A Right Couple Of Groupies

L heads out early this morning for a run. Don’t how she managed it but she did. I’m impressed. It’s a dog free run of course, so I’m stuck with Doggo and Groucho. Actually it’s a pleasure to go for a walk in such angelic company. Kind of.

Tonight, Feeder for the second time in four days. We’re in Leamington Spa, which is a very pleasant old town. So nice in fact, that it makes you wonder why they let the students invade. The venue is called ‘The Assembly’, which opened its doors as a concert venue only in 2008 after a multi-million pound redevelopment that was designed by Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen but we won't hold that against it.



Originally built in 1926, and called The Bath Assembly Hall, it was the place to go for your Foxtrot, your Waltz or your Quickstep. I only half know what they are, I read it on their website. It was later renamed ‘The Palais de Danseand’ and claims to have invented ‘The Palais Glide’. Now I’ve heard of that. We always referred to doing the ‘The Palais Glide’ when we pogo-ed around to assorted new wave tracks at Student Night at the Nottingham Palais in the mid 1980’s but I’ve no idea where we heard the term.

Like a lot of old dance halls and theatres it had most recently been a bingo hall. It’s good to see it now being put to better use, although it seems very quiet tonight compared with Rock City on Monday, although also sold out.

Love Amongst Ruin are first to take to the salubrious Art-Deco surroundings. Love Amongst Ruin were founded by Steve Hewitt, former drummer and songwriter with Placebo. He has teamed up with Julian Cope’s former right hand man Donald Ross Skinner, so this five-piece has something going for it already and interest for me.

The results, however, are nothing like Placebo or Cope’s music for that matter. Their sound is quite heavy, the songs quite sad or perhaps it’s just that Hewitt has a sad anguished sort of face.



Their cover of Thin Lizzy's ‘Got To Give It Up’ is dedicated to the deceased Lynott and Moore and no longer to ‘an ex-friend of mine’ he tells us. Oooh is that a dig at his former band? He was sacked from Placebo. That it is their best moment perhaps isn't surprising.

Hewitt refers to ‘the mighty Feeder’ after every song. I’m not sure if he’s trying to be ironic or not. I mean Placebo were pretty big themselves.

When they finish with a track called ‘Home’ I wonder if there could be some kind of weird symmetry about to happen here...

And so it proves as Feeder tonight open with ‘Home’. 'Home' makes a good opener. In fact I would go as far to say it sounds better there. Then I realise I owe apologises to ‘Insomnia’, which I dissed a bit on Monday. It was deadly tonight.



A change of opener isn’t the only flirtation with the set list tonight. Shock horror. Feeder shuffle set list. A bit. ‘This Town’ and ‘Sentimental’ swap positions, which is daring stuff for Feeder. Who says they don’t vary the set list enough? Oh yeah. It was me wasn’t it.

Grant aborts ‘Feeling A Moment’ and then restarts it. Not totally sure why, it sounded ok first time to me.



‘Renegades’ is again ace but then I reckon the sound is really good here, better than Rock City even but my partner disagree. So perhaps it’s just me. It’s a good venue though with a really high stage.

There are shouts again from the crowd for ‘Turn’, maybe one day.



Of the singles, ‘Seven Days In The Sun’ again stands out. ‘Buck Rogers’, which precedes it, again gets worked over by its bigger brasher ‘Echo Park’ brother.

There’s good news in that ‘White Lines’ is back; it has been missed and is the best of the ‘Renegades’ stuff tonight. Then Grant announces ‘one for the old school....’ which is only ‘High’, of course.



The encore remains the same. I reckon ‘Tumble And Fall’ is in to show off Damon’s drumming. He does do a great intro to it. He is again resplendent in shorts and something that looks like a dog collar but not much else.

At the end after another cracking rendition of ‘Breed’, L catches a plectrum and I, finally, after 25 years of trying, get a drum stick. What a pair of groupies.

