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I just found this video a couple of minutes ago about a crash of a plane in St Bart’s airport, in the Caribbean. It happened yesterday. The pilot should have made a “touch & go”, as he was coming in at a far too high speed. I wonder where he got his license?

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The boss of a Madison Avenue advertising agency called a spontaneous staff meeting in the middle of a particularly stressful week. Apparently, this is one pretty sharp boss! When everyone gathered, the boss who understood the benefits of having fun, told the burnt out staff the purpose of the meeting was to have a quick contest. The Theme: Viagra advertising slogans… The only rule was they had to use past ad slogans, originally written for other products that captured the essence of Viagra. Slight variations were acceptable.

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Astronauts? Cosmonauts? Negronauts? How shall we call them? Since recently, the Democratic Republic of Congo has its own space program, or at least, that’s what they call it. A couple of months ago, Congo launched the “Troposphère V”, the third rocket that should have gone into the orbit. The rocket is higher, heavier and more powerful than all its predecessors, and it should be going up to 36 kilometers into space at the speed of Mach 3, which is three times the speed of sound.

They also launched the first Congolese living creature, a rat. At least, that was the intention. How it all worked out in practise can be seen in the clip below here… The rocket didn’t go off into the right direction, but they really considered it a “giant leap in their technology”…

It must be said, the Congolese people remain very, very optimistic!

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I received the clip below a couple of days ago. I watched it and became speechless. Which doesn’t happen a lot! The clip shows South African Kevin Richardson, a zoologist and animal behaviouralist, who raises and trains some of the most dangerous animals known to man. To do this, he does not use the common methods of breaking the animal’s spirit with sticks and chains. Instead he uses love, understanding and trust.

With this unusual method of training he has developped some exceptionally personal bonds with his “pupils”. He sleeps with lions, cuddles newborn hyenas, swims with lionesses. Kevin can confidently look into their eyes, crouch to their level and even lie down with them - all taboos in the normal world of wild animal handling - yet he has never been mauled or attacked.

Some call him crazy. Others shake their heads, at his unique method of interacting with the animals.

And Kevin’s secret: get to know the particular personality of each animal, what makes them angry, happy, upset, irritated. Just lke a mother with a child.

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Next Saturday, the 2009 Tour de France takes its start in Monaco. Having been a cycle fan all my life, there is no doubt that I will be following this year’s event pretty closely. As has been in the past for the last decades, a lot of words have already been written, a lot of press coverage has been spent even before the first stage takes off. But seldom has it been like this year.

First of all, because the boss himself, seven times winner Lance Armstrong has returned to professional cycling again. Despite him being the outsider, I am personally convinced that he returns to France in order to make a serious attempt to win the event for the 8th time. Armstrong is part of the strongest team in professional cycling as far as the big events are concerned (Giro, Tour & Vuelta), but the Astana team was banned for participating last year for the stupid reason that in 2007, a couple of their riders had been guilty on doping. The French ASO (Amoury Sports Organisation), the organisor of the Tour de France, didn’t even listen to the arguments of Belgian Johan Bruyneel, the new boss of the Astana team. He had changed the whole team, put in place one of the most complete anti-doping controlling systems, new management, new directors, he had changed everything but the sponsor’s name.

ASO, considering themselves as being more catholic than the Pope, decided to ban Astana last year. So watch out for their revenge this year! I honestly believe (and hope) that the Astana team will win this year’s event. I’d even say more: I hope they will get the whole podium with winner (Armstrong or Contador), second (Contador or Armstrong) and third: (Leipheimer or Klöden). We’ll only know for sure about this Sunday July 26th. But it would be another first: never in the rich history of the Tour de France did one team win the whole podium. I only hope nobody of the riders will have serious accidents.

However, the “pre-Tour de France winner of 2009″ is undoubtedly the Belgian Quick-Step team. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Tom Boonen who was caught on cocaine during an out of competition test. You can read my story here. Just like he was caught last year. Last year, ASO banned him from participating of the 2008 Tour de France. Knowing the French a little bit, there was going to be no doubt at all that they were going to take the same decision: banning Tom Boonen from this year’s Tour as well.

Guess what: they took the same decision. A decision that is now being contested by the Belgian Quick-Step team. The day before yesterday, a French court (with French judges, being pretty “chauvinistic”, declared themselves not to be able to come to a verdict. Now the Belgians are going to proceed before the French Olympic Committee in order to get a permission for Tom Boonen to take the start in Monaco next Saturday. Pretty short notice. A couple of the “judges” over there are lawyers working for ASO! I don’t think the  new Belgian champion will participate in this year’s Tour. I can be wrong, but call it a “gut-feeling”.

However, there can be absolutely NO DOUBT at all that the Quick-Step team has gained a lot of advantages and publicity out of Boonen’s mistake.

