A little late

So today I got a letter from the NHS telling me that my toothy operation has been assessed and it has been decided that it should be done in a specialist oral surgery rather than the hospital, along with apologising for taking so long to organise the appointment......which is all fair enough except I had it done 2 weeks ago......

Brilliant!

This is my 200th post, it's pretty self explanatory

What is this, 1985??!??

So a couple of weeks ago we decided on an impromptu cinema trip, with mum looking after Bethany. We went to see Avatar, thinking we could just buy tickets on the door seeing as it has been out for ages, but the only cinema showing it at an appropriate time was the Cineworld in Enfield.

Now, I've never been to that one before, and I was absolutely shocked to have to queue for half an hour to buy a ticket. Seriously, it was like being back in the days when the local cinema had just three screens and each one had a queue for tickets. I do always remember the chippie after going to Walthamstow cinema was particularly nice

By the time we got to the front of the queue the film had already started, so we saw Sherlock Holmes instead, which was alright. Maybe we'll get to see Avatar at some point in the future

Yay, Christmas!!!

Best of a bad bunch?

Look, I got Man of the match in my last game, despite being quite hungover and missing a glorious chance (which was actually at 2-1 up and was at least 8 yards out)

No, I don't have cleanliness issues

Yesterday, or perhaps the day before, I went into the toilets at my new office. My company was bought by another and we have moved into their existing office, which isn't as big a change as it might sound as they are based across the road from my old office.

Anyway, there I am in the toilet, which, by the way, had a notice up asking people not to leave bogeys on the wall last week, which was a bit weird I thought.

So, there I am in the toilet, and it was pretty chilly as well. I think this is because there is a window in there and perhaps it isn't as good at keeping the warmth in as it could be. Maybe it is to encourage people not to spend unnecessary time on the cold toilet seats.

Back to the point in hand. I'm there, in the toilet, drying my hands, and it was at this point, having washed and dried my hands, that I realised I hadn't actually been to the toilet first. I really can be a bit dopey sometimes.

That's not her name, that's not her name

I wouldn't mind if we ever called her by it, but we don't, so this, in my eyes, whilst it is nice to get the card, is a bit cheeky....

Shut up!!!

I went to see Watford against Coventry on Tuesday, as a guy in my office had a spare ticket. The game iteslf was much better than I expected (which wasn't too difficult seeing as I expected a boring 0-0) and finished 3-2 to Coventry with lots of other goal chances.

One thing though, the three guys that sat immediately behind us would not stop talking. It would have been ok normally, as they were talking about football generally and the game occasionally, but for the fact that they were talking rubbish the majority of the time. I thought, perhaps, they were new to watching fooball, or at least watching it live, but it turns out they have been going for at least 15 years, and they are like that every game.

If I was sat in front of them permanently I would go crazy I reckon, or at least tell them to stop saying stupid things like "I didn't know you got a suspension for a red card when it was the result of two yellows" when this has been the rule for many, many years.

Also, sorry for the lack of a post for a while, I will update with news on our LA holiday soon I hope.

And another thing

One more thing I forgot to mention about the match last week is that my favourite moment was when I literally threw the 6ft+ centre back to the ground. Not bad seeing as I really was trying to keep myself out of trouble

I did contribute, honestly

So it seems I am signing for a sunday league football team, for the first time since I did my cruciate ligament when I was 19. I'm pretty sure I will just be there to make up the numbers and will play most of my games as sub, which is fine by me really as I am clearly not fit enough for a whole match and season.

I played my first game for Real Rifle last Sunday, playing about 60 minutes. I thought I did a lot of running, though didn't touch the ball many times, maybe 10. Difficult when you are playing wide and the team keeps lumping it down the middle, hopefully when the better players play the team will be better, hopefully, otherwise it is a lot of hard work for not much reward.

I was reasonably happy with getting 6/10 for my performance too, seeing as I really didn't do too much, though I did set up a chance with one of my ten touches.

Bethany (and Tina) came to watch as well, doubt that will continue through the winter. Also hoping the showers don't remain cold through the winter.

One other thing, I am shocked I'm listed as a defender, I was thinking I wasn't going to tackle much

More injuries

As I posted the bruise on my leg, I thought I might as well post the next injury I got playing football, so here is the bruise on my side, I think from an elbow but I'm not really sure.



Also, I hurt my thumb this week, playing in goal, but actually trying to get my hand out the way. I hope this isn't the start of the end of my playing career, which if I get injured all the time it could well be...

Was it always that small?

