More City woe: City 1 - 1 Palace

Dave Jones has a lot to answer for. Everyone keeps saying he's a good manager, and for almost a season and a half he looked it, but since the middle of last season City have been in a mess and he can't get them out of it, and the fans (and I suspect Chairman Ridsdale's) patience is wearing thin. A lot of reports of tonight's match will focus on the referee, one Mr Mason, and boy was he dreadful. No he wasn't even that good. He was shocking. No, worse than that he was wholly incompetent, and please bear in mind that I'm trying to be objective here.
Still, that shouldn't detract from City's failings. Far from taking confidence from last week's solid display at Anfield, they were inept. No pace up front (sorry RF & JFH), 3 out of 4 passes go backwards, there's no width apart from occasional foray's by Paul Parrry - and when he did whip the ball in there was no -one there to meet it.
The midfield is conspicuous by it's absence. Rae and McPhail just aren't cutting the mustard. Passes going astray. Actually, half the time, they're not even passes, just hoofs upfield. Thompson comes on for Fowler and within 10 seconds gets himself booked for booked. Really, really, depressing. And this for a side that's suposed to be good enough to be challenging for promotion. From the Conference maybe, and if they don't up their game soon, that's where they'll be headed. They upped their game in the last 5 minutes, but why leave it until then. Poor old Kasper Schmeicel must be wondering what he's let himself in for in his month's loan spell. Awful, awful, awful. I should have stayed at home and watched Liverpool thump Besiktas 8-0 with a cold beer in my hand.

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

Hurrah!
Bonfire night. No bonfire (garden's too small, but I am going to let off some picturesque explosives. Whizz bang!

Palm: Aaarghh!1 Why can't they just make a phone that works!

I've been going back and forth between my Treo 680 and my HTC Vox like a yo yo, but had recently decided the Treo is the better all round device for me. so for the last few days, it's been Treo all the way.
Tonight though, I couldn't pick up a call - pressed the green answer key when it came in but nothing happened.
So I tried a little experiment.
I rang my Treo from my landline (one in each hand). The landline failed to connect 3 times with a number unobtainable signal (even though the signal bars on the Treo were lit up like a Christmas tree. Then it connected and rang the Treo, but strangely even after about 20 seconds the Treo hadn't started to ring.
Next try it rang, but again the answer button failed to do anything.
Next go it connected and answered.
Can you make sense of it? I can't.
I love the Treo - it's by far the better all round device, but I just can't trust it as a phone.
Back to the Vox.....

Network Coverage

I use T-Mobile which I generally find is a good network (both in terms of coverage, customer support and price).
I do have one slight issue though. Where I live, the signal isn't great. On my Palm Treo (which admittedly doesn't pick signals up as well as other phones) the signal can vary between four and zero bars and that can be with the phone sitting on the desk and not moving! My son who's on a T-Mob PAYG has a Sony Ericsson T630 which suffers from the same varying reception, so it's not down to the Treo alone. The T-Mob website says coverage for my postcode area is good. Hmmmm....They've obviously not tried using a phone here.
Anyway, I sent a nice polite email to Customer Service asking if there was any plans to improve the coverage here: Here's their response. Not much help for me (tried all this many times - except replacing the SIM), but it might help someone else.

Thanks for your email, about your network coverage.

I'm sorry to know that you're unable to use the phone due to bad network and I can understand how concerned you must be about this.

I've checked the coverage in [postcode] and can tell you that there are no known problems in that area at the moment.

You may be able to strengthen your signal by following these steps:

1. While the phone is switched on, remove the battery. The phone will then switch off automatically.

2. After a few minutes, replace the battery.

3. Switch the phone on.

4. Your phone will now display T-Mobile and allow you to make calls.

You might also find you need to manually select the network and you can do this by following the steps below:

1. From your menu, highlight and select network selection.

2. Change from automatic to manual.

3. Your phone will now display searching and bring up a list of networks.

4. Highlight and select T-Mobile.

If you continue to have problems, please try your SIM card in another T-Mobile phone. This will indicate whether there is a fault with the SIM card or the phone itself. We can then give you information on having your phone repaired or we can order you a new SIM card. There's a £10 charge (including VAT) for a replacement SIM card.
Thanks again for emailing me, and I'm sure you'll be able to strengthen the network to use your phone.
If you've any further queries, please feel free to email me and I'll be glad to help you.

2nd November 2007 - a very nice day

It's my birthday! Yippee. another notch on the old staff of life. That's 48 notches altogether now. My daughter Bethan, who's 10, said today....."You're not old yet Dad. Don't worry, I'll tell you when you're old"! Thanks.
We've had a nice day today. It's half term, so we're off with the kids this week, and today we decided to go to the Cotswolds for the day. Packed up a picnic lunch and headed off down the motorway to Bourton on the Water. We've been before, some years ago, but that was in the summer. Bourton suffers from being incredibly picturesque and therefore is an absolute nightmare in the summer when you can't move for tourists. Today though was lovely. The weather was great and the autumn colours combined nicely with the Cotswold stone, as I hope my picture shows.
We paid a visit to Birdland in the village, where bizarrely you can see, in the middle of Gloucestershire, the only colony of King Penguins in the British Isles (I kid you not).
Stopped off at a Harvester on the way home for a birthday tea, and now just chilling out. No doubt I'll have a long cool beer later. Lovely.
Also, Happy Birthday to my Sister-in-Law Sue, who shares my birthday.

New consumer Blackberry - the 8320

Saw this over at Palm-Mac (Murray always seems to be on the ball). It's Sammy from Palm Addicts giving the new Blackberry 8320 the once over in a short video. It looks like it could be a Palm killer (what Palm's not already dead?). Could this be the device (if and when it becomes available in the UK) to give me the things I dearly want from my Treo (decent signal reception, decent battery life) and things I don't want from Windows Mobile.....errr, that'll be Windows Mobile then.

Liverpool 2 - City 1: Blooobirds!

City gave as good as they got last night in the 4th round of the Carling Cup against Liverpool at Anfield. After a stuttering start to their league campaign, doom mongers were predicting the Bluebirds would come seriously unstuck against last years beaten Champions League finalists.
City though had other ideas. with almost 6,000 traveling support urging them on, and generally outsinging the home crowd, Dave Jones team were holding their own at half time with the score at 0-0.
Just after the break though, the Reds took the lead, with that well known Liverpool player Nabil El Zhar blasting home from 25 yards. Rather than capitulate, City stuck at their task and were rewarded when skipper Darren Purse nodded home Paul Parry's free kick to the delight of the ecstatic City faithful.
Sadly, our joy lasted about 46 seconds as Liverpool broke almost from the kick off and Steven Gerrard slotted home what proved to be the winner. Great game. RF had an outstanding ovation on his return to Anfield, and the City players and support did themselves proud.

