Sunday 28 January 2007

Down to the wire!

28th January 2007

We managed to get up early without a problem, probably cos we heard movement upstairs so we got ready before they came down. Didn't fancy any breakfast and didn't really have much time so we had a quick cuppa before heading for home. We decided against using the sat nav for the way home. We just headed for the A1 which was well signposted and got home for about 10:45am.

I only had about 15 minutes before I was due to pick James and Ben up to take them to football so I quickly got changed and went to fetch them. We got to football to the good news that Ripley had drew 0-0 with Oak Tree, which all but ruled them out of the title race as long as we stuck to the gameplan and took all 3 points today.

We were up against a feisty Ilkeston Tigers team who seem to be underachieving this year. There in 6th out of 10 in the league but have taken some big points this season having been the only team to beat Ripley, they also beat joint leaders Ladywood and drew 4-4 to us the first time. I expected a tough game and wasn't surprised they took the lead halfway through the first half. We'd played the best but our movement and passing in the final third wasn't great and if things didn't change could cost us.

Still 1-0 down at half time I gave the lads a really good talking to and fired them up to go out to win the game. We had a fantastic second half, scoring 4 goals and comfortably winning 4-1. This put us solely in pole position though Ladywood were still playing there game. We went to watch them as they kicked off the second half against our next week opponents Huthwaite and the score was 1-1.

Ladywood scored to go 2-1 up and there was muted celebrations around the pitch but Huthwaite looked good going forward and soon equalised. The huthwaite supporters celebrated as did all our Welbeck lot causing a bit of a stir amongst the Ladywood bench. So much so that one of them came to moan at us about standing around the goaline and not on the touchline. I said we were in the Kop end and told her to shut up! Ladywood ended up 4-2 winners and as you can expect, they made sure we knew they were happy with the goals and the 3 points. It was all on again for the title.

1. Welbeck Pl 17 Pt 40 (Top by 3 goals)
2. Ladywood Pl 17 Pt 40
3. Ripley Pl 17 Pt 37

After the match I went to check on next week's fixtures and found out that Ladywood v Ripley had been cancelled until the week after. I didn't think this was fair as the battle for the top spot should be played at the same time on the final day. I tried to cancel our match but was told it couldn't happen. Therefore if we won, Ripley definately couldn't win the league and aren't exactly favourites of ours so they may do Ladywood a favour the following week. I hope not. We'll just have to do our bit next week.

Saturday 27 January 2007

Emma's birthday.......Sat Nav's suck!!

27th January 2007

We'd planned to get up to our Steven's about 11am so wanted to leave about 9:30am. We set the alarm for 9am but couldn't drag ourselves out of bed much before 9:30am! I was still unsure how to get there but Ste had given me his postcode last night and we were borrowing Emma's mums sat nav. Should be easy enough then.....

I programmed in his postcode but on the Sat Nav it was taking us to Bury! That was miles away in the wrong direction. I text my mum to see if she knew his postcode but forgot she was away in Ireland so I nipped to my dad's. He didn't know the postcode but knew the street (or the one just off it) and said just to go straight up the A1, getting off when it said Catterick. Having the street name now, I typed that into the Sat Nav and foudn the right place, also finding the postcode our Ste gave me last night was different by a letter. I guess I heard it wrong.

Managed to set off for 10am and it wasn't long before we were on the A1. Another 30 minutes later, the sat nav decided to tell me to stay left. I got into the left lane which then veered off away from the two lanes outside it. It felt wrong but I thought the sat nav knew what it was doing. I was doing about 70mph when all of a sudden there was a speedhump right in front of me. I had to slam the brakes on and managed to get down to about 25 so bumped over it a little bit! The sat nav then went crazy. I think I should've stayed in the centre lane on the A1 and not turned off and was also sure the sat nav thought I was still on it as it didn't acknowledge the 3 roundabouts we went over so we were pretty much guessing the way now! In the end we just turned round and got back onto the A1, albeit about 45 minutes after we first left it!

Got to Ste's about 12:30pm and had a much needed cuppa. We had a chat and were thinking of things to do for the day. I didn't know what there was to do and would've been happy enough just going for a meal and when the mention of golf came up, wasn't too impressed! I'd never played before and knew I'd be no good at it! For me, it wasn't a game of skill, it was luck. You have a stick and a tiny ball and your supposed to swing and smack it as hard and far as you can. Never going to happen!

We hadn't originally planned to stay the night as I had a football match at 12:30pm tomorrow but we were asked to and thought it had been ages since I had spent any time at all with our Ste and his wife Helen and my neice Bryony so it would be cool to stay over. We would just have to get up a bit early and get home quick.

We went for a walk in town and did a bit of shopping, got Emma a couple of things for her birthday including a card! Then went for lunch in a cafe. We only had something small as we decided to go out for a larger meal later. On the way back from town we stopped at a retail park and we then changed the plans for tonight to a movie and a take-away. We went to Blockbuster and hired "My super ex-girlfriend!"

On the way back to the car, it was decided that we would be stopping off at the driving range! Oh no! This should be fun...

Actually it was. It was empty so we had it all to ourselves and me and Ste got a bucket of about 100 balls each and then we both proceeded to swing about 4 times per ball! It took me a while to get used to it and I think my first 20 balls only went about 15 yards but then after that I was hitting them well, probably sending some of them about 180 yards, which was cool! Its a shame my eyesight sucks though as I didn't see where some of them went, I wonder if any landed in the hole! I know I was close a couple of times! My basket ran out a little earlier than it should as Bryony decided she was stealing some of my balls to throw at her mum! It was a good laugh but I think I can safely say golf is so not a game for me! Wouldn't mind doing that again though!

Got back to Ste's and flicked through the million and one take away menu's before deciding on Steak from the Chinese! We ordered it early, about 6pm as it was predicted it would take ages to come. We were gonna watch the film but when we turned the TV on, we checked the football scores and thought United had drew 0-0 with Portsmouth in the Cup as it looked as though all of them were full time but having switched channels saw they'd actually just kicked off so we watched that shabby outfit win before putting Bryony to bed. The chinese eventually came at about 8:30pm, minus Emma's meal!! Helen called them and went nuts, it was funny! We waited another 20 minutes for that to come before eventually getting to watch the film and have dinner. I'm sure throughout the day my bro was doing his best to get me wrecked, bringing me a can or bottle of Stella every 10 minutes. I got through about 5 before the night was done but there were no ill effects from them thankfully, especially as we had to be up first thing and I had to drive home!

Friday 26 January 2007

I hate cramp!

26th January 2007

I don't know if it was to do with all the running I did, which is the first serious amount of running I'd done for years but I had a serious attack of cramp last night! I remember still being awake at 4:45am without having had any sleep and think it must've been a good half an hour after that that I managed to drop off! When the alarm went off in the morning I was knackered! I text James to say I was gonna take the morning off as I hadn't slept much at all. I then went back to sleep for a few hours, waking up again about 10:30am. I got showered and ready for work and got in about 12pm.

I was still suffering a little bit but still I brought my football gear in again for 5-a-side after work, but didn't know whether I would still play or not. Remembering it was Emma's birthday tomorrow I nipped into town before getting to work, only to realise I had no money on me, my personal account only had enough money in it to cover direct debits and my new joint account card still hadn't been delivered as my old one was washed! I'd been waiting for the past 2 weeks for it and it still hadn't come. We were going up to my brothers in Catterick tomorrow, I would get Emma something from there.

Work went quite quick, though it would wouldn't it, I was only there for just over 4 hours! Feeling alright after work I went for a kick about with the lads. As always, I kicked ass, scoring about 12 goals in an 18-9 win. After that I went for a drink with Vlad for about an hour. Had a good chat, mostly football related as usual.

Spent some time with Emma at home, just chilling and watching TV before getting an early night as we were up early to get up to Catterick early.

Thursday 25 January 2007

All for Charity

25th January 2007

Woke up today a little later than usual so had a rush around getting ready for work but still had time to get my football gear together ready for the staff v student charity football match I had been asked to play in yesterday. Couldn't find my shinpads so hoped it wasn't a rough match, if it was I would just goal hang!

A normal Thursday morning ensued, not a lot happening before I went to get changed at 12pm. It turned out most of the staff had dropped out as it was very cold outside so we only had 6 staff against about 13 students! We managed to borrow a student to go in our goal but it still looked as though we were in for a drubbing as we were coming up against a Sport's class but the few staff that was there was well up for it.