We needed to practice leaving Bethany for when we go to Stuart's wedding in a few weeks, so last week we (I say we, obviously I have left her with Tina as I have had to go to work) had our first attempt when we went to the cinema and left her with my parents.

Tina wasn't too keen to go too far so, for the first time in at least 10 years, we went to South Woodford cinema. Now I know this is smaller than the 'multiplex' cinemas that we have been used to since then, but I had forgotton how small and cosy it actually is, with a seating capacity of, I don't know, 90 or 100, allocated seats, a screen that looked about as big as the tv we saw in Dubai (or maybe slightly bigger)....and no cup holder.



Was nice though, there aren't many of the smaller cinemas that I used to go to when I was younger left (well, this is the only one I think).

Oh, we saw Night at the Museum 2 if you are interested (Tina's choice, I wanted to see Transformers or Terminator)....it was pretty good I thought, funnier than the first one

We went to the cinema again today, saw Star Trek, which I thought was very good.

I knew it was bad

On Tuesday, I took a bang on my knee playing football, and I thought it was pretty bad even though it didn't swell up a huge amount. Anyway, I knew it hurt but I hadn't really paid that much attention to what it looked like until today, and here it is: -




As you can see, it pretty much covers the whole of my lower right leg....bruising is a good sign isn't it though? One thing was that it took my mind of my left ankle hurting (I did that weeks ago and it still isn't better)

Unlucky? maybe

Last week we got a parking ticket from being parked on the road outside our flat. Basically the car was parked on the pavement, next to the school markings (you can see them on this map).



Now, technically we aren't allowed to park there, but I'm pretty sure there is a car parked there every day and I have never seen anybody else with a ticket, so what I was wondering was whether we were unlucky and a traffic warden happened to be passing, or have they changed routes so they will check there every day, or maybe perhaps do they have a child that has just started at the school.

Whatever it is, it basically means I have two less spaces to park in (Tina gets the bay) as I don't want to risk another ticket, and seeing as I think I am normally one of the last cars to park on the front, my walk from the car could be getting longer, which is fine unless it is raining or snowing....at least summer is coming

Bah, I knew it wouldn't last

So, initially, whenever Bethany was changed or had a bath then she would get quite upset at being naked, and I was hoping this would continue until, I don't know, she was married or something, but it seems she is now getting used to it.....boooo

A touch of class

And yet another indication that I am, quite clearly, mature enough to be a parent, check out the first two goes of a recent game of a scrabble-a-like game that made me laugh....

Not wanting to duplicate too much

If you check out this link, this is the Bethany facebook album containing plenty of pictures for your perusal

Bethany

A new Spurs fan

Here is an exclusive (for now) picture of my daughter, Bethany Alana, born yesterday at 6.10pm, waving at you....

Of course we're mature enough to be parents.....what are you saying?

We went to the cinema tonight for perhaps the last time before the baby comes (it is due next Saturday). So you might be thinking we would go see a nice, adult themed move, and in which case you'd be wrong, Monsters versus Aliens it was.

It wasn't too bad, not the best film I've ever seen, but there was a guy there who looked like Comic Book Store guy (without the ponytail) who seemed to like it.

At it early?

So I was lying in bed this morning, it was getting on and I had to go to work, so Tina was giving me the odd nudge to try to 'encourage' me to get up. I had my arm across her belly at the time, and then, as well as Tina, the baby decided to start to prod me as well.....I decided I probably should get up at that point.....

A little bit of Tina's.....

....what I see.

Here's a picture so you can see what Tina looks like with about 4 weeks to go. She looks pretty healthy to me!

Don't believe everything that you read!

On Friday we went to see Ed Byrne's stand-up show in Aylesbury (at the civic centre). This is about a 30-35 minute drive away from home, and when I bought the tickets a few months ago I was a little concerned that it was pretty close to the due date of our baby, luckily he/she didn't decide to pop out to say hello earlier than expected.

The ticket said the show started at 9 (doors at 8) which I thought was surprisingly late for Aylesbury, not sure of the reasoning behind that, probably just because it wasn't London.

Anyway, in a move that is totally unlike me, I decided that we should leave with plenty of time to get there, so we weren't late. We found the place at 8:15, which, I thought, would give us plenty of time to get some good seats (it was unreserved) and use the toilet/get a drink etc. It turned out, however, that our tickets were wrong and the show actually started at 8, so we basically missed the first 10-15 minutes, very annoying. It obviously wasn't all tickets either, as the place was basically full.

With regards to the show, he was very funny, Tina particularly laughing when he was talking about weddings and wedding preperation, and the whole thing lasted about 2 hours, which meant the missing 10-15 minutes wasn't so bad.

