Stefan Warburton...Bakers Born and Bread

Camping it up.

2008-08-04T12:20:00.003+01:00

Leamington FC faced a pre-season friendly against Wimbourne, and if you didnt know, thats located near the south coast. Pete, Vince and I had plans to stay in Bournemouth, in a nice swanky hotel, however due to the prices of 110 quid per night, we decided to B&B/pub it, but once again, due to the cost and also the fact we didnt get a reply, we decided to camp it instead.

Now, I've not been camping since I was 16, when I tagged along with Ian and his Dad in the lakes, and due to the fact that I'm now 33, and enjoy the finer things in life, not really had the need to do it since. I was a little excited, like a small child doing something for the first time, and also slightly worried. Why worried you may ask? Well, petal, sit down and I'll tell you. Go on.

Whenever I socialise with Vince and Pete, it always gets out of control, to the point where no (or little food) is involved, and alcohol takes priority. I was also worried that Vince, a married man, with 3 kids, decided to buy a midlife crisis car, you know the type, the roof comes off, with very little room. He also decided to be fancy dan, by purchasing a family tent that sleeps 4 - 2 seperate rooms and a "lounge" area in the middle. Well, Vince is a slim man, and I'd like to think I am too, and no offence to Pete, but he does look like Peter Griffin from Family Guy, both in facial and density. Of course, by the time they get to my place, theres very little room left (due to the style of the car, the family tent and all of their ruck sacks, leaving me wedged in the back of said car, with my own gear. Before we even got out of my street, calls for the roof down were heard - insert Stefan's not so short hair being blown in all random directions of the compass.

We already knew that there would be traffic difficulties around Southampton, around 90 minutes worth, so we decided to take the backroads route (via spending 16 quid on pies, sandwiches and sausage rolls at Warwick Services) which took 2 hours - so sensible - but at least it give Pete the chance to pick up some indestructable wine glasses in a small town in the New Forest (no idea what happened to the old one). Why wine glasses ? Well Pete's boss bought him a bottle of champers for passing his Level 2, and Pete thought it would be nice to share. I also took some Morgan Spiced Rum (with Cherry Coke) incase there wasnt a pub around for miles.

Anyhoooo, we got to the campsite (4.5 Hours later) and started to unpack the boot. It was a lovely afternoon with the sun shining, and it had been decided that this would be the priority, rather than getting lashed up, and trying to errect a tent at 00:23 in the morning. The label on the front of the tent bag stated "Build time: 25 mins". 45 minutes later, we were the proud owners of a stable tent, and the airbeds being blown up via some hairdryer device that plugged into Vince's car. It had been decided that Vince and I would take the two bedrooms, and Peter (not the Family Guy character) would take the "lounge" area that wasnt really pegged in, but the tent door kept it all together.

We got ourselves freshened up at the shower block, and cracked open the champers, which due to Vince and I being on anti-biotics, went straight to our heads. We went to the campsite bar and ordered 3 home made cocktails, this of course took us further to the edge, and we asked for directions into town. It was only 1.2 miles into Wimborne town itself, but we had directions from about 3 different people, so in the end, we avoided them all and made our own route in. We found a nice looking pub, ordered some food and more drink. The food turned up and it was nice, but not the type of food you really need to line your stomach before (and after) booze.

We managed to find a couple more pubs before the town centre, one of which was like the American Werewolf, where locals just stared at us, Vince not making it any easier, by giving a "HELLO LOCALS, WE'RE NOT FROM HERE, CAN YOU TELL" type of wave to them all gathered around the pool table. We managed to get into town around 10:40 and found this neat little pub. It was simple and the type of pub I like - in fact, it was the size of the tent we were sleeping in that night, but friendly people in there. However due to the "we're not busy, so we're shutting up now" attitude, we ended up in the only bar open in town. After J&D coke all around, we managed to get some space near the "dance" floor, where some young woman decided that you can bounce to any type of music, no matter what it was. So after a bit of Nirvana, some popular beat combos and Elvis, we'd seen her one card trick, and could barely stand up due to laughing at her. Before we left, we witnessed a punch up on the dance floor, only to be stopped by a door-woman, only for the guy who was throwing the punches, to throw more punches before he eventually got thrown out for good - nice.

Things from here on are a little hazy, but I remember trying to get the speed sign to register that I was running faster than 30mph - didnt work, I dont think. Claiming that I was "The Bat Man" running up a dark street, filming the "blair witch project" type movie in the middle of the woods, giggling back at the tent while drinking rum and coke and hearing a field full of people snore.

I woke up at 6am to rain dripping on my face. We buggered off into Bournemouth to get some breakfast, and paid £3.75 for a full English breakfast - it was lovely. We drove back to Wimbourne to the club, via meeting up with the minibus party, to watch the game. It wasnt very good, but hey.

Would I go camping again ? deffo! Reckon I'd take my own tent tho.

Achievements

2008-07-27T23:12:00.002+01:00

Yes yes yes, its been a while since I've blogged, but not really had the need to blog for some reason. Life, has improved, in a number of different areas, and this blog was written to get things off my chest - which is nice, you'll have to agree.

Around about 6 years ago, I decided to start playing football, 6aside, nothing fancy dan, just knock around, bit of banter. I admit I was overweight and it was a good way to get a little healthier, but one thing that stood out, was that I was always the slowest person on the pitch and I hated that. I sent myself a goal to get fitter, get faster - and I'd like to think that I've done that. I never confessed to be the best player in the world - and I'd also like to think that I'm also not the worst either - giving the addional "power" of speed gives you additional chances on the pitch too.

Anyhoo, from the 6aside football, came football management, and football coaching. I admit that I went into it a little blinkered, and not knowing one thing about coaching the sport. The club that I'm involved in, enrolled me on the FA Level 1 - and that was er "good". They teach you nice things like, "don't swear at kids", "don't allow kids to eat glass" etc etc. Yeah, they give you some basic drills (of which, you have to demonstrate one - and as long as you don't feed glass to kids, you're more or less passed).

I like improving myself, and I love the challenge of learning more, and bettering myself - so asked the club if they'd put me on the Level 2 course. This is a 6 month course, you spend a week doing the theory and demonstrations, then you're expected to go away and document 12 sessions, come back and demonstrate a final topic, of which you're assessed. I done the first week in feb, and luckily we had decent weather - but it is physically draining - we're talking about losing around about a stone in a week here.

Anyhoo, Saturday was assessment day - it was hot, VERY hot! Luckily, the nice chap from the FA passed me, saying if I wanted to do my Level 3 - I should wait around 12 months before giving it ago. This is fair enough really, I'm heading into my 3rd year of management, and jumped from a Level 0 coach to a Level 2 - taking to Level 3 is a massive gap anyhow.

I've enjoyed it, its been alot of hard work, and the people who've supported me over the 6 months, you know you can trust them.

Baby and the Dark side

2007-11-22T13:09:00.000Z

Whoops! With being busy with one thing and another, I've not really had the chance to blog like I used too. Guess its a sign of getting old, or perhaps, just work getting in the way, who cares, as long as I'm back.

First things first, 31st October, my sister had her first baby. Her name is Niamh (pronounced Neve) and she's nice and healthy. I've just returned from Newcastle for a bit of a break, mainly because I didnt want to miss out on the cute thing growing too quickly. Puts a few things into perspective, but it was great to see the family and the new addition. I spent the full day Tuesday with my sister, and probably the most we've spent together since we were with kids (with her getting married and me moving away) and I think she appreciated the company during the day.

I was torn between getting a PS3 (mainly because I have a PS2 and a PSP) and an xbox 360. I've never really been convinced about the xbox (xbox 360) - mainly because it stands for everything I hate - well Microsoft in gaming. But after some discussions with John, the nice bloke at Game and a few other people, I decided to go with it. I'd traded in all my old games, those games that I bought years ago, played a couple of times and thats it, and managed to get £120 in gaming vouchers. I came back home, plugged it altogether, managed to cable it up to my router and play a couple of games. I was a bit disappointed at buying the xbox 360 elite, to find out it didnt come with a wireless adapter. Extra cash that you don't really think you're folking out for.

I did have a 28" CRT wide screen TV and after a bit of humm'ing and harr'ing, I decided to search the T'interweb for HDTVs. Managed to pick up a nice 32" HDTV made by Sony for just over 600 quid, and that turned up 3 days later. Plugged everything in, and was gobsmacked at the difference.

Football wise, the kids have actually won a game this season, against a team who you can tell are half decent, but are struggling like we did last season. Leamington FC are doing well in the Trophy, thanks to a Tuesday night trip down to Margate for a replay. Around 50 Leam fans travelled, and I was lucky enough to get 1/2 day off to go too. We sang for 90 minutes solid, and completely put their home fans to shame. This weekend, a nice trip to London village in the next round, having to play a team 2 divisions higher than what we are. You could say, this will probably be our cup final.

Stefan on Football

2007-08-21T11:50:00.000+01:00

I eventually got my NUFC shares - I bought them for something like 22p around 7 years ago, and now had them bought out at 101p - not alot you might think, but, return on investment is pretty good - oh and it gets Fat Freddie out of the board room and stops him embarressing the club anymore. Overall, I'm pretty confident with NUFC at the moment, good manager, decent buys (although I was panicking up to end of July) and a board who are willing to stick to their guns. We completely destroyed Bolton at their place, and we should have done better against the Villa - but having played 2 games and still undefeated - pretty good going and its been along time since I could have said that.

Leam FC have just started their new season in a new League. Unfortunately, things didnt go to plan on Saturday when, after 30 seconds, the opposition keeper got sent off for bringing down Josh Blake (I'll get you butler!) outside the area. Leighton decided to play 10 men behind the ball, and do anything they could to even it up by trying to get someone from our team sent off - this didnt happen, but they did manage to gain a pen, by a very dodgy decision by the whistle happy referee. The ref was blowing every 30 seconds, thanks to the screaming opposition whenever one of our players even went near him. I suppose, rose tinted glasses, but a better game is expected tonight. We managed to sell 100 fanzines too, which is a good start, considering the attendance was something like 500.

I take my kids team into the U12 age group - and some of them are coming on leaps and bounds - some are showing potential, but yet, still suffering from a drought of players who a) can actually play football and b) want to join Leamington Brakes. A local rival club have managed to put another team into the same league as us, yet, we're still struggling to put teams together - strange. Alot of research has gone on in terms of finding drills that suit our needs and we're looking more professional in terms of turning up prepared and disciplining the team. Onwards and upwards - we can only do what we can with the tools we have.

Stefan on Friends

2007-08-21T11:41:00.000+01:00

Facebook - probably the devil's child - but its addictive, its funny and gets you in touch with so many different people. Not only has it got in touch with 4 friends that I used to hang around in Leeds with (before the times of Mobile phones etc etc) - of which had a thing for 2 of them, but its also got me back in touch with 6 friends from School.

I have to admit, I had to remove someone the other day, because they kept inviting me to many an application, such as; Vampires, Zombies, Vampire v Zombies, Ninjas, Vampire Ninja Zombies v Pirates, Pirates that used to be Ninjas, but now Zombies v Vampire Strippers, etc etc. it got to the point where I was being invited to 20 a day. So for a simple life, I deleted him - oh well, not really a shock there, is there?

Anyhoo, I've decided to stop giving advice to friends, mainly because, 9 times out of 10, they'll avoid it - because they just don't want to know, or so stuck in their ways, that they've got so many problems, they dont want to fix the problems. I decided that the easy way is to not add to the problems, stay quiet & keep out the way. Harsh though it may seem, but I've tried - in so many different ways.

Stefan on Women (or not on Women, if you get my drift)

2007-08-21T11:31:00.000+01:00

Strange tho it mean seem.... Na, only joking. There has been this lass that I've liked for many years, well, OK, 5 years. She is completely different to those that I normally go for, she smokes, yeah, big wow, she's funny as hell, she's caring, well, OK, she's funny as hell.

I guess you can put it down to flirting, when we've been out and bumped into one another, but thats as far as it ever got. Anyhoo, the story starts when John is away at glasto, and I was given the challenge to entertain Debbie for the weekend (more like a prison sentance). Four hours into our beer session, I had a text from said lass, asking where I was etc, and how she was elsewhere and bored. I suggested that we were in town, but probably not for very much longer, as we were starting to feel the effects. After more text messages, I'd agreed to meet her in town, and go back with Debbie and watch big brother. Was nice and chilled, Debbie said she seemed a very nice lass, and it was great.

I asked what she wanted to do, and she agreed to stay at my place - what was even more fantastic is that we snogged. Was really nice (probably down to alcohol consumed on both sides) and asked what she wanted to do, sofa, bed, what ?! We ended up in bed, probably had a little too much fun, but seems nice & natural.

I took her home the next morning, got a kiss... then .... radio silence. I text'd her when I returned from my holidays asking if she wanted to go for a coffee/tea/beverage - then got a text 3 hours later saying she was at family do. I invited her out to the cinema - still not recieved a text back, nor MSN, nor phone call. I bumped into her in the pub, and it was like she was making an effort to avoid me - meh

So, what do you do ? You really like someone, they're not interested - so decided - screw it - staying well away from women now. Chances are that she dislikes me anyhow - oh for that time machine. Mind you, if I had a time machine, I would know exactly what time/date I would visit.

Stefan on Holidays

2007-08-21T11:17:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know its been a long while since I blogged - deal with it. I went on holiday with good friends John, Debbie, Tom and Abbie for a couple of weeks (Tom and Abbie only stayed for the one week) to Fuertaventura. Debbie and Abbie had invested alot of time of working out where was decent, feeding all our requirements into that massive world wide interweb thingy and out popped a couple of Villas. Flight times were decent too, leaving in the afternoon, getting back late evening - so you know - sun, beer, women, laughs and a jolly good time was had by all.

The first week, I mostly spent lazying around with my newly promoted "Beach Buddy" - namely Debbie. There was a nice little beach in town, surrounded by little cafe type places, which no one really used. So we spent a couple of hours sunbathing, then a couple of hours eating, then a couple of hours sunbathing, then to cap the afternoon off, wandered back, via the supermarkets and the English pub that I found which was showing Sky Sports News all day. John and Tom decided that Kite Surfing was for them, and spend many a full day down the beach learning to do this - coming back with stiff arms, bruises and many a pain.

The Villa came equiped with a BBQ - so most of the time we decided to drink beer, eat BBQ'd food and have a laugh. John done a fantastic job as Chef and didnt kill any of us with semi frozen meat. We were invited out to Tom and John's Xtreme Sport meal type thing on Friday Night. This involved all the Xtreme people doing surfing, kite surfing, etc etc ending up in a traditional restaurant, eating vast amounts of food, getting boozed up, then moving onto pubs and clubs in town. This was 16 Euros (or Bells, as it was renamed to during the week) for all the food and booze (including a bottle of white wine to myself) you could intake during the restaurant. Many people asked what Debbie and I were up too, as they hadnt seen us at any of the Xtreme days. I think we scared them by mentioning, "dish washing", "watching Sky Sports News", "sunbathing" and "Oh, Steve, does Ironing count as Xtreme?"

The 2nd week turned into more of a Extreme sport session for Debbie and I, with us trying Body Boarding (Debbie tried surfing once while I continued to perfect my level 1 Body Boarding badge [ might not exist ]). This was fantastic and if I knew how good it was, I would have spent the first week doing it too. Body Boarding was mainly fantastic, because of the fantastic looking Swiss girls who were also on the course. At one point, I managed to catch a fantastic wave, and somehow, end on top of her, while she was on her board. Part of me grinning, part of me blushing, I kind of apologised but she grinned and was probably thankful for a bit of "in the sea excitement"

Anyhoo, it was a fantastic place, we were out of the town by about a 15 minute walk, so it wasnt noisy, wasnt too busy and also give you the chance to walk some of the booze off before bed (until we worked out it was 2 Euroes / Bells for a taxi from town to the villa - nice)

Tom's catchphrase, "Strange tho it may seem" continued even when he left - much to the amusement of us all. John's first 10 minute joke of the Fun Flight turned into 2 weeks of the Venga Boys - and 2 weeks of us trying to work out which song he was singing (and 2 days of Debbie trying to download).

Friends : Past, Present, Future?

2007-06-08T09:14:00.000+01:00

I was up early this morning, mainly because I have a very good friend staying for the weekend, and still have a lot to tidy up. Pippa is one of my dearest friends, yet, she still scares the living crap out of me, not in a bad way, probably in a "keep you on your toes" way. Anyhoo, I'm finishing early today, to keep her out of Leam trouble, so started early - like way to early.