Straight from kick off I made a run down the left wing after receiving a ball from Cat Lawson, who plays for Forest ladies and has represented England ladies! I could've passed early inside but chose to run at the full back, cutting outside and back in before crossing a sweet ball for Richard Buckingham - Sport tutor - to nod home for 1-0. Soon after Gordon Faye made a run down the same left wing, using me as a decoy to pull the defenders apart before he tucked the ball home for 2-0. This was pretty much how the first half went, staff dominating and scoring with most chances. The one chance that was missed was one of the easiest of the day. I burst through the centre of midfield beating 2 or 3 players and found myself being forced wide but baring down on the keeper. I could've slotted it in but cut the ball accorss the goal where James Winning, another sports tutor controlled it and backheeled it from 4 yards out with an empty net but somehow managed to hit the post.

At half time we were leading about 4-0 and I was knackered! In the second half I decided to take a more forward role as I couldn't be doing with any more running, I'm so unfit!! Another couple of students from a different group had got changed and asked to play, we had no problem with that but what I couldn't understand was although we had 7 v 13 so were in fact 6 men down, we were 4-0 up and looking very comfortable so why they joined our team was a mystery. One of them was a real ballgreedy twat as well, which wasn't good as James Winning was the same. Therefore I saw very little of the ball in the second half. I made some great runs and would've easily had 4 or 5 had I just been played through but they kept shooting from distance. I did manage to get one as I was played through by Gordon at the edge of the box, back to goal, I truned and ran, drawing the keeper out before knocking it past him.

That was my only shot of the second half which was very frustrating. In the end we won 9-0 and it was a good game and a good laugh, and also showed me just how unfit I was! I hated the end as all the talk was about Winning's 25 yard goal that arrowed into the top corner. It was a good goal and had it been the only attempt on goal he'd had it would've been something special but he'd tried it about 10 times during the match so he was always gonna pull it off once. I was tempted to join the students for the last 5 minutes, mission being to take the greedy sod out!

All in all, it was for charity and it was a good laugh, we'll deffo have to do it again soon!

Wednesday 24 January 2007

New Job?

24th January 2007

Work today was ridiculously slow. It always is on a Wednesday but it seamed more so today than ever before. Having not done much of my Project this week I wanted to get some done, especially as an assignment is due in next week, though I haven't got much of a clue what to do in it! I opened and then closed my project work about 5 times during the course of the day without adding a single line to it! I just wasn't in any sort of mood for it. I have many of these days, more so than days where I actually can be bothered to get anything done, which isn't handy considering the time I have left on the course and the amount of work remaining! I'll use the next half term to take full advantage, I hope!

Heard that Robert was coming in today, which would be great to see him again. He is the guy who works alongside me and Stu in the centre but has been off on long term illness for over a year. In fact, Stu has never met him! It would be good to get him back working again, he's a sound fella but it would be a shame to lose James from the centre as well. There is at least one positive gained from when James finishes in that we will hopefully see less of Grundy, Quinn and Jeffrey, 3 very annoying students who just sit around him and can't be told anything without them answering back. Surprisingly I've resisted the urge to kick them all in the teeth!

I overheard Sue talking at work about vacancies and thought I would see what positions are up for grabs in the college, not really thinking of any for me but just to be nosey! Saw an IT Help Desk Support job going and thought I'd investigate. Its working in the Technical department on the front desk, receiving the calls and emails to distribute amongst the technicians. An expertise in the technical side is not really needed, just basic experience and knowledge of working with a college network and the Microsoft Office Suite. IT Qualification at Minimum level 2 is required, I have level 3 and working towards level 4. I sound ideal for it and know I can do it with ease. An added bonus is it has future opportunities in the technician side through courses and experience etc whereas there are no more progressional opportunities in my current position. Lastly, its up to £2k a year more. Interested? Yes please!

Robert was expected in before 6 so I had a drink with James and Stu before seeing if he was in. He wasn't in by 6pm so I had to go to my course. Boring couple of hours spent there before heading for home. Funny experience on the way home. There was a dark green Corsa behind me as I was driving through town. I was in the middle of 3 lanes and the Corsa went to the outside lane, then the inside lane before overtaking me as I came to a stop at the red lights. They went straight through the red lights as if they weren't there. They'd been on red a while too so it wasn't like they'd only just changed. It stopped at the next set of red lights which bared right afterwards. I was in the lane to the left of them when the lights changed and as I went right the car took the turning too sharply and was driving down the wrong way!! It was heavily raining and the road was very wide but it was an obvious mistake to make, there were plenty of road markings and traffic islands so how they did it is beyond me. Luckily there was nothing coming the other way. It took them a while to realise they were going the wrong way, then they did a U-turn and shot off in totally the opposite direction. How bizarre!

Tuesday 23 January 2007

Did you forget to take your Meds?

23rd January 2007

Woke up about 12:15 today, fully refreshed after a nice long sleep! It seems to be getting later that I get up on a Tuesday morning. I used to get up between 10-11 so I could have the morning to myself before work but even though its a couple of hours later than normal, I'm still stuck in the mindset that I can have an hour or more to myself before heading off to work. Usual process is put some music on as loud as possible, shower, dressed, breakfast then half hour chilling online. I don't often get to listen to my own music, Emma doesn't like most of my stuff and moans at me having it on, even if I have headphones on! My CD player still isn't in my car so I'm stuck with Radio 1 for now who play a decent track every other hour or so. So I like to make the most of Tuesday mornings!

I have tons of albums on my Media Player and often go from album to album listening to the best tracks. At the minute though, I can't seem to put down Placebo's latest album, Meds. Every song is fantastic and the group are awesome. They have a very unique sound. The drive to work on Tuesday usually involves me having a particular track playing over and over in my head. Today I had most of the Meds album playing out loud on repeat! Knowing I would be in for another quiet evening at work, I got James to burn me a Meds onto a CD as he has it on his Laptop. I'd planned to listen to it later this evening. The CD would probably be more accurate than the words that spring to my mind when reliving the songs! I always find myself repeating the same lines over and over for some reason.

I never got around to listening to the CD though as I found another stupid flash game that I got hooked on and was on all evening! The popular Yeti Sports series' 5th game, involves hitting a penguin with a flamingo, at snakes and over giraffes and elephants with ultures hindering you...... Nowhere in the game does it state that no animals were hurt in the making of this game!! I totally doubled Stu's top score on it though lol. Nothing like a total waste of time huh?

Monday 22 January 2007

The morning after the night before

22nd January 2007

I didn't actually feel too bad at work today, having had less than 5 hours sleep. Thats usual for me so I guess I'm used to it by now. James clearly wasn't used to it as well as the heavy drinking followed by early morning wake up call. He spent the morning groaning and grunting at students! I spent the majority of the day informing him of all the happenings of last night. Watching him walk round the pub 5 times without seeing where me and Stu were as well as unknowingly going to the women's lavs!!

Stu came in about 1 and so we had twice the fun taking the mick out of him. Soon it was off to training with the lads, when it soon became evident my coach couldn't make it today and I was left to train the lads by myself. It usually takes me a full week of thought to come up with an average to poor schedule when I used to take them alone and here I was having to think of something to do in 5 minutes. I did some shooting and dribbling work with them and the session wasn't too bad all in all.

We had planned to go shopping soon after training but first I went to a new players house to sign him up. I thought I'd only be about 15 minutes but was gone over an hour. You knwo what lads are like when we get chatting about football! This new lad, Ash, has fantastic ability, especially as he's never played before properly. Hopefully that'll show in the team and he can help us in our drastic situation at the foot of the Saturday league.

After shopping, came online and chilled with the lads for a bit. Andy came on and again kicked my ass till gone half two in the morning. We always do it on a Monday and he is always knackered on Tuesdays! I never realise how late it gets as I don't have to be up till late the next day though Andy is up at sunrise! Ah well, he's a big lad, he don't need me to send him to bed!

Sunday 21 January 2007

Champions Elect

21st January 2007

Starting the day 3 points behind the leaders Ladywood in the Kickstart Sunday League with 3 games to go, we knew we'd have to keep the pressure on the top 2 by beating FC Phoenix today. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, there not scoring goals, they occupy 7th in the table and we beat them 3-0 last time. Our lads do have a reputation for throwing away these sorts of opportunites though. Got to the ground at 1pm for the 1:30 kick off and was greeted with great news that 2nd place Ripley Town, 2 points ahead of us, had lost to Ilkeston Tigers (6th) for their first taste of defeat of the season. Today we could make progress for sure with a win. The 12:30 kick off was Ladywood (1st) v Quarrydale Green (8th) so we managed to catch the last 15 minutes of that. Surprisingly, it was 1-1 when we went to watch it and 5 minutes from time Greens scored what was certainly one of the most celebrated goals of the season, with all our parents around the pitch too! We now lay 3 points off the top, level goal difference with a game in hand. We had to take advantage!!