The next show at that place was the Lady Boys from Bangkok, I'm not sure that is my kind of show to be honest so I won't be attending.

Also, another thing that made me laugh was, on the way home, we passed a crash that had just happened (well, the police arrived at the same time as we did), and then about 20 metres down the road from the crash was a sign saying "thankyou for driving carefully"...teehee

Good ol' Jim

We won tickets to go see Jimmy Greaves' show on Friday. I had to explain to Tina who he was (or at least jog her memory) so she was happy enough to go. It was only in Harpenden so it wasn't too much of a trek.

He was very entertaining, but basically he was just telling (football related) jokes, and not particularly new ones, but still, I didn't expect any less, though I thought that maybe we would have got a few more true stories.....ah well

Ouch

I got a ball in the face from very close tonight, my nose really hurts :(

Also, I can't believe how bad the weather was again for playing tonight. I have only been playing on Tuesdays for about a year, and it seems to be the worst day for playing as there have been thunderstorms, blizzards, gales etc etc, and it is never that bad on Mondays and Wednesdays, I don't know why.....

6 weeks to go

Just a quick update on the baby for those who haven't already been told, basically, it is not too big but not too small.....I guess Tina might be hoping it remains on the small side.

Also, we had a tour of the hospital at the last antenatal class, it seemed nice enough, though I am still a little concerned about the parking, especially if Watford are at home, as their ground is next door to the hospital. Maybe I can get Tina to keep her legs crossed in that situation. They are not on home on our due date (4th April), but are playing there on the 7th, 11th and the 18th (can we go that long overdue, I'm not sure)

And it was all yellow

We have finished decorating the baby's room, here are some pictures: -

















And here are a few to show how we have shuffled around our bedroom: -

There doesn't appear to be an instruction manual

Yesterday we went to our first Antenatal class (the first of four). Here's a brief rundown on the thrills and spills we had.....

....ok, we didn't really have any. Basically, we had a few group exercise things where we had to introduce ourselves and discuss what we were looking forward to about becoming parents, and what we wanted to get out of the class. Then we had a group exercise thing where we had a list of questions and we had to discuss the answers, with questions such as How long does labour last and When will your water break?

After this, we had another group exercise where we had a pile of cards with things on such as 'Feeling tired', 'Contractions Start', 'Pushing', 'Baby Born' and 'HELP!' and we had to put them in the order we thought they would come in during the labour process. I just stuck the 'HELP' one to me (we had name sticky tags already).....I'm so funny.

So, all in all it was a bit boring, I'm not really a fan of group exercises....oh yeah, we also learned the best position for the baby to be before it is born (that would be head down, facing inwards)....hopefully it will be a bit more learning and a bit less group work next week.

Ouch!

Stupid snow!

I slipped over this morning whilst taking the rubbish out, and now my (good) shoulder hurts as I landed on it......I guess at least I didn't screw it up like when I fell on the other one when I was 17

I hope they get relegated!!!!!

Now, you might remember a few months ago that I had, perhaps, not the best of days when I went up to see Stoke play Spurs. On Tuesday it was the return leg at Tottenham.

So, I'm a little bit late for the game due to traffic, and all the car parking is full, so basically I have to park at the Tescos about 25 minutes walk away (I had about 15 minutes to get to the game). This allied to the fact my foot was hurting from football the day before meant it was quite a painful journey to and from the ground (especially as I attempted to run to make kick-off, which I didn't).

I found out that Stu had parked in Tescos too, so at least the walk back wasn't so lonely, but then when I did get back I had a ticket on my car, and he didn't. Obviously they picked on me because I was closer to the ground than the entrance to the supermarket. Also, they lied on the ticket, but according to the rules I did overstay the maximum time so I didn't see the point in contesting it.....grrrrr.

At least Spurs won the game this time.....and I don't want to play them again as the are obviously bad luck

What's the point?

I started to watch American Pie 2 the other night, on ITV2 I think. It started quite late, about 11:30pm I think, and I was watching it when I noticed things didn't seem quite right. I realised then that they had cut out all of the swear words.

I mean, surely only adults are watching at that time of night and it is up to them to decide whether they want to watch it, and secondly, a lot of the humour is smutty so I just figured there was no point continuing to watch it as who knows what else they had cut.

Stupid tooth

It seems I have the beginnings of an abscess forming in one of my back teeth and it is going to cost between 700 and 1200 pounds to get it sorted...... rubbish, what with us trying to save money with the extra body coming in April it isn't the greatest of timing.

