Random Thoughts of a Whitley Bay Exile

gone

2009-09-14T12:17:00.000Z

Damien has relocated to twitter and facebook.
http://twitter.com/whitcamD

Rum. I like Rum.

2009-06-17T12:59:00.001Z

Lunchtime tipple anyone?

The most expensive footballers...................in the world!!!!!!!!!!

2009-06-11T11:50:00.004Z

Having read of the impending transfer of one Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid for €80million and the recent massive transfer of Mr. Ricky Kaka for €60 million, i had an idea for a post.

If you accept that some players today are very good, but are they as good as players of yore (Maradona vs Ronaldo, Zico vs Kaka, etc) then you could come up with a list of players, how much they'd be worth now and where they'd end up.
I am assuming for the purposes of this list that all players are 25 years old (prime of career), injury free and willing to move.

Pele. No doubt one of the top 5 footballers of all time, the economics in Brazilian/South AMerican football would mean he would have been either sold to a third party (a la Tevez) or sold to Europe in fairly short order. playing Spain for either Barca/Madrid or Valencia - Transfer value €60 million - you can't top his goalscoring record.

Diego Maradona -Currently playing for Inter Milan - Transfer Value €60 million.

Alfredo Di Stefano - (IMO the best player in the history of the game) - Real Madrid (where else) €75 million.

Ferenc Puskas - Up there with the best - AC Milan - €45 Million

Gerd Muller - Best Goalscorer bar none - Man Utd/Chelsea - €50 million

Johan Cruijff - Barca - €50 million

Kenny Daglish - Liverpool - €35 million

Chris Waddle - Juventus - €28 million

Zico - Inter Milan - €60 million

Dr. Socrates - Real Madrid - €50 million
you get the idea.

Down, Down - We've gone down.

2009-05-27T12:20:00.000Z

The Daily Hate has come up with a list of players at the Toon who should be staying and going.
Here's my take.

NICKY BUTT £60,000 a week — Can't play for 90 mins - Bye Bye
STEVEN TAYLOR £40,000 — Time to say goodbye - Not as good as he or his father thinks he is.
DANNY GUTHRIE £40,000 — will do well in Championship - still not creative enough.
SHOLA AMEOBI £40,000 — Should have been sold 3 seasons ago (how the fuck is he on £40,000 a week????????
STEVE HARPER £30,000 — deserves a run as No 1. very good underrated keeper.
RYAN TAYLOR £30,000 — should pick up in lower level. Decent player if nothing else could help the promotion push.
MICHAEL OWEN £105,000 — Good riddance to bad rubbish
DAMIEN DUFF £70,000 — says he wants to stay (yeah, right). - "Keep paying me the £70K so I can continue to do sod all every week.
OBAFEMI MARTINS £70,000 — Bye Oba, We'll miss you.
ALAN SMITH £60,000 — Should never have signed him in the first place.
MARK VIDUKA £60,000 — Bye bye pasty boy
GEREMI £60,000 — never should have signed him.
JONAS GUTIERREZ £50,000 — Has good heart, we should keep him.
HABIB BEYE £50,000 — Bye Habib, we'll miss you.
IGNACIO GONZALEZ £50,000 — on loan as far as I know - byeeeeeeee
CACAPA £40,000 — worse than Brian Pinas - why did we sign him?
SEBASTIEN BASSONG £30,000 — one of Newcastle’s few assets. He should be kept - looked excellent
PETER LOVENKRANDS £20,000 — brief loan spell to end. Bye peter - not convincing enough
KEVIN NOLAN £50,000 — You can't turn tripe into steak.
JOEY BARTON £60,000 — Sack the nasty bastard now
JOSE ENRIQUE £60,000 — A good left back who will do a good shift.
FABRICIO COLOCCINI £60,000 — was good, but having only one good centre back in the club until Bassong came along meant he had to do two peoples jobs - yes, I am looking at Steven Taylor.
XISCO £50,000 — why did we buy him (looks good in the reserves, but then again so would I)

ps - that Nasty Bastard Matthew Syed has stuck the knives into Newcastle again on his Times column - Once a bitter table-tennis failure, always a failure - IMO.

football

2009-05-26T11:56:00.003Z

We're down. I am not happy. But I can live with it.
I've had a season full of Man Utd fans insulting Newcastle United fans on the Guardian blogs.

To the people of Rome - I ask a simple favour.
Sharpen the knives and aim for the people in Red, White and Black.

Cheers.

new-ish meme

2009-05-22T11:58:00.001Z

Where is your mobile phone? Bag

Your significant other? Mrs.Palm

Your hair? Gone

Your mother? Gael

Your Step-father? Tony

Your favourite thing? Cricket

Your dream last night? Work

Your favourite drink? Gin &Tonic

Your dream/goal? Millionaire

What room are you in? Office

Your hobby? Cricket

Your fear? Unemployment

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Beach

Where were you last night? Bed

Something that you aren’t? Rich

Muffins? ummmmmmm

Wish list item? House

Last thing you did? Work

What are you wearing? Clothes

TV? Toshiba

Your pets? none

Friends? Some

Your life? Meh

Your mood? stressed

Missing someone? Yes

Your car? no

Something you’re not wearing? Tie

Your favourite store? Game

Your favourite colour? Blue

When is the last time you cried? yesterday

Where do you go to over and over? Home

My favourite place to eat? Newcastle

Favourite place I’d like to be at right now? New Zealand

MP's expenses

2009-05-12T12:17:00.002Z

Here's an easy one for you.

Barr all current MP's from being an MP for the next ten years.
Hold new elections.
New MP's = less scandal.

(also, whoever is the new PM - pass a law that requires Mandelson, Straw and Bliar to be imprisoned for life)

Me and lily

2009-05-03T20:18:00.001Z

My niece. She is pretty.

updates and stuff

2009-04-14T16:40:00.002Z

It's been a busy few weeks with not many posts appearing so:-
I am an uncle - My niece was born on the 8th April at 02.37am. I haven't met Lily yet, but that will be remedied in a couple of weeks.

I've discovered the joys of Achievement whoring - goddam xbox - it's like crack.

Newcastle United are going down.

Craig Murray is a genius.

2009-03-30T16:36:00.001Z

This is brilliant.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/index.html

Craig Murray - I salute you

more fantasy

2009-03-25T13:46:00.002Z

A new day dawns

Good day to you all.

As a lifelong Newcastle United fan I have decided that enough is enough. Having inherited the funds to buy the club I have made a tender offer to buy Newcastle United Football Club plc of £400million. This bid has been accepted by Mr Ashley this morning and as of midnight tonight Newcastle United will be owned wholly by myself and my family.

There will be changes at the club you know and love:-

Dennis Wise has been removed as Director of Football with immediate effect – He was summoned to St.James’ Park for the ownership meeting to make his case for staying in the job and refused to travel up from London – This is unacceptable to me, and as such I have dismissed him from the payroll – he will not be getting his contract paid up. In fact - he will be fired out of a cannon into the sun.

Derek Liambas has been removed as Managing Director with immediate effect.

Richard Money will stay on as Academy head until at least the end of his contract.

I would like to thank Joe Kinnear for giving us a chance at staying up in the EPL, but with his heart problems we have paid him to the end of the mooted contract extension and are in the market for a new manager – Offers have been made to a few choices.

My plans for the club are to put Newcastle back near to the top 4 where we belong –As a club with history and tradition we should be up near the top rather than where we are at present. In order to get there painful decisions lie ahead. If we get relegated this season then a lot of our established players will wish to leave – the economics of relegation and the realities of international football dictate that players will wish to leave. However the plans are to get Newcastle back to the top 10 and work our way back up from there, rather than spending millions on marquee players whilst ignoring the areas of the team that need strengthening – this is the way that Fat Freddie Shepherd and D.Hall started the rot in the first place.

At this stage I would like to extend an invitation to the operators of NUFC.com & True Faith (web and magazine) to visit St. James’ park to discuss the future of the club and go over the way that the club communicates with fans. I would also like to extend an invitation to the NUSC for a face-to-face meeting at St. James’ Park this Sunday after the game.

I want Newcastle to be at the forefront of the global game and would ideally like to start recruiting players from around the world who are world class. I want Geordie kids to aim for playing for Newcastle and will make changes to the academy structure because far too many local kids aren’t being picked up as footballers.

With the above in mind there are changes afoot.

The board will be composed of:-

Myself (infrequently due to other commitments)

Chairman

Chief Executive Officer

Managing Director

Director of Football

Fans representative x 2

Scouting Director

The roles above have been filed on a short-term basis by people I know and trust. While their business acumen isn’t well known they are people who have the club’s interests at heart.

Chairman – This position has been offered to Mr Chris Mort – he did a very good job here first time and I would like him to return, but if my offer is not heeded then I would like to approach xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx.

CEO – This position has been offered to XXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Managing Director – XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Director of Football – Offered to Alan Shearer.

