The Winter Olmypics Have Begun.

The WINTER Olympics have begun! And I've decided to move onto wine.

The Winter Olympics are of course slightly different from the Summer Olympics. For example where the Summer Olympics feature sports that nobody wants to watch the Winter Olympics features sports that nobody wants to watch being played on ice, and occasionally a little bit of snow. Also the Winter Olympics take place two years apart from the Summer Olympics in a completely different nation. So while the 2004 Summer Olympics were held in Greece the 2006 Winter Olympics were held in Italy. While the 2008 Summer Olympics were held in China the 2010 Winter Olympics were held in Canada.

I only feel the need to highlight this because the UK seems to have got a bit confused and believes it is it that is handing over the Olympic legacy to Russia. As a result the UK has spent the last couple of days engaged in a series of desperate efforts to draw attention to itself.

On Thursday (6/2/14) night a major incident was declared at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland which of course draws attention to Northern Irish politics which to this day remain significantly more exciting then politics in the rest of the UK. Apparently this incident was caused by a significant number of members of the public having severely adverse reactions to alcohol. Now I'm not saying that generally Russia has a bit of a drink problem but last Tuesday one Russian did indeed wake up and discover that they were in fact not drunk. Also a fair few visitors to Sochi have popped into typical a local shop to buy a big (1.5l) plastic bottle of water for pocket change only to get it home and discover that it was in fact Gin. The reason for declaring a major incident rather then taking the patients to hospital was a reference to the way NHS cuts have forced various UK hospitals to declare major incidents in order to cope with the usual winter case-load. The NHS was of course rather a large theme of the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony.

At around the time that this major incident was occurring in Belfast a British women fell ill and died in Bulgaria. A number of the people drinking in the same bar also fell ill with suspected alcohol poisoning. Honestly I don't know what to make of this because it could have been the UK sending someone to Bulgaria in order to kill themselves. However the incident does seem indicate the presence of illegally distilled, poisoned alcohol. The influx of counterfeit alcohol into the UK has been a growing problem since certain eastern European nations entered the European Union (EU). Obviously when Brits are talking about "eastern Europe" Poland and Russia tend to get the blame although I believe Romania and Bulgaria are now becoming larger parts of this discussion. Latvia is of course not part of Russia despite the fact that the UK's gay community did bravely decide to boycott Stolichnaya vodka in protest of the Sochi games.

Today the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron made an impassioned speech for Scotland to remain part of the UK at the Olympic velodrome in London. The UK is of course desperate to know if anyone is still interested in the Scottish independence referendum because it does have resonance to the issue of EU membership - particularly in the Basque region of Spain/France.

Later on UK Prime Minister, David Cameron made a surprise visit to the Somerset Levels in Somerset where apparently people are still surprised and angry about all the flooding they've had recently. This flooding should have course come as no surprise because with global warming melting the global ice caps where did you think all that water was going to go? The UK of course does not believe in global warming and up until the end of 2013 they thought they had a strong ally in Russia who of course do believe in global warming but were hoping it would open up more arctic shipping routes. Therefore the UK is desperate to know if it can still count on Russia as an ally. After all the Sochi Olympics have been built on marsh land that usually provides a valuable natural flood barrier. Therefore from a purely environmental perspective I have to say that the Sochi games have been more then a bit silly.

I apologise for not mentioning any of this earlier but regardless of whether it is winter or summer the Olympics tends to exist in its own little bubble. Therefore I didn't want to be the one forcing all this attention seeking onto the agenda. After all I believe under the old rules this sort of desperate publicity stunt was distinctly frowned upon.

As such I think the less said about Turkish Prime Minister Ergodan's wild claim that a Ukrainian passenger jet had been hijacked and was about to be crashed into the ongoing Winter Olympic opening ceremony 9/11-style the better. After all it serves to prove that the security threat  is now so low that even third rate national leaders feel comfortable enough to have some fun with it.

(Originally Posted) 21:20 on 7/2/14 (UK date).