Adidas vs Puma

I just finished reading Barbara Smit's Pitch Invasion. It's a book about the history of Adidas and Puma and also about the commercialisation of sport. Very interesting read.

Some facts you might or might not know already:

• Adidas and Puma are set-up by brothers. Adi Dassler made Adidas, Rudolf Dassler made Puma. They come from Herzogenaurach, Germany.
• Adidas is the first brand who made sure their shoes were visible from afar with the three stripes (thus creating brand awareness).
• Adidas practically bribed IOC officials and lots of athletes way before it became legal.
• Sepp Blatter - the current foolish head of FIFA - was put in FIFA by Horst Dassler of Adidas so that he can have a better hold of FIFA. Blatter himself was just a manager at Longines Timing before he joined FIFA.
• Previous FIFA head Joao Havelange was a waterpolo player.
• Le Coq Sportif, Arena, Pony are brands owned by Adidas.
  
• Adidas nearly went bankrupt a couple of times.
• Bernard Tapie bought Adidas but couldn't settle the deal.
• Elaine from Seinfled is the cousin of Adidas ex-owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
• Puma did not break any ruling by giving Cameroon sleeveless shirts for the football team.
• Lots and lots of payments were made to athletes and officials under the table back in the days so that they wore Adidas or Puma shoes.

The world of professional sports whould not have been this much fun had Adidas and Puma never existed.

AFC Ajax vs FC Kopenhagen

Ajax won't play Champions League next year after losing 0-2 last night against FC Kopenhagen. Ajax won the away game 2-1.

It's sad.

It's even more sad as I was able to watch the game on telly. Very good first half, not sure what happened in the second half.

Let's win the UEFA Cup now!

Stag Stag Stag Stag Stag!!!!

It was my first proper Stag Do last weekend. One of my mates here is getting married next month so 13 boys decided to have fun.

We started Friday evening by having a pint at a local bar and then heading to the Saleve for a nice party. It was a good party, excellent location. A couple of Caipirinhas and Vodka Red Bulls and we're off having fun. Got home at 4am and had to be at our rendez-vous point at 8am next morning.

Which meant not a lot of sleep.

Saturday morning got there on time at 8am. Had breakfast and around 9am we headed off for our first activity. We went go-karting and we had the place all for ourselves. For some, go-karting with a hangover was a bit rough. I can imagine. I got pole position during qualifying but in the race I spun. Twice. I ended up 5th but without the spins I would have definitely be on the podium.

After that lunch, filet de perche. Then a Flight Bapteme for the groom to be while we all had a couple of drinks in the sun. Next activity: Aquaparc. What can be more fun than slides in a huge waterparc? Did all the slides then sat down at the bar for more beer.

For dinner it was fondue, very delicious although the service was crap. Unbelievably crap! Then the boys headed towards a club for a night out clubbing. At this point the average alcohol intake was beyond the recommended limit so we just drank more. Shots, vodka red bull, with young girls dancing around us it was certainly an experience. Also made me feel old. Got back at 5am and just crashed on the nearest couch I could find.

Sunday we all just sat down in the garden having a barbeque, more beers and a round of discgolf.

This morning I was a potato...

What's the weather like?

Outside, last month, in the middle of July the average temperature was around 30 degrees and it was H-O-T! Yesterday it was 15 degrees and raining. And it's still early August for christsake! No wonder people are getting sick. Hopefully it will be a very nice September.

In sports, Ajax have won the Johan Cruijff plate, beating PSV 3-1 in the process. Here's to a new winning Ajax!!

In my kitchen, I found the right recipe for pancakes. This makes thin pancakes, instead of the fat & greasy pancakes. Take 110 gr flour, pinch of salt, two eggs, 200 ml milk mixed with 75 ml water and 50 gr of melted butter. Mix flour, salt and eggs, then put in mixture of milk and water and half of the melted butter. Use the other half to grease the pan and then pour the mixture into the pan to make pancakes. Very nyam nyam!

In my garage, the Vespa is just wonderful. I just love it. Now I just have to get the right license to drive it.

In the cinema, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 is playing. I watched it the other day and it's crap. Long film, too many effects, confusing storyline.

On my iTunes and iPod, The Feeling is getting heavy rotation.

And on our telly, we watched the first part of the 2nd season of Lost already. Can't wait for the 2nd part of the 2nd season.

Vroom vroom

Yesterday I picked it up, the vehicle that I wanted. It's a brand new black Piaggio Vespa LX50-2. It looks nice and it goes pretty well for in town. I'm so happy with it I just want to ride it all over town.

Now instead of guzzling gasoline and taking ages finding parking space I can use this little neat fellow to go everywhere in town.

Why didn't I think of this earlier?