Fans Representative – Two fans will be appointed on a one-year tenure – this tenure will include payment for attending meetings and a small stipend to supplement their income if required to attend meetings out of hours – if you wish to put yourself forward for this then please contact the club.

The Scouting Director position is to be filled by XXXXXXXXXXX– The job will be to liaise with the academy director to try to unearth promising talent, to liaise with the Director of Football, Manager and Board to identify suitable targets and to work closely with the scouting networks around the globe on viewing targets.

The scouting networks are in dire need of updating. As such we are in the process of hiring scouts to work in Western Europe, Northern and Western Africa, South America and the UK & Ireland – Other scouts will be deployed as the roles are filled.

Club Shares.

10% of the club’s worth in shares will be awarded to be held in trust to the fans of Newcastle United. This will give the fans a chance to vote on club matters.

Business.

In order to make sure that United have the ability to climb the league, I have committed the following resources to the club.

Transfer Fees – to the manager’s/DOF’s discretion.

Players Wages – Thanks to the ineptitude of some of the previous regimes’ the spending of massive wages on stars past their prime has to stop. We will pay competitive wages to players but will stop short of paying stupid money on players who haven’t performed in years.

Season Tickets – In these times of financial uncertainty I am announcing that all season ticket prices will be halved for the next two seasons and the projected loss will be paid by me – and an amount equalling this budget will be given to Sir Bobby Robson’s cancer charity to make sure that a legendary son of the North East keeps making lives better. I want St. James’ Park to be full every week, and would like the fans to support the club they love.

The realities of football mean that while we are one of the better supported clubs in the league there may come a time when we will have to think about either relocating to a new stadium or redeveloping the existing one in order to get a possible stadium capacity of around 80-90 thousand.

New players.

There are players I would love to see wearing the Black and White. Unfortunately due to our league position we cannot guarantee that these players will want to come to St. James’ Park. I have given a list of players to scout (after discussion with the manager and scouting director) and we will do our best in delivering good football back to Newcastle fans.

I want United to play free-flowing attacking football at all levels of the club. To look into this I have approached Ajax Amsterdam and Boca Juniors so I can take a look at their infrastructures so Newcastle can copy this coaching model.

I ask the fans to help me taking the club forward – Onwards and Upwards.

Haway the lads.

Regards

*If only*

Oh just FUCK OFF!

2009-03-23T13:15:00.004Z

Right, I am getting more and more pissed by the minute so I'll keep it brief.

Jade Goody dies - tragedy, taken before her time, etc, etc.

This isn't news.
every newspaper has something
Radio 5 did a programme dedicated to her (hosted by the contemptible Stephen Nolan).
The internet is awash with stories.
I've heard that people are laying wreaths at her house. These would probably be the same people who laid flowers for Princess Di. How about a suggestion - We get to euthenise all of the people who read Hello and OK?

I don't care - she is dead, she wasn't famous for anything real. Just fucking leave it alone and leave it off the fucking radio/tv.

thanks

*don't get me started on the following*
Gordon Brown/NuLabour
Newcastle United
The economy

thanks

ps - I'll qualify all of this - In the last two months I've lost my Grandmother(old age) and my Aunt (cancer). Both of these extraordinary women had done their utmost to raise children in the correct way, to be polite and courteous to others and to work hard, pay tax and keep the country running - What the hell did the Goody woman ever do for this country?

a reasoned response

2009-03-03T14:34:00.002Z

A large shout out to CIF poster NORTH. Good work.

There is a blog on the Grauniad's Comment is free website from Tariq Ali.
This might be one of the best responses I've read on CIF for a long time.

Pakistan has been a disaster waiting to happen right from the establishment of the state. BTW Freyaloki, the British never were that keen on setting up 'The Land of the Pure" (What a joke that name is) as it greatly complicated our exit from the old Indian empire. The UK would have been far happier to leave a unified Indian state. Pakistan happened because Jinnah and the Muslim League made it happen.
The trouble with Pakistan was/is that there were no other unifying factors other than Islam.Culturally and ethnically Pakistan is split in innumerable ways. Scindis v Punjabis. Baluchis v central government, Pashtun speakers and other 'tribal' peoples v the more settled peoples of the Indus valley, Sunni v Shiah etc. etc.. In addition the state has been cursed with an upper class of almost unparalleled greed and irresponsibility. They pay hardly any tax and are amongst the most corrupt people on this planet.
As a result of all this the state has been run by military governments for about half its history. The present civilian government probably won't last long. The present upsurge in violent Islamism was encouraged by the late, unlamented Zia Al Huq, in association with various feudal landowners, as a way of opposing the equally corrupt but popular Zufilkar Ali Bhutto ,before Al Huq killed him. The ISI are up to their armpits in Islamic extremism and were almost certainly mixed up in the recent Mumbai bombings.The Taliban were never created by the West (the mujahedeen were). The Taliban were always the Pakistani military's bitch, created to extend Pakistani influence as a part of Pakistan's endless and pointless rivalry with India. Pointless, because India is now so far ahead of Pakistan in terms of military power and development potential.
Now the bitch is biting its creator. The cultural and linguistic similarities between Afghanistan and the Tribal Areas of Pakistan means that the jihadist ideology of the Taliban has crossed back into Pakistan. In addition the fact that several generations of young Pakistanis have been educated in Saudi financed madrassahs means there was a large and receptive audience for the Taliban message. Add on the final point, that large sections of the Pakistani military's officer corps was heavily Islamicised from the 70s onward and many officers and senior NCO's actually sympathise with the Islamist ideology and it really isn't surprising that Pakistan is gradually dissolving into chaos. Under such circumstances it is also not surprising that the US is starting to take matters into its own hands to combat Pakistan based groups which are crossing over into Afghanistan to kill US troops.
Stop press. The latest Pakistani excuses are 1) Its all the fault of the Americans because of their drones and even more ludicrously a Pakistani minister has accused India of being behind this latest attack.
In the long run I expect India will 'take care' of Pakistan. We should be getting much closer to India.

Good post.

Who watches the........................

2009-02-25T16:58:00.001Z

Watchmen?

The film is coming out next month and I urge everybody who reads this to go and watch it and then buy the book.

I'll obviously report on the film when I see it, but the reviews are very positive.

*and yes - I am a nerd.

waste of time

2009-02-25T10:12:00.000Z

Today Hazel Bleurgh, sorry that’s Blears has had a story published about the fact she is going to do a speech about the problems of being too PC.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/24/hazelblears
Save it pet. This is a vain attempt to appeal to the readers of the Sun and Mirror and hope that they vote to keep her and the Neo-Fascist Nu-Labour party in power.

The only way I'll ever vote Labour again is if Blair, Borwn, Mandelson, Straw and Blunkett all get executed for crimes against humanity for their role in the Iraq war.

D

Total Crap

2009-02-24T17:48:00.002Z

Was looking at the Guardian comment is free website this afternoon and stumbled upon this gem of an article by David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield.

As articles go it is breathtaking in it's arrogance.

I was going to post a reply but you can guarantee that Blunkett won't have the replies read to him by a flunky.

Idiot.

There are a few things making me a bit pissed at the mo.

2009-02-23T11:38:00.000Z

Let's start with an easy one.
Jade Goody.
Firstly, it's an unfortunate occurance that a young woman is dying before her children are fully grown.
However - why is her wedding on the national news? - THIS ISN'T NEWS. The BBC don't devote even a tenth of the coverage to UK soldiers dying in Afghanistan (for example), but because she's famous(for being on a crap reality show no less!) she merits a mention on the 5 live national news bulletin. Utter bollocks (and don't even get me started on Big Brother).
I did spend several seconds ranting at the radio over this.
I can honestly say that I think this is the start of the new generation of reality TV. "People dying while you watch right here on Channel 4" (the pioneers of reality telly). There is a videogame in which you have to murder people live on camera and you get better points for the more gruesome execution you perform for the cameras. It's called Manhunt. It's not a great game and the interface was particularly shonky. The game got a load of abuse when it came out and was banned in several countries. I can see TV getting like this soon.

Another one.
Abu Qatada.
Came to this country with a forged passport, was described by various intelligence agencies as "Bin Laden's Right-Hand man in Europe". Wanted by lots of countries on lots of charges. Now, he's come from a country with whose government he doesn't agree with and wants to change his orignal government and ours to match his extremist lifestyle. Comes here and starts to preach hatred of non-muslims. I don't agree that he should have been locked up without charge, he should have been put on trial and the evidence heard at a public hearing. But, last week the European Court of Anti-British rulings has given him some cash to spend on explosives (for being locked up without charge) and will be shortly telling the UK Government that they can't deport him. Liberty and Amnesty keep sending mouthpieces to media outlets to try and say "this shouldn't happen" - So just for me, when the bombs are being readied can the terrorists please send the bombs to the families of people who work for Liberty and Amnesty so they can defend the rights of the terrorists and ignore what happended to their families? Tossers.
Dear Mr. Qataba - just sod off - go anywhere but don't stay here.
Here's a quick one for the people of Britain.
Why are we in the EU if they constantly vote against UK interests? No clue.
Would the EU change their tune if we sent Qatada to brussels and let him abuse his freedom there? Probably.