First of all, they were furious, which is completely normal. But: the whole European sports press was covering this story, giving Quick-Step a lot of publicity.

Secondly: the team suspended Tom Boonen for a couple of weeks of participating in other races. Word goes around that he had to pay a € 250.000 fine to the team. I also have a “gut-feeling” that Tom Boonen will be “convicted” to stay in the Quick-Step team for the rest of his career. Just like ASO, the Belgian Quick-Step manager Patrick Lefevre pretends to be more catholic than the Pope as well. He is a good leader, and has a big impact on his riders’ lives. But… he knows nothing about doping. Although he’s not from Barcelona (Fawlty Towers’ Manuel). And he doesn’t want to know anything about it… And, he can’t afford to lose his champion to another team. So he will have “convinced” Tom Boonen that he’s got no other chance than stay with his team. At a much lower monthly salary than before. Still being overly paid, but then again, he’s a sports star as well! So Quick-Step is spending less money to their star!

And thirdly: the whole European sports press is curious whether or not Tom Boonen will take the start next Saturday. Giving Quick-Step a whole lot of additional press coverage again.

But then again, as soon as this Tour takes the start, ALL riders and ALL their teams will have become no news anymore. As the whole world will be focussing on Lance Armstrong only!

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Golf. Although I had sworn never to play it, I took it up somewhere in 2001 or 2002, during the last two years when I was living in Belgium. In 2003 I moved to the Algarve, one of the best and most famous regions in the world to play the game. Obviously, my golf clubs came with me, as I had really started to like the game. I played a couple of games, mostly together with my Irish neighbour, who is really addicted to golf. Well, he’s a Brit, so that’s pretty easy to understand. But, starting up a business in Portugal was not easy, and I stopped playing the game for some time. Until a couple of weeks ago.

A Belgian friend was visiting, and he wanted to try to hit some balls. I had to find my bag with golf clubs and off we went, to a local golf club’s drivers range. Although I hadn’t touched the clubs in more than five years, I was surprised to still be able to hit some balls perfect (ok, I am honest, some balls, not all of them). We spent a nice Saturday afternoon on that drivers range, and had a lot of fun. And obviously, we found the 19th hole on a little roof terrace in Cacela Velha, so that went just perfect as well.

Since then, I have left my golf clubs next to the front door, so everytime I walk in or out, I see them. I might take them today, and go and shoot some balls again. As I have been invited to go and play a game on one of the new golf courses we have in our neighbourhood. But I told the people who have invited me that I needed a bit more practise before meeting them on the golfcourse.

I have always wondered how the Brits have been able to invent a game like this. Yesterday, I found the answer to that question. The answer was given by Robin Williams…

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Fawlty Towers still exists! It is no longer a hotel, but it has become a restaurant in the area where I have my office. Somewhere in the “Greater Almancil Area”, somewhere in the Portuguese Algarve. Earlier this week, I went there for lunch, together with a friend. Upon arrival, we saw a blackboard, announcing a two course lunch for 0 €! We looked at each other, and laughed about the bargain we were going to get. After having  parked the car and while walking towards the front door, we saw the other side of the blackboard, announcing the two course lunch for 10 €! Still a bargain, but obviously, the one person that had written the announcement didn’t know exactly how to spell 10 €!

Anyway, Bazil Fawlty has now become Baziel, a fat French cook in his early forties. He was constantly sniffeling underneath his armpits while talking to himself in a mixture of English and Portuguese with a very funny, undefined accent of which we couldn’t understand a word. Both my friend and I are pretty fluent in French, so we decided to address Baziel in his own language. We told him we wanted the two course lunch for the price that he had announced outside. It took a while before we could convince him to go and take a look at the blackboard. Baziel returned running in the unique Bazil Fawlty style, calling for Manuel, the assistant. Manuel has now become a young Russian girl, who must have arrived only very recently in Portugal as her Portuguese is still very poor. Baziel sent this girl outside to change the announcement.

Anyway, we took a seat, and as an aperitif we ordered two red Martinis on the rocks. It took a while before the girl had understood what kind of drink we wanted, and off she went. It took ages before she returned. Guess what? Martini had been sold out. No more Martini in the whole house! So we decided to have a beer, in order to keep things simple.

A little later, Baziel came to our table (we were the only guests), apologizing for the incapability of this poor little Russian girl that had come all the way from Siberia, blaming the European Union and all other incapable politicians for letting all these foreigners into the country, and he wanted to take our orders. We hadn’t received a menu, so there he started… ratteling down everything that was available. Both my friend and myself didn’t understand a word of what he meant to say, so we asked him to write it down on a piece of paper as it had become clear and obvious that a normal menu didn’t exist inside the whole restaurant. We also asked him to turn the music a little bit down, as we were sitting underneath some loudspeakers which were at least at volume seven or eight. Baziel is not good at computers, as we found out when he was struggeling with the volume. Him switching the computer system that controlled the music in the restaurant off and on felt like explosions in our ears.