A strong team was name and we went 1-0 up in 5 minutes when Jordan Hill put the finish on a good move. Phoenix didn't look strong at all and offered very little in terms of attacking play but we didn't test them enough and went in at half time only 1 up. The focus was to push for more goals to put the goal difference in our favour but with an eye on defence. A similar half saw Jordan score one more in a more than comfortable 2-0 win. The table is now as follows, with 2 games to go:

1. Welbeck Pl 16 Pt 37 (Top by 2 goals)
2. Ladywood Pl 16 Pt 37
3. Ripley Pl 16 Pt 36

Its gonna be a very close and tense finish, but we have to be favourites as Ladywood and Ripley play in the final game of the season! We need all 6 points from the last two against Ilkeston (6th) and Huthwaite (4th).

After the match we celebrated with a drink in the pub across from the ground with the parents. Then I went to pick Emma up from her mum's. I normally have dinner straight from getting in from football but I'd had a burger before the game so wasn't too hungry. Got home to see Man United were beating Arsenal 1-0. Damn :( Then I forgot about that match and watched a bit of TV before remembering about it again and checking it to see Arsenal had equalised late on. I thought it was full time with it being almost 6pm but then the screen refreshed and Arsenal had scored an injury time winner! Get in! Now Liverpool are 11 off the top when just before christmas we were 16! If we keep this up we'll be there or there abouts come May! What a weekend!

Last night I'd got a text off James to see if I wanted to go for a drink for his birthday. I said I may come out for 1 or 2, borrowed a tenner off Emma and said I'd be back about 9pm. Arranged to meet James and Stu at the Wheatsheaf in town at 7pm, so had a shower and had some dinner first. I got to the Sheaf about 5 to 7 but couldn't see anyone so didn't fancy going in alone! Just as I was about to text James, he text me saying he would be late. Hope he wouldn't be too late. Mansfield town centre is not the sort of place I wanna be standing around in alone! He wasn't that much later and just as we went in the pub, Stu arrived. Had a drink and some banter at the Mancs and Chavs inside before heading off up the road to the Chicago Rock. Was a bit dead inside but thats ideal cos I hate it getting too full. Was ID'd for the second time of the night as I got the drinks in. I used to be annoyed by being asked but now it's cool! I look young still! Long may it continue!

Between the 3 of us, we spent about £20 and got nothing in return on the Video Games machine before making our way back into town again. Had a quick drink in the Widow Frost where we bumped into a load of students from college. They were surprised to see us in a pub, like we should be perma-attached to our PC's or something! Jeez I hate my job at times. A drink in Martha's vineyard and then Bar 19 was then followed by a bizzarre end to the evening.

I didn't get home till 1:45am. Emma wasn't impressed and her mum was there as well. Shit! Also, my mum was phoning round the hospitals looking to see if I'd been checked in. She knew I was driving but I wasn't drinking so I was safe. Also I broke my phone in the process of the night but I managed to rescue my sim card before realising all my numbers were on my phone. Oh no! Worse still, work starts in less than 7 hours :(

Saturday 20 January 2007

The Mighty Reds!

20th January 2007

Saturday didn't start off too great as our Welbeck lads failed to capitalize on the second half weather advantage,losing 3-1 away to locals Clipstone. Dissapointing as Clipstone weren't great and we had chances to level after trailing 2-0 at half time. We played against the strong wind first half and was unlucky to go in 2-0 down at the interval, both goals coming in the last 5 or 6 minutes of the half but we had enough capabilities to get back into the match, which it looked like we were going to do after my centre defender pulled one back from the half way line 5 minutes into the second half but many missed chances were left to be rued as their 3rd goal 5 minutes from time finished us off.

Never mind. Now onto the match that really matters. Liverpool v Chelsea at Anfield. I tried frantically for half an hour to find a channel online to watch it but each one wouldnt buffer properly so I resorted to 'Live' commentary from the official Liverpool website. Andy was online and listening on the radio and shortly after kick off he delivered the great news that we were 1-0 up. How he got the news and was able to inform me before I heard it was unbelievable. I was on the official site yet had like a 30 second delay! Soon after and Pennant scored one of the goals of the season to make it 2-0. The game ended that way though Liverpool could've had 5 or 6 on the day. They tore Chelsea apart to reduce the gap between 2nd and 3rd to 6 points, with one eye on 1st place. 11 behind the mancs, though they have Arsenal tomorrow in a game in hand. They won't win it though, I'm sure of it!

Our Ste was home from Iraq this week and him, Helen and Bryony were at my mam's so we went for a visit. They invited us out for a curry but we'd just had a kebab at Emma's mums. Made arrangements to go over to his next weekend as I have no match on the Saturday, realising now that it's Emma's birthday but I'm sure we can do something alltogether.

Got all of the treasurers stuff together to take to the club meeting. Non of it has been updated for the past two weeks like they asked me too and there was about £1300 unbanked. They'll love me for that. Screw them, I wasn't wasting another second doing anything for them arseholes. I went into the meeting without the bank stuff and threw my match report at Graham. Bill's face was a picture seeing me without the treasurer stuff especially as he has left a dozen messages since last week asking for me to get the stuff to him. Told him it was in the car and he was actually quite civilised when he came to collect it to put in his. Probably won't be when he see's how much it all needs updating!

Got back home, dropping Emma off at her mam's again and chilled on the tinterwebnet for the rest of the night, playing a couple of matches online and basically having a laugh with the Scicilian Stallion, Daz! One day he will teach me Italian but for now I have to just hope the words he uses aren't as abusive as they sound!

Friday 19 January 2007

Rocky 6

19th January 2007

Felt fully refreshed having had about 13 hours kip last night. Thats more or less the same I'd had all week! Me and Stu were on our own at work today as James had an exam at Sheffield Uni. Very quiet day today, just the way we like it. Two classes all day and a few drop in students were all the college had to offer so again we spent the majortiy of the day chilling online and doing a bit of coursework.

It was mostly a day of banter as the build up to a huge weekend of football was upon us. Liverpool v Chelsea, Gooners v The Mancs. Knowing plenty of Mancunian gimps across the college I goaded them saying the gap would be cut to 11 points this weekend with both Liverpool and Arsenal picking up maximum points. I was sure of it. Always difficult playing the Chavs but I was confident we could hit them hard as they are going through a bit of a bad patch with players out and unrest in the ranks.

Was also a pretty big weekend for my junior lads as 2 games over the weekend could and should bring maximum points to continue the good run in 2007. A win away at Clipstone tomorrow would see us leapfrog them and probably Robin Hood into a more realistic league position other than the bottom 2 we've been occupying all season. Sunday's match should be a win as the opposition are by no means great. With the last 3 games upon us we need to stay hot ont he tails of the leaders if we are to finish as champs.

Finished work half an hour early to go for a kick about and it was a pretty good game. We played for over 2 hours solid and I was knackered. Quite pissed off too as I was stuck with two guys who would be better off playing netball and couldn't control the ball if their life depended on it. I swear they both have webbed feet. Had Mike from Sport to give us a fairly decent team without the other two and we had the majority of the match. I scored a fair few which is always good including a memorable run where I picked the ball up from the edge of my box, faced by 2 opponents, whom had I gone either side of them I would surely have lost the ball so i drove through the middle of them, then was forced wide taking on the next guy before hitting the ball across the onrushing keeper for a goal very reminiscent to the one an 18 year old Michael Owen scored at the 98 World Cup against the Argies, only mine was probably a little better :)

Off home then a shower as me and Emma were off to see the new Rocky film. KFC first though, yum yum! I had been waiting for ages to see the movie after hearing over a year ago that it was in production. It was also hard knowing a website where i could have watched it for free for over a week, but I resisted temptation and we were off to see it. Got there about half an hour before it begun but as it was the first night, though the 3rd showing, it was sold out. Damn!! We pondered watching something different but nothing really appealed so I thought we'd sign up to Blockbuster around the corner and get some DVD's. Rented 3 for a fiver which was good and went home to watch one. The Cave. Not a bad film actually as theirs no recognised stars in it then after watching that, put Emma to bed and went to chat online. Andy was on though claimed he was off to bed in 5 minutes. Remembering the site with the Rocky film on I thought about watching it. Knowing Emma wanted to watch it and we had agreed to go next week to the cinema again I closed the site, then thought again. Hell I waited this long I ain't waiting any longer! Great film. Surprisingly believable too to say Sly's no spring chicken and he's up against the Heavyweight Champion of the World! Film ended and Andy was still online. So much for off in 5 minutes! Went to bed about 2am ready for the football weekend to kick off.