One thing the dentist did tell me though was that I had a small mouth, which, as I'm sure you can all agree, is a pretty accurate description of me......no......oh

Looking more like a baby now

Here's the second of our scan pictures if you haven't seen it already: -



you can see nose, mouth, arm, leg etc.

no clues as to the sex though, that'll be a nice surprise for us (and everybody else) in April

Apparently it is small but normal (like me.......maybe)

Not used to water apparently

We went to Dubai the other week as a break before the baby comes. We decided to go there as we thought: -

a) It would be sunny
b) It would be fairly cheap as we could stay with Terry

Of course, what we didn't count on was Thunderstorms for three or four days, the roads constantly flooding due to lack of drainage and the fact the pound has dropped in value against the Dhirum and so everything is more expensive.....bah

Anyway, here's a quick rundown on what we did, sort of in chronological order

1) Terry suggested we go and try firing a gun. This seemed like a good idea, though I was a bit worried about Tina an dthe baby with the loud noise, and so it proved when we got there so she didn't join us, but simply watched from outside the glass. Apparently it is illegal in Dubai, but legal in Sharjah (which is the next emirate) so we just drove there. I don't really know what else to say about it. It was loud, my first shot was my best, the kickback from the shot was pretty strong, and, er, yeah.

2) So every Sunday in Bur Dubai they have what is called the 'Movies under the stars', whereby they put on two movies for free and you can sit and watch them on M&M beanbags, mmmmm, M&Ms. Each week has a theme actor, and the week we were there was Johnny Depp. This would have been fine, expect it was Johnny Depp drugs films, so we had Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Blow. Now seeing as neither Tina or Terry liked the first film, we didn't stay for the second (which we had all seen anyway), which was unfortunate as it was a nice night and the bean bags were comfortable.

3) So there is a new mall opened in Dubai called, rather uninspiringly, Dubai Mall. Now apparently it is the largest in the region, and four times the size of Westfield. This might well be true, however it is pretty difficult to tell what with most of the shops not even being open, and a whole wing still to open as well. We spent ages walking by boards saying "xxxxxxx coming soon" and not much shopping. I did have a 'Fatburger' for lunch, which must be a nightmare place to work seeing as the staff have to all repeat every order (so the till operator will say "one fatburger" and the rest of the staff will repeat, and then "one fat fries" etc.). There is a full size ice rink in the mall though so that might give you an idea of the size. When I was standing at the end of it it was like I was playing NHL hockey, I just needed some men to control (I hadn't seen an ice rink in real life before). Tina was really hoping to see some fully clad women skating but it wasn't to be.

4) Terry had seen a balloon go up in the air several times and had been meaning to give it a try, so we agreed that it would be a good idea, which it would have been, had the balloon been in a decent position and not overlooking a power station. You couldn't even really see the palm from where we were so it was just like being in a tall builing, pah! By the way, apparently there is just one guy working on that tall building in Dubai as he is the only one who can breathe up there or something. Here are some pictures though: -







5) Terry had booked us tickets to see the Indian/Canadian comedian Russell Peters. He's a bit racist, we knew that, but he has still been funny what we have seen of him. This time, though, he appeared to mostly be trying to make fun of whatever nationalities were in the crowd for the whole set, which got a bit tiresome. It was funny in parts, but wasn't great overall.

6) We went to the Mall of the Emirates again on a cloudy day (we did want to go to the beach one day, but no days were nice enough). Was pretty much the same as before, except we went into the freezing cold cinema to watch a film to kill some time.....Madagascar 2, it wasn't bad, and the seats were very comfartable and spacious

7) We went to the 'sports bar' at the Hilton for a drink, well, as we were passing. Just one drink mind you seeing as, due to exchange rates and overpricing, my beer cost me £7. Also, it had three TVs up, that doesn't make it a sports bar in my opinion

8) Terry lives right next door to a horse racing track, and luck would have it there was a meet on the day before we were due to come home, so we though we would wander over there (I say wander, I mean drive as it would have been a whole 15 minute walk). Now, when I have been racing before (once in england, once in America) there is obviously stuff to do in between races, like getting a beer or making a bet, but what with drinking and gambling not allowed, it actually made it quite boring, just sitting there waiting for the next race, so we only lasted three (or maybe four) races before we left. Also they appeared to be gicing out free yellow caps and t-shirts, but we obviously didn't get there early enoug to get ones, not that we really wanted some anyway. Here's a picture of the finishing post and parade area: -




9) Two cab rides of note to mention. One, from Dubai Mall to Terry's. Now Terry lives in 'The Greens', on 7 street. Now, I told the driver this, and yet he still struggled ot know where he had to go until I drew him a map with the number 7 on it. Second, I wanted to go to 'The Marina' but ended up at 'The Madinat', must be my accent. Luckily it wa sonly about 10 minutes or so difference in journey time.

