The problem with bread

I have recently discovered that not all bread or bread products are veggie...i cannot understand why so much additives and artificial crap has to be added to food. I have always eaten sainsburys rolls and bagels, but will have to reconsider this now, due to the fact that their labelling is truly appalling. Sainsburys, i find, is one of the better supermarkets with regard to labelling their food products, but there seems to be a problem with them labelling their bread and bread products, i for one, will not be eating them again, unless they are properly labelled as such.

Spotify

Bit behind the times, but i have just registered with spotify, and its frickin' awesome!

This is one smart snake...

Found this on the beeb yesterday...I now love this snake for befriending the hammy...I cannot believe zoo's use hamsters as food though, its so cruel :(

Time for tennis' forgotten man to come in from the cold

Men's final day at Wimbledon has dawned, drawing to an end a glorious fortnight of top-class tennis and for once sunshine. Today sees former world number one, US Open champ and 2-time finalist at Wimbledon Andy Roddick take on 5-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

Federer is aiming to break Pete Sampras' all time grand slam record by winning the final today, but in his way stands the forgotten man of the tennis world.

While Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray have been battling it out for all the recent major titles, Roddick stands as an outsider, a one time grand slam champion, but one whose name was no longer mentioned in the band of favourites for majors.

Roddick has vastly improved his game since his last appearances in the Wimbledon finals, but the game has also moved on, and he has struggled to find his place in the new elite order of mens tennis.

Linking up with Larry Stefanki seems to have paid off for the American, he's dropped a stone in weight and looks fitter than ever before. His tactics against Murray in the semi-final were spot on. Roddick has never looked better at the net than he did in Fridays encounter, he will have to play that well again though to have a chance today.

Federer has seemingly sailed through the tournament with little trouble, clearly on a high after his recent Roland Garros victory, and buoyed by the fact that defending champion Rafael Nadal could not defend his title due to a knee injury.

Federer has dominated the head-to-head over Roddick, though their recent encounters have been close and Roddick will have to draw strength from this.

Though all the headlines may have been written by Murray over this fortnight, Roddick has quietly crept through the draw seemingly unnoticed or ignored as a viable title contender, but here he stands today, the one man in the way of Federer creating history.

The forgotten man of the tennis world has come in from the wilderness, now its time for one last effort-and it will make no mistake about it, have to be a mammoth one-to cement his place right back at the top of the tennis elite.

Is the all Williams final inevitable?

It's women's semi-final day at wimbledon today and the question on everyone's lips is what are the chances of anything other than an all Williams final for the second year running.

Well to be honest they seem pretty slim. Serena has looked at her absolute peak during this tournament, she has improved round on round, and has hitting the ball and moving around the court better than ever. Across the net from her today is serial underachiever and always the bridesmaid Elena Dementieva, twice a grand slam runner up in 2004 at the French and US Open. Dementieva has quietly and efficently crept through the draw, but the surprising fact is, is that she has yet to face a seeded player in the whole tournament. With Dementieva's record for faltering on the big occassion, combined with lack of matches against quality opposition it is difficult to see anything other than a serena victory.

In the second of the two semi-finals, two-time defending champion and queen of Wimbledon with 5 titles to her name, Venus Williams takes on world number 1 Dinara Safina. Venus has had a consistent yet unspectacular year, yet here on the grass she looks more at home than ever. Slight concerns have been raised over a knee injury she has been carrying, so her opponent Dinara Safina will have to test that to the full today. Venus like Serena has been hitting the ball better than ever, and has sailed through the draw, unlike her opponent. Dinara Safina has struggled to her first ever Wimbledon semi-final, looking down and out in the tournament more than once. She has a point to prove after dissapointing showings in the last two grand slam finals, and questions raised over whether a player should really hold the number one ranking if they have never won a grandslam. Again here, it is difficult to see anything other than a W next to the name of a Williams.

Let's hope for the sake of the women's game that we get two quality semi-finals, and if the inevitable Williams final does happen come Saturday, we are in for some cracker. With both sisters playing better than ever, it would be incredibly hard to split them, which signals a mouth-watering final showdown.