Another one.
The financial state of the country.
We're in a mess.
No manufacturing base, no real money being generated. Not a good time to be around, unless you work for a bank or the stock market (you guys will always get your money).
Dear Prime Minister - You want to raise some funds for the country and government? Try taxing religious institutions. It's not the 14th century anymore and you don't need to bribe a local charlatan/priest to guarantee you entry into Heaven/Kingdom of the dead/Eleysium/Valhalla/Jannah, etc etc*(substitute any fictional afterlife created by religions for gullible idiots here). The government would get loads of cash, and the religions who don't like it can dismantle their temples and sod off abroad - and that then solves the problem of religious extremists coming to Britain. Easy.

Transport.
In order for me to get the Newcastle this Friday for a funeral I may have to pay £93 to the train companies for the comfort of not having a seat, getting grief from surly staff and having random people come up to me and say "that's my seat".
British Rail - Ripoff Rail more like.
The cheapest Airfare I can get is £84 - and that's only if I leave at reallyfuckingearly AM and return on the day I am due to get back to work (and consequently be late).
Even the coaches are going to cost me £60+ (plus a 60 minute wait in Milton Keynes for my money) for a 8 hour journey.
The government can bleat all they want about climate change, but until they start making public transport more affordable everybody will still take their cars.

Rant over for the morning (this morning at least).

bereavement

2009-02-20T09:37:00.002Z

To lose one relative might be considered unfortunate.

To lose two within a month might be considered careless.

bye grandma.

800 years and all that

2009-02-18T17:09:00.001Z

1209 - Groups of scholars congregate at the ancient Roman trading post of Cambridge for the purpose of study, the earliest record of the University.

1381 - The Peasant’s Revolt. A mob led by the city's mayor stormed Corpus Christi College, burning records and books, in protest against its rigid exaction of "candle rents", or rent charges assessed upon houses in its ownership, according to the number of wax-tapers found. A wage freeze and a new poll tax ignites the Peasant's Revolt. Led by Wat Tyler, the peasants march on London to protest, but King Richard's forces behead Tyler and the uprising is swiftly crushed.

1446 - Henry VI, founder of Eton and of King's College, Cambridge, lays the first stone of King's College Chapel. The founding charter of King's was written by John Broke (documented 1443-1450) clerk of the chancery, and illuminated by the London artist William Abell (documented 1450-d.1474).

1584 - The Cambridge University Press, the world's oldest-established press, begins its unbroken record of publishing every year until the present.

1687 - Isaac Newton publishes 'Principia Mathematica', establishing the fundamental principles of modern physics.

1787 - Wordsworth enters St John's, and publishes his first poem. He later became Poet Laureate.

1859 - Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' is published. This was followed by The Descent of Man (1871) which argued that humans and apes shared a common ancestor - a theory which revolutionised our understanding of life.

1988 - Professor Stephen Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, publishes his book, 'A Brief History of Time' one of the best selling scientific books of all time. He is already eminent for his work on black holes and the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.

2009 - The University of Cambridge celebrates its 800th anniversary.

The University is 800 years old this year and the University is celebrating this by doing a load of events and things all year in the city. They've created and erected a load of banners celebrating the various anniversaries going on this year.
http://www.800.cam.ac.uk/page/36/streetlight-banners.htm

All of this is quite interesting and for a history buff like me it's a brilliant time to be around.

Q and A

2009-02-14T21:58:00.003Z

well, I'm in the north east until tomorrow after attending my aunts funeral - it was a lovely service, no religious crap (it was a humanist service) and I cried through most of it. I really lost it with the song "inch by inch", as I can remember singing that with my family when I was a nipper.

I watched the England v Wales game today and do have a couple of questions.
1 - why the hell do the BBC allow Eddie Butler to spout such Anti-English crap during his commentaries?
2 - Have the IRB decided that England will get pinged for every offence in the book, yet told the referees to allow every other team to infringe all the time because England being successful isn't good for the game? Another case of biased reffing - although at least it wasn't that cheating scumbag Alain Rolland.

what todays post is on is the Derek Liambas interview in the local rag.

below are the list of the questions.

I've just got one question Mike - Do you think that the protests will cease if only 10000 people actually come to watch the team when they play in the championship?

COMMUNICATION
Can you offer any explanation as to why there has been a lack of communication from the club and owner. But particularly during the time when Kevin Keegan departed the club?
Why was there no press conference/ statement from the club when Keegan left the club?
Why did you never follow the example set by Chris Mort who communicated with the fans?
Why can’t Mike Ashley talk to the fans in a fans forum (such as the NUSC) or speak directly to the local press regarding his plans for the club?
Will you be improving the PR with the fans by communicating regularly through the local media?
Can you explain why Mr Ashley completely ignored a request from NUSC to meet in a location of his choice to liase with fans?
Does this interview signal a change in management style which will keep the fans informed as to which direction the club is heading?
MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
What exactly does Dennis Wise do and will he be staying?
If Mike Ashley cares about the club and listens to the fans why didn’t he reinstate Keegan and get rid of Wise?
Was employing Wise the biggest mistake you made? - a manager should never have players forced upon him.
Are there any plans to abolish the two-tier continental style management structure - as Spurs have - as it is not working?
Would Mike consider re-appointing Chris Mort as chairman?
How can you justify running a company from London when the company’s head office and entire operation is based in Newcastle?
Can you please detail the current management structure at NUFC and the job descriptions of Dennis Wise, Mike Ashley and yourself?
You are always sat on your own at matches. Do you not have any friends?
Given your background in the entertainment industry, Derek, how do you think this makes you qualified to run one of the biggest clubs in the world?
TRANSFERS
Do you think the lack of money spent in the transfer window will cost you in the long run with relegation a real possibility?
Is it true the entire first team squad was available for transfer during the summer window?
Why bring in Keegan and then not back him with transfer funds?
How can Mike Ashley claim to care about the club when he refuses to invest in players. His net spend is just £2.1million?
How do you account for making a profit in the last transfer window of nearly £8m when it was blatantly obvious the squad needed to be strengthened?
During the transfer window why didn’t the Shay Given deal proceed on the condition Michael Johnson came the other way? And did you honestly believe Sunderland would sell Kieran Richardson?
It was clear to everyone you needed to increase the squad size during the transfer window to avoid relegation, why was everything left until the last minute?
With Mark Viduka and Michael Owen looking likely to leave in the summer why have we not purchased a striker during the transfer window?
Who signed Xisco and why?
What happened to the James Milner cash?
Geordies can handle the truth. Is there any money for transfers or not?
Who has the final say on transfers, ingoing or outgoing, Wise or Keegan/Kinnear?
At this moment in time is the club self-sustainable or is there pressure to sell players to bring money in?
Sebastien Bassong and Jonas Gutierrez have been good signings to be fair, but will they still be at Newcastle next season given the current trend of selling our best players?
VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Many fans believe you are destroying NUFC. Discuss
How do you respond to Shay Given’s criticism?
What are the long-term plans for NUFC – if there are any?
What is your current vision for NUFC and how do you plan to achieve this?
Where do you see Newcastle United in five years time and how are we going to get there?
Why are Newcastle fans treated with such contempt by you and Mike?
How confident are you about escaping relegation and is there a plan in place if that disaster happens?
When you were trying to sell the club did anyone get as far as due diligence?
Is it true you and Mike were drinking in a bar in Dubai instead of meeting with a potential buyer?
Has there been any interest in the club since Mike took it off the market?
Do you accept you have made mistakes in how the club has been run?
Do you apologise for the upset you have caused with your actions and decisions?
SEASON TICKETS
I’ve paid for my season ticket for three years after being sold the Keegan dream. Can I get a refund on the remaining two years?
What would you say to anybody who is considering giving up their season ticket and what are the incentives to come back in August?
Given the fact attendances are down are you still looking at expanding the stadium?
Why were senior and disabled season tickets raised by 20%?
In recent games, such as the Hull City FA Cup replay, there have been yet more complaints about heavy handed stewarding for incidents as trivial as standing up when the team gets near the goal. Is this something you are looking into because it is bad customer service?
JOE KINNEAR
Now the club is off the market is it not time to look for a good, young manager?
It was made clear to fans at the time of Joe Kinnear’s appointment that he was only here to steady the ship so why have you offered him a two-year contract?
Has Joe been offered a two year contract? If so why when the majority of fans do no think he is the man to take us forward?

after the interview (not really hard-hitting) I have to say one thing - it was exceptionally bad PR waffle.