The only blight on the day was the journey. Left at 1:30pm and didn't get to Anfield until 6pm, and coming home got into the car at 10.05pm and arrived home at 3:30am. The M6 was a nightmare both ways. On the way back, we were stuck in a huge jam, which eventually proved to be 2 miles of single lane with the other two lanes coned off with absolutely no-one, or nothing, being done in the coned off area. To have a major route like that at a what was a virtual standstill at 1:30am in the morning with no work actually happening is criminal.

Palace at home next Tuesday. C'mon you Blooobirds!

Bones

You may have read (if you've been bored enough) that some of my bones are a little creaky - especially in the region of my left knee. I had an arthroscopy a couple of years ago (keyhole surgery where they snip loose bits and suck it all out through a tube) which helped a bit. Since then though, things have gone downhill, and this summer, probably made worse by me continuing to try and play cricket (note the use of the term "try"), which forced me back to the Dr. They referred me back to my orthopaedic surgeon who arranged a scan.
Had the news today. Apparently generally the knee is in pretty good health - apart from the "bad medical osteoarthritis" (so what's good about that then I say?). So, the plan is that they're suggesting I have a higher tibial osteotomy. A what? Read the link yet? Sounds a bit brutal to me.....God knows when it'll happen - don't know what the waiting list is like these days.
Still when I'm laid up in my knee brace, I'll have plenty of time to write in this blog!

Palm related blogs I enjoy reading

One of these has given me a mention, so I thought I'd reciprocate.
Palmblogging is run by David. It's a general blog with a Palm theme as he's an avid Palm user. Not too technical, but focuses on what he does with the device - real life stuff. A daily visit for me recently.

Another of my daily haunts is Palm-Mac, Murray's blog of all things Mac and mobile. He's got/had more devices than you can shake a stick at, and his view of them, and the world in particular is very entertaining to read (in my view). Maybe it's because his set up is similar to mine in that he's got a Treo 680 (amongst others) and had for a short while an HTC Vox, and uses T-Mob as his carrier. Not afraid to call a spade a spade if he doesn't agree with something, I'd recommend blog this to any mobile gadgeteer.

My 'Big Daddy' though, a site rather than a blog is Palm 247 run founded and run (mostly - with help for a few key others [Neil, Mike, Peter - take a bow] by Shaun McGill. The site has Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian options, but is really friendly, has several updates each day and is well worth adding to your favourites list if your a mobile device user.

Anfield here we come!

It's the big day tomorrow (Wednesday) when Cardiff take on the mighty Liverpool in the 4th round of the Carling Cup.
Let's not kid ourselves here, I don't expect City to win. What I do expect is for the lads to give it their best shot, and not go down like a pack of cards. You never know, though, cup competitions can be strange affairs. As the old cliche goes, a cup match is a one off, 11 v 11 on the day etc etc. Hmmm...
Now if RF was to score on his old hunting ground, that would be good.
Looking forward to this so much - I hope it doesn't let me down. We're going up with my mate who we sit next to in the Canton stand. He volunteered to drive (well done Andy). Our two boys will be well up for this too.
Going to be a long night though - especially if City take the Reds to extra time and penalties....LOL

Westonbirt Arboretum

We've just been to Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire for the day. The kids weren't at all impressed when we told them their first trip for half term was a day out looking at trees! They warmed to the task though, and both of them thoroughly enjoyed the walks through the stunning autumn woodland - there's almost 600 acres altogether I believe.
Bethan, who's 10, in particular was running from tree to tree looking for the name tags trying to decipher their latin names, whilst James (almost 13) conceded that it was "...much better than I thought it was going to be - it all looks so pretty".
It helped that the morning was glorious sunshine which managed to get the light perfect when it shone through the foliage, especially the acers.
Not cheap for a walk in woods though at £7.50 per adult and £2.50 per child, and teas/coffee/cakes is pricey in the cafe - take your own flask and sarnies as we did.
Undoubtedly spectacular though - we'll go again.

Digital Dilemmas

If you've read previous posts you'll know I love gadgets. My phone of choice for almost the last year and a half has been the Palm Treo - firstly the 650 and when I managed to break that, it's successor the 680. I love the Palm operating system, so easy to use, but the Treo is not without fault. Back in September I therefore on a whim bought an HTC S710 Windows mobile smartphone in the belief this would be a new dawn for me in my mobile computing world.
However, all it's done is confuse me.
The main reasons for switching from the Treo were, in no particular order:

• Poor battery life
• Weak signal reception (compared to other phones on the same network)
• Random restets
• A dodgy onboard clock that could "lose" up to an hour a day - iffy if your smartphone is controlling your calendar and alarms!

The S710 looked a great replacement on paper. It still had the pre-requisite for me - a qwerty keyboard - a neat slide out contraption, which allowed the smaller form factor over the Treo. A great screen, system stability, great battery life and good signal reception. This, I thought was the way forward - goodbye Palm.

But....

Try as I can, I just can't ditch Palm and the Treo. Although the S710 cures all the failings of the Treo, it's just not as fast and intuitive to use as the Palm operating system. I find the lack of a touch screen particularly frustrating, the spinning beach ball appears too often as I wait for applications to open and everything takes at least one or two more button presses in Windows Mobile than on the Palm. Worse, it's locked up on me a couple of times when browsing the internet.
I've spent the last week swithcing my SIM from the S710 to the Treo and back again trying to decide which is the device for me. There's absoutely no doubt in my mind, that were battery life, and signal reception better on the Treo it would be my preferred smartphone of choice by a country mile, but just when I think I can live with those failings, they let me down. So I switch back. 24 hours later, the Windows Mobile interface is driving me back to the Treo!
There's no sign of Palm fixing these problems - or even acknowledging they exist, so little hope there. There's an new version of the S710 out soon - the S730 which promises a faster processor, so may be worth a look. I'd rather be using the Treo though.

Beer, beer, beer

This is great! I love it!
Beer, beer, beer

Scunthorpe

It doesn't get any better. Looking to build on confidence after that demoralising defeat to Wolves midweek, City started abysmally against the "Iron". Took them 35 minutes to get going, unable to string a pass together, the only bright spots, on loan Kasper Schmeicel looking sharp and confident in goal, and a City supporter shouting "C'mon it's on;y Scunthorpe" that had the away 'keeper smiling. Then in about our first attack Stephen McPhail gets on the end of a JFH cross and volleys in from close range. I think that's the only time I've seen him in the opposition box in almost two seasons. Perhaps he should try it more often. 1-0 at half time, with the prospect of that clean shet manager Dave Jone sis looking for.

