@selwynoz. I took great pride and had a lump in my throat when I told my bridge guide, when I walked over the top of the bridge, that I was born in the town on the opposite bank of the river Tees where the steel was made to build such a magnificent structure. 😎
I'm surprised anyone would doubt the appreciation one can find in admiring the beauty of a well-built structure...
You almost disproved the argument that it takes two to tango with that anecdote 😉
I'm surprised anyone would doubt the appreciation one can find in admiring the beauty of a well-built structure...
@werdermouth - Nice one!
There were plenty of beauty’s and well built structures in Buenos Aires Argentina !
OFB
I feel the same when I drive over the bridge. It’s a great sight to see it as part of the harbour with the Opera House just across the water.
Utb
@forever-dormo Our friend AV used to say it is Baltic when it was really cold on a match evening in Stoke (other cold places available).
As I travel regulary in the Baltic countries with my work (I think I drove through the three counries three weeks ago twice and will fly over to Lithuania next week), I can say it is much colder in Finland than in the Baltic countries. But then again, the British sailoers might have been to Finland if they meant the Baltic SEA.
I forget the English name for the whole sea as the Finnish name of the sea can be translated as "Eastern Sea" - funily enough, the sea is on the West side of our country which sounds odd. I think it is called Eastern Sea, because the sea is on the EAST side of Sweden. For centenaries Finland was part of the Swedish Kingdom, you see.
It was the Swedish who called our country also Finland. In Finnish we call the country of ours as "Suomi". Only the Baltic languages use the name quite similar to our own language. Rest of the world follows the Swedes. And Sweden is called "Ruotsi" in Finnish. So no letter "S" in the beginning of the name. We can be nasty, too.
To make it more complicated, we call Russia (you know we have a border line of 1 300 km with them 😞) as "Venäjä" in our language. And Estonia is "Viro" in Finnish. Please don't ask why!
@Mr from Dormanstown, How is your wife now? I hope all well now. Up the Boro!
Interesting history of the the Baltic Sea, which is also called the East Sea (Ostsee) in Germany. It's actually the youngest sea in world and only starting forming 10-15,000 years ago when the glaciers started to melt after the last ice age - it's only really existed in its present form for about 4,000 years.
It's known for it's low salinity and is much less salty than the North Sea - indeed it was a freshwater water lake when it first formed and it wasn't until it joined to the North Sea that it became salty. Due to the low salinity of the surface water it has completely frozen over several times in winter with the last time in 1987.
I've been on holiday several times on the Baltic coast - known as the German Riviera - and can certainly recall the water being pretty cold even in August as I came out of the sea teeth chattering and blood retreating from fingers now that my 'northernness' has been gradually depleted with the passage of time!
Though English is the only Germanic language that doesn't call the Baltic Sea the East Sea - incidentally, the North Sea used to be known in Britain as the German Ocean or German Sea until it was renamed after the First World War as the name was no longer deemed acceptable. The name North Sea originates from the Dutch 'Noordzee', which referred to everything north of Holland.
@werdermouth and Jarkko
Amazing knowledge.
Worked in Estonia for UNESCO, but knew little of all this.
Certainly didn't know about the renaming of the North Sea.
Thanks both for posting
I'm beginning to suspect the international break has lasted far too long 😀
It's probably time we started to ponder the beauty of the tactical structure of 4-2-3-1 and the less pleasing on the eye sight of the reverse-engineered Wayne Rooney as he tries to solve a problem at Birmingham that didn't exist.
@jarkko - It is certainly true that for centuries British sailors have travelled the world. Explorers and sailors like Captain James Cook charted many of the seas, bays and coastlines and, as a result, we have English names for most places on the Earth. Cook's charts were felt to be particularly accurate and in a world without satellite or digital technology, continued to be the basis of charts and maps well into the 20th Century.
The English name for the whole sea that extends from Denmark in the South West right up to the coastal border between Sweden and Finland in the North, is the Baltic Sea. There are some bays and gulfs which are given English names, like the Gulf of Bothnia, which is the name we give to the northernmost part of the Baltic Sea which goes up the Finnish land border with Sweden. The Bay to the South of Helsinki (Helsingfors in Finnish?) is known as the Gulf of Finland.