Thursday 18 January 2007

Finally some zzzzZZZZZZ's!

18th January 2007

Off to work again today and the weather looked pretty bad. Dark clouds loomed, rain was pelting down and the wind was howling. Sounds like the start of a horror story don't it? Well it was far from a fascinating day at work. James was on lates so me and Stu started the day in what was a fairly quiet morning other than the wind threatening to topple the college 6 storey block. As long as it blew it over the opposite way to where we are located then its all good!

Once more I spent the majority of the day knackered and determined to get an early night. One day I might actually do it too. Would tonight be the night?? Got plenty more done on my project and its starting to come together well. James came in about 1 for the start of what was to be a very short late shift. The wind was apparently extremely bad, causing lorries to overturn on the motorway and it blew our local nightclub roof off. Pretty intense! I realised the full power of it when talking to Paul, the AV guy, in the back office when a huge gust almost took the windows out. Never seen glass and wood bend so much without smashing!

We were told the college was to close at 4:55. Wasn't such good news for me and Stu, who were due to leave in 5 minutes but James got a 2 and a half hour bonus. Took me an hour to get home in a route that normally takes about 15 minutes. Thinking about Emma, knowing she normally has a bad time getting back I wanted to make sure I'd done dinner for her for when she got in. I guestimated she'd be back about half 6 so had her dinner ready for then and waited for her to get back. No sign at 6:30, or 7, or 7:15. Then she casually strolls in telling me she's done an hours overtime at work. Cheers luv. On a day where windspeeds reached 90mph and 11 people died around the country, this was the day she chose to not get home for over 2 hours!

After dinner I was so tired I more or less collapsed onto 2 bean bags on the front room floor and was soon fast on. Emma went to her mums, returning at 9, I was still asleep. She got me up and normally I would probably go on the PC for a bit to see whats happening but I was too knackered and headed straight for bed! Finally, an early night!

Wednesday 17 January 2007

All play and no work

17th January 2007

Work today was gonna be fun as usual. I had a 12 hour day ahead of me and yet again was knackered after another late night. When will I ever learn! The morning went surprisingly quick though and the afternoon I spent again on my coursework bumping my project folder up by double again. Database has been built and I'm getting on with it rather rapidly to say it doesn't have to be finished for another 4 or 5 months. Shown my project tutor Piers who was impressed at both the quantity and quality. Its still really at the start for what I want to do with it.

Got to my course tonight at 6pm and todays lesson was on Visual Basic. Apparently before christmas we had an assignment given to us. I guess I wasn't at that lesson as I'd not had it given to me. I didn't think we'd had enough classes yet to be gievn the assignment. I haven't missed that many have I? Oops! Went through the assignment brief and kinda understood it but after the day was spent working on my project I was in no mood to start something new. We were told that because there was an open evening tonight there was free food down in the diner! Cool, we were straight at checking that out! It was true but the room was packed with people waiting to speak to relevant course tutors and no-one was eating so me and Kiel didn't fancy shoving our way to the food so we went back up to class.

Because of the open evening, the college like to show stuff off so the classroom opposite ours in the Computer Science department had computers packed with games! Score! I peeked around and the room was empty other than one guy who was showing the room off to people. He invited us in to play, we didn't need asking twice! Straight for the Counter-Strike Source! Was weird playing it with no sound and with a crap mouse but it was funny kicking Kiel's ass with a Scout! He'd never played it before though in fairness he did well at first staying level scores with me. He kept P90 rushing me, the git! I taught him a lesson in the end before our tutor caught us and we skulked back to class!

Left course a bit early as we weren't really doing anything and Emma was texting me every 5 minutes to say she was starving! I told her to order something from local chippy cos she couldn't be arsed to cook - more like couldn't be arsed to wash up from previous dinners! Got home and soon after food came. Wolfed down a kebab and chips and then as Emma headed for bed, I thought I'd have 5 minutes or a little more on the web.

Just chilled on net for about an hour and was about to go to bed when Andy signed in. I thought he must've gone to bed already as he's usually online before now but he must've just had a late one tonight. Chatted for a bit before jumping in the server for some action. Had a decent night's playing, kept up with him 1v1 for a while before he started to kick my ass! Emma came to get me about 1:10am and I said I'd be about 10 minutes. Really didn't want yet another late night. Stayed in server messing about for a while longer before realising the time was 2:55am. Oh crap! Off to bedski's for me!

Tuesday 16 January 2007

Snooze and Sleep buttons should be illegal!

16th January 2007

Was awoken about 7am this morning as Emma was getting ready for work and it felt like I'd only been in bed for a couple of hours. Probably true actually, I lost track! She asked what time I wanted the alarm set for me to get up and I said 11am. This would give me good time to have a shower and a shave and get some brekkie as well as have some chilling time before work, listening to some music and stuff. When the alarm eventually went off, I felt even more tired than at 7am so hastily slapped the snooze button for another 9 minutes! I did that thing where I say to myself "I've had a nice long sleep, I deserve a nap!".

Had I only hit snooze once I would still have had loads of time to do what I wanted this morning but I felt worse the more times I hit it. I eventually managed to drag myself out of bed at 1:15pm after about 10 hits of snooze! Man, that buttons not good for me! I am gonna use it! Should probably have got ready quickly and gone to work but was in one of them sleep-affected moods where you think 'stuff it!' A shower, shave and some breakfast later I was off to work, arriving about 2:30. Didn't see the gaffer all day so I got away with that one I think! I would only have blagged some excuse about making my hours up with short dinner breaks plus an extra hour I'm at work on a Wednesday, though this is mostly true.

Spent all day at work doing yet even more of my coursework, things are looking good. I'm still at a very early stage in it though I have tons of pages already written. Something tells me I'm writing way too much in it but thats not like me.....!

Had a bit of a headache when I left work so headed for home in the hope that Emma would be there with a nicely cooked dinner so I could have it and doss for the rest of the evening. My phone had been dead all day so I'd not heard from her so was a bit wary when I got home and her car wasn't there and all the lights were off. Maybe she's at a secret lovers? I wish! Only joking! Knew instantly she'd be at her mam's. Put my phone on charge and instantly received about 5 messages telling me she is at her mam's and my dinner is on. Went there for it and then left for my mum's to drop a form off. I would normally stay at my mum's for a bit when I go up as I don't go there too often, don't usually have time so I felt a bit horrible wanting to rush off soon after getting there but in fairness I had just done a late shift at work and had a headache s was in no mood to be sat around talking for ages.

Got home and connected to the web to see if anyone was on. Andy quickly informed me that the late night last night was not a good idea! He was soon off to bed and I actually decided to shut my PC down early, though I wasn't fully convinced about getting such an early night. Had a book on the mighty Shankly for christmas so thought about reading that. Went through the first few pages but was too tired to take in what I was reading so I just flicked through it before going to bed at a surprisingly early 12:30!

I then made the grand mistake of putting a Friends DVD on. I have seen most of them a thousand times over and they can often help me drop off but I have been watching the final series which I havent seen a lot of. Maybe I don't like the idea of it all coming to an end! Damn right I don't, Friends rules! Tonight was worse though as I was down to the final DVD in the series and I was so not prepared for it being the final episode. I hate that episode!! I have every mind to smash that CD or re-record it with the very first episode so that after watching it all end, it all starts over again!!

Monday 15 January 2007

Courseworks getting done

15th January 2007

I made it a major priority this year to make sure I get my HNC done and to a good standard. No more putting off the assignments for months so that I forget everything. My new Project assignment is going well since I switched it around and I was looking forward to cracking on with it today. Took me a while to get in the mood for it though this morning as I couldn't get my head around where I left off on Friday.

Spent the first part of the morning on a website I'd not visited for a good few months and usually regret visiting soon after - eBay!! I usually just do random searches for anything and everything Liverpool FC. Had a look around for some books and videos/DVDs that I'd not got. Couldn't find many but one I did find was one I really wanted. It was a limited edition book published last year covering major newspaper headlines for the club between 1906-2006. Its pretty cool and when I wanted it last year it was about £150 and we were in no position then to buy it, as much as I wanted it but it was on eBay for just £25. To be fair, with Emma's birthday coming up, followed soon after with Valentine's Day, I'm not really in any position to buy it now but I stuck a sneaky bid on it for £25. It has 3 days to run so whether I will be outbid is yet to be seen but I deffo can't improve the bid. I can justify spending £25 on it as I have about £500+ worth of books that I could look at sticking on eBay and getting some cash back on them but first I need to get some stuff out of them.