Too good to last?

Yes.

10 minutes after the restart a low cross poorly defended and a low shot back across Schmeicel which he's probably admit he could have done better with. Followed by another turgid35 minutes. A few efforts late on, but a point's not good enough. Jonesy's walking a tightrope at the moment. The distraction of a Carling Cup tie against the might of Liverpool on Wednesday may be welcome for the fans, but behind the scenes there are serious problems that need sorting out, and quickly.

City 2 - 3 Wolves: Rubbish!

City were dismal again last night apart from a couple of bits of magic from RF & JFH. Roger Johnson must be gutted. I think he's been one of the outstanding players of the season so far, but manager Dave Jones dropped him for this match claiming defensive frailties had let us down in recent matches. Quite right, but not really RJ's fault in my opinion. He then sees skipper Darren Purse installed in his place make a mistake (again) for Wolves first goal, and Glenn Loovens outmuscled for their second, and then the defence concede a third from an unmarked header!

City defended so deep (they always do) they needed oxygen to get into Wolves half most of the time. Is it in their contracts that they're not allowed in the opposition's half? Give a side 30 yards free space and they'll make you pay - and they did. Apart from RF's cool penalty and JFH's neat finish from a great move City were poor. They need to improve for Saturday against those big hitters Scunthorpe, before we have the little matter of next Wednesday's visit to Anfield in the Carling Cup. Given Liverpool & City's form, it'll probably end up 8-9!

Stephen McPhail's been wholly ineffectual in the middle of the park - he's supposed to be a "playmaker" yet he passes 90% of balls backwards, and 10% of the rest sideways. I can't remember the last time he scored for City - or even if he has, and we're desperately missing Ricardo Scimeca to bolster that middle Gavin Rae didn't impress me early on, but he's improving, making telling tackles and even has a couple of goals to his name (listening Mr McPhail?)

Seriously, City are in relegation form at the moment, and they need something to happen quickly. I'm not sure bringing in yet another goalkeeper (Man City's Casper Schmeichel) on loan is the answer - what is it with City? We seem to sign more goalkeeper's than any other type of player put together and then don't use them.

Bring on Scunny!

England's Glory

What a great week it's been for English sport. The England football team qualify for next years European Championship, the rugby boys win the world cup and Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 Championship in his rookie year........errr - not.

Let's face it, when push comes to shove, this last week highlights all that's wrong with English sport. Over-hyped and generally over estimated.

Still, could be worse. You could be a Cardiff City supporter - lost again yesterday. Premiership material? What was I saying about over-hyped?

Sent by Treo 680

Customer Support - not!

You’ll have to bear with me on this, but at the end might understand why:

a) I’m a grumpy old git

b) Have little patience with anything these days

c) Am losing hair at a rate of knots

Last week I had a call from my broadband supplier Pipex. A nice call. As an existing customer, how would you like a faster connection speed for less money and no catches? Yes please. And whilst we’re at it, free evening & weekend calls?

Well our domestic landline useage isn’t high, and I’m already on a near as dammit free Talk Talk package, but why look a gift horse in the mouth?

The confirmation emails from Pipex started rolling in. Order underway etc and then – “Please contact us – problem with your order”. So I did.

They said they could complete the order because I had a Talk Talk “tag” on the line and I had to get Talk Talk to remove it. So I rang Talk Talk.

Talk Talk said we can’t remove the tag as the line is “owned” by BT. So I rang BT. Meanwhile, each time I rang each company and groped tortuously through their call messaging services they told me how much they valued my call and that they’d be with me just as soon as they could, although they were terribly busy right now. Aren’t they always? GET MORE STAFF!

Anyway, BT kept me on hold for 20 minutes and I got fed up and rang off. Tried again this afternoon, got through quickly via the new sales line (ha ha – good trick) whereupon I was told, “Not our problem mate, need to talk to Pipex”. Notice a theme occurring here? Pass the buck? They also gave me a MAC code. For all you techies out there you’ll know this is a code needed when transferring a broadband service (which is strange because I wasn’t).

However, I rang Pipex and the nice man there said “Why did they give you a code? All you need to do is cancel the call package with Talk Talk, set up a line only rental with BT, and when you confirm that we’ll set up your call package”.

But what about my broadband upgrade I whined? Oh that’s all done and completed he said!!!!!!!!! I refrained from shouting at him (it wasn’t his fault) but kindly pointed out that if someone had told me that first thing this morning it would have saved me a great deal of irritation, frustration and dents in the desk where I’d been banging my fists. As it turns out you see, I’m not that really concerned about my call package, as it’s the broadband increase I was really after, but I seem to have been misinformed and understood that it was all tied together.

Maybe I didn’t read my emails properly, or maybe I was just given the wrong info. Either way, it’s clear that none of these companies really “value you” once they’ve got you. Customer Service is a laugh . They’re all too quick to push you somewhere else just so they can make the next sale.

Oh, and whilst making these calls, BT also managed to cut me off 3 times.

Scores:

Pipex 6/10

Talk Talk 6/10

BT 3/10

City 2 - Burnley 1: a home win at last

For the first time since March City finally won at home. In a nail biting affair against fellow Championship side Burnley, City went one up in the first half through Joe Ledley (pictured), only for Burnley to equalise through yet more sloppy defending early in the second half. Half time substitutions by the opposition, perked up the Clarets who'd looked very ordinary in the first period and they went close on a couple of occasions. Paul Parry though, having a decent game but unable to deliver anything like a decent cross decided the best way was to run at the defence and shoot; 2-1 City. Why oh why don't run at defenders more often?

Burnley though will have done their homework and knew that City have conceded very late in several games this year. They threw people up front and you could feel the tension in the crowd as the time ticked down, and the howls on anguish as 4 extra minutes were posted. But the Bluebirds hung on as the whistles for full time, more reminiscent of a winning FA Cup match, eventually saw the ref blow up we gained three valuable points as we start to climb the table.

The official MoM was Joe Ledley, but my pick was Gavin Rae who's looking stronger and more authoritarian in the midle of the park as the season progresses.

Gordon or David? And does it really matter?

