Is it a turkey? is it a duck?

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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...

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 ??

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.

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!

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!