Peer Pressure
I was one of those strange teenagers that was oddly resistant to peer pressure. Yet now, when I am dam well old enough to know better and don’t have the folly of youth to waive around as some kind of straw clutching excuse I have fallen victim to it. And it’s not even from my friends either. No. Yours truly has peer pressured himself into slogging my way all the way to Exeter on Saturday to see Barnet (probably lose) and tick off another ground on the way to joining the 92 club.
It has now dawned on me that this will involve getting up at 6.30 am, on a Saturday. It will involve getting home after midnight. It will involve spending around £75 all in. The weather is due to be freezing. I don’t actually want to bloody go any more. And I could actually get to Portman Road on Saturday and see better football for half the all in price, have a lie in and still tick off another ground. There is simply no excuse for me to be going to Devon.
And yet…… there’s this little bit of me that would feel embarrassed to not go now. That bit that has told people that he’s going and doesn’t really want to back down now that they’ve told me that I’m “sad”, “a football geek” and “need to grow up”.
As things stand it could go either way.
Welcome to my sad little world.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Senses. And the taking leave there of.
I am a lover of football, as regular readers will know, and I love the FA cup. I think there is nothing more romantic than a midweek cup replay played under floodlights, preferably in the worst possible weather conditions. It has a certain something to it that league football can never quite achieve. I also love to see bums on seats, I think it’s great for the competition and I’m always worried, for all number of reasons when ticket sales are restricted.
Yet despite all that, when word reached my ears this morning that tickets for the Arsenal v Cardiff FA cup replay have been put on general sale by Arsenal, with no restrictions, no need for membership or even a history of having bought a ticket before, my immediate reaction was to wonder whether somebody in north London has taken leave of their senses.
Football fans have cleaned up their behaviour immeasurably since the dark days of the early 80s. Yet that is not to say that incidents of football related violence don’t still happen. The Hull v Milwall game at the weekend demonstrated that. And certain clubs, such as Milwall, still have an element following them who are intent on causing trouble.
And high up in that list is Cardiff City.
I have only visited Ninian Park on one occasion and it was not a pleasant experience. The crowd was only about 4000 for a fairly tame mid table 4th division game but the atmosphere was still threatening and I have no intention of going back.
Arsenal are in effect inviting Cardiff worst element, ie the lot that have been banned, to buy tickets in the home sections for a mid week game where they will have been able to drink all day. I am predicting chaos, I am predicting a bloody riot. In addition it’s not like it will be easy to keep fans apart after the game or before it. Anyone familiar with the area will no that the Emirates is located in a rabbit warren of residential streets with access from 4 or 5 different stations. It’s a nightmare when the crowd is behaving itself.
I’m no expert in crowd control of management but it’s pretty clear that somebody somewhere has fucked up completely.
I am a lover of football, as regular readers will know, and I love the FA cup. I think there is nothing more romantic than a midweek cup replay played under floodlights, preferably in the worst possible weather conditions. It has a certain something to it that league football can never quite achieve. I also love to see bums on seats, I think it’s great for the competition and I’m always worried, for all number of reasons when ticket sales are restricted.
Yet despite all that, when word reached my ears this morning that tickets for the Arsenal v Cardiff FA cup replay have been put on general sale by Arsenal, with no restrictions, no need for membership or even a history of having bought a ticket before, my immediate reaction was to wonder whether somebody in north London has taken leave of their senses.
Football fans have cleaned up their behaviour immeasurably since the dark days of the early 80s. Yet that is not to say that incidents of football related violence don’t still happen. The Hull v Milwall game at the weekend demonstrated that. And certain clubs, such as Milwall, still have an element following them who are intent on causing trouble.
And high up in that list is Cardiff City.
I have only visited Ninian Park on one occasion and it was not a pleasant experience. The crowd was only about 4000 for a fairly tame mid table 4th division game but the atmosphere was still threatening and I have no intention of going back.
Arsenal are in effect inviting Cardiff worst element, ie the lot that have been banned, to buy tickets in the home sections for a mid week game where they will have been able to drink all day. I am predicting chaos, I am predicting a bloody riot. In addition it’s not like it will be easy to keep fans apart after the game or before it. Anyone familiar with the area will no that the Emirates is located in a rabbit warren of residential streets with access from 4 or 5 different stations. It’s a nightmare when the crowd is behaving itself.
