Movember

Coming shortly. Men everywhere will be spending November growing moustaches to raise awareness of prostate cancer. There's still time to start your own team or otherwise get involved, so visit Movember and take a look.

Maybe They Didn't Warn Him About The Rain

So Steve Coppell's left the bobbin' lot from the other end of town after a mere 112 days in charge and with a competitive record of played two, lost two. David James must be wishing he'd joined the queue of ancient keepers outside the Emirates hoping for a job rather than ply his trade on a patch of grass which is going to be a supermarket sooner rather than later, I suspect.

Meanwhile the seagulls continue to plan. I don't suppose they care that John and I are on to them, they know their time will come.

Oliver Curd Trust - Queen's Head Update

A quick update on the Oliver Curd Trust fund-raiser at the Queen's Head, Bristol, on Saturday 17th July. Thanks to everyone who made Saturday such a good night, in particular the Fraser Road Race Band who dragged their sorry arses all the way from Shepton.


A good time was had by pretty much everyone I think - even those who ate the cheeseburgers - and over £360 is now winging its way to the Oliver Curd Trust.

Outstanding.

Eduardo Off, Easynet Sold Off, Too

Sad to see E9 off to Shaktar. More than enough's been said about what's happened to the poor guy over the last couple of years so all I'm going to say is thanks, and good luck.

I see that Easynet, or at least part of it, has extricated itself from the Murdoch empire. Quite what's going on here isn't at all clear, certainly not to me at any rate, but it's been organized by David Rowe, a man whose past record speaks for itself, and is therefore likely to be a good move for Easynet.

I wonder what will happen now to the Three Men I Admire Least?

Back Ache

Ouch. And my ankle hurts. Perhaps it's all down to the weird, tomato-killing weather. Mind you, quite why I worry about the tomatoes when I don't actually like them when they're all nice and ripe and far prefer the green tomato chutney we might have to make tons of if the weather b0rks them again is quite beyond me. I'd like the sun back, though, please.

Today's Cesc-botherer: Sergio Busquets.

17 July 2010 - Queen's Head Bristol - Oliver Curd Trust Charity Gig

Come along to the Queen's Head, Bristol (junction of Royate Hill and Fishponds Road) on Saturday 17 July for some groovy Rock 'n' Roll fun, a raffle and a BBQ all in aid of the Oliver Curd Trust.

Hey Boys! I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK...

Oh yes indeed.

Oh Football Results, we smile at you!

We're Crap And They Think We Are

And there we are, second and with a game in hand on the teams in first and third places.

Have a great week, I think mine is going to be hard work but I've no problem with that at this stage - I'm starting with a fair shot at things.

Make it a good one chaps, speak later.

It Be The Weekend

Saturday's come and there's that there football on. We're away to Wolves. The result of today's game won't decide anything, but I'd not be surprised if, come the end of the season, we look back on this game as providing something of a turning point - a win would put as right in the frame with United and Chelsea, one or both of whom *have* to drop points tomorrow. We simply must win today.

Elsewhere it's off to Pucklechuch this evening for the Primary School fireworks do. This should be most excellent fun and there will, I'm told, be hot chestnuts and the like. Party on, dudes.

Right, where's that tea?

Incoming!

It's Bonfire Night and the dark early evening sky is awash with splashes of colour and showers of baby stars. Unfortunately the accompaniment of explosions and other assorted bangings isn't being too well received by the house's K9 units. Impressed they most certainly are not.

Good result for us last night, not at all a clever one for the Scallies who are now, somewhat amusingly, favourites to win the Europa League thing. Those bookies are a right bunch of wags, are they not?

Could It Be Rafa?

AZ Alkmaar at home in the CL tonight. A win is more than possible here, and it'd set us up nicely to be spending our time concentrating on other fronts for a while. Come on you Gunners!

Elsewhere, the Soaraway Sun is sticking it to Gordon Big Issues big time, and quite right too. Why the wretch can't just call an election is beyond me, it really is.

Very odd journey back on the bus today - well, it might be entirely normal for buses, but I'm a recent convert to commuting that way - loads of coversations, but all one-ended because everyone was talking on their mobiles to people off the bus. Weird. Rather sad, actually.

Update: Half Time sees us 2-0 up and the Scallies drawing 0-0. It's the 'Pool on the box and I have to say they're doing OK. Torres is useless, though to be fair he's supposedly injured, but Benayoun and Kuyt are playing really well. I have a sneaking suspicion Voronin's hard work may yet be rewarded...

