Thoughts from the Shelf

So Exeter city have reached a final at Wembley. For a long time people from in and around Exeter have dreamt of hearing that, and although it is not the illustrious FA cup final, it is the Vauxhall conference playoff final with the prize to the winner being football league status.

The performance that put city through away at oxford last Tuesday seems to have got the city believing that this year is the year that city reinstate themselves. After over turning a 0-1 deficit in the first leg, city drew 2-2 over the two legs and went through on the resulting penalty shootout.

Now we have a situation where after consistent demand, over 30,000 tickets have been sold, with over 100 official coaches making the eight hour round trip to the capital. One thing is for sure, regardless of the result, Exeter have shown that they have the fan base to justify football league status.

Whilst at work today spare a thought for a widow man. The goat a man was famously forced to marry by village elders in southern Sudan after he was caught having sex with it, died after choking on a plastic bag.

The story about the ‘goat man’ was one of the most viewed articles on the BBC news website, and a Google search uncovers more than 1m different web pages, based on the story.

The best performing unit trust in the UK last year was the Co-operative Insurance sustainable leaders trust. It came out on top of a list of the 324 all companies UK unit trusts, having avoided casino and tobacco industries that suffered a tough year.

(Read the BBC article here)

This is the first time an ethical investment fund has topped the performance chart, and has helped such investments take a step towards shedding the image that ethical investments are unprofitable. As a result investment funds such as these are growing in popularity.

In the news recently we have also seen Norway change is stance on the vice industries of corporate America. By recently pulling out of Wal-mart and defence contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin for ‘ethical fallings’, Oslo is certainly revaluating where it’s $300 billion rainy day fund is invested.

Could it be as ethical investments grow ever more popular, and prove as profitable as investments guided without any ethical values, that larger institutions will take note and change their position on how their money is invested?

Anyone care to think of the impact of Saudi Oil fortunes coming to corporate America such with investment clauses?

The experiences of people who have an accident abroad vary greatly, often encountering different standards of health care that is dependant on the travel destination. It was not until an accident in summer 2004 I came to realise that simply because people are on holiday they are exempt from accidents, and in many cases act in ways that make them more prone to them.

As part of a university sports tour I was part of a large group who travelled by coach to Cella, a small town built for the summer influx of British students, located an hour north of Barcelona. It was here that we spent the week in typical student fashion, partying and sunning ourselves in the little daylight that was actually seen.

The morning after one such night I slipped off a raised platform, and with a lacerated thumb. With a tea towel wrapped around the wound I was instructed by the complex manager to walk a mile to the local hospital to seek attention. Although the language barrier proved a frustrating and time consuming obstacle, my thumb was eventually cleaned and sewn, albeit with stitches that would have looked more at home in a veterinary surgery.

The incident was not concluded there. The complexity was that I had lacerated the nerve running down the thumb and the resulting hospital hadn’t the facilities to operate, and would have meant a transfer to Barcelona. With a flight home only taking an hour, I caught a plane back to England where the operation was carried out on my return.

The experience played a crucial role in ensuring that I now always travel with my own medical insurance, although at the time my E111 and student travel insurance covered the costs, it could have been a lot worse.

On a recent trip this experience was put in stark contrast in an area of the world supposedly less developed than Spain. The country was Thailand, and the incident involved a group member being stabbed in the arm with a broken bottle.

The incident happened late at night, so a walk-in visit to the local hospital the morning after was required. Presented upon arrival was a hospital that rivalled anything I had previously seen. We were seen immediately, and after being taken into an immaculately clean room, the party member was bandaged up and on his way with antibiotics in hand.

Having recently travelled to Thailand I thought it appropriate to write a blog on some of my experiences. Having booked early in a group, the organisation burden that usually lay upon my shoulders was lifted on this excursion, to which I took full advantage and simply set a side spending money and waited for a departure date.

After arriving in the recently completed Bangkok international airport, we proceeded to a somewhat suspect minibus which was due to complete our journey with a further hours drive down the coast. What was to follow could have been interpreted as a sign of things to come, luckily for us it wasn’t after our bartered for minibus suffered a puncture. Such things happen and after suffering a similar fete a few days prior to my leaving I thought a quick tyre change in a quiet lay by would have been a simple resolution.

It was however a different experience and one which rubber stamped how this country has quickly developed without the regulations we take for granted in the west. We came to a halt on what was a poorly constructed two lane carriageway that ran the through the rural countryside with the sole purpose of linking the cities of Bangkok and Pattaya.

After being stranded on the verge of this carriageway in near 100 degree heat for well over an hour, with articulated lorries barley passing as our bus laid saddled into the carriageway, a replacement vehicle arrived to take us on the remainder of out journey.

Once we arrived, one of the first things on my agenda was the beach. After a stroll down Beach Road we spend an afternoon lying under straw umbrellas eating food cooked fresh as we lazed, and drinking refreshments placed in our hands from ice boxes by every person trying to make their next 50 baht.

Pre holiday beer and resulting intoxication it was decided we should try out some local Jet Skiing. Having never Jet Skied before, I was anxious as three brand new Skis pulled up, each with an engine to rival some speed boats. Expecting a crash course on how to control them, or boundaries restrictions on designated Jet Skiing areas, I was shocked when the safety talk was consisted of,

“Watch the swimmers and don’t crash.”

And that was it, as we sped of round a nearby island and went miles round the coast.

More to follow. . .

Seeing as these are thoughts from The Shelf, it would seem inappropriate not to post about the actions of UEFA this week in kicking Feyenoord out of the UEFA cup for crowd violence. After numerous warnings, and already playing behind closed doors at home, more crowd trouble occurred resulting in the last 16 match up with Tottenham being thrust into turmoil.

After recently purchasing tickets for the home leg, I was understandably disappointed to find out that Feyenoord had in fact been kicked out of the competition. Now we are either left with a rematch against the unglamorous Wisla Krakov who finished FORTH in the UEFA cup qualifying group, or a bye to the next round.

It has been widely rumoured that the board want Wisla Krakov to be reinstated to make up for the loss in gate receipts, although as Spurs remain in all four competitions in January, the manager Martin Jol would understandably take the bye and a much needed free fixture.

We will just have to wait until Thursday 25th to see how UEFA decide to deal with Spurs, and consequently my dream tickets.

This is a new blog that was put in place to Lay down the Law. Topics of interest will be discussed without a prior agenda in place!