Football

Did you see the game ?

/ Tony / 5 Comments

That’s the question that should be on everybody’s lips tomorrow. However, I think the question will be “What did you think of the game?” There is this belief that every English person will be either glued to their TV sets, or in the pub, or at an outdoor venue. If you say something like “I’m not really bothered about football, then you are somewhat ostracised and made to feel odd. Many millions of people will watch the football today and so they should if they so want. It will on the TV here, but like the last two England games, I won’t be really taking much notice.

The thing is, I only tend to like the sports that I can do and have played. So things like cricket and squash, even though I was never very good are up there on my ‘favorite’ list. Darts and snooker were ‘sports’ I was okay at, together with cross-country running. The problem was (and still is sometimes) my height. At 5′ 4″ (1.62 metres) I was never going to good at the type of sports, I was expected to play at school, and so never developed a liking for.

But I hope England does well, and I sincerely hope that this is not another ‘super-spreader’ event.

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2021 part two . . .

/ Tony / 3 Comments

Well, here we go with the second part of the year, and I expect that there will not be much of a difference from the first half. It’s highly likely that our indecisive and inglorious ‘leader’ will change track again. This will lead to more and more people ignoring the current Covid rules and quoting the actions of the last Health Secretary as their reason. Covid cases are rising again and although the vaccine seems to be preventing the worst, hospitalisations are beginning to slowly creep up. You only have to look at the crowds at the England v Germany football match to see what will happen over the next few weeks. Daily reported cases in the UK were (at 02/07/2021) nearly 23,000 which is double the number for the same time last week. Even though the number of related deaths is extremely low, it is a worrying trend.

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It was hair-cut time again. Well it was haircut time about two weeks ago, but it is trying to fit it in when the barbers is not busy. Wetherby was quite busy today, but the barbers had nobody waiting so it was a quick trim and I was out. It was all the result of my son and granddaughter not coming to visit that led to me having a bit of a free day. I’m saying ‘free’, I still was able to squeeze a couple of jobs in.

We have a print that K*** wanted fixing to the garden fence, to brighten it up a little. So a few weeks ago, I fitted to the fence, and it looked really good. Then it rained a little and K*** noticed that some of the colours had started to run. It needed some protection. Only thing I could think was to give it a coat of external varnish. Of course I didn’t have any, but I noticed a special offer on ebay that had tins of Yacht Varnish spray at a reasonable price. If it’s for yachts I surmised, it must be waterproof. So masked and goggled I gave it a couple of sprays. It will need one more spray tomorrow, but I can do that when is screwed back to the fence.

From then to now … end of the dream …

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After the initial ‘first night’ nerves we began to think that we were going to make something of ourselves.  Lunchtime service was working well and we were getting a slight increase in numbers. But it was Menuthe evenings that were starting to show. Wednesday was usually the poorest night, but then again nobody seemed to go out on a Wednesday and Saturday was the busiest. Numbers were increasing by the week up to a point where it was necessary to book for a Saturday night. The biggest issue was the menu. It was far too extensive. As I remember there was about ten different cuts of meat to be served from the grill. Each of these had a choice of at least three different sauces or garnishes. For example beef steaks: there was rump, sirloin, fillet and T bone. Then there was lamb chop, Barnsley chop, lamb loin and lamb fillet. There was also chicken, ham, pork chop and pork fillet. All this made for a hard time for the grill chef (me) and the pass chef (K**h). It got so difficult that the owner hired an assistant to work Friday and Saturday.

The numbers were quite steady and we had a stream of regulars and then disaster struck. Disaster World cup 1986in the form of the 1986 FIFA World Cup. The final was on Sunday the 29th June, but the two/three weeks before gave us lots of problems. Have the games were played at 12:00 local time, which meant 6pm here in the UK. We first noticed that things were not as they should be was on the Wednesday to Friday of the third week before the final. There some popular games being played on those nights and were suffered with the number of covers. Saturday picked up, and we thought we would be okay.