I’m no expert in crowd control of management but it’s pretty clear that somebody somewhere has fucked up completely.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Follow Up
Just as quick follow up to yesterday's post regarding the accident in Glen Coe I thought I'd point you towards this (at least those of you with an interest in the mountains, to the rest of you it's a pretty pointless exercise!). It's a pretty good avalanche awareness quiz produced by Glenmore Lodge and worth having a go at.
I think I did reasonably well at 74% although I reckon I could do with some refresher training given the score. (In my own defence a couple of the questions weren't completely wrong, like when asked to pick the most dangerous route I may not have picked THE most dangerous but still clearly picked a pretty dam stupid one!).
Just as quick follow up to yesterday's post regarding the accident in Glen Coe I thought I'd point you towards this (at least those of you with an interest in the mountains, to the rest of you it's a pretty pointless exercise!). It's a pretty good avalanche awareness quiz produced by Glenmore Lodge and worth having a go at.
I think I did reasonably well at 74% although I reckon I could do with some refresher training given the score. (In my own defence a couple of the questions weren't completely wrong, like when asked to pick the most dangerous route I may not have picked THE most dangerous but still clearly picked a pretty dam stupid one!).
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Life is to be lived
It's that time of year again when the mountains are covered in their full winter glory, when they are at their most magnificent and beautiful. Tragically it is also the time of year when we will hear of climbers and walkers being killed in avalanches.
At the time of writing the full facts of what happened are not known yet the reports in all parts of the media seem to be suggesting that those involved were irresponsible in being where they were. It is true that a category 3 avalanche warning covered the area for NE-N-NW facing slopes. It is also true that a majority of those rescued by mountain rescue teams have to bare at least part of the responsibility for what happens to them. The number who are poorly equipped or not capable of taking on what they are doing is extraordinary. I know I once came close to getting badly hurt, or worse, through my own stupidity. Thankfully I was unscathed and learned a valuable lesson.
Equally true though is that we do not know what happened to these people, were they on a south facing slope? Were they roped up? Maybe they did everything right. Similarly a huge number of people are hurt in the mountains through a simple trip or mistake. I once became disorientated in a white out and again came close to a nasty accident (I nearly walked off a cliff) but once again got away with it.
So the first thing I want to say about all this is can we not blame the victims until we have some idea of what actually happened? If they were crossing a north facing convex gully with off white snow that squeaked under foot then they were foolish. But we don't know that so lets lay off of them shall we.
Second lets deal with the old chestnut of how much these rescues cost. Mountain rescue teams are volunteers funded entirely by voluntary donations. They are climbers, walkers and skiers rescuing their own. You don't want to pay, then don't donate. Easy. Similarly RAF/Navy rescue helicopters are really there to rescue downed air crew in war time. Incidents such as this are treated as live training. If they didn't happen they would have to be simulated which would cost even more!
Finally I'd like to comment on why people do this. It's called a sense of adventure.
We are only on this planet a short time. Most of us will get 80 something years here. And this planet is a pretty amazing place. The mountains are, in my opinion, one of its most stunning parts. For others it will be forests, others the ocean, others just gentle rolling planes. Why should we have to sit and admire from a distance? Why shouldn't we go and see them for ourselves and explore and test ourselves? It is human nature to want to do these things. Yes when we do these things we should seek to do so in a responsible manner, but if we are aware of the risks and the consequences and we do not endanger those unwilling to be endangered, why should we not go and climb a mountain? We'd best do it while we are alive as we wont get another chance.
My adventures have been relatively modest but I'm glad I've had them, I feel far more alive than if I had simply played it safe. If we simply sit in our suburban cocoon for those 80 years then we may as well never have lived at all.
Very proud
Despite my stress about how it might go my cubs today did me and themselves proud. They stayed on their feet working for 4 hours, they were smart, well behaved, polite and hard working. And they raised over £500 to fund their summer camp. I may have organised it but at the end of the day they did the work and they will benefit from it.
They have made me a very proud Akela!
Despite my stress about how it might go my cubs today did me and themselves proud. They stayed on their feet working for 4 hours, they were smart, well behaved, polite and hard working. And they raised over £500 to fund their summer camp. I may have organised it but at the end of the day they did the work and they will benefit from it.
They have made me a very proud Akela!
IPP has a blog!
For those of you who recall my exchange with the interwebs prolific libetarian IPP you may be interested to learn that he has now started a blog of his own.
As before, make of it what you will.