By looking on eBay it also reminded me that I should start thinking about what to get Emma for her birthday on the 27th. Christmas wasn't great due to lack of money and though we're hardling rolling in it, I'm sure I can give her a good day. Had a quick look around for hotels in Liverpool for the weekend but I have matches on both Saturday and Sunday and its too late to cancel them. It would probably be too expensive anyway. We could maybe afford one or two nights at a push but we wouldn't have much cash for anything else so I may as well make the most f the time at home and get her something good.

Got plenty done this afternoon as I doubled my coursework folder. Left work for training about 3:45pm and prayed my coach would be coming as I never think of anything to do with the lads any more as I leave him in control. The first time he doesn't show I'll be screwed. I should maybe create a backup routine and keep it with me in case one week Adam can't make it. I realised again I still had all my balls to pump up so made an effort to get to training early. Then sods law depicts that I only managed to get a couple pumped up before the damn flimsy nozzle snapped on me! I spent the hour working with my keeper. I probably enjoyed the session more than him, especially as I got 9 out of 10 shots on target for once! Sometimes I was worried that I was overhitting them at him but he stopped many of them so he should have no worries up against kids his own age. He definately has the potential.

Later this evening I was left an answerphone message on my mobile from the new club treasurer who was up at our local. He wanted all of the accounts books and money etc but I decided to make matters worse and screen all my calls. I ain't doing no running around for them. It'll probably mean things that need paying asap will double and stuff. That would be fun! Be even more fun if they try and make me pay any charges! They mess me about, what comes around goes around - or is that wrong? Screw it!

Finished the night getting my ass handed to me on a plate in a 1v1 with Andy online. I was in no rush going to bed as I wasn't at work till gone 1pm tomorrow so was still playing after 2am. Poor Andy. I never think he actually has to get up early for work in the morning! Oh well, he's a grown fella, doesn;t need me to tell him when to go to bed! Probably does actually, but I'm not gonna! Its more fun when he's on than walking around shooting picture frames off walls.

Sunday 14 January 2007

Title race hots up

14th January 2007

Alarm going crazy at 11am this morning, I woke up with an expectancy that our match this morning was to be called off. I was surprised that it wasn't and a little bit annoyed as I was knackered! With yesterday's match called off and today's match taking place just a few hundred yards down the road from it on the most overused pitches in the region, I was mentally ready to text all parents and dive back into my slumber! It wasn't to be!

Got to the match and leaders Ladywood had surprisingly hammered rivals Oak Tree 5-0 and were now 6 points clear of us. 2nd place Ripley had bottom club JCF and were guarenteed the 3 points so we had to win to stay in the hunt for top spot. We got off to a good start, playing well and taking a deserved lead ten minutes in when my skipper JJ pounced on a loose ball after a save from the keeper and stuck it into the emtpy net. We controlled the first half but in the last couple of minutes of the half a mix up between the defender and keeper proved costly as the keeper failed to collect the ball and the defender who was under pressure put through his own net.

Orders at half time were to keep up the pressure but disaster struck 5 minutes into the second half as we gave away a penalty and were 2-1 down. We had to improve, which we did. Playing good football for the majority of the second half we got our reward when with ten minutes to go, constant pressure on the oppositions goal saw us pull level and then soon after take the lead, which we hung onto. Surely we can take advantage of this with another three points next week and hopefully get closer to the top.

1. Ladywood Pl 15 Pt 34
2. Ripley Pl 15 Pt 33
3. Welbeck Pl 15 Pt 31

Had a quick drink of celebration with the parents after the match before meeting Emma at her mam's for Sunday dinner. Was a fairly boring evening after that. Normally tends to be as I 'look forward' to going to work on Monday. Watched some program for like an hour about Wilderbeasts! Thats how bored I was. I do find them funny though especially putting my own commentary over the top. Told myself to get an early night then was surprised when I then told myself to shut up soon after! It was gone 2am so it'll be another fun day at work tomorrow...

Saturday 13 January 2007

Can you do me a Sudoku?

13th January 2007

Saturday started off well. I was up about 9am getting ready for our morning match when I checked my phone and found out due to adverse weather conditions it was called off. Nice one, didn't fancy a stuffing at the hands of Interski anyway! Quick text around the parents to let them know then straight back to bed! Lazy sod that I am stayed in bed till 1:30pm and only got up as I realised I was missing Liverpool's match against Watford! It was half time and we were already 2-0 up. Good stuff. Spent the entire second half trying to find a decent channel online to watch it but the damn thing wouldn't buffer on like a gazillion channels I tried, so I had to make do with teletext and my uncle's text messages keeping me up to date with the score. Always nice to receive "get in", "go Bellamy" and "yes, Stretch" texts this weekend than the "WTF", "OMG" and "FFS" messages from last week! A 3-0 win keeps Liverpool comfortably in third with one eye on the leaders and makes it 8 wins out of 9 in the league. Crisis my arse!

I realised yesterday that it was our 4 year anniversary last Monday and me and Emma had both forgot. Nothing like love eh? We decided to have an overdue small celebration by going out for dinner instead of whacking oven chips and chicken drummers in the cooker! Never realised going out for a meal on a Saturday afternoon could be so farcical! Decided to go to regular eatery Ma Hubbards in Edwinstowe, not far from us but when we got there at 3:30pm, they had stopped serving food until 5pm. Damn it! Decided to go 5 miles down the road to The Rufford pub and got there and they had changed there menu to carvery only. Really wasn't in the mood for a carvery and couldn't believe they had nothing else on the menu so rebelled against them by deciding to go a couple more miles down the road to Ma Hubbards in Glapwell. Closed. Jeeeeez gimme some food, I'm starrrrrvin! Just up the road from there was a smart pub, The Young Vanish. Went there, open, still serving food, Bob's yer uncle!

Had a well nice mixed grill, probably one of the best I've had and believe me, I've had my fair share of them! Got back home in time to catch the full time scores, dropping Emma off at her mum's on the way. Meant I got some muchly appreciated free time where I could stick on a CD and chill without hearing the shreak of "I can hear that through 2 walls....."

Was supposed to be sorting the rest of the finances out for the football club, getting everything up to date and handing it all over to the new treasurer at 7pm in the weekly football meeting but as I had no match, so no match report to hand in, I couldn't be arsed making that extra effort for them and decided to annoy them even more by not giving them it! Expected a mardy phone call but never got one. Shame, it would have been a pleasure telling Graham to **** off for the 3rd time in as many weeks!

Had a very peculiar call about 6ish. Emma was still at her mam's and I was busy trying to sort loads of stuff out when my mum calls me with a sound of urgency about her. I ask whats the matter. She says "Are you busy? Can you do me a massive favour? Can you do me a Sudoku.........." Bizzarre woman she is! Had it been "can you take me to the hospital?", then yes, "can you go to the Liverpool v Everton match next month?", hell yes, or "can you murder your dad", yes please, but "can you do me a sudoku....". Errr no!

Spent the rest of the evening checking out clan stuff, realising our CAL season started this monday and the map is totally new to us. Andy had his first keyring party job in Birkenhead, returning at 1am. I tried to convince him to come have a mess about on the server for a bit but he wanted to go to bed as he was up early on Sunday but he's easily distracted. I had an issue getting the server to work earlier this evening but Andy managed to get it working and then, of course, we had to test it! Until 3am!

Friday 12 January 2007

Friday Football

12th January 2007

Always the highlight of the week, Friday staff football started again this week after a 2 or 3 week break due to christmas and the like. Not many people I'm sure would be willing to stick around at work at the end of the week for an extra hour and a half but its a really good laugh, helps me especially to burn off the carbs, plus you get to kick cocky Mancunians, always good fun!

Fridays at work is always somewhat quiet as there aren't many groups in the centre. I used today to get a hell of a lot of coursework done, I was on a roll! Enjoying doing this assignment too, as it involves two of my biggest passions, Liverpool FC and creating databases. All it needs now is a pair of tits and I'm well away!

After a hard day at work I decided I'd earned a half hour reduction on my hours and went at 4pm for a kick about with Vlad. We normally start at 4:30 but there were 4 of us there so we had a 2v2, therefore were were well knackered when everyone else arrived! This week was surprising as there were only 6 people show up, so a 3v3 it was. We normally struggle for a good game as the sports hall is really small so a 4v4 is ideal and a 5v5 is too big and we tend to have between 8-12 turn up regularly. 3v3 just meant that bit extra running, seperating the fit from the unfit! I put myself firmly on the unfit team but I didn't do so bad. I go in bursts, have a good 10 minute section where I run my ass off, then wheeze at the side of the picth for 5 minutes! Mike Hallewell, sports teacher, thrived in the space though! Expected! We discussed actually seeing if we could put together a staff football team to play other colleges. Sounds like a plan to me, we have some really great players turn up on a Friday and some very good players who don't, though it wouldn't be fair to include those in place of the regulars. Might look into that on Monday if there is an area staff football league or something similar. I dunno if the size of our sports hall would be affected. 5v5 would be crap in it.

