Just me and Alex

I let myself down on the project of blogging every day, but I was seriously lacking inspiration the last couple of days so thought it'd be better just to take a short breather. I am still short of inspiration but I'll grind out an entry anyhow.

Alex is back in town and last night I went to the Manor with him and Loz. It was a good night and I had a bit of a headache this morning, though I'm pleased to report I dealt with it fine and I'm ready for more action tonight. However, it doesn't look like anyone else is. I've been at the drawing board for what Al and I can do and I have a couple of ideas, though I'm still disappointed there won't be any other faces around and this is a feeling I'm having to suffer rather too often. I'm going to stop before I get too emo.

The power of blogging

Reading Alex's blog yesterday rekindled some fond memories. It's always nice to read someone's blog, especially when it's apparent that a little extra effort has gone into it. It's also nice to read someone's writing on a subject rather than hear them speak about it. To write about something requires more thorough thought and Alex's post I found most entertaining. It's also funny because I know that it was a result of Al experiencing extreme boredom; funny things happen when you're alone for too long!

So, to one and all, keep up the blogging.

Champions League is back

Three more days at work before I'm off, and there should be some pretty good banter when I'm finished. More darts and drinks on Thursday, then Alex is back for a week so that should be good fun.

The Champions League is back, and with Arsenal doing so poorly in the Premiership this year this could well be their last Champions League tie for at least 18 months. Last time the Gunners were in danger of not finishing in the top four they were inspired to go all the way to the final in Europe, all with a makeshift back four led by Philippe Senderos. I can only hope for something similar this year...

I was going to say that I hope they spank Roma tonight, but thinking about it it would be nice just to score a goal for a change. Come on Arsenal.

I've put on another Kickingbet too, on Real Madrid to win the Champs League (13/1 on Betfair)

Another cool song

This week's song that I can't get out of my head is 'Take Me Back' by Tinchy Stryder and Taio Cruz, it's been in the charts and it's very catchy. Listen to it twice and you won't be able to stop singing it, guaranteed! That's twice I've plugged a song of Taio Cruz's on this blog; a weird artist for me to like but he obviously strikes the right chord with me or something!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d1xFqsPagc

Arsenal to finish top four?

I did a post on January 10th discussing Arsenal's chances of winning the title. Let's avoid how stupid that looks in retrospect. I listed their next twelve games and argued that they were all 'winnable'. Well the Gunners haven't actually lost a game for a while but they've suddenly developed a crisis with scoring goals, which is a rare problem for them! So, five weeks after that post I'm going to do another Arsenal-related entry, this time posing the question: will they finish in the top four?

Aston Villa have somehow kept winning all this time, though I'm hoping that their defeat to Chelsea yesterday will somewhat burst their bubble and they will embark on a nasty swing of losses and frustrating draws. An injury or five would also be nice. Looking at their next six games, they have a tough run coming up:

1 March v Stoke (h)
4 March v Man City (a)
15 March v Spurs (h)
22 March v Liverpool (a)
5 April v Man Utd (a)
12 April v Everton (h)

Compare this fixture list to Arsenal's, and the Gunners have a considerably less daunting set of matches:

28 Feb v Fulham (h)
3 March v West Brom (a)
14 March v Blackburn (h)
21 March v Newcastle (a)
4 April v Man City (h)
11 April v Wigan (a)

I think it is fair to say that if Arsenal haven't caught up by the end of that game against Wigan then that's it. The game after that is against Liverpool at Anfield which will be HUGE if Arsenal have managed to scrape into fourth because I think Villa will still be right on their heels.

Football aside, I went after work to the RE Bar with Carl, Daz and Loz last night. Two fat girls started chatting up Daz and moved on to the rest of us. I told them I was a pilot, Daz that he was a doctor, Loz that he was a teacher and Carl that he worked for the MoD (and couldn't say any more than that otherwise he'd have to kill them). They kept trying to drag us up to dance and were loitering around the doorway so we couldn't leave without going past them. By this time it was pretty late and there weren't many people left in the bar and it was clear the girls were waiting for us to make a move so they could pounce on us. Always having one last trick up our sleeve though, we acted like we were going out the back into the smoking area for a cigarette but instead vacated the premises via the back gate outside, haha!

Until next time, ciao.

Great weather (but don't hold your breath)

Looking out the window this morning it is a fine, fine day. The scene I'm looking at right now is better than what the whole of the last two summers provided. Unfortunately I'm on a late shift today so I won't have enough opportunity to fully savour the weather, which is a shame as there's a good chance this is the best it's going to get in 2009. The temperature in summer might be higher, but I'd gladly accept every day in the summer ahead to be like today at the expense of a few degrees but with guaranteed sunshine over miserable rain.

Sadly my speculations and frustrations won't affect the weather gods. But please, please... if there's anyone out there, please can we have a decent / normal (whatever that means) summer this year.

