Andy and Frank go Hunting

So, not only did they spend the early part of January doing Lee O'Pard stuff, Frandy spent it getting hunting licences, too! (Kara, was this the photo you meant? If so, thanks for holding back on it!!)

Look Barbara, a shotgun!

Apparently they scored very high points in the tests, not that we would expect anything less from boys that have been out hunting with their father since they were tiny little Schlecklets.

For some reason, it appear to be easier to get a licence in France than in Lux, although the licences cover France, Lux, Belgium and the Netherlands, so they stepped across the border to Moselle and did their tests there.

Well, considering that in some of the southernmost houses in Mondorf, the owners could, if they were so inclined, spit into France.... you can see the logic behind taking the tests there.

We don't have anything like this in England: I have a shotgun licence, of course, (yes, I have guns just as big as Andy's one stop-laughing-you-lot-I-can-hear-you) and my storage arrangements have to be inspected and approved by the Police, but if I want to go hunting, all I have to do is get permission from the landowner concerned.

Mind you, over here, we don't have much worth hunting: we shoot Bunnies, we attempt to shoot squirrels, we trap magpies, but we don't have things like wild boar. Well, except for one small part of the country, where some idiots from one of those eco-groups broke down the fences of a wild boar farm and released the (expensive and pedigree) animals into the surrounding countryside. They never did get all of them back, so there is the possibility that one day, someone is going to get a nasty shock in the woods!

Deer is a  bit of a specialist hunting thing here, you can't hunt them with a shotgun, it has to be a rifle, and that's a different gun licence altogether. Me, I'll stick to my faithful old 12-bores. Not least because in my part of the UK, we don't have nice edible deer, we have those horrible Muntjac things (on the left, below) with coats made of iron and very little meat. Apparently.

And don't say "aaaah!", just look at the sly way the Muntjac is standing, and the inelegant way it's bottom slopes down: it just looks guilty, doesn't it? Then compare this to the proud and upright stance of the Roe deer on the right. Not that I'm biased, you understand, but several of my gardens are plagued by Muntjac, they are greedy little buggers creatures and seem to take a delight in destroying my lovely plants, particularly the bluebells, for which they seem to have quite a taste. Harumph.

OK, enough about deer, now a quick diversion: a little while ago I found a very funny and interesting blog called The Beet Goes On, written by a very amusing lady called Amanda who writes about her experiences of living abroad. (She's American.)

On her blog, I found this vid, and I just have to include it - yes, I know, "not another funny cat thing" but it make me hoot out loud, and I'm sure you will too:



Great, huh?

So thanks to Amanda for the link that led to the site that featured that vid (next door to the house that Jack built), and I can thoroughly recommend her blog for anyone who has a, shall we say, passing interest in daily life in Lux, and what living there might entail, as she LIVES THERE!  Yay! Go, Amanda! Stalk those Schlecks and tell us all about it!!!!  And welcome to Schleckland, delighted to see that you are Following, thank you for joining us!

Er hem, where was I?

Oh yes, anyone watch track cycling? No, me neither. But on Sunday, having nothing better to do (I'd finished the current Sudoku book) I ended up watching the World Cup track cycling in Manchester while LLB was catching  up with his computer, or possibly just checking out the results of Oman.

Now, I'll come right out and say that in my opinion, track cycling is not the most thrilling thing in the world, and is nowhere near as good to watch as road cycling. But, each to their own, and now at least I understand more about what constitutes a perfect Time Trialling position.  Each race is very short, only a couple of minutes in duration, and it's mostly about sprinting. Being in a circular, banked, track, it's a little tiny bit like watching hampsters in a wheel..... the bikes are Fixies, ie no gears, no freewheeling, and they also have no brakes, which brings a level of entertainment to the ends of the races.

However, the exciting scary compelling don't look! too late part occurred late in the afternoon during the showing of the Men's Keirin Final.  "Kierin?" I hear you say, "what's that?"