Another feast of football awaits over the weekend as my Welbeck team look to carry on where they left off last week, hoping to get something from FC Interski at their own ground, though we have lost to them 6-1 already on our home pitch but anything can happen with these kids. We have the potential to knick it by the odd goal and also the potential to be handed our asses on a plate! On Sunday we play Quarrydale Green, hoping to pick up maximum points and keep in the title race. We should beat them fairly comfortable though we have to be wary. We were 3-0 up at half time against them earlier this season but in the last 10 minutes played the worse football I've seen the lads play, allowing Quarrydale to draw level. I walked off after that match, ashamed of the performance and took a few bullets in the ass from parents but it wasn't like I left any of the kids alone, that would have been irresponsible but they'd all came with parents. I think after that match I knew we'd have our work cut out to win the league I felt we should walk.

Also, I'll be hoping Liverpool can put the 2 Arsenal defeats this week out of their minds and pick up maximum points against basement boys Watford. I foresee a comfortable victory, if not a hammering for them.

Thursday 11 January 2007

43 Things to do.....

11th January 2007

Woken up this morning cos Emma wasn't well and she was asking if she could stay off work. Its funny that she asks, but she knows I'm funny about having days off work ill without going into work to actually show them that you are ill cos most company's are really bitchy and if you ring in they spend the day coming up with reasons why your off, like you were up all night getting wrecked! Its not very often I'm ill, can't remember the last time but I always go to work first and show that I'm dying!

Good job Emma stayed home to be honest, I was knackered! Although she would have set me the alarm but knowing me I would've just turned it off and slept in till about 4pm! She was on at me from about 12:30 untill 1:30 to get up before I finally dragged myself out my pit about 1:50pm! Had a quick shower and sped to work. Again James, Stuart and also Sue was in work when I got there and the centre was quiet so I took advantage of this again to get another half a page of coursework done! Bumped into the Gooner straight away as I got to work and he made sure I saw him! funnily enough he just shook my hand and said hard luck though smiling from ear to ear, and we discussed the match in depth. He's a good bloke to talk football with and doesn't stick it to ya after every bad match. Wish the Mancs could learn from this. Every dog has it's day, so to speak.

Didn't get much done at all as I was too busy planning my life! Ok, sounds drastic but there's a cool site I found last week (www.43things.com) where you look through people's resolutions and plans for the future and select your own things to do too, or you can create your own things!

I found this quite fun last week trying to find things I actually wanna do in the future. I began searching for things other people are doing and chosing ones I have thought about before. The first lot were really boring; stay in shape, get out of debt, be more organised etc etc when I thought how about finding more interesting things to do! To be honest, I've never really thought too much about the future, it usually stresses me out! The first time I ever really did make plans I was about 20 and going nowhere and was determined to make something of myself so I quit my job at a shitty factory and began to take control and think of things to do. This is the first year where I've ever really made any resolutions and I think I only did them cos I decided to make this blog at the start of the year and it was the first thing I thought about writing.

I found a few things I've wanted to do before but never actually tried such as learning to play the guitar and speak Italian. I think I'd enjoy both of these but probably have no use for them, especially the Italian thing. The guitar would just be cool to learn to play. Found a few more things that I wanna do, take more photo's, get out more and probably one of the most important things for me - sleep more!! I'm gonna try and achieve most of these asap and think it may help me become a better person but I'm just hoping it doesn't limit you to 43 things as said in the title! Seems quite sad that in many years time I'll look back and realise I've only ever achieved 43 things in my life - or less if I don't! I wanna do 1001 things!

So thats that, I'm sure I'll talk more about this site as I go along and begin to cross them off. See if I can do about 50 by the end of the year. I kinda cheated and found things I'd already achieved and added them to my "done" list, like buy a house, learn to drive etc but it's only fair. I ain't gonna go back and do these again - well, not by choice anyway, damn DVLA!

Wednesday 10 January 2007

Loooooooong Wednesdays!

10th January 2007

Prepared for a long day at work today as I have the full 8 hour shift followed by my night course tonight but at least I get a good lie in tomorrow as I'm on lates. Looking forward to that, that's for sure! Certainly wasn't looking forward to the abuse I would be about to receive from a certain Gooner at work and I'm sure the Manksister United fans will have plenty to say!

Managed to get to work on time and with Stuart and James already in thought I could get on with some coursework ready for tonight. Having changed my project 4 months into the year, from setting up a game server to designing an interactive database, I needed to make sure I'd got plenty done to justify changing so late on.

Work was quite slow but I was lucky in one respect, the Gooner was off!! Couldn't avoid the mancs though! How come they always have to have there say! Grrr! What they got to gloat about, they lost to frikkin Southend!!

Managed to get a bit of coursework done but not as much as I'd hoped but the thought was all there! Pity I couldn't email those to my course tutor, would be a Distinction for sure! Was expecting a long night on course with it being the first one back in the new term but found that half the course tutors were in London for something - bet Waqas was going to get himself an Arsenal shirt, he loves to hop bandwagons! So we had an hour doing Networking coursework before finishing two hours early! Niice!

Got home to find that our clan servers had been taken offline cos we'd decided not to reknew them so my job for the evening was to look for some new ones. This time I was determined not to dive in and get the first ones we see at a good price so I searched until 3am for a good provider, comparing price, history and reputation etc. Managed to find a good few and sent details to Andy and Martin to look over.

Managaed to persuade myself to go to bed about 3:30am. Really hate having to do that but bed sucks! Its ok when your really knackered but when your wide awake and there's only a few hours to go until you have to be up, it's really crap forcing yourself to go to sleep!

Tuesday 9 January 2007

Arse-n-holes

9th January 2007

Having been beaten at home in the Cup on Saturday at the hands of Cockney rentboys Arsenal, I was travelling to Liverpool today in the high hopes that even though tonights competition was deamed smaller than the previous, still some act of revenge would be sought. It was not to be.

The 4 hours sleep wasn't good either as I left home for half a day at work a very tired chap. The morning was spent with a quest. Stuart, my co-worker has what can only be described as a goal to bed japanese twins! Funnily enough I went to school with some who are now in the film industry. We spent the morning scouring the web for images and clips of their work, only to be shocked with our findings. Although they seamed to have done well starring in the sequel to the hit Van Wilder, there first film was if anything extremely bizzarre. Named 'Penetration Angst' they star as conjoined twins who get sexually butchered with an electronic carving knife. Fair doe's. But anyway, we succeeded with finding them, now for the contact. Funnily enough Alexis, a sports teacher whose office is next to ours was close friends with them at school though they have lost contact. I'm sure where there's a will there's a way. Otherwise Stu will have to jet to the orient in search of Yin and Yan.

Set off for the land of the scouse at 3pm with traffic being heavy, yet we managed to arrive in just 2 hours which is weird as on empty roads it normally takes more than that! Got to Andy's just after 5 and had a cuppa and some super scouse stew for tea. Left Andy's to walk to the ground. 15 minutes he said! Just under an hour later we arrived at the ground. I made a passive comment of "throw the defence rulebook away and give us a 9 goal thriller". The teams duly obliged but to our disgust we lost the game 6-3. Even though we were up against a heavily weakened Arsenal side than Saturday's defeat, the surprising line up sent out by Rafa would have struggled away at a 7 man Barnet. Just wasn't good enough and I sat on the back of my chair, 4-1 down at half time thinking basically...."What the fuck!"

After the match, waited for Andy on the corner of the Kop and Kemlyn Road for about 15 minutes only for him to be directly opposite us waiting too! I reckon I'd saw him a few times too before actually realising it was him when he spotted us and came to get us. Luckily didn't have the trek back to his as we jumped in a cab. Set off for home about half 10 and arrived 1 hour 45 later. Foot down ftw! I'm really trying to calm my driving down as I know if I get caught again I'm officially screwed and will probably lose my license altogether and do think I'm doing well. Around and about in general I'm taking more notice of speed and am never too far off the limit, be it 3 or 4 miles over which is acceptable but the way I see it on a motorway is, if the cunts shooting off in front of yer and the ones reading the barcode on my exhaust behind me can get away with 110mph+ I can get away with a steady 90. Its hardly likely that there gonna randomly select me for a ticket out of all of them! As long as I'm not the one going nuts then all's well so I do go above the limit but make sure I'm not the fastest on the road. If there's no one else on the road I stick to the limit, then I have no excuses but if there's no flashing camera's on the cars in front, then I'm all good. Thats how I see it anyway!