So we're still waiting to find out if the Chancellor - sorry - Prime Minister, is going to call an autumn election. Frankly, the conference season has passed me by. I'm sure that I should be interested in politics, but you can understand why so many people are apathetic about it.
For one, there actually seems to be little difference these days between Left and Right. Policies are similar and the legacy of years of 'spin' make many believe politicians are not to trusted, whoever they are or purport to represent.
Secondly about 75% of the electorate will vote the way they always have anyway - irrespective of policy and manifesto from any of the main parties. I reckon these fall into 2 main groups. Those that will never forgive the Conservatives for the years of Maggie even though that was years ago, and those that think anyhing left of Ghengis Khan is old Labour. Naive all. Oh, and there are a few of those Liberal Democrat folk who'll do anything to be best mates.
I can be turned, but probably more by local issues than national. I just wish Gordon would call it so we can get it all over with for the next 4-5 years.

Mobile email via Vox

Can't keep a clean sheet

City remain unbeaten away from home this season, but can't keep a clean sheet to save their lives. turning round a goal deficit in the 1st half against Sheffield United to lead 2-1 at half time (another one for Robbie!), we went 3-1 up early in the second only to concede 2 in the last 5 minutes to draw 3-3. A win would have put us comfortably upper mid table, instead we lie mid table, and certainly not comfortably being only 2 points above the relegation zone. Promotion form? Not.

Black Gold (or cyan or magenta or yellow)

Two things.

1. Never skimp on quality (although see point 2.) I've now bought at least 3 "value" inkjet cartridges for my aging HP 940C deskjet (it might be more), and on each occasion the cartridge has been naff. The colour one I put in yesterday decided that green is the new yellow. Granted it had been on the shelf for about 4 months, but it was unopened and still had the seal across the head. Cleaned the thing via the software, cleaned it under a running tap, shook it, threw it across the floor. Still yellow is green - or rather a sickly vomit colour. Morale? Avoid cheapo's - there's just no point. Stick to HP cartridges. And so to point 2.
2. I bought the cheapo ones, because they were just that. Cheap. Relative that is to HP's own. But they don't work (for me at least). So off I trot to PC World on my way home (I know, I know - but I was desperate and it was on my way home.)
   
   £35 quid!!!!!
   
   For 19 ml!!!!
   
   That's about £1.90 per ml!!!
   
   And the chances are I'll run out of one of cyan, magenta or yellow well before teh other colours run out so I won't get my full 19ml's worth anyway!!!
   
   'Scuse me, but that's bloody ridiculous. If I'd needed a new black cartridge too I might as well have bought a new printer.
   In fact I might next time. There's nothing wrong with mine (apart from the extortionate ink costs), but it's a few years old now and according to the PC Pro mag their A listed tea making duplex printing Canon Pixma iP5300 is only 75 notes (and I bet I can find it cheaper), and their 2nd choice the 5300's little brother the 3300 is only £32!. Stupid.
   

Robbie's Return

The draw for the fourth round of this season's Carling Cup has just been made and guess what! Cardiff City go to Anfield to play Liverpool. A dream return to his old hunting ground for Robbie Fowler, and the chance to put one over on his old muckers. What a draw! Need to find out about tickets, as me & mini-Stats will be well up for this. City always have a good away support, and with a tie like this should take several thousand up to Merseyside. C'mon you Bloooooobirds!!!

Scare stories

How many times have we seen something that appears to herald the doom of mankind, or at least likely to give us the snuffles only for it all to blow over, or at least fall into distant memory as the next big thing takes it's place. For example, we've had mad cow disease that had everyone avoiding beef and burgers and although bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a real disease, it doesn't appear to have had anything like the devastating effect that was predicted (yet). Similarly SARS (remember that), avian flu, salmonella etc, have all been linked to the end of the world as we know it. Until something else comes along.

I blame the media.

Don't get me wrong. I don't for one moment doubt the authenticity of such health problems, or the anguish that those who suffer as a result, directly or indirectly undergo, but if you listen to the "popular media" (define whatever that is if you can) the human race will be wiped out by the weekend. And it's all usually down to climate change. Or not washing hands properly. Or poor immigration controls. Or just because these things happen.

Me; I take it all with a pinch of salt. Or at least I would if I hadn't heard recently how the salt in my diet will do for me.

WBA 2 - 4 Bluebirds

So, my hunch came true. City sneaked past WBA 4-2. More like a hammering methinks, with Robbie Fowler & Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on the scoresheet. Who'd have thought that 6 months ago? Let's hope for a massive tie in the next round.

Skittles

The skittles season is here! "Hoorah" I hear you all shout - or at least they would if anyone was reading this...

Skittles is a top game in South East Wales, played by finely honed athletes, of a dark winters night, on cold alleys with a pint of Brains Dark to hand.

Seriously, it's great fun - you should find a pub with an alley and try it. There are variations on the game all over the country, but ours is best. You can check out all the form and details at our very nice web site Dinas Powys Athletic "B" Skittles

We start this Wednesday with a home tie against the Legion A.

We're on the road to Wembley, la la la la, la la la la

Tonight City play the mighty West Brom (not) in the Milk, sorry, Worthington, sorry, Carling League cup thingy. To be honest we've done well to get this far, edging past those giants of the game Brighton & Hove Albion and Leyton Orient, and face stiff opposition tonight away at the West Midlands outfit. In our favour is our away form this season, and I think we could just edge it...then Man U away in the next round.....

We'll see

Queues

I think I've mentioned before that I hate queues of any sort. and it's getting worse. The older I get the more impatient I become, and to be honest I've never been the most tolerant of people anyway.

Why is it that whenever I have the choice between two queues, I always pick the wrong one? You know what I mean - you weigh up the options, choose the one that's moving fastest and then the person in front of you hasn't got the right change, or drops the change all over the floor, or can't converse in the language required etc.

And it's not just queues of people. Traffic, "virtual" queues when you're stuck listening to how some company or other really "values" your call and will be with you "just as soon as our next agent becomes available"....yeah! (Handy tip - when ringing a company that has a series of choices, always choose the option for sales - your call will be answered much quicker than the support/advice option).

Worst of all, queues are eating away at my valuable life time. I'm into my late forties now, so if I have a good innings I might get another forty (but then I might not), and I don't want to spend that precious time stuck behind someone or something. And do you realise just how much time you spend in queues?

There's the school run and thence to work. Typically going it's 50 minutes for a 13 mile trip - over an hour on bad days, but as little as 35 minutes on good days. The home journey can be done in 25 minutes, but more typically 35, and currently with the M4 roadworkd around Cardiff 45. That's if you can get off the Buisness Park in less than an hour because there's only 1 access road and that's straight onto Junction 30 M4 (Planners - D'oh!). That's 40m or more a day, over three hours a week that I could gain if it weren't for the traffic queues. That's a lot of time.

