Does size matter?

Mississippi 125,433 km²

England 130,395 km²

Florida 170,305 km²

Uruguay 176,215 km²

Minnesota 225,171 km²

U.K. (including Northern Ireland) 244,820 km²

Michigan 250,493 km²

Drink more tea!

TEA CONSUMPTION MUST BE BOOSTED TO MATCH SUPPLY, UN SAYS: Boosting demand for tea is crucial to ensure price stability and returns to developing country producers, according to new report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

And on my birthday too!

St Georger, by a Scotsman

"By George!" by Elvis Mcgonagall

Once more unto the breach, dear Morris Dancers
once more
Jingle your bells, thwack sticks, raise flagons
Cry “God for Harry and Saint George!”
Gallant knight and slayer of dragons
Patron saint of merry England –
And Georgia, and Catalonia, and Portugal, Beirut, Moscow
Istanbul, Germany, Greece
Archers, farmers, boy scouts, butchers and sufferers of
syphilis
Multicultural icon with sword and codpiece
On, on you bullet-headed saxon sons
Fly flags from white van and cab
But remember stout yeomen, your champion was Turkish
So – get drunk and have a kebab

Need a new pillow?

Seems baseball can help:

Famous victory

Arsenal got a famous victory tonight against AC Milan in the San Siro. 2-0!! Beyond my wildest dreams. This feels better than Real Madrid or Juventus. Both those previous matches were fantastic but it seemed the team never quite gained full confidence in their abilities. This was tense too but two goals should restore morale. There's no reason they shouldn't win both the league and the European cup, and after today's showing, they just might start to believe it.

An old classic

That I'd like not to forget

Too long

Oh well, been away on an extended break again. Travelled down to Chile for Xmas with Macarena's family, and was (fortunately) totally distracted. Now back in New York, briefly, and we're preparing to head off to Madrid on Wednesday for a wedding of one of m best mates from Uruguay, Juan Diego. Spain, beware!

In the meantime, I've seen this in lots of emails but thought it's worth highlighting the original source:

FRIENDS of rogue trader Jerome Kerviel last night blamed his $7 billion losses on unbearable levels of stress brought on by a punishing 30 hour week.

Kerviel hid his November losses in a batch of wonderfully fresh croissantKerviel was known to start work as early as nine in the morning and still be at his desk at five or even five-thirty, often with just an hour and a half for lunch.

One colleague said: "He was, how you say, une workaholique. I have a family and a mistress so I would leave the office at around 2pm at the latest, if I wasn't on strike.

Hasta!