Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

There is not much longer to wait before the England game. I say “the” England game, because now there is just one; just one game – win or go home. And I can feel the excitement building, feel the tension rippling in the air.

So much for the group being easy, eh? The group was supposed to be a breeze; and yet, the squad found a way to struggle, playing like strangers against Algeria, and letting in a tame goal against the USA.

The players don’t even seem to be having fun out there, and this is the World Cup – the pinnacle of their careers.

Just as there is much we can learn from Brazil and Argentina – moving forwards with the ball, not backwards; passing to ourselves, not the opponents – there is much we can learn from South Africa, enjoying themselves on the pitch. Having fun.

There has been a trend brewing in the competition recently, though, and thankfully it favours England and it favours Wayne Rooney, our talisman.

Everyone started off badly. The good teams, the good players – they all struggled, at least in their first game. But now Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Lionel Messi – three of the “big four” – are getting involved, having fun, taking crisp, brilliant shots.

Wayne Rooney is the fourth member of that club. Surely, surely, it’s time for him to step up, too?

This is the World Cup, after all. The great players – the truly great players – rise to the big occasions, rather than wilting in the spotlight.

There are more brown bears than professional footballers in Slovenia – this is not just a game we must win; it is a game we surely should win. I can see Rooney stepping up and having a big influence on the match. And I can see England winning fairly comfortably.

And then, I suppose, all this terrible performance nonsense will be forgotten, and all will be right with the world again!

Increasingly, newspapers and online news publications are reporting that a growing number of parents are breaking the law in a bid to help their children get cheaper car insurance.

Apparently as much as 41% of parents deliberately lie when filling out policy applications.

Essentially, when they ring up or fill in forms for car insurance, they claim to be the main drivers on the policy, when in fact it is one of their children who is the main driver, or owner of the car. – a practice known as “fronting” – which usually offers large savings, but could also lead to prosecution.

According to numerous sources, Co-operative Insurance found that almost half of the nation’s parents were actually fronting policies, while 61% admitted that they would do so in the future.

The industry is warning that it is an extremely risky practice – indeed, there is a number of law society websites and these sorts of legal services that have to deal with this so called “fronting”, as well as a growing number of car insurance fraudsters.

Tim Franklin, of Co-operative Financial Services, said: “The view that motor insurance fronting is harmless and does not hurt anyone could not be further from the truth.”

He added: “Parents who believe they are helping their children to save money by fronting are not only risking prosecution, but harming their chances of obtaining insurance in the future.”

But the real scam, I think, is the insurance companies themselves.

They charge extortionate rates to these young kids passing their tests. How are they supposed to stump up thousands of pounds, when they are 17 years old, and have just shelled out all their money on a car?

Never mind growing accident claims for compensation or the plethora of claims for whiplash injury compensation – the real problem is the fact that these people charge way too much money. It’s no wonder parents are resorting to “fronting” to help save money.

The issue seems to be being tackled in precisely the wrong way. Cut down the costs, and there will be no fronting to worry about.

It has been three months. Three months of annoyance, three months of waiting to hear something – and inevitably hearing nothing. And now I have decided to never buy an HP laptop ever again.

I suppose I should have looked into it a little more before I bought my most recent one. There are complaints over the net that they tend to need repairing a lot.

But I was lured in by a very fancy thing with a swivelling screen that can make it form a sort of tablet computer, looked nice. It felt nice, and it even worked very well – while it was under warranty, that is.

But then, almost as soon as the warranty expired, it broke. Inevitable, I guess. The screen went black, and I couldn’t do anything. So I turned it off, and then it never properly turned back on again. It hummed a little, and the lights came on, but the screen never did.

So I got it fixed, and everything was fine again for a month or so. But then it broke again: exactly the same way as it had done before.

Now, I’ve waited three months for them to repair it. At first, they were just being slow. Then they said they needed to fly in a chip from China – and then the volcanic ash cloud stopped that from coming for a while. And when they did finally get the chip, it didn’t do anything. After three months, they have told me it will need a new motherboard, and that is rather expensive.

So I suppose I’ll just have to see if I can get the hard drive turned into an external HDD. And start looking for a new computer. I’ve been so long without it that I can’t even remember if there’s anything worth keeping on there.

But I do know this: I’m not going to be getting an HP again.

Before I call it a day, I feel it only fitting to end on a light note.

I was browsing the Times Online, and stumbled across this: a piece of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree will soon defy gravity (ironic, eh?) when it is carried into space on the next Nasa shuttle mission.

Mr Newton is, of course, widely regarded as being one of the greatest scientists of his era, and is certainly one of the most famous faces around.

Perhaps his most well-known and popular story is the discovery of gravity. As the story goes, Sir Isaac claimed to have been inspired by a falling apple in his garden to investigate the theory of gravitation.

Now, after the spaceflight, the tree sample and picture will be returned to the Royal Society.

Lord Rees, the academic institution’s current president, said it was “both pleased and proud that such an extraordinary part of scientific history and important element of the Royal Society’s archive collection can make this historic trip into space”.

The piece of tree and picture of Sir Isaac will go on to form part of the History of the Royal Society exhibition that the society will be holding later this year, and, after that, will become more of a permanent exhibit.

About a year and a half ago, I decided to make the move to using a smartphone. I decided that it was about time, what, with my degree finishing and me moving into the working world. The ability to read emails on the go is a truly useful one.

And it all rendered my other phones pretty useless. I had two. One in case the other broke down. Because Until the arrival of the big, swish, new thing, they had been struggling along, sometimes flickering on and off, and doing odd things at odd times.

For some reason, I still have both of them, although I’m not entirely sure why.