Tuesday's Child Requires A Beer

Stan Kroenke has purchased a further 427 shares in Arsenal's parent holding company and now has a stake of 29.6% - another step closer to the 29.9% threshold that would trigger the requirement for a formal takeover bid. A few years back I'd have been very wary about this situation, nowadays - SK having shown considerable decorum and respect in his dealings both with the club and us minion fans - way less so. The spectre of Usmanov lurks horribly and so Stan's the man for me if we really can't stay the way we are - and I suspect "the way we are" is the way most fans would like us to stay. SK seems, though, to understand the "patient and sane" approach AW has taken in his managerial stewardship of the club, and in particular the way the move to the new stadium has happened. Good.

Not a lot else going on, it would seem. So let's get that beer...

Yippeee! It's Another Week!

A win over the SFTL is always fine, and one when (a) they've been bigging themselves up before hand and (b) David Bentley is playing will always be good. 'Arry wasn't happy, but then he's no more Brian Clough than Robbie Keane is Joe Namath.


Notice how his shirt number falls between DB10's and TH14's. It's all in the stars, they say.
A new job today, so this is just a brief one. More later in the week, I hope.

Have a good one, all.

It's Dark Out There

Very, very dark in fact and it's only 18.44. Winter, is that you?

Great win last night - I listened to it on the wonderful Five Live, and most enjoyable it was too, though I was a a tad worried at times that John Motson was about to implode under the weight of his own implausible controversies. Alan Green is cool though. The stuff football's made of.

On the subject of what football's made of it no longer lists Marlon King as an ingredient. The journeyman player/full-time ****wit has been locked up for 18 months for breaking a diminutive female student's nose when she objected to him groping her. At his age and with Newcastle now almost behaving like a normal club it's difficult to see him getting back to top-flight employment - Wigan having done the decent thing and sacked him - when he gets out in about 3 weeks, so at least there'll be some sort of justice.

Friday tomorrow. I understand this to be a good thing, and will attempt to behave appropriately.

Heroes, Lies And The BBC

David Shepherd, cricketer of these parts, umpire of 92 tests and bonne-oeuf-toute-circullaire, as young Pete would say, has died, aged only 68. He'd been battling cancer for some time. He will be missed - I suspect, though, that his Nelson-hopping routine will soon become a regular supporter dance routine at grounds up and down the country.

Elsewhere the BBC are trying to make Andre Agassi's confession that he lied about how he came to fail a drugs test way back in his dark days when he'd fallen down to around 140 in the world into a "star admits taking stimulants" story. No chaps, it's not. It would seem he took crank/tina/meth once and explained the test failure away as saying he'd drunk a doctored drink. Does anyone at the beeb know what this drug does? Do they seriously think he could actually *compete* regularly under its influence? Get a ****ing grip on reality and give credit where credit's due for the man's honesty.

Carling Cup tonight and we're at home to the Scallies. Bring it on, I love this competition, I really do!

Roll On The Big One

Golly that was a long week! Still, here we are at Saturday and a welcome day of rest. Anything I do today will involve trips to the fridge, methinks. Tomorrow it's bike polishing and then off down to the Queen's Head for The Big One.

Normally Reds vs Reds derbies leave me a tad cold, but this is a MASSIVE game and no mistake - the beauty of it, too, from a Gooner point of view is that any result is a good one for us, so we can just sit and enjoy it for what it is. And enjoy it I'm certainly hoping to do. We do need to get a result at the Boleyn Ground later on, but I'm quitely optimistic we'll do that, however much of a bogey team/PITA the Hammers have proven to be in the past.

Right, off to the fridge. Laters, dudes.

Update: Smile, friends, the SFTL have just lost at home to Stoke :)

It's Good To Talk

If people spent a fraction of the time engaged in dialogue that they do trying to avoid it the world would be a far better place. This strikes me as a pretty universal, if perhaps a tad obvious, truth. Whatever. Onwards.

Last night's result isn't going to set the world alight but it'll do just nicely, thanks. What on Earth is going to be made of the current plight of the Scallies is another matter altogether. Plenty of moaning on the fora today - I think they're quite possibly right that Rafa's more likely on his way than not, but I'm less convinced of an immediate descent into the Old Bob's Sunday Specials League just now. West Ham strike me as more likely to be going there next, IMHO. Sunday's game will be a big one, though, and no mistake.

And so to bed. Or at least the kettle.

Quite Tiring, This Working Mallarky...

Another day at work and I have to say I'm rather tired. Pleasantly so, though: working at least leaves you thinking it's an appropriate feeling. Long may it continue. The work that is, not the tiredness of course.

It's dark and wet here in Bristol now - 18.00 and it's beyond dusk, Winter's well and truly on its way. I love this time of year, I have to say.