10) And here's a picture of me by a big TV: -

Yes, I still care

So you might remember last year's day of caring, where I was outside in the sun painting, you know, what with it being September and all. Anyway, someone had the bright idea of doing this year's in November.

The choice I had was, paint the dressing rooms of the local theatre, who, when being renovated a few years back had run out of money, or go to a local common and dig ponds and plant trees. Now, ordinarily I wouldn't have minded doing the latter, but the thing that put me off was the statement that I would need warm clothes and boots, of which I have neither, so, for the second year running, painting it was.

There isn't too much to say, except that we were painting breeze blocks with no sealant, which is a tad soul destroying watching your paint disappear and there still being chunks of grey shining through......but we did our best.

Here's a photo of me painting, I wonder if I'll be doing the same thing next year....

Pay attention man!

As part of my season ticket at Spurs, as well as every league home game, I get the first two cup games, and then after that have to buy tickets for any subsequent cup match individually. Tonight, I went to watch us beat Liverpool 4-2, in the Carling Cup, which was our third home cup game of the season, thus I had bought a ticket.

Anyway, I was behind this conversation at the turnstile (note, each eligible match is allocated a number which matches a voucher in the season ticket book): -

Ticket Collector Person - "Ticket please"
Man - "OK, which game number is it?"
TCP - "No, your match ticket"
Man - "Yeah, I have my season ticket, which game number is it"
TCP - "I'm sorry sir, this is a ticketed match, and isn't on the season ticket"
Man - "Oh........"

I hope he didn't come too far to see the game.....

Who steals a lorry?

So we were supposed to get a new dishwasher delivered today, but this morning we got a call from Currys saying they couldn't deliver it because it was on a lorry that had been stolen, which is both funny and not, I mean, who steals a lorry?

You had a bad day....

.....you're taking one down, you sing a sad song just to turn it around.....

Maybe I should stop starting these threads with song lyrics.

OK, so, here's what happened to me last Sunday (I've basically been in Budapest since then).

First up, I drove up to Stoke to see them play Spurs, mainly because I hadn't been to their ground before. This all went quite well, no traffic or anything, and then we got parked fairly close to the ground, but it all went downhill from there. Spurs lost, getting two players sent off and giving away two penalties into the bargain, which obviously didn't exactly put me in a great mood...

...then, it took 45 minutes to get out of the car park, which, as it was just an area of gravel really, was a bit of a free-for-all...

...then, on the M1, we got stuck a few hundred yards from a car fire (we could see the smoke, emergency services and the charred remains on the ground when we drove past). We were stuck there for about one and a half hours. I was, at this point, a little low on petrol so I turned my car engine and radio off so, it was cold and we had no entertainment, save for a few chats with some of the other drivers. I guess we could be considered a bit fortunate that we were actually driving quite a bit further, unlike one guy who was coming off at the next junction, and had actually wanted to come off at the previous one but had been convinced by his wife to continue...

...so I thought I would call Tina, let her know what was going on, and ask her to get my passport out (as I was going to be home late and it would save me messing around when I got in). She informed me it was not where it should be, so I asked her to look in all the obvious places it could be so she continued looking...

...meanwhile the traffic has been cleared so I could continue on my journey to srop Stu off in Leighton Buzzard. As we had heard that there might be another accident further down the M1, I asked him if there was another way back to Watford and he directed my to another road that headed towards Hemel, and went through a few village type things, so basically the speed limit kept going from 60 to 30 and back again...

...which was fine until I got into Hemel and then got pulled over by the police. Apparently I was doing 75 in the last 60 zone. Luckily, he let me off with a warning as I explained I was tired and was just keen to get home, but, as he was leaving, the cheeky sod suggested I should support another football team as well, just spurs luck, though, we can't even get three points from the police...

...so I got home to find Tina in a panic as she hadn't found my passport, which was now very worrying. Obviously I was considering texting my boss to tell her I wouldn't be able to go, when I thought about checking the laptop bag. Now, I don't have a laptop, but when I go abroad I get use of a 'pool' laptop which I then have to return. The last time I went out was about 6 or 7 weeks ago. Lo and behold, the passport was in the bag, big relief, but basically I had left it in there and handed it back into work, and it was just good fortune that I got the same laptop to use again...

...so it was a bad day but it finished well, like all good stories...

Heartbeat....

.....why do you miss, when my baby kisses me?