Monbiot the hero

2009-02-11T15:30:00.001Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/10/hazel-blears-george-monbiot

I have to say that it’s a very good idea to read the above link. George Monbiot’s column is an excellent reposte to a power-hungry leech who isn’t interested in serving her country – she’s only interested in making sure she’s got enough money in the bank and slavishly following the whims of the power-mad NuLabour government.

I read a book once (fiction) which had a system of government which I like the idea of.

It went something like this.

“When you accede to the role of minister, prime minister, etc all of your assets and bank accounts are placed in a central governmental account. If you do well and the country makes money then you get a profit on your deposit – if the country did badly, then you’ve only got your self to blame.

Not sure it would work in the real world but the idea of David “just call me Dave” Cameron being homeless because he couldn’t get the country running well strikes me as funny

Real life vs Fantasy life

2009-01-15T10:21:00.001Z

Newcastle United 0 – Hull City 1

FA Cup Third Round 2008-2009 season.

It’s times like these that make you want to tear your hair out in frustration (if I had any that is).

So, in real life:

Newcastle United are in the lower half of the league.

Can’t buy a win for love nor money, have a massively injury hit squad - players who don’t want to play for the club (Charles N’Zogbia, Little Saint Mick and Shay Given) while other players just want to sit on fat contracts doing fuck all (step forward Alan Smith) and fans who are bordering on the rebellious.

Management structure is up in the air – The owner can’t sell the club, the scouting networks are in ruins and we have a director of football who can’t tell his arse from his elbow and a manager who was killed by a sniper on a grassy knoll in 1963 (sorry – wrong JFK).

And to cap it all off we are the butt of a lot of jokes from the media (step forward Henry “scumbag” Winter and Martin “looks like a sex offender” Samuel as two examples) and fans from other clubs.

What a fun time to support the team I love.

However, in the magical happy land of Football Manager 2008 it’s a somewhat different story.

Newcastle United have a new chairman in charge who wants to win things.

Their sophomore manager Damo has taken Newcastle to 3^rd in the premier League in his second season in charge.

He is playing a progressive 4-4-2 at home and away, got rid of the dead wood in the squad (Little Saint Mick £9mill to Lazio, Alan Smith contract terminated, Milner to Villa for £9Mill, Geremi £1mill to Getafe, Damien Duff £4.5mill to Celtic).With the dead wood gone the first team currently looks a little different.

GK – Steve Harper, with John Ruddy from Everton as cover while Given is injured and Krul is on loan.

RB – Habib Beye – Fit, providing assists

LB – Jose Enrique – Taken his time to acclimatise, but doing really well

CB – Fabricio Coloccini – Awesome CB

Cm – Steve Taylor – Looks decent but keeps getting booked – a new CB is on the cards at the end of the season.

RM – Aaron Lennon – secured from Spurs for hardly any money – isn’t able to cross the ball though.

LM – Jeremy Menez – awesome

CM – Evar Banega – Bought from Valencia for loads (18mill) at the start of this season – best player by a mile

CM – Stephen Defour (liege) – bought for a song in my first season and is showing world class form on the right central side of midlfield.

ST – Oba Martins – on a hot scoring streak with 12 goals in 8 games.

ST – Jimmy Briand – Future France legend – bought on the cheap – can’t stop scoring.

Oh – and Man Utd are 11^th in the league. Fuck you fergie.

In the game my managerial skills are helping me trouser £31,000 a week.

Looking at the two – I know which one I’d prefer.

There may be trouble ahead

2009-01-14T08:51:00.002Z

Due to the parsimony of the Newcastle United Board and the ineptitude of our Director of football Newcastle go into the FA cup replay against Hull City tonight with a squad of 15 players.
Don't ask me how that's possible, it just is.

tonights prediction - Yet another FA Cup loss in the third round.
In other news - as I have no life at the minute (and will not have one for at least two months) I am playing computer games and watching dvds a lot. I need to start going out soon.

Cricket nets have started but I am not netting for about 3 months as I play better if I don't net before the season.

Monday Monday

2009-01-12T17:29:00.002Z

well, a fun weekend was had by all and sundry.
Saturday was spent doing good things
Morning - Picked up by James to help moving a washing machine.
PM - Had my suit fitting for my ushering duties at a wedding clothier place in Willingham. Managed to stand through a chav-wedding fitting (the bride was being fitted for wearing black, and had skin the colour of badly-painted teak - NOT the wedding I am going to) -
Sunday - tidied house, rang friend to talk about their new-born baby (v.tiny baby) and talked for a while.
watched The Dark Knight last night and had a quiet night in.

This is funny - I am Ronaldo's Ferrari

2009-01-09T09:39:00.000Z

Kudos to A more splendid life -0 v.funny

stolen posts

2009-01-06T17:01:00.000Z

I pinched this one from MOSH, cheers bud

Here goes:

Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, and see how many you’ve seen…

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show - one of my favourite viewing experiences ever.
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles - Utterly brilliant - making your children watch this will make them better people as adults
(x) Airplane - Utterly brilliant - making your children watch this will make them better people as adults

Total: 9

(x) The Princess Bride
(x) AnchorMan [
(X ) Napoleon Dynamite [poor]
( X) Labyrinth
() Saw
() Saw II
() White Noise
( ) White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total so far: 15

(x) Scream - Total shite
() Scream 2
() Scream 3
() Scary Movie [will never watch these or any of the piss-take genre)
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp

Total so far: 19

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
(x) Harry Potter 5
() Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
() The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
() Lilo & Stitch

Total so far: 24

(x) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X ) Signs
( ) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre [original]
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
() White Chicks - The wayans brothers should be shot
() Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot - Crap, predicatable, will smith can't act
(x) Robots

Total so far: 29

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story - (love it - v.Funny)
(x) Universal Soldier
() Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X ) Along Came Polly (forced to watch - never again)
(x) Deep Impact
(x) KingPin
() Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG [original only)

Total so far: 37

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber (shite, shite, shite.)
() Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
() Final Destination 2
() Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
( ) The Ring (stop remaking awesome Japanese films into Crap hollywood versions - I shudder if they get a hold of Old Boy)
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber (the original with Fred McMurray was much better)

Total so far: 41

() Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
() Ghost Ship
(X) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
() Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards

Total so far: 43

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play (these films should be jettisoned into the sun along with their creators)
( ) Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X ) Sixteen Candles
(X ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask

Total so far: 49

(x) Bad Boys
(x) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(x) Lucky Number Slevin [think this should be Lucky Number Slevin]
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
(x) Ocean’s Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
( ) The Fog
() Ice Age
() Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George

Total so far: 59

(x) Independence Day
(x ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
() Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
() Rush Hour 2

Total so far: 65

( ) Best Bet
(X ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
(X ) Sideways (brilliant film - I am not drinking Merlot)
() Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
() Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China (mmmmm Kim Cattrall back when she looked cute)
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 75

(x) X-Men (love the X-Men films - The wolverine film coming out this year looks awesome)
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
( ) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
(x) Reign of Fire
() The Skulls
(X ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2

Total so far: 86

(X ) Swimfan (sat through 30 mins of this before leaving cinema in disgust)
(X ) Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
(X ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin

Total so far: 91

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers - interesting note - My friend played an Orc in this film (he was in NZ on extended holiday at the time)
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Total so far: 97

(X ) Baseketball
(x) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
() Elf
(x) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
(x) American History X [excellent film - should be watched by everyone]
( ) Three

Total so Far: 101

( ) The Jacket [however, I have seen Jackie Chan's "The Tuxedo" and that was shit]
(x) Kung Fu Hustle (brilliant film, v. funny)
(x) Shaolin Soccer
(X ) Night Watch [watched it - was intrigued by the idea - too much time wasted on pointless effects shots through the film)
() Monsters Inc.
(X ) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
() Willard [unheralded classic - rent it now]

Total so far: 107

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(X ) Hook
( ) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (christian propaganda)
(x) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld

Total so far: 112

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
(X ) Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
() The Hills Have Eyes [remake]
() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman (keep meaning to watch this)
( ) The Last House on the Left
(x) Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness

Total so far: 118

(X ) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith [but played the PlayStation Lego versions]
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
(X ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor

Total so far: 125

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
(x) Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
(x) Red Dragon [original and remake]
(x) Silence of the Lambs
() Hannibal

Total - 134

2009

2009-01-06T13:20:00.002Z

Well, 2008 was a fat pile of gubbins.

things that happened in 2008 I am happy with.
Winning the league again as captain of the team

resigning as captain at the agm to concentrate on my batting for 2009.

bring on 09.

on other news front.
Work still crap.
Blyth got beat by BFS's long-ball army.
Newcastle got humped over the christmas holidays.
I found out my snowboard is broken so need a new one.

talk soon

Top Bands

2008-12-19T11:55:00.003Z

The Grauniad has an online piece about Mark Ronson and his top 100 (98 actually - Stevie Wonder listed twice and only 99 entries) bands.

so copying his idea I am going to come up with 10 of my favoured bands.
In no particular order.