(Thursday 17th February)

Not Off The Hook

I finally get chance to get the bike out today. A pleasant ride in during which I managed to stay awake despite a disrupted night. L questions whether I fell off on the ice? Can’t say I even noticed any. A touch of frost that’s all. The pavements did look worse.

Which is where L and the boys collided with a cyclist, who was avoiding the 'icy' roads. Hmmm. Any old excuse. MD was too busy to give him a damn good telling off because someone with a suitcase on wheels was also trying to dodge the cyclist and obviously he went for the suitcase. Poor MD, what a decision to have to make. Cyclist or Suitcase?

L delightedly tells me that ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ is out.



Obviously the likes of ‘The King’s Speech’, ‘Black Swan’, ‘The Social Network’ etc needn’t bother writing their acceptance speeches for the Oscars because Gnomeo’s coming to sweep the board. What do mean they’re too late to get nominated? Shameful.

L might even be at the cinema with Daughter tonight to see it... hopefully. That’ll get me off the hook.

Seems I should have been out in the pub tonight with a couple of old school friends, because I get a text saying they are in our usual watering hole waiting for me... and I’m on the squash court. There’s obviously been a breakdown in communications somewhere. I wasn’t aware I could have been in the pub instead.

L’s had a bad gym session and is off home to unpick her knitting... yes, I have a girl who knits, though thankfully not in the cinema like Daughter.

It must have been a really bad gym session. Probably almost as bad as my squash session. If I’d got knitting to unpick, I’d be unpicking it right now.

Damn, if she’s unpicking knitting it would appear that they’re not doing the cinema tonight after all and that means I’m no longer off the hook as far as Gnomeo is concerned.

(Wednesday 16th February)

A Lesson In Common Sense

On the radio this morning is a chap who L and I have both raced in triathlons. He is spreading the tale of how he took up triathlon, got fit and lost weight. A quick google tells me radio it’s the only place he’s put himself about, he’s been in several newspapers, even national ones like the Daily Mail. Now apparently he’s a qualified triathlon coach. Well if he can do it, so can I. Not triathlon though... all that swimming. Ugh.

So hopefully my city council coaching course will be on tonight. This is the third time they’ve tried to schedule ‘Disability Awareness’.

This week’s shopping challenge - Cider Vinegar. Doubt it’ll be with the cider, although you never know. It should be, perhaps, with the vinegar but I’m taking nothing for granted, it could be somewhere else entirely...

‘Disability Awareness’, which I figure is something I need to know about, is on. Although, they ring round because they’re struggling for numbers. I was only their third positive response...

In the end there are seven of us and there we get up to all sort of high jinks. Being blind, mute, deaf, being wheelchair bound etc. They condense down a five hour course into three hours for us. It's a good job they did, it is really just a course in common sense and we don’t really learn much new. Apparently council employees have to sit through this every two years. Blimey.

(Tuesday 15th February)

Panic Stations

Panic stations. I have a half marathon on Sunday, so need to top load some training this week. I ran yesterday and get up early today to run the last four miles to work. Having now finished ‘The Firm’ I had to run to music. It went well until a desperate call of nature with about half a mile to go, you don’t need details but, it totally ruined my pace.

L meanwhile sends me an email about April’s Derby 10k which has the word ‘seriously’ in it. Blimey. Must be, for want of a better word, serious.

I intend to do another four or five miles on the way home, so naturally it chucks it down at 5pm. Soon passes though and eventually I get my run.

I get home socialise with the dogs for a bit then collect L from work. I escort her down to Rock City for a romantic Valentine’s Day evening.

Is there something going on between Morning Parade and Feeder. The only other time I’ve seen Morning Parade is supporting Feeder (playing as Renegades) in Sheffield last year. The Essex boys, lead by a man called Sparrow, Steve Sparrow, seem to have honed their sound since then and have become the ‘next big thing’ or one of them. Probably the kiss of death really.