Well I'm definitely a mug

So we didn't even get past the first game on the accumulator yesterday. Phil Taylor, winner of God-knows-how-many World Championships and who'd been in scintillating form of late, suddenly decides to draw with the deadbeat Terry Jenkins.

Today. Don't know what I'm going to do. Again, there is no one to play with. Loz and Bot doing something with workmates. Gareth working. Daz not drinking. Alex away. Covey ill. It is Friday night before I go back to work tomorrow and I'm stuck. Not good.

Nice weather outside and no one to do anything with. I'm very tempted to go on holiday by myself in the next month or so. I just have to have the bottle to actually go ahead and book it. I probably won't but I'm still flirting with the prospect.

Mug punting again :-)

Today I return to mug punting on Premier League darts and it feels good to be back! I think it's me, Loz, Botty and Daz who are in on the action tonight and we're doing an accumulator on Taylor, Barny, King and Klaasen all to win. If it comes down to just needing Klaasen to win I might ring up and put a cover bet on Mardle, though it will have been an exciting night if it gets that far anyway!

I've also put a small bet on PSG to win the UEFA Cup after reading Chris's latest update on KickingBets.

Good luck to all those gambling today!

5 years ago today

5 years ago today I was 18 years old in the final year of school, due to take my final A Level exams in June. By this point I'd been rejected by Oxford so my top two choices for University were Durham and St Andrews, and I knew I was more than capable of getting the grades to get into either. However, this point in my life probably marked the height of my complacency academically. I'd always been lucky to possess a strong innate ability to do well at school without doing much work outside the classroom. Most people have the tendency to doss around in the lower years and then knuckle down when it matters but I was the complete opposite. For some reason I let myself become supremely confident in my ability to get the grades I needed whilst putting in the absolute minimum of effort. In some lessons I barely paid attention in class. I wasn't disruptive or noisy, I just had real trouble keeping my mind focused on what was being taught. I had a bit of a wake-up call in maths when I scored 4% in one of the mock papers and basically had to teach myself the whole module from scratch in free periods. Come June I'd sorted it out though and got 75% in that one. In English, the reverse happened. We did a mock paper one morning and I got 98%. That is a crazy score to get in English, where it's nigh on impossible to get top marks for a written essay. Looking back, this is definitely the worst possible thing that could have happened to me in that subject. I still kind of hold it against my teacher for giving me that mark, because she could easily have just given me 80% which would still would have been an A. As soon as I saw the 98% result, I just thought 'right, no need to do any work in English for the rest of the year'. So I didn't. Going into the summer exams, the only possible way I could have not got an A grade in English was to get an E in the paper I'd scored 98% on. It couldn't have been scripted better - I got an E in the paper, so ended up with a B overall. At the time I didn't care too much, because I still got the grades to go to the uni I wanted. In retrospect I was a bloody idiot and I'll regret how I acted back then forever. Throughout school English had always been my strongest subject and to get a B in my final year in that manner completely and utterly sucked. It was genuinely shameful.

So what did I get up to outside school? I drank a lot for my age and went out with the boys at least two or three times a week. We'd have a double vodka to start and to finish on every big night - looking back on that we were crazy! Thinking back to then, a ton of great nights stick out. I'd probably call those days the time of my life. We were all so young, up for it, full of life and naive enough not to worry about the future at all (well I certainly didn't anyway).

Career-wise at that point I was planning to go get a bursary from the army whilst at uni and go to Sandhurst after graduating. Over the next few months I submitted all the paperwork, had my interview and was scheduled to do the physcial tests over the summer. This all went tits-up however after that fateful evening when Portugal knocked England out of Euro 2004 and I got ran over outside the chicken shop. Maybe I'll do a separate post on that incident!

Despite the drinking, I was very into sport and fitness. This is when I first started getting interested in working out, and Daz and I would bunk games every Wedensday and go to Highgrove to hit the iron instead. I was also really motivated on the tennis court, and I'd have regular hits with Alex. The two of us partnered each other in the doubles in the summer and should have won it. I may well never get as good an opportunity to win a Lowlands trophy again. We lost in three sets to Simon and Kieron in the quarters, having stuffed them in the first. Again, an example of how complacency has ruined my life! In the semis we would have faced Ian and Colin, and then Nev and Gary Farrant in the final - what a weak draw that was! I believe 100% that Alex and I would have won it if we'd only finished off Simon and Kieron in the second set that day.

This post was meant to refer just to February 2004, but it's drifted a bit more towards the summer now. That year was magical, as I already said I'd call it the time of my life. I've left such things as Bud Season and our first ever lads holiday unmentioned, maybe another time.

Thanks for reading.

Good song

I really like the new Madcon song, 'Liar'. It's been in my head all day at work.

Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIOKysz-Pe0

I made it in the nick of time to keep up my pledge of posting daily!