For those of you who recall my exchange with the interwebs prolific libetarian IPP you may be interested to learn that he has now started a blog of his own.
As before, make of it what you will.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Wrong end of the stick
It seems that at least one organisation in the form of The Christian Institute, which appears to be a worryingly fundamentalist mob, has got completely the wrong end of the stick.
Yes scouts can make their promise to Allah if they are Muslim, but this is not restricted to Scotland, it is done throughout the UK and indeed in many other countries throughout the world. Similarly they can promise to whatever they call God in their own religion. It's not a problem. To be honest I'm not too worried about the report, the more we make it known that the scouts are an inclusive organisation the better. From its earliest days the scouts has tried to reach out to all nations, cultures and religions. Hence there are only 5 countries in the world where scouting is not present.
What is worrying though is the way some of the more extreme right wing parts of the internet has reacted to it.
Here are a few links as an example, however I would warn you before reading them that some of the views expressed are at best bigotted, at worst they are down right offensive to any right thinking human being. You have been warned.
Lets start with some of the softer stuff, first we have free republic, which seems to be a rather nasty hot bed of Islamophobia, albeit with some more sensible individuals trying to make their voices heard.
Next up we have the illiterat at weasel zippers. Sweet Jesus, read it, just read it! At least Nick Griffin et al can string a coherent sentence together.
We have a BNP twat just making stuff up, if he ever find this, yes a Christian would be able to promise to God and the Queen. Try doing some research, POR is quite openly available on the internet.
Finally the piece de resistance, this nasty little comment BFB, apparently people like me will pay for our betrayal in due course. Oh goody.
What nasty little dicks their are out there.
It seems that at least one organisation in the form of The Christian Institute, which appears to be a worryingly fundamentalist mob, has got completely the wrong end of the stick.
Yes scouts can make their promise to Allah if they are Muslim, but this is not restricted to Scotland, it is done throughout the UK and indeed in many other countries throughout the world. Similarly they can promise to whatever they call God in their own religion. It's not a problem. To be honest I'm not too worried about the report, the more we make it known that the scouts are an inclusive organisation the better. From its earliest days the scouts has tried to reach out to all nations, cultures and religions. Hence there are only 5 countries in the world where scouting is not present.
What is worrying though is the way some of the more extreme right wing parts of the internet has reacted to it.
Here are a few links as an example, however I would warn you before reading them that some of the views expressed are at best bigotted, at worst they are down right offensive to any right thinking human being. You have been warned.
Lets start with some of the softer stuff, first we have free republic, which seems to be a rather nasty hot bed of Islamophobia, albeit with some more sensible individuals trying to make their voices heard.
Next up we have the illiterat at weasel zippers. Sweet Jesus, read it, just read it! At least Nick Griffin et al can string a coherent sentence together.
We have a BNP twat just making stuff up, if he ever find this, yes a Christian would be able to promise to God and the Queen. Try doing some research, POR is quite openly available on the internet.
Finally the piece de resistance, this nasty little comment BFB, apparently people like me will pay for our betrayal in due course. Oh goody.
What nasty little dicks their are out there.
Glamour
Just another observation on the life of a cub leader and how glamorous it is. For the programme we had planned this Monday we were quite mob handed at 5 adults plus 2 explorer scouts. So me and another adult spent much of the evening on our hands and knees cleaning some ground sheets that had been put away muddy.
Later one of the seconders decided to vomit all over the floor, one of the explorers, bless him, volunteered to clean it up.
Who said doing this isn't glamorous?
Just another observation on the life of a cub leader and how glamorous it is. For the programme we had planned this Monday we were quite mob handed at 5 adults plus 2 explorer scouts. So me and another adult spent much of the evening on our hands and knees cleaning some ground sheets that had been put away muddy.
Later one of the seconders decided to vomit all over the floor, one of the explorers, bless him, volunteered to clean it up.
Who said doing this isn't glamorous?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Dear Diary..... Bugger
What have I done? Why have I done it? I fear I have made a school boy error. I have just confirmed that my cubs will be bag packing at Sainsburys at the weekend. My little band of horrors, lovely though they are, will be set lose on the great British public. Supposedly being helpful. Yet I can see the horror of it all now, the broken eggs, the squashed tomoatoes, the dropped and split packets.
Oh the horror. THE HORROR I TELL YOU!!!!