They have a range of styles but seem to have cut back on the keyboards a touch and the guitars are a bit more prominent tonight, although some of their tracks do still border on dance rhythms. Technically they are a very capable band but for a new band they come over as perhaps a bit too polished. Lacking in rough edges if you like, this oddly makes them less interesting.

Their new single ‘A&E’ is a good example; it’s powerful and catchy but still lacking in a certain something. They’re certainly not sparing in the effort they put in but after forty minutes of them, it feels like overkill and I’m ready for the main event.



Enthused by the re-emergence of 'Yesterday Went Too Soon' and latterly 'My Perfect Day' on the last tour before Christmas, together with Taka twittering that some 'Silent Cry' stuff could appear on this tour and also Grant appearing to be up for playing something like 'Turn' after it got requested last year, once they'd practiced it, made this a tour not to be missed. So tickets were purchased for two gigs, my home town Nottingham and for Son's university abode of Leamington. So, all set up for disappointment then.

Feeder are without doubt a brilliant live band, one of the best, but also, sadly, one of the most predictable. So it actually kind of looked promising when a roadie came out a few minutes before showtime and started manually altering the setlist with a pencil. Indecision in the ranks? Perhaps they'd suddenly remembered something and were about to revive one of the many underperformed classics they have buried in their hugely impressive back catalogue.

As the ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’ fades out we soon find out what the alteration was. Fears 'Barking Dogs' may have barked its last are unfounded as it is reinstated as the show opener after giving way to ‘Home’ for most of the tour dates so far. This, in fact, transpires as a bonus for the Nottingham public, as ‘Home’, a particular favourite of mine, still appears later in the set.



'Insomnia' is next, still a belter, although I thought a little off colour tonight. Perhaps it needs a holiday. They could always play one of the other belters from the same album.

Did I mention Feeder were a bit predictable... The first ten tracks arrive in exactly the same order as this did during the last tour back in October. So no freshening up there then. Five of those are ‘Renegades’ tracks, tracks which continue to sound great live, and the crowd do seem to appreciate them. There are no substitutions for ‘Silent Cry’ tracks, which would have made no difference to the majority of the crowd who probably haven't got either album.



Buried in amongst them are some of the hits from the ‘Comfort In Sound’ and ‘Pushing The Senses’ eras, odd bed fellows amongst the likes of ‘This Town’, for which Taka’s heavy bass reverberates across the floor towards us.

We do have a change behind the drum kit. Karl Brazil has gone AWOL, or rather he’s on tour with James Blunt, who apparently gets first call and probably, no offence guys, pays more. His replacement is session drummer, Damon Wilson and he's seems to mean business with his shirt off from the start. In fact, if anything, he possibly tries too hard at times. I just hope he’s got a good supply of the free water, like we have. Saves paying £4 a pint.

'Seven Days In The Sun' finally breaks the familiar sequence and makes it into the main set, which means at least the encore has been refreshed. Grant likes his teasing intros and seems to be introducing them to most tracks these days... ‘Buck Rogers’... ‘Renegades’... ‘Seven Days’ has one of the best. ‘Come Back Around’ follows and deserves a mention for sounding particularly awesome tonight.



The only ‘Renegades’ track to go out is 'White Lines', back in comes 'We Can't Rewind', which must surely be a family favourite or something. It’s the only old non-single they seem to play.

'High' which often flits in and out of the sets, is in on this tour. I’ve not actually heard ‘High’ for ages, so it’s good to hear it tonight.

The refreshed encore kicks off with (holds head in hands) ‘Tumble And Fall’. An oldie, true but not an inspired one. Then, nicely, a new track called 'Borders'. Which sounds, ironically, kind of 'Silent Cry' era-ish if you ask me...

The obligatory ‘Just A Day’ is followed by a terrific cover of Nirvana’s ‘Breed’. Obviously a personal favourite of Mr Nicholas’s but still obviously not a patch on how a certain underperformed classic from the first album used to close sets.