I think that, perhaps, it’s laziness part laziness. But it’s also because you hear about so many schemes out there that claim to help you or offer you good deals, but actually they’re just scams or fraudsters.

Not to the extent of insurance fraud reports, like I remember seeing last month. But they are still there, still present threats nonetheless.

It even came with a little bag, which I could pop them in and post them off for recycling. Often selling your mobile phone to people like the Mobile Phone Exchange always seems like a great idea. Recycling it is even better.

But even these websites, charming as they look, get scolded by customers claiming that they’re scams. Claiming that they quote big prices — until you send something in, and the individual price they quote to you is a lot less than you expected.

You just never know when a company like this is genuine, or is actually a sort of mobile phone exchange scam.

And so, reluctance on my part turned to forgetfullness, and the phones are now sitting, lost somewhere in the house.

When I was reading the Times online today, and after a bit of browsing, I stumbled on this article: an interesting piece about how business is looking slightly more peachy for tech firms in the UK.

It reported that a number of companies were seeing profit rises after a difficult 2009. One company, in particular — Wolfson Microelectronics — reported strong sales over the first few months of the year, and predicted yet more growth as demand for mobile phones and other consumer electronics continues to recover from the murk of the recession.

They also said it had launched nine new products in the first quarter; a list including audio amplifier components for mobiles, and a digital audio hub.

It’s good to see companies like this rising out of the lows of the recession, and continue to create new products.

There was a similar story here, about the battery life of mobile phones. I know my own smartphone is painfully battery-consuming. The little battery bar disappears in an instant, if you actually use the thing, and don’t leave it sleeping in your coat pocket.

Of course, when you’re at work, you can have all sorts of business phone systems at your disposal, and aren’t restricted or limited to using your mobile, but I must admit, I still like to be able to use mine.

And anything that can increase its life length, so I am not forced to switch it off for an hour or so each day in order to use it on the train home, is a welcome invention.

A while back, a man was called the ‘world’s worst’ tennis player by the Telegraph and other newspapers. He didn’t take it lying down, and recieved a lot of money in damages from a number of news outlets.

But against the Telegraph, he lost his defamation lawsuit. There is an interesting story here about the tennis player, who was insulted by the description of his record 54-straight losses on the international circuit.

The legal action was threatened against a number of news outlets on the basis that descriptions and claims were defamatory, and could damage his career. The number that did back down is supposedly around 30 — he posted pictures of their damages payments on his website — the Telegraph refused to do so.

But the Telegraph fought the case on the basis that the article, “World’s worst tennis pro wins at last”, was not arguably defamatory when read together with another item in the same edition, and that Mr Dee had no real prospect of rebutting the defences of justification and fair comment.

Thinking about it, it reminded me of this story, where a teacher sued her school board after she was prohibited from giving an F grade to her students.

But, really, both pieces are interesting. It just shows what kind of effect conditional fee arrangements — or no win, no fee solicitors, has had on society. Law actions are ridiculously expensive … and yet, increasingly, people are offered these deals.

I wonder if Mr Dee took up a no win, no fee deal. And I wonder if the newspapers and news outlets who gave him money to prevent trials are regretting doing so.

Two retired American army men apparently want Congress to introduce laws to give US children better nutrition in schools, with less sugar, salt and fat.

Obesity is threatening the US army, they said. In fact, they said that the fat crisis ruled out more potential military service recruits than any other medical factor.

Worrying obesity rates among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, they said. In fact, research indicates more than a quarter of young Americans are too fat to fight.

John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairmen of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote: “Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our military.”

The warning comes amid mounting fears that childhood obesity affects one in three young Americans.

But I can’t help thinking they just need to adapt their tactics. After all, Homer Simpson proved to be a phenomenal boxer in The Simpsons — even if it did involve taking an immense beating, and waiting until his opponent was too tired to stand up.

It was quite nice, this last weekend, because I met up with a lot of friends from all around the world who I rarely get to see. But occasions like this (ones that have been planned well in advance) give me a chance to catch up with them, and they are very welcome.

Really, it was at a party with old university friends, and guys from my old football team, gathering together and sharing old stories.

We had a barbecue, out there next to the lake, and even had a game of football on our old university grounds. Ducks waddled by with a trail of little ducklings, and the rain held off until we were leaving, so all in all it was very good.

But as I wandered down to the campus shop to buy a drink or two, I noticed a CCTV camera above the cash machine, and another next to the shop entrance. And there were more, dotted here and there around the place, that made me feel as though I was in Big Brother.

I don’t like feeling as though I’m in Big Brother. And I was brooding over that for the rest of the day.

But then, on the way back home, I was browsing the net on my phone, and I saw something to balance those feelings out. I missed the news of the New York bomb incident, but I did read up on it afterwards — and it sounds as though now footage has been released of a possible suspect on CCTV.

And if that can lead to his capture and questioning — especially if he’s in any way involved — then that more than makes up for being watched going in and out of a shop.

CCTV monitoring systems are all about our safety, at the end of the day.

A 90-year-old woman has upstaged Tiger Woods and made a 181yd hole-in-one shot — an amazing feat for anyone, letalone a pensioner who has only played for two years. It sounds like the kind of shot even professional golfers would have to try all day to do.

She said she felt amazed and stunned to have achieved the feat. The club even gaver her a trophy in celebration of her success.

The owner of the club said she was a natural at the sport — which, I suppose, is to be expected when you can hit in shots like that in just your second year of play.

According to news reports, he said: “It’s very rare to get a hole in one. Mary is a real natural with excellent hand and eye co-ordination. She loves golf and plays in all weathers.

It’s a wonderful story really. And it’s made all the more powerful to me because my friend has just given a presentation on age and ageism: age is just a number, was the general gist of it; and this proves that you can still pull off some miraculous feats even when you’re 90.