Rock on Bartolli

Bartoli blasted her way to Wimbledon victory today.

Marion Bartoli owned the first part of the Wimbledon final.

Sabine Lisicki fought back valiantly and it looked like there might be a last minute turn around.

Dignified in defeat

Sadly it was not to be and now Marion Bartoli stands before us as Wimbledon champion.

Sabine Lisicki could not hide her disappointment but she humbly paid homage to her opponent and wished to come back next year.

Hats off

Well done Bartoli, well deserved.

Now you can go and have another nap...

Murray's on tomorrow, I'll be staying up for him.

Djokovic marches on

Wow, what a match.

Del Potro and and Djokovic had me on the edge of my seat.

I really thought Del Potro might throw Djokovic.

Why is it that Novak has to keep knocking out all the good looking tennis totty?

Summer, tennis and feminism

You can tell it's summer I've emersed myself in Wimbledon, broken out the strawberries and started doing yoga in the living room.

And suddenly I'm obsessing over the accomplishments of the Williams sisters and Billy Jean King.

Somehow the female tennis stars of today don't seem quite as imposing as the Kingster.

Venus, you fancy going up against one of today's male tennis stars...

Protesting for BBC health balance

A demonstration outside the BBC building today called for more balanced reporting of health matters.

Protesters began to assemble at 11am outside the BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place.

The group did not amass to a large number, but three of the protesters entered the building to give a letter of complaint to the BBC.

They continued to hand out leaflets highlighting two areas of news that they felt the BBC had failed to report.

One that on Monday the 24th of June the British Medical Association passed an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

They also complained that on the 10th of January 2012 two Oncology Consultants Clive Peedell and David Williams ran six marathons in six days from Aneurin Bevan's Statue in Cardiff to 10 Downing Street to present a petition to request the withdrawal of the controversial Health and Social Care Bill 2012.

The protest was part of an ongoing campaign by Keep Our NHS Public against what they view a the gradual privatization of the health service.

Magnificent Murray

Happy to see that Andrew Murray is still in Wimbledon.

Maybe one day I will match your success.

Shocked to see Serena Williams knocked out.

Good luck to Sabine Lisicki.

Superman's slipping

I skipped off to the cinema to see Man of Steel with memories of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in my head.

Yes, I know it was a long time ago, but that is still my bar.

The trailer blew me away, I was excited, pretty foolish at my age

Back to the beginning

So we're winding back to the origin story, again, you'd think they would have moved on from there.

The planet Krypton faces imminent destruction due to its unstable core.

Jor-El (Russel Crowe) faces general Zod and launches his son Kal-El off Krypton to save his life, sound familiar..?

Kal-El (Henry Cavill) then has to forge his new destiny on earth, where the past comes calling...

Entertaining but earnest

The plot is paper thin and I miss all the knowing nods and slightly camp humour of the first Superman adventure, I'm sorry, I'm a bit old... 

Amy Adams makes for a far too flirty Lois Lane.

I expect Lois to be hard bitten and sassy, not to go bouncing around in crisis situations with her hair falling in her eyes.

I'm sorry but I really wish I hadn't gone to the cinema for this one, your kids might like it though.

Thanks, but no thanks, Osborne

So we've had a budget in the UK.

There wasn't really going to be any good news coming out of the budget.

The government are settled on, what seems to me, to be a slash and burn mentality.

Cut public services that will work, not

The increments offered to the public sector are going.

No disrespect meant, but I was once a Civil Servant many years ago and they were hardly huge yearly hikes, it was equal to being bought one glass of house wine when paying for a £60 meal.

It pretty much kept pace with inflation and not much more.

Educate them in poverty

They are attacking education budgets.

Politicians love to put emphasis on education, rightly, it is the keystone that we build nearly everything on.

So, how do you square that with slashing the money going into education, exactly?

Is this do as I say but not as I do?

Really, I'm confused.

Foreign aid and spying is fine though

They are sending more money on projects abroad, I'm not sure how that helps our deficit; I'm using their logic here.

While continuing to make sure we're spying effectively on where all the money is going...

Presumably.

Not impressed

So far all the government appears to have achieved of any value is legalising gay marriage, well done, I guess, but it could have been done years ago, it just required everyone to grow up a bit.

So, get married, but don't expect much money left for a decent wedding.

Registrars are Civil Servants too I believe.

A rusting Iron Man

After two very successful adaptations, the third Iron Man film comes up a bit short.

In this incarnation Tony Stark's world is threatened by the terrorist called the Mandarin, who in no way mirrors Bin Laden (oh no).

It has all the action that was packed into the previous two films, but wth a bit less of the plot.

Wham, bam, no thank you mam
 
If anything this time around it seems a little too slap-stick.

So although the audience is successfully whirl-winded to the end of the story, I am left at a bit of a loss of what happened along the way.

The previous balance of a thoughtful tale that packs a punch is rather lost in a film that seems to have contented itself purely to punch wildly at its audience.

Girl Power...

The high point for me was seeing Pepper Potts, and indeed the actress Gwynth Paltrow, take a more action inspired role.

I secretly hope to see more of Gwynth P charging round and shooting things.

Last word

It's a bit of a giggle, but don't expect an gravitas, or even to really know what is going on.