What have I done? Why have I done it? I fear I have made a school boy error. I have just confirmed that my cubs will be bag packing at Sainsburys at the weekend. My little band of horrors, lovely though they are, will be set lose on the great British public. Supposedly being helpful. Yet I can see the horror of it all now, the broken eggs, the squashed tomoatoes, the dropped and split packets.
Oh the horror. THE HORROR I TELL YOU!!!!
Monday, January 19, 2009
A Brief Change
Good evening folks. Just a quick note to say that I will be switching the comment moderation feature on for a while, hopefully temporarily, but all the same we shall see. I have reason to believe that this blog may be being looked at by undesirables (see tags below) so feel that this is a sensible approach to take. Comments are still welcome as long as they are not offensive (eg racist homophobic etc).
Normal service will hopefully be resumed soon.
Good evening folks. Just a quick note to say that I will be switching the comment moderation feature on for a while, hopefully temporarily, but all the same we shall see. I have reason to believe that this blog may be being looked at by undesirables (see tags below) so feel that this is a sensible approach to take. Comments are still welcome as long as they are not offensive (eg racist homophobic etc).
Normal service will hopefully be resumed soon.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Frustration of Being Akela
Sometimes I feel like I don't get paid enough for this. We are taking the cubs away for a week to cubjam, a jamboree organised especially for cubs. It's not cheap but we organised a payment schedule for parents that allows us to pay the money to theorganisers and sort out our own transport and food etc. So far so good.
But there are parents that don't produce the cheque when you ask them to, so you phone them. And then find that it wasn't just being forgetful (these things happen, I've lost count of the number of bills I've paid late) but deliberate. One lot of parents was worried about her child being away the full week. Did she pick up the phone and ask the questions she was worried about in advance so that we could get the cheques paid in and cleared? No. She waited for me to harrass her and would presumably have still been doing so had I not called.
Similarly the other one may actually be on holiday and are still trying to decide what to do. Did they phone me to find out when I had to know and get some idea of what the deal was? No, they wait for me to chase them again before them tell me.
How many more times do I have to say this? When will people get the message? I am doing this for their kids, I am a volunteer, I do this for the love of it in my own time. I don't ask for anything other than a little bit of support now and then. Is asking parents to pick up the bloody phone now and then really too fucking much to ask?
Sometimes I feel like I don't get paid enough for this. We are taking the cubs away for a week to cubjam, a jamboree organised especially for cubs. It's not cheap but we organised a payment schedule for parents that allows us to pay the money to theorganisers and sort out our own transport and food etc. So far so good.
But there are parents that don't produce the cheque when you ask them to, so you phone them. And then find that it wasn't just being forgetful (these things happen, I've lost count of the number of bills I've paid late) but deliberate. One lot of parents was worried about her child being away the full week. Did she pick up the phone and ask the questions she was worried about in advance so that we could get the cheques paid in and cleared? No. She waited for me to harrass her and would presumably have still been doing so had I not called.
Similarly the other one may actually be on holiday and are still trying to decide what to do. Did they phone me to find out when I had to know and get some idea of what the deal was? No, they wait for me to chase them again before them tell me.
How many more times do I have to say this? When will people get the message? I am doing this for their kids, I am a volunteer, I do this for the love of it in my own time. I don't ask for anything other than a little bit of support now and then. Is asking parents to pick up the bloody phone now and then really too fucking much to ask?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A Quick Moan
One bad thing about last night…. We’d asked for the next instalment for our big camp in May to be paid last night. And as ever it was the usual suspects who failed to do so. Every camp it’s the same, I can tell you without even thinking about it who the parents will be that I will have to chase. I love doing what I do, but it’s the hours spent on the phone harassing parents that really wind me up.
One bad thing about last night…. We’d asked for the next instalment for our big camp in May to be paid last night. And as ever it was the usual suspects who failed to do so. Every camp it’s the same, I can tell you without even thinking about it who the parents will be that I will have to chase. I love doing what I do, but it’s the hours spent on the phone harassing parents that really wind me up.
Monday, January 12, 2009
A Rather Long Night
Well I did it, I told the cubs I would be leaving. They were pretty surprised and there were quite a few gasps. It shocked them a lot more than I expected.
And then there was one of those moments that makes it all worthwhile, when you realise why you do what you do and that all that hard work on those evenings and weekends is worth it. I explained that I wouldn't be going far as I would be simply taking over the scouts and the smile on the face of one of the kids that will be moving to scouts around the same time I do simply lit up the room! When you make a kid happy like that words can't explain just how special it is.
