Stag weekend

Good to get Monaco out of the way last week. I always find the yacht show too much of a scrum. Talking of scrums, we had the boys round for a wall-to-wall rugby weekend with roast beef and Yorkshires on Sunday. So England lost, well done Wales, they took all their chances. I don't have much time for post-match analysis. Had England taken the penalty they had at the end and secured a draw, they would have been criticised for a "lack of ambition" and pundits would have labelled them "clinical". Had they taken the penalty and failed there would have been recriminations and "what might have beens" comparing them unfavourably to Japan who had the guts to go for the win against South Africa last week. Either way, there'd be recriminations. No one wins in the sports pages that taint us all with their cynicism. Instead of all that, the talk should be of a massively competitive match with strong kicking on both sides and a wafer thin margin between the teams. But Wales deserved their win and we must see now whether England have the character to bounce back against Australia. I'm going to that one.

All the talk of a blood red moon persuaded me to set the alarm for 3 am. It looked pretty dull so I went out on to the military land to try and find a better view. I wasn't happy with the results so, after taking a post-eclipse grainy image of the railway lines, I decided to find a big moon before it set at 7 am, then got all indecisive about possible locations. I drove over to Bushy Park but got lost, coming in a different way; besides, the gates wouldn't have been open before 7 am so I missed the moon setting but found BP's big stag near the car park, bellowing towards its rivals. Time for a snooze.

Sorry for confusing one or two people when I mentioned moving over to New Smugmug. I didn't mean moving over from Blipfoto. I've used Smugmug for many years but was suspicious about its alleged improvements. Anyway I'm happy with the new site and John, my eldest, has designed me a nice logo.