I have in front of me an old "Readers' Digest Map of the World" (maybe I also have a Times Map but won't waste time looking for it), which I note is dated 1987 and reprinted with amendments in 1989, which therefore pre-dates the break-up of the Soviet Union. On one of the maps I see that the waters between Helsinki and Tallinn, going all the way to Leningrad (now St Petersburg again) - in other words the Gulf of Finland - have in smaller print under the English name, the words "Suomenlahti" (which I guess is Finnish - I know there is a city called Lahti) and ""Finskij zalir" (which I guess is Estonian or maybe Russian).
I know that Russia has a 1,300km border with Russia. I guess that President Putin must be well aware of that, too, and the fact that his actions in Ukraine have had, as a direct consequence, the result that two countries with a long-established tradition of neutrality, have now joined NATO (Finland) or shortly to join (Sweden). I wonder if he'd like to have the power to wind the clock back?
Thanks for asking about Mrs Dormo - she had her operation last Wednesday, and is making good progress at home. She had a drain attached at first but that was removed when she returned to the hospital in Northallerton on Monday and she will be visiting the nurse at the GP surgery in the village tomorrow to have the dressing replaced. She will then go back to hospital to check things next Thursday. I am hoping the samples taken during her operation will come back with a good result after analysis and on 3rd November, all being well, she will go into James Cook Hospital (it's that man Cook again!) for an operation on her eye(s) which should result in a cataract being resolved. Her eyes were previously OK though she wore spectactles to drive, but some of the drugs she was prescribed to treat her condition prior to her operation last week were having an effect on her eyes, introducing lots of "floaters" and flashing lights, increasing inflammation in the eyes, causing the worsening of her eye prescription and accelerating the cataract situation. She seems to be recovering faster than expected after the surgery she had last week, and since she stopped taking one of the drugs she had been prescribed, the problems with the eyes have diminished though the cataract remains.
Bearing in mind the removal in May this year of a 5cm diameter meningioma (discovered by chance as a by-product of a scan undertaken in preparation for the operation she had last week) from her brain, and bearing in mind the operation in Northallerton last week, the eye operation in November will be the third medical intervention this year. Eye operations like this are over and done with quickly and I expect my wife to go in and come out to return home within hours. Then hopefully that will be that and we can have a rest from seeing doctors, nurses and hospitals. I am hoping to have a new and improved Mrs Dormo Mark II for many years to come. My fingers are crossed.
@forever-dormo Just tried to reply to you but the message disappeared in the magnetic mist. Or should it be the electronic mist?
Anyway, sorry to hear about your wife's problems but my best wishes to you both and I'm sure the test results will be good or should I say positive.
ATB and UTB,
John
@john-richardson - Thanks for that, John.
@forever-dormo. Keeping everything crossed that the samples taken have positive outcomes and that Mrs Dormo continues to make good progress, also that her other treatments are over and done with quickly so you can enjoy spending time with Mrs Dormo Mark II. 😎
Pleased everything for Mrs FD appears to be going OK. After the eye-op I hope you both get your wish for a rest from the medical profession and your new improved Mrs FD Mark 2 will indeed remain in good order for many years to come.
FIngers remaining crossed for the final piece of surgery next month...
The support is heartwarming, lads. Thanks.
Well, gentlemen, as soon as the International Break ends, news starts again. Or rather "Opinion pieces".
In Teesside Live's Midlands sister ("Birmingham Live") the page opens with former Birmingham winger, Jermaine Pennant, being reported as giving his views: "I think the minimum expectation for Rooney is to keep City in the Top Six. ... You bring in a new manager to make the team perform better, so if they start to slide down the table the fans will turn on the new hire very quickly. Birmingham is a hostile place when things aren't going well. It's a big risk for him, a big risk for the club. Let's see how things pan out".
Would it sound unfriendly to say, as far as Saturday's game at Boro goes, I hope that Birmingham's hopes go rapidly down the pan?
Back to football
This is such an interesting game to look forward to on Saturday and an extremely hard one to forecast.
All the news on TV and the Paper talk with be about Rooney and whether he can maintain Blues’ decent form. But he shouldn’t and obviously won’t be judged on this game although he will try and outdo his former midfield partner and captain.
It will be interesting to see whether or not the Blues line up or play any differently to how they have been playing.
Boro as we know are bang in form right now and as such it will be a tough game for Rooney and his new side.
The Boro will have hopefully been hard at work at Rockliffe over the break and they’ll be wondering what to expect from Rooney’s Birmingham City this weekend.
