Ugly

Jenson Button stormed to pole position in tommorow's Australian Grand Prix with a brilliant performance in the new Brawn GP car. He was joined on the front row by team mate Rubens Barrichello. It was a stunning turnaround for a team that barely two months ago seemed to be on the way out of F1 after Honda pulled out of the sport.

Undoubtedly the team has been helped by the new regulations brought in by the FIA to level the playing field on the grid and the regulations seem to have caused problems for some of the established teams, most notably McLaren.

Although the rule changes are undoubtedly a good thing both for the sport and the environment, one thing they have done is make the cars incredibly ugly. The elongated nose is okay but just look at the tiny rear wing. It just looks absurd. It's almost as if they designed an ultra hi-tech Formula 1 car and then a 19 year old boy racer bought it and instead of adding a body kit and various flashing lights, he bolted a wing from a 1992 Opal Corsa onto the back of it. Completely absurd.

Okay, I admit I'm completely shallow when it comes to how a car looks but JEEZ!!!

On to Cardiff

Four down, one to go. Ireland stayed on course for a first grand slam since 1948 with a tense 22-15 victory over scotland here at Murrayfield tonight.

Two nervous sides played out a first half low on endeavour with Chris Patterson kicking four penalties to Ronan O'Gara's three. As the game restarted, someone needed to provide a spark. It was provided by Peter Stringer. In a pre-planned move off a line out about 30m out on the left touchline, the recalled scrum half took a ball off the top and burst through the gap in the middle of the line, drew Patterson the full back and off loaded to a celebrating Jamie Heaslip who ploughed over from a yard out. O'Gara followed with a drop goal to take the lead to 7 and despite anoter kick from Patterson, O'Gara sealed the win with a late penalty.

Bravery is lacking in a team that needs to win.

The West Indies claimed a draw here at Trinidad to win their test series with England 1-0 and reclaim the Wisden Trophy for the first time in nine years. Fidel Edwards blocked out the last over from Monty Panesar as the West Indies finished their second innings on 114/8 in pursuit of a nominal target of 241. It is a huge blow to England as they look forward to the Ashes this summer and especially the captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower.

Jimmy Anderson, Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar shared eight wickets but Danesh Ramdin, surrounded by close in fielders, saw off 87 balls for an unbeaten 17 while captain Chris Gayle, nursing a partially torn hamstring, batted 42 balls for 4 runs. Earlier Kevin Pietersen scored a brilliant 102 off 92 balls to get England to 237/6 declared but Andrew Strauss delayed his declaration until lunch thus depriving his bowlers of what turned out to be crucial overs.

It was the second time in four tests that England were left just short of victory and the new captain's judgement will now come under severe scrutiny after this series. By the close of play last night, the general consensus was that a target of around 210 in 70 overs should be enough. With 71 overs left today, England's lead was 209. Even with the change of innings they would have had 69 overs left. Three overs is all they would have gained but when you are left two wickets short then 2 balls seems like a lot.

Two tests ago England set the West Indies an absurd 502 runs to win in 128 overs. On a dead pitch in Antigua wickets were always going to be at a premium and England batted too long and were left one wicket short. Today, they again delayed too long with the same result. Strauss surely discussed a target with coach Andy Flower. He must share some of the blame here and it will have done his prospects of getting the coach's job on a permanent basis no favours. What would Kevin Pietersen have done if he had still been the man in charge? It is a question that will inevitably be asked in the post mortems that will follow. It is also a question that the current captain would do anything to avoid being asked.

At a time when England, and Strauss in particular, needed to be prepared to lose in order to win, they could not take that final leap. This summer's Ashes hors d'ouevres against a resurgent West Indies suddenly became a lot more interesting. If this England team are to become the team they think they can, their captain needs to have made that leap by the start of the summer.

Anxiety

Liverpool v Real Madrid. European Cup Last 16. I'm not going to watch it. I can't. I get too nervous. Or am I just not bothered?

Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries

Well I've finally done it. I've taken the plunge and got myself a Blackberry.

And I love it.

It's got everything and by everything I mean everything. I'm writing this post on it. I get my email in work. I've got the net on the move. Pure escape. I never really got the "crackberry" thing before, the same way I never understood the whole Apple thing. I have an iPod Touch but feel no loyalty to Apple whatsoever.

This is so, so, different though. The 8900 is a pure joy to use. The buttons are so satisfying to press, the screen is so clear. And don't let anyone tell you the menu system is too complicated. It's completely text based but otherwise is great.

I go to lunch, I write a post, I need to know what's happening in the world, I turn to this. I can get my thoughts down at any time, and don't have to worry about having a pen & paper in my pocket; and for me being able to get my thoughts down in writing is a really big deal.

Overall, if you are a news junkie, need your email all the time or just need to access to the world in general all the time then have the means I highly recommend picking one up.

Regrets

Corporation collection here tomorrow. The council collect house waste that isn't taken in the normal collections. Beds, cabinets etc. I put out an old blacksmith tool of my grandfather's. It was old and rusty and it will never be used again so it was logical that it be thrown away but I regret it now. In a strange way it's a family heirloom. And it could be used as a weapon. I just hope it doesn't end up in the wrong hands.