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PB Week: Football, holiday and an earthquake

The climax to the Premiership proved a nail-biting affair for many. As an Everton fan (who comes from Twickenham - you don't choose them, they choose you), I managed to attend the Newcastle game at an extremely warm Goodison Park, writes Andrew Tjaardstra, editor of Professional Broking .

After somehow managing to obtain a pre-match beverage through a scrum of Geordies, I enjoyed a first half where Everton could have been three up by half time. After a quick comeback by Keegan’s men Everton went on to win the game at a canter leaving the players to lap up the plaudits in the end of season lap of honour (what happens when you try and do this away from home?).

So UEFA Cup football is secured once again for the blues (to the chagrin of Jonathan Swift, editor of Post and Aston Villa fan) who were so unlucky this time around against Fiorentina, who subsequently were beaten by Rangers, who lost to Zenit St Petersburg last night at the City of Manchester Stadium. Unfortunately one of the big screens in the City broke down leaving a small minority of supporters to go at the rampage vexing their frustration - there could be a few loss assessors carrying out work there as we speak.

China earthquake

I have had three days off this week and, in addition, to carrying all those tasks you never quite have time to do, when you are at work, and a few beers in the sunshine, I flicked onto Sky News and BBC News 24. The earthquake in China dominated the headlines and I bumped into a neighbour who had recently returned from the country days before it struck.

She talked about the 1976 earthquake in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing when an 8.3 magnitude quake killed over 200,000 people and said the only positive coming from the most recent natural disaster was that the epicentre was in a relatively sparsely populated area. She added that it was now the 'rainy season' which was hampering the rescue effort. Thankfully it appears there has been no damage to the Three Gorges dam - one of China's controversial solutions to its growing carbon footprint - and a dam I have had the privilege of travelling along.

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