When I logged in to work, I received an email from my work email address from a facebook friends request. I tried everything I could to move the request from that email address to my correct facebook profile - without any success. So had to create another ID - only to find out it was a friend from Leeds when I lived there on my sandwich year. Her name is Julia, she was, how can I put it, stunningly stunning, and someone I completely bounced off and felt at home with. Don't know what it was, she was just *LUSH* and perfect - of course, 8 years on, people moving around, people moving jobs - we all lost touch with one another.

Not taking anything away from friends from Newcastle or friends at the moment - because I love them all dearly - Julia was special - very special some would say - but just didnt happen, turns out, she has a 18 month old baby and living in sin. Julia invited me to a wedding this weekend, her sister Weezie (it was a kind of a strange naming convention - Louise was Weezie, I ended up being Weephen) and old friend Russ (from what I recall Wuss was his name). Any other weekend and I would have been up there like a shot.

Anyhow, without being too corny - friends - what fantastic people they are.

Hmm, one of them weeks

2007-06-05T09:54:00.000+01:00

I knew that when Monday came, it was going to be a manic week, but tried to take it on as any other week, just slowly & taking it steady. I don't know why, but I feel drained - its probably because of someone sawing wood at 23:45 last night, it might be because I've felt meh for the last couple of days.

I've got to hold trials for my new team next season, which you would think its easy enough to stand there shouting directions at kids, there's also a tough side to it too. Its not just about their abilities to play football, its also ensuring that they have the right attitude to play, they have the discipline too. I spent far too long shouting at kids who just didn't want to play football, but were forced there by their parents, and unfortunately, the only people who suffered are those who wanted to play football & win- I want to turn this around. Part of this is for the kids, part of it is for myself, that we're actually doing something good, apart from keeping them off the streets.

Thursday night is worrying me a tad. Its the awards nights for the players from the season just gone, and I have to write a speech, based on achievements and highlights from the season. I know it sounds a bit funny to say, but a 5 minute speech based around the teams achievements is hard enough, but when you've picked up 2 points, conceeded 50 odd goals is going to be even harder. To top it off, Gary McSheffrey (of Brum City and dumping NUFC out of the FA Cup fame) will be attending, making my night even more morky.

I was tidying up my gaff, mainly because I have an old friend staying for the weekend, but came across a photo album that my mother give me for my birthday once. Decided to scan a few in, just for fun, like, and came up with a couple of corkers. There will be more to come, and available on my flickr site, but really got me thinking, should I move back up to Newcastle ? At the moment, not really sure, but its at the back of my mind.

Best toy ever! My own Tardis. Oh, look at my chubby cheeks.

Me, last week

Anyhoooo, As I say, I have a friend staying this weekend, so should be interesting to see what happens. She's a nice lass, although a little insane, but we get on fine enough. I'm a little bit miffed that the scafolding is still kicking around after 3 weeks, and really expected the place to be painted and clear again. I'm hoping that the weather is going to be fantastic at the weekend, for fun, beer, sunbathing, chatting and catching up. Might even get some shopping in during that time too.

All in all, a busy week - and still not seen Pirates OTC 3 - dammit

Face the strange

2007-05-31T23:27:00.000+01:00

Well, plan A went well didnt it. I managed to pluck up the courage to ask her out. Sadly got a reply saying that she's seeing someone and the age gap is too big - oh well, at least I tried, and thats what is important - and people like triers - dont they ?

Getting really into The Klaxons album this week, also downloaded Blondie's Keep me hanging on the telephone - fantastic track - even uploaded it up to my ipod nano ready for running.

Following on from Mr John's post earlier this week, I registered myself onto social networking site, facebook. Its rather addictive, but fun, but not really sure my boss will think its fun sadly. Anyhoo, my profile appears to be here so if you read, and interested at all, add me - perhaps.

Oh what do you do..!

2007-05-28T18:32:00.000+01:00

I admit it, I really really like someone, and have done for a while - just not seen her around. I kind of asked her out (probably 5 months ago or something) and to be brutally honest, I was gutted when I didnt get an explaination. She has this stunning smile, a smile that just makes me grin (I'm grinning just thinking about the smile alone) and to conclude stunning all over.

Anyhoo, with only an email address and no other means of contacting her - do I risk emailing her, asking if she fancies going out? or what ? all very confusing I tell you. With her being stunning, chances are she'll get snapped up by someone else, but I don't want to appear to be overly eager. Oh, this is where the times of the internet and the supergatewayofinformation.co.uk are just bad and wrong ... in olden days, you could bump into each other, have a cup of tea and be watching a movie at the cinema.

I deffo think I need to leave it a day or so, as I don't wish to appear too eager (emailed her lastnight). If someone could come out with a book to answer these questions - they'd make a small fortune - maybe thats what I should do.

Cats & Quiz

2007-05-28T13:20:00.000+01:00

After doing my usual "i'm so bored, but hungover" visit of youtube this morning, skipping past angry Emo's, bits of Lost & Heroes I came across e-kitten.

I'm now pondering going back to bed, thanks to the Robbins Well Quiz finishing at around 23.30, and clowns coming in singing badly on Karaoke. We managed to win the quiz, thanks to some fantastic inside knowledge on music, sport and general knowledge. The prizes ranged from more booze (8 pints worth + bottles of tesco's cheap french lager), water pistols and something else. I appear to have come back with 2 x old fasioned pint glasses, but not really sure how that happened. MMM praise by Mr Bank for being so famous, that we have a day off after him.

Merthyr 6 a-side Compo

2007-05-20T14:30:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, a group of Leamington FC supporters headed down to Merthyr to play in their annual 6 a-side compo. You may remember, that last year, I couldnt play due to breaking my ankle, so this year meant alot to me. Sadly, I've been hit by some kind of chest infection, so spent the last couple of weeks drinking day / night nurse and avoiding alcohol.

The night before was the clubs award night - which meant a late night, and even worse, we had to set off from leamington at 6.30 am to get down Merthyr Football Club for 9.30 for registration. With the alarm kicking off at 5.30 - there was enough time for a shower, pack a few things, then Pete and Vince rang to say they'd arrived at my place. The club had kindly lent us a set of strips from a couple of years ago, and also given us access to a mini bus (and a fuel card) meaning we didnt have to folk out for transport or fuel - making it a cheap day.

We also had a couple of the players lined up to play for us, Adam Knight, and Ben Mackey (of ex Premiership Coventry fame). Sadly Ben ended up in hospital with an eye injury, and Adam was running late - having extended their award night down to the local club, and not getting in til gone 4am. Adam eventually turned up at 11.15 - fair play to the lad for finding the place in the middle of nowhere.

The Squad ...myself and Knighty - seperated at birth.

Our first game was against Peacocks Distribution Centre which we played without Mr Knight, and managing a 0-0 draw, considering only 3 of us play football on a regular basis, we dont pretty well, with myself playing up front as a lone striker / holding the ball up for support. Pete and Vince played in defence and managed to stop anyone getting pretty close to taking a shot and protecting JJ who ended up in goal of all places. The compo meant that the two 2 from the two divisions went thru to the semi finals - and we had to get points on the board. The 2nd game was against Gloucester City and we managed to score two goals (well Knighty did) showing what a player can really do - however we also conceded goals straight after scoring - taking the final score to 2-2. We needed to win the last game to get any chance of progressing to the semi-finals. We did that by beating MTFSTC 1-0 in the final group game - myself having about 5 or 6 shots saved by the keeper alone, however, Knighty was there to save our blushes by scoring.

We played the Strikers Bar Team in the semi finals, who were near enough favs to win the compo, and with the score 0-0 after 15 minutes, it went to extra time with golden goal. They kept coming at us, however once again, a one-two with myself, Knighty fired a fast high ball that any keeper would have struggled to keep out. The opposition team were mortified that we had beaten them, so much so, their keeper was in tears on the floor for 5 minutes.

Here it was, Leamington FC Fans getting into the final - and a chance to take the cup out of Wales for the first time. We kept the team shape the same, we kept the same players on, starting with most of the strongest people on the pitch. This time, it was 10 minutes each way, going straight into pens if it was a draw. We were up against Newport County, the winners of the cup last season and we had enough chances, as did they, but disaster hit 2 minutes from full time, when they scored. We had a couple of chances once again, but they were saved and sadly Leamington FC Fans came back empty handed but doing themselves proud once again.

After a shower, we headed to Merthyr's ground, had some food, had some beer, watched the FA Cup Final then headed back up the country to Leamingtonshire. Another bonus, was Knighty leaving us all his champers that he had won in Friday Night's raffle - so we cunningly sank all of that before we even got back to the English Border. A fantastic day, or should I say Ace day - hopefully we'll go one further next season. We all got back to Leamington, noticing that although it wasnt a partcularly sunny day, that everyone was sunburnt.

Sign in Merthyr : Stop - Hammer Time!

Small ball of fluff in canal ? or animal ?

2007-05-18T14:34:00.000+01:00

I popped into town at lunch today, only to find a moorhen on my patio. Rather than flying away, it came towards me, made a funny moorhen-like-noise. When I walked towards the canal, I saw the little baby moorhen all nice and cute and swimming in the canal, against galeforce winds.

aww cute ... just a ball of fluff in manky water.

Is it a turkey? is it a duck?

2007-05-15T12:54:00.000+01:00

I woke up a little hungry this morning, the first time for a while, so popped over to local & friendly somerfield to get some things for breakfast and lunch. I decided turkey steaks were probably the best way to go, so made a fine purchase, along with some brownbread. At midday, powered my lean-mean-fat-destroying-grilling-george-formby-grill up, placed on a slice of turkey, and went away my merry way with work.

I checked it a while later, and with horror, found that it had turned into some form of ducks head.

Scary, really.

Wembley Visit

2007-05-14T14:16:00.000+01:00

Leamington FC got kicked out of the FA Vase a couple of months ago thanks to Curzon doing their home work on our tactics, subsquently, Curzon got kicked out the next round and never made it to the FA Vase. Some bright spark suggested that a group of us pop down on the train and help support one of the teams at the final. It was an excuse to get to Wembley on the cheap, without a) having to queue up for hours to watch the SugarBabes or b) spend thousands of pounds on black market tickets watching the FA Cup. AFC Totton where playing Truro City at the newly opened ground, and yes, I was excited. Truro were favs to win and their chairman is very amitious with the club's vision. We decided to sit with the Totton fans and support them for the day.

We set off from Leamington Station just after midday - managed to get a special offer on train tickets which worked out to be £11 each, watched the world go by and got off at the Wembley Stadium Station. Magic - as soon as we walked up the stairs you could see the stadium - how perfect is that ?!

After reading it was around 9 quid for burger, chips and a drink - we pottered around Wembley a little to find a quiet pub and a chippy. Turned out, the pub wasnt that quiet, and the chips were starch in hot fat for 3 minutes - but, at least it didnt cost us 9 quid.

We found our entrance, went in, had bags searched, went up 4 flights of stairs, bought programmes for 3 quid - not bad again and went to find out seats. We were sat in the top tier and the stadium looked massive and below us, already a sea of colours were starting to show. The day was a little dull in terms of the weather, but they had the roof open to let in what light was available. Seating was pretty good, I've been to St James Park and you struggle if you have longish legs, but this was actually comfy.

Totton went 1-0 up after half an hour, and were unlucky to go in at half time with the advantage, with Truro pulling one back with a minute to spare. At half time, we popped downstairs to have a gander at the food courts. There was something like 28,000 people there, yet it didnt seem *that* busy, you werent being pushed and pulled around, again like I've seen at St James Park and Villa Park, there wasnt the usual mad rush just before half time to get food in - everyone just went with the flow, like it should be.

The 2nd half saw Truro come out strong, scoring twice in the 2nd half, and Totton trying to walk the ball into the back of the net. The Atmosphere was a little poor, with both sets of fans a little quiet - maybe it was the big venue, maybe it was the weather. Sad to say but, we all wondered, "what if" Leamington had beaten Curzon and got into the final.

Bobby Moore Statue

After the game, we wandered around the stadium a bit, took in the massive Bobby Moore Statue that was just opened last week - and I mean massive. We headed back to the station via an offy and got the train back to Leamington. All a little too easy really. I think in total, including train and ticket - I spent around 30 quid - not bad for a day out and away from the Leamington Goldfish Bowl (tm).

Plague!

2007-05-14T14:11:00.000+01:00

Since the age of 17 and up until last week, I've had 2 days off on the sick - that includes the time when I broke ny ankle last summer. I don't like being ill, in fact I hate it, but I'd rather be busy, than sitting around doing nothing. I had to have 2 days off on the sick lastnight because of this *thing* I have sitting on my chest - not pretty & certainly not clever. I skipped friday night's mini happy friday meal, because I just wasn't up to it - perhaps I'm getting old and sensible.

I need to get rid of it by the weekend as I'm off to Merthyr to play in a fan's football compo and missed it last year because of said broken ankle. Looking really forward to it, although played football once in the last month - going to be tricky.

Brakes just don't stop

2007-05-09T13:21:00.000+01:00

Lastnight, Leamington FC hosted the Lord Mayors charity game against Coventry City. It had been suggested that Cov would only send their youth team, but turns out, they started with 6 1st team players on the pitch - we all expected a thrashing. Before the game, we were allowed to touch the silverware that the Team had won over last couple of weeks and take shots. Thankfully, John had his phone with him, while other lesser mortals left theirs at home. Nice shots I think.

MFA Cup Trophy

MFA League Trophy.

Anyhoo, getting back to the game, we beat the Coventry Sunday League Team 1-0, with a Jephcott goal in the first half. Oh how the Cov massive got angry and punished us by throwing jellybabies and milk bottle sweets at us. Still, a massive crowd attendance of 856 - all in the name of Chaaariteee.

League Cup Final

2007-05-04T12:47:00.000+01:00

Lastnight, Leam FC played in the League Cup final up at the Bescot Stadium against Tipton Town. Remember, we played there last season and lost to Barwell, well this season Captain Cadzy was trying to put to rest the ghosts from 12 months ago. Taking a detour to Brinklow to pick up the lovely Faith, we headed up the M6, talking all things Colts, Football and Brinklow. I think Pete knew I was secretly papping my pants, and I think Pete knew that I knew that he was secretly papping his pants too - so we just talked nonesence for at least 2 hours on the way there.

It was a great atmosphere when we got there - bumping into people we speak to regularly, those once in a while, and also those who turned up for the day. We took our seats, and the usual suspects who moan at anything, moaned at the stewards, then shrewly waved them away "not wanting any trouble". We had the majority of the play in the first half, hitting the wood work a number of times, with Tipton just happy to sit back and hoof it over the top to their "big man"* might actually be diddy. Against the run of play, Tipton scored from an accidental drop from Richard Morris (from what I can remember)

Once again, moaning people decided that if you're 1-0 down at half time, you might as well just pack up and go home for the remaining 45 mins. I think they'll need to learn very quickly that next season is going to be a little harder than this season, and we will lose, but its up to us and the management to pick the team up - not just give it up.

Anyhooo ... the Brakes came back, fought for the ball, hit the woodwork even more times - so much so, it looked like a Crossbar Challenge from Soccer AM. The fans were getting louder and louder as time went on ... 88 mins arrived and we managed to get an equaliser - the crowd went mental - seriously mental. This took us into extra time, with the opposition players who previously having "cramp" (*might have been trying to time waste) deciding there wasnt really time for it anymore. Leamington FC came back stronger, and you can tell that after the season we had, we were going to win it, or at least take it as close as we could. Every Brakes player was getting to the ball quicker, passing it around, moving faster, and Tipton looked like they were running out of energy. Andy Gregory (the chap who fixed my front door) picked the ball up from midfield, looked up, hit the damn thing, only to see it hit the back of the net - 2-1 in the first period of extra time.

We had ample opportunities to take the game out of Tipton's reach, by once again, hitting the bar and the post - time and time again. The final final (final) whistle went, Leamington FC were crowned League Cup final winners, 12 months after a terrible display against Barwell.

Highlights of the night were;

the "stand up, if you're 2-1 up" and 800 Leamington Fans standing up, clapping, making even more noise.
the Sack Cadzy Banner - Ironic statements from fans that can be found in the Courier

Managed to shake hands with Morts, the captain for the night - what a fantastic experience.

Best Day - Ever

2007-04-30T15:26:00.000+01:00

Leamington FC hosted a day of football, based on past and future. This consisted of the kids doing an exhibition style game, with Brakes Legends v Chairman Select 11. We were up first and playing the other U11 team, now, Tub's team (manager of U11) are midtable division B, and my team are rock bottom of division C, 15 minutes each way, and it was all about the kids having a laugh, and showing what the Youth club is all about.

