a train
Of shadows.
Where the land is low
Like a huge imprisoning O
I hear a heart that's sound and high,
I hear the heart within me cry:
"I'm homesick for my hills again -
My hills again!
Cotswold or Malvern, sun or rain!
My hills again!"

While the UK is ploughing ahead with talking, spitting CCTV cameras, the Swiss have had a wee look at video surveillance in the Sceptered Isle.

20mins reports that there is one CCTV camera for every 14 people in the country, and that you get caught 300 times a day on film. Makes my daily photo blog seem a bit lackadaisical by comparison

They're delighted to find out that there are about 32 videocameras surrounding George Orwell's old house in London

20mins news site

I'm glad I spent time in Italy during the last few months. I liked it, and I liked the Italians. It has made it much easier to acccept todays humiliating defeat in the Six Nations.

Not humiliating in the sense that Italy should never be able to beat Scotland - they've done it before of course - but at Murrayfield of all places - Italy's first win in the Six Nations on foreign soil.

Aye well, I'm not going to enter into any match analysis, but just settle down in front of the telly and hope Ireland do the business against England. Looking good, 16-3 at the moment.

Of course England can never win anything unless they have someone who can kick the umpteen penalties they rely on, and he isn't there (he he)

I realised after writing the last post that the title had come unconsciously from a well known Burn's song "Of a' the airts that wind can blaw". It's a great song - I liked the late Davy Steele's version with Coelbeg, even if he belted it out a bit. So now that I'm in Scottish mood I remember another favourite piece of poetry which I first saw on the wall of Milne's bar in Edinburgh - I think it's still there.

I've never had much time for organised religion.  Milne's was a haunt of Hugh MacDiarmid and here is one of his takes on the subject.  I'm not going to attempt any literary criticism for which I'm not endowed, but I think he gives religion a witty rebuff, relishing it's absurdity, and the graveyard is left with an earthy dignity that is much more true to sorts.

Crowdieknowe

Oh to be at Crowdieknowe
When the last trump blaws.
An see the deid come lowpin owre
The auld grey waas.

Muckle men wi tousled beards
I grat at as a bairn
'll scramble frae the croodit clay
Wi feck o swearin.

An glower at God an a' his gang
0 angels i the lift
-Thae trashy bleezin French-like folk
Wha gar'd them shift.

Fain the women folk'll seek
To mak them haud their row
-Fegs, God's no blate gin he stir up
The men o Crowdieknowe !

In the latest edition of the LRB they have Alan Bennet's 2006 diary. It must be copyrighted because I can't link to it. As the years pass he becomes even more like his Dead Ringer doppelganger. (Something he appears occasionaly distressed by).

Anyway on reading it I was pleasantly surprised to remark that there are quiet carriages on british railways and that AB's Lyn W. had booked them on one (as they normally do..) on a trip up to Leeds . I've been out of the country for several years and wasn't even sure if you still had trains.

However at the same time I was intrigued to note that the booking was apparently for three people. If Lyn w. is occasioned to do the same on a visit to Switzerland then I strongly suggest that they all start practising telepathy, or sign language at the very least. Here the quiet carriage (Ruheabteil) is indeed quiet. I saw one chap being berated (albeit silently) for turning the pages of his newspaper too enthusiastically.

Personally, being often a solitary sulking traveller, I find these carriages a boon. No distractions from adjacent fellow human beings indulging in conviviality. I'm also a bit surprised how many people, normally English or French, are indignant at having the rules of the game pointed out to them, as if their human rights were being abused. The fact that the other 95% of the train is available for raucousness doesn't seem to count.

Oh, and by the way AB, whispered exchanges between three people are much the worst violations. They disturb while at the same time you can't figure out what the damn people are talking about.

In Switzerland, as you can imagine, rubbish collection is pretty well organised. Recycling is well catered for without being overly regimented as in Germany. Household refuse must be disposed of in special sacks which you buy at a premium (CHF2.50 or about £1 for a small sack). This has two benefits - if you are penny-wise you make sure you minimise your rubbish, and the price goes towards financing the service. Direct taxation if you like. If you decide to flaunt the system and use any old sack then the rubbish will be left behind. Peer pressure from your neighbours will ensure that you don't do it again. If you've left incriminating evidence in it, likely you will be fined. But then, why would you want to thumb your nose at a system that works well for you?

In Zürich old town they have recently been upgrading the rubbish collection system. Underground containers have been installed which magically rise out of the ground when the bin-men arrive. Rubbish sacks are  dumped down a chute. See the picture below.

Obviously this need some vision from the city fathers as well as investment

So, how does it work in my old home town of Edinburgh? This is a long standing gripe with me, and I'd even say it's one of the things that would prevent me moving back. Some time ago, it was decided that the old system of leaving your rubbish out the night before collection was beyond the management capabilities of the locals. So, the council installed giant stinking black wheelie bins in the streets.

Now bear in mind that these are there permanently - not much fun if one is stuck right outside your front door, especially if it's overflowing. They are also of course fun for the local hooligans to mess around with. I suppose if we believe Gordon Brown that the UK leads Europe in being progressive and delivering on quality of life, then this must be part of the plan

This is old news, but I just had to get my bit in.

So, GB decides to reinforce his credentials as a statesman by telling the Scots a few home truths. I'm sure they were delighted to be reminded that 50% of the nation are white settlers (AKA English). The guy might be able top count his ba-bees, but I don't think he can cut it as a leader of the country.

Oh, and he tells the Scots to look at, nay, admire as a role model for them all his relationship with his relatively new English wife. I wonder - what it  will foretell for the country if this liason sours over the years.

He should go back to his sycophantic adulation of everything American. At least there the level of comprehension of the burning issues is more in line with his own fatuous declarations