So no 'Yesterday Went Too Soon' or 'My Perfect Day' then but still a nine out of ten gig, with brownie points included for a decent t-shirt. Not enough bands do a tour t-shirt complete with dates these days, so that was enthusiastically purchased. See you in Leamington and, Grant, you know what you have to do for a ten.

(Monday 14th February)

The End Of A Cultured Week

L outdoes me this morning and runs, whilst I lounge in bed. Though she returns later with the Sunday paper and coffee. Bless her.

After I’ve exercised the boys, I get my own back and run myself. Predominately with the aim of finishing my latest audio book, John Grisham’s ‘The Firm’, which we’ve both been gripped by on the journey to and from Scotland.



To finish it I’m forced to not only lap the outside of the park, my original aim, but also the inside as well. Knackered afterwards but it’s done now. Another book read, well listened to. This rounded off a cultured week. We watched three films last week including Grisham’s ‘The Pelican Brief’.



We both enjoyed it immensely on audio but knew that casting Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington in the lead roles was miscasting of the highest order and so it proved. The director also clearly failed to get his head around the intricate plot surrounding the story. Disappointing, as expected. It also oddly came on a DVD that we had to turn over half way through, never had to do that before.

The ‘Memory Keeper’s Daughter’ was much better.



About a chap whose wife had twins, one of which is disabled and he gives it away whilst not telling his wife she’d even had twins. He keeps the secret until he dies, at which point his by then ex-wife finds out. Implausible and I didn’t expect much but it was actually quite good.

Then there was the original 1947 version of ‘Brighton Rock’.



It was good, Richard Attenborough was excellent, although I found the whole thing a bit confusing. All that darkness perhaps. Anyhow that brings me onto tonight’s cinema trip.

I hate remakes of anything and a remake of a film that is highly regarded as a classic of its time, such as ‘Brighton Rock’, should really be avoided at all costs. I haven’t, shamefully, read Graham Greene's book, nor had I, until last week, seen the original 1947 film and perhaps that is why I rather liked this remake.

The book and the film were set in the 1930’s but this remake by Rowan Joffe has shifted the action to 1964 and makes a few slight plot changes. This was bound to upset the purists, just like modernized versions of Shakespeare do but I kind of like those too. Personally I think if you're going to do a remake, at least do something a bit different with it. Straight copies are pointless.

So out goes the mob era and in comes a backdrop out of Quadrophenia. e.g. mods on mopeds on Brighton promenade, only it’s not. We had to go see this film because 1960’s Brighton has been recreated in Eastbourne and we were there when they filmed it. The dogs, well one particular dog, barked all the way through the filming, so there we sit in the cinema straining our ears trying to see if they’ve edited him out or not.



In this version, we get more of an intro and a bit more background to the characters. Not that this makes any different to the likeability of teenage sociopath and wannabe gangster, Pinkie Brown. Richard Attenborough was brilliantly sinister as Pinkie in the original, here Sam Riley (you know Ian Curtis) takes on the scowl but somehow he doesn’t seem as menacing as Attenborough. He's more moody teenager with an attitude problem than a gangster. The effect is much the same though. We feel zero sympathy for his character. Not that we feel any either for Rose (Andrea Riseborough), the nice Catholic waitress who falls for this moody Catholic thug.

Pinkie has murdered ‘Fred’ Hale, a man from a rival gang, and is prepared to cover his tracks by any means necessary. Rose is a potential witness to his crime, so in a bid to shut her up he pushes her into a sham relationship with him. Romancing her is not hard, the poor deluded girl immediately falls for him, hook, line and sinker even though he ignores her most of the time. What does she see him? Though suppose that’s a question we often ask ourselves of people today.



An explanation of sorts is offered when they visit the tower block where Rose lives. A tower block that looks very rundown, particularly considering tower blocks were a bright new idea in the 60’s. Rose lives with her father, a man who is as controlling as Pinkie is. So at least she’ll feel at home with him. Pinkie barters with her father for her hand in marriage, which will prevent her being forced to testify against him until he can find the moment to dispense with her permanently. In the end her father effectively sells her for £150.

