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    The Great Gordino Newsletter - Issue 320 - Tue 21st Jun 2005
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    Archive Issues online at - gordonbryan.com/archive

    Hi There,

    I hope Tuesday finds you well.

    It is a scorcher here in my part of the UK.
    Sunday was the hottest June day since the 1976 heatwave.
    It's carrying on today, the longest day of the year, but since
    Wimbledon has started, it must only be a matter of time 'til the
    rain comes!

    My brother and nephew are still over, and the fun continued as
    they stayed at my place for a few days.
    My new flat has a spare room, but no spare bed, so it was off to
    the shops to buy a blow up one.
    I can tell you, those suckers take some blowing up!
    Mind you, I like to plan ahead, so shortly before I started
    puffing, I ate some cheesy snacks and bread.
    This means that if I fall on hard times, I can just pop the bed,
    and make cheese on toast from the deposits at the bottom.

    As a bonus, my breath condensed on the inside, so I can also
    have a drink from the puddle of slobber at the bottom.
    Blimey it was like sleeping on a water bed.
    I remember my wife and I had a water bed once, but her side
    froze.

    Last Tuesday we went ice skating.
    I haven't done it (ice skating) for a good 20 years, and although
    it took me a while to get the hang of it, I was quite pleased to
    only fall over a couple of times.
    At my advanced age though, any fall can be dodgy, and I
    certainly felt it on my behind.
    I have a bruised bottom.
    A tender tush.
    A battered butt.
    A damaged derriere.
    An aching arse.

    Having said that, you know I like to look for the positive, and I
    think one or two haemorrhoids might have been pushed back in,
    so every cloud *does* have a silver lining...

    One person who spent most of the time falling down was my 8 yr
    old nephew.
    Here's the thing though - he just didn't care.

    He had never been ice skating before, so we had told him to
    hold on to the edge until he got used to it.
    That lasted about a minute before he was off into the middle of
    the rink, and yes, you guessed it, falling down.

    He just picked himself up and carried on, absolutely fearless of
    the danger, and eager to learn.
    He loved, it, we couldn't get hm off the ice, and as the session
    went on, you could see his unconscious mind adapting and
    learning, and his skating got better and better.

    I was very impressed with his skating, but even more impressed
    by the way his mind took over.
    What a great lesson!

    As adults, we often let our fear dominate us, and hold us back.
    We are so worried about how bad things might be, that we fail to
    take any action at all, and you will well know how insistent I am
    that action is one the single biggest factors in 'success'.

    The mind of a child either doesn't even think about the bad
    possibilities, or if it does, finds out by taking action, and if the
    result is bad, it adapts.

    Imagine how a fearless child would act the next time you have
    doubts, it can work wonders.

    Sunday saw the final of the women's football European
    Championship in England.
    It's still a developing game.
    At the time of the First World War, the women's game grew to an
    extent of a crowd of 53,000 for a game in 1920.
    In 1921 though, it was banned as 'unsuitable' for women, and it
    was an unbelievable 50 years before the ban was lifted, leaving
    the game viewed as no more than a novelty, a view which I have
    to admit I shared whenever I saw it, with the goalkeepers not
    diving much, and the play more resembling a school game than
    top flight football.
    Over the last 30 years, and the last few years particularly, the
    game has really developed, in some Euroepan countries, notably
    Germany, and the US, where the male game has still not really
    taken hold.
    England's first game as hosts of this championship got a crowd
    of 29,000, more than double the previous post-war record.

    Here in England, the novelty factor is still there.
    There is a big movement amongst the young, and it's this which
    will see the game move forward.
    Already the game is much more skilled.

    I love seeing new sports develop, both from the
    business/marketing side, and the playing side.

    The fact that my two faves are women's events, football and
    pole vault, says a lot about the inequalities women have had to
    battle, in fact the head of the football governing body in Europe
    said the girls should play in tighter shorts, but things are
    inexorably moving away from such stereoypes.
    Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the odd tight pair of
    women's shorts, but the game would be going backwards by
    going down that road.

    Ok, that's it for today, and to sum up what I've covered -
    When you are afraid of the unknown, imagine yourself as a
    fearless child.
    There is always room for new developments in a crowded
    market, as shown by women's football.
    Also, I think I may have found a good treatment for
    haemorrhoids.

    'Til Next Time,
    Health and Happiness,
    Gordon
    email me at gordon@gordonbryan.com - you'll have to copy and paste
    thanks to the idiot online spammers!



    
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