Apologies To Regulars

I might go into my posting not very often phase again as I'm studying again now. However on the positive side any posts I do make are likely to be short so people will get to the end of them!

Quite a bit to say but no time so the rest of last week will have to be done later except that last Monday's quiz with just Kate, JJ and I went badly. We nearly got beaten by a school team with 9 in (still to beat our record of 10) but we beat them with our score of 48 out of 134 to come 10th out of 11. Sadly mediocreville evaded us and we were classed as "shite!"

The Curse Strikes Again

Following on from my last post, the out of office curse has reared it's ugly head again as I failed my exam. I know I wouldn't have passed if i'd been in the office but it's a weird coincidence isn't it (i refuse to write innit).

In fact that caps a totally shite day i've had today. I was auditing in Sheffield. It took me an hour to get to Sheffield and an hour to find where I was supposed to be going. I thought I might have trouble after going on three internet map websites and getting three different locations (though I did find the humourously named Letsby Avenue). It turns out that internet directions are not always right especially when the place you need to go is very unlikely to be mapped out on any map!

Other things also went wrong then the arsy guy from The Sun phoned about my letter of complaint/advice and told me I was getting no more money and he was right. Though he was nicer this time and even saw my point of view.

I'm just waiting for something else to happen now like when I finish writing this I'll fall downstairs and break my neck or something...

Nervy Times

It's exam result time again tomorrow. I'm likely to be in Sheffield where i'm auditing for the first time since September. At least I won't be twiddling my thumbs waiting. I can't really predict what I'll get only that it will be very close to the pass mark of 55%. My record is not good whn receiving results outside the office with 1 pass and 2 fails compared with effectively 3 passes out of 3 when in the office. I'm not sure that has much significance on it all really.

Kate, her mum and I got 77 out of 146 in this weeks quiz in case you were wondering which placed us about 8th out of 14. There were loads of kids there this week as it was house music performance night at school. It seemed weird that I wouldn't know know any of them and more to the point they wouldn't approach me saying "alright Toph!" and i'd reply "Alright, who are you?!" Something like that anyway.

Since I Last Posted About Me...

I went into Halifax on the evening of Friday 7th and had a good time. I washed away my bad mood with 11 Smirnoff Ices and was a bit sick in the morning.

The very same morning I went to get a mortgage for the the house Phil and I are buying. Looks like my windfall could be gone sooner than expected.

Then I watched the World Cup but i've already posted about that, and Wimbledon finals. Maybe Mauresmo should get paid the same as the men or being one. Oops - libellous - shouldn't be saying things like that.

I then had the good news that Bill was up from Cheltenham for the week. Obviously the first place to meet on The Big Six on Monday night for the quiz. Unfortuneately, the rst of the team deserted us but once again we did ok with 74 out of 139 and 6th out of 11. We would certainly have won if the winners had been decided by points per aggregate age, but (as with most pub quizzes) it was which team got most right which always seems to be our downfall.

Tuesday was going to be an early night but my brother wanted picking up late in Halifax.

Wednesday was another late night as Bill, Kate and I went to The Moorings for a drink or few and we caught up with each other a bit and arranged Thursday night which was...

... a pool night in The Murg. JJ joined us for this. I've not played much pool recently after Kate nearly beat me Scarborough but after beating her and JJ recently I was feeling confident. I know Bill is an opponent worth respect but I still beat him in game 1. I then beat Kate and JJ in games 2 and 3 before Bill beat me in a close game 4. JJ then took on Kate in a 3rd/4th place play-off type match which lasted 27 minutes and was really really dull until the end when JJ failed to hold his nerve and Kate took it on the black. Bill and I then had our decider which I won to beat him 2-1 for the 2nd time running but he is definitely in the top three of opponents i've played against alongside Ruth and John (not you JJ - Mr Frank). JJ then amazingly nearly beat Bill. But he didn't. Bill's now back in Cheltenham but it was good to see him again.

Friday was Lorraine's leaving do which I managed to stop out for until a pitiful 5:45 as I was tired after my week and also in a bad mood. An early night perked me up though.

On Saturday night I stopped up to watch IndyCar until 4am which was a bit silly and yesterday I got sacked as Huddersfield manager on Football Manager 2005/06 after beating Solihull Borough 8-0 in the FA Cup. I decided there must be a bug so I reloaded and got manager of the month before being sacked. I've now decided fate is against me and have accepted another job.