Sorry, got lost in the song. We went to see the midwife today and she put the thing on Tina's belly so we could hear the baby's heartbeat (is it called a doppler?). It took her a rather long time to find it, which obviously had us a bit worried, but eventually it was found and heard. Apparantly the baby was hiding behind the placenta or something. After it was found, though, it moved and so we could hear the heart beating loud and clear.

Anyway, Tina has been annoyed with it all day for being naughty and hiding, I think that's a bit harsh and it was really just being playful

For those who for some reason haven't heard...

....Tina is pregnant, and here's the proof



due the first week in April (in case you were thinking of asking)

Do I really sound like a woman????

Seriously mum, I'm pretty sure that I do not sound like Brenda......and should I feel insulted you couldn't recognise your own son's voice on the phone....tut tut

I know I am a little bit injury prone....

.....but this is ridiculous. I mean, who strains a muscle (or tendon or whatever) in and around their elbow whilst taking off a sock.....it really hurt as well

skol, skol, skol, skol

actually, it wasn't, it was mostly Stella, but I couldn't think of a witty Stella related title......

I was queuing up in the Tesco Express near my house on Friday night, about 7:30 and thought I would be nosey and see what everybody else in the line was buying. As far as I can tell, of the six other people in the line we had: -

Beer
Beer and Wine
Wine
Beer and Vodka
Wine
Beer and crisps

I felt a bit left out just buying some milk. Perhaps this is some kind of indication that I am past it, you know, what with buying milk to take home on a Friday night instead of some form of alcohol.....we'll see I guess

It's working

I went to Budapest for a couple of days for work this week. It was my first time there on my own (ooh, scary) and also my first time using the new terminal 5 at Heathrow. Obviously I'd heard the horror stories about the problems it faced when it opened, but then they have advertised consistently that everything was ok there now, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

What I got was....no queue at check-in/bag drop (checked in online anyway), no queue through security, and then, coming back, no queue through immigration and then only a 5 minute or so wait at the carousel, on which my bag came out fifth. So, all in all, I probably spent about 10 minutes doing functional stuff at the airport, which is superb in my opinion. Obviously I'm guessing it helped that my flight time out was 7:50am and coming back we landed at 8:30pm, but still....

I find it funny reading the English translations on menus around the world, but the Hungarians are always pretty interesting. I desperately wanted to try 'Ironed' chicken, and was also intrigued at what a 'donut of potato' was, but alas I had only one evening meal. It was a pretty tiring trip as I left home at 6am and worked until 8:30pm, and then had to be at work for 8am the next morning, so I was glad to get home and relax.

Like a lion

On Saturday we went out to a 'Roaring 20's' party in Highbury. Basically it consisted of dressing up in 20's gear, drinking cocktails, dancing in a room that, had it been hired would have cost £1000 (we didn't hire it, it was just empty), which is ludicrous because it looked like it would fit about 20-30 people at most, and getting home at 5am, you know what it's like.

Most of the girls were wearing a combination of beads, headbands and flapper dresses, Andy went looking most like either a jazz fan (Howard Moon springs to mind) or a 1950's reporter, depending on your point of view. Me, I gangster-ed it up (without a gun, a jacket would have topped it off though), see the pictures below: -





Obviously either mine or Andy's outfit didn't quite convey the right message, as some guy asked us, on the tube, whether we were "Hardcore Jews or what?". He was a bit drunk, but still.

I'm still standing

I've still got a job, by the way. I got a phone call last week whilst I was at the cricket last Thursday telling me the good(?) news. So far we think 11 people have gone, which takes us down to 55 staff, less than half from when I started. I guess if we don't get taken over then maybe I will have to look for another job......oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

It's not just fun, it's educational too

I'm not just here for your entertainment, check out the word of the day over there somewhere ---------------------->

to learn something new every time you visit.

Don't say I don't think about you guys and girls.

Deja vu

So we at work are yet again in the position of waiting for redundancies to be announced. To be fair, it has been almost three years since the last lot so it was about time that morale took a hit. It's all the credit crunch's fault, what with us selling software to banks and banks not buying stuff because they have no money.

So anyway, hopefully soon we will know which of us stays and which of us goes, for those who stay it will be pretty difficult as there will only be about 40-50 people left in the office, down from about 130 when I joined. Whether that is enough to do the work we have only time will tell. Euronet are looking to sell us (we are listed as discontinued operations in their Q2 results), maybe somebody will buy us and invest like we need, maybe not, can't look that far ahead to be honest....oh well, I'll just keep going until told not to.