Monday 8 January 2007

Blog-a-job!

8th January 2007

Progress made finally at work today as I have changed my Project Module for my HNC from running a Game Server to designing an in depth Interactive Database that will hold all my information and research for my Liverpool book due out sometime this century! I really wanted to learn how to set up, run and maintain a game server as I think I can make a fair bit of cash from this in the not too distant future but getting it all done over the next 6 months looked as though it was gonna prove tricky so I scrapped it in favour of something I've been working on for the past few years and have a good idea of what it should look like etc. Besides, this will be a lot more fun working on and will get me back on track with my book that I've not done anything to for the past 10 months.

After work was our first training session back for the football lads this year. Bit of a cold, windy and wet day so I was surprised to get 15 out of 16 lads turn up to train! My coach from the seniors team, Adam Oprych, certainly made them run their christmas chocolates off making them run and do fitness exercises none stop for about 45 minutes before we finished the session with a match - which my team totally won!

After training it was a mad dash to Asda where me and Emma did a full 2 weeks shop in record time cos I had monthly football meeting at 7:30. What a load of crap that was. I have been doing the treasurer's job at the club for the past few months and as far as I was concerned I was doing it well. Finances, maths or whatever it comes under comes really easy to me and after the shite year the previous treasurer had last year through family illness I thought I was doing him a massive favour taking it off his hands but due to 1 mistake which was out of my hands anyway - a fine didn't get paid in time which meant the club was a day away from being suspended from playing at all age levels, but at the time I wasn't eligible to sign cheques and both the secretary and previous treasurer knew this but kept bombarding me with invoices and stuff to pay. Made to look a cunt in the meeting as this was brought up and all responsibility dumped on me. They re-elected a new treasurer voting me out. Fuck them, last time I do anything for the club again. If it wasn't for the lads who'd be gutted if I left I'd be gone quicker than you can say "I". No more meetings for me, they shafted one of their best supporters in terms of regular helper at all club events, and there hard to come by.

Had some cool news when I got back home though, checking my emails and I had a random woman email me with the subject of "Your Blog". Someone had been scouring blogs and other web forums etc and had found my blog and after reading through it enjoyed my (and I quote) "creative and expressive writing style" and wanted to offer me my own column writing football reports and articles on there website!! How cool's that!! Unfortunately though I will probably have to decline the superb offer - unless there's a high cash reward for doing so! It would just be another thing that although I would really enjoy doing, it would however get in the way of more important things that need to be done at this stage of my life. I have done this before for an unofficial, but popular Liverpool website and did really enjoy doing it. In fact some of my work is still on there and is quite highly rated. Therefore if I were to go back into this field I would either go back to this website (www.lfchistory.net), or even create my own site.

Wanted an early night tonight as I've got 2 long days coming up. Half a day at work tomorrow is followed by another drive up to Liverpool for the Gunners game with Andy and Emma, so I probably won't get back till late Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, and then Wednesday I have an 8 hour day at work, followed by a 3 hour night course, so I'll be totally knackered. Therefore, going to bed at 3am wasn't the wisest thing I've done this year!

Sunday 7 January 2007

I see the light...

January 7th 2007

....although it was coming from the electric one hanging from the ceiling and not the sunlight as by the time I dragged my ass out of bed today it was 4pm! Not saying I had been asleep all that time, I woke up 5 minutes prior, switched on the tv just in time to see Ole Fookin Solsjaer score a trademark injury time winner. I remember the last time I saw him do that, I cried myself to sleep that night. Also chinned a gloating Manc the next!

Scheduled to be up for around half 11, I got an early morning wake up call saying our match had been called off due to adverse weather conditions. Bit of a shame cos now these matches won't be played till the end of the season. Would have been nice for the top 2 to have played each other sooner rather than later to know what we have to do to remain in the race. We'll just have to make sure we take maximum points from our final 4 games and hope for the best.

Had some bad news tonight that our bro, Steven, who is out in Iraq lost one of his squadron and a good mate of his and it weren't even in war. It was a road accident. He gets back soon for couple of weeks but returns soon after. Hopefully everything out there will calm down out there soon else I'll have to don my Rambo attire and go kick some serious ass - hopefully I'd do better out there than on our servers as I've heard there's no respawn in RL? Am I right?

Following that, I was winding down the night with a shower and a couple of beers (no not at the same time, last time I did that I thought I'd found a wondeful everlasting beer, though the quality of it didn't remain - shame), when I got a call of me mam saying our sis' other half wasn't well so I had to nip her to him. Got home and chatted to Daz online for a bit before considering going to bed, ready for chaos at work tomorrow. No reason for the chaos, other than there'll be students there. Shame. Oh well, whats a college without students? Peaceful! Gonna really push to get a good whack of my coursework done tomorrow, either that or I'll spend the day as usual pushing for top score on Stunt BMX game! Tis good fun! *reminder to print Balance sheet for Football club meeting tomorrow*, wonder if this'll work. Doubtful.

Oh well, only 351 days till christmas :)

Saturday 6 January 2007

Victory and Defeat

6th January 2007

Saturdays are back! Nothing beats a Saturday other than it being full of footy! Started off really and quite surprisingly well with a fantastic 3-0 win away to Walesby, which may see us come off the bottom of the league. The lads worked really hard and for once gelled as a unit and quite frankly Walesby were lucky to get away with just a 3-0 defeat, but for some poor finishing on our part. Credit where it's due, more of the same tomorrow boys please! Up against a Huthwaite side who we owe a good kicking too. Last time we played we were unbeaten and top of the league but could only drum up 5 players so played 5v7 and were on the wrong end of a 5-3 scoreline but again the boys were awesome on the day and mistakes cost us more than being players down as the opponents gave it the large after the match knowing it was a great win and were shocked when I said we were 5v7 - they never noticed! Shows how hard we worked on the day. Same again tomorrow and we'll get a great win, and with the top 2 teams playing each other, this time tomorrow I shall hopefully be writing about a league thats just been blown wide open!

Dissapointment though for Liverpool who lost 3-1 at home to Arsenal in the cup. Not a great performance by either side though I feel we were the better of the two teams, just let Arsenal have 3 efforts on goal which they took. Don't know why Dudek was in net, he had a mare. My 10 year old keepers could have saved most of the efforts he had past him. Very poor keeper. Mind you, at 0-0 we had a clear penalty rejected which could have made the game end differently, but it's all if's and but's now, game's over, cup defence shattered, concentration must now go back on the league and Europe, though we'll have a small score to settle with them on Tuesday as we play again, this time in the League Cup. I'll be travelling up there again, this time I may even get to see the game after the first attempt was fogged off 2 hours after I arrived in the City. Never mind, it's never a wasted trip when I get to have a drink with Andy.

Took Emma out for a meal today, making a change from the usual routine of banging oven chips in and vegging out all day. Getting really tired of never having any cash and staying in every day, I'm gonna start going over our finances and see what can be done to give us an extra few quid a month to actually start being able to live instead of just merely existing.

Chilled out on t'internet tonight, meant to get a lot done but instead found a site I used to visit often with extreme and funny videos on, so basically sat through a few hundred of them. Weired thing is now, most of them were very extreme, I'm a bit phobic of seeing people in pain but tonight have witnessed stabbings, shootings, crashes, faces being smashed into pavements and the works. A lot of the videos contained real deaths including one guy crossing the road as an out of control pickup comes hurling towards him slamming him up against a wall and basically crushing the crap outta him! I'm now very aware of my surroundings, looking out for falling branches, speeding cars, wild animals and every thing else that wouldnt be too pleasant on contact with me skull!!

Friday 5 January 2007

Oops...

5th January 2007

Remember the song; "Woke up this morning feeling fine...?" I kinda felt like that today, mind you it was 10am. I was due in work at 8:30! Luckily centre was shut today for staff training so I managed to sneak in unnoticed at about 10:30. Had a laugh with workmate James in office, mucking around on Flash Games all day.

After a hard day's play, went home for more of the same. Dossed with Emma for the evening before chilling with clan dudes at night. Installed new mouse I had for christmas which should really be a lot better for gaming but is taking some getting used to. I normally give up trying to get used to stuff if I've not managed it in an hour but for an £80 mouse I better damn well keep trying!!