Both teams were given the dugouts at the New Windmill Ground, where the kids were able to play on the perfect carpet pitch in a 6aside pitch setup. After 2 minutes, my team went 1-0 up with one of the lads first goals of the season, and we held on, much to Tub's annoyance. Half time came and went, and we had a number of chances up front, and holding strong at the back. However, typical Colts Styleee, we conceeded a goal in the very last minute of the game - making it 1-1 - however probably good for the team, club and crowd to see an entertaining game.

After the game, I was told to go see the youth chairman at half time about getting a couple of minutes on the pitch as part of the chairman select team - fair enough. Nice to be rewarded for working with the kids all season. After 5 minutes of talking to some of the lads, my name was called out on the PA system and told to go to the players tunnel. Half expecting a rollocking for nearly beating Tub's team, I was told to go into a door way. There was the chairman of the youth squad, handing me a kit (all white - handy with my complexion) and sitting on the chair was Tubs. He pulled on this goalkeeping top, looking so giddy - you know the look, like all your dreams have come at once, you've got your first train set, or something special, just add about 30 years and add the same amount of excitement. Tubs was holding onto my arm, more or less dancing saying "Steve, we're going to play, isn't this great ?!?!?"

Photo : Paul Edwards - Me in Number 17 - Looking Excited.

Anyhoo, I sat on the bench for the remaining of the first half, listening to the lads, and hoping the weather would warm up a little. The whistle went and chairman select were 3-0 up, we went back to the changing rooms and had a couple of orders (me replacing the manager of the academy side) but mainly listening to a couple of the legends, about tales from old - fantastic - this is like every boys dream - coming true. The lad who was playing in my position in the first half, warned me about some old legend nutmegging him and generally making him look like a fool - oh fantastic I thought.

Thankfully by the time I got on the pitch, they'd swapped it around too, marking the U9's manager, Mr Ackrill, so we had a laugh, and I generally had him in my pocket for the time I stayed on the pitch. Thanks to Pete and JJ (my coaches) they had collected all the kids from my team, and decided to give me loads of abuse, and the kids shouting the same things that we shout to them when they're playing. Luckily they got bored of that quickly and went to play football. I did manage to get a bit of a clap & cheer when I back heeled the ball to a player behind me while someone was closing me down, and managed to cross a ball into the box. After 25 minutes of running around like a headless chicken, I decided to give it up for a bit and sit back on the bench.

The final score was 4-4 - so there was a bit of Pen action. I don't think it was being counted, but I took mine, managing to some how, slide it under the keeper and squeezing it into the back of the net. What a fantastic day tho, completely honoured to be involved in the game, honoured to represent the kids as a manager, and they done themselves more than proud.

Day 2 - Denmark

2007-04-18T12:40:00.000+01:00

Before I get onto the main story of the day, lets talk about Denmark a little and how they actually work. Due to the fact that I'm working on a massive account, with some problems, they have what is called a WAR room - where all the coordinators and subject matter experts (that's me) sit, so if there are any questions, they can ask, without moving more or less. The culture in Denmark is, start early, finish early - which is fair play to them really - however, this did mean, getting up at a god unearthly hour (5.30 UK time) to get showered, ready and get breakfast.

Some of you may know, I'm not the best at getting up early, and I do like my sleep, so this kind of knackered me up slightly. Anyhoo, I slightly go on a tangent, we get to this WAR room, where they've already got jugs of tea, coffee, milk, water, everything you could ask for - so by the 10am - I'm a little full. A great thing about Denmark, lunch is from 11am til 1pm - so by 10am UK time - I was having my second meal of the day - crazy. This WAR room also have salads, sweets, cakes everything - damn the Danish Pastry. Anyhoo, by 3.30pm Danish time, we were finished - and it felt good, but strange.

Anyhoo, to the story. I missed the Brakes game last night against Market Drayton - my 2nd missed game of all season - all comps - not bad hey ?! Leamington FC lost 2-1 to the Drayton - bad, but apart from a semi cup final, the season is more or less over. One of the chaps at work, who has been very good for ferrying me around the place, offered to take me to see some Danish Football - which seems fair enough. With temps dipping to around 10 oC and only having a small hooded top we reached the stadium. The story behind the Danish "premiership" goes something like this, Brondby (the team we went to see) were massive for many years - a club for the fans. Then popped along FC Copenhagen, which from what I can tell is more or less a franchise club, who attracted fans from all over the country and it concentrated on selling things etc etc - a little like the Chelsea's and Man U's of the world. Brondby and FC Copenhagen are the closest rivals, so it tends to kick off - but in a quiet Danish way.

The ground can hold around 20K fans, but tonight only had just over 10K - which for a cold Wednesday night, fair play to them. The opposition for the night were relegation fodder Viborg FF and as soon as we got into the ground (just making kick off) you can tell the fans are mentalists and follow the team with pride and passion. What was quite interesting, was that most of the songs were English football songs, sang in English too. The first song I heard, I recognised straight away - a Newcastle song, but obviously changed the words slightly. The curse of Warburton kicked in, as Viborg FF went ahead due to the keeper completely misjudging a freekick. Half time came and thankfully, a warm drink and a hot dog later, we moved upstairs to get some seating action (around lovely pretty women - mmm). Brondby must have had a good kick up the arse from the managers team talk and came back, scoring 1, then 2 and with a couple of minutes left, scoring a 3rd.

After the game, I asked if there was a club shop that I could get a shirt from, and the chap showed me, admitting that he needed to keep a low profile, as he was a Randers FC fan, but would help me out. I asked Rich if he wanted a shirt (after he offered to get me one from Germany when he was out there) and got a text back saying "yes, get the away shirt, the home one (which is yellow) would make me look like busby".

My conclusion on Danish football, fun & exciting. It needs to take off a little more, and they need to change their tactics a little more. Its slower than the premiership and English football in general, and they'd rather pass the ball within 50cms, rather than punt it over to the wide man, who has been stood there for 20mins, more or less taking up a new hobby. Thoroughly enjoyed tonight's football tho, an experience that I completely enjoyed, however, missed watching the Brakes play.

Denmark today

2007-04-17T22:58:00.000+01:00

Up at the crack of dawn, I swear it was still dark when I got up - great - and in a bad stressed mood. After showering and putting everything into the bag, I set off to Birmingham International Airport, only to be stuck in traffic. As I mentioned in the last most, I have a bad sense of timing, so made sure I set off even earlier than I would have normally, so we should be OK. I left the car in long stay and headed to the airport to check in. I'm never sure about these etickets - scares me that I've cock'd up somewhere along the line, or don't have the correct form of ID or whatever.

In the departure lounge, I picked up some Danish Currency and some new CK aftershave, then the flight was called. Once on the plane, I was faced with an empty row of 3 - one seat for me - and loads of space to spread out. Having already consumed breakfast at such an early time, I was looking forward to whatever they give me, turned out to be salmon steak with veg, dessert, as much tea as I could drink and fresh warm bread - better than what I get at work!

When I landed, I was met at the arrival terminal by one of the chaps at work - who kindly told me he would pick me up and take me to work, rather than trying to get a taxi, getting ripped off and lost. Within 10 mins we were at work, and was shown around, including the canteen, and more food. After being introduced to the guys working on the problem, I was dropped off at my hotel in the city centre.

My hotel, pretty expensive for people of my level, was only in the middle of a redlight district - but a clean one, so not too bad. I dumped my bags, had a quick shower and left to find somewhere to eat, and around 15 mins walk, I found an English style restaurant and pub. After having eyes bigger than my belly - yes, they're very big eyes, I was stuffed, and ended up watching some premiership football in the main bar. They had different types of Carlsberg, more of an ale type beer, rather than lager, then trying one of the local brews. After 5 beers, and it getting dark quickly, I decided to walk / shuffle back to the hotel - which I managed to find without asking anyhow - and avoiding hookers. Welcome to Denmark - only have to get up at 06.30 (05.30 UK Time) - erk!

Denmark T-1 Day

2007-04-16T12:57:00.000+01:00

OK, a couple of weeks late, but not really had a chance to blog of late - which is really a shame - seems as one of the reasons I do blog is to destress and get the chaos out of my head. Does that mean I'm not stressed and strange in the head now ? Guess so.... *

Well, the account that I'm working on want me over in Denmark as soon as possible, I suspect the amount of problems they have, are not really problems, but, a week in Copenhagen, who am I to argue. Don't get me wrong, its a great experience and good to get out of the goldfish bowl, but I don't like to travel for the sake of it - just wastes money, time and energy. If anyone has to travel in the company, they have to go thru a travel approval database - regardless if the trip is to Newcastle or New York. Luckily, today my travel was approved and they want me there first thing tomorrow.

I booked my flight, and told to take what ever tickets are available, just so happened to be economy extra - which is the first time I've travelled above the bulk standard level - exciting too. One thing also to note, my sense of time is pretty shocking, this stems from not really wearing a watch, but having to be somewhere, in advance of a certain time - I can't really do. Turns out, Cophenhagen has a large conference, so the cheap hotels are all booked out, and had to leave it to my colleagues over in Denmark to sort out - so technically - don't have anywhere to stay.

As its around midday - I don't at the moment have a dry clean shirt to take and everything else is outside trying dry before ironing and getting packed. To confuse the situation even more, I have a meeting up at the football club too, which tends to last a couple of hours.

10Km - Oh, so much fun

2007-04-15T20:59:00.000+01:00

You may recall, that I applied for the Regency Race a month or so ago, against my better judgement, well, it was today. I've been loaded with cold all week, so much so that I could barely see on Friday when I went into town, full of hot flushes and burning pain. It got to Friday night and I nearly conceeded to the fact I wouldnt be able to do it, but because I'm doing it for the Football Club, and I don't like letting people down, I done my best to get myself fit. Armed with a wad of cash, I went to the nearest Chemist and ordered the strongest medicine that Leamingtonshire could provide. Rather than being given medicine, they give me some dodgy tablets called "chest-eaze" - but true to the chemist's word, they worked pretty well, so took a couple yesterday between the football and Dr Who. Lastnight also involved Vix Vapour rub all over my chest and nose, to help the process along a little faster.

This morning was an early start, mainly because of the chuckling idiots at the Grand Union Restaurant til none o'clock, but at 7.30 it was shower, get dressed and get something simple on my stomach. Bananas I thought would help my energy, so I had 3, turns out, they're not so good. I met Debbie out on the street and we went for a nice stroll into Leamington to find the race start, bumping into Liz & Andy from football. We got ourselves sorted and then it started.

The 1st Km went pretty well, and I was going past a lot of people, not worrying about distance, and listening to music. The "only incline" was up Newbold's Golf Course, which was aided nicely by the Water Treatment place leaking, taking me back to school cross country - so nice, my trainers and socks were soaking wet. The 2nd Km went pretty quickly and I was still moving forward rather than backwards. This was the theme really, and knowing I was full of cold, tried to keep it easy til 5Km - which again, was pretty quick. We headed into town, and I went past what I thought was 8Km, so I decided to pick up a bit of pace, thinking I could get to 9Km, walk a bit then run the rest. Needless to say, after hitting the road pretty quickly, I reached the real 8Km marker and being a bit disappointed, I started to walk a little, to be pep'd up by a complete stranger, while I was listening to the Klaxons.

Anyhoo, to cut a long story slightly shorter, I managed to get to Mill Gardens and greeted by Vince, a football friend, taking nice photos of my "Doc from Back to the Future" style head (putting Hair Gel on before I came out) and barely able to speak. I managed to get my prize bag, greeted by Caroline, Liz, Vince, Andy and waited around for Debbie.

My stomach done some funny thing where it vibrated for a while, then settled down, but I couldnt get any words out - all strange. Luckily for me, everyone else apart from Debbie buggered off, muttered the word "turn around Debbie" and as she asked "why" I cunningly spewed my guts up in front of her. Bananas - bad - told you (sorry if you're eating by the way). But after some water, perfectly brilliant, apart from the stiff legs. Oh, finished the race in 1hour 5 minutes, of which, my aim was 60 mins, so not too bad really, considering its the furthest I've ran - EVER!

I've not got close to £200 quid for the Terracing fund - heading to bed before legs stop working. Oh, so much fun, and bugger off to the 2 castles race!

Tickled my fancy.

2007-04-08T21:22:00.000+01:00

I've had a relaxing day by the canal today, reading a book, chilling and sitting in the sun. Yesterday, I took the train to Cradley to see Leamington beat then 4-0, and it involved alot of drinking, needless to say, my throat it knackered up and haven't been able to do any training today for this race this time next week.

I've been pottering about this afternoon while the weather got a little cooler, and tried to remember what made me laugh out loud from months ago, and came up with the conclusion, the Simpsons

Cradley v Leamington

2007-04-07T23:26:00.000+01:00

What a brilliant day - the sun was out, it was warm, people were smiling, people were drunk, people travelled from afar and most importantly, Cardboard Dog. Met Vince and Pete in TJs at 10:20 this morning, slowly followed by heabutt pete, ordering his first guiness for the day. Walked the short distance to the train station to meet 3-1lee, JJ, Simesy and Sarah, hoped on the train, to meet the tallest man in the world, Martin. Beers were cracked open, gentle banter and sing song up to brum, a quick train swap and over to Cradley.

We found a lovely welcoming pub, had a bit of a laugh, John and the lovely Faith turned up, more banter, more piss take and watching Chelsea score against the Ham of Spurs (Headbutt Pete still drinking fast and strong).We got a nice taxi to the ground, had a laugh, watched HB Pete fall asleep in the sun, fall over, and drop all the chips that were bought for him, he then swore at alot of people.

Funniest moment of the day, was Jimmy Husband whipping a cross from our wing, missing the goal and keeper, hitting HB Pete on the forehead, and him not even flinching. Lots of songs, lots of positive chanting, lots of getting behind the team. We obviously won 4-0 with lots of random singing and again positive vibes when we heard the Roms score come thru (both HT and FT)
After the game, we had a beer, the nice taxi man turned up, give us a nudge, we all piled in to tunes of "do we have everyone" and everyone saying "yes", 2 minutes later, Simesy shouting "Sh!t, We've forgot Sarah". So we go back -- idiot.

We get to the train station, only for village professors, JJ and Simesy, deciding at this point they've forgot the rucksack with 2x flags in. Luckily John had the car, so went back to fetch them - cheers chap.

Train drive was a little strange, between JJ and Simesy moaning, cursing and swearing at one another, Sarah getting the huff, then a "fellow" geordie singing songs to JJ, kissing him and being loud. Popped into town with Tall Swedish Chap, Vince and Pete (and Headbutt, we think) for a couple of beers - come home, watched Dr Who.

Video credit : Vince Taylor.

Bricking My Pants Time

2007-03-29T17:01:00.000+01:00

Next month sees Leamington host the Regency Run, which is 10Km in total. There was talk amongst the group that we would apply for it, however with not being very fit these days, I decided to drop out, and then there was talk about John doing it, but he has to work in Japan. Debbie has shamed us all, by applying for it a while back, which made me feel a little guilty, but with the news that the race might be full, I felt a little better.

I decided to give it a chance and see if I could push myself a little more, and applied for it Monday night. With a clunk of the mail box this morning, I opened the post, to find my own race number. I've done myself proud lastnight, and considering I havent done any exercise in terms of long distance running for a while, I managed to do just under 4Km. Time to cut out some booze, drop some weight and eat healthy for a bit I think.

As the race is on a Sunday, I'll have to do the race (starts at 9) then go manage kids straight after - I'll be glowing red for approx 4 days after this.

Remember Een? Sahara Update ...

2007-03-26T20:40:00.000+01:00

I had a text from the lovely Philippa earlier on, pointing me to a website where you can check on the progress of people in the race. Turns out, Een is currently 22nd out of 850 - nutcase & loon.

The website also has a select number of photos taken from the last couple of stages - and knowing what you need to do to be in races like this, you have to be at the peak of your health. However, this kind of scared me ...

Karma & Magic Darts

2007-03-25T17:47:00.000+01:00

Having signed up for Friends-Reunited a couple of years ago, I've been in touch with a number of people I actually want to keep in touch with from up north. Sometimes I get messages from the website - about people getting married, having kids, moving to the States - that kind of thing. Last week, I got a bit of a funny one, KE who I used to go to school with had won an award for Undiscovered Author. KE is using a pen name of Holly A Harvey, the book is called Karma, and as another friend from school, Sarah, owned an independant book shop up north and is stocking it, I gave her a call to see if I could blag a copy. Sadly this didnt work, and I got talked into making a purchase - but you know, its helping two old friends, right ?