Amidst all these crazy Catholics comes the level headed Ida Arnold (Helen Mirren) who is determined to unearth the truth and rescue Rose from the nutter she has betroved herself to.



It was a difficult film to remake but having bothered, I think they made a pretty good fist of it. Very enjoyable. Riley is good enough as Pinkie, as is Riseborough as Rose, well pathetic enough at least. It all ends in tragedy of course and I do love an unhappy ending. The classic scene remains, as in the original, when Rose cajoles him into making a record of his voice in a recording booth on the pier. On record he makes it pitifully clear that he despises her and her failure to ever find out what he said on that record makes a touching finale...

Did I mention Son is home? He has a ‘reading week’, when he doesn't have to attend lectures, so he’s come home for the week via a torturous train journey where every other train seemed to get cancelled. In the end, when he’s facing his third long wait of the day for a train, we nip over and collect him from Derby station to save him the hassle. This enables us to have a pleasant family meal out at the local eatery ‘The Wollaton’ and a chance to try and extract all the university gossip that we can.

(Sunday 13th February)

North Of The Border

We head up to Scotland this morning via some incredibly pot holed roads, even on M74. In fact especially on the M74, which seems a bit of a dangerous place to have them to me.

It’s a bit warm in Glencoe village when we arrive, although there is snow up on the higher mountains but even the Pap is snow-free.

After eight hours in the car we stay in Saturday night, eat steak and open some wine. Although L has imported Leffe to north of the border, so very unScottish, as is my wine. After the long journey, L threatens to walk the paws off the dogs on Sunday and succeeds. It was only 10k across Glen Nevis but we almost have to carry MD back after he ripped a chunk of flesh off his paw. Whilst by Monday morning Doggo, the old git, has stiffened up after his puppy-like antics skipping up and down the glen.

Luckily for them, they get Monday off as we wake up to snow on the hills. The Pap is now white over.



There’s apparently six inches of ‘fresh’ up on Glencoe Mountain. So we go up to check it out and leave the limping two in the car. The snow is good but it’s very windy up there and the runs largely unpisted, so hard on the legs.



After the skiing, we try and spend some more money at the ski resort by supporting their coffee shop but it’s closing at 4pm so I have to come down the slopes early. Then we try and spend our cash at the Kingshouse Hotel but their walkers bar is shut. There’s a nice roaring fire in their lounge but we can’t take the dogs in there. We’d already discovered that the recently refurbished Glencoe Hotel is closed Monday to Thursday and the Ben Nevis Inn is closed Monday to Wednesday. Everything seems to be closed this week. It’s not easy trying to pump money into the Scottish economy.

The Clachaig Inn is open though and we spend many an evening in there. There a beer from Caledonian called ‘Double Dark’ which surely has to be dark and is, as well as very tasty. There’s also a beer tasting on from the Glenfinnan Brewery. Which we actually skip because all their beers are on the bar anyway but we miss out on the freebies. Instead we finish off with the house whiskey, at 58% probably not the best idea but very nice.

I think it disagrees with me a bit the next day but not as much as Doggo’s diet of sticks and grass disagrees with him. Which he kindly vomits up overnight.



Tuesday, we risk taking the dogs for a run along the Caledonian canal. Only 12k according to my gadget girl’s new GPS watch. A Christmas present don’t you know. MD doesn’t seem to notice or care that he has a bad paw and unfortunately blisters the other front one. Still he doesn’t notice. Tough cookie. Even so we drive to pub and sit in the posh bit, leaving the boys to rest up in the car.

Wednesday is wet all day and the rain is no doubt causing serious damage to the nice snow we had a few days ago. When we do finally drag ourselves out of the house it's for a long wet meander along footpaths on a very indirect route to the pub. Where most of the beer has run out. No more ‘Double Dark’ and we decide it’s best to leave before the whiskey tasting evening starts.