The owner said that it would be fine if they big names played later in the day, but on Wednesday the 18th, England played and the numbers dropped dramatically. The following Wednesday saw the first of the semi’s. Again the restaurant suffered. But the biggest hit came on the Saturday the 28th. Although England had done the usual and had gone out the previous week, Saturday was a big day. It was the day that third and fourth place would be decided. By Friday night, the No Bookingsdiary should no bookings at all for Saturday. By 3pm on Saturday we still had no bookings and the owner was considering not opening. We did stay open but did not sell a single meal. As this was the days before big screens in pubs, even the bar was deserted. Bookings were down on the Sunday too, even though the final was later in the day.

We did not see the owner on either Monday or Tuesday, but Wednesday evening he called a meeting. His wife was with him, and they both had a very serious face. the owner announced that he had been with the accountant over the past couple of days trying to work things out. The bombshell was, that the restaurant was losing money and was being supported by takings in the bar, which as he said could not go on. He had checked the bookings for the Friday and Saturday and had decided that he would close the restaurant on the Friday night. Nothing anybody could say would change his mind.

We worked as normal as we could those last few days, but it was a depressing time for all. ClosedThe news had got out, and we had a few cancellations on both the Thursday and Friday. Friday night came and neither of the waitresses turned up and as we only had two tables of four booked, the owner decided to close after those tables had left. 

It was the end of the dream. Fame and fortune was not coming our way and it was a pretty hard time for K**h and me.

Just a quick test …

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I thought I would give this “Blog Pad Pro” iPad app another go. It’s not the easiest app I’ve used, but it is a lot easier using a separate keyboard.I really need to get up to speed with it. Struggling with adding categories and tags. It’s not as simple as with the laptop software, and I’m not sure how to post as draft. I must try and find a downloadable manual.

But to other things. Today is the “Royal Wedding” and that is all I want to say on the matter, as far too much has been said already.

Moving on. Today is also the FA Cup Final, but as I’m not a big fan of football, lets move on again.

That’s about it for now.

Funny old week …

/ Tony / 4 Comments

I’m not going to mention Britain leaving the European Union (well maybe a little) as I think it has all been said. All I will say is that I’m very disappointed with the result. I fully expected it to go the other way but as many people keep saying “Democracy has spoken” or words to that effect. So we have to live with it. Get on and make it work. It will take a long time to convince me that the country ‘did the right thing’ but there is no going back now.

Then to cap it all England was unceremoniously dumped out of the Euro 2016 football tournament last night. Beaten by a team that, on paper should have lost. But that is what we have come to expect for a team that just does not seem to have any spark at all. Of course it is all the fault of the manager. It’s not the fault of the bunch of second rate no-hopers that were out there playing the game. No it’s the managers fault. No other industry would it happen.

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Breaking news … I have just spotted a Police Community Support Officer walking down our road

Now that is something that does not happen very often!

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Now, back to the job in hand. I have a cold. A full on, streaming, head aching cold. It started yesterday afternoon really and just got gradually worse. I can’t stop sneezing! I’ve gone through about 12 handkerchiefs today alone. One of my colleagues had the same thing last week, and I was hoping that I would not get it … but of course I did. I’ve not been to work today, and I’m staying at home tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be okay for Thursday but time will tell.

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K*** is out tonight. She is going with her sister to see Cats at the Leeds Grand Theatre. It’s not the kind of thing I would want to see, so I’m home alone. Well home alone with R*** to keep me company. Should be fun. He only came back from respite yesterday and it is all change for him. Up until yesterday, his daily routines would start from what was called ‘Day Opps’. This was an area that he and the only other ‘daily’ resident used as their base for the day. R*** also has a flat where he stays when he is on respite. The change has come about due to the other resident moving on. This means that they need to area for some other activities.