When I finished handing over £8.99 for a very interesting book, Sarah asked me if I wanted it signed by "Holly" so why not I said, incase its a classic in 200 years time. 2 days later, a book turns up - and looks very nice - just need to get around to reading it. It is of course, signed by "Holly" saying "To Stephen, 'Magic Darts!!!!' Love Holly A Harvey."

Magic Darts relates to a catch phrase we had at school, if anything was going the right way, we used to aim an imaginary dart at the imaginary dartboard, fire the dark and shout "Magic Darts" or "Championship Darts" - suppose you have to be there - but mildy amusing thing to do, in fact, I might re-introduce it again.

You can get the book from Amazon, or alternatively, phone up Sarah at her bookshop - she's nice and doesnt bite .. thankfully. You can also read Holly's Blog at the following address;

http://www.hollyaharvey.co.uk/

Buy it, read it, enjoy it.

Brass Monkey's

2007-03-24T13:27:00.000Z

The Arctic Monkey's are about to tour the UK - however rather than giving everyone a nice hotline and taking down the phone lines in London, they decided that it would be better if you signed up to a website. All good and well really, you would think, but they're pretty much in demand, and its first come, first served. I had an email saying "thanks, but no thanks, or and you were to slow, you fat fingered geordie fool" - well, not quiet, but for the comedy value - it works in my head.

I didnt think anything else of it, then I had an email pop up on Friday saying "not all tickets sold - click this link and enter pin code". So, I did, and got prompted to which venue I was interested in - so I entered Brum. I was then asked to enter my credit card details - so I did, then had "Thank you for purchasing tickets" - EEEEK - I thought I was only registering my interest again - whoops.

Needless to say, the lovely Jess (sadly in Leeds now) - you know the one, cute smile, funny lass, makes me giggle - suggested that they werent actually that good live. Double whoops. I had a look on ebay - and the tickets are going for 150 quid - and there is still a month left! Crumbs, imagine what you can do with that. Friendly brummie man, Bellis, is into his music, after all, he's having a midlife crisis and trying to be hip and street, so told him about it. He couldnt get tickets either, so suggested if I couldnt make it, I would sell him the tickets for face value.

Relativity...

2007-03-22T11:30:00.000Z

I was pretty pleased with myself lastnight. I decided to get off my arse and play 5aside football, with most of the students and a couple of IBMers - its a game I don't really enjoy playing, because its full of, well fast footballers. This means, when and if you get the ball (very rare) you have to pass it on, or run with the ball as soon as you recieve it. Its also a mechanism to find people's weak spots, and basically, for crap people like myself, to have the piss taken out of me. I felt lastnight I couldnt do anything right, and thats not me being negative, its the trust god damn it. I had my back on goal, had a ball passed to me, knew someone was free on my right, so passed it perfectly, only for him to miss, but - but - people shouted at me that I should have shot. Minutes later, I took a curling in shot from the left wing - and people say I should pass - meh - football for you.

Pete and Vince had invited me to play the slightly later game (8 til 9) so by the time I got home (7.15) I decided that enough was enough, and I wanted to take things into my own hands and I was going to play a 2nd game in 3 hours.

I do like playing this slot (although its a little late in the day for me) mainly because you do get the space, you do get the time on the ball (time & space = more confidence = more time and space .... etc etc ....). Its been a while since I turned up for this slot, but was met by loads of handshakes, welcomes and asking how "Geordie" has been and where I've been. So, we play, I megsy an old bloke, giving me more confidence, had a couple shots on target, and probably had the better game there, even tho I'd ran around for an hour already.

Anyhow, heres where the relativity thing comes in. When I got back, I had a call from a mate of mine, Een. I tend to only ever get calls from him, if his lass is up the spout (hi Sarah), Headley has managed to get himself into even more debt or Big Brother is about to start. Thats not to say we don't keep in touch, its to say, he reads my blog often and doesnt need to call me to find out whats going on.

Anyhoooo, turns out, he was at Gatwick Airport, about to take a flight. Where ? The Sahara Desert to run in a race.

The Sahara Race is a self-supported footrace across 150 miles (250 kilometers)
of the Sahara Desert in Egypt. The race consists of six stages, lasting 7 days,
with distances ranging from 10 to 50 miles (20 - 80 kilometers) per stage. There
will be checkpoints conveniently positioned along the course every 7 or 8 miles
(10 - 12 kilometers). Competitors are required to be fully self-supported
throughout the event and must carry all their own food, gear and clothing, which they will need to complete the 150 mile (250 kilometer) course. Water (including hot water) and a place in a tent will be provided daily. Generous cutoff times will be established daily so that anyone walking the course can complete it. A
limited number of three-person teams and individuals will be accepted.

Excuse me ? Isn't that just mental ? He's a 31 year old man, with two kids, lovely lass of a wife - and he's running 150 mile in the desert. Anyhow, after feeling good about myself, I felt a little deflated, that I've probably done like 0.03% of what he's going to do, in a better climate.

Good Luck Een!

What am I watching ??

2007-03-19T14:38:00.000Z

Thought I'd update people with what I'm currently watching at the moment, both downloads and TV. Mainly because I havent blogged for a while and it makes a nice introduction to the magical world of me, at the moment.

Heroes
Lost
Skins
The Riches
Castaway
Shipwrecked
Ugly Betty

There is alot of "which is best, Lost or Heroes?" at the moment, and to me, I still prefer Lost. Heroes took a while to get into it, with a very slow start, but now that Lost is on til the end of the series - it's getting more and more interesting. Really want Heroes back tho

Happy Birthday Tom.

2007-03-18T14:43:00.000Z

It was Tom H's 30th on Saturday and I attended with Mr John and Miss Debbie. We ended up in Pizza Express, which has always been a fav of mine anyhow, but it was good to see faces (most of them sober too at 7pm). We had our food, loads of wine - and I felt drunk before we even left - which is a nice feeling. We them wandered up to the Lounge (we had a bit of a headstart) to grab a pint. Tom decided to buy champers for everyone turned up, while some of the others chattered, a couple of us watched the results of the UK Eurovision Contest.

After a couple more pints, we ended up in Rios - where we saw Sniffer, previously of Leamington FC fame. We had a couple of dances to the 70s & 80s tracks - had a laugh - sang loads - I say sang, I mean shouted - so much my brain was about to pop out of my skull.

Due to having the kids (not mine) on Sunday morning, I decided to call it a night, as did John and Debbie, we put Abbi in a taxi and walked back home. Spotting a couple of the other Leam FC people around and about. Fun night by all - loads of booze, champers and a boogie - Oh Rio's is still Rio's

Back to the Future!

2007-03-05T14:00:00.000Z

After receiving some cack news lastnight, and Rich returning from "up north" he decided it would be good to get me out the house and have a couple of pints - and cheer me up in his unique way. Needless to say, after 10 minutes of him trying to cheer me up, I just wanted to get more booze inside me to block out his counter measures. After his, "at least you didnt get kicked out the vase yesterday, oh wait" line, we decided to join the fuzzy faced gonks in the quiz.

To be fair, we didnt answer many questions, but done our fair share on motivating the troops and taking the piss out of the opposition - which hasnt been done for a while - with comments such as "Sham", "you're a mess" and "you're rubbish".

When the final results came out, our "team" managed to win by 1 point, also managed to win 2 x 4 pitchers of carlsberg and a massive box of bottled beer. We sat with the fuzzy gonks for a bit longer and drank their free beer, til we decided enough was enough and Rich had to be at work in the morning.

Lovely!

Jugs

2007-02-19T12:06:00.000Z

One of the Leam Fans contacted me during the week and asked for my email address, has he had something for me (he promised it wasnt a virus). He then uploaded it to youtube and shared it around the messageboard for all to see. Canny likeness really...

Wot No Blog..!?

2007-02-12T21:44:00.000Z

Whoops, I kinda got busy, but didnt if you see what I mean. Its nearly been a month of no blogging, so to summarise, heres whats happened;

I had 7 days off work (to return today, and finding out I have another 7 left to take before end of March)
Andy Gregory came to sort my front door out
Leamington FC lost TWICE.
I celebrated my 32nd Birthday, receiving many fantastic gifts.
NUFC beat Liverpool FC, but lost to Fulham.
Beat Rich in RailRoads three times
Helped produce a Fanzine for Leamington FC in less than 3 weeks (40 pages too)
Flirted with someone
Found a virus on my PC
Lost Series 3 has started again
As has Heroes

Wii Multimedia Station

2007-01-19T14:22:00.000Z

I spent some time over lunch time working out how to stream video and audio over the network onto my Wii. Although I bought a HDD recorder over the festive period, it doesnt have a network link, which is a bit pants, but thats technology. Speaking to Rich, we knew there were ways of doing it, just needed a chance to think about it.

Anyhoo, after checking a couple of forums, the easiest way I could find was to use Orb, download the software, create an account and set the location on your PC where your music and video sits, let Orb go off and do its searching. By default, Orb sets up the Windows usual locations for these media types, including the default iTunes library location.

From the Wii side of things, you need to then go to the Internet Channel, use the Wii Browser, point it to mycast.orb.com - login with your user ID / Password, and select the file(s) from the different subsections.

The only annoying thing is the Wii Browser bar at the bottom of the screen - of which, I dont know if you can get rid of it, or at least hide it.

Wii're sorted

2007-01-16T22:35:00.000Z

Saturday's training session got cancelled, so I used the morning to catch up with some well deserved sleep. Meanwhile, Rich decided to use his time more effectively and decided to take a trip to Birmingham on a Wii search. Annoyingly, he got lucky, and tried to contact me to see if I could get up there as the sales assistant said she could put one behind the counter, but couldnt sell a second one to Rich - incase he flogged it on ebay.

Since then, I've had a full weekend of him going on about how fantastic this Wii is, how great the games are, and how his Wii fitness is 83 years old. I admit, I was jealous, and a little miffed, but kept the mission in mind. I phoned up Game in Leamington yesterday, rather than walking up and wasting time, and they said they had nothing come in. Sadly then, I had to go into the office - the first time for 2 months, which is pretty good going.

I had a walk into town today, after rescheduling a meeting, and got to Game. I spoke to the sales assistant, which now had a restraining order on me for hassling him for Wii's, but rather than the traditional "no, and get out" I had "Yes, only got one in today, want to buy it?". So, 3 nanoseconds later, I was leaving the shop, protecting my carrier bag with my life, lightly jogging home to get it setup.

Have to say, its fantastic, and I've only played Wii Sports today, consisting of Wii Bowling, Wii Tennis and Wii Baseball - and currently a little knackered. Oh the fun!

CSI #2

2007-01-12T14:01:00.000Z

Just by chance, I checked my bank statement this morning, and yes, I know I should do it a little more regularly, but I dont. Turns out my out goings over the Christmas period are larger than my incomings, so I've now declared a CSI (cost saving initiative) for the next couple of months.

As most people do, they join a gym, use the gym for about 3 days and then bomb it off, and fair play, so I took the decision to cancel my membership today. I wandered up, and expected that scene from Friends, where they bring out the pretty assistant and presses cleavage together, making you upgrade to gold level, however, disappointed tho I was, they pushed a form in my face, told me to sign it and oh, I can still use the gym til the end of the month, even tho they'll cancel the direct debit for the 15th - ace!

No more impulse buys from my current account will happen, I've decided, shopping, football and the odd Happy Friday will happen. Luckily, I now have enough TV and movies to watch for the next month or so, and with Heroes and Lost starting up against shortly, I'll have enough on my hands. On top of that, I intend on still eating more healthy and stepping up my "canal fitness" sessions.

The one thing that could be taken as none CSI, but in a way, will help, is this Wii sham that appears to be happening. I was going to add it to my credit card anyhow, but thought, bit of fitness, bit of fun, not really harming anyone, is it - just got to get my damn hands on one first. The tip off I was given kinda ended in a dark tunnel, and after two days, they've not had anymore in, which in my situation, is probably a good thing.

Wii're on a mission

2007-01-10T20:16:00.000Z

Rather jealous of the new Wii, I have to say. I wasnt too impressed when the reports came out in mags and technical forums etc, so I'm the first to admit, I was wrong, and I should have put my name on the waiting list. Needless to say, Captain Headworth done exactly the same, thinking that come 2nd / 3rd week into January, they should be more available and maybe pick one up for even cheaper - ha! fools that we are.

Having had a sneak play at Wii Sports on New Years Eve, it gets better, and with Rich getting back from Tunisia, we're on the look out for a couple of consoles. We both refuse to pay inflated ebay prices of 350 quid for the console alone and we've spent the majority of the weekend researching areas where we can obtain.

Tomorrow is looking hopeful, and with a bit of luck, the wind blowing in the right direction, we might be able to pick a couple up, being in the right place, right time, and using our mason handshakes.

Of course, the only reason I'm after one is to increase my health ... guv

New Year, New Rules

2007-01-10T20:05:00.000Z

We have MC joining a gym, John going off jogging & Debbie being generally healthy, so I thought I'd get on this bandwagon and sort myself out. Slowly at first of course, after all, I did get back from Newcastle full of cold thanks to my mum's storage heaters, that appear to have sucked every ounce of water out of me. First of all, I started shopping at Sainsbury's, to reduce my weekly shopping (see, bit of CIS too), and also get a wider range of healthier stuff. Yes, I bought some Haribo too, but you have to treat yourself once in a while. I dont know what it is, but of late, I've really got myself into peppers, so appear to be having them with anything that doesn't move. The Haribo thing is Philippa's fault - after the last visit, she had this massive tub of starmix, of which I had to eat the majority, still not making a dint in the mass pile - magic you see. Luckily, I cant find the tubs down here, but prefer SuperMix, less problems with my fillings - anyhow I digress, once again.

So yes, I've been eating a little more healthier, with salad, fruit and veg, and less ready meals and deep fried mars bars (that bit isnt true, snickers maybe). On top of that, having forked out for a nice fancy dan running jacket, I decided to take it for an airing on Monday. It was a little damp, a little rainy and windy, and was worried incase I fell into the canal, but you know, if you dont go out, you wont do it - so I did. The jacket is fantastic, and houses my nice nano pretty well, and to top that, I managed to do from our bridge to the goose bridge without stopping. Being full of cold that I am, I was gasping for air at the other end, with bits coming out of my mouth, which wasnt very nice (sorry if you're eating and reading this).

I'd already signed up to 5aside football on Thursday (which has now been cancelled) and the usual slot on Wednesday night and came back with a tight hamstring - so going to take it easy til Friday and hope I can stretch it out. I havent played football for around a month or so now, so was nice getting a couple of goals, even though I could have easily had a hatrick, if I wasnt looking at the ground while running at the same time - oh well.

Oh me too my monkey chum

2007-01-06T19:53:00.000Z

Fantastic - Al and Monkey are back - funniest set of adverts from the now dead ITV digital, brought back to you by a different company. Even better, advert for Tea.

"What on Earth!"

Leo Sayer ...

2007-01-04T10:23:00.000Z

.... in a room full of freaks, oddballs and a scary bird. No, not big brother.

New Year Party 2006/2007

2007-01-04T09:40:00.000Z

Once again, a massive thanks to John and Debbie for a fantastic New Years Party, with loads of entertainment. This year's party was based around the theme of 2006, basic, but also hard to think of things, and I decided to go as a Cyberman from Doctor Who. Debbie went as the scary student nurse I had a fling with, so had to tell everyone the full story of being acused of many things. John went as Steve Irwin, Troy turned up as the Christmas Tree from the Doctor Who special (which linked in pretty well with mine), then there was Laura, MC and Super Gary who turned up as Come Dancing contenstants.

Some of the usual suspects werent there for different reasons, so was a little more calm than normal. After music, snacks and socialising, John got his Wii out and I was introduced to Wii Sports, which I laughed at, but after playing 6 rounds of Wii Boxing with Tom, I woke up on the 3rd with my arms completely strained.

Singstar came out, and I was talked into singing with one of the guests. I really do hate that SingStar game, not because its a crap game - its actually pretty good, its because I just cant sing, that being the object of the game, kinda ruins it for me.

As I was pretty lazy, and didnt take my camera, here is a link to John's Photos.

Nada Nada Nada Sleep

2007-01-04T09:32:00.000Z

I thought I'd caught up with my sleep over the Xmas / New Year period and felt pretty healthy and after what was a fantastic new years party at John and Debbies - what could go wrong. Well, on the 2nd, around 10:30pm, I was about to head to bed, catch up on some sleep from the night before when the buzzer went, I decided to ignore it, thinking if it was important enough, and its someone I know, they'd call me - right ?