The Beatles
The Brand New Heavies
Slipknot
The Rolling Stones
Pendulum
Depeche Mode
The Prodigy
Fleetwood Mac
Queens of the Stone Age
The Foo Fighters

Mactini

2008-12-19T11:01:00.002Z

This is comedy gold

Mactini - the future is here. Thank you Peter Serafinovich

800 years old.

2008-12-19T10:33:00.001Z

800 years of university life and all we get is a badge. I would have liked an 800 pound bonus.

Gin and stuff

2008-12-18T17:10:00.002Z

Well, as it's the holiday season i've had to start spending money I don't have on presents for peeps.

first up - Gin.
I like this stuff - it's tasty.
if anybody wants to send me some - please do.

Travel Woe

2008-12-16T13:03:00.003Z

It's time for the annual pilgrimage to the Land of My Fathers/Mothers (my family has always been a Matriarchal one after all).

The journey goes something like this:-
Wander down to Cambridge Train Station and get hassled by the ticket inspectors for my ticket/ID.
Wait 30 mins in a bloody uncomfortable seat for an inevitably late train to Peterborough.
Get on train and stand all the way to P'Boro.
Change at P'Boro and wait 25 mins for East Coast train to newcastle.
Stand for all journey to North-East.
get off the train a lot colder but enjoy the experience of being in a train station that is a stunning piece of architecture.

and for all of this journey I have to pay £80+.
now, here's the problem.
I know it costs a lot to get where I am going, but to pay £80+ to stand for 3.5 hours seems a bit wrong.

Get it sorted please Mr. Government - otherwise nobody will take the train in a few years (maybe that's the plan?)

rossinisbird: God?

2008-12-16T13:01:00.000Z

rossinisbird: God?

that might be the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

heh.

random annoyances

2008-12-11T12:00:00.002Z

right now there are several things that are annoying me lots.

1 - Zimbabwe. The cholera epidemic there is no joke. Mugabe is still treating the country like his personal fiefdom and denouncing the white former overlords as scum (which some of them are, no doubt). I was talking to a South-African woman I know and we got talking about how southern Africa is a mess because the minute they declared independence they decided that rather than helping their country the ruling class would just asset strip the country to make sure their families were covered.
If they had oil the US and UK would be in there like a shot.

2 - The end of Woolworths. Sad really.

3 - Unemployment. This might sound very harsh (and I do intend it to be). I live in Cambridge which has a massive Eastern European population. These workers are here to make money from a strong economy (no issue with that) - but, if we are starting to make loads of people unemployed then surely we should be concentrating on keeping the UK citizens in a job, rather than the economic migrant work force?

High-level Geekery

2008-12-05T17:16:00.002Z

Oh my god.
for the nerd/geek among us (alright, me) there are two major things going to enter my life in 2009.
First one is the Watchmen movie. The webisodes and the trailer look amazing and remarkably true to the source material. From a personal point of view I am looking forward to the Dr. Manhattan character - the only "super" in the book and pretty much my favourite comic character ever.

second is the new Star Trek movie - I hate to say it - it looks immense. Simon Pegg is in it as Scotty and it looks all tech'd up and shiny. I know I am a huge trek nerd - but I really am looking forward to this.

anyhoo - weekend is here.
going to relax with my new shiny toy. bring on the fun

Genius and pain

2008-12-02T12:50:00.004Z

Well, as announcements go it was another pronouncement of doom. Went to the doctor who told me that they may have to remove another part of me for testing/biopsy. Joy. I am getting tired of having bits cut out of me.

on more positive news I've taken to reading the Grauniad online. They do have a set of talented writers (also a lot of wankers - Look up WKL Louise Taylor for further proof).

anyway - my favourite column now is written by Raphael Honigstein on the Bundesliga. Have a link to his current article.

"Positively Pornographic Finishing" - I loved that quote.

edit - just noticed this on the guardian site.

"Ronaldo beats off Messi and Torres" to scoop Ballon d'Or

and yes - I added the quotation marks.

hobbies

2008-11-26T10:44:00.005Z

Due to the fact that the economy is in the toilet and food is inflating beyond my means (nearly) I have effectively stopped going out. This has had two effects.

1 – I have put on weight due to the fact that I am in the house eating and living a sedentary lifestyle.

2 – I have become a hermit. My standard day goes something like this:-

7.30am get up

8.00am walk to work

9.00 – 5.30pm work

6.30pm get home

7.00pm turn on the computer

1.00am go to bed

So I’ve turned to gaming to keep my spirits up.

Been playing the following a lot recently.

Pro Evo Soccer 2009

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Fable 2.

And my favourite – Forza Motorsport 2.

The art package on the racing game is particularly excellent, and while I am useless at the art stuff – I have made a start on some cars.

They aren’t really that good but I am trying. Some of the designs on the Forza forums are awesome.

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/31/ShowForum.aspx

I will be investing in Gears of War 2 today.

I play online with a clan of guys who are alright and don’t trash talk, annoy me or mock me (too much) – www.rightasreign.co.uk. The only thing I need to do is get better as I am pretty much a N00b at present.

Xbox Live GamerTag (if you are online) – SkipperD

See you on live.

Damo

update-tacular

2008-11-03T08:47:00.002Z

Okay - sorry been away for a while - this is in part due to a series of hospital appointments I am having and in part due to the fact that I can't be arsed.

a few things from the weekend -
1 - Did you see the faces of the Ferrari crew as they realised they'd lost the world championship? - that was pure comedy.
2 - Newcastle are now bottom because in part we have a D.O.F who can't buy a decent player and the fact that our team doesn't really seem to give a toss.
3 - Crissmass is nearly on us - thank god I won't be here.

Fuckery

2008-10-27T17:39:00.002Z

Well, after the forces of darkness won and their genetically-inferior freaks of fans decided to throw bottles and chair seats at the Newcastle fans. muppets.

Still, went paintballing in Thetford Forest on sunday - it was awesome. Muddy and fun.
Onward and upward.

it's probably wrong of me to say this

2008-10-22T12:12:00.005Z

but..........

ASBO (Joey Barton) will go a long way to making the Newcastle fans respect him if he knocks out and hospitalizes the scumbag, dogwanking Royston Keane.

Come on Joey - stick one on him!
Saturday, 12.45pm kickoff - Sunderland vs Newcastle United, The stadium of Shite, Mordor-on-Wear.

come on the lads.

Crickey

2008-10-14T12:31:00.002Z

Well, it's Tuesday and I am back at work.
Had a weekend away in Bremen - I loved it there and I really want to live there at some point in my life - Germany makes the UK look horrific.
This week looks like it will be fun - busy deadlines and not fun (again).
My cousin Joe is apparently coming to stay for a night, but will let me know closer to the time.
it's the end of season do for the cricket club on friday - woooo - the only senior team within the club to win their league (Kudos).
Another long weekend in the offing - lovely.

Oh, and my fucking Xbox 360 got the dreaded 3 rings of death - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
oh well, I'll just have to watch dvd's or actually have a life in the evenings.

most excellent

2008-10-09T16:52:00.002Z

I am away for the weekend - enjoy yourselves.

Have some Seth McFarlane to smooth the weekend.
The Mario rescues the Princess is my favourite.

D

Fan

2008-10-08T14:48:00.001Z

I like this fan. It is keeping me cool.

Tuesday missives

2008-10-07T08:15:00.003Z

Well, after a weekend characterised by drinking and making inappropriate comments to women it's back to work time for a whole 3 days (away this weekend, back Tuesday!).
This week doesn't look like it's going to be fun - work wasn't fun last week and isn't looking like fun so far this week.
other than above it's busy time - deadlines looming and my particular departments tend to put in a lot of work at this time.
still, shortened week is a good thing.

for those of you (Mosh) who tried to guess my "guess what it is" post below - It's a tumble dryer from a launderette. Another one will come soon.

Black hole.

2008-10-05T12:21:00.001Z

Can you guess what it is?

large pic of child

2008-10-01T07:39:00.002Z

Sat at my desk and had a look around the office. There is a large picture of a baby on one of the walls -- it's one of the girls from her birthday party at the weekend
today being the first day of October we are due a visit by our new director - hopefully he'll realise pretty early on that all of the damage done by our acting director over the last year can be reversed pretty easily - otherwise the next few months are going to be interesting.

update - Sorry about that Claire - I've updated the above and you can smack me around with abandon later on.

friday-ish

2008-09-26T07:44:00.003Z

Well, it's a half day for me today and a long weekend as I am not working on Monday. Happy Smile currently sits on face. Going to have a quiet lunch, maybe go to the cinema to watch a film this afternoon (Death Race is the current favourite). Maybe having a beer later with a couple of friends to go over some stuff.
Anyhoo - Things going on.
Weekend of domesticity and depression.
monday of lying in bed and sleep.
mmmm sleep.

the day after

2008-09-25T09:08:00.001Z

Last night -
Gin & Tonic x 5
Bitter x 2
Creme Egg shots x 2

this morning - I feel dead

my head hurts

2008-09-24T07:59:00.000Z

last night I drank a colossal amount of Ouzo with some old friends who I hadn't seen for a while.
this morning my head hurts, my bowels ache and I think my left eyeball is itchy.
not good.

monday updates

2008-09-22T12:36:00.002Z

Had a thoroughly unimpressive weekend. Now back to work which doesn't inspire confidence either.
1 - last week our Acting Director threatened everybody in the division with the sack if we didn't go along with her idea of doing other people's jobs(without getting any kind of renumeration for it). Not a fun meeting to be in.
2 - Had training for said work this morning - what fun.
3 - No real reason to be here anymore - work is annoying at the minute.

maybe I should become a consultant - that way I can sit at a desk and do sod all for most of the day for a lot of money.