An away game against Middlesbrough makes for a tough encounter for the Blues as our new-look Boro side is starting to gain momentum and with the Riverside home crowd behind them, they should be hopeful of ruining Rooney’s debut.
Will we see Boro3?
Will we see 👀eyeballs in the sky?
I’m going for Boro3 !!
These foam hands 🙌 are still pretty new and not worn out yet !
OFB
According to the MFC ticket sales page, only about 2500 tickets left for the home fans.
@pedro - That is a bit of a surprise, to me at least. I guess that, with a new manager and not having a game to play for 2 weeks, Brum should bring a healthy crowd with them. In that case, if we sell even SOME of those 2,500 remaining home tickets, it appears Boro will have a bumper crowd for the game. It will all be money in the till and Boro could go with as much as possible of that.
Just imagine if Boro could close the gap on the Top Six by the end of the year. What will the possibilities offered by the January transfer/loan window look like then?
Glad to hear that all is going well with The Boss.
You raise an interesting question about the January window because, given our run of success, we actually don't know how far this upward trajectory can take us. We have a lot of cover within the squad and should we be in the play-off places by January it may be unwise to upset the balance of the squad. I'm very cognisant of how the departure of last year's loanees upset the balance. Maybe if things are going well, the club might be able to get a couple of loans with option to buy.
UTB
So back to the football that matters. Seems so much longer than two weeks since we last played. Still trying to understand the logic of the Rooney appointment. Looking at comments from Blues fans on Facebook many are not happy as they did the same a few years ago when they got Zola in when in the same position and plummeted down the table. To me it looks like the board said nobodies heard of John Eustace we need someone who will get clicks on social media and people will talk about us. Never mind that he has 28%win record. I looked at their website and it is all about Rodney’s first game as if he was playing. Interestingly the referee is Rebecca Welch. This is the first time she has referred us. She is from Washington Tyne and Wear,so she won’t have far to travel.
I read an article last week that suggested Rooney could prove to be an unwelcome VIP guest at Birmingham and it seems the club owners wanted a high-profile name in charge to increase their status.
As you mentioned, Rooney's record at Derby was not great - albeit under difficult circumstances - winning just 25 of his 84 games in charge. Much has been written about how he did a god job despite relegation due to that 21 point deduction but he still only amassed 55 points for the season - which would have been 17th place.
Not that his record for DC United was much better with his 15-month record over 53 games being: won 14, drawn 13, lost 26 - after which he was relieved of his duties for not making the play-offs and finishing 9th (from 15 clubs) on 40 points.
As for the referee on Saturday being Rebecca Welsh from Tyneside - maybe we'd have been better off having Rebecca Vardy in charge 😉
@werdermouth - Good link, that, Werder, to a Guardian take on Rooney maybe being an "unwanted guest" at the club that now bears his name. Thanks.
I suspect players and supporters alike will need to wear a wet suit and flippers to the match tomorrow. The next 20 hours or so are expected to be VERY windy and VERY rainy. That will not, of course, stop the ground staff watering the pitch until 2.45pm...
@forever-dormo According to the forecast, the storm will pass during the night, with Saturday morning having light rain and a gentle breeze, from 12 noon it will be dry for the rest of the day 👍.
Come on BORO.
@forever-dormo I hope all goes well with your wife now. If the MK II is anyway better than the MK I, you will be very happy. Enjoy your time together!
Re: Swedish and Finnish names.
Finland has two official languages. There has always been a Swedish speaking minority through the centenaries. It is now 6 % of the population.
Helsinki is the Finnish name. Originally there was a river called Helsinge and a small town, too. Helsinge is now called Vantaa - my home town - as well as the river is now called Vantaa as well.
Helsinki in a newer city than Helsinge.So when Helsinki/Helsintfors was founded by the the rapids or white water of Helsinge River and the entering point to the sea, it was called Helsingfors in Swedish. Fors(s) is Swedish and means the rapids. The Finnish name of the capital is Helsinki.
As you have figured out now, Marcus' last name is Swedish and means the rapids. His ancestors must have been from the Swedish speaking area (or originally from Sweden) near Turku (the original capital was called Åbo in Swedish during the Swedish kingdom).
Having spoken with Markus during my last visit to Teesside, Marcus is Finnish-speaking as well as his god mother, who I met on the flight back home from Teesside.
So Forss is a force like the rapids in our attack. Up the Boro!
@jarkko - You don't get this sort of information on other football blogs, do you?