This past weekend saw the UK’s first real foray into winter with a little snow here and there, sleet just about everywhere else and sub-zero overnight temperatures. But it is the wind that hurts the most. For most of the time the wind blows from the west off the Atlantic and on a good day is even warmed a little by the Gulf Stream. But then, in a fit of evil playfulness aimed specifically at me, it decides to blow from the north. One look at an Atlas reveals little between us and the Arctic and that north wind is a bone chiller, reducing the already low ambient temperature by several degrees.

On the other hand, San Diego, Southern California was a warm and pleasant 15C in the very early hours of Sunday morning and forecast to be pretty good over the next few days. My problem, of course, is that this is not where I am.

If I were perhaps my dear wife and I would have driven over to La Jolla on Saturday evening for a nice meal. Sunday afternoon may have found us sauntering through the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park and in the evening it would be off to watch the Chargers host the Indianapolis Colts.

And I could have spent the whole weekend in a T-shirt.

Anyone who may still be passing through here will have noted the long gap since I wrote anything. I have been busy finishing off the new version of my WordPress forum plugin and it really has eaten up all of my spare time. And it is still keeping me busy so this is a roundup of some of the things I would have written about if I had had the time.

I would, of course, have written about the fantastic and unexpected defeat of the New England Patriots at the hands of the New York Giants in the Superbowl. When Brady had 30 seconds left, a first down and just needed a field goal to send it into overtime I was still convinced the Pats were going to win!

I would also have given a link to the rather wonderful site – 01.20.09 – which informs me that at this exact time of writing, the Shrub has 349 days, 0 hours, 40 minutes and 17, no wait, 16, oh hell, 15, damn, 14 seconds left in office.

I would have asked a question that I cannot answer because while I understand in theory that the depths of human depravity know no boundaries I am optimistic enough to believe that there are places people will not go. But the people responsible for strapping explosives to the bodies of two ‘mentally challenged’ women, sending them into a crowded place in Baghdad and then remotely triggering their bombs surpasses the kind of evil I thought I could deal with.

I kept making typos in that last paragraph so now it’s 349 days, 0 hours, 34 minutes and 15, 14, 13, make it 10 seconds. I could watch that all day!

I might have done something on the famous Tom Cruise video but maybe not as, after all, what more could be added to what was already said just about everywhere else. How many ways are there to say that someone is quite clearly insane?

I most certainly would have mentioned this (and I shamelessly quote from Mike Morford): “The pollutive factories, the mountains of plastic, the enormous carbon footprint, the illusion of better taste, the myth of health. Yes, people seem to be waking up to the giant $15 billion sham that is the bottled water industry. Fact: The EPA’s regulations for tap water are actually more stringent than the FDA’s rules for bottled water.”

I don’t usually put in links to videos but if you haven’t seen this guy describe the difference between the brains of men and women then you must go see it.

And then, oh yes, the dolphins. I had absolutely no idea that Dolphins were so sexually aggressive. I would have written this one up that’s for sure.

And finally, 349 days, 0 hours, 29 minutes, 47, 46, 45, 44…..

I watched the two NFL Conference Championship games last night. Now I know it can get mighty cold in some of those northern US towns and cities and Green Bay, Wisconsin looks to me like it’s always cold. So I was a little surprised when I heard commentator Joe Buck state just before the game started, that the temperature was -1. Until, of course, I remembered that our American friends measure temperature on the silly scale – Fahrenheit.

So, to put that in perspective and to use a sensible measure of temperature that almost everyone else can understand – by the middle of the game the temperature was -4 which is a bloody chilly -20 Centigrade. What’s more, it was windy. Very windy. The wind-chill temperature on the field was -24, which is a bone-freezing -31.

I’ll say that again. Minus Thirty One Degrees Centigrade!

Now you could dress me up in the warmest clothes imaginable and stick me in front of a space heater and I would still be howling. Although at that temperature I’d probably be frightened to open my mouth in case my tongue froze. As I was watching, I couldn’t really understand why fully grown men, many of them intelligent and probably quite sensible most of the time, would want to run around on a field in -31C – many of them with bare arms! Until the commentator mentioned that one of the players had just signed a 30 million dollar contract for the next five years. And that’s why!

Would I run around on a field being thrown to the ground and constantly battered in those sort of temperatures for three and a half hours if i was being paid that sort of cash to do it? Let’s face it… it would be tempting! But I still think that they are insane.

As to the games themselves? Tame and messy both of them. And the wrong teams won! A face off in the Superbowl between Tom ‘The Smug’ Brady and Eli ‘The Brat’ Manning. Nah… don’t think I’ll stay up for that one.

Sky TV NFL coverage may have forgotten that the Oakland Raiders exist, not even including them in their roundup of yesterdays games in last nights broadcast, but I haven’t. And I would have thought that a surprise win over Denver where their hitherto appalling offence put up 35 points, was worthy of at least a footnote.

That’s two on the trot – both against divisional rivals. Now I learnt today that the last time the Raiders won two weeks running against teams in their own division was in the closing two weeks of the 2001-2002 season. The first win was against Denver. The second against the Chiefs. As it happens, my family and I were in the Coliseum to witness the first of these (with my youngest son sporting a Denver shirt until he started to feel a tad intimidated!) And we watched the second game a week later – which was I seem to recall played out in pouring rain) – from the comfort of our Florida rental. And that was when Rich Gannon (pictured) was still their quarterback!

And it all seems so bloody long ago! Could this be the start of a long overdue comeback for the silver and black?

Last nights loss by the Indianapolis Colts to the New England Brady Bunch more or less finishes the season doesn’t it? I mean to say, the Colts blew themselves up really with three trips to the Patriot’s red zone that only secured 6 points and a crippling 15 yards of penalties at the crucial last but one drive that gave the ball back to Mr Smirk. And, oh yes, a couple of turnovers.

Let’s be honest here – like them or not the New England Patriots are playing almost flawless football and the belief is spreading that they are, this year, unbeatable. So let’s get it over with. Bring the Superbowl forward to next week, the the Patriots ‘A’ team play their practice squad and put everyone else out of their misery. Consign the season to the record books and have another go next year.

The picture shows the defeated Peyton Manning congratulating Brady after the game. As Manning still had his helmet on, (after all he seems to have been born with it in place) I don’t understand why he didn’t headbutt the bugger there and then.