Got this from Mosh - no real surprise on the answers

2008-09-22T08:01:00.001Z

Got this from reading Mosh this morning.

1. Do you like blue cheese? … Not really.

2. Have you ever smoked? … Yep, not anymore though.

3. Do you own a gun? Nope.

4. What flavour Cordial was your favourite? Vimto

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointment? No.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Quite nice, but it would be nice if they were actually made of sausage meat, rather than dog’s ass.

7. Favourite Christmas movie? White Christmas

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee

9. Can you do push ups? yep

10. What’s your favourite piece of jewellery? Do watches count?

11. Favourite hobby? Reading and Cricket

12. Do you have A.D.D.? Nope.

13. What’s one trait you hate about yourself? I dunno - are there any I should know about?

14. Middle name? yes

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? Why do I have to go to train to do somebody else’s job that I am not going to get paid for? Why do our finance management section never seem to have any staff who actually do any work?

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, concentrated juice, coffee

17. Current worry? Money, work and personal life

18. Current hate right now? The banks who have managed to get rich off trading the peoples debts, then going broke and getting the governments to actually pay tax-payers money to get them out of a hole that they got themselves into – If anybody actually doubted that the gov. were here to protect the investments of the corporations over the wellbeing of the people then they should have anymore doubts.

19. Favourite place to be? On a beach

20. What did you do for the New Year? Had a quiet night in.

21. Where would you like to go? Japan, China, Argentina.

22. Name three people who will complete this? no-one, nobody and zero persons

23. Do you own slippers? No – I am not that old

24. What colour shirt are you wearing right now? White shirt with Red, Pink and Blue stripes

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? They’re okay

26. Can you whistle? Yes

27. Favourite colour? blue

28. Would you be a pirate? Yep.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Don’t sing in the shower

30. Favourite boy’s name? Thaddeus

31. What’s in your pocket right now? not much money

33. Last thing that made you laugh? Winning the league with my cricket team

34. Best bed sheets as a kid? Candy striped white

35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? Dislocated Knee-Cap, Displaced Vertebrae.

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 1

38. Who is your loudest friend? Matt

39. How many dogs do you have? None – hate the fuckers

40. What car do you drive? None

41. What is your favourite book? Far too many to choose from

42. What is your favourite candy? Fruit Salad.

43. What is your favourite Sports Team? Newcastle United. Sadly.

44. What song do you want played at your funeral? Dream on Dreamer by the Brand New Heavies.

Reality

2008-09-15T08:00:00.003Z

So, Newcastle United are up for sale by the man who did stabilise the debt problem a year or so ago.
Problem 1 - I don't have the requisite £300m to buy the club
Problem 2 - I wouldn't want to go to games even if I owned the club
Problem 3 - A lot of the players and staff involved in the club seem to not care about United.

so, living in fantasy land (as I often do) - here is the solution to the problems of Newcastle United (if I had £40bn to spare)
Step 1 - Buy the club and pay off all debts (including all future transfer costs).
Step 2 - Kneecap Dennis "little cockerney barrowboy psycho" Wise.
Step 3 - Hire Didier Deschamps as the manager (the Keegan era is gone)
Step 4 - Give said manager £100mill a season to buy players/pay wages for new players until we win something.

Or If I was feeling really evil.
Buy the debt of Manchester United then issue a winding up order for Old Trafford.
heh

Allcock batting.

2008-09-12T13:17:00.001Z

He was given lbw for this.

Not the end of the world.

2008-09-11T08:25:00.002Z

Right.
Thanks to the mutterings of religious nutjobs all over the world everybody was expecting the world to end when CERN powered up the massive Atom Smasher yesterday. It didn't happen. We're still here. Hopefully the thing will start to produce results (although that's going to take years).
Thanks to yesterdays hysteria, a couple of us in the office had an extended conversation about what you would do if it was the last day on Earth.
Predictably it went sleep, eat, sex.
We then had a conversation about which women/men you would "do".
Jesse Metcalfe was the choice for some of the women in the office, whilst I went for Zoe McLennan.
nice.

BTW - We do actually work from time to time.

Police get owned

2008-09-05T11:07:00.001Z

Now I've got the hang of embedding video - check this out.

moral of the story - you police? - don't let the public see you beating the hell out of somebody - Take a tip from the US or UK police - torture them out of sight

Soup Kitchen Retards

2008-09-05T08:45:00.002Z

Thanks to the person who coined the above phrase on a Newcastle United Web Forum.

Do the rest of the fans a favour guys - stop mugging for the Sky "We love tongueing Fergies' Arse" Sports whenever something bad/stupid happens at St. James' park.
Cheers

sky fuggin sports

2008-09-04T12:19:00.001Z

Bastards

whoo-hoo

2008-09-02T14:06:00.003Z

Well, we lost the match on saturday but the team in second place who could have overhauled us for the title lost to one of the worst teams in the league.
So for the second season in a row under my captaincy - WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!
on a briefer note, our ladies XI got to the National Cup semis with a win on Sunday - their reward is a tie in Reading this Sunday at midday.

Football.

More specifically the Saga of Newcastle United and Kevin Keegan.

The news today is that he’s gone(not confirmed yet tho). Well I hope the scum in the press are happy to have hounded a man out of a job.

Here’s a list of the scum responsible.

L.ouise “WKL”"I lust after the dog-wanker Keane" T.aylor – Guardian – Just do the world a favour and die you mackem bitch – We all know you love Keano – who knows, maybe he’ll let you wank his dog.

B.arry G.lendenning – Guardian – just do us all a favour and either support a team from your own country/locale or just stop having a go at Newcastle. Irish Mackem Scum.

M.artin S.amuel – The Times – Fat, Bearded arsehole and all-round iffy looking bloke. If he moves into your local area make sure your kids’ school has high fences, or security to stop him getting in..

H.enry Fucking W.inter – Scum of the highest order.

All the Match of the Day commentators who stick the boot in – just bugger off. No talent wastes of space.

Skysports – Fucking Man Utd supporting scum. You could try being impartial, but that’s beyond you. Also, can you persuade that thick twat A.ndy Gr.ay to kill himself?

Yes, the man was labelled as a quitter. Yes, he was naïve. But, he made us feel good about being Newcastle fans again. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT?

Keegan versus Fergie.

KK played for his country.

KK European Player of the Year 2 times

Fergie - Waste of space who could only score in the scots leagues

Fergie - Not even good enough to be considered Scotland's best player.

KK - A nice man with a lot of time for fans.

Fergie - A Dirty Scumbag

seasonal updates

2008-08-28T08:06:00.004Z

Right it's the end of the cricket season in the CCA Junior Leagues (almost).
Here is a list of a lot of the things that have happened this season and my takes on them.
1 - I scored a fifty for the first time in 3 seasons this year - not bad, but went in early due to losing wickets and couldn't get out of 3rd gear to help win the game.
2 - We got a lot of now players in the 3rd team this season. Dave (who I work with), Lukas, Rummen. Also got a few players back who had been playing not a lot of games. Also lost a few players as well. It's been nice to have new players, but I could do without the bitching about not having a bat.
3 - Parker's Piece, our home ground is playing quite well this season. Better than the last few years when it's been frankly a disgrace.
4 - We've been promoted with one game to go to the CCA Junior league first Division(the same league as our second team).
5 - Got one game to go versus Histon this weekend. Due to player call-ups and the fact that our 1st and 2nd teams don't want to give me any players we are a lot short of full strength in the championship decider match. Not too happy about this. In addition the 1st team who have been treating the rest of the club like crap all season have just had two drop-outs so obviously the 2nds have to give up two players abd so do the threes. grrrrrrr.
The upshot off it all is that the ones and twos have in between them shafted the entire club with their antics of picking players who they like rather than people in form, meaning that players from lower down the ladder don't want to play for the higher teams as you get picked for games then dropped the minute the captain's best mate is back in the team.

I am getting very tired of cricket.

