Paddington at the Palace
More than 1,000 bears were donated to Barnardo’s children charity by Queen Consort Camilla.
In the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth’s death the entrance to Buckingham Palace was flooded not only with flowers, but with loads of Paddington Bear toys in tribute to the late monarch. More than 1,000 of these Paddington Bear toys have been collected by the Queen Consort and were donated to Barnardo’s children charity. Barnardo’s is a charity for disadvantaged and vulnerable children founded by Thomas Barnardo in 1866.
On 21 November the charity held its annual “Young Supporters Concert” at the Royal Albert Hall, and during our latest trip to London we were able to grab the opportunity to visit this concert and listen to hundreds of young people singing along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (below).
There are two links between the monarch and the “bear from darkest Peru”: back in 1986, children’s author Michael Bond wrote the book ‘Paddington at the Palace’ when Paddington visits Buckingham Palace, but doesn’t get to meet the Queen. And in June 2022, during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Paddington at last was allowed to meet the 96 years old monarch. He made a cameo appearance in the official Jubilee celebration, where the bear and the Queen had tea together and found a shared love for marmalade sandwiches in a short film.
➡️ Article: Time Out London (with pictures from Buckingham Palace)
No IndyRef2 in Scotland
Supreme Court rules the First Minister’s draft Referendum Bill would go beyond powers devolved to Holyrood
Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to stage her own independence referendum next year has been killed off after the UK’s highest court ruled she did not have the legal power.
The Supreme Court said the First Minister’s draft Referendum Bill would go beyond the powers devolved to Holyrood as the Union and the sovereignty of the UK Parliament are matters reserved to Westminster.
Winning Start For England
A 6-2 victory over Iran was a perfect start into the World Cup for England! Declan Rice played as a holding midfielder. Come on you Three Lions! 🏴 I’m backing England all the way!! 
Winner Enner Valencia…
Loser Football
Former West Ham star Enner Valencia scored twice in Ecuador’s win over Qatar to give his side the win in the opening game of the controversial World Cup in the emirate which has been squeezed into the season in winter without proper time for resting the players and preparing them for the tournament.
I watched the first half of the game only by chance because we were having a late lunch (or early dinner) in a restaurant which showed the opening ceremony and the match on TV.
I would love England 🏴 to win, but otherwise l‘ll try to boycott the World Cup as much as I can… I have been a “club over country” guy for many, many years now.
This is an excellent article regarding the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar:
Happy Birthday!
A new photograph has been released to mark the birthday of the King, who turns 74 today.
The image shows the King leaning against an ancient oak tree in Windsor.
The King spent his birthday privately, with no official engagements planned.
Gun salutes were fired across London, with the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery firing 41 rounds from Green Park.
An hour later, the Honourable Artillery Company fired a 62-gun salute from the Tower of London.
Third home defeat in six days
West Ham 0 Leicester 2
Hammers go into the World Cup break a point above relegation.
“There’s a break now, but it’s massively important that we stay positive. We will turn this around. At the moment it’s a little dip. It happens in football, not every team is unbelievable week in, week out.
“We take it on the chin, we need to go again and be back ready for Boxing Day.”
Match report ➡️ WHUFC
Another disappointing result
➡️ Kirk Blows column: Black week for Hammers (WHTID)
Rapid 1 LASK 0
➡️ https://youtu.be/JPIUkBxsG_k
Matchberichte: ➡️ KURIER (euphorisch!)
➡️ Der Standard (verhalten)
First home defeat since August
West Ham 1 Crystal Palace 2
-> www.whufc.com/news/hammers-beaten-late-palace-strike
For the second time in his career against Crystal Palace, Antonio made a terrible decision in the last minute of the game that proved very costly. Several years ago at Selhurst he gave the ball away when just waiting in the corner might have given us the win. Instead Zaha scored a later equalizer. Today he made a terrible pass with half the team in the box, and Palace were on the counter. After tons of just misses from Eze, Zaha, and Olise all day, the final one found the back of the net.
But a fall from grace can get much worse:
West Ham best, Austria worst team of ECL
Six wins out of their six group games – this was West Ham‘s massive Europa Conference League record. The Hammers were the first club to do this in the Conference League, Europe’s third cup competition which was started last season.
Much contrary to West Ham’s record is the one of Austria Wien, the only Austrian club who qualified for this European competition: 6 games, no win, only two points. FC Vaduz, the team that eliminated Rapid Wien, and three other clubs have also got only two draws from the group stage (Shamrock Rovers from Dublin, FS Riga and Steaua Bucharest), but Austria’s goal difference of 2:15 makes the Violets the worst of the 32 teams that qualified for the ECL group stage.
What Austria Vienna gained from their European adventure is an entry fee of EUR 2.94 mio for reaching the group stage, plus twice EUR 166,000 for the home draws against Be’er Sheva (0:0) and Posen (1:1).
Next Monday the draw for the play-offs between the runners-up of the ECL groups and the third ranked teams of the Europa League will be made. One of the winners of these games will play West Ham on the 9th and 16th of March in the round of the best sixteen teams.
Three games ahead
It’s only a week before the English domestic season pauses until Boxing Day for the FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar. Having secured top spot and progression to the UEFA Europa Conference League round of 16, now a top half placing in the Premier League and a Carabao Cup fourth round berth are up for grabs over the next three games within the seven days.
In this final week before the break, West Ham play three times in front of their home crowd at the London Stadium. The Hammers host Crystal Palace on Sunday, Blackburn Rovers in the League Cup on Wednesday and conclude this week with Leicester at home on Saturday.
The World Cup will start on 20 November with Qatar vs Ecuador. England will play Iran in their first game of group B on the 21st.
EXTRA TIME 
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