Then there are other various miscellaneous queues:

• At the bar on skittles nights when I need my pint of Brains Dark
• At the take away on Friday's
• At any shop
• Getting out of Ninian Park after Cardiff City's latest home defeat/draw (never a win)
• Trains - don't talk even to me about queues and trains......
• Airports - a queue haters nightmare, but thankfully only faced a couple of times a year
• Time waiting for your PC to boot up (technically a queue of instructions)
• Waiting for the kettle to boil (mental note - must get one of those jobbies that promises to boil a cup of water in 3 seconds)

and so on...

But what to do about it? Be more patient? Not in my nature. Get more stressed? In my nature but not good for my health. Go with the flow? Wish I could. Answers on a postcard please.

City 2 - Preston 2

I went to Ninian Park today quietly confident that at last City would get their first home win of the season, and that either Robbie Fowler or Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink would get on the scoresheet.
Sure enough, RF opened his Bluebirds account with a great poacher's header, but PNE equalised it early in the second half after some more dire City defending. When RF doubled his tally, it looked like we'd bagged all 3 points, but in injury time a needless free kick on the edge of the area, well worked by PNE put the scores level. Worse, City's star man (in my opinion and that's over the last 18 months) central defender Roger Johnson was injured in that goal and stretchered off after prolonged treatment for a head injury. Hopefully it looks like he'll be OK, because neither of our other 2 centre backs (Purse and Loovens) are fit yet!
So I went home feeling like we'd lost. It's a point, but that's not good enough, and the defending has got to improve. God knows what RF and JFH are thinking about the sloppy goals we give away.

Spam, spam spam

For as long as we've had email (well almost) we've had spam - unsolicited emails, usually suggesting you part with wads of cash for some potion or pills that will perk up your libido so to speak. Generally, most people get onto spam lists quite unintentionally by responding to requests to provide their email address which is then sold on by a third party, or because they naively respond to a spam email itself which does little more than verify the email address is active, and therefore continues the cycle...

I've always been pretty responsible in the respect (I thought). Careful about who and under what circumstances I provide my email address to, and for several years actually didn't suffer from too much spam. In the last year though, I've noticed an exponential increase, and now I get shedloads on a daily basis.

I use a program called "Mailwasher" to filter my spam on my host ISP server before I download it, and this helps enormously, but it's still a right royal pain in the ****. I can't undestand why there isn't a more concerted effort to try and tackle the perpetrators of spam. Unless of course there's a financial incentive not to. But then maybe that's just a cynical viewpoint.

Premiership? Not yet

I loyally bought my Cardiff City season ticket way back in May, confident that we'd be able to push for promotion this year. With money in the bank from the sale of Michael Chopra to Sunderland for £5m, manager Dave Jones had money to spend.
8 new players in, included the ageing but Premiership experienced duo of Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink - great coups.
Sadly our start to the season has been decidedly mediocre. 3 home losses. 2 away wins and a draw. JFH finally got off the mark with a stunner against Watford last night, but we still lost 2-1. We can't defend (although having Purse, Loovens and Scimeca all out doesn't help. Fowler looks off the pace, but you can see his (and JFH's) thought processes are a step up on everyone else.
There is a long way to go, but we need to start winning at home. Bring on Preston this Saturday!

Via Vox

Another shiny gadget

I'm just a sucker for shiny gadgets and 8 months after replacing my broken Treo 650 smartphone with it's 680 successor I've made the move from the Palm platform to Windows Mobile. I'm now using an HTC S710 or "Vox".

It's a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone, smaller than the Treo with a slide out QWERTY keyboard which when opened automatically switches the screen to landscape mode.

With WIFI, and GPRS it really only lacks 3G, but frankly I don't need that sort of performance.

Whilst I still can't bring myself to ditch the Palm platform entirely, I must admit I like the Vox. Cool.

Mobile email via Vox

Sunny Days

We've just returned from a fortnight in Puerto Pollensa in Majorca, and jolly nice it was too. Hot sunshine, cold beer and warm seas - just the thing to forget about the rat race. we've been before, in fact this is our 3rd trip to the same place. The kids loved it (it was a Thomson Superfamily hotel), the scenery is superb up in the mountains, and for me and the missus it was a nice relaxing holiday. We've only been back a day or two and have already got some brochures for next years outing. Time to start saving the pennies...
For anyone interested, our top highlights of the holiday were:

1. The Pirates Adventure show in Magaluf - stunning acrobatics
2. Evening horseriding at Rancho Grande in Son Serra de Marina, followed by a meal, shedloads of sangria and a chance to make a fool of yourself on the Bucking Bronco - I managed 34 secs and was only beaten into second spot by a 13 year old who managed 35 secs!
3. The drive down to Sa Colabra - must be one of the bendiest roads on the planet - tough in a car - we met about 30 coaches coming up!
4. The beach at Formentor - pictured - almost like being in the caribbean!

Look out Shane Warne

Proud moment today, as "Junior" aka "Mini-Stats" played cricket for the Sunday senior side - at 12 and a half the youngest player on the pitch by some distance and in his first senior competitive match . Not only did he field well, but given the chance with the ball bagged 4-13 with his leg breaks against a youthful, but talented Blaengarw side. 1 bowled, 1 catch and 2 stumpings is an impressive return. With his 1-0 in a senior warm up, he's now got 5-13 in his 2 senior matches to date. He genuinely turns the ball, and boasts a googly and flipper. Let's hope he can keep that going, for Dinas Powys CC and England's sake!

In 5 U13 matches this year he's averaging a tad over 37 with the bat as well, and if he keeps working hard, could turn out to be a fine young cricketer. I on the other hand, coming to the end of my career am struggling to hit the ball off the square, and can't bowl because of my dodgy knee. Time to move over I think...

Summer - What summer?

As usual I've been neglecting my blogging duties (how do people who run regularly updated blogs find time to do it?) Well, I suppose they may not play cricket (of which more later), coach junior cricket, run a taxi service for 2 children, play skittles, have a house to decorate/upkeep and full time job and try and keep 3 websites on the go.

So what have I been up to. Playing cricket certainly hasn't been on the agenda. The rain has been persistent and we haven't played a league match in 3 weeks. No bad thing I guess considering my form before the heavens opened! After such a glorious April, the rest of the summer so far has turned into a big damp squib.

One bright spot was that the U13 cricket team I coach won their first ever match last week. I was so chuffed for them all as we've taken a bit of a battering in our other matches, but the lads have progressed really well this season and definitely deserved the win.

Let's hope the weather changes for the better soon. Apart from anything else I need to top up my suntan!

Cricket lovely cricket!