AZ Alkmaar away tonight in the CL. I know absolutely nothing about AZ beyond the fact that they're Dutch and bottom of the Dutch league atm. The former should always provide a bit of concern and the latter is pretty meaningless given they've only played two games. We've got a fair record against Dutch opposition, though, and if I were to jump off the fence and offer a prediction I'd go for an away win for us. It's live on SS3, so I won't be watching it, though it is also on Five Live so I may get to hear a bit until the Boss notices.

Hoggin' The Bridge 2009

Sunday saw the 10th annual "Hoggin' The Bridge", a charity event organised by the Bridgewater HOG chapter. It's basically a rideout from the Aust Services in England over to Chepstow in Wales. It says it's 5 miles to Chepstow when you're on the English side. This is a tad deceptive in terms of how you'll be spending your time on HTB day...


First wake the neighbours...
We met up at sparrowfart with bacon rolls and tea, hoping to get to Aust before the place got too chaotic. It's a 10 minute journey from here, so our seven bikes and eleven people set off just before 10.00 for the advertised 11.00 start. It was indeed about a 10 minute journey to the roundabout at Aust Services. From that point on time went a tad random.

The roundabout was interesting. Several hundred bikes at each entrance, one car in the middle of it all. Not much fun for the car, and not too much fun for the bikers either - this is nowhere near as disciplined and well-marshalled an event as the RTTW, there's an element of "everyone for himself" that doesn't sit well with being in charge of an unstable (you're moving at walking pace) vehicle when you're surrounded by other similar vehicles all within inches of each other. Top Tip: make sure your clutch is properly adjusted before trying this particular game.


EasyBikerz
We eventually got into the Services, but got split into a couple of groups. No matter, we managed to find each other, have a few cups of tea (and yet more bacon for Andy) and then re-form as a group once the ultra-keen had moved off. We still crawled out of the place though, now in a none-too-clever three/four abreast convoy to head off over the bridge.


Aust Services: possibly not a good day to pop in to to wash the Porsche...

Time for a break
It didn't take forever to get over the bridge, but after that everything just slowed to a crawl. We weren't the only people (as you can see) taking a "revive my wrists" rest on the way. On reflection a number of us would probably have stopped more often had it not been for the riduculously short distance we were supposed to have been travelling.


Chepstow: actually quite scenic
And then we were in Chepstow. We sought out tea (even Andy was briefly off his bacon) and cooling breezes. A fair few people had gone out first thing thinking "hmmm, it's cold" and put on tights/leg warmers etc. To say they were regretting this by the time they got to Chepstow is an understatement of no small proportion.

Chepstow itself is really rather pretty. The town takes full advantage of the event, as well they should: even the senior citizens club had geared up with quadzillions of extra sandwiches to sell.


It's true, Andy can't resist the lure of bacon

Chepstow: also absurdly hilly
All in all it was a great day out, but I think if I do it again I'll just cross the bridge and head straight back. The ride into Chepstow was just too slow and too badly organised: an experience yes, a pleasure no. I might go back over to take another look at Chepstow, though. Looks like a nice place and there are plenty of pubs...

A Somewhat Different Week

Interview on Wednesday, started work on Thursday. Brilliant. OK, so it's temp work and likely to be short-term but it's got me back in the game and it's released the Evil Empire's grip on my ankle. It's great to be back, I have to say.

Tomorrow is Hogging The Bridge day. I hope this turns out to be as much fun as it promises to be, good weather would be almost as good a start as the enormous number of bacon rolls the Boss is now geared up to make. There should be a few of us leaving from here - thankfully the neighbours all appear to like bikes - and I'm hoping we can meet up with the Invicta HOG lot for some tea and a greasy-thing-in-a-roll over in Chepstow. Pictures will, I hope, follow in due course...

Proper football is back today. It's half-time for the normal time kick-offs and we're 2-1 up against Birmingham. We *should* win this and, to be honest, we *have* to win this. Elsewhere, Chelsea have already lost to Villa and the Manchester Red Devils are predictably stuffing Bolton. Liverpool are managing to lose, being a goal down after the ball deflected off a balloon. Liverpool players are up in arms: read the laws, chaps.

More in a while, perhaps. And so to the fridge...

Update: Well we won, 3-1 in the end; United won, too, as did the SFTL. However, both Chelski and the Scallies managed to lose. Interesting.

The top five positions are now occupied thusly:

Man Utd 22
Chelsea 21
Tottenham 19
Arsenal 18
Man City 16

However, whilst the top three have all played 9, we've played 8 and Citeh 7. Early doors and all that. The blue half of Manchester play Wigan tomorrow, so I anticipate we'll be fifth come Monday morning. *But* we'll be only four points behind the leaders with a game in hand. Good enough for me for mid-October, I have to say.