Birmingham

On Wednesday evening I went to football with David in Birmingham. It took us 3 and a half hours to get there so we missed the first 15 minutes. The game was very good. Birmingham should have won but don't have any strikers who looked like scoring. They lost 1-0 but it did take a good goal to win it as Andy Cole never looked like scoring (unsurprisingly). On the way home I saw Selfridges at The Bull Ring for the first time which is quite impressive. We got held up again for about an hour because someone was threatening to throw himself off a bridge in Derby. We were just sat stationary near the front of the queue which was really boring. I didn't get home until 1:00.

I've just watched Birmingham's next game at home to Crystal Palace where they dominated again but got caught on the break and Palace won 1-0. They seriously need to buy a striker in January after just 1 win in 18 premiership games. I blame Steve Bruce but then I would after what he did to Huddersfield Town a few years ago.

Palace look a hard side to beat and if they keep getting results like they did today they will show that they are serious about avoiding relegation.

Expanding the Football Theme

On Saturday there were good wins for Crystal Palace, Huddersfield Town and Halifax Town. Palace won a relegation six pointer which has ultimately led to the resignation of the West Brom manager. Halifax beat Gravesend & Northfleet in a fixture I saw last season when Bill and I counted 29 away fans. Huddersfield beat the newly named MK Dons but should have won by more.

Sadly Norwich lost in a televised game which was quite entertaining. Norwich must always be watched in the first half of the second half as they always seem to turn on the style in that period. Unfortunately Bradford City won as well so they are now second so i've been getting stick at work. Just six weeks until the big match!

On Sunday Arsenal's unbeaten run came to an end with a controversial defeat to Manchester United. While the match itself was not a classic, it was tense which added to the excitement. The referee was under a lot of pressure and has been given a lot of stick by most people since the game but I thought he did as well as could be expected.

For those who saw the game, i felt Ljungberg had lost control of the ball so Ferdinand should not have been sent off. The penalty decision was right from where he was as it was a very clever dive (if morally wrong) by Rooney. Even Andy Gray shouted penalty and it's very rare he is wrong. As for the Van Nistelrooy foul that was also very difficult to see at the time. Ronaldo should have had a penalty but was denied. However on all of these occasions the referee received no help from his assistants. If they had have been watching properly they should have made the decisions themselves.

Wenger then accuses Man Utd. of cheating. Ok they did but I'm sure Arsenal have in some of the 49 games they went unbeaten. It seems to me he just can't take losing.

In the other televised match Southampton played Birmingham which was a poor fixture on paper and not much better on pitch. Hope Birmingham are better tomorrow and I hope Andy Cole plays as he is certain to miss a few whih is a good laugh!

Busy Times Having Fun

I haven't posted for a while mainly due to me not having more than five minutes on the computer because my life has been full recently.

On Thursday I went to see Franz Ferdinand with some people from work at St Georges Hall in Bradford. They were great and I'd recommend them to anyone else who likes their music. They were certainly better than Javine was the other week but that's not difficult.

On Friday I went for a quiet drink with Rosie and JJ in Halifax but we seemed a bit hyper so went into Halifax and spent a couple of hours in Jumpin Jaks. I'd like to thank the bouncer who let me in when I clearly wasn't dressed for going there. We all got tired quite early (well 1:00) and I took the others home with Rosie laying on the back seat.

Saturday was a night out in Huddersfield after helping to carpet tile the kitchen floor all day. Not much interesting to report except a girl who danced like a boxer which was quite amusing or maybe it was because I was a bit tipsy.

People in Halifax met up with Lucy on Sunday who was over from Ireland for the weekend and it was nice to see her again.

We lost the quiz yesterday. After being told on Sunday that the same team had been losing every week we decided to show them how to lose properly. Not sure they were there though as we lost my a very healthy margin.

Tomorrow I'm going to St Andrews to watch Birmingham City play Fulham in the Carling Cup with David (one of the partners at work) as he is a Blues fan. I think I'll continue this post in another post as I wish to expand the football theme.

Confusing Day

I informed everyone at work of yesterday's bad news. Various people went in to see the managing partner and he called me in in the afternoon and has now decided there is a position for me working within the small business unit of the company. I'm currently mulling over whether to accept it or not given the unprofessional circumstances it has come about by.

In the post yesterday I said it could be interesting, well the small business unit were not happy at all and next thing I know I could be working for them. Interesting if a little confusing at who is actually in charge! Still it's good news. They can have the link back for the time being now.

Wimbledon

I saw Wimbledon last night with Rosie which was quite funny and a happy film which kept me cheery. Kirsten Dunst was fantastic and looks very cute in her tennis skirt.

