Sadness at Thierry Henry's Departure

I’m a huge Arsenal fan which may be surprising to anyone reading my blog as there is no mention of the football team in any of my posts. I made the decision to place my support on hold a little while back when Arsenal started a sponsorship partnership which I could not bring myself to accept. I may like football and Arsenal but there are some issues too close to my heart and about which I am too passionate about that I cannot compromise on. Until Arsenal ends the partnership, Real Madrid and Juventus, two other team I like (though not in the same way I am an Arsenal fan) will be the focus of my attention.

However, the news which broke today of Thierry Henry’s departure for Barcelona did sadden me- he is one of my four favourite Arsenal players, Ian Wright, Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp being the other three. Arsene Wenger’s signing of Henry and then playing him as a striker was a superb move and Arsenal (and Arsene Wenger) transformed his career just as much as he helped the team reach a new level. Ultimately the prize of European glory proved to be elusive and I think the fact that Arsenal doesn’t seem interested in buying big name players preferring instead to groom a young team is one of the main reasons for Henry’s decision to leave rather than the exit of vice-chariman David Dein as he has claimed. Cesc Fabregas stepped into Vieira’s boots when he left. Who will fill Henry’s?

Here are two interesting articles about Henry’s move to Barcelona and what it means now for Arsenal- 1 and
2.

The Cricketing Price of Living in NYC

A colleague from our Consulate here in NYC provided us with the information on how we could watch Cricket World Cup in the so-called capital of the world. Basically, it will cost $450 if you don’t have Dish Network- $250 for installation and rental of equipment and $199 for the cricket! The price one has to pay for living in NYC. If I was home, it would have been on tv for free. I will have to resort to watching it on the internet which will cost me $199.

I watched a Globe Trekker feature on Venezuela with Ian Wright, one of my favourites of the Globe Trekker team. It’s a beautiful and physically diverse country. There are so many places on my list of countries to visit, from Venezuela, Brazil, Mali and Kenya to Italy, Algeria, Mongolia and New Zealand and everywhere else in between. I love travelling, exploring and learning about different peoples and cultures and one of my dreams is to take a year or two off from work and life and just travel around the globe. Anyone willing to sponsor me? I can guarantee thousands of photos and volumes of journals!

I had my cast changed on February 19th. There was no real improvement but the doc said this was normal after only three and a half weeks and that when I came back to have it checked in another three weeks- March 12th- he expected to see a marked change. I hope so because I really don’t want to have to do surgery and be stuck home for even longer. At the beginning there wasn’t as much itching as I had anticipated there would be, but in the past two weeks it has flared up. I have been using a wire hanger but sometimes it can’t reach certain spots so I just sit and swear like I was doing a few minutes ago!