And so we had a slightly mad night with a camp fire in the rain, I sang till me throat gave in, we all got soaking wet but frankly, kids these days could use more time getting wet and muddy! Long live mud I say!
Well I did it, I told the cubs I would be leaving. They were pretty surprised and there were quite a few gasps. It shocked them a lot more than I expected.
And then there was one of those moments that makes it all worthwhile, when you realise why you do what you do and that all that hard work on those evenings and weekends is worth it. I explained that I wouldn't be going far as I would be simply taking over the scouts and the smile on the face of one of the kids that will be moving to scouts around the same time I do simply lit up the room! When you make a kid happy like that words can't explain just how special it is.
And so we had a slightly mad night with a camp fire in the rain, I sang till me throat gave in, we all got soaking wet but frankly, kids these days could use more time getting wet and muddy! Long live mud I say!
Here Goes
In about 90 minutes time I will be telling my little band of horrors that I will be leaving cubs in the summer. It shouldn't be that big a deal, after all they should all be following me to scouts over the next couple of years, but somehow it does seem very final and I can think of one or two individuals who will be upset. Things move on though and so does time.
It doesn't mean that I will enjoy tonight though.
In about 90 minutes time I will be telling my little band of horrors that I will be leaving cubs in the summer. It shouldn't be that big a deal, after all they should all be following me to scouts over the next couple of years, but somehow it does seem very final and I can think of one or two individuals who will be upset. Things move on though and so does time.
It doesn't mean that I will enjoy tonight though.
Leeds United 0
Carlisle United 2
Visiting the outlaws for the weekend I found myself unexpectedly, for reasons to tedious to explain, with not a lot to do Saturday afternoon. So with Harrogate Town frozen off I got myself down to Eland Road to see how Leeds are doing in the third division. I think what I witnessed can be best summed up in just one sentence.
Oh how the mighty have fallen!
Was this really the Leeds that was in the champions league a few years back? Was this really the club that was once rivalling Manchester United? The answer is yes, but on Saturday it didn’t look like it.
At least their fan base is loyal, over 22,000 turned up for what was in effect a fairly meaningless mid table third division fixture on a pretty chilly afternoon. True it’s not the 40000 that were turning up a few years back but at £21 a shot for the cheap seats (bizarrely the cheap seats have an unobstructed view in the south stand, the most expensive seats in the west stand have pillars in the way, you figure it out because I can’t) it’s pretty good going at that level!
So I took my seat in the community stand (complete with numerous adverts for Television X, that’s right, adverts for porn in the community stand, only a man with a nose for PR like Ken Bates could have come up with that one) and watched events unfold in front of me.
Leeds fans can’t complain about a lack of effort from their team, they were full of energy and pace and running and tackling. The trouble is Leeds can complain about a complete lack of competence. Their strike force consisted of a fat no.10 who had 4 decent shots, all of which he hit straight at the keeper and a skinny no.28 who used his incredible pace to consistently run away from the ball. These two were aided and abetted by a right winger with loads of tricks who couldn’t cross and a left winger who kept drifting into the middle where there was no space.
The defence weren’t much better. Both Carlisle goals in the first half came from the defence going completely AWOL. Carlisle were competent but not much more but by half time were completely in control. Leeds fans celebrated this fact by fighting amongst themselves at half time. How pleasant.
The second half started much the same but by the end Leeds were reduced to lumping aimless balls forward that Carlisle simply mopped up. There was no great finale, the Leeds substitutes were woefully ineffective and Carlisle were quite happy to take their two goal lead and sit on it.
I have no great love of Leeds United, but watching this, as a once big club floundered aimlessly around in the lower reaches of the football league was sad to watch.
Carlisle United 2
Visiting the outlaws for the weekend I found myself unexpectedly, for reasons to tedious to explain, with not a lot to do Saturday afternoon. So with Harrogate Town frozen off I got myself down to Eland Road to see how Leeds are doing in the third division. I think what I witnessed can be best summed up in just one sentence.
Oh how the mighty have fallen!
Was this really the Leeds that was in the champions league a few years back? Was this really the club that was once rivalling Manchester United? The answer is yes, but on Saturday it didn’t look like it.
At least their fan base is loyal, over 22,000 turned up for what was in effect a fairly meaningless mid table third division fixture on a pretty chilly afternoon. True it’s not the 40000 that were turning up a few years back but at £21 a shot for the cheap seats (bizarrely the cheap seats have an unobstructed view in the south stand, the most expensive seats in the west stand have pillars in the way, you figure it out because I can’t) it’s pretty good going at that level!