I went to go brush my teeth, get ready for bed etc etc, when I noticed someones feet on my side pavement. Knowing I'd been to Sainsbury's to do some shopping earlier and knowing I closed the door correctly, I paniced, opened the window as the fella was about to walk backout the door, and asked what he was up too. To be fair, I'm no policeman, but I dont think he was really dressed for breaking and entry - wearing a long scarf, with them tassles at the end, and he came up with an excuse he was trying to get into the Lock and Dock. I told him I was calling the police, he said there was no reason to and disappeared.

I did in fact call the police, which gave me fantastic advice such as, "make sure you're door is locked" and "if anything happens, call us back, use the 999 number". Meanwhile my heart was pumping so loudly and any noise was waking me up straight away, thus vr little sleep, putting me back to square one - dammit.

Historical Football

2007-01-01T23:23:00.000Z

No real reason to this post, just found it and laughed. Even tho we gave the title to Man U, it certainly spelt out an interesting season for me.

One and only chances

2006-12-29T00:29:00.000Z

I returned from Newcastle this afternoon, after a pretty much good Christmas - My mother tried to feed me up as much as she could, however, I held strong. Mainly because most of my friends have moved away from Newcastle, and those who still live in the area were working, it was nice to chill out. However, this wasnt enough for my mother, suggesting I just went up to the old town ( the night before, there was a death, of which I knew the lad - er nar [ old skool NR here ]). It was suggested I went in search of Doctor Peter Williams as per the Trauma Series on BBC1, an old best mate. We grew up together, from primary school, junior school into comp, and yes, we had fall outs, one of which will remain infamous, however I made the effort to get in touch and try to remain friends - which didnt happen. This could be because of his strange scouse/geordie accent that he appears to have adopts. I think the coming year will have alot of "one fault and out" rules - maybe I am becoming more machine than man, maybe I just cant be arsed.

Qualified.

2006-12-12T13:54:00.000Z

Lastnight, was the final night of the FA Coaching Badge - level 1, where we had to present a drill to an assessor, get our folders marked and put on massive smiles. I was 2nd in the list, which was a little nerve wrecking, but I suppose it was best to get it out the way and done with. I'd pulled my hamstring a couple of weeks ago, which meant taking part was going to be hard, but felt that I needed to support the rest of the chaps, as rather than getting kids to do the session, it was up to the group to represent the kids.

You're given 10 minutes to introduce yourself, do health and safety checks, explain the drill, do the drill and do a debrief. I managed to get a good report back on my drill session, even tho it was a pretty simple one, stating I described the game well, gave good demo and approached the whole thing very well. From then on, 14 other people had to do their drill, where one of which (my practice drill from 3 weeks ago, dups) I got blasted in the bollocks - so not only a tight and straining hamstring, but had stinging balls - not good for a Monday night really.

Anyhoo, just before 9pm, we were all given the good news that we'd all passed and we are Qualified FA Coaches at Level 1. Was sad to see some of the people go, but more importantly, I have my Monday nights back to myself - yay!

Day out in the village

2006-12-11T11:06:00.000Z

After a quiet night out with the Happy Friday gang, it was an early start on Saturday, for this was Leamington FC's visit to Croydon in the FA Vase. A decision was made to take an early train, and make a day of it, rather than watching a game, coming back - just a waste of a day. So, up at 7 it is then, and a knock on the door at 7.15 by Pete (not following instructions of leaving his gaff at 7:30) and me still in towel and with my KISS lookalike makeup on, then down to the train station for 7:50 - ready for depart at 07:58 - eek. We discussed this time the night before and came to the conclusion that there isnt such a time before 09:00 on a weekend. It was so early, it was dark, so early, my eye sockets were hurting. Meanwhile, John and Debbie were grinning at their decision to leave at 11am or something.

We got to Reading and then swapped onto a train into London - getting there for around 10am - we got the tube to Covent Garden, and in our early morning state, decided to walk up the stairs, rather than get the lift - 10 minutes later and out of breath, we decided Oxford street would be a great idea. We popped into the Apple Store, Nike Town and most importantly Hamleys - giving me a crackig idea for New Years party.

We ended up towards Victoria after a wander round, had a quick pint and caught the train over to Croydon. We met fellow Brake fans in the George Pub on the high street, then arranged to meet John and Debbie there after they got off the train. We then piled onto the Tram to the Stadium, which took around 20 mins, after finding its a one way system, and we double backed on ourselves - and this is from instructions by someone who lives in Croydon - dur.

The stadium was exactly that, a running track, a pitch in the middle and stands at either side - meaning you're not very close to the pitch - a little like Tipton Town. We dominated the first half, lucky in the 2nd, and grabbed a last minute goal, taking us through to the last 32. The match report can be found at http://www.leamingtonfc.co.uk/history/2006-07/s-m025.php

We left the majority at the Stadium, got a train into London, left John and Debbie to get some food, just after Pete wandered into a Cheese shop, asking if they sold Cheese. We used the Tube, because we could, and at one point loosing each other after us running towards a train, me getting on, Pete not, and us making everyone laugh on the train by shouting "NOOOOOOOOO" then people asking where we're heading towards, and me not knowing because Pete is directing. Luckily, I got off at the next station, waited 15 minutes and him turning up like nothing had happened. We then window shopped, grabbed a sandwich, and headed to a train, which was there ready to depart. Getting back into Leam around 9.30, I watched Match of the Day - went to bed and had the best night sleep I've had for years. A fantastic day, both for football, getting out the goldfish bowl of Leamington and laughing at random things.

In Love...

2006-12-08T23:57:00.000Z

I've thought long and hard about this over the last week and a bit, but I am in love. Its not one of these fads, not one of these impossible "I love a model" style comments, I'm in love. She might not know, but she has everything, class, looks, talent and sexy smile. Unfortunately, she's Angela from the Magic numbers. Fortunately (for me - due to the lack of interest on the internet) I managed to get the "best" photo I could find on the internet (due to lack of interest) - which basically means no ones stalking the poor lass. She's in the right, looking vr foxy and a little kinda pixel-ated, like the rest of her band member chums.

Meh, a little interwebd up, and I wouldnt even mind if she had to go on tour for 6 months a year - phwar!

oh oh oh new job

2006-12-06T19:19:00.000Z

OK, so I wasnt doing very well this morning, when I accidently slept in for the first day of my new job, but you know, thats what first days are for. Its not like I had to be in the office (I hope I didnt anyhow) and I am still doing quite alot of my old job, so, I think I owed it to myself. I'm not kidding myself that the new job is going to be vr easy, I know its going to be hard, and I know for a fact its going to be stressful, but a different kind of stress. I've been flogging myself for the last 2 years, with not very many people to support me, nor even talk too. I think you could quite safetly say, that if you know me pretty well, my mood and persona over the last couple of years has changed for the worst.

I'm hoping this new job is going to be a different kind of stress, and actually allow me to learn things, unlike the previous job where I was fire fighting all the time and looking after the team, rather than my own needs.

Some photos from the magic numbers...

2006-12-01T16:38:00.000Z

Good Books - Crazy Man shaking lemon and orange in the name of music.

Magic Numbers sign on the way out of Academy

Magic Numbers

2006-12-01T09:18:00.000Z

I've been waiting a while for this gig to turn up, and I have to say, I wasnt disappointed at all. I'd asked Nomes, Palin, Bellis and Headworth if they fancied coming up with me, the latter deciding it wasnt his scene, so at 18 quid a ticket, you cant grumble much. We'd arranged to gather in Brum before the doors opened (7pm) to grab some grub and we done just that, where we ordered the smallest pizzas in pizza hut. When someone says individual, it really suggests that and after sniffing mine, it was gone - oh well.

We got to the Carling Acadamy where Nomes was checked for her tissues, looking rather suspect, we gathered around the bar ordered pints (at £3.30 each) and looked at the official tshirts and thingymebobs. I bought a nice navy blue tshirt with Magic Numbers written over it. I also purchased a set of "action" figures - because I could - and technically they do look vr funky.

Soon after, the first support act came on, they looked rather young and the lead singer looked like Max from Hollyoaks - although we all denied knowing what Max from Hollyoaks looks like - being pretty old and not wishing to embarress ourselves. They were called the Good Books, they were young, funky tho, myself and Bellis decided they were a little like The Cure / Paul Weller. Thanks to the magic of MySpace, you can actually listen to a couple of their tracks - they only had a 30 minute track, but you get the feeling they actually enjoyed it, rather than a band being asked to tour and being in the background - if you see what I mean ..? At one point, the drummer was shaking a Lemon and an Orange - all very strange.

The last support act was Dave Kitt, he started the set off good, and sounded a little like old REM with a mixture of the Cranberries (you must not let it linger). Again, magic of MySpace, you can click on there and listen to a couple of his tracks.

After the 4th pint and a visit to the loo, The Magic Numbers came on, with a nice funky track to open with and get the crowd going. As mentioned earlier, they looked like they enjoyed doing the gig, rather than being forced to do it by fat cats with cigars. One of the songs, merged into "rulling up the hill" by kate bush, which kind of blew my mind but made me chuckle at the same time. At the end, it was announced that this was the Good Books lastnight with the Magic Numbers, and had some kind of on stage party with all support acts and the magic numbers doing some kinda barn dance fest.

Has to be THE best gig I've ever been too, dont know if its because of the mix of music & song, or the fact it wasnt that packed and you could actually breathe (and maybe its because we werent the oldest people there for a change). All that was left now was the last train back to Leam, via all the stations in the world. Still smiling - will update with photos once I get my sham together.

Magic Mr Ben

2006-11-26T21:28:00.000Z

Football is a strange thing, it brings people together in different ways, it gives you confidence being around people you like (John, Debbie, Pete, Vince etc) and its like being part of a massive family which you never knew you had.

Lets all sing together, "Ben Mackey is Magic, he wears a magic hat, he used to play for racing, he left them coz they're crap"

Management Round Up

2006-11-26T21:13:00.000Z

The U11 Colts just completed their 9th game today, in some respects, the results dont look impressive, well not as impressive as after match day #1. We've Won 0, Drawn 1, lost the rest - but there are positive signs with each week, and most importantly, signs of improvements. I too the decision to take the kids up to Newbold Comyn on Saturday mornings for an extra couple of hours training, to get to know them a little better, spend more time and to show that we're in this for the long ride. We're exactly that, committed, want them to improve, and the game today showed that.

The first half was more or less rubbish in terms of skill and once again we conceded a couple of goals by corners. The number of corners we're giving away has dropped, mainly down to the left back and right back (the set of twins) are starting to understand, you can get rid of it a little more easier. The 2nd half, after a "Fergie" style chat, got them going, we had the opposition pegged back into their own half for the majority of the half, with the one chance they did have, they scored - but you cant fault the lads.

Looking back, would I have changed getting involved in kids football - no, never, each day presents different challenges, and I wouldnt give that up for anything. The one thing we are missing, foxy women watching the games, not giving Pete and I a chance to use our tapping skills and impress the ladies.

The Old Chestnut

2006-11-22T15:24:00.000Z

It was the usual story of boy meets girl, girl meets boy, boy keeps in touch with girl, girl moves to China for a year, etc etc etc. I've kept in touch with her now and again, thinking even if she came back, she wouldnt even remember me, so why bother - but I did. Anyhoo, due to the wind blowing in the right direction, some small child in Chile buying a KFC and most importantly, being logged in at that very time, Sarah (nice smile) MSN'd me, asking how I was etc etc.

While she was in China, I done her a couple of favs and she promised to take me out for a coffee, true to her word, she asked me if I fancied a coffee. Being a little flirty, I asked that if she offered alcohomol, it would be a massive deal and she did. She asked when I was free, and I said that the only day I was free this week would be Tuesday, forgetting I'd already promised to attend the new James Bond movie. Of course, I only remembered this 3 nanoseconds after she'd logged out to finish one of her essays. Once I managed to get hold of her on MSN again, I dropped her an IM asking if I could get a spare ticket, would she like to come with us (half expecting a no, go bugger off, drink, thats it - nothing else) but she sent a reply saying that it was good and to drop her a text.

I spoke to Jim the next morning to find out how he booked the tickets and if he could help me get a spare one, with that wind in the same direction, that small child getting finger licking good in Chile, Jim replied saying that Troy had dropped out and I could have the spare ticket - Wahhoo!

Half of me didnt really recall what Sarah looked like fully - we were both boozed up, but remember she had a fantastic smile and lush body. Thanks to that child getting slightly fatter in Chile, she looked absolutely stunning. We got to the seats and there was only room for 1 extra, rather than 2, so it allowed us to go talk on another area of cinema seating and catch up. We got on pretty well, I offered to look at her laptop that was broken and we settled down to the film.

After the film, we walked in our directions and she said that she was turning off, of course, I offered to walk her home, but she politely declined (dont know what that means in terms of interested/not interested), said it would be nice to go out for a drink with me sometime. I once again offered to look at her laptop if she dropped it around.

Nice to smile again, thats all I would say, nice to smile.

Coaching

2006-11-21T12:57:00.000Z

I've been attending the FA Coaching Level 1 Course for the last couple of weeks and to be honest, its interesting, very interesting and filled with common sense which you do automatically, and dont really appreciate. Part of the assessment is presenting a "drill" using the rest of the people on the course as the kids. You have to do nice things like introduce yourself, do health and safety checks and then demonstrate, encourage and provide support if required. Lastnight was a preparation for the final assessment, and we were marked accordingly in pairs, I had the opportunity to work with a fine fellow called Keith.

We have 3 weeks left, 2 of which consist of theory work, homework and preparing for the final assessment. I was given "Duos" as my final assessment, luckily, Pete had that in his preparation session, so hopefully can help each other out. The assessment criteria is split into different sections, and you dont even have to deliver the drill has its explained in the manual / DVD - as long as the "kids" are having a good laugh and you do the H&S section. Each section is marked with a tick, or an action plan, myself and the other chap (Keith) got all ticks apart from one action plan, which consisted of us not standing in the designated "safety" area - even tho we stood well away from the danger areas on the pitch.

Fingers crossed, by 11th December, all of the Leamington Brakes Coaches who are involved should have passed and deserve a nice drink. Also nice to make new friends and contacts around the world of football. Something that I certainly want to progress (all being well and I actually pass this one)

1-2-3-4-5,6-7-8-9-10, 11-12

2006-11-11T14:20:00.000Z

Old?? Meh Space!

2006-11-11T13:43:00.000Z

If anyone really knows me, then they'll know that I dont often approach women for numbers, chitchat etc etc, so last saturday when myself and Rich were out was a little bit of a strange night. I'd rushed down from Coalville back to Leamington to catch the 2nd half of NUFC v Charlton - a relegation 6 pointer and agreed to meet Rich for a couple of beers. There is a number of barmaids that are pretty foxy at the Well, and there is one that caught my eye, mainly because of a foxy smile and good sense of humour. After the shambles of the game, we took out spot at the bar and spoke to her, Rich doing me the fav of being completely crap at music, to allow me to correct him and look good. For example, we played our usual game of "what band is playing in the background?" which to be fair to Rich, anything in the last 12 months he's bad, go back to the 80's and he'll beat me hands down.

So after having a laugh at Rich's "is it the magic letters?". "Surely its slimboy fat" and "its the Cooks isnt it?", it turns out that me and this lass have a couple of things in common. It also appears that the bloke behind the bar working with her is after some "fun" because he's bored with his stunningly sexy girlfriend and wants to ruin my chance with this lass. So, I asked if she fancied coming out the next day to come watch the kids play football, just for a couple of hours, or fancies a drink. This was looking positive as she was asking what time, when would we back etc, so I suggested that because she's working til 3am, that she sends me a text if I give her my number if she cant meet me.

Turns out, that she lives around the corner from me, so I suggest that if she's interested, I meet her outside the supermarket. Insert a couple of days of no communication, and Rich working away in the background to make things nice and rosey, but sheepishly said that she's said that I'm too old for her. Fair play you know, a little shallow in a way, and sure if she's actually given it ago, it would be fun.

To counter this, and after having a midweek drink with Rich, I appear to have got a little drunk and registered myself to myspace to make myself feel hip and street. Rich feels pretty bad, to which I cant really understand, I got over one of my self confessed problems by actually asking someone out, and giving someone my number. Its all about ratios, some you win, most you lose by all accounts.

Anyhow, back to

Easy Lover!