Thursday is another day off for MD’s paws, which he keeps licking. A skill he has honed by licking my feet whenever he gets the chance, not that you wanted to know that. It’s something both dogs, oddly, seem to enjoy or convincingly endure, perhaps out of a ‘man’s best friend’ sort of loyalty thing. I drag L up Nevis Range for some skiing. The snow is good in places but concrete hard snow in others, with icy bobbles on top which makes it like skiing on marbles at times and, yes, the coffee shop again shuts a 4pm. So I don't get one.



We eat at the posh-ish Isles of Glencoe hotel. Why is this place busy whilst the Glencoe Hotel is shut because it has no bookings?

On our last day we walk the Ben Nevis pony track for a mile or so whilst easily resisting the trek to the top and looping back through the Glen along the river.



We pop into the now open and very pleasant Ben Nevis Inn for hot choc and a beer. There’s plenty of very interesting info in there about the annual Ben Nevis run. It’s only 12 miles to the top and back. I’m sort of tempted.

Tonight, we finally make the Glencoe Hotel for a meal.

We leave Glencoe early on Saturday morning because I, for some unknown reason, would like to get back in time for the match, which has kind of conveniently been moved to a 5.20pm kick-off for TV. The kick-off change is very odd. Originally the police had insisted on a 1.00pm KO because as it was a local derby, we’re playing Leicester, they wanted to limit the amount of time supporters had to get tanked up in the pub. That was until Sky started waving money around, and then it became acceptable to give everyone the entire afternoon in the pub. Bizarre. It just shows who’s actually in charge.

After the expected defeat I briefly join the protesters who have assembled outside the ground. They are protesting about our illustrious American owners who are running the club on a ‘sustainable model’ e.g. a shoestring. They’ve done a very good job of reducing the overdraft but I just wish they’d stop costing cutting now. Unfortunately they don’t realise that their ‘sustainable model’ isn’t sustainable at Championship level and it’s looking increasingly likely that it's going to take a trip down to League One to make them realise this.

(Saturday 12th February)

Drifts

I decide it’s possibly too windy to cycle, although I have this nagging feeling I’m actually wimping out a bit. I will get the bus and attempt a run later. Once I get outside, it’s a case of battling against the wind, even on foot and then during the journey to work the bus is rocking around from side to side. So I guess it must have been windy. Perhaps I made the right choice not to cycle.

After work I’m not too optimistic about having a good run. I think the 'good' bit depends on which direction the wind is blowing. The right way so it seems. I have a good run and kind of fun running through the deep drifts of leaves.

Then it's home to pack for Scotland where hopefully they'll be drifts of a different sort.

Back in a week or so.

(Friday 4th February)

The Expected Headhunting Doesn't Happen

On the bike again today despite the winds continuing to be quite strong. Though it’s nothing compared with the weather up in the Scottish mountains at the moment, which is where we’re headed at the weekend. Winds of around 100mph and heavy snow in places. So at the moment, when it dies down, we'll have fresh snow to play in. Maybe. Increasing temperatures over the next few days may bring a lot of rain which would then wash it all away. So I'm biting my fingernails over the weather forecast.

I get a membership renewal form emailed to me from the running club I joined last year. I delay rejoining and wait for the glut of offers from other clubs to arrive, who will have seen my results and will naturally be headhunting me... or perhaps not. Still no complaints with the current club. Apparently I keep getting mentions at club night, which I have yet to attend. I’ll have to sneak in and listen one night, in disguise.

Talking of running, I sign up for a nice treat for when I get back from Scotland, the Sleaford Half Marathon. It was moderately annoying last year but I loved the t-shirt and the post race massage, so why not. The annoying bit was two miles of cross country, which in the middle of what was otherwise a road race was a bit offbeat. Anyhow, it was obviously not just me who disapproved because they have revised the route and replaced the muddy bit with a stretch of ‘good quality farm track’ (their words and rest assured guys, I’ll be checking).



