Friday 16th September 2016....a really full day!!!!

Warming this is a long post!!!!

A wonderful sleep and a good breakfast and this morning first thing I had to do was return the car at 11.00 am....from there I walked about 4 miles to the venue for the tennis matches on the way I passed this Police box

 It brought back great memories from my first days as a Police officer in Sheffield in 1966 and the police boxes were where we used to phone in to start the shift and also have our lunches inside...those were the days!!!
Below on the left is the big Celtic soccer stadium and on the right the venue for the tennis....So today was the semi final of the Davis Cup between Britain and Argentina and Britain are the reigning Champions!!!!

 You can tell from this shot that I had a really good seat...

These crazy folks are from Stirling University and they call them selves the Barmy Army

seated next to the boisterous Argentiian fans and all the banter was in good fun!!

Murray!!

Del Potro!!

I really like this shirt and it is one of the dry fit ones!!!!

It was a classic and fantastic battle!!!!

Juan Martin del Potro beat Andy Murray in five sets to give Argentina the lead against defending champions Great Britain in the Davis Cup semi-final.

Del Potro won 6-4 5-7 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4 after five hours and seven minutes to put Argentina 1-0 up in Glasgow.

The 27-year-old former US Open champion becomes only the third man to beat Murray in a Davis Cup singles match.

British number two Kyle Edmund takes on Argentine number one Guido Pella in Friday's second singles match.

The winners of the best-of-five tie will face France or Croatia in the final.

Murray hit 35 aces and battled through the longest match of either man's career but still came up short against an inspired Del Potro, who lost their four-hour Olympic final last month.

"I won but I still remember the Olympic final," said Del Potro. "This is very important to me and my team and we are looking to reach another final in the Davis Cup.

"Against Andy you never know when the match will finish. He is a dangerous player, a fighter and great champion. In end I played good forehands and good serves and that was key."

Murray was unhappy with some calls he thought were "ridiculous"

Del Potro 'so happy to be playing again'

Del Potro hit 26 forehand winners and broke serve six times to join Stan Wawrinka and Fabio Fognini as the only men to have beaten Murray in Davis Cup singles matches.

The Argentine, ranked 64th as he works his way back after three wrist surgeries, was the better player for the first two hours and earned a break point that would have left him serving for a two-set lead.

Murray clung on, however, levelling at one set all after breaking serve for 7-5, following a call from the crowd on set point that incensed Del Potro and Argentine captain Daniel Orsanic.

Del Potro's mix of slow, sliced backhands and huge forehands continued to trouble Murray, but the Wimbledon champion twice came back from a break down in the third before saving set point with a stunning forehand lob.

Murray had beaten Del Potro in six of eight previous matches

It was a shot that electrified the Scot and his home crowd, and he would edge ahead thanks to an attacking return at 5-5 in the tie-break followed by a big serve.

Both men were unhappy with a succession of line calls and umpiring decisions, with Murray at one stage saying: "This is getting ridiculous now, it's actually getting ridiculous. It's so, so bad."

A loose Murray service game at 2-1 down was all that separated them in the fourth set, and with fatigue taking a grip they began a decider with the match entering its fifth hour.

Both players had their trainers on at the changeover to try and work some energy into their legs, and it was Del Potro who made the first push at 2-2 only for Murray to save break point with a big serve and a shout of "Let's go!"

Del Potro got the decisive break two games later with a rasping forehand winner after Murray had put a forehand volley within the Argentine's reach, and served out to the delight of the 400 travelling fans.

"I am so happy to be playing tennis again after three surgeries," said Del Potro.

"This kind of moment was what I was missing at home and I always play good in Great Britain, and here I played great, so it is a good place for my tennis."

Edmund lost his match so now Argentina are up by 2 points does not bode well for Britain.
I left home at 11am this morning and just arrived home 12 hours later what a great afternoon and evening of world class tennis!!!

Big Harvest moon tonight...

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Here are 7 fun facts about this week's Harvest Moon.