2006-11-11T13:35:00.000Z

No, not a reference to me - I dont think you could get any further from the truth! The introduction to Grand Theft Auto : Vice City Stories has a fantastic advert (yes, back to my purchases again) with action packed footage from the game, with 80s style backing tracks. The one advert I've seen, features Phil Collin's Easy Lover, then cars being blown up, guns being used and people being beaten up.

As you can probably tell, I've not got the YouTube bug, so just to make Rich laugh a little more, and allow other people to appreciate the weekly joke ;

Toot Toot!!!

2006-11-11T13:25:00.000Z

I've never really been massively interested in computer games. Yeah, I buy them, yeah I play them, and then they get added to that pile of games on the shelf. Rich maybe many things, but has got very good taste in strategy games and after getting my ass thrashed at Civ4 on his recommendation, he suggested a purchase of Sid Meier's Railroads. I did buy this, mainly because of reviews of real time multiplayer network games and also getting my brain working.

Idea is that you manage a train company, you link towns and cities together, and move items between these based on demands and production. The bigger the spread, the more difficult it gets to manage, and the more you have to ensure that trains arnt stuck at stations or idle on the track. Time costs money, n' all that jive. There are a number of objectives you also have to meet within a specific time scale, and you can make more money by buying the industries you're supplying.

Dustballs

2006-11-11T13:14:00.000Z

Having owned a PSP from the day of release, I tend to keep an eye out for new games coming out. The recent spurt of adverts that they have come up with are fantastic, and makes me laugh with strange mexican style voices. I'm the kind of person who would buy something if there is a funky funny advert, and I was almost tempted to purchase another PSP based on these adverts. I invite you and challenge you not to smile!

http://www.dustballs.tv/

World of Warburton

2006-10-17T22:23:00.000+01:00

Well, what has happened since the last time I blogged. Saturday marked John's magical mystical birthday beer related all day session - this year around the town of Warwick. Due to a home game on, and it being top of the table clashing, I decided to take in the game, and meet up with the rest of them later on. One of the lads from footie gave me a lift over to Warwick after the final whistle and found John, SuperGary, Jim and Debbie a little on the merry side, well Debbie was drinking halves of course. We moved from the Simple Simon (my first time in there) to the Greyhound (again, first time in there) and had a couple of games of pool - of which I was paired with Super Gary, and John paired with Jim. We took the compo to 1-1, before we decided to move on up to the Star and Garter.

We met MC and Laura up at the pub and we finished the pool compo - with myself and Gary winning - go us! Yay! We had loads of Speckled Hen, which I like LOADS, and we rolled back home, only for Super Gary to be recognised by the people who work in the BigCup - much to his delight.

Today, I managed to get a release date for my new job. IBM being IBM, if you transfer internally, your manager has to give you a set about of time to hand your work over to someone else. I had been offered the job, the day before I flew out to Bali, but because of vacation, other gumph and huge work loads, its only been decided today. 6th December, I'll be joining my new team. Part of me is excited, part of me is nervous as funk - after all, this is my first new job for over 8 years and yes, probably stuck in a rutt. Just in time for Christmas - of which, we had invites to the work xmas party for this year - with 70s/80s theme - we're unsure at the moment if its fancy dress - but hey, should be a larf

The Kooks

2006-10-12T09:33:00.000+01:00

Lastnight was the long awaited Kooks gig up at the Carling Academy in Brum. Myself and Captain Rich were shamming around on ebay, as this was a complete sell out, and we managed to get tickets at an inflated price. Meanwhile, Rich then cross referenced the gig date, with a trip in Germany - Doing well. I try doing at least one big gig every year, and last year was Duran Duran at the NEC when we went with Nomes, Andy P, Rich and Shamster thats Bellis - this was big gig #1 of the year (Magic Numbers end of next month)

Naive - no!

I'd originally invited Geordie Mike in Rich's place, however, due to having to work late, Gigantor Pete was invited along and kindly drove up, as it was, quite litterally, raining cats and dogs. We grabbed Maccy D's just across the corner from the venue, and bumped into one of the lads from the Football, then made our way in the venue, with touts offering massive prices. Speaking of massive prices, £3.10 a pint of carling - but it was soo soo lovely. The place was covered with attractive women, mostly with chav boyfriends, and after our beer related purchases made ourway to the "dance floor" and heard the support acts which were pretty good too.

The Kooks came on and done the bulk of their album, and some "old B side" material, along with some new tracks they must be close to releasing. A good mixture of sing-a-long tracks and rock tracks made the line up as the temperature started to rise - and wearing two tshirts was probably not a wise act.

With Pete driving, we managed to get back onto the Motorway and back into Leam for around 11:30 ish, so ended up having a quick swifty in The Well, and god knows what state I looked like with two soaking wet tshirts on and hair all over the place. Anyhooo, a fantastic night out, just nice to get out of the goldfish bowl that is Leamington Spa and do something different.

Return of the Mac

2006-10-04T22:26:00.000+01:00

With the kids swapping training sessions to Friday nights, I decided to return to my 6 til 7 slot for 5aside football. Yes, I've played football since my ankle broke way back when, however I think it was more of a mental thing to return to the same place, same time, same people and continue as life goes on. Yes, my chest was still sore from being elbowed in the ribs, and I think deep down, I shouldnt have really played, but just wanted to get out there. I decided, it would probably be wise just picking my fav position - ie, up front, and without the ability to track back - stay up front.

It did feel good, people were asking if I was ok, and to be honest, my leg was holding out pretty well, even when someone decided to hack my leg to shit to get the ball, I even had a couple of snap shots on goal, and touch wood, meaning my leg is back to full fitness. The chest really impacted my game, and I dont like to be known as the "one who goal hangs" and like to feel I put my effort in within midfield - today just didnt happen. I managed to set up 3 people with a goal and should have scored about 3 within 20 minutes myself - but its one of them days.

I managed to get in on goal and slot the ball between the keepers legs, just as I felt something twang in my muscle. I did warm up properly, but it happens, it was a very cold and damp day and it can happen.

Oh, how I missed the banter, how I missed the laughing. I was talking to my mum and she reckons since I turned 31, I've become a rebel, having never broken anything and in the space of 6 months doing my ankle in and potentially cracking a rib too. Its good to be back.

Ribcage!

2006-10-03T23:05:00.000+01:00

Sunday was a fun day .. well actually, no it wasnt. After being woken by my mobile (cell phone to the yanks) at 09:20 and being asked to collect rainjackets for the kids at 10:45 ready for the afternoon, actually getting soaked while collecting the rainjackets and being told "shame none of them fit you, oh, dont you look wet". I got home, managed to get a shower (of all things) and then dry, myself and head coach Pete headed over to Coventry, having our usual team line up discussion in the car, we get to this nice little pokey village where its starting to slowly rain.

Under one tree was the "home" players, under another a group of "away" parents and under a safe umbrella, 16 kids huddling to keep warm - in the distance, a pylon and a railway track. Needless to say, 2 minutes later, thunder and lightening kicks off and no one really knows where to move too - I took the option and stood in the middle of the pitch. I was in a real twat of a mood and decided to only give those kids who didnt have a jacket, a rain jacket - with every intention of giving the rest out after the game. The rain got heavier so got our lads out training, trying to get that pyschological edge over the "home" team who were cowering and praying to someone that they wouldnt end up in Coventry's worse electrical storm. To conclude, the game got called off, I got soaked for a 2nd time.

With not running around like a headless chicken telling 10 year olds to "wake up", "get a grip" and "sort your sham out" I decided to play 5aside football with Captain Pete - it was about time I got some football playing into me - so on the 3rd attempt, I got drenched to the skin, and to make matters even worse - got a swift elbow to the ribs by an opposition player, and felt my rib go inwards. Very strange feeling and completely knocked me for 6 - not only in the mind, but also in speed. We ended up loosing 12-9 or something, but still managed to get a goal - scrappy though it was - decided if ribs are better by Wednesday, I'll play my old stomping ground of 6pm KO as the kids now train on Friday - huzzar!

Welcome to the nut house

2006-10-03T22:52:00.000+01:00

As weeks go, the last couple of weeks have been that crazy rollercoaster that you dream about now and again. I ended up meeting up with someone I managed to get a number for a couple of fridays, had a couple of beers, and more beers, then some wine, then some spirits. Of all things I ended up in the local cheesy nightclub (Rios) and accompanied by more alcomohol - next thing I know, I'm getting kissed and told that she quite likes me and would like to go out some other time if I fancied. Well, you know, I'm one of these new men and welcome opportunities such as that and nodded and agreed as she shoved her tongue into my mouth (nice image I know). I have to say, I was a bit suspicious, but thats the kind of person I am - why would anyone like me - I'm just me ... you know

Anyhoo, 4 days later, I was in bed, having a special steve sleep - well trying too - and while hugging onto my special teddybear, my phone went off (time 23:34) to someone in tears asking why I havent been in touch and why I havent asked them out on a date, then a hung up tone. I smile, and rollover and fall asleep. 2 minutes later, the phone goes, and the same thing, at this point, insert the same routine 3 times, til the next time, I get a threat that they're going to "cut" themselves. Now, I'm not a trained specialist in the art of attention seeking, "cutting" or people who need that "special" help, but you obviously do the best you can to calm them down, and convince them, a) I'm really not worth it b) maybe they need some help and c) who would actually clean up the mess. Harsh I know, but my Cubs badge didnt really cover this kind of training, and I really needed sleep. So after 30 minutes of calming someone down, the phone goes dead again - then, as you know that at 18:00 the BBC 6 O'Clock news is about to start, the phone rings again, still to tears. I told her how it was and that she should go to bed, without any blades and everyones happy.

Needless to say - THIS FUCKING SCARED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME!!!!

I was busy the following week, so didnt have a chance to spend time on my own, nevermind entertain, so recieved a text from her and a phone call, with promises that it was a one off - so, like small shrew, I saw the best in somsone again. However this time, questions of where it was "all going" arose, small panic attacks, fist clenching and dragging nails into her own arms - I was ready to tell "Steve's Whitelie" of "Oh, I have to go meet my mate Rich down the pub, he's not very well you know". All of a sudden, her fist connected with my face - needless to say, after counting to 5, I politely asked her to leave, 18 pounds later of Chinese takeaway, I was still receiving text messages of "I've messed up, havent i?"

I know this is a little long, but my point is, where do you go from here - this seriously funks your head up and confidence with women and now can only think I attract a) crazies, b) people who deny they are crazy, but actually are and c) I really cant efford to spend 18 quids worth of chinese takeaway, everytime it happens.

From now ... crazy free town please!

Day off #1

2006-09-14T19:51:00.000+01:00

The last time I had a day off, was the Bali trip, since then, I've returned to work and not stopped, so a couple of days off to chill, relax and continue improving the flat isnt too much to ask, is it ? You would think not, however waking up around 10.30 to monsoon style rain over the canal, I decided to turn over and fall back asleep.

After deciding that I needed to do something with the day, I replied to a couple of football related emails, made myself a cup of tea and decided to get ready for a trip to Ikea. Normally a 35/40 minute trip on a good day, why not ?! Well, I knew it was going to be a bad day, when the shower wouldnt run hot, so checking the boiler and 20 minutes later, getting the water temperature I desired.

20 minutes into the car journey up the M6 - I was stuck in tailbacks of around 10 mile, knowing Newcastle United were kicking off around 15:55, I wanted to get back with enough time to get at least a couple of beers inside me. I reached my destination after 2 hours, scooted around Ikea, and returned (via a diversion) at 18:05 - finding out NUFC had win 1-0. In that process, spending around 100 quid on nice funky things for the flat, when in reality, I went for a pair of curtains I could dye! Needless to say, I also managed to pick up norwegian style chocolate, pastry and alcohol - alls not lost then!

Different levels of desperation!

2006-09-13T12:13:00.000+01:00

OK, I admit it, mainly before someone else spots it and takes the piss, I joined a dating website. Most of it was because I wanted to see who was out there on the market, and another part of me is fed up with being labelled as tapping people who, then going away feeling guilty about it. Why shouldnt I be "tapping" people up, I'm youngish, I'm alright looking, I'm single, and dont want to spend the rest of my life regretting things.

So, I've done it, I'm not convinced I'll do anything about it, nor am I convinced I'll spend money so I can "talk" to other people looking. But again, thats how I've always been, wait for other people to make the move.

Annoying this is, you can do a search by postcode, ie, who's single and local, and I dont know where the hell these people drink and/or socialise - if I did, I dont think I would be single. However, thats also assuming that they would be interested in such a shambles like myself.

U11 Colts - Match Day #1

2006-09-10T21:50:00.000+01:00

You may or may not be aware that I've taken up the management of Leamington Brakes U11 Colts. This is the first season that I've done any type of football management, and also the first time the lads have played 11aside. An interesting combination.

The Colts were the only team playing away from home today against Coundon Cockerels with a 1.30 kick off. This is the first season that the U11 Colts have played 11 aside, and indeed the first time myself, Pete and JJ have been involved in training and coaching kids.

Following the destruction of the one and only friendly that the colts were involved with (9-1 against emscott colts) we played a 5-3-2 formation, with Dan Dyson, David Fairbairn and Matthew Robertson in the centre of defence. Left and Right back were the twins (Gabriel and Isaac Saxton-Knight). Running midfield were Rory Barber (Cpt), Harry Gane and Aidan Bradbury, while Charlie Smith and Wilf Dove played up front and supported by the midfield. Richard "the stopper" Cure was ever present between the sticks.

Playing for the first time on a full sized pitch didnt phase the lads as the back 5 kept strong throughout the first half, with the Brakes going into the first half with a commanding effort with around 3 close chances and the opposition hardly getting a sniff on target. Making subs in the 2nd half (including Julian Loscombe, Nilun Dubay, Zack Wilkins and Thomas Henderson) the Brakes were playing into the sun, however after a number of counter attacks, the lads broke through the Cockerels defence, and Bradbury taking in a strong shot on target and the keeping making a hash of it.

The remaining of the game was 50-50 with it looking like the Brakes were about to get a good away 3 points. However, disaster struck with 2 minutes left and the Cockerels itching through our defence and putting it inches wide of Richard who had a blinding game. Refreshing to see a referee (who was their assistant) having a good game - and being awarded full marks by Leamington Brakes FC.

Final Score :-
Coundon Cockerels 1 - Brakes U11 (Colts) 1 (0-0 HT)

MOM :-
Rory Barber

Summary :-
60 minutes of 120% commitment from the lads and more importantly, playing as a Team.

Man Stroking Cock

2006-09-10T18:42:00.000+01:00

Man stroking his cock :- does what it says on the tin

The Magic Number?

2006-09-03T16:56:00.000+01:00

Not happy with getting tickets for the Kooks this year, I found that the Magic Numbers were also touring the UK - and playing in Brum at the end of Nov. After doing a quick round of who's in and who's out, I ordered 4 tickets for myself, Andy, Nomes and the lyrical shamster, Bellis. This is something I've been looking forward too for a while, and a band that I certainly watch out for new tracks on itunes and on t'internet. Hopefully they'll play some new material on the tour, and give us the chance to purchase some fantastic stylish tshirts.

4 - the magic number?

Wot No Posting - Update I

2006-08-30T09:36:00.000+01:00

After returning from Bali, I had a long weekend up in Newcastle, mainly to see the folks and sister, after all I hadnt been up since breaking my ankle all those months ago. Another reason was Abigail's Christening (Een and Sarah's new baby) back in my home down of Winlaton, and I'd arranged to take Philippa, as she cant drive yet - dur.

Normally when I go up, its all stressful and pressured, I think mainly because I dont go up that often, then I spend the whole time running around, trying to keep everyone happy, but not this time - it was pretty relaxed. I think it was due to still being in Holiday mode, but hey, it was still 5 oC cooler than in Leamington. One thing that didnt change, was my mum harping on about how me and Philippa are perfect for each other and oh, "blah blah blah".

I picked up Philippa as arranged and she looked stunning, she normally does, but this was drop dead stunning. The christening was nice, as far as churches go, and Abigail didnt cry at the ceremony, which is always nice. I bumped into Harry (Een's dad) at the party afterwards, where he harped on about me and Pippa getting it together, then Pippa decided to rate ties in order of niceness, mine coming bottom. I came to the conclusion, doesnt matter what it was, regardless if she does like me like that, I'd always rank bottom - but such as life you know.

We'd arrange to go watch Newcastle play Villareal that afternoon, then go for some beers and relax, however, when we got back to Pip's place, ordered a Pizza, she decided to go for a Powernap and I had to wake her when the football was about to start on channel5. We had a couple of beers, and decided that maybe we should just stay in and watch a movie instead - which we done.