Seems I’ll be doing it on my own. L’s not swayed by the farm track and anyway says the muddy bit was her favourite bit. Each to their own.

With no squash tonight I can have a guilt free pub lunch which consists of something ‘game’ in a pie. I couldn’t tell you want. Might have been deer. Then I head to the leisure centre for a bit of a paddle, well thirty odd lengths. The still increasing winds blow me nicely dry on the way home and induce a bit of a ‘sideways moment’, all part of the fun, just not on Nottingham’s ring road.

L and Daughter are out at the cinema, so I take the dogs out to suffer in the wind as well.

(Thursday 3rd February)

National Cancelling Week

I’m on the bike on the day that the BBC runs an article about helmet cameras capturing bad driving. Fascinating. Perhaps I should get one.



Although L points out that I’ll be on the lookout for trouble to blog. As if.

Today’s ride was uneventful, well just the usual close shaves, so yes uneventful. I suppose I could have filmed the two cars that had crammed themselves into the advance area for cyclists at the lights in Spondon. Although I’m so used to this, I expect it and don’t really take any notice any more.

A fellow cyclist though, wasn’t going to take this lying down and he had tried to place himself in front of both of the cars at the same time. Not an easy task and not a safe one, because there’s no guarantee they will have seen him and his antics. After all they’d ignored pretty much everything else around them so far.

It must be national cancelling week. Squash tomorrow is now off. Opponent attempted his own triathlon the other night - Run/Cycle/Badminton and has done his knee in. I was actually impressed and complimented him on his efforts but he’s not supposed to injure himself.

It has become very windy by the time I cycle home. I left work straight into an extreme head wind but then there’s nearly always an extreme head wind on Pride Park, which seems to have has its own weather system. Thereafter I didn’t really notice the wind and the fact that it only took me only fifty minutes to get home explains why. I take it the wind was behind me.

Dog training goes well but it's quite a sombre affair. One totally healthy dog died in its sleep at the weekend and I learn of another that’s just gone blind. A good reason to give both the boys a big hug tonight, even the gobby one.

(Wednesday 2nd February)

Soon Be Christmas

Blimey 1st February. Another month gone. How times flies. It’ll soon be Christmas won’t it.

I walk the boys again and again have no problems with MD. I do though have an issue with number one dog, who ponces off across the road to see another dog, then stands in the middle of the road with his nose in the air. He thinks he’s so superior that dog. Getting run over would wipe the smile off his face, as well as off mine. Thankfully it was only a very quiet side road.

L’s had some new dog tags made for MD. She’s redesigned them and put my mobile number on them rather than our home phone number. Note she didn’t consider putting her own number on.

I’m back on my coaching course tonight, ‘Disability Awareness’ this week, which was supposed to be before Christmas but got cancelled. I guess it’s going to useful these days now that over 27% of the UK population regard themselves as disabled but don’t get me started on that one. Anyhow I’m sure it’ll be interesting and I’m skipping the match for it, which is kind of a blessed relief.

Over the entire January Transfer Window we have sold two decent players and bought one as yet unproven one. A squad that was already light on numbers is now down by another one. Damn good business, not.

Oh no. ‘Disability Awareness’ has been cancelled, again. They’ve rescheduled it for the 15th. Which luckily I can make. What’s worse is that now I’ve got no excuse not to go to the match.

It’s the return of the much maligned Paul Jewell, who is now in charge at Ipswich. He resigned from Derby in December 2008 after a not very impressive spell in charge. He did however get us to the League Cup Semis, which is the most exciting thing to happen in recent years, and the players we are now up in arms about him offloading are mostly ones he signed.

There are a few isolated protests against the directors, cries of ‘sack the board’ and ‘stand up if you hate the yanks’ but it’s mainly resigned acceptance to another defeat, after taking the lead as well.

The highlight is undoubtedly when a spectator runs onto the pitch in just his boxer shorts and socks. Not a pretty sight but amusing.

(Tuesday 1st February)