Wimbledon 2009

Made the yearly pilgramage to Wimbledon on the first monday this year. Got tickets in the ballot for the 5th year running, pretty lucky really. This was the first time i have been in the first week, overall impression was good, there is so much going on in the first week. Left Cardiff on the national express that smelt rather strongly of pee at 6.30 and got into earls court in good time, a slight setback caused by getting on the wrong train but we managed to get into southfields just before 10.30, there was a huge buzz walking down wimbledon park road, and we were eager to get into the grounds. Headed over to the practice courts first where we watched Feliciano Lopez and Janko Tipsarevic hit for a bit, and spotted Fernando Gonzalez. I was dissapointed after Nadal had pulled out, to discover that most of my favourite players were playing on the tuesday, however this was soon set aside as i discovered that Amelie Mauresmo would be at the signing tent later in the day. So we decided to head over to court 3 which was jam packed to watch James Blake and Andreas Seppi, we stood on court 3 for the first set, which was very tight and competitive, Seppi took it 7-5, and we then headed over to some of the other outside courts. We watched a little bit of Zheng on court 7 and Kohlschreiber v Serra on court 4. Then we headed over to see one of my favourit players Guillermo Garcia Lopez on court 10, he played Calleri, who seemed more interested in his wife and little girl sitting courtside than the match, Guillermo was excellent, and deserved the win. We watched a tiny bit of Mirza v Groenfeld, and then decided to head back over to the practice courts. Watched Juan-Martin Del Potro practice and then got his autograph, he's actually a really nice guy and signed loads of autographs. He comes across as a bit of a muppet when i have seen him on tv before, but hes a genuinally nice bloke. Canas was also practicing, he was less willing to sign autographs. We were then very lucky with a stream of top players who came out, Robby Ginepri finished his practice, and as one of my favourite players i was delighted to get his autograph. Tommy Haas who is a top guy then followed, though he preceeded to sign over my ginepri autograph!! Tomas Berdych, Lleyton Hewitt and Juan-Carlos Ferrero and Nicolas Lapentti soon followed, and as one of my all time faves i was really pleased to get Ferrero's autograph. We then got in the queue for the signing tent which after we joined got pretty massive. Then spotted Patty Schnyder, but as i was in the queue could not get her autograph :( Meeting Amelie was awesome, i nearly tripped over the carpet which was of great amusement to both me and her, i then congratulated her on the Paris Indoors tournament which she seemed pleased about, and had a brief chat about her playing doubles with Sveta, she was lovely as always, and i got a great pic with her, which I will probably never remove from my facebook profile pictures. I don't know how much longer Ame is going to play on for, but the tour will be a poorer place when she does decide to call it quits. We then caught a little bit of Zvonareva practicing, and headed over to watch some of Mardy Fish's match, he was really excellent, playing great. By this point Federer (Who i actually cannot stand) had finished on centre court, so we headed over there to watch Serena. Met Patrick McEnroe on the upper levels of centre court, he had just finished commenting, i got his autograph, he was a lovely guy. The centre court roof looks amazing, really incredible. We then watched Serena who was really excellent, although credit to Neuza Silva who made the second set a really tight one. We stayed on centre to watch Novak Djokovic versus Julien Benneteau, the first set was a real tight one, high quality, not that the people who were asleep behind me knew anything about it. Benneteau took the set on a tiebreak, and we decided to have a walk around the outside courts. We watched a fair bit of Andreev v Korolev which was a really good match. We then headed over to watch some of Tommy Robredo, he dropped the set we watched, but got an early break in the 4th, and there was a nice little Vamos and fist pump to go with it. Watched a teeny bit of Canas and then headed to get some food, we decided that we had better eat in wimbledon as we didnt have time to head down to the village before our bus. So we grabbed some pizza, the mushroom medley was very nice, and of course we had some strawberries as well, no cream though, not a fan! We ate our pizza watching Marin Cilic on court 7, he was looking very good. We then watched a bit of Tommy Haas on court 3, and a bit of Frank Dancevic who sadly no longer has his 'fro and a bit of Sam Querrey who is a really nice guy. Then we discovered that Patty Schnyders match which was tba had been put on court 12 so we raced over there, and caught the first set, Patty was not playing particularly well and seemed not in the best of moods, we had to leave after the first set, but i wasn't too hopeful about her chances of turning the match around. We caught the tube back to Victoria where sadly Krispy Kream was closed!! *Gutted* We then caught the bus back to cardiff, we had some delays as the m4 was closed between some junctions so it did take a while to get back. All in all it was a fantastic day, i hate leaving Wimbledon as i always want to stay and go for the next day and the next. Its a special place, i don't know if i will be going next year as i might not be in the country, but i will definitely be back at some point, and i for one cannot wait.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy- "Beware'

‘Beware’ is the 8th solo release from Will Oldham’s alter-ego, Bonnie “Prince” Billy. It is perhaps his most ambitious record to date, yet is also a move towards the mainstream.

‘Beware’ is an extremely dense and layered piece of work, fueled by a mixture of alt-country, folk and Americana. It is filled with songs that refuse to fit into set categories, as they shift from a mood of light to dark, strangely evoking both joy and deep agonizing despair.

This album sees Oldham implement a wide range of instrumentation, with opener ‘Beware Your Only Friend’ setting the stage, with its use of sweeping fiddles and female choir. Mostly the wide range of instrumentation on ‘Beware’ complements Oldham’s vocal, though at times the large array of additional vocals tend to swamp Oldham, and he becomes slightly lost amongst them.

Considering the title of the album and the titles of some of the songs you would expect ‘Beware’ to sound very melancholic. As expected, Oldham serves up beautiful lyrics, but they are wrapped in sweeping country melodies and gaudy instrumentation, which is incredibly jarring.

One of the most poignant tracks on the album ‘There Is Something I Have To Say’ takes a more stripped down sound and pares it with Oldham’s lyrics, to leave a hauntingly beautiful song. In complete contrast is next track ‘I Am Goodbye’ which comes along with its jolly country. This is one of the main problems with ‘Beware’, the really good songs lose poignance because what comes either side of them is so cheesy and over the top.

‘Beware’ is an intriguing piece of work, but the problem is that it is not bleak enough, and it lacks an edge. The overall themes of separation and longing dressed up in such gaudy country arrangement just don’t work.

It is ultimately the most stripped down songs on the album, like “I Won’t Ask Again’ which work best. They are still layered but in a way that drives the songs along, rather than assaulting your ears with over arrangement.

‘Beware’ is an ambitious piece of work, but one which doesn’t live up to Oldham’s previous high standards, i’d recommend sticking to his back catalogue.

6/10.