R*** is now going to be based out of his flat. We were expecting to have a bit of a rough ride with the change, but he appears to have accepted the change without any issue. I say ‘appears’, we never really know what is going on in his autistic mind when these major changes happen. The next few days will be the telling time.

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I think I have given in with Blogger. You may recall that I wanted to use Blogger as another blogging platform. It was going to be used as an outlet for a project I was working and I did not want it to get mixed up with my main WordPress blog. I think I have mentioned that I use a piece of software called “Open Live Writer (OLW)” for composing my posts. This software boasts that it connect to WordPress (which it does quite effectively) and also to Google Blogger. It is Blogger that I’m having an issue with. In OLW there is a tab, that lets you preview how your post will look, before you upload it. With WordPress, this works without a problem. However with Blogger, I cannot get it to show a preview. I know others have had the same issue, but it is a community project and so the support is a bit limited. So, after much deliberation, my Blogger blog is going.

New Camera and things

/ Tony / Leave a comment

    

     Quiz-nite, last night was fun. R*** is on respite, so Mrs H was allowed out. Didn’t win either the quiz or the bingo, but one of our ‘team’ won the football card, so not a total washout. There was some wine left, when we got home, so Mrs H drank that and I had a couple or three whiskies. My head was a bit thick this morning !!!!

     Work plods on as usual. The person I, and the rest of the office, have issues with is still the same. They are trying to cause trouble for someone, and they don’t care who gets trampled on the way. Well it’s not going to be me !!!! I said before, that I don’t hold grudges, but in this case, I may make an exception.

New Camera - Panasonic Lumix TZ20      I got a new camera on Monday. It is a bit more complicated than my last one. The only problem with the old one, was that the LCD display had failed. Now I could have just used the viewfinder, but the problem with that is that the digital zoom Old Camera - Canon Powershot A80only shows in the LCD screen. So a new camera was the way to go. I did intend spending about £50.00, but Mrs H twisted my arm, and the one I got was nearer £250.00. There is a lot to learn with this one, but I’m getting there. It has a 16x optical zoom plus a 4x digital zoom, up to 14mp and it came with a 4gb memory card. Been looking to get a case for it, but it is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I don’t need anything flash, just something to stop it getting scratched.

General Observations (Opinions)

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     Another dismal result for England yesterday. A key qualifying game for Euro 2012, and we could only scrape a draw. Could I offer my perspective on the reason English football is so often so poor ?

     I think for part of the answer, we must look to the Premier League. I understand (not certain about this) that the percentage of non-English players in this league is at the upper side of 50% – 60%. Now, I have no issue, with foreign players in English teams, and no issue with the numbers. I think they bring a diversity to the game, that is much needed. However, this does not seem to be a two-way thing. How many English payers, play abroad ? Surprisingly very low, I believe. I think that could be a key factor here. It is often said, that the best way to learn another language is to live in that country. Maybe that is the same with football. Maybe the reason that international teams tend to be better than us, is that there are so many international players here, learning the English game. So that when they play us at international level, they know how we will play the game. English players do not have that advantage. It’s an opinion.

     And now onto Jim’ll Fix It !!! Sorry, that should be Britain’s Got Talent. Did anybody really think, that after to revelations on the web, that Ronan Parke would be allowed to win!!!!!  The thing with these ‘phone-in’ shows, is that the viewing public has no proof, that the results are genuine. Where are the number of votes for each artiste published ? Who has verified them ? Can the be challenged? Are they accurate and how many callers do not get through ? These are questions that should be answered. I thought it quite funny, when Michael McIntyre said that he had voted, then very very quickly explained that it was a joke !!

     Tonight, we have to look forward to ‘Pop Star to Opera Star’ (groan.) Maybe that should be called ‘Has Been Pop/Soul/Rock Singer Has A Stab At Singing A Classical Aria’ ????? Doesn’t quite trip of the tongue. Bt that is basically what the program is about. Is Simon ‘I never met him’ Cowell involved in this at all. Oh and by the way, much as I love Katherine Jenkins, she is not an opera singer, she is a classical singer … her words.