So I took my seat in the community stand (complete with numerous adverts for Television X, that’s right, adverts for porn in the community stand, only a man with a nose for PR like Ken Bates could have come up with that one) and watched events unfold in front of me.
Leeds fans can’t complain about a lack of effort from their team, they were full of energy and pace and running and tackling. The trouble is Leeds can complain about a complete lack of competence. Their strike force consisted of a fat no.10 who had 4 decent shots, all of which he hit straight at the keeper and a skinny no.28 who used his incredible pace to consistently run away from the ball. These two were aided and abetted by a right winger with loads of tricks who couldn’t cross and a left winger who kept drifting into the middle where there was no space.
The defence weren’t much better. Both Carlisle goals in the first half came from the defence going completely AWOL. Carlisle were competent but not much more but by half time were completely in control. Leeds fans celebrated this fact by fighting amongst themselves at half time. How pleasant.
The second half started much the same but by the end Leeds were reduced to lumping aimless balls forward that Carlisle simply mopped up. There was no great finale, the Leeds substitutes were woefully ineffective and Carlisle were quite happy to take their two goal lead and sit on it.
I have no great love of Leeds United, but watching this, as a once big club floundered aimlessly around in the lower reaches of the football league was sad to watch.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Guess who's back? Back again?
No don't worry, two trailer park girls wont be going round the outside, but some of you may recall my open letter to another inhabitant of the blogosphere IPP, some time ago. Well IPP has finally replied by way of a comment on that story and I would invite you to read it.
I will be replying in one form or another at some point, not for a while though as I have a lot on today. In the mean time make of it what will you!
PS - IPP, let's be clear, call me a cunt again and you wont be welcome on here again. That's your first, last and only warning.
No don't worry, two trailer park girls wont be going round the outside, but some of you may recall my open letter to another inhabitant of the blogosphere IPP, some time ago. Well IPP has finally replied by way of a comment on that story and I would invite you to read it.
I will be replying in one form or another at some point, not for a while though as I have a lot on today. In the mean time make of it what will you!
PS - IPP, let's be clear, call me a cunt again and you wont be welcome on here again. That's your first, last and only warning.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Lés Miserablés (And I don't mean the bloody musical)
I am a great believer in the fact that the most important things you should learn at school is to read. Forget maths and science, well don't, they are pretty important, but without being able to read it's pretty difficult to learn anything else. Absolutely everything you do in life from telling the time to finding out what's on tv to not getting stitched up when you buy something expensive. It's totally fundamental.
Sometimes though being able to read, and read properly, not just Janet and John stuff, is just a simple pleasure because it allows you to read books where it is a simple pleasure to wallow in the language and soak up beautifully crafted words so poetic and delicious that sometimes you could cry. There are few books that I've had that pure unadulterated pleasure from. The God of Small Things and The Amber Spy Glass are two of them but recently I have discovered Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, one of the greats of French literature has given me that same feeling.
It's not the most cheerful of books I'll grant you as it traces the trials and tribulations of it's often tragic and down trodden characters, but the prose and lyrical manner with it relates the story is simply wonderful. I'll leave you with just one short quote before leaving you to discover it for yourselves.
"The heart, that secret celestial flower, mysteriously blossoms, and one would not exchange ones darkness for all light. The angel spirit is there, always there; if she moves away it is to return, she fades like a dream, to reappear like reality."
Now isn't that just magical?
I am a great believer in the fact that the most important things you should learn at school is to read. Forget maths and science, well don't, they are pretty important, but without being able to read it's pretty difficult to learn anything else. Absolutely everything you do in life from telling the time to finding out what's on tv to not getting stitched up when you buy something expensive. It's totally fundamental.
Sometimes though being able to read, and read properly, not just Janet and John stuff, is just a simple pleasure because it allows you to read books where it is a simple pleasure to wallow in the language and soak up beautifully crafted words so poetic and delicious that sometimes you could cry. There are few books that I've had that pure unadulterated pleasure from. The God of Small Things and The Amber Spy Glass are two of them but recently I have discovered Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, one of the greats of French literature has given me that same feeling.
It's not the most cheerful of books I'll grant you as it traces the trials and tribulations of it's often tragic and down trodden characters, but the prose and lyrical manner with it relates the story is simply wonderful. I'll leave you with just one short quote before leaving you to discover it for yourselves.