A good long weekend, might actually go back up vr shortly.

Keep on running :: Nike +

2006-08-11T13:27:00.000+01:00

I purhcased a ipod nano before I went away on vacation in Bali, and a couple of days later, Apple and Nike released a joint partnership called Nike+. Effectively, its a small device that slides into the base of the ipod nano, the same slot that you dock with your PC, which communicates wirelessly to a small device which slips into the bottom of your Nike+ trainer. The device itself is pretty cheap, at 15 quid, however the expense comes when you have to buy the trainers, which to be fair, I've been after a new pair for a while, so its a small excuse, isnt it ?

I also purchase a Nike+ top, which has an embedded little pocket on the arm that houses your ipod nano, and also includes cable holes, so you're not running around and also strangling yourself at the time.

To calibrate the device, I popped my trainers on and wandered into town a couple of weeks ago, managing about 400metres, however today, managed around 2.18 miles. How do I know this ? Well, when you dock your ipod into the PC, it automatically updates the runs up to T'interweb via iTunes, giving you graphical view of when you slowed down, when you speeded up and updates every mile (or Km if you're metric).

Nike+ :: faster than me, obviously.

The Nike+ application also allows you to setup goals, mine is to run 10 miles in 8 weeks (of which I've done 2.1 miles so far) and it also allows you to challenge other Nike+ users within the same area or same age or same sex.

The Leaderboard function gives you a list of people (per week, per month, or ever) which allows you to drill down per sex, per geo, per age. Currently, out of everyone, I'm 10125th, and in the UK, 786th, and finally, in the UK, between the age of 30 and 39 and male, I'm 268th - impressive.

Cor Blimey Guvnor

2006-07-31T14:22:00.000+01:00

Strange that my life gets, lastnight just tipped it off nicely with a cherry. I got invited to play 5aside football with a couple of friends, and after 3 months out of injury and being away on vacation for 2.bit weeks - I thought perhaps it was a good idea to get fit once again. After arriving at the pitch, someone nudged me and said that no other than Ian Beale from Eastenders would be turning up. Of course, I laughed, then sure enough, he turned up, warmed up and was on the opposite team to me!

"Alright me ol' china!?" - Ian Beale, yesterday

Obviously being star struck, I managed to sandwich him between myself and one of his players on my first touch ... it felt good to be back. Adam Woodyatt, who plays Ian, managed to score a couple and put his team well in front, however up to the whistle, we managed to get a couple goals back to make it something like 5-3.

Not making excuses, because I thought I done alright lastnight, and the fact it was hot, and we played for 90 minutes, rather than the 60, I managed to come away without breaking anything - although I think my little finger is out of joint thanks to our celeb friend when I was in goal.

Duff Man - oh yeah!

2006-07-30T09:57:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm back from Bali, and within 90 minutes of returning to British soil, I discovered that Newcastle United had signed Damian Duff from Chelsea for 5 million quid. Fantastic news. Hopefully getting to the Villareal game next week with Miss Pippa to check him out and any new signings if we're lucky.

Things that go wrong for me #23

2006-07-09T13:02:00.000+01:00

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by docwharton.

Bad Karma!

2006-07-06T09:32:00.000+01:00

Good! Not winking now, oh Boo Hoo Hoo! *

"I miss my best friend Wayne!" - A Cry baby (yesterday) - centre

Fake Tiltshift

2006-06-27T17:55:00.000+01:00

I was reading FNM a while back and noticed some guy had taken a number of photographs, and manipulated it so much that it looked they were minature models. With joining flickr, you get to see different types of photography and of course it inspires you to get involved, try different things and learn something new. I had a chat to John about it and he give me a couple of FAQ websites on how to do it, and was even so kind to provide a suggested item of free software that can recreate the perception.

I've never classed myself as an arty type person, I leave this up to the likes of John, Rich and of course, World respected Andy Palin. So I was quite suprised how good it appeared once you understood what the application was trying to do, what to highlight and what to bring into focus.

Bruge - not really that small

The original photo from the above was taken 4 years ago in Bruge, knowing what the buildings looked like anyhow, it was quite nice applying this technique to the photograph and make it appear to be a mininature town.

Ice formations around a fountain.

Not happy with just taking buildings and streets, I've attempted to apply it to objects too with strange but effective results.

The rest of my fake tiltshift online folder can be seen at :-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/docwharton/sets/72157594178594772/

Gaffer - to you!

2006-06-19T22:48:00.000+01:00

The meeting I had up at the football club was all a little hush hush, not many people knew what was going on, and even I only knew the basics. I got up there in decent time, said hello to the people I already knew, got introduced to those who I didnt. Thats what I like about the club, its all very friendly, all very family so if you dont know who you're dealing with, someone will introduce you anyhow.

Anyhow, the reason I was there, was they were discussing the junior squad that they were putting out this season, turns out that after speaking to a couple of people about getting involved, that they were looking for a manager and a number of coaches. I've always wanted to do football managent, even got to the level where I was looking at how to do coaching badges. Anyways, I'd been asked if I wanted to get involved in football management with an Under 11's squad, and the talk I had with the Junior board was very positive, appears everyone is in the right direction - and they sold it to me.

We had a little handover from the guy who was currently covering the kids, as he was moving on to a new position, so got a couple of names and ideas, and got asked to attend a training session on Wednesday evening. All very sudden, but all very exciting - so much so I'm pondering creating a new blog for my experience - what do you reckon ?

Driving me to .. er drive!

2006-06-18T18:43:00.000+01:00

I've got a meeting at the football club tomorrow, and with the ankle healing up quite nicely, I thought its good time to give that old driving malarky a quick whizz, mainly because the car has been sat in the same place for the last 8 weeks.

I wanted to make sure that the car could actually move, just incase the battery had given up on keeping the slidy doors locked - but hey, it worked well, I had a drive around the block and managed to park it nicely outside my place overnight. Today driving, tomorrow the world!

Driving me to shop!

2006-06-17T18:54:00.000+01:00

Today has been planned for a while, shopping in Brum for the holiday - including clothes, technology and accessories. FHM were running a promotion where if you take a voucher you get 20% off - which isnt to shabby really - only thing is it ruined a nice photo Nikki Sanderson on the other side.

After lastnight we were a little knackered and hungover, but we stuck with it - including the heat and we managed to get into the city at a decent time, and started with Selfridges straight away, going out seperate ways, armed with our phones incase we got lost or bored. I headed straight to Ted Baker - spent a fortune in about 5 minutes, while in the same time frame - Debbie spent a small fraction.

I picked up an ipod nano to take away, its so small, you just think its going to break, but its actually fantastic. I didnt want to take my big 40Gb ipod away with me - incase it gets smashed - mainly because it has all my photos and ALL my music, some of which isnt stored anywhere else. Thats my reasoning anyhow, and I'm sticking to it - it does look smart tho.

After approx 5 hours, we got the O'Neills surf shop where we placed the voucher on the desk and the nice Oz guy was helpful to both of us - giving us hints and tips in Bali. As we spent over a certain amount, I also recieved a free surfing lesson which is worth around 80 quid - and 2 1/2 hours in total - just in cornwall. Its valid til december - so you never know - might be a laugh for a long weekend away.

All in all, an exhausting day, but enjoyable. Given a couple more hours, think I could have spent SO much more - so probably wise that we headed home.

Driving me to drink!

2006-06-16T23:57:00.000+01:00

John headed off to the magical mystical world that is called Wales for a stagweekend, leaving Debbie to lead me astray once more. We'd promised to have an early night as we'd planned to pop up to the Bullring in Brum to do some holiday clothes shopping.

Once we both mentioned cripsy duck, we had the taste on the tip of our tongues, so it was decided, we'd pop to the home of the sugary god to have a bit of chinese related food. We were going to ask MC to come out, as super gary was away with Mr John, however MC was warned to stay away from good people like us, incase she led us astray.

Once we'd finished our lovely food, we popped down to the Well to watch the 2nd half of a world cup game, and bump into some friendly faces. It was also the Leamington Peace festival, so of course, it was an excuse for everyone within a 25 mile radius to a) not wash for 3 days b) to pull out their hippy clothes from 20 years ago and c) talk about the NHS problems that are faced thanks to the government.

We bumped into a couple of Debbie's students (none of which offered to buy her a drink) who appeared to have social problems, one looking like a serial killer (and gets called that by his mates), one who has tourettes and then finally, one that looks like Chico from the X-Factor. Of course, I had to remind them of this fact - shouting "ITS CHICO TIME" and moving my arms like a clock in front of him.

Fun had by all... shopping tomorrow!

keep on running ...

2006-06-14T19:51:00.000+01:00

Today marked the 8th week that I broke my ankle - so what better way to celebrate it, by going out for a small jog / walk. Well thats what the intention was at the start, however it turned out to be a mini marathon. Trying to get myself fit for the holidays is going to be hard, but with eating sensibly (chips and fish fingers in the oven as we speak) and regular exercise (shopping in brum on saturday) I'm sure I can trim up. After a quick text convo with Debbie about if herself and John were out for exercise, I said I would do around a minute jog, then walk, and turn around and let them catch up when they went for a jog. Debbie explained what they would be doing, which involved a warm up walk to the bridge near the asda turn off, then jog to the "grate". On top of that, it was a walk for an extra minute, then jog back to the bridge again - cooling down with a 5 minute walk once again.

Sounds simple, so I started to walk and when they turned their backs and said they were off for a jog, I thought bugger it, lets jog - and I did - infact it was more comfortable than walking, a minute passed and I continued, next thing I knew, I got to the grate which apparently is around 2Km from our house - not bad going for 8 weeks of no exercise. John and Debbie continued for a minute around the corner, and I headed back, walking/limping a little - then when John caught me up, I thought I'd wait til Debbie turned up and jog slowly back with her - although a couple of stops and starts - managed to get back home without breaking anything or my heart leaping outof my body.

Hopefully this has eased my foot up a little more without putting too much pressure on the ankle - but we'll find out tomorrow/friday on that - although my good leg seems to have pulled/strained a muscle - not good.

In your face ebay bidders!!

2006-06-13T17:10:00.000+01:00

A cunning plan, so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a fox! What the hell has this got to do with my world - well you see - with Captain Rich not being too great at the moment, and being away from work, I decided to invite him down for a bit of Deal or No Deal and a sandwich and a sociable tinny while I worked a little more. I found that M&S had a nice deal on where you get one sandwich free if you buy another, and knowing that he's a massive fan of steak sandwiches with onions - thought it would put a smile on his face!

The previous night, I asked Rich if he would put a bid in for some tickets on ebay - and in the mix up, we missed it by about 20 seconds - gutted. I done a further search and there were a couple of sets of tickets on going for the next 24 hours - fantastic. So the plan was, get Rich buttered up, so he would put a bid in for me :o). We were discussing this, and it appears that I live in the 18th century, being an ebay virgin (although I do have a user ID) and dont use online banking. I tell you what, nothing like still using pigs and sheep to barter with - safe and you wont get some chavvy idiot stealing your pin number!

Anyhow, appears that we had 2 minutes left to bid for the Kooks tickets that I was after (sold out in 10 minutes apparently) with with a bit of tinkering, we managed to get a higher bid in and win the tickets - having not put a bid in previously. Sounds to be like a scandal really - you can win anything, as long as you put in a last minute bid which is high enough. After all this online-superinternethighway excitement, I managed to convince Rich that he didnt need this money "electronically" and I would write him a nice cheque.

World Cup Madness

2006-06-11T09:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday saw England kick off their world cup campaign over in Germany and you can feel the pressure cooker of passion start to fill up in England of expectation. It was arranged that we all would meet in the pub around the corner as a massive group, cheer on england and have a couple of beers. This did in fact happen, however, with two mini groups on different floors - which was quite nice, as it give an excuse to walk around and be sociable. We tend to use this pub when there are major footballing championships, mainly due to the number of large screens - nothing to do with the locals - honest. We got there around 12:30 ish, myself, Rich, Nomes and Andy P ended up on the top deck, while Debbie, John, MC, Gary, Tom and Abbi were down in the basement. Two years ago, the top deck was packed, however, this year it didnt seem that busy - we came to the conclusion it was down to being a Saturday, being very hot and people staying at home having a BBQ

Kick off came and went - first half was pretty good, second was pretty poor - with England winning 1-0 if you just came back from space.

After the match, I'd arranged to have a BBQ at my gaff, to say thanks to friends for their support after breaking my ankle, so once the BBQ got hot, food started to cook, beer started to flow. Needless to say, John and Debbie got revenge by being the last people there - which was nice to just chill and relax in quiet. Fortunately, there was no "big bloke falling over on patio" or "nomes drinking half a pint of morgans spiced rum" - just chat, laughter, banter, warmth and booze.

Confessions of a 31 year old - part one

2006-06-04T18:57:00.000+01:00

I've just been watching "The Hits" channel on the digi-foofoobox and after a couple of 80s tracks from Spitting Image & Star ship, Sonia came on. Way back when (and pleased my sister doesnt read this t'interwebblogpage) I used to like Sonia, and I thought she was pure talent, thanks to Stock, Aiken and Waterman, and my sister used to take the piss everytime I listened to my records. My sister suggested that I fancied her, and I would blush whenever Sonia was on top of the pops or the such like. With fantastic tracks such as "Listen to your heart", "Better the devil you know" and "You'll never stop me from loving you"

Sonia - Listen to your heart

Needless to say, after all these years, I confess, I fancied Sonia. Reckon she's still out there, somewhere, stunning, single and interested.

Future confessions to follow, maybe...

Hey Dr Nick!!

2006-06-01T10:35:00.000+01:00

During the 5aside football, I recieved a phone call from a colleague from downsouth, Dr Nick, saying he was in Leamington over night (probably wanting water due to their drought) and wondered if I wanted to go out for a couple of beers.

Dr Nick isnt in fact a doctor, but it makes a nice change from cabinboy and captain - so lets go with that theme. Nick is a nice chap and we've spent alot of time on the phone talking about this, that and t'other - so thought it would be nice to get out and about, and try my newly fixed ankle with the big bad world.

"Hello Everybody!"

I managed to walk from my flat down to the Well without the use of my crutches, which on a good day is about a 10 minute walk with the wind in the right direction. By the time I got to the bar, the back muscle was throbbing and pulling, nowt like pushing yourself a little too far hey!

Rich and Aido were already stood at the bar, so had a bit of a chat with them, had a couple of pints and decided that Chinese was the way forward, so a little light headed, we went to the nice posh Chinese just around the corner. We ordered duck pancakes, and a couple of main meals that we shared, and of course, Chinese Beer.

After we chinwagged, ate and paid the bill, we returned back to the Well, for a couple more, then sensibly called time when last orders were called (well, Nick called time, technically) and stumbled back home. A good night, nice to get out, nice to have peking duck too - mmm

Cast off!

2006-05-31T17:09:00.000+01:00

Debbie, my very nice Neighbour, took me over to the Hospital for my 6 week check on my ankle and trying to be a little positive, I packed my right trainer into my bag, but also expecting the worst too. Once we arrived, we sat in the waiting room and nattered about random things, including Debbie's weekend away at the hen-party with MC (who is special, apparently) and my trip to Sheffield.

I was expecting an Xray, however the woman who puts on and takes off casts came out and announced my name - this was looking good. There was a young girl who was waiting outside in the corridor peering in the room and just jokingly, I made out it was painful and that the woman was sawing my leg off - to which, this girl got very scared - whoops, sorry. The woman said after she'd take the cast off not to put any weight on it at all, of course, being a good boy, I listened and done as I was told.

I then went to see my Lion style doctor, Mr Aslan, who asked me if I was ok, to which I said yes, where his reply was OK, we'll sort you some physio. Not complex this medicial specialist malarky really is it ? Anyhooo, the lovely Physio Kate came to see me, asking me to "Par..." to which i asked, "Party?" where in fact she meant "Partially". We had a bit of banter, carry on and flirt, while Debbie just shook her head at me. Kate ( the lovely physio - did I mention she's lovely) give me some exercises to do with my ankle, told me how to use the new crutches and answered questions on what exercise I can do, and arranged an appointment for 3 weeks time to update each other. I managed to get this down to 2 weeks, to see if I could step up to some jogging before my holidays in 6 weeks time, rather than just swimming etc etc, she accepted the offer - yay.

An all round entertaining day with random chaos really. When I managed to get home (via Somerfield) I managed to discard the crutches and start walking around and do the foot exercises, then recieved a text from John O asking if I wanted to go watch the guys play 5aside football over in Warwick.