     I suppose the next big thing will be ‘Simon Says’, more popularly known as ‘X Factor’, or will it be ‘I’m Someone Who Wants To Be In The Limelight Again, Get Me Out Of Here’ !!!!! Oh for the days of real Saturday night entertainment.

Better late than ……..

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   I did intend to post on Thursday evening. However, due to circumstances, entirely within my control (ie going to the pub again !!!) I failed to make it. The ‘play’ seems to be getting there, slowly but surely. Fingers crossed that on opening night, nobody forgets too many lines.  s**** has put a lot of work and thought into this. Just two more cast pictures to add to the programme and that is done.

   No win at the quiz-nite this week, bit in our defence, the questions were quite hard. Highest score as only 32, and we were only one behind on 31. The picture quiz, were all international football shirts !!! R**, who is not known as a football fan, got them all bar one!

   The work on the blog/website for the PTA is all but finished. I have just to update it with some links,and it will be ready approved. Once i get the go-ahead, I’ll put a link on this blog. There should be no problem with the newsletter, although, I would like to make it into a two page spread. I have a couple of ideas for non-PTA stuff, such as a word-search, Sudoku, crossword, that type of thing. It may add a bit of fun to what could become a quite boring piece of paper.

   I don’t think I will watch the football today. I’m interested in who will win, but I seem to have lost interest sine England went out. I feel that Spain will win, but secretly hope that Holland do instead.

   Very busy week at work, but it is set to be a bit quieter this week. I am off on Tuesday. Mrs H and me (possibly S**** too) are going to revisit the residential college, that we hope to get R*** into when he finishes school. S**** has never been, and I’m not too sure if he will go this time, but we will see.  

Still here !!!!!

/ Tony / Leave a comment

(Wednesday 30/06/10)

   It’s been a long time since my last post (or so it seems). Quite a few late nights over the past few days. The play is coming along nicely, but after the rehearsal, S**** like to nip along to the local for a pint or three. Of course, like a good father, I like to go along too. Just to keep an eye on him (that is my excuse and I’m sticking to it !!!)

   I’m still trying to convince myself, that Englands demise was not due to me wearing an England shirt !!! No really, I’m a little ashamed to be an England supporter at the moment. It really was not good. I have this theory though. When you look at all the other teams in this competition, most of the top players do not play in their home country. A lot of them play in the English Premier league. I think that gives the other teams a slight advantage.

(Sunday 04/07/10)

   I’m struggling to find time to post these days. What with the youngest wanting the internet  and the ‘after drama drinks’. R*** does not have internet access on his PC. We thought it  would mean, that he would never be off, and that his PC would end up full of rubbish. He has a habit of cancelling any programs running that he does not want. this means, that my scheduled anti-virus scan and the daily updates often do not happen. However, I am looking into resizing the partitions on his hard disk, to free up some space, and then possibly get him Wi-Fi access. It could be a long job though. Thought I would defrag his computer first, and that has been running for nearly an hour now. Windows defrag has never been very fast

   Work is going well at the moment. Although, the stress of the past few weeks, has led to a number of trips to the snack machine for ‘comfort’ food. This of course, together with the after drama drinks, has led to an increase in weight. I must get back on track. S**** and me may be going out on our cycles for an hour or so today. Saying that, the wind is picking up, so it may not happen. Anyway, could struggle to prise him out of bed. We shall see.

Goodbye Slovenia …. hello Germany !!!!

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   Well we seem to have been here before !!!!  I cannot see a repeat of the 2001 qualifier, but ……… a win would be nice. A win over Germany is always nice ! But did you see the tennis (never thought I would say that). The epic struggle between Inser and Mahut was amazing to watch. There was no give on either side at all. Inser was looking dead on his feet, but still delivered the winning shots. Mahut looked, until the last few games, as if he was playing his second set !!!

