Car Radio

I forgot to mention last night that Ed managed to turn my car radio off which is something I have never done in the 18 months I have had the car. It doesn't say in the instructions how to do it but now I know! Finally got to bed at around 4:15am. The house smells like a bar now though.

Christmas and Drink

Christmas Day was good, the same routine which is good - I'm all for routines. There weren't many presents to open as my mum didn't wrap anything up as she'd ordered the items on the internet through my account anyway. Bit boring now I'm older.

Boxing Day was the (now) usual day in front of the football on Sky. Again another enjoyable day. Huddersfield won too which made it better.

Today has been good in the main though I feel my sleep pattern is a bit out as I'm getting up at lunchtime and posting to my blog at this time. It was the pub quiz tonight which we came close to winning a proper prize but failed miserably in the final round rather than just all of them.

Then we (Ed, Bill, Rosie and I) went to Rosie's house to play Cranium. This was fun. Then we eventually went home, everyone full of alcohol except myself (driving as usual). I then get home to find my brother and his mates drunk with bottles covering the kitchen worktop (parents are away). I haven't had alcohol for ages but it's not that that bothers me. I'll be doing that tomorrow. It's just the regular misuse and disregard for others that annoys me.

Anyway enough said - not in the best of moods. Wonder if i'll ever get to bed.

Bad Results and Other Stuff

I didn't post about Huddersfield's great win because they lost 1-0. We did deserve a draw after the 2nd half performance and it was unbelievable to see one of our shots hit the inside of the post, roll across the goal line, miss the other post and go out for a goal kick. There's always next time I suppose and my friends who I used to work with haven't been too bad in their gloating. Got 3 months to come though!

We also lost at the quiz on Monday night but this is nothing new. We did seem to do worse than normal but I did win a super smashing great Christmas prize prize in the raffle - 12 bottles of Christmas Ale.

In other news, the Old Crossleyans dinner was good on Friday. I think I may have drunk a lot of wine. The taxi was scary. Maybe he was drunk too as he did seem unhealthily excited when I gave him a plastic car that I'd won from a cracker as a tip (gave him money too in case you were wondering:-))

I went to play at Kate's house on Saturday which was very good, and went to the pub last night to welcome Bill and (T)Ed back from their excellent adventures at university (ok i know it's not funny). I saw The Incredibles (real film link this time) on Tuesday which was very good but not as good as Pixar's last two films (Monster's Inc. and Finding Nemo). Still well worth watching though.

It's my annual visit to church tomorrow night missing out on all the partying but it'd be too busy for my liking around town, getting a taxi would be difficult and expensive and I feel that it's important to keep up with my faith at this time of year. I prefer church to party on Christmas Eve, which leads me to a boring fact. Church attendances rise at Christmas to 2% of people living in Bradford and 10% in some other city but 41% more alcohol is drunk in December in the UK than in other months.

I had what Santa and I would call a mince pie earlier, however on the box it was called a mincemeat sundae. I'm quite sure Father Christmas will like them as they seemed to disappear fairly quickly.

Anyway I've bored you enough! Merry Christmas to all my readers and I hope Mr. Christmas brings you everything you asked for.

Derbies and Grievances

The merseyside derby was won by Everton who shocked Liverpool but they are now 2nd in the table so didn't shock everyone. I must admit they are totally overachieving and will struggle to maintain the great run they are having. Then I was pleased to see Birmingham beat Aston Villa - another deserved victory. It's the big one on Sunday. Huddersfield are the favourites but in such a tight division anything could happen. I am a little worried as Bradford have beaten all Yorkshire opponents so far this season.

Arsenal played Chelsea in a top of the table clash which ended 2-2 but Arsenal scored from a quick free kick which I was quite unhappy about as it is a very unsporting rule of the game. It should be clearly stated whether the whistle needs to be blown or not before a kick is taken and in what circumstances and as it stands is still a grey area. With Manchester United and Liverpool slipping up again, the title looks like a two horse race.

There were reports of racial abuse at Halifax's game at home to Canvey Island on Saturday. While it may be hurtful to black players, they should consider how it used to be and I feel too much of a fuss can be made about these things. It was fair enough at the England game as there was a large section of the Spanish crowd doing it. I also agree Ron Atkinson was wrong but now feel he has served his time and should be allowed back into the media spotlight for a last chance. But when it comes to one or two out of thousands, while I realise it is still wrong, it is not a football matter and no club should be punished in situations where 99.99% of the fans are behaving.