Had to be up early in morning for first Saturday match with Welbeck of the new year. Currently we're really sucking on a Saturday laying bottom of the league with just 2 points from 8 games. Dunno where the problems lie other than a lack of belief as we play similar standard teams on a Sunday and are doing really well. In 3rd place and 3 points off the top with 4 games left. Not really looking forward to tomorrows game though. Against Walesby, usually a tough physical side who have beat us 2 times from 3. If we play well we maybe could get something, if we don't, prepare for the usual Saturday ass-kicking!

Also, tomorrow the mighty redmen are home to The Gooners in the FA Cup 3rd round. Will be a very tough game but the boys dont usually let us down at Anfield.

Time to drag meself off to bed. Gone 2am and I'm up at 8:30. Another tiring day no doubt!

Thursday 4 January 2007

Organisation needed!

4th January 2007

Been trying to get on top of things and this year I'm determined to turn my self into an organised machine! Thing is I have more things that take up time than actual time to do them! Whoever invented 24 hour days obviously got bored easily!

A few years ago I began to write my own book on the best football club in the world, (ok, second best after my Welbeck lot :D). Of course I mean Liverpool. I have done a lot too it but looking over what I'd done this afternoon saw that it had nearly been a year since I'd done any more to it. Weren't too pleased about that. Seems my life all last year was taken over from other stuff, like my job and HNC which I guess are fairly important, to the Welbeck coaching 3 times a week including Saturdays and Sundays and now even being the club's treasurer. This leaves me very little time to do anything else and at the end of 2005 I started online gaming and founded a clan called DeMise and spent all my free time on this.

Now I'm determined to get back on track and start to prioritise all my things. Work and course must come first for a start. I keep falling behind on my assignments so now I'm pushing myself to get these done. The course finishes in June this year and I'm not going to jump straight onto another course having done consecutive courses for the past gazillion years but I don't wanna delay my career further but do want a break from courses. I think I'll take a gap year but spend it wisely considering my future. So from now until June, my main focus will be completing my course and working harder at work. My job comes fairly easy to me as its IT Based but sometimes I take it too easy and neglect actually doing it cos it can get boring and working with students is getting more difficult cos quite frankly their all cheeky, disrespectful ********!! Ok not all of them but enough of them to make it not so enjoyable anymore.

Oh well, its still the christmas holiday here so I may as well make the most of them not being in, then roll on the Easter holidays :)

Wednesday 3 January 2007

Back to normality.....kinda!

3rd January 2007

Well, wasn't going to post till later tonight but can't see the day being any more eventful than it already has been. Really wanted an early night so I could get a good night's kip but couldn't drag myself away from PC till 1:30am. Then was still wide awake. At 2:30am, decided to grab a beer, chocolate and a DVD to help me sleep! Its worked for me all over christmas but not tonight! Watched the whole damn thing, Soccer AM III DVD it was, watching Ronaldinho's silky skills! That finished at 3:45am and I was still wide awake at 4:30am!!

Managed to drop off, dunno what time, but when our lass was getting ready for work I was wide awake, and it was only 7am and I still had another 30-45 minutes of kip left! Laid in bed wondering whether to get up or not when I had my decision made for me. All I heard was "Bang, Thud, Crash!" Our lass fell down stairs, from top to bottom. Ouchie! Got up and she was laid in ball at bottom of stairs. Thought she had broke leg or arm but she got up in end and hobbled to work!

I decided to stay up, had shower and listened to some tunes on PC for a bit then decided I better go to work. To say how early I was up, I ended up being late for work! Damn car had flat tyre! Pumped it up and went to work. Boring day, no-one in centre so I chilled in Office doing coursework all day.

Now, she's at her mam's, I'm chatting on here, might get early night tonight. Doubt it though. Probably wake up knackered tomorrow too! Oh well, prepare for more of the same!

Tuesday 2 January 2007

Last day off :(

2nd January 2007

Back at work tomorrow so made the most of this morning. Got up about 1:30pm which was surprisingly early compared to the rest of the christmas period! House in a bit of a state so did nothing but tidy up. Still dunno how washing machine works so just stuck the pile of clothes in it and left it. Note learning how to use it is not a resolution for this year :D, maybe next year ;)

Bit of a dull day really, installed my new mouse I had for christmas tonight, spoke to some clan members I hadnt spoke to for a while since net went down, kicked some ass on CS:S and went to bed about 1:30am ready for work in the morning :(

Monday 1 January 2007

3-0 to the Redmen

1st January 2007

Early start for me today, had to be up at 8:30am to travel up to Liverpool for the 12:45pm kick off. Don't normally do much on New Year's Eve and yesterday was no different. Went to Emma's mums for an early tea, then to my mum's for a visit and back to her mum's for a few drinks and games before going home about 10pm to try and sleep through the fireworks!

Good thing were the roads were empty so foot down time and a steady average of about 80mph saw us arrive in 'pool at about 11am. Parked up and had a walk to the ground and was sat down with a meat and spud pie and a coke (and about ten quid down) for 12pm. Saw the keepers come and warm up and decided to put on a bet. How close could I be:

My bet - Level scores at half time, Liverpool to win the game. Crouch to score first, Kuyt and Gerrard too.

End result - 0-0 at HT, 3-0 at FT. Crouch scored first, followed by Gerrard and Kuyt.

Did I have a feeling about the match or what? Unfortunately they were seperate bets so I only collected if I got First scorer with correct scoreline and as I predicted Crouchie to score first in a 2-1 win, I only collect £4.50 for the correct HT/FT outcome. Shitter.

Great game though and stunning goals and I'm now 38 games viewed, 34 Liverpool victories, 4 draws and 0 defeats. Maybe if I make it to 50 without seeing us lose I'll get a free season ticket? One can dream!

Met Andy (B1gdaddy) in the pub and went to his for a bit. His missus knocked us up a stunning tea and me being a bit shy eating out at a mates didnt have much and felt a cunt seeing how much was left knowing had I been at home I'd've cleared the lot! Chicken Fajita's, rice and Southern Fried Chicken! Godlike it was too, all home made bless Lisa! Gorrrgeous it was!

Saw his nipper for the first time, young David whose about 16 months now but the poor kid was full of flu and you could tell. Hope he gets well soon. Thought kids were s'posed to save illness to get day's off school?? Kerry was there too though we met her last time. Hope I spell her name right now though else I'll be in for an ass kickin next time I see her!

Stayed at Andy's till about 8/8:30pm before setting off for home, getting back about 10:15pm. Found my modem driver disk too so was back online tonight. Yay!

Happy New Year

Bit late posting but only just getting this Blog set up. Well, firstly welcome to Blade's Blog. This is my new space where I can post random shite every day until I get bored. Maybe when I'm rich and famous I can use it to look back and write an autobiography :)

Happy New Year to everyone!!

My phone's on the blink so no-one received a Happy New Year text this year. Wish I had asked for one for Christmas. Never mind. Will have to find my contract and see if it can be swapped any time soon. I receive messages fine but recently whenever I use my phone for whatever reason, it freezes and has to be turned on and off again. Pain in the ass!

Thanks to everyone who sent me christmas cards, best wishes and happy new years texts. Sorry for being lazy and buying no cards or sending out texts but the thought was there somewhere :)

T'internet's still down at home. Tried installing my new Wireless Modem / Router on Christmas Eve and it screwed up and I'd uninstalled my original modem and lost the disk :( So been offline for nearly two weeks now.

I've never really made any resolutions other than my 5 year plan I made when I was 20! Am 25 this year so thats scary but I have achieved most of what I wanted to at this stage in my life.

Think I'll make some goals for this year:

Personal / Career based

- Complete HNC this academic year
- Get a better understanding of what I want to do long term
- Blag a payrise :)

Personal / Home Based

- Get rid of parental debt! (Hire hitman or payup?)
- Start thinking of this wedding lark for Emma (Thought about it, thats enough of that...)
- Think about the whole kids thing (Jeez this is getting serious)

Hobbies - Welbeck

- Win the Sunday League :)
- Win it again :)
- Improve Saturday Team, Win Saturday Cup :)

Hobbies - Liverpool

- See if I can make 10 matches this year
- Get to any cup finals we make

Others

- See if I can go the year without a speeding ticket
- Win something with my fellow DeMise dudes
- Get back on track with my LFC book
- Learn how to run a game server
- Learn Visual Basic
- Learn how to use Photoshop and Dreamweaver

Think thats me done for my first post. Quite a long one I know, probably a sign of things to come :)

Off to the house of scouse tomorrow for the Bolton game. Hopefully another 3 points in the bag. Also going to Andy's in Liverpool. Should be a good day out. Ciao for now