   Guess what !!! We won the quiz last night. Granted, the team consisted of nine players or so, but a win is still a win. So there is £20.00, behind the bar, ready for next week. A late night last night, and then of course, is was drama night tonight. Everything appears to be going ok’ish. S**** is starting to worry that it will all go tits-up. I don’t think it will though. I think, that at the end of the day, it will all come together. It all means, another late night. 00:30 last night, and even later tonight. I’m getting a little too old for all this.

Poor games ….

/ Tony / 1 Comment

I am begining to think, that I may be glad when this football World Cup is over !!!!!! There games have ranged from average to poor, with the odd ‘good’ one thrown in. The talk is that it will all improve vastly, when the knockout stage begins. I await to see!

It was the Clifford Beer Festival on Saturday. Some nice beers, and it was good to catch up with some of my old friends from the days when I used to bus to work. I only seem to see them at beer festivals !! How sad is that.

Work is the same as usual. Too many of the people think they are more important than they are. Of course, they all think they work too hard !!! When in actual fact …….

Youngest is away on respite this week, and both K*** and me are attending his annual review on Thursday. That should be interesting. I am also looking into publicising the PTA of the school. At the moment, they issue the occasional letter goes to parents, whenever the PTA have an event, and that is about all. I’m looking into creating a weblog on here, together with a regular newsletter. I’ve not done anything as big as this before, but I have a few ideas. Mind you, I’ll have to talk to them and convince them of the benefits. That could be the biggest challenge. I think I will just set it all up and them present them with it. Wish me luck !!!

Where did that week go ……

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   A week since my last post, and I’ve not much to say really !!! The problems at work, finally appear(!) to have been sorted. It would seem, that the problem was not anything to do with what we expected. It was mostly the office staff that had caused the problem. Lessons will have to be learned.

   The World Cup has been a bit hit and miss. Bramham Play 2010 to be honest, I feel it has been more a ‘miss’ than a hit. Few good games, a lot of average games, and a couple of real dire ones. I was glad glad to see France get beaten tonight. They really poor again. Seems funny, having the eldest back at home and watching the footie (soccer for those who know no better). He has only just got into watching it, and I think he has almost got bitten by the bug.

   The village play now beginning to take shape (or so everyone says). Most of my work is done, I’ve just got the programme to finish, but I cannot do anything until I get the cast photos. At least the posters, tickets and flyers are finished.

   A few late nights this week (again). Really tired this morning. Did not get to bed until after midnight, and then was up with the youngest at 02:00am, when the eldest went to bed.

A busy weekend ……

/ Tony / 1 Comment

   Eldest to here yesterday, for the local music gig. I thought, when we got there, that it was going to be a bit of a flop. There was just very few people there !! However, it picked up around 09:00pm, and it turned out to be a good night. Although, the headline act did not turn up, and did not let the organiser know. Not good !

   Lost of jobs to do today, in preparation for our holiday. We go tomorrow, and are back next Sunday. Youngest is not that happy about going, but fingers crossed it will be okay. He went out with his support worker today, and that seemed to go well, so who knows.

   It would appear that England won by the skin of Japans teeth !!! This does not bode well, for when the real football starts !!! Have I wasted a £1.00 on my England aerial ‘bobble’ ????

   I downloaded an album for Amazon today, which took me back a few years. I have no idea, what made me think of them, but at one time, they were my favourite band. A band from the 70’s called Be Bop Deluxe. Really did bring back memories of seeing them in the local pub, before they hit the big time. I remember buying their first album, Axe Victim, and playing it night and day. It still sounds good today, although that could be just me.

   May get chance to blog by email during the week (if I remember how) on my mobile. Just don’t hold your breath!

An interesting week ….

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   Now the real face of politics will show itself !!! The ‘behind closed doors’ deals will start. All those standards that people voted for, cast aside in the selfish struggle for “power”. Yet again, the public voice of this country will be ignored.