Fabricio

2008-08-15T15:27:00.002Z

Being a heterosexual man I am quite worried about how attached I am getting to Fabricio Collucini's legendary haircut - I love it.
here's hoping the newly-signed Newcastle United central defender turns out to be more Terry Butcher than Frank Butcher after putting on the Black & White.
after a full summer of being stressed every week the end of the cricket season is nigh. 3 games to go.top of the league.feeling stressed.want that championship shield.

come on.

Cricket meets art

2008-08-01T10:53:00.001Z

Jesus college. Wonderful cricket pitch.

More leg shots

2008-07-01T01:46:00.001Z

More Ouch.getting slightly better.

Mondays leg shot

2008-07-01T01:44:00.001Z

Ouch.Ouch.

See my ankle today.

2008-06-29T10:23:00.001Z

Ouch,Ouch,Ouch.

We love Temudgin

2008-06-20T14:35:00.002Z

Went to see Mongol at the cinema this week, after a week of dilly-dallying about going to the cinema on my own.
Anyway, went and it was fucking awesome. Top, top film. Great acting and the scenery was immense. There were a few moments of the film plainly made up for poetic licence, but on the whole I loved it. The actors stood out, The guy who played the young Temudgin and the young actress who played his wife to be, Borte were excellent - just wish I'd seen more of it.
His blood brother was played by an asian actor who I last saw as the mad general in Seven Swords (another film i'd heartily recommend). anyhoo.
seal of approval on this film. you must see this.

Victory

2008-06-19T20:39:00.001Z

See little ronaldo cry after the no class portugal team lost to the vastly superior germans.

My new shower

2008-06-18T21:50:00.001Z

Clean and shiny

NUFC

2008-06-17T07:36:00.000Z

Buy some bloody players will you?
otherwise we will get relegated.
cheers

D-Day

2008-06-12T08:34:00.003Z

Well, it's going to be a day of mourning for me on friday.
The woman who I have a lot of warm feelings about is leaving the office on friday.
I am a bit down.

Sunburn, the warm glow of victory and sunday beers

2008-06-09T16:22:00.003Z

The weekend rolls round after a week of scrabbling around for players for the saturday game.
Saturday afternoon rolls round and we have destroyed our opposition by 75 runs. heh.
today I have the luxury of picking 6 players who normally play in the second eleven - and the team we play are bottom of the league. it can only come unstuck spectacularly.
sunday I sat in the sun with a hat on and got absolutely hammered on German Purity lager and cider - ooohhh dear.

The weekends antics

2008-06-03T08:33:00.002Z

First up -
spent friday helping JP and Diane move house.
saturday - spent saturday getting miffed at my cricket team - we still won with ease
Sunday - went to the flicks to see the Indy film - not bad, a little overblown but on the whole good entertainment

away with the fishes

2008-05-28T12:32:00.001Z

Been away for a week, mostly just at work with no time for anything else other than cricket.
anyhoo.
Played saturday with my knacked hand in bandages.
we bowled them out for 123.
i came in with 30 needed and hit a massive six and then the winning run.

relaxes with self-satisfied smile and a glass of wine

New Injuries

2008-05-19T07:41:00.001Z

Spent two hours in casualty on saturday.
smashed a pint glass with my footby accident.........
picked up pieces of glass to stop them being a hazard............
dropped piece of glass.............tried to catch it being the idiot I am..........
hand currently held together with medical superglue as the nurse practitioner could actually see the bone through the wound.

ouch

Enough

2008-05-15T12:48:00.001Z

Normally I wouldn't go on here and really complain, but I can't see the point anymore.
went to cricket nets last night and three players actually tried to injure me on purpose with cricket balls during a batting session.
Consequence - I have a ricked wrist, shoulder and neck.

What a fun pastime.

Random Info and status update

2008-05-13T16:07:00.003Z

Housemove went ok. Hopefully the en suite bathroom should be nearly finished by the time I get back from work - kitchen needs tidying though.
Cricket season has started - I am still miffed from not getting picked to play for the 4th team when my team had a week off - I did end up scoring for the 1sts though - an infinitely better experience. had to pick my first team of the season this week - had sooo many dropouts due to one reason or another. grrrrrrrrrrr - urge to maim rising.
Work has turned crap - we are being moved out of our own respective sections to sit in some cockamamie school split to satisfy the whims of somebody who has done a really good of turning our division from one that was a tight unit with lots of talented people willing to help others into one where everybody wants to leave and stab the rest of the office in the back. what fun. the only glimmer of hope I can see is that if this turns to shit (and it will) then she will never be given another equivalent job again (or asked to leave).

Me with hair and hardly any bodyfat.

2008-05-06T08:33:00.002Z

How thin was i?

My godson partying.

2008-05-02T21:00:00.002Z

He's a sexy beast(also slightly skewiff)

I am a colossal nerd.

2008-04-28T23:41:00.001Z

Got my copy of GTAIV.

Week of wonderment

2008-04-27T20:59:00.002Z

Well, it's Sunday night and I am unable to go to Vegas. grrrrrr.
anyway. I am off work until the 6th May.
In that time I have the following events planned:-
Monday - tidy up the house and start getting the rest of my crap into boxes/bags etc for the move.
Monday midnight - pick up GTAIV from HMV.
Tuesday - play computer games all day
Wednesday - finish packing as much of my stuff as physically possible.
Thursday - move house (pm)
Friday - go to Teeside for family do which could be very interesting or very strained.
Saturday - get really really stressed about the fact that I am missing the first game of the cricket season in the league and go and see my grandmother in her sheltered accommodation in Newcastle.
Sunday - loaf around, go and visit my brother and his gf.
Monday - come back to Cambridge to a flat with no bed in it (it's not being delivered until the end of the week!)
Tuesday - go back to work and get shouted at by people worried about the office seating plan move.

what a wonderful life I lead.

Oh, and cheers for the birthday wishes by the way.

It's my birthday.

2008-04-25T09:22:00.001Z

Cheers office peeps

A cappuTEAno

2008-04-24T10:37:00.001Z

One of the women in my section made me a cappuTEAno today. Tastes wierd,but not as wierd as the tea latte she made me a while ago.

Midweek-ish update

2008-04-22T16:34:00.002Z

Well, work has truly been a pain in the arse for the last two days - tomorrow promises to be slightly less hellish but you never know.
I have just cancelled my days leave on Friday because of the amount of work that needs doing on my desk................me is a stupid idiot................... Anyway - tonight promises to be fun - I am going to indulge myself with fish, chips and mushy peas tonight.mmmmmmmmmmmm lovely.
I may watch the football, if only really to shout abuse at the Chelsea scum on the telly (there is an ulterior motive in wanting Liverpool to win, but we don't mention that in polite company).
still, Tuesday is almost over and I've only got a few days to go until I am off work for 10 days.

Season opener.

2008-04-21T11:58:00.001Z

Saturday. Cold,miserable and windy. We beat St.Giles by a few. Another friendly on sunday against Bar Hill.

Victory for the forces of good

2008-04-20T14:36:00.003Z

Bye bye Mackems - when you leave our fine city, please remember that the strange things you saw here are called cars - we don't use the horse and carriage anymore and the funny smell you could smell was actually the smell of the sea and the city - a Sewage system exists in Newcastle.

heh

It's that time of the year

2008-04-15T13:03:00.002Z

The residents of the dark place go to Newcastle to experience the wonder that is electricity, heating in houses and a city that isn't horrific.

Welcome to Newcastle you mackems.
linky

Me at work

2008-04-14T14:50:00.001Z

Office life

update

2008-04-08T17:54:00.001Z

Just a quickie here - sorry for not posting for a while - been a tad distracted.

One is moving house at the end of the month so my nights are now filled with minutae of a different kind - will start to get more posts in when I am settled in new place.

All the fun of the fair

2008-03-28T09:22:00.004Z

Well, my life for the next several months has become a lot more complicated - The cricket Season is almost upon us!.
This means that my weekdays and nights will be spent worrying about team selection and tactics. Interestingly, my new Vice Captain for this season is normally angrier than me - this means that the rest of the team will be able to run a decent betting pool and who will lose their temper first and how long that will be from the start.

Heathrow Terminal 5 - I know I shouldn't but - ha ha ha ha ha. Just out of interest - what the hell where you expecting?

Problems in Zimbabwe - am I the only person who can't see a problem with somebody actually assassinating Robert Mugabe. Apparently inflation is now running at nearly 100,000%! In order to win the election he has ordered the banks to print more money to pay the security services, army and police. While the rest of the populace starves. Nice man.

anyhoo - it's Friday and i have money to spend - bring on the shopping

Metal Rocks

2008-03-23T20:24:00.004Z

Courtesy of Mosh - Ed's fucking furry guide to Metal - absolutely marvellous.

Cheers mate - made me laugh loads(hopefully this will not detract from your site traffic - if it does, then I'll buy you lots of beer.