A 3rd and final bugbear for the night was The X Factor result. Not just because I had a bet on G4 from the start, or because I wanted them to win but because Steve was consistently fluffing parts of his songs. Was it fixed? I don't think so. Why did he win? I don't know but from the people I have spoken to they seemed to support him. His version of Against All Odds on Saturday was excellent until he missed a line out by getting half a beat behind. This sort of amateur should not be getting a £1 million record deal. While I do feel Sharon Osbourne was very harsh on him, she may be right. I gues only those on the inside know him. Sharon's attack proably won him the sympathy vote which cost G4 victory. However I am sure they will go on to bigger and better things. Anyone remember Michelle McManus?

Controversial?!

Christmas Coming Early

Noooo not like in The World Is Not Enough! Read on and ye shall find out.

After my post last week, I went to the snooker club, however there were no tables free so my brother and I played pool. The pockets were very big which partly explains the score of 8-6 (to me of course:-)). I was 6-1 up but it got a bit tedious after an hour or so. They are building a bowling alley on the end of the snooker club. Perhaps this will make Halifax a more interesting place for it's inhabitants however they are also supposed to be building one on the other side of town. Never knew bowling alleys were like buses!

On Friday, I had a very unproductive day at work as the remainder of the Christmas decorations were put up. The room does look very nice now and has a real Christmassy feel to it especially with the odd carol every now and again from colleagues. It is the Huddersfield Student Society Xmas dinner tomorrow night so hopefully this will give me a chance to get to know people a bit better.

On Friday lunchtime I'd heard news that Playstation 2 consoles were in stock at Game. I went straight to buy one leaving my tinge of guilt behind. It's good to have it back but it's tiny - no bigger than an A5 sheet of paper whereas the old one was as big as A4 and much thicker. This is my 3rd one as the other 2 broke so I guess it's like an orphaned little baby. (hmmm or not)

Back in March I entered a free fantasy formula 1 competition on the internet at Dreamracers.com and while I lost badly in the main game, I won the league for picking who would retire most during the season (without doing any transfers too which I'm quite proud of (bit sad but I don't care!)). I got an e-mail at the weekend saying that I had won some prizes. 2 expensive motorsport books, a scalextric set and Playstation 2 game (one which I already own but hey that's what eBay is for). This came as a nice surprise so it feels like Christmas has come early in the Toph household.

Watched plenty football this weekend but that will be reviewed in the next post. Posts seem to be getting longer don't they?!

Liverpool's Magic Moment

Last night I was watching Liverpool in the Champions League. They were 1-0 down to Olympiakos at half time needing to win 3-1. They dominated and got a quick goal then didn't score again until the 80th minute. A superb strike by Steven Gerrard sealed their place in the last 16 just 5 minutes from time. This is the first time four English clubs have been in the knockout stages.

Yeading got drawn against Newcastle and will play at Brentford or QPR. Newcastle's record in London is poor but surely they can beat Yeading.

This weekend is great for football on Sky. The Merseyside derby is on Saturday with the Birmingham derby on Sunday followed by Arsenal against Chelsea.

We bought Christmas decorations at work today and will be putting them up tomorrow. I might buy a Christmas CD compilation thingy to cheer me up a bit as i'm still without a Playstation 2 which broke last week. There is a national shortage of them. Maybe I should feel guilty about depriving some child of a perfect Christmas.

Anyway I'll stop rambling and go and play snooker with my brother.

FA Cup Round 2, League Cup Quarter Finals

On Wednesday night Manchester United beat Arsenal thanks to a goal after 18.5 seconds. I tuned in to see the replays of the goal ending after 1 minute 4 seconds. Will I ever learn to watch the start of matches? Liverpool also went through after Fredi Kanoute lost the match for Spurs giving away a 117th minute penalty and then missing his penalty in the shoot-out. Chelsea vs Man Utd looks a mouthwatering semi-final prospect while Liverpool should overcome Watford.

I went to The Shay to watch Halifax Town play Chester City in the second round of the FA Cup today.Halifax were the better side for most of the game and had more chances than Chester but still lost 3-1. A good effort though against a side from the league above. Yeading are the lowest placed team to reach the third round. Anyone know where this is? It'd be nice if they were drawn against a Premiership side or Reading just to confuse commentators.

I've had another quiet weekend in (apart from football) as i've not been feeling too well recently. Superb night of TV tonight. Record Of The Year was good and the result very close. Katie Melua was a surprise 5th, Will Young 4th, Anastacia in a close 3rd, then Mcfly in 2nd with Busted winning. I bought their new CD this week but preferred Mcfly. I'm not really that bothered though so I didn't vote. Unlike in X Factor where I did vote for G4 as they are different and add a bit of class to the competition so i'm glad that they are throught to next week's final. I saw a bit of that dancing thing on BBC1 too. Julian Clary has only got through for comedy value which is a bit harsh but funny!

Anyway i'm waffling so i'll get settled down for a 2 hour long Match Of The Day now.