   On a more positive note …… Leeds Utd are on their way back to the top! They don’t make it easy though. At one point, I actually thought they were going to lose the damn match. That would have been the finish, I think. All in all, at the end of the day, they won, and that is all there is to it. I have to say though, it is my considered opinion, that ‘Mad’ Max Credal has to go !!! At such an important match, to be sent off for ‘afters’ is totally uncalled for. Simon Grayson must really consider whether Max is right for the team now. After all, it could have been so different.

   A big well done to Chelsea. Their result was more a cricket score that a football score. And they did keep the ‘other’ team from the top.

Work and stuff …

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Work went quite well yesterday, up until around 2pm. I had to demonstrate how to do a job, and it went completely wong. It would seem IT struck again. Some of our staff, need to save images on a computer network drive. However, they get an Access Denied message. Very strange, as the drive is a shared drive.

Leeds lost again last night, and to Milwall of all teams. That put Leeds in a very vunerable position. They cannot afford to lose anymore matches, as Milwall is only three points behind them. At this rate, Leeds could end up in the playoffs again, and I don’t think anyone wants to go through that again !!

Work today is problematic. The toilets are blocked again (seems to be every two weeks this happens). They know what the problem is, and ‘think’ they know who is causing it, but it is not getting fixed.

Quiz night tonight. Me and Mrs H are to have a go. Can’t see us winning, but whilst the youngest is away, it’s a chance to get out. And then I have a day off tomorrow. Last of this years leave.

It’s hard work ….

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   Back to the decorating today. Who would have thought, that a room 4ft by 4ft, would take so long to paint. I think the problem, lies with the previous paint. It’s green. Not just green, but what was called ‘antique green’. Now I don’t know what that means !!! What I do know, is that it is a pain to cover. The new colour is called ‘Natural Hessian’. I don’t know what that means either, but it is a neutral beige colour, that compliments the base colour in the wallpaper. Well, I thinks that’s enough Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen for one night, don’t you ?

   I have started reading The Sunne In Splendour again. It is an epic factual novel, about the War of The Roses, written by my favourite author Sharon Kay Penman. The knowledge this woman has about the Medieval Ages in Britain, is outstanding. No one comes close to her. When you read one of her books, you begin to feel that you are part of the tale, not just a reader of a book. I am determined to hunt down other books by the remarkable author.

   Another loss for Leeds Utd. I know it was a draw today, but at this stage of the game, anything that is not a win, is a loss. It means that other football teams are getting closer to the top, and it also means that we may be heading for the play-offs. There is still some way to go before the end of the season, but Leeds needs to play every game as if it is life or death. At the moment, this is not happening.

Friday is still a long way off ….

/ Tony / 1 Comment

   Another, more or less uneventful day. The IT guy I was trying to contact finally got back to me, so that was a success. I need to get some cases to the new company ASAP. Things are looking good for tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

   Not heard from the eldest, since Mrs H rang him on Monday to tell him that his phone bill was too high. I don’t know how anyone with 700 minutes call time can rack up another £26.00+ in call charges. He claims it must have been when he rang the ISP, but I’m not so sure. The final bill is due on Friday. I’ll know for sure then. I have an idea his flatmate has been using it !!!!

   Youngest was up very early this morning. First heard him at around 04:00am. He tends to make a kind of droning sound, which I think is an attempt to drown out the tinnitus, the we think he has. But he was making ‘his noise’ from the moment he awoke. We never got back to sleep at all really. Made for a tiring day. He is still awake now, although it has gone quiet.

   Watched the first half of the footie tonight. Not impressed much. I hear though, that they improved vastly in the second half ! Just my luck eh !

1 – 0 ….. need I say more ?