"The heart, that secret celestial flower, mysteriously blossoms, and one would not exchange ones darkness for all light. The angel spirit is there, always there; if she moves away it is to return, she fades like a dream, to reappear like reality."
Now isn't that just magical?
Monday, January 05, 2009
BASTARDS!!!!
I've just booked a flight with Ryan Air, and do you know what those bastards have done? Do you know what the cheeky fuckers, those tight fisted shits, those crapy snot nosed stitch up merchant wankers have actually gone and fucking done? They've charged me £5, yes FIVE FUCKING POUNDS, for the pleasure of using my debit card to pay for it. That's right, they charge you for being charged, you pay for the pleasure of paying.
I could go round the corner to the co-op, pick my way past the wino on the door step that is always there when I go in and use my crad to buy a packet of polos and they wouldn't have the cheek to do that to me.
Ryan Air are a bunch of shits.
Official.
I've just booked a flight with Ryan Air, and do you know what those bastards have done? Do you know what the cheeky fuckers, those tight fisted shits, those crapy snot nosed stitch up merchant wankers have actually gone and fucking done? They've charged me £5, yes FIVE FUCKING POUNDS, for the pleasure of using my debit card to pay for it. That's right, they charge you for being charged, you pay for the pleasure of paying.
I could go round the corner to the co-op, pick my way past the wino on the door step that is always there when I go in and use my crad to buy a packet of polos and they wouldn't have the cheek to do that to me.
Ryan Air are a bunch of shits.
Official.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
The FA Cup
For all the unending crapness of Barnet this season I still love football and this weekend is one of the reasons why. It's FA cup 3rd round weekend when the big boys are forced to mix it with those in the lower league and non league and I love it. This weekend saw Stoke City and Blackpool dumped out by Hartlepool and Torquay, we saw Chelsea held to a draw by Southend and various others do themselves proud.
What I liked more this time round though is the attitude of the big boys. Too often in recent years we have seen the premier league teams field weakened sides with the result being huge swathes of empty seats. In my opinion it shows total disrespect to this wonderful old competition.
Yet this season nearly everyone fielded a first choice team meaning that the empty seats were few and far between. There were a few of course, season tickets are expensive and when they are not valid for cup games you can hardly blame those that bought them for not turning up, and I would still like to see cup tickets looking like rocking horse droppings as they once were in the past.
Over all though I reckon that this season the grand old competition is looking healthier than it has for a while. Bring on Gillingham v Aston Villa this afternoon!
For all the unending crapness of Barnet this season I still love football and this weekend is one of the reasons why. It's FA cup 3rd round weekend when the big boys are forced to mix it with those in the lower league and non league and I love it. This weekend saw Stoke City and Blackpool dumped out by Hartlepool and Torquay, we saw Chelsea held to a draw by Southend and various others do themselves proud.
What I liked more this time round though is the attitude of the big boys. Too often in recent years we have seen the premier league teams field weakened sides with the result being huge swathes of empty seats. In my opinion it shows total disrespect to this wonderful old competition.
Yet this season nearly everyone fielded a first choice team meaning that the empty seats were few and far between. There were a few of course, season tickets are expensive and when they are not valid for cup games you can hardly blame those that bought them for not turning up, and I would still like to see cup tickets looking like rocking horse droppings as they once were in the past.
Over all though I reckon that this season the grand old competition is looking healthier than it has for a while. Bring on Gillingham v Aston Villa this afternoon!
Friday, January 02, 2009
Priceless
Well I'm back from my travels, normal service and ramblings will be restored very shortly but in the mean time just a quicky, take a look at this story on the Express site, but ignore the normal nonsensical ramblings (although they are quite funny, I mean "hate the Euro". Hate?) go straight to the comments. The 10th one down has been deleted because the commentator "promoted a political party".
That's right folks, the Express doesn't like political bias on it's site.
Priceless, absolutely fucking priceless.
Well I'm back from my travels, normal service and ramblings will be restored very shortly but in the mean time just a quicky, take a look at this story on the Express site, but ignore the normal nonsensical ramblings (although they are quite funny, I mean "hate the Euro". Hate?) go straight to the comments. The 10th one down has been deleted because the commentator "promoted a political party".
That's right folks, the Express doesn't like political bias on it's site.
Priceless, absolutely fucking priceless.
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