While Baziel was at our table, another customer came in wearing shorts, sandals and socks. He came to our table, and asked if we liked his socks! We didn’t. Baziel then started a whole lecture telling this poor bloke which socks go with which trousers and shoes… Incredible! We witnessed all this at our table, while trying to order a two course lunch for 10 €!

We ordered, and were served a very nice meal. The starter was ok, and the main course was nice as well. However, when we were about halfway the main dish, the Russian female Manuel came to our table with the two Martinis that we had ordered in the first place. Of what we could understand, she had been sent by Baziel to the little café next door to get our two Martinis.

Both my friend and I couldn’t stop laughing when we were paying the bill. As a matter of fact, I am still laughing out loud!

This week, Portuguese reality was even better than the very popular seventies BBC-sitcom that was written by John Cleese.

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I can’t sleep. For the second night in a row, I’ve been awake since 03.00am. I’ve been too busy lately I guess. So what does a man do in moments like this? Surfing the internet a bit, in order to become more and more astonished about the stupidity of some other fellow human beings.

It happened in Egypt earlier this week. A 25 year old Egyptian was madly in love with a girl. His parents didn’t like her, and forced the poor guy to marry another woman. He didn’t agree with their choice, and protested against his parents by cutting of his penis and damaging his testicles. The docters couldn’t help him anymore. A pretty drastic way of protesting against something.

In China, a guy wanted to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge. He hesitated. Causing a huge traffic jam, as the police had blocked the bridge. Apparently, the bridge has become pretty popular by people who want to jump of bridges, as an incident like this happened already twelve times since the beginning of April. One person who was in each of these twelve traffic jams, got so upset with it, that he decided to help the bloke on the bridge. He somehow managed to climb on to the bridge himself and pushed the other guy off the bridge. You can see it over here…

Apparently more and more people are being fooled by Russian online dating sites. Russian women asking for money to their internet lovers, receiving the money, then telling their lover boys that they somehow lost it again, and asking the same lovers to send some more money… and they do! Unbelievable.

Well, unbelievable? I received a fax the other day from South Africa. It was written in very poor English, telling me a sad little story about how a husband got slaughtered by the enemy, how the widow had inherited the nice little sum of twenty five million dollars and how she needed my help to get her money out of South Africa in order to invest it in Portugal. She nicely asked my bank details, so she could send me the money, and I could keep a 25% commission of the total sum. Great! She will have to wait a very, very, very long time in order to get my bank account details.

Oh, and to finish off for today, the clip below was recorded a couple of months ago in the Central Station of Antwerp, Belgium. I wish I had been there to see it with my own eyes. For the people who were in the station, this must have been a perfect start of another brilliant day. As today will be brilliant as well. Busy, as usual. Enjoy the clip.

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A couple of years ago, I saw these clips for the very first time.

Somehow, earlier this morning, they came back into my mailbox, and I enjoyed watching them again.

Some things just don’t turn out to be what you think they are going to be when you first see them.

I hope they’ll put a smile on your face as well.

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Big news from Belgium reached me this morning. Tom Boonen, one of the current champions in professional cycle racing has been caught for using cocaine during an out of competion drugs test that was done at the end of last month. Apparently, history is repeating itself again. Last year, at the end of May, he was also caught for the same thing. He was not welcome in the 2008 Tour de France, and if the organisers are consistent (and they are), he will be denied to take the start in this year’s Tour de France as well. Today he has already been suspended by his Belgian Quick Step team. I am not going to talk about the legal consequences for this great athlete, but one can ask why someone who is at the top of his career is taking these kind of chances? Being a top athlete, he’s supposed to act as an example for society. He’s got a responsability to his team, his fans, his fellow athletes and to professional cycle racing in general. It is a shame that he is risking to lose it all for this stupid mistake.

According to Lance Armstrong, he is not the only one with this kind of problem. Armstrong calls it a social problem more than a sports problem. I believe he’s right in this. I’ve been told that there are literally hundreds of thousands of cocaine users in Europe. Apparently on almost every party that is being organised by the more wealthy people, one can find this drug. Everytime I go to Lisbon, and go for a dinner in the “Barrio Alto”, there are many cocaine dealers walking the streets, trying to sell the white stuff to passers by. And everytime I wonder where the police are?

I haven’t got a clue what this drug does to a human being. We used to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes when we were going out a long time ago. Except for the cigarettes, that hasn’t changed over the past decades as far as I am concerned. But maybe I am just becoming a grumpy old man who doesn’t understand why these youngsters don’t think twice if they feel the temptation for drugs.

Or maybe this is just another proof that some professional cycle racers are not amongst the most intelligent of all human beings…

Tom Boonen, in better times, when winning his third Paris-Roubaix less than a month ago on April 12th.

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