/ Tony / 2 Comments

   Of course, I could say plenty more, but there is no need. It was an exciting game of football, but could have been an absolute disaster if Man U had actually turned up !! Their so called ‘big guns’ did not seem to do much, especially Ryan ‘Mr Personality’ Giggs. But I cannot take it away from the lads. Beckford got the goal we needed, and that is that. All we need to do now is the same to Spurs, but will Beckford be there ????

Poor Delia ……

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   The above refers, of course, to the Mighty Whites 2 – 1 win over Norwich Copy of w146_a_10241 City this evening. It was a good game, well at least the first half was. Mrs H wanted to Masterchef and House, so I missed of the second half. I managed to get a sneak peek, at around the 70 minute mark, but they were still 1 – 1. In the old days, and by that I mean the past few years, Leeds Utd would be already for going home, and that’s the time they used to lose the game. Not any more it seems. Simon Grayson appears to have convinced the team to play to the final whistle. It is paying off.

   My cold seems to be lingering a bit longer than I hoped it Vicks Vapour Rubwould. The ‘wet’ part Olbas Oilhas dried up, but mow I seems to have got the chesty cough back. It’s been a bit heavy going this evening. I’ll slap a  good dollop of Vick’s Vapour Rub on and a splash of Olbas oil should help me sleep.

   I have taken to putting random statements in the status of my facebook page. For the most part, people have taken them for what they are … random, meaningless statements. However, on a couple of occasions, a certain ‘friend’ appears to believe, that I am having a pop at them. Some people take facebook way too serious.

   Work went quite well. I have a fair bit to get through this week, what with the permit renewals. There are about 9 different zones to renew. Some are only a few properties, but two or three have a couple of hundred properties in each zone. So a lot of work, for quite a few people over the next few weeks.

   As I hoped, I managed to get Wednesday afternoon off as flexi time. That is when R***’s consultant has decided to come and see us. I am not looking forward to it at all, as I feel I know what he is going to say. Still I will listen to what he says, and then we will decide. R*** has been in a strange mood really. One minute laughing and singing, the next holding his ears and ‘droning’. It sounds like he has had a good day at school though.

Lost ……

/ Tony / 2 Comments

   Leeds started well, and a shameful disallow of a, perfectly good, goal did not  seem to upset them. Snodgras played a blinding game, but Beckford had an unlucky game. Then a Liverpool goal from Ngog sealed Leeds’s fate. Leeds held their own, and put a on good show. Lets face it, Liverpool are a leading Premiership team, and Leeds are starting the long climb back. Liverpool 1 – 0 Leeds.

   I tell you what, I hate, what I call “pseudo experts”. You know, they are the people that think they know what they are doing, but are not quite as clever as they think they are. It is like this. We have a number of shared files, on our computer system, that are used by all or most of the office staff at sometime or an other. To help people, I have created shortcuts to the files. This, of course makes them lazy somewhat, as it negates the need for them to locate the file for themselves. Computing at it’s very basic level. So of course, they cannot find the files without the shortcut. They manage to search and find their ‘facebook’ and private email accounts, and those addictive flash games that are all over the internet. But ask them to find stuff for work, and they turn into gibbering wrecks. Now I can add the shortcuts again (they lost them when they got new computers) but they are going to have to wait until I have the time to do it. They all want/need/like different shortcuts, so it will not be a quick two minute job, but it will get done. Enter the pseudo expert !! Now my idea would be to right-click on the file and ‘create a shortcut’, then copy and past the shortcut to the users start menu. Not so the pseudo expert. She/he, being clever, decides to drag and drop and in so doing, simply creates a copy of the file onto the start menu. Thus giving everyone their own copy of a shared file. You can see what the problem is going to be !!!

   Of course, IT and me share the blame equally. IT for changing the PC’s in the first place, and me for not running round like an idiot, putting the shortcuts back when they had done.

   No quiz-nite tonight. Well it was on, but the eldest was not coming up, and I wanted to see the footie. It does make a great difference watching it on a big screen in high definition. Mrs H was not too pleased I think. Still it does not happen that often (22 October is the next Leeds match on TV), and she will have to get used to it for World Cup.

