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Liverpool: what players to sell before buying?

7 August 2020 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

Livepool FC is the Premier League champions.

This is a great opportunity for the team to further strengthen itself by investing in top players who can immediately start contributing to the first team.

At the same time, it is also an opportunity to question whether some of the young players but who are now 20+ really have a future in the team?

I am thinking of players such as Loris Karius, Marko Grujic, Nathaniel Phillips, Harry Wilson, Sheyi Ojo, Taiwo Awoniyi, Ovie Ejaria, Joe Hardy, Herbie Kane, Caoimhin Kelleher, Kamil Grabara, Tony Gallacher, Liam Millar, Anderson Arroyo, Ben Woodburn, Adam Lewis and Liam Coyle.

Sure, some can aspire to become a Liverpool first team player one day but I do have some concerns for some others. Klopp will have to decide.

I understand from what I have read online that Liverpool needs to sell before buying. We’ll see.

Up to now, Liverpool has confirmed that the following players have left or are going to leave soon: Andy Lonergan, Daniel Atherton, Shamal George, Kai McKenzie-Lyle, Nathaniel Clyne, Abel, Rodrigues, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Isaac Christie-Davies and Pedro Chirivella.

Who knows who will join the club this year?

Rest in peace Captain Dick Twomey

9 July 2020 By Avinash Meetoo 2 Comments

Early this morning, one of my heroes passed away.

Thirty years ago, during a job interview at Air Mauritius, Captain Dick Towmey, who was the Director of Flight Operations, told me that it was better for me to be an engineer first, then become a pilot. I had just obtained a French scholarship to learn engineering and he told me that this opportunity was not to be missed. I could apply after my studies if I still wanted to fly. Of course, this didn’t happen and I am a Computing Engineer today (my official title is Ingénieur en Informatique) but I’m grateful for his advice.

Two years ago, I met Captain Dick Towmey for the first time since my interview. He came to meet the Minister of Technology to share with him some of the innovative projects he was involved in in Mauritius. It took me a few minutes to realise who he was. As soon as I did, I told him about what happened thirty years ago! Of course, he had forgotten all about it but we soon became good friends.

I met him again a number of times at the Ministry. He told me about the Aeronautical Society of Mauritius. Since then, I’ve been involved in some activities organised by the association, including one on 21 February 2019 when the High Commissioner of Australia, Her Excellency Jenny Dee, made a presentation on the history of aeronautics in Australia. The above photo of Dick, Jenny and me was taken just after the presentation and, as you can see, the RGB projector was still switched on…

I am glad to have been able to introduce Christina, Anya and Kyan to him too.

He was a really really nice guy.

And, you won’t believe it, (one of) his vision(s) was for Mauritius to have a spaceport.

We’ll see if this becomes true one day.

The Canon EOS R6, successor of the Canon EOS 6D

9 July 2020 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

A few years ago, I purchased a second-hand Canon EOS 6D from a friend and, since then, I have managed to capture wonderful shots of my family, Mauritius & Rodrigues as well as other countries we spent vacation in (such as India, Greece, Turkey and South Africa). All our photos are on Flickr.

Over the years, I’ve found out that the Canon EOS 6D is a dream camera for people like me: photographers instead of being a videographer and looking for the best possible picture quality, especially at night. The sensor of the 6D is still a marvel of engineering despite being it being 8 years old (the camera was announced in November 2012). Of course, since then, Canon has released cameras with better sensors (as well as Nikon, Sony, Fuji and others) but, for my needs, the 6D is still fine.

Until today.

Later this evening, Canon will officially announce the EOS R6, a full-frame mirrorless camera, which is understood to be the spiritual successor of the Canon EOS 6D I have (and the 6D Mark II which was released later but, in some ways, is not as good as its predecessor). In parallel, Canon will also announce the EOS R5, successor of the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.

When my Canon EOS 6D will die one day, I will replace it with a Canon EOS R6 (and keep all my lenses).