So the cricket season is upon us once again. Two matches for Dinas Powys CC last weekend. On a glorious early May Saturday we chased down Lisvane Whiteheads 280 to win by 3 wickets. On a rather more blustery Sunday we were stuffed in the 1st round of the Welsh Cup by arch rivals Barry Wanderers. Oh well, at least we can concentrate on the league!

Sent by Treo 680

Mother's Day

Mother's Day tomorrow. Kids are excited about delivering presents and flowers and breakfast in bed to their Mum.

Time for me to pause and think about my Mum, Kit who passed away on 19th December 2002. She was a great Mum to all of us (Terry, me, Stephanie & Richard) and a wonderful wife to our Dad, George, who still misses her terribly. There's not many days go buy when I don't think about her, so Mum, if you're listening, Happy Mother's Day for tomorrow.

Spring is coming - is it?

My conservatory is starting to look like a greenhouse. It's full of seedlings and young plants. The raised bed of a couple of posts ago has been built (and already has mixed salad, parsnips, carrots and peas grwoing in it (albeit slowly) in this late winter weather.
I've also got 3 different types of tomatoes, onions, basil and coriander on the go, plus a variety of annual flower seedlings. Today I planted out some perennials received in the post. If it all comes off it should be great!

City Talk

Well, City are still in with a shout of he play-offs, but losing 3-1 to derby today didn't help. On the bright side, work has started on the long awaited replacement stadium for Ninian Park, but it won't be readyuntil at least Christmas 2008....
We've bought our season tickets for next year. We haven't even finished this season yet, but £370 for me and my son to watch a seaon just seemed like to good an opportunity to waste.
Hopefully next time I post, it'll be about a resurgent City.

Raised beds

No, nothing to do with sleeping on stilts. I like gardening (hey it's not a crime!), and I only have a small ish garden. It was in a mess when we moved in 2 years ago - nothing but weeds and mud. It's turning around and I've got some small borders now, but nowhere to grow my veg. So I've decided that a small portion of a straggly lawn (which the kids don't play on anyway) will be given over to a raised bed. All I have to do is build it, and then away we go......Ha ha - you obviously haven't heard about my DIY skills.........

City on the up

Well, no sooner said than done. A 1-2 win at Wolves, despite their ridiculous fan ban, and then City 3 - Leicester 2. We tried to give it away in the final few minutes, but held on for the win thanks to a stunning hat trick from Michael Chopra. That's 4 in 2 games for "Chops". Maybe it's turning round for us.

City woes

I can't understand what's happening at Cardiff City - almost 2 months at the top of the table earlier this season, and all the talk was of of Premiership action next season (I thought this might have been a tad premature I'll have you believe), and now we're 8th, although only 3 points of 4th spot. We can't win a game to save our life, and can't score to get the win. I missed our last home win against Burnley in November, which means I haven't see them win since October!

We need a bit of luck - performances have improved generally since Christmas, but currently everything's conspiring against us. I still think a play off spot is agood target. Come on you Blooobirds!

New Year in the Gower

You'll have seen in an earlier post about how I managed to "fry" my phone whilst away at New Year. Well, here's where we went. A small, incongruous hut right at the far end of the Gower penninsula in South West Wales, a few hundred yards from the beach. The weather was a lot worse than it looked here! The accomodation can best be described as "functional", but it served it's purpose. It' even got an outside fridge for keeping the beer cold. Oh well, okay, the outside IS the frdige!! Anyway, so long as you don't mind sleeping bags and bunks, it's fine, and all of our party who went enjoyed themselves. There's a big cooker, microwave, a log burning stove, showers, toilets (yes, all that in that little tin shed, so it can be a bit cramped), but if you don't might semi "roughing" it for a few days it's great! The hut's actually a National Trust property, known as "Gower Base Camp". It's used by the NT as a base for people who are working on NT matters in the area, but can also be hired out privately, as we did, for about a tenner a night per person. I think there were about 14 of us at the time.

It's close to Llanmadoc village, but a good 30 minute stomp from the Brittania Inn. Set amongst pine trees and sand dunes, on a huge windswept beach, it's a great place to get away from it all.

Digital Deliverance

Subsequent to my last post, I've come to understand the relief that is insurance. My very friendly and helpful insurance company, who shall remain nameless, but have the words "Liverpool" and "Victoria" in it's title, have dcereed that the damage was "accidental" and my smartphone is covered under a "new" for "old" replacement cover. This is particualrly joyous, in that my fried smartphone isn't available new any more, and so I can essentially upgrade to the latest model (in fact the new model is cheaper than the old one was anyway!). So, hopefully tomorrow, I'll be the owner of a shiny new Treo 680. Result!

Digital Disaster

Yesterday my smartphone was OK. Then I had a go on one of these games where you have to thread a loop around a twisted wire without touching the wire or BAM you get an electric shock. I got a shock. My smartphone, which was in my pocket, got fried - or at least the screen did. No I have a choice. Either try and replace the screen - minimum £50 and a bit of hope - if I can find one and if it works, or buy a new smartphone (a nice shiny new upgraded model). My heart says get a new phone, my head (or more explicitly my bank account) says go for the replacement screen.......

Happy New Year

Well it's 3.15pm on New Year's Eve and I'm with my wife and friends in a pub at the end of the Gower penninsula. Great! Happy New Year to you all!

Merry Christmas!

If anyone's reading this, have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

How neat is this?

This posting has been written and submitted on my Palm Treo 650 smartphone. Now I can blog from anywhere!

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Remember Christmas?

Well. Here we are again. Hardly a year gone, and it's time for tinsel once more. I was looking for a Christmas card for my wife the other day in one of those high street card shops. Unlike me, my wife has strong faith, and I was looing for a card that represented at least in passing, what Christmas is all about. Could I find one? Could I? No.

If wanted cuddly bears, hearts, flowers and so on I was fine. Even the odd snowman was around. Robins were in short supply, and I actually found one card that had a picture of a church on it. But Mary, Joseph, a star or even God forbid the baby Jesus. Nowwhere in sight.

Around me on the high street people were rushing around like idiots spending money on things that will be son forgotten or discarded, without even a thought as to why we exchange gifts on December 25th. The supermarkets are even worse, with people buying like there's a food shortage on the horizon - and they'll all be open again on Boxing Day or the day after at the latest...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a religious zealot, and in fact find it terribly hard to have any faith at all, and have respect for those that do, but at least I understand and remember what Christmas is about. Shame the rest of the world is forgetting....

Do you ever wonder...

Sadly I can't take the credit for these ponderisms...