Today I went to work where it was hot and loud. I also seem quite deaf in my right ear too couldn't really converse much with people. I hear a lot more music playing from cars outside in the summer which is due to windows being open I reckon or blowers/air con being turned up high inside so volume needs to go up so that music can be heard properly. However I think 80% of the music I hear is all dusch dusch banging tracks like DMX, a far cry from the sounds of Ronan Keating belting out of my stereo although thinking back, I did have Black Eyed Peas pumping out last week so I fit into the 80% sometimes I guess!

And finally tonight is the quiz again, back with the usual team - the aim mid-table mediocrity and to not hear tose cruel cruel words, "And your picture round!"

End Of 2005/6 Season Part 2

Over 2 months after part 1, the season has now ended. In fact the 2006/07 has started but I don't mention the Intertoto Cup much on here.

Since part 1, Scarborough got unrelegated after Canvey Island decided to go part time and request to be dropped a division showing incredible lack of ambition and Altrincham got deducted 18 points. However Altrincham were then saved as Scarborough's financial worries caused them to be rerelegated to the Conference North. Wakefield & Emley have now dumped & Emley and their kit and are now simply Wakefield with the up and coming AFC Emley challenging them for supremacy around those parts.

I think Man Utd took 2nd in the Premiership with Liverpool taking 3rd and Arsenal clinching 4th spot from Spurs on the final day with victory at Wigan. Spurs had to match Arsenal's result but had 10 players suffering from what turned out to be gastroenteritis from one player which spread to the others. It was not, however food poisoning and the FA refused to postpone the game against West Ham which Spurs went on to lose. This led to joy at the last game at Highbury and Thierry Henry signing a new contract as he will be in the Champions League with Arsenal next season.

Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds all lost in the play offs.
Reading, Sheffield United, and Watford all got promoted with the latter two likely to be coming straight back down in my opinion.
Sunderland beat their own record for the lowest number of points ever scored in the Premiership with 15 and another ex Premiership club (sort of) got relegated to the 4th tier with MK Dons (formerly Wimbledon being relegated).

The World Cup has just ended tonight. France lost to Italy on penalties and Zinedine Zidane got sent off for a head-butt wothy of an assault charge! The group stages were good but not many goals were scored in the knockout stages which were still compelling viewing in my opinion. Maybe England will win in 2010!

The only other side some readers may have interest in is St Albans City who got promoted to the Conference. I have to admit to having a limited knowledge of them extending so far as I know there was a big debate about a big tree. It turns out, the tree stopped them gaining promotion in the early 1990's as the ground was deemed unsafe but the oak tree had a preservation order on it meaning it could not be destroyed. However, in 1998, it was discovered that the tree was diseased and was soon destroyed, making way for a new stand. Good luck to St Albans in their first season at the higher level (except against Halifax of course)!

Another Rant

Maybe it's the hot weather or somethng but all I seem to be doing when blogging ranting these days.

It's been very hot (30 degrees Celsius) in our room at work. It's far too hot to be very productive and other things have been annoying me a little too. It is also noisy due to the main road and lots of bus stops outside but we have to have the windows open to let some "air" (bus fumes) in. This makes it impossible to hear what the person near who is saying and difficult to make phone calls. There's also a funny smell been lingering but Glade plug-ins are seeing to that.

We have been bought ice creams by the partners twice which was a nice gesture. The water machine is another problem though. I don't mind too much having to go downstairs for some cold water. But I do get quite annoyed to find someone has just filled a big bottle or jug with it making it warm for the next person. That's why I only have a glass or a cup, to keep it cold. If I wanted warm water I'd run the tap or get a bottle of my own and keep it there all morning.

We lost in the World Cup to Portugal even though they were rubbish and Christiano Ronaldo is a diving, cheating, moaning, con artist who should have been sent off many times for protesting that people be booked. Then he lies about it in the post match interview. Well I hope for his sake he gets sold to another country or I think he will face a good kicking and lots of angry crowd reaction.

He has lost the www.fifaworldcup.com fans vote for young player of the tournament because of his antics as the BBC Sport website instructed everyone who read it to vote for the guy in 2nd and this got forwarded around the country. I voted for Luis Valencia of Ecuador yesterday when he was 15000 votes behind. Voting has now ended and Valencia finished about 90000 votes ahead! The power of the internet rears it's beautiful head once again. Ha!

Thanks to people for sending me late birthday cards. It is appreciated but the post wasn't meant to be a huge guilt trip thing! Oops!

I feel a bit better now I've got that off my chest. Maybe i'll write a happy post soon.