Bank Holiday Monday

2006-05-30T18:09:00.000+01:00

Traditionally, Bank holiday mondays are for DIY, digging the garden, and painting that shed that you've had out the back garden for years, which is surrounded by 3 foot tall grass. However, after wasting the last couple of weekends due to the British Summer, something was called for, something different.

Luckily, it just so happened that Jon Adams (Leamington FC attacking and skilled footballer) was called up to the England squad. Rather than the 11aside world cup squad, he'd been called up to the Futsal England squad. Yes, Futsal, not football, you heard me correct, I wasnt talking in tongues. The Futsal squad were (and are) playing in a 3 day compo, including other teams from Belgium, Cyprus and Belarus - all based around the Sheffield Sports Institute. Monday's game consisted of Belgium v Belarus (the latter winning by some goals to alot).

Now, the rules werent exactly clear to anyone on the motorway when we discussed it in the car, at one point, fairy cakes, ewoks and elvis were mentioned, but once we turned up, and started watching the game, it became a little clearer. For example

The 'keeper can only have the ball for 5 seconds, unless he goes over the halfway line, and then he becomes an outfield player.
20 minutes each way, however when the ball goes out of play, the clock is stopped.
Throw ins and corners have to be taken in 5 seconds, or goes to the other team
Once you reach 5 "team foul points" each foul after that becomes a penalty - this value being reset at half time
Each team can have 1 time out per half, for 1 minute at a time
Rolling subs can be used at any time, making sure that there are always 5 players on the pitch
There are two refs on the pitch - no linesmen - and one "daddy ref" who appears to control the board.
Its played on a court - not a pitch - apparently.

Now, thats all clear, isnt it ? well it was to us too, once we echoed the rules around the stand three or four times, and 10 minutes later, JJ still said "look, theres two refs and no linos". It all appeared to be a different type of football, apart from the rules, but wasnt as rowdy as a normal 11 aside game, probably because its in doors.

Anyhow, back to the game, Jon Adams came on in the first half for about 5 minutes, and managing to have a good run around, understanding the game and scoring a fantastic goal on his debut, just before being sub'd - which was a bit of a shame. In second half he was brought back on again, and once again had a good run around, proving that his 11aside ball control can be transfered to an indoor pitch.

Mr Adams - Ball skill master

The final score was 5-5 and England were unlucky to win, but it was a fantastic experience and good day out. Was also good to see and support Mr Adams, was also good to get talking to his Dad, Mr Mr Adams. Sadly, the following two games of the compo are today (tuesday) and thursday, so I wont be able to anymore of the games.

Drought? What Drought?

2006-05-22T11:26:00.000+01:00

When I popped around to Rich's the other day, there was an article on Sky News about some drought in the south, due to lack of rain. Now May has been a bit of a strange month, 3 days of stunning weather, followed by about 3 weeks of near constant rain.

After a weekend of rain, flooding is starting to occur, so if anyone from "darn sarf" wants some water, I'm willing to sell by the bucket load - say, 10 quid a bucket ?

" 22 boxes, only one question - deal, or no deal?"

2006-05-19T13:01:00.000+01:00

I've enjoyed watching the channel4 quiz show deal or no deal over the last couple of weeks. Its one of them shows that a mate gets you into, and you pass it on, and I thought for a laugh, I'd try to get us on the show as part of the audience. Its recorded in Bristol, so thought it would be an ideal opportunity for myself and Rich to pop down and see Captain Blunty and make a weekend of it - seems as we havent had a chance to get down there yet.

I filled the forms out that they automatically send back, and emailed them to the correct address - and within about 10 mintes, I had a reply from a very helpful and friendly Audience Coordinator (Zoe) stating that we're on the list for the 3rd series, in Sept / Oct - Brilliant.

On a bit of a mission, I thought I'd ask for signed photo of Mr Edmonds, so sent a very nice begging letter off to the (we hope) so lovely Zoe to ask for a couple, one for me, one for Rich. I recieved a reply stating that they are not given out WillyNilly and that only because I'd asked very nicely, she'd send me out a couple. I have to say, when I told Rich, we were both a bit sceptical, but true to her word - they turned up this morning, a little wet, but looking fantastic.

Got to see if I can get a fluffy a5 frame now to ensure that its looked after correctly.

"Hello Noel"

Next on Steve's random plan, getting Joe Pasquale's autograph from "the price is right".

NY WIFI IN CP?

2006-05-17T10:34:00.000+01:00

In the words of Collapsed Lung's song, Interactive;

time, time to get technical, no need, no need to get personal, could be
virtually in invirtual, be interactive.

Turns out that Central Park in New York City is to become wireless area for laptops, PDAs and even gaming systems such as the PSP and DS. If the yanks can do this for free, whats stopping the UK doing it, however, will Central Park be sponsored by AOL or Microsoft as part of the deal. Anyways, you can read more on T'interweb (not free) here :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4988792.stm

Cup Final : Sad way to end a fantastic season.

2006-05-16T23:47:00.000+01:00

Tonight we played Barwell in the cup final up at Walsall's Bescot stadium. We'd previously thrashed Barwell in the league 4-0 so there was alot of optimism and banter going around the message boards and mates when you speak to them on MSN. I was lucky enough to have, once again, John and Debbie drive me up and we made it in good time, got to the ground and the pitch looked nice, something that could help us have a good game.

Once we started getting into the ground, the noise was massive, mainly down to the elite club that is known as the North Bank, this time purched on the back row of the stadium and the volume just catapulted to the rest of the ground. Captain Pete then started the "you've only got one leg" chant, to which I blushed a little and we happily joined them at the back.

The team lined up, and the North Bank chanted each of their songs, then went on to "Clap your hands if you went to Merthyr" which frustrated me (post to be added) along with "We saw Rich's c**k" aimed at Richard Adams who was the team ringer in Wales and on the pitch for support.

At kick off time, Barwell set their stand out pretty obviously, taking out one of our players on their first "touch" along with shirt pulling, elbowing. However, this is something that the Brakes doent adjust very well, but we continued to chant, sing and clap, much to the unamusement of some of the "fans" around us. We conceded a sloppy goal, taking us into halftime, where we gradually managed to get a grip on the game, and the break coming a little too early for us.

The second half started a little better, with the Brakes getting into the game a little more however after 60 mins we conceded yet another sloppy goal taking it to 2-0. We managed to claw back a goal after 70 minutes, and the game was there to be won really. There was a sense of urgency, then the sucker punch of a Barwell player going down in the box, with a comedy dive, and then of course, 3-1 came from that. This got the Brakes's backs up a little and the volume lifted even higher than you would think was possible, where there was quiet parts to the stand, was now lifting. Hands started to clap, feet started to stamp and fans started to sing, however, this wasnt enough, and the final whistle was blown.

The players clapped the fans, the fans clapped the players louder, however when the Barwell players went up to get their winning medals, the Brakes fans sang even louder to droan out the Barwell fans. The only time the Barwell fans were noticed, was when their three goals went in, apart from that, it was complete silent support from them.

Well done to the team, well done to the fans.

Worst Day - EVER!!

2006-05-11T13:39:00.000+01:00

I woke up this morning, feeling very dodgy - I'll spare you the details - its for the best. My eye sockets were constant pain, and as the day dragged on, mainly due to meaningless meetings, I worked out, round about now, I should be on the road up to Newcastle, getting ready for Shearer's testimonial. Yeah, its on ITV4 tonight, but its not the same as being in the stadium, surrounded by 52,000 other geordies chanting and shouting at Shearer. Its not the same as being there with Philippa a life long friend who tried to help out.

So, I suspect that I'll stay in, with part wine, part nurofen cheering in my black and white top, snuggling up on the sofa, rather than being in a crowded stadium then heading back to see the folks and my sister.

My sister, dad and friends are looking out for a couple of testimonial programmes so I can pass on to Mike and Tom H, but most importantly, my dad managed to get hold of a Shearer limited edition bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale for me. Sounds like they havent even released them outside the region, so chances of getting them in the West Midlands are next to nothing.

My Dad phoned lastnight to ask if I wanted the BBC 1 (Tyne and Wear only) prog of Shearer recording onto VHS. I dont have a video player, so will have to see if Mr John next door can rip it off and encode it onto DVD - or sit there watching it myself ;o) Failing that, trawling thru bittolerant to see if they have it on there - heres hoping.

No football, so rugby will have to do

2006-05-09T09:57:00.000+01:00

Lastnight was due to be the cup final between Leam FC and Barwell up at the bescott, due to weather reasons this was called off and with the up and coming 6aside compo in Wales this weekend, I suggested a meet up and a couple of beers. I initially suggested bottom of Leam, mainly because it meant I could get there, but then received an email from Mr Vince asking if we wanted to go over to Rugby and he'd pick me up.

Now, after living down here for, well, 8 years now, I've never been to Rugby yet, and pretty ashamed of it, seems as its not too far. I thought why not, be a good laugh, and there was mention of real ale too, so as directed met Vince at the correct time on the street and sure enough, they were on the dot. After a brief introduction to Pete (scary stalking lad) and "headbutt pete" we were on our way to Rugby. We were given rough directions to the pub of "behind M&S", of course, we didnt know where M&S was, so we just drove towards the town centre - within minutes we were there at the Merchants.

I was introduced to a couple of the Rugby leam fans, turns out that their Rugby Town club turned on the fans and treated them badly, so they went to find a new club, and that turned out to be the Brakes. Fair enough and they all turned out to be nice chaps too, although, expecting to be heading up to the Cup Final, they'd been in the pub since 3pm, so were a little on the drunk side. A little later, the lovely Liz turned up and the guys started to swarm around her, I blinked and had around 4 pints of "Jarrow Ale" which was very nice, but went straight to my head.

We managed to sort out tactics out, Reddich Adams will be playing up front, and we're packing the midfield and defence with beefy lads. Beyond that, nothing made too much sense, and the Rugby lads started to sing drunken football chants, getitng louder and louder, with some of the "locals" getting a bit miffed. This egged the Rugby lads on a little more and started to sing "its all gone quiet over here" while picking up a little more volume. In the end, the barman came over and warned them - great, first time in Rugby and asbo'd straight away.

After a quick call, I entered a real ale based coma, waking up around 9am, ready or work - really do hope today is going to be quiet.

back to the NWG

2006-05-07T20:28:00.000+01:00

I've never claimed to be a nice person in the morning, even tho I used to work in a Newsagents on a Sunday morning - I learnt through experience, I'm a late riser. Oncall with work certainly drummed it into me, so when I promised to help out at the New Windmill ground again, and told that they were starting at 8am, I was in a little shock.

After making a cup of tea, having a nice bath and dressed, I was in the car again back to Leam FC's ground. When I got there, the rest of the organisers were in the kitchen making tea, coffee and bacon sandwiches - and after the two bottles of wine lastnight, when they asked if I wanted a sandwich, I jumped at the chance to soak the booze up.

I got a little more involved today, writing out cards for the games, and to be honest, thats about it, but it was getting a little brighter, so armed with my iPod I was able to chill out, watch slightly older lads play in compos against each other.

Lunch turned up and we were offered more free tea, and free burgers from the burger bar, along with chips - which was nice, considering. I had a chat with one of the organisers and they said that they reckon to raise about 2K for club over the two days - which can only be a good thing.

After the last final was played, it was agreed that the organisers (including kids and adults) would have a knock around. Me being in my situation meant I couldnt get too involved so said I would referee, this lasted about 3 minutes til the novelty of hopping around wore off, so one of the official refs took over. Meanwhile, someone was away cooking sausages (free again) and we had a nice quiet pint and chattered.

A long heavy weekend, but made a lot of new friends and felt that I was accepted by a community. Have to say that the kids that were helping to organise the event, were good as gold (christ, I am getting old with phrases like that) and even helped me out. They have it all to do again next week, however with Wales on the Saturday, I doubt I'll turn up for the Sunday session - at some point, everyone needs a bit of special time.

Helping out at the NWG

2006-05-06T23:17:00.000+01:00

With the premiership and noneleague football finished on saturdays, I was at a bit of a loss on what to do today. A heavy late night lastnight, meant sleeping and getting out of bed just after midday - lazy you may think, but well deserved after a cruddy week.

Leam FC was holding a 6aside compo and I'd said I would get up at some point to show face and hopefully show alittle bit of focus for the master plan I mentioned a couple of weeks ago on here. I managed to scrounge a lift up there - just as it was starting to rain, so well timed, and got introduced to members of the club who I know, but not to speak to - so it was nice to get involved.

A couple of the players had turned up to referee and help out, as well as some of the fans, but it was nice to see the club putting something back into the community. With being on crutches, I felt a little left out and unable to help, apart from stand there, watch the kids play football and keep out the way. I spoke to one of the guys who is one of the youth managers, and my 5aside friend Mick had mentioned I was interested in coaching. It was good to catch up with Kev, and he said they were looking for another coach for the Under 9's and would mention me in a meeting on Wednesday coming, but didnt see it being a problem. This brought a smile to the face straight away, being involved in something, even tho I've never done it before - see it as a challenge tho.

By 5.30/6pm the last final of the day was played and it was time for the organisers to chill out and relax with a pint, and thats probably the most I done all day - downed 2 pints of "xxxx". I managed to get a lift home and put my feed up and relaxed, watched TV and got into the rut of having a bit of a late night. I'd said I would help out again the next day, albeit in a "standing out the way and not annoying way" type of help

Legends * (warning, only includes 4 legends)

2006-05-04T22:30:00.000+01:00

In true channel 5 style, they managed to destroy what would normally be a good idea, and entertaining show, by placing 3rd rate presenters and contestants. Tonight was the football legends of England and germany playing against each other at Readings stadium - fun you may think ?

The show went into great depth about the clashes between England and germany and was interesting, then when the game started, the England team consisted of a couple of Legends, and them some celebs and sportsmen from different areas of sport, of which England had 3 x number 11s (the idea being that the players picked their own favoured positions and numbers).

After 10 minutes, the first player came off, with a sub replacing him, the swapped player harped on how hard it was and difficult it was against the germans (who at this point were already 1-0 up). The germans looked like the were gel'ing well together, and it turns out, that they go on tour and play football together alot, where as England, managed by Monkey's Heed Peter Reid, hardly spoke to each other.

The game was more or less was given to germany, but a moment of comedy genius and excellent sportsmanship provided entertainment to millions - Boris Johnson, taking out a German by running him down "bull style". Maybe he's our answer to England's Rooney problem. Anyhooo, have a scan for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIUp19bBoA

Cast away, in 4 weeks!

2006-05-03T19:17:00.000+01:00

Today marked my second visit to the nice fracture at Warwick Hospital - where I was hoping to get the damn cast off. I know it was looking on the brighter side of things, but at the back of my mind, I'm thinking two weeks to full recovery is probably nigh on impossible. Debbie was kind enough to take me over for the 14.30 appointment and we got there in good time, checked in and sat in the waiting room - along with the other 45 people. There was a good mixture of people in the waiting room - old, young, normal looking, funny looking, happy and sad people - so, to skip the time, we took the piss.

After an hour, my name got called by a nice looking nurse and she led me to the xray room - unsure what was happening, she got me on the bed and set my leg up for an xray, without the cast coming off - I was a little confused to say the least. 10 minutes later, she handed me the xray and pointed us in the towards the specialist corridor.

After a small wait, we were invited back to Doctor Aslan's room, just previous to that we managed to get a sneek preview of the xray and couldnt see anything. The good old Doctor confirmed that the healing was going well, and then expected him to say, "cast off - take care". We talked a little, he asked what I'd been up too - so I told him that I've packed myself full of milk to build up the calcium - to which he laughed, alot. So much so, he couldnt keep a straight face when he handled the xrays. He in turn packed me off to the plaster department, to get a new cast placed to replace this old skanky looking one.

Twenty minutes later, the plastering nurse was taking a drill to my foot, and promised that I wouldnt be cut, or have my leg hacked off accidently. Fair play to her, she was right, however, she then ended up cutting half of my leg hair off. Due to the colour of my toes the last couple of days, I half expected the colour of my foot to be the same, so ended up taking my camera to record the evidence, however was a little disappointed when the cast eventually did come off. All that was there was normal skin colour, and my foot still a little swollen up, and within minutes the next cast was on and drying.

All that happens now, is 4 weeks worth of sitting around waiting til it fixes itself, assuming on top of that - a couple of weeks of physio. Which in theory gives me about 6 weeks to walk, jog and swim before holiday. Fingers crossed, that gets me up to the world cup finals and off with it - so I can get around pretty freely.