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.