Tired

Yeah, I'm pretty tired. The double night shifts plus last night's entertainment have caught up with me and I really can't be bothered to go to work today. It will be busy as well seeing as it's half term. Ugh. I'll sleep well tonight.

Flyers gig

I'm going to see my dad's band, The Flyers, play at Lowlands tonight. Gareth's coming along as well but all the other boys are busy so I believe. If you're bored, check out the Flyers website at http://www.theflyers.org.uk

I did my first ever double shift at work yesterday. I finished my late shift and they were asking if anyone wanted to stay on for the night in exchange for today off. It was a no-brainer for me and I immediately accepted. I suppose I should be feeling badly tired right now but I'm actually feeling pretty good; I'd give myself a 70%. I'll probably crash and burn later but let's see what happens first.

I'm going to try not to drink as much beer, so it will be interesting to see if a) I stick to that goal tonight and b) if I do stick to it, what I drink.

That's all for now. Have a good Valentines Day (needless to say, no cards for me this year, again)

Time for work, again

Maybe I should stop building up my 'big' blog post, as I don't want to cause too much disappointment when I finally write it. Basically I'm just going to write a series of posts looking back on the last few years of my life. I'm not sure how it will turn out but hopefully I'll get some kind of enjoyment out of writing it, even though it's not an amazing story by any means.

So, as I said yesterday, I worked the night shift last night and got in this morning at about half six. Something to eat, then straight to bed. I got up at 12.22 which hasn't left much time to do anything before I have to be at work again at 15.30, but I'm on my little blogging quest at the moment so I had to get a post up. I hope everyone is impressed with my commitment!

Good to see Phil Taylor has got off to a good start in the Premier League Darts, though I'm slightly alarmed at how Mervyn King is playing this well!

Night shift

I'm on the night shift tonight, and it again it looks like I'm not going to have time to do the blog post I wanted. It'll come soon, I promise.

To punt or not to punt

I feel like having a bet on the Spain v England game but I'm not sure what to go for. I might give Alex a ring in a minute to see if he fancies a punt too.

I did have a longer blog post planned for today but I've got caught up doing other stuff, so hopefully I'll do it tomorrow.

I went to the gym earlier for the first time in about two months. With any luck I'll get back into a solid routine and see some results. I'm about 84-5kg at the moment, having reached 89 in late November shortly before going to LA. I'd like to gain the weight back but without so much of the fat I'd put on back then, so I've set myself a rule about not too many carbs after 8pm. I'll see what happens and then make other rules accordingly.

Ok, BFN.

Update: We've gone for the good old over 2.5 goals bet

I'm back

Gareth and I got back from Toronto yesterday to some miserable wet weather here in the UK, which was a sobering change from the bright blue skies of Canada and.... well, 'crisp' temperatures. On the first afternoon it was -20 something, and I've had trouble actually describing what that felt like. If you didn't cover your ears then they were in pain after being out in it for only a couple of minutes. It hurt to take a deep breath it was so cold. Everyone carried on as normal though, which is in stark contrast to the way people whinge over here when it reaches freezing. Whenever it snows over there, the state is out overnight to salt the sidewalks and roads. Very livable despite the cold.

I'm not going to do a huge post on Toronto just yet as it will be too long. However, I am making a pledge to blog (nearly) every day, no matter crappy the entry may be.

Last night I was looking forward to catching up with the others but no one was about, which was a shame. Comparing that to a year ago, it is the complete opposite. This time last year we were all out every single Monday, Thursday and Saturday, played 5-a-side on a Sunday, and were out on either Tuesday or Wednesday to watch football. Now it's a mission to get one person out on a Monday. It makes me a bit sad, but I suppose it's a lot healthier at least.

Tonight I hope to catch up with the boys, or play tennis. Talking about tennis, I'll never again be able to use the cold as an excuse not to play after experiencing proper cold in Canada.

Gambling-wise, John the Gambler seems to be tipping well these last few days.

Bye for now.

Going to Toronto... maybe

So two days before Gareth and I are meant to fly to Toronto, it snows the most it has for 18 years. Heathrow basically shuts down, with most flights cancelled. Hopefully if there is no more snow then we should be fine. Gareth tells me that the Toronto flight still got out yesterday despite all the disruption, which is a good sign. Yesterday wasn't too enjoyable though, watching the blizzard outside and listening to how the UK was crippled by it.

I've just come in from scraping all the snow and ice off the car. There was literally about 9 or 10 inches of snow settled on the bonnet, all crisp and powdery. I actually quite enjoyed clearing it off.

I've been very lazy with blogging lately. When I get back next week, I'm planning to make some sort of blogging pledge which will see me posting daily. I'm also thinking about making a drastic lifestyle change for a period of one month, but that is still very much up in the air.

This afternoon I have work, which will be interesting to say the least. I'm working airside so shouldn't be seeing too many passengers with cancelled flights, though you can never say. I was mighty lucky not to be in yesterday, which would have been an absolute nightmare.

Bye for now folks