• I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
• The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
• Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
• There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
• Life is sexually transmitted.
• Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
• The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
• Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
• Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
• Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
• All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
• In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
• How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
• Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"
• Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt."
• Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
• If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
• If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
• Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
• Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
• Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?
• Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Things that annoy me

What you must remember is I'm knocking 47, so could be classed as a grumpy middle aged git. Some things really get my goat. In no particular order of preference:
1. Queues (of any sort)
2. Middle lane hoggers on motorways. Should have their licences taken away.
3. Motorists who don't indicate. Ditto
4. Speed cameras (is there a theme developing here?)
5. Teaspoons. There's always one left when you empty the washing up bowl
6. Wind (weather wind as opposed to farts, which is just nature)
7. Unpunctuality. It's mostly just lazy
8. Lack of respect for the environment
9. Mondays, and to a lessening extent, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
10.Goats

Bugger!

This is useless - so busy doing other things haven't posted anything since April. If anyone was reading this blog, they've long since given up. I'm going to try again, and I WILL make an effort to post frequently.

First however dear reader, you'll need a quick catch up of events since April. Here goes:

• Did lot's of gardening - enjoy gardening
• Played some cricket - enjoy cricket
• Built a website for my new cricket team Dinas Powys CC
• Tweaked and edited said website a lot
• Went on holiday to France - enjoy holidays
• Went to Disneyland Paris whilst in France - enjoy rollercoasters
• Bought wine whilst in France - enjoy wine
• Did some decorating - hate decorating
• Worked a lot - hate work
• Watched Cardiff City climb to be 6 points clear at the top of the Championship (at the time of posting - Premiership here we come!
• Watched in disbelief at England's poor showing in a) world Cup b) Euro 2008 qualifiers
• Haven't won lottery - would like to win lottery
• Enjoyed start to new skittles season DPAB

Allotments

The other day I was browsing the web, as you do and my mind turned to allotments as it does occasionally (saddo!) Anyway, a search for "allotments brought up a number of links, one of with was Plotholes. This Blog, is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Bupster - she of the Plotholes Blog, really should be in print (I guess she is on her Blog) and they could even make a television series out of it. Far funnier than "The Good Life". Well recommended......

Cricket lovely cricket

Today was supposed to be the first "warm up game" of the season, but our opposition couldn't raise a team. Bummer.
Anyway, we turned up and decided to play a 6/7 a-side match to get the rhythm going. Went well. Scored a few runs with my new bat (the last one having been cracked into two pieces at the last net session), bowled reasonably, took a catch and got a wicket. Bones ache a bit tonight, but hey I'm 46....Let's see how they are tomorrow. Dinas lads are a good bunch and Im looking forward to the seasom immensely

Water water everywhere....

I'm getting more "eco" friendly in my advancing years and I decided to purchase a small (100 litre) water butt to give me water for the garden instead of racking up water charges via my water meter (not that we need to save much water in Wales - plenty to go round!).
I installed it this weeekend with one of those rain diverter thingies off my conservatory roof downpipe (the conservatory is small - only 10x8 ft. It rained "a bit" today and when i got home it was 3/4 full! That's 75 litres of water from one wet day! It must have rained more than I thought (LOL), but begs the question, why aren't water butts compulsory - especially in the SE where they have hosepipe bans even in the middle of winter because there's not enough H20 to go around. If that much rain is swishing away down drains everytime it rains it's no wonder we haven't got any water. You'd be mad not to have one. I might have to order a second one now!
Oops, if I'm not careful I'll be after an allotment next.......

Center Parcs

Just had a great break in Center Parcs (the Longleat Forest village). We've been before, but not for a few years and now the kids are older (11 and 8) they can just go off and do their own thing in the swimming pool which basically means about 3 hours worth of hurtling down the rapids and the slides!
If you've never been to Center Parcs, it's a geat experience. You can just laze by the pool, bike in the forest (no cars!) or do any one of a multitude of sports from table tennis to archery and horse riding. The only catch is the cost. The pool's free(or at least access comes with the cost of the holiday), everything else (apart from the bikes if you bring your own) you pay for, so it can get expensive. We had a great time on our midweek (Mon-Fri) break. The "villa's" look a bit like portakabins but inside are comfy enough, though you can get posher versions (more money). The famouse dome houses the pools, slides shops and various restaurants. the feeling you get is a proper mini break - away from it all in the sense there's no cars and time to do what you want when you want. Relaxing - well - it depends. I got more exercise in 4 days than I've had in the last four weeks, with swimming, biking and so on! Great fun.

Out of retirement

After a year (or more like 18 months) off cricket, having officially retired from the game due to dodgy knees/arthritis, I've been talked into coming out of retirement by my good pal Basher (aka Badger - for various and probably best left unexplained reasons).
I'm planning - if they'll have me, to turn out for Dinas Powys CC rather than the Tavs, my team of the last 20 years. It's been a wrench deciding not to go back to the Tavs, but the chance, albeit a little late in my career to play some league cricket with a side where I can just turn up and play is quite enticing. I've only been to one net so far as unfortunately nest night clashes with skittles nights most weeks, but I enjoyed the net. Indeed the facilities at Glamorgan CC's indoor cricket facilities are superb. I think I did OK, and the DPCC lot (several of whom I know anyway) seem a good bunch. Roll on the summer, and let's hope the bones hold up!

Sporting Heaven

My it's been a sporting week.
Wednesday I played skittles and did pretty well.
Thursday I played skittles again and was crap.
Friday was mini-football training.
Saturday was mini-football - the Sully Seahawks won 4-0 against a good Cowbridge side. Well done lads - clean sheet!
Saturday pm, the Bluebirds beat Burnely 3-0. First half was abysmal. Second half they got better. New signing Steve "The Tomahawk" Thompson (formerly of Ranger no less) bagged a brace, and "Super Jase" (Jason Koumas)finsihed the game off. 8th spot - playoff's here we come!

Arsenal

 
Well we lost and to a predictably under strength Arsenal side - but a side that still contained Bergkamp, Pires, van Persie and Reyes - he who falls over in a puff of wind.
The Bluebirds did us proud though, and didn't capitulate despite going 2-0 down quite early on, and played pretty well throughout. Support was massive and vocal, unlike Arsenal's. "Highbury's a library...shhhhh" was sung thoughout!
Only blot on the day was the trains. Missed out connection at Bath Spa because our original train was late, had to wait an hour for the next one. That one's arrival was delayed 20 mins for God knows what which meant we missed the first 10 mins of the match. Bugger! Should have been there by about 12, actually got into the ground at 1:13. The journey back was almost as bad - supposed to be a straight run through to Newport - it was - again via Bath though, and took amost 2:40min.
And the goverment wonders why people hate public transport?

