Jaggy Jam

In the closest fought Formula One Grand Prix I’ve ever watched, Lewis Hamilton has just finished in 5th position for McLaren in the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix in Interlagos today, and by so doing, has become Formula One World Champion, and the first British champion for 12 years!

So, no podium today, but who cares? He’s the Formula One World Champion - the youngest World Champion in the history of Formula One racing! What a finish to the 2008 season - excitement and tension to the final bend.

I’m all danced out, after leaping up and down like an excited kid, and even crying! It’s amazing how the rheumatism and creaky joints disappear when the brain’s stimulation spikes on something thrilling, the aches and pains are forgotten in the moment!

Frankly, if you’d seen the closing laps of the race, you’d totally understand, because half way through the final lap, Lewis Hamilton was in 6th place, which meant no Championship.  It looked as though the race winner, Felipe Massa (Ferrari) had also taken the top spot for 2008. Then, in the last few moments, at the final bend, Lewis pulled it out of the bag by overtaking Timo Glock (Toyota), recapturing 5th place and, with it, the Championship.

Great BBC iPlayer programme about the formative years of Lewis Hamilton titled, “The Billion Dollar Man” can be watched or downloaded at BBC website.

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and McLaren, you’ve thrilled us all Summer, and now you’ve clinched it - a worthy 2008 Formula One World Champion.

Comiserations to Felipe Massa whose heart must have broken just seconds after passing the chequered flag, because although he won the Grand Prix, he didn’t just not win the World Championship, he thought he had won - as did the Ferrari team and everyone else at the track!  But then came the dagger through his heart, as Lewis Hamilton willed his car past Timo Glock and the crown was his.

Some consolation for Ferrari is that they won the Formula One Constructors’ World Championship.

Formula One Racing and the F1 World Championship is over for another year, so it’s unlikely I’ll be posting about it until the new season starts in March 2009.

It’s time to ogle some well-turned male legs and muscular torsos elsewhere — Premier League Football here I come!

Popularity: 49% [?]

His Holiness The Dalai Lama has been instrumental in attempts to broker a peaceful settlement to China’s occupation of Tibet.  When the Dalai Lama spoke about his most recent efforts to liaise with China’s representatives, after speaking of the worsening atrocities in Tibet, he said that his belief in reaching agreement in the near future is getting “thinner, thinner, thinner”.

Although, the delicate position he occupies dictates that he express his feelings in ‘diplomatic speak’, with this in mind, his words were surprisingly blunt, “China says one thing, then does something else”.

The BBC has produced a very special programme titled, “The Lost World of Tibet“, which traces the life of the Dalai Lama from his initial introduction to the monastery when he was 5 years old.  Most interestingly, we see rare archive footage of the Dalai Lama’s family, his mother and father, older brother, Lobsang, and baby brother.

The programme has exclusive interview time with the Dalai Lama, and it’s fascinating to observe his reactions as he watches film of his family and himself as a small boy, new to monastic life.

One snippet of the film features a perfect little replica motor car that was presented to the 5 year old Dalai Lama, but it was his brother, Lobsang, who was allowed to get in it and play, because His Holiness might hurt himself!

You can watch or download ‘The Lost World of Tibet’ at the BBC website, and you can also download the BBC iPlayer software to enjoy further BBC TV programmes.

The photos displayed here are taken from screenshots of the film, and I apologise for the quality.  I implore you to watch ‘The Lost World of Tibet’ and to hear what the Dalai Lama has to say.

It’s exceptional television.

Popularity: 50% [?]

In the UK, women aged between 50 and 70 qualify to have  a mammogram every three years, free of charge, as part of the National Health Service (NHS) breast screening program, and today I received a letter offering me my ‘routine’ appointment, and it left me with divided feelings.

I thought I wanted to have a mammogram, and had mentioned it to my GP some months ago, but I’d forgotten all about it in the intervening period.

When I opened today’s letter from the NHS, I was immediately struck by the reality of how a woman’s life can be turned upside down by something that starts out as ‘routine’.

My sister is a breast cancer survivor, and it was just seven weeks after losing her husband to an industrial form of lung cancer, that she received her own letter about having a mammogram through the NHS breast screening program, and subsequently underwent a mammogram.

She’d barely had a chance to grieve the loss of her husband of thirty years, when she received the news that the hospital wanted her to return for further tests, and these revealed a tumour.  Devastating, but…..

How much more devastating could it have been, had she elected not to attend that first ‘routine’ mammogram?

Breast cancer is our enemy, so if you’re a woman over 50, and live in a country that has a breast screening program offering free mammograms, you high tail it down to that hospital and get your mammaries grammed!

Popularity: 58% [?]