The Great Gordino Newsletter – Mar 10th 2015

Hi,
I hope all is well with you.

This week – flying to new heights, flying tackles, and flying weasels…

I wrote last week about the English Women playing in the World Junior Curling Championship, and securing their first ever win at that level, which was a huge result for them.

I thought this week I’d give my overview summary of their week.

As it happened, those 2 early wins would turn out to be the only wins of the week, which left them in 9th position, and having to qualify if they are to play again next year. So, a failure, right?

Er, hardly!

It was clear that they were fighting hard and giving very team a real game, bar the one match against USA when they were struggling from the off.

They were up after 3 ends against last year’s Champions Canada, who went on to win again this year. It’s the game against Sweden though, which summed up the week for me. They took the Swedes all the way, losing to the very last stone, but here’s the thing…

Sweden ended up taking the bronze medal in the tournament, and they are a big nation in the sport – World and Olympic wins, and plenty of them. They have curling academies set up, where the young players study, live and learn curling together. Their teamat this event includes academy players.

The England team? We have one single rink in the entire country, and 3 of the girls are currently away studying hundreds of miles spread across the country.

Having qualified for the Worlds, they didn’t compete or even practice together before arriving in Estonia for the tournament. That puts their performance into perspective, and shows the heights they have got to, and glimpses of what could be if there was money behind the sport in England.

Very exciting, and many people involved in, or watching English curling, will be hugely proud of them!

Ok, a couple of photos from the week…

"Dave Mackay"
Footballer Dave Mackay passed away, and this photo is the one he was always remembered for. The trouble is, he hated it.
It makes him look like a violent thug, but if you know the story behind it, you’d view the photo differently, of a man hugely respected by fans and players.

The player looking all innocent is Billy Bremner, who had a reputation all his career of *being* pretty violent on the pitch, a hard man, an enforcer.

In this game, Dave Mackay had only recently come back from breaking his left leg a second time. As he dribbled the ball with his right leg, Bremner flew in and deliberately went for Mackay’s vulnerable left leg.

That’s why Mackay went for Bremner. Now, I knew of the photo, but I hadn’t known of the story behind it, and it’s a great lesson about not making judgements without the full facts!

Here’s another picture that was in all the papers.

"woodpecker weasel"
A weasel hitch hiking on a woodpecker! Well, that’s what it looks like, right? Actually, the young weasel was attacking the woodpecker, and the woodpecker had taken off trying to get away.

After the picture was taken, they both tumbled back to earth. The shocked weasel scampered off, and the woodpecker flew off to fight another day.

It’s an amazing picture taken by chance (obviously) by keen amateur photographer Martin Le-May, who happened to have his camera with him. He must have pretty good reactions too eh, to sort out taking the shot. Not hard to see why the papers lapped up the shot.

Ok, that’s it for this week – I mentioned flying to new heights with our young curlers, what heights could you set yourself to go after? Let me know, I’d love to hear.

‘Til Next Time,
Health & happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Don’t forget to grab a copy of my motivational book to helpl you get to new heights – Transform Your Life in 21 Days!P.P.S. If photography is a passion for you, why not grab my free guide to the basics of using Facebook to turn it into profits:
FB Passion Profits – The Basics!

Do leave a comment!

Leave a Reply to Sandy X

4 Comments

  • Wow Gordon. Few great stuffs here.

    Curling – Awesome team. Really, only one rink in the entire country?? Surprised!

    Football – Indeed. Never be too early to judge n assume.

    Weasel hitch hiking woodpecker – what an unique n wonderful perfect moment shot. Just curious…. was that an extremely small weasel or extra big bird??!! What wonderful nature!

    What height for myself… – has recently taken up the challenge of ‘produce epic content everyday’. Me n my crazy idea! Lol. That’s what I have been up to. Wanna keep me company??? 😀

    • Hi Sandy,
      Yes, lots of people are surprised to find there’s only one rink in England – luckily for me it’s only 30 odd miles away, so close enough to get stuck in since 2006!

      The weasel/woodpecker photo is a stunner, and you can see why it was all over the papers here. It’s a baby weasel attacking a full woodpecker, which survived. Just an amazing thing to capture in a photo!

      Epic content everyday is a challenge indeed! Good luck with it, and I’m off to your blog to see how it’s going!
      Cheers, Gordon

  • Hi Gordon,

    It’s utterly amazing that the English World Junior Curling Team made it as far as they did without playing together till the event. What an exciting event.

    I bought your book “Transform Your Life In 21 Days”. I’m loving it. I’ll let you know how I’m doing when I finish reading it. It’s something that I need to read all the way through.

    As far as football goes, I’m not a fan. I’d rather curl up and read a good book.

    You have an awesome weekend!

    Linda

    • Yes Linda, it shows just how far they could get if they had the set up available to some of the other countries, and also shows why followers of English curling got so excited!

      Thanks for buying the book, I’m glad you’re enjoying it, and look forward to hearing what you think. I wrote it in 2003 and keep thinking of re-doing it, but to be honest the ideas in it stand just as valid today!
      Cheers,
      Gordon