Damo

[almost forgot]
Currently listening to:-

Track - Blackbird
Artist - Paul McCartney
Album - Unplugged

What the hell is going on?????????

2008-03-23T13:41:00.003Z

It's March and it's snowing outside - wtf?

also, lets talk about the week that was.
Had a couple of days away from work with a screwed up neck, skull, hip and leg due to cycling accident. Joy.

Newcastle United won yesterday - hooray! that said, Fulham were shocking.

Come on England! - After cocking up the first innings against the Kiwis (thanks to KP and SB for keeping us in that contest) - Shaggy takes 7 wickets to leave the Kiwis all out for 168. Heh heh. That said, I think it's time for Strauss and Vaughan to be put out to pasture - neither of them are getting any better.

It's super-duper-fantabulous sunday today - sky are ovver-hyping the terrible football on show again. It's just a game - Manure Utd aren't that good (come on Liverpool). I would like to see Arsenal beat Chelsea - but that because I despise the blues.

anyhoo, back to the rest of the day - hopefully having a clan match tonight with the guys from RaR - if I can get connected to the internet.

Monday, monday

2008-03-17T16:33:00.002Z

had a fun day (am typing this with two finger of one hand only).
On way to work this morning, Foreign cyclist (Cambridge is full of them) is cycling the wrong way down the road - I don't see him until very late - swerve to avoid him and smash into moving bus. Tale of the tape so far - Knackered right shoulder, knackered right-side of neck, very sore right side of hip, right knee throbbing and swollen. - Thank whoever that I was wearing my cycling helmet. The best bit though?
Offending cyclist just cycled off and the bus driver carried on obliviously.
I love cambridge sometimes.

Fridayness

2008-03-14T19:01:00.004Z

Well, what a wonderful day today turned out to be.
Had some work to do, tried to do it using pc - interweb connection dies destroying 6 hours worth of work in the process - I'd like to thank the person who turned off the internet.

From a witch of a certain hue - what's your favourite smell?

The weeks football action was a bit up and down - Inter got beat by Liverpool, spurs and everton went out to better teams. Now i get to wait after England get humbled by the Irish and the Kiwis(rugby and cricket) for monday nights hot premier league action - oh please, god/buddha/yahweh/satan/beelzebub/odin/thor/Tony Blair's conscience (insert fictitious diety/idea here) - Please let the Toon beat Birmingham on monday.

Other than that - no work today is a good thing. Maybe it would be better if I didn't go in on monday either.

Currently Listeneing to:-
Track - Fight the Power
Album - Power to the people and the beats - the best of Public Enemy
Artist - Public Enemy
One of Chuck D's finest.

Currently Reading - Parallel Worlds,.
Author - Michio Kaku
Top book on the science of alternate Universes and Physics.

Monday missvies 2

2008-03-10T12:22:00.003Z

Monday morning blues.

Ok, reasons to be cheerful
MotoGP is back on the telly. James Toseland finished 6th, just behind legend Valetino Rossi. Good race as well.
It's the end of the six nations this week - Wales v France is the big one - Come on you French.
newcastle united get to play some similar relegation-fodder soon. Thank god for that - here's hoping we get a result or 5.
The FA Cup - Man Utd, Chelsea - HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA - here's hoping that West Brom get Portsmouth and then Pompey get beat in the semis. That way we wouldn't have to witness Harry Redknapp on the telly crowing about his win.
Whitley Bay FC are in the semi-finals of the FA Vase - next game in the competition is against Lowestoft in a couple of weeks. Then if the Bay win then it's off to Wembley.

Reasons to be pissed off.
Back in the office again - staff meetings - I am too busy - do me a favour and shut up in meetings.
office again - seemingly we have decided that rather than trying to help people we will actually try to put as many obstacles in the way of people as much as possible - makes a mockery of why we do what we do.
Football - Newcastle lost another game on Saturday to a decent Liverpool side. Relegation is a very real issue at this point.
Women talking about their children at work - give it a rest please - I do not have children for a reason - i don't want to hear about little Corinthian having a rough day at school.
Me and women. this subject is now becoming a massive annoyance.

saturday morning

2008-03-08T09:59:00.002Z

After another ridiculously shit week at work the weekend has arrived.
things of note.

First of all - MOTOGP is back! - i love the bike racing. Hopefully with enough money saved it's plane to Valencia at the end of the season to see the final race. I'm looking forward to watch James Toseland race. should be fun.

Secondly - the hair-bear-bunch man took a hat-trick against the Kiwis - that said, i wtill think the test will be a draw.

Thirdly - Scotland vs England today - if it rains, England play shit at Murrayfield. Come on you English Roses.

Other than that - it's Liverpool v Newcastle today - currently Liverpool could play their Under 15 side and they'd still give the Toon a humping. Here's hoping it's not that bad - or Rafa decides to rest everybody. If nothing else, a few women at work will be happy on monday.

talk laters

meme

2008-03-05T12:58:00.003Z

From Mosh, I have been tagged with a meme.
so here I present 6 quirks of me.

1 - If I am doing something I really want to get done or continue, I will quite happily go without sleep until it's finished. My record is 34 hours before I started seeing things.

2 - I am one of the most injury-prone people I know. Last sports season I injured myself with niggly injuries more than anybody else in our sports club.

3 - I am a bastard - literally. My parents weren't married when I was born - and let me tell you that at the time this wasn't a common occurrence. The relationship was such a bad thing in my dad's family's eyes that his name does not appear on my birth certificate.

4 - I once had my arse truly kicked by a girl in middle school. With a riding crop. As a result I am effectively the worlds biggest coward/dirty fighter. And yes, i know that people have to pay good money for this kind of treatment now.

5 - I am possibly the most ticklish person I know. really, all you have to do is touch my sides or feet and I just turn into a quivering mass of jelly.

6 - I have an amazingly low threshold for pain.

Interesting things

2008-03-05T08:40:00.002Z

Well, it's a Wednesday morning and I am officially toast. Got knocked off my bike this morning by another cyclist who decided that red lights don't need to be stopped at. Joy.

Watched some of the football last night and although I hate to admit it, it is entertaining to watch Arsenal play. That said, the Italians did have much better close control and awareness, whereas the English (alright, there were no English players in the starting lineup) looked to take an extra touch a lot of the time.

Other than that, I actually worked from home last night - this isn't a good thing.

anyhoo, this Wednesday means that I've got a bit of work to do for an important deadline - what fun.

talk later - alt5hough it may be much later, I am going to the pub quiz at the Carlton tonight.

More monday thoughts

2008-03-03T17:10:00.003Z

Well, my nightmare period at work is well and truly over.
deep breaths.
YYYYYYYEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

so back onto my usual stuff.

1 - After having a weekend of party Friday, shopping Saturday and a relaxing Sunday it's time to focus on the fact that we are having a house BBQ in two weeks time - the house needs tidying up and I am not looking forward to that.

2 - Got blatantly busted staring at a really fit woman today - I think I need sunglasses with the mirrors on the inside.

3 - Newcastle United contrived to throw away a vital apart to the part-time footballers from Blackburn. 3 points off a relegation place at the minute. never mind - we've only got Liverpool on Saturday. Suppose I could support Lyon against the Manc scum this week - but as St. Etienne are my favourite French team, that might be a bit of a betrayal.

4 - It was lovely this morning - I can deal with the cold and wind if its sunny.

hopefully i'll do some more interesting posts sometime soon.

currently Listening to:-
Track - Crazy English Summer
Artist - Faithless
Album - Outrospective.

monday missives 2

2008-03-03T09:30:00.001Z

Just a quickie at the minute.
had a very busy weekend and spent most of last week going mental at work over the hardest piece of work i've ever had to do.
will talk later in the week.

Earthquake

2008-02-27T08:59:00.001Z

I sat through an Earthquake last night - the bed shook and the tv in my bedroom started to move from it's stand - awesome.

That said, I was alone so no claims that I made the Earth move last night!

OMFG! Holy Shit, etc, etc

2008-02-26T21:38:00.002Z

Following yesterdays post about internet dating, I went to the Guardian dating website - imagine my surprise when I see one of the people in my locale as being a woman in my office!

Anyhoo, on to more mundane things.

Welcome News that the Turks are looking to modernise Islam. Just out of interest, when do you think the riots will start?

News that the Odeon chain aren't showing the new Rambo film. Well, it does say undisclosed commercail reasons, but I would love to think it's because the film is :-
a) shit
b) grotesque
c) a waste of money and time

A big Hi to Paul, Jonathan and Ben at Black & White and Read all over. Nice to see you guys still on the web during my ranting hiatus.

On a virtual life topic, i lost all of my saved games on my Xbox 360 about two weeks ago. This means that I am without game saves, so have to start all my games from scratch. Bugger.
Hi to the guys at RaR - Once i fianlly work out how to post a pic i'll do it, but after that - bring on R6V2.

Currently listening to :-
Song: When the levee breaks.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Album: Led Zeppelin IV