I'm conflicted

Spurs have signed David Bentley, I now can't boo him....that's really not fair

Go Chris, it's your birthday

Actually it's not, it's two days after, but, to be fair, I have been out for those two days so this is the first chance I've had to post. You might have to bare (or is it bear) with me, as I am a little drunk now.

Anyway, this is the first birthday in a while where I haven't done anything for myself. Personally, I'm blaming Wendy as she arranged two birthday things on the Saturday and the Tuesday, meaning that I did not have much scope for my own birthday celebrations (had I wanted some). I don't really mind as it saves me having to think of stuff, but then again, I am getting pretty old at 31, and so maybe I shouldn't be out on the lash for my birthday?.......nah, I'll definitely be doing something of my own for my 33rd (we'll get Wendy's 30th out of the way first, yeah?)

......p.s. for those that don't know, Wendy and I share a birthday

I'm sure it wasn't what they expected

Teehee, somebody found this blog by looking for teenwild7......I am pretty certain that what they found is not what they were looking for

That never happened with a bath

So I just slipped in the shower. The reason I was having a shower is the lack of hot water mentioned in my post the other day. The shower is electric, did I say that, I forget and I can't be bothered to check?

Anyway, I slipped in the shower. It wasn't my fault really. The flannel had fallen from it's normal position straddling the side of the bath, and I hadn't paid enough attention whilst getting in and adjusting the curtain, so I slipped on it, but luckily I grabbed onto the side and not the shower curtain, otherwise there could have been far more damage.

I obviously made a lot of noise doing this, though, as Tina came flying out of the bedroom to make sure I was OK, which I was as I was back stanidng up by then. She had a kind of glazed, shocked look about her which I took to mean she was in a bit of a panic....a bit of reassurance that I was fine helped but she still isn't sure how she got there so quick, maybe she flew....

Anyway, roll on baths again, I have never slipped getting into bath.....out of one, mind you, is a different matter

Nice Head!

Look, Wendy was in the paper



she's the one in pink (or maybe it's purple) on the left for those not in the know....

p.s. This is my 150th post, in less than 2 years, that is (.....basic maths.....), 75 posts a year. I'm a bit surprised by that.

At least it's not winter

We have no hot water....actually, that's a bit of a lie, we have a kettle and an electric shower, but no boiler.....

....so now I have to be all adult and contact tradesmen and get quotes and talk to them like I have a bit of an interest in how a boiler works, so dull....also I am going to have to spend some money....boooo

I don't really know how much one will cost either, I'm thinking somewhere between £1500 and £2500, at least we have the rest of summer (well, when it starts) to get it sorted

Shocking? not so much for me

We went out for dinner last night in a Brewer's Fayre (for Tina's mum's birthday) and then to a pub opposite (to meet Wendy) in Beckton yesterday. Not a lot to post about there, but, I thought I would share the two toilet conversations I heard (one in each place).

First, there was a young white guy talking to his black friend in a pretty stupid sounding West Indian accent, about how (and this was in pretty fine detail) he got a 'nosh' from a fat bird the night before......nice

And the second went something like this (sorry for the swearing)

skinhead 1 - "That fucking mug called me a fucking cunt so I fucking smashed his fucking head in"
skinhead 2 - "oh yeah mate, you were well within your fucking rights to fuck up that fucking cunting bastard proper"

I am so glad I don't live over that way any more....

Boys and Girls

We went round to see Spike and Bendy on Sunday to see their new baby, Beth. Before we went, Tina made the point to me that Spike probably wouldn't want to talk about football (he is also a Spurs fan) as he would be more interested in talking about his new baby. I didn't think this would be the case, and, was proved correct when the opening conversation was pretty much about football......I was sure it would be the case seeing as he had probably been talking mostly about the baby since she was born and he needed some "adult" conversation

When we got home, Tina just commented that that was one of the big differences between men and women.....

Take the first left, then drive for two hours

So I was in the Shell garage, queueing to pay for my petrol because they are a bit backwards and don't have pay@pump, when this Australian couple come in saying they are lost. They go up to the security guard for directions, but he's all "Sorry love, I'm not from round here" or something similar, so they then come to me to ask.

Now, I'm not that good with knowing where to go, even locally, so I wasn't sure I could help them......but it turns out they were trying to get to Stonehenge.....

I don't know exactly where they came from, but I'm thinking to turn up in Watford means they definitely were lost. Anyway, I managed to point them onto the M25 heading for the M3, but I couldn't remember the A road from there, so I hope they are still travelling in the right direction.

I'm an alien....

My stupid head is peeling today, I don't think I've ever had so many comments about anything than I have had today, even Tina's facebook status is about it, so unkind.....