Well, it's a specific type of track race in which six riders in a mass start set off round the track, with a lead-out man on a little motor-powered bicycle called a Derny, who brings them up to a slowish speed, then peels off the track leaving them to pedal like crazy for the rest of the race. They play tactics about getting the best position, and about how  long to leave it before going for the mad final sprint.

To someone who watches road races, it seems bizarre to see the leader of the string pedalling pretty fast, but looking back over his shoulder. Well, no dogs, no potholes, no camera bikes, no road furniture, no wind.....

OK, so here we are watching the Keirin final ("Keirin" = Japanese word for "race". Hmmm, how original.) and the little Derny bike leads them round the track, peels off, they pedal, the leader looks back, someone make a break, they all sprint, and then this happens: the whole race only takes a minute and a half, so just watch it:



I loved the way Sir Chris Hoy - the winner - sprints off, crosses the line, and continues round the track completely oblivious to the carnage behind him!

Hilariously - not shown on the footage above - the guy in orange (who in my opinion was the one who caused it, he certainly was the first one to fall) hobbled as fast as he could in cycling shoes on a slippery surface to the finish line, in an effort to get second or third place - he was almost there when an official stopped him and obviously said "you have to cross the line with your bike!" so he had to hobble back, pick up the wreckage of his bike, and hobble back carrying it, treading on other competitors lying groaning on the ground as he did so. He thought he's got third place for his efforts but he was later demoted, and serve him right, too.

Meanwhile, the competitor in white, Awang, got a splinter in his leg but managed to get back on his bike and was officially third across the line, but then collapsed: as The Telegraph reported:

"incredibly Awang remounted his bike and crossed the line to finish third and take the overall World Cup title before the full extent of his injury became apparent.

His screams of pain could be heard around the packed velodrome as medics rushed to attend and take him to hospital where he had to be sedated overnight before a specialist medical team could attempt the trickiest of procedures."

Big fuss for a splinter, are we thinking? Nope, here's the splinter - warning, if squeamish, don't look:

Yup, that's what I call a splinter.

Actually, that's what I call a stake! Ouch!

Poor man, they pulled it out the next day. YouToob has a vid of the operation, but it is clearly labelled "Do Not Watch If You Are Squeamish" so I haven't watched it.

If you really want to see it, Cycling News have the vid, but don't say I didn't warn you.


Tour of the Algarve? Blertie came fourth. With or without PEDs, who can tell. Who cares. Well, ok, we do care, because it impacts on Our Glorious Leader from the friendship "I shoulda stuck by him" or "I'm glad I backed off" (depending on outcome) point of view, as well as the "might have won TdF by default but it still goes on record as being my win" aspect. Also because we don't want any more high profile doping cases, and this one has done quite enough damage.

None of Team Schlux came anywhere interesting.  Linus "Hair Man" Gerdermann dropped out early on, and Fabian "Orange Head" Wegmann was ill, but according to the Team Schlux site, DS Adriano Baffi was happy with what they did, and said it was good experience for the younger riders.

So now we are wishing that we had TV coverage of the Vuelta a Andalucia... so far, we seem to have lost Stefan "Mad Hair" Denifl: he's on the Team Schlux calendar roster, but there are 8 riders there, and the teams appear to be made of only 7 riders, so maybe he was the spare? Any info welcomed on that subject!

Oh, quick word going back to the World Tracks: there was an interview with the GB team, which included Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins from Sky, after they won the Team Pursuit, which is just like Team Time Trial only much, much slicker. Lovely quote from Bradley, saying  he'd enjoyed the week at the track event, he said it was like a holiday after the road race in Qatar. "All week" he said "I haven't had to answer any questions about doping or Alberto Bloody Contador."  OK, the "bloody" was mine, he didn't actually say it, but you could tell it was there....

SchleckShip Trekker

 Finally, for today: the Schlux Surprised O "0!" logo pops up in the most extraordinary places: even in Star Wars.

Ever looked at the back of an Imperial Trooper?

OK, he would need to be lying down on his side for it to be properly visible, but still...