Back from 3 days in Rome, walked through a holy door. Travelled on the subway, visited the usual sites, Spanish Steps, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, St Peters Basilica, Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Very tourist orientated. Stayed in a hotel in Viminale (one of the 7 hills) near the Basilica of St Mary Major where Pope Francis was buried (also visited). A few glasses of wine and pasta / pizza dishes. Liked Trastevere, stopped to drink wine and watch the world go around in the Piazza di Santa Maria.
Using my new client machine, a Framework desktop. It’s very quick and I am very happy with it. Currently learning Go. Plan to learn Java then Android app development. Then plan to recycle old client Manjaro machine to replace existing server.
I use F-droid on my Fairphone and Android tablet as an app store. The repository contains only Free and Open source software (FOSS). Other repositories can be include with it i.e. Guardian Project and IzzyOnDroid. I disabled many Google apps and services from my phone as I only want to run software I can see the source code of. In that way I believe I can protect my data privacy and reduce adverts. I don’t have banking software on my phone, I have no google account. I am happy with this setup.
This philosophy is under threat by Googles announcement in August that starting next year in will no longer be possible to develop apps for Android without first to register centrally with Google.
Spent the weekend at a family wedding just south of York. Visited Cawood on the river Ouse. It has an old bridge that used to turn for river traffic. There are the remains of a palace of the Archbishop of York.
Here Cardinal Thomas Wolsey lived. He was arrested for high treason in 1530 and died on his way to London. This is believed to be the origin of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
We recently completed a small West Country tour. Initially at Swanage in Dorset, which is a nice old fashioned beach resort town. Stayed near Sherborne, itself an historic Saxon town with Abbey.
Here were interred the remains of two kings of Wessex and England.
We then travelled to Devon to stay with friends, then to the Cotswolds to stay with friends. Here we attended a service at St James Chapel, Postlip a restored 2 cell Norman Chapel with no electricity.
I am enjoying listening to the Libero podcast on Football. It is run by a series of informed journalists. Listened to a few recent one and have caught up to the present. So now have just listened to the latest, number 27 where they discussed the Club World Cup to the background noise of Boca Juniors fans chants and then the transfer market. Quite informative and entertaining. Mentioned Chris Wilder being sacked by the new owners of Sheffield United with a clash of styles as they wanted to use AI as a scouting tool.
The last Linux Format magazine was published in May. It has been going for 25 years. I have bought a few over the last few years whenever I spotted something that interested me. Not subscribed but just bought them in the newsagent. As it was the last I had to buy it. I will miss it, but I guess that’s “progress”. There is the US based Linux Magazine (here), that is digital / PDF/ print. In the meantime they have a link to the available PDFs here.
A week ago I was recovering from a dramatic day. The previous week I had traveled to Sunderland having seen them win at Coventry on TV. But Coventry scored and the game in extra time was heading for penalties. But Dan Ballard headed in from a late corner to win creating one of the loudest roars ever at the Stadium of Light. The scenes of celebrations were wild. I returned to the quiet of my room at Lumley Castle, driving home the next day.
Then the next week I spent most of my time keeping an eye on ticket situation, but Sunderland did not sell any tickets to non season ticket holders, so I was resigned (but happy) to watch the game on TV.
But a late surprise resulted in 2 tickets to the game, in the Bobby Moore room no less. So at noon we were found queuing to enter Wembley for the game against Sheffield United. We were on table 72, with a few Sheffield Wednesday supporters who wanted Sunderland to win. It was agreed it would be difficult to beat Sheffield United. There were team and formation changes with Mundle starting and Roberts and Isidor on the bench. Our seats were in row 4 right next to the Sunderland dugout.
At half time Sheffield led 1 – 0, VAR had overruled a second for them and it was agreed it would difficult to turn the game around in the second half. But this did happen. Sunderland equalised in a move where Roberts put away Mayenda on 76 minutes and then in the 95th minute a misplaced back pass was taken by Tommy Watson to curl a dramatic winner just inside the post.
The scenes of celebration were wild, Sunderland lifted the trophy and came down past us.
Once celebration was finished on the pitch with the fans, we retired back to the Bobby Moore room where celebration of the players continued with the fans there present (including us).
Only a week later am I now reflecting on how great it was but how difficult it will be to stay in the Premier League. We will need really a point a game to be in with a chance of staying up. Another challenge awaits.
Sunderland won the FA cup. 5th May 1973, I remember it well. I watched on TV from home. My parents went out in the evening to celebrate. I watched it 5 times in all that weekend, live and then Match of the Day. Then 3 times on Sunday, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire and Anglia all had highlights at different times. On the 8th May my mother took me up to East Herrington in Sunderland to see the team bring the cup back home. I recall walking along the Durham road with the bus and many thousands of supporters.
The game will be remembered for Ian Porterfield’s goal and Jimmy Montomery’s save.
They were in the second division when the won the cup then.
They are still in the second division now, but its now called the Championship. They finished 4th and as such qualify for the playoffs. The play Coventry City who finished 5th, away at Coventry first then at home.
Form is very poor recently, losing the last 5 games and losing 3 0 at Coventry in March.
There is something not right, they are not the same as earlier in the year. Coventry will try to be attack and bully in the first leg. We need to be strong to keep them out. Hopefully we will recover and keep them out in the first leg and win it at home. We have nearly all the squad available now with players back from injury. Let’s see if we can turn the form around.
In March we visited Avignon via train, stopping overnight in Lille there and back. It is a historic walled town on the river Rhone in the south of France. It is famous for its bridge that goes half way across the river that used to collapse periodically and also the Palace of the Popes that used to reside there in the 13th century. Also good for wandering around looking in shops / cafe’s etc. Wines are good here, there is a nearby village Châteauneuf-du-Pape where the wine of the same name comes from.