....apparently it looks like someone out of Star Trek, I'm not entirely sure who but I'm going for Neelix from Star Trek Voyager....

except perhaps without the mohican

Could have done with at least one more player

On Saturday I played in my first 5-a-side tournament since, I think, I was 15. I did play in a thing with work, but I didn't really count that as there were only 5 teams, and it's not like we had kits on or anything.

So anyway, this was a tournament, 7 players to a team, 10 minutes to a game. We were a bit worried when, at kick-off to our first game we still only had 5 players, but luckily one of them was a goalkeeper. Turns out we only had one more player to come, and he was a keeper too, not the best planning as one of them would have to play on pitch.

We were in a group of 4, which basically meant we had a minimum of 3 games, The guy organising us (Rich) had borrrowed a 'lovely' yellow shirted, blue shorted, white socked kit to wear (yes, I know, it doesn't really go, but beggars can't be choosers). Aware that we weren't exactly the fittest team around, we decided to go for a 3-0-1 formation, play the long ball and hope for the best (I was the 1 up front by the way).

First game, was tiring and we didn't get a shot on target (well, basically I didn't, I scuffed both my shots I had, but I blame the second one on the fact the defender chasing me fell over and it put me off my shot). Luckily our defence held out and we got a 0-0 draw.

Second game we played better, I scored giving us the lead just before half time, which then gave us something to defend. The second half lasted about 15 minutes, though this was probably fair as we were all using time-wasting tactics, you know, kicking the ball miles out of play, taking our time with goal-kicks, throw-ins and corners, there were even one or two cynical fouls and a deliberate handball to stop a quick attack. We held on though, 1-0 to us....yay.

Third game in the group we played the eventual runners up, and they were far better than us, beating us 2-0. They were worried though, as their main defender was on the bench and he came on before half time. I also had the opportunity to equalise at 1-0 down from the penalty spot, but I smashed it straight down the middle, and straight off the bar....very disappointing. They also missed a (dubious) penalty too.

This all meant we were into the knockout stages by finishing second in our group. not bad for having scored only one goal. We had a two hour gap so I filled up with some energy food, a burger and a large slice of chocolate cake.

The knockout game came and, in my opinion, we played our best game and had several chances. I think the other team were quite tired too as they only had 6 players, and also played more group games than us. We didn't quite have enough to beat them and lost 2-1, though I had scored the equaliser, muscling a defender off the ball (I enjoyed that) and we came close a few times to snatching the win.

The 6 players was an issue for us as well, as it meant that most of us had to play all the games, though when Rich asked for volunteers to start on the bench, I'm sure you can guess mine wasn't the fisrt hand up.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable day, considering I thought we would be out of the tournament pretty quick, and we didn't have the best of teams. unfortunately, I fogot to put suncream on and burnt my head, oh well.

Here's a couple of pictures (stolen from Rich's facebook), can you spot me in the first one: -




Oh yeah, and there is a chance that we might get to play in an 11-a-side game at Vicarage Road in the near future, that'll be nice.

How does Bob Marley like his donuts?

....wi' jammin

I forgot to mention that, although not totally unexpected, we must have heard about 20-30 Bob Marley songs every day, either from the DJs or by the bands, did get a little repetitive I must say

A bit too "Brits Abroad"

Last week we came back from our holiday in Antigua, so here's a little about what we did.......um, not much. Tina wasn't too keen to take any tours or anything this time, seeing as when we went to Egypt I made her climb up mount Sinai, so basically we just stayed in the hotel.

There was a schedule of things to do, including aqua aerobics, water volleyball (which I participated in once, but before lotioning up, and got very burnt arms and head), beach football and beach cricket. Here's a couple of pictures of me participating in the latter two: -





Here are some pictures of the views, starting with the one from our hotel room: -

















It wasn't sunny all the time, in fact, on the Monday and Tuesday it rained for 4 or 5 hours solidly, and it pretty much rained a little every day, so we did a fair bit of sitting around reading (and for no reason that we don't actually have a lot of pictures, here's one of me sat around reading)



You might have been wondering abour the title. Well, the reason is that there was a small wedding area near the swimming pool, where several couple got married during the week. Tina was quite happy watching them from the pool, commenting on how good/bad the dresses were. This also meant there were a lot of families around, and in some cases it was a bit like being in Majorca or Tenerife, expecially when, on my last day, about 14 East Londoners rolled up (apart from the accent, I know they were form there because half of them had West Ham shirts on). There was also a lot of (other) burnt people around, most far worse than either me of Tina got. I can only assume that the below is targetted at the "chav" clientel: -