Brother and dad are still both recovering well and mum doesn't seem too stressed that i've lost my job so things could be worse at home. Would still be nice if I had a shoulder to cry on though.

Time to Start Work on the CV

My worst fears were realised today when I got a call at the client I was working at from the managing partner (that's senior partner but dressed up to sound good - pointlessly in my opinion) to meet him later in the day.

We met at 5 o'clock when he told me that due to my lack of exam success my contract would be ended in 4 weeks. That's my employment contract rather than just my training contract. :-( Their link has now disappeared from my blog. So i'm looking for another job. If anyone knows of any vacancies or has any other ideas about different career paths I may choose please let me know.

There'll be uproar tomorrow from others in the office which could be interesting.

Bouncebackability

Such a useful word that describes many parts of my life recently.

Dad had an operation last week and is recovering well.
Phil (brother) had an operation this week and he is also home recovering.
Mum's car got scratched while it was being serviced and they fixed it for free and gave her a courtesy car.
Huddersfield Town lost to a side near the bottom of League 1 last week and beat the side previously unbeaten at the top this week.

Hopefully this will apply to me too as I got my exam result on Friday - 50% but I needed 55% to pass. This may have bad consequences and I feel i've let quite a few people down and am quite down about it.

Thanks to Rosie and JJ for temporarily cheering me up last night anyway.

Beckham Follow-up

What an idiot. He now claims to have done the tackle on purpose but no-one knew he was that clever. If he was that clever then why would he tell everyone and face the likelihood of being banned for more games. Either this or someone told him to do it - quite clever until Beckham blows it by revealing the plan. He'd be no good working as a secret agent. "Hi I'm David Beckham secret agent. Oops."

Still, it was a good goal!

Football Post Loosely Related to Non-Football Issues

Firstly the England Wales match was a decent game, well described by JJ in his post to the previous comment so I need not say much more on this. Other than should Beckham really be looked up to by the youngsters of today? He showed he still hasn't grown up or learnt from 1998 (when he petulantly kicked out and got sent off) by agressively fouling someone who had just fouled him (and fractured his rib as it happens). There's a time and a place for retribution in some cases but this instance gives a bad example to youngsters who wish to follow in his footsteps.

That was loosely related to GCSE religious studies.

Next was The Match on Sky One where "celebrities" played a match against ex-professionals - "legends". This was the best match of the weekend by far. The legends were favourite to win by loads but it was a really close match and everything the legends had in skill, the celebrities matched in pace and stamina. Sadly they lost in the last minute but were very proud of their performance.

The words of wisdom used by Graham Taylor (celebrities manager) were "Amateurs practice until they can get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong." True in many fields of work I suppose. That wasn't entirely football related.

Finally, there was FA Cup controversy last week when Heybridge Swifts were reinstated after it was discovered that St Albans had fielded an ineligible player during their 2-0 win. This is a useless fact for Sarah D to take to St Albans with her.

Mum is 50

Mum was 50 on Wednesday but it was treated just like any other really except we had a big chocolate cake. Dad is ok after his operation and should come home tomorrow. Otherwise it's been a really uneventful week. Not going out anywhere cos no-one wants to and can't watch Sky cos mum is hogging the lounge so I'm posting instead.

I'm looking forward to the World Cup Qualifier between England and Wales tomorrow though. No doubt a briefish comment about it will appear here at some point.

Drunken Text Update

It seems that Rob is not regretting last night as he looks to have got himself a date for next week. Maybe drunken texts are valid after all?!

Saturday

I got my hair cut in the morning and also bought my mum a card for her 50th birthday on Wednesday and my dad a get well card for his operation on Tuesday.

In football, Huddersfield Town won and my fantasy football team actually scored some points which will hopefully move me up from 10th out of 11 in the work mini league.

I went out into Huddersfield in the evening and got very drunk but resisted the temptation of phoning or texting anyone confessing my undying love unlike Rob who thought this would be a good idea. I think he's regretting it now especially as it's his boss' daughter! I went to bed around 3:00.

My mum woke me up by hoovering at 10:30 but I suppose it was time to get up anyway.

Nice Week

I've had a good week at work this week. Nothing major seems to have gone wrong and the audit I was doing got finished early as it was all right. I've been stocktaking today in Lancashire starting at 8am. I've been counting items such as antique dining tables, chairs, lamps and giant leather elephants!

A policewoman said hello to me yesterday which was nice. Unless it was one of those 'don't look at me in that scary way' hellos. I don't know. I'm not scary!

Early night tonight as it'll be a very late one tomorrow!

I often feel I overuse the exclamation marks! Does anyone care?!