1. Full moons have names corresponding to calendar months or seasons of the year, which dates back to early Native American tradition. Distinctive names were given to each recurring full moon so tribes were able to keep track of the seasons. As a result, the September full moon is also called the "Full Corn Moon," because it marks when corn was supposed to be harvested.
2. Depending on the year, the Harvest Moon can come anywhere from two weeks before or two weeks after the autumn equinox.
3. On average, the Moon rises 50 minutes later each day. However, for several days before and after the full Harvest Moon, it rises 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe, according to the Farmer's Almanac.
4. Friday's spectacle will also be a supermoon, that is, when the Moon is full, it is within 90 per cent of its closest distance to Earth for the month, or around 364,765 km away, compared to its perigee of 361,880 km on Sept 18. However, this isn't the closest full moon of 2016. That doesn't occur until Nov. 14.
5. While people may say Friday's Harvest Moon will look bigger than usual, the "supermoon" only plays a small part in that perception. When the Moon is seen low on the horizon, the human eye and brain combine to create an optical illusion known as the Moon Illusion, as they struggle to compare such a large, distant object to the much closer objects on the ground. When the Moon is higher in the sky, with no other closer objects nearby, it appears smaller. Cover the moon with a dime at arm's length, both when it is at the horizon and high in the sky, and you will see there is no difference.
6. This year's Harvest Moon is special because it will also be a penumbral lunar eclipse, as it passes through the outer edge of the Earth's shadow. Since Earth's penumbra only casts a dim grey shadow on the Moon, this means we won't see the glorious crimson of a total lunar eclipse, and many skywatchers may not even notice any difference at all. However, it will be visible to varying degrees anywhere in eastern Europe, eastern Africa, most of Asia and western Australia.
7. The last time the Harvest Moon perfectly coincided with the autumnal equinox was in 2010 and this won't happen again until 2029. The 2016 Strawberry Moon was the first to coincide with the June solstice in decades, and the first to be visible in all of Canada since 1948.

Could not manage a good photo so this is from the Internet!!!

Today is also a special day in Mexico!!!

Traveler looks at the holiday's origins, customs, traditions, and explores how Mexican Independence Day is celebrated today. 

WHAT IS IT?

Not to be confused with Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican army's victory over the French forces of Napoleon III on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla, Mexican Independence Day marks September 16, 1810, the day when priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla urged Mexicans to rise up against the colonial government of Spain. The call today is often referred to as the Grito de Dolores, or Cry of Dolores, named after the town of Dolores—now Dolores Hidalgo—where the cry was originally uttered. (According to the Library of Congress, Hidalgo is believed to have said, "My Children, a new dispensation comes to us today…Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen 300 years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once.”) Independence was not won immediately, but that day—and its uprising—is typically considered the beginning of war that eventually brought the country independence in 1821.

HOW IT'S CELEBRATED IN MEXICO

Though September 16 is a day of full-blown festivities, celebrations of Mexican Independence Day actually begin at 11 p.m. on September 15, when Mexico’s president rings a bell at the National Palace in Mexico Cityand repeats Hidalgo's famous words, to crowds that have gathered at the Plaza de la Constitución, or Zócalo, one of the largest public plazas in the world. After each line, many of which tout key figures in the revolutionary, the spectators—an estimated more than 500,000 citizens and tourist—chant back, "¡Viva!" (This ritual is repeated in squares around the country.)

¡Mexicanos!
¡Vivan los héroes que nos dieron patria!
¡Viva Hidalgo!
¡Viva Morelos!
¡Viva Josefa Ortíz de Dominguez!
¡Viva Allende!
¡Vivan Aldama y Matamoros!
¡Viva la Independencia Nacional!
¡Viva México! ¡Viva México! ¡Viva México!

English translation:

Mexicans!
Long live the heroes who gave us our homeland!
Long live Hidalgo!
Long live Morelos!
Long live Josefa Ortíz de Dominguez!
Long live Allende!
Long live Aldama and Matamoros!
Long live the independence of our nation!
Long live Mexico! Long live Mexico! Long live Mexico!

Streets are decorated with flags, flowers, and lights in the flag's colors of green, white, and red. There are parades, rodeos, bullfights, and street parties, and more vendors than usual sell an assortment of whistles, horns, and toys. Fireworks (and fire) too, are a large part of the celebration: braided stalks of willow and palm are set aflame, and sell—and launch—fireworks and firecrackers.

Stay tuned another different kind of sporty day manana!!!!

Yashi Kochi!!