Only 4 days to the weekend

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   It was an okay day today. Spike was in a good mood, which is always worrying. Nothing out of the ordinary happened at all. Quite boring really. I did manage to get 3 bottles of £7.98 wine for a tenner at Asda, which was good. They were also doing 660ml bottles of Cobra lager at £1.00 a bottle. That is under a £1.00 a pint for a premium brew.

   Youngest is kicking off. Twenty past eleven at night, and he is bouncing round his room, hurting anyone he can get his hands on.  It is like the weekend never happened.

   Leeds Utd are playing Liverpool tomorrow, at home. A reliable source informs me that Liverpool won’t be playing their best team. They can always take us when we get to Anfield. The match is on Sky HD, so I may get to watch it. But then again, the best laid plans etc etc. Leeds are doing really well in the league. If I have my stats correct, it’s eight wins and a draw. However, there is a whole lot of difference between beating Gillingham 4 – 1 and taking on the top end of the Premier League. Football eh !!

   We are not sure if S**** is coming over for the quiz tomorrow. He said last week that he might, but that may have just been to keep Mrs H happy.

   Think the youngest has calmed down now. It has gone very quiet, but that is sometimes the quiet before the storm. I don’t care what the experts say, there is not always a trigger. Then again, they will always argue, that just because we do not see the trigger, does not mean there isn’t one. How many times have we heard that one ? It appears to me that the ‘trigger’ is telling him to ‘stop’ or ‘no’. That seems to make him react more. But what do you do when he is driving his chin into your shoulder, and telling him to stop makes him worse ?

Wednesday ….. is there a pattern forming here ??

/ Tony / Leave a comment

Another four day week. June is going to be a hard month, what with all those full weeks. Not a lot has happened really. The weekend was there I suppose, but nothing special has happened. I did email RH, but nothing has come of it yet. It may be that he does not check his email every day. I will know in another week.

I got some more seeds planted over the weekend. I did four more bowls of the mixed salad leaves, and a large trough of Rocket. Fingers crossed that it will all take. The dahlias have taken since planting out. I’m looking forward to seeing them flower. I am still wondering what to do with the rough area at the side of the deck. At the moment it is just a patch of weeds. It is very shaded, and quite dry I think, so I do not know what to do there. Where is the best place to grow rhubarb? I seem to think that they like that kind of environment.

The new lap-top came last week. It is a smart piece of kit (for the council). Comes with a docking station that puts it at an angle to make typing a little more comfy. So, in theory, I can now work from home, through a VPN connection. In practice, it is even slower that at work. It could be the wireless connection that is causing the slowness or then again it could be just the councils network that is rubbish.  I will try connecting with an ethernet cable over the weekend, but I don’t hold out much hope. Big issues with the work network today. JW from Bradford came to see how we do a process today, but because of the network problems, I could not show him anything. Hopefully he is coming back next week, and things should be different.

I watched the Champions League final, all the way through tonight. It was the best game of football I’ve seen in a long time. It was a shame Man Utd did not turn up, they would have enjoyed the game. Barcelona was by far the best side.

Having a nice chat with Nina and Anna, on MSN as I type this. I’ve not spoken to Nina for about 2 weeks. We seem to miss each other, when on-line. And as for Anna, well it was before we went to Blackpool at the beginning of April. I’ve always liked Anna. She was one of the first people that I chatted to on, what used to be Lycos chat.

I’m just about getting the hang of Twitter now. I was watching ‘Celebrity Cash In The Attic’, on Monday, and Maggie Philbin (soft spot and youthful crush) was on. It was a very good show with an important charity. I follow her on Twitter, so when she tweeted, that evening, I tweeted back congratulating her on the money she raised. To my surprise, she tweeted back to me. I got all giddy. that is a real ‘celeb’ sending me a message. A nice person.