Well, here I am for the first time in about 5 centuries - well, at least the first time since last year.  I have spent a little time writing notes to all the nice people who have been visiting my previous blog in my absence and providing good suggestions on how to remove the people who seem to be employed by Xanga to write blogs and pulses.  That is the only explanation I have for those who seem to be on here all the time.

What I find incredibly strange is that, having had nobody apart from a few close friends visit my profile for ages, suddenly when I disappear loads of people suddenly turn up.  Weird how things work, but hopefully I can get to know some of you people.

As for those who have been around my blog for a while, how annoying must I be to you.  I am on here for a while, then I completely disappear for ages, then return for a while.  You just can't pin me down.  There is every chance this will happen again, so to those of you who really want to stay in touch - find me on Facebook and add me as a friend.  I am on that site regularly.  Stephen Prosser with the Tropic of Capricorn as my profile picture.  Let me know who you are in a message though if you do this, as I may otherwise have no idea who you are and ignore you.  HA HA!

Seriously though folks, for those who have forged a friendship with me I am very grateful and at the lovely responses I have already had during the hour I have been back on here this evening.  Take care people!

Many of the people who read my blogs (that would be around 4 in total, so many would constitute 3 of you) do not come from rugby playing countries, and maybe none of you come from northern hemisphere rugby countries.  However, I think I will be able to shed some light on my main point, despite this lack of understanding.

Okay although the US have a rugby team that are improving, just basically think American Football on grass in New England after a major rainstorm.  If you are South African, then you may have seen rugby in the northern hemisphere on a cold winters day with mud all over the park.

It was an incredible game - no real southern hemisphere quality, but tight and tense and it went down to the very last kick of the game, but the overall feeling that one had in watching was>>>>>>

How will their mother's react when they come in with their kit in that state?

I mean, you are going to need some really good quality fabric cleaner, washing powder to get that lot out.  It's a disgrace.  When will boys grow up?

And on a more exciting note, I finished my Masters by 5pm on Wednesday having knocked off a magnificent 2000 words in just a few hours.  Only a week to get through to the Christmas break now.  COME ON!!!

As a bloke, the X-factor is not a show that I should admit watching - but due to the fact that I have a wife, I somehow wind up watching it every week.  I always have the vain hope that there will be some quality rock on it, but in Britain this never happens.  The real rock guys only seem to make progress on American Idol (eg David Cook and most especially Chris Daughtry).

However, it is not for reason of lamenting the lack of rock songs that I write this article.  It is much more to do with the undermining of talent as a consequence of the petty judges games that go on in the show.  Last week we witnessed the exit of Austin. arguably the best singer in the competition, with 8 contestants still remaining. Simon Cowell insists that the young Irish fellow Eoghan is superb - when in fact he spent most of last week being flat, and they insist on lambasting Daniel even though he has been making steady progress and has done remarkably well - even if he is struggling to compete at the highest level.

However, the bottom 2 last week were surprisingly Austin and Rachel.  There are two reasons Austin could have been in the bottom 2:

1) His fans thought he could not be eliminated and thus did not vote

2) Simon Cowell was guilty of picking the wrong song for one of his contestants - again.

Either way, the final vote was between Austin and Rachel.  By rights, Austin should have survived.  He was the better artist, he performed the final song with greater quality and higher passion, and he was the one most likely to be a successful recording artist, the three criteria by which the judges are supposed to make their decision.  Despite this, Hannah and myself predicted the outcome even before the final songs had been sung - all due to the ludicrousy of the judges competing against one another.  Simon would vote for Austin because he was his act (though Simon Cowell is in fairness to himself fairly impartial), Dani would vote for her act, Cheryl could go either way but we reckoned she would go for Rachel on the basis of comments she had previously made, Louis would vote for Rachel in order to remove Simon Cowell's most competitive act and thus in one move both spite Simon Cowell and increase JLS's chances of winning. 

In other words, the whole final sing off is a total waste of time.  Louis is just spiting Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole gave her reason for voting to keep Rachel in that we knew what Austin could do and Rachel deserved a second chance.  Rephrase that into understandable English and it effectively means "Austin has produced and we know he has talent, Rachel hasn't and thus needs another chance."  The argument that Austin has produced and Rachel hasn't surely means that the latter should be sent home.

It does rather ruin the whole show as a competition, especially bearing in mind that the guy who clearly had the most talent last year also failed to win (Ryddion), coming second to Leon Jackson - who never looked comfortable on stage during the whole competition.

Your thoughts if you have watched the show are welcomed.