The Big Day: FA Cup 3rd Round

Well, tomorrow it's upon us - FA Cup round 3 day when the big guns join the fray. Arsenal will be quaking in their boots as they host the Bluebirds (and 6,000 or so of us fans) at Highbury. Can't wait to see City playing fast flowing football with neat and incisive passing and pinpoint finishing.......Er hang on, don't we play long ball football, hav a creaky defence (at the minute) and think a cross is what Manager Dave Jones gets when we give away sloppy goals? Who cares, it'll be a great day out, City have nothing to lose and an awful lot to gain. PS. Jonesy - sign Koumas before it's too late!
"C'mon Bloooobirds!!!"

Boxing Day Match Report

Down at Ninian Park on Boxing Day, and it looked like the lads had been over-indulging the day before. Pretty it wasn't, if you'd never seen football played before you woudn't have seen it yesterday either. Once Pursey got sent off (he actually started walking before the ref got his cards out, although personally I thought a yellow was all he deserved) it was all over. It seems churlish to complain about City's performance when they're as high in the table as they are after the summer's shennanigans, but they were truly awful yesterday. It appears they have one game plan. Hoof it up high and long and hope Cameron Jerome or Michael Ricketts get onto it. Complaining visiting sides get everyone behind the ball doesn't wash either. Come on City, get the ball on the ground, get it wide (why does everyone run to the left when Rhys Weston gets it on the right?) and run at the opposition. When they do that they look good. Otherwise we look pretty poor and bereft of ideas.

Christmas Excess

We've had a busy but exciting Christmas. A house full on Christmas Day and Boxing Day has ensured merriment,giving and receiving and of course eating and drinking far too much. Often we've been away for at least one of the days so I've never really over-indulged that much (although my good lady probably thinks otherwise).
Now minds turn to New Year, and we're off to join about 36 others (family & friends) in Swondownia for to see the New Year in. some of that mountain air might help clear out some of those cobwebs!

Arsenal update

Yeah hey!
Got our tickets for the Arsenal game. Our friends who sit next to us in the Spar Family Stand (Canton Stand) are going too. We've booked a train to London to get there, which I guess will be packed, and it should be a great day out. The Gunners must be quaking in their boots, having drawn the Bluebirds in the FA Cup and Real Madrid in the Champions League! Of course, City have beaten both of those teams before!!!! LOL

Festive Political Correctness

Personally, I think the country's gone PC bonkers - soon there will be no tradition left, and we'll all be brainwashed vegetables. Some say I am now... Anyway, I received one of those "fun" emails that are so popular - you know, the ones sent to about 8 million people. Normally I bin them (bah humbug) but this one was quite good, and had the following "disclaimer" at the bottom, which I thought was very funny. Please read and feel free to use at your leisure...

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all...and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Britain great (not to imply that Britain is necessarily greater than any other country or area of choice, and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual orientation of the wisher).
This wish is limited to the customary and usual good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first. "Holiday" is not intended to, nor shall it be considered, limited to the usual Judeo-Christian celebrations or observances, or to such activities of any organized or ad hoc religious community, group, individual, or belief (or lack thereof).
Note: By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. This greeting is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. This greeting implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for the wisher her/himself or others, or responsibility for the consequences which may arise from the implementation or non-implementation of the same. This greeting is void where prohibited by law"

1927 all over again!

So, Cardiff City have drawn Arsenal away in the 4th round of the FA Cup! As an Ambassador season ticket holder (I was one of the foolhardy ones who shelled out before end of May 2005) I should be able to get a ticket for me & James. I've never been to a premiership ground, so big new experience hopefully. City should be able to take close to 6,000 - should be a wonderful day, and hopefully City can repeat 1927 and beat the "Gooners" 0-1. C'mon Bluebirds!

Web site plug - Photobox

If you use a digital camera, you've got to give Photobox a visit.
Not only can you get your own pictures put on to a rage of gifts, every time you order you are given more storage space to upload your photos to, so you can share them either privately with specific named individuals or the whole world.
Best of all though, is their customer service. In the 3 years or so I've been using them, no order has taken longer than 2 days to arrive. An excellent site, ad can't be recommended highly enough.

Bluebirds flying high - well flying anyway....Jonesy are you listening?

As I write (blog), City are unbeaten in 6 games and have won their last 3, two in the League and one in the Carling Cup. It's not pretty, and it certainly isn't like watching Brazil, but the points are coming. Imagine what we'd be like if we actually played well?
It's beyond comprehension how what seems obvious to thousands of fans isn't obvious to players and the manager.
Don't defend to deep (we mostly defend on the 6 yard line), pass to feet (don't hoof it upfield hoping someone might be there (they're all back on the 6 yard line!) and move into space. It's basic stuff - we tell our mini football team this all the time, and they (mostly listen - we'll they're only 10 and 11 years old!).
Talking of thousands of fans, it was disappointing to see less than 4,000 turn up for the Carling Cup match. OK, it was only Macclesfield, and it was a Tuesday and it was the 3rd home game in a week and City aren't playing flowing football, but hey..........

Skittles

The skittles season is almost upon us (hooray)! Looking forward to dark, cold nights when we'll be inside supping large quantities of Brains finest Dark, and splashing the pins. You can of course follow the teams progress, by clicking the link on the right.

Medical update

Aortic valve replacement (pigs!), triple bypass and a radio frequency ablation. Sounds horrible. Said member of family is now discharged and recuperating (slowly) from a fairly big MOT/60,000 mile service.
My knee's OK too.....

More medical woes

Mortality. There's nothing like it. Most of the time you don't even think about it, but here we are again. A family member is unwell and looking like he'll need heart surgery. Brings it home. Certainly puts my dodgy knee into perspective.

Nice 'n Kneesy does it

In for my arthroscopy on Wednesday. Funny how suddenly the knee feels a lot better.......

City

1 win and 3 losses from the first 4 matches. Not looking good, though the 2-1 win against Leeds was superb. C'mon the Bluebirds....

Arthroscopy date!

Well, I've finally got a date to have my knee looked at - some 4 years after the original referral - good job I'm not sick.....vive la NHS!
Late August is the date. Just a day surgery job, although under a general anaesthetic....

City again

Who'd be a cardiff City supporter? well me for a start. Probably why I'm losing hair at a rate of knots. They avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth, but the division's so tight they actually ended up 16th - looks quite good (unless you were there to see them play!)

On top of that £30m in debt (ouch). Sam Hamman has taken us for a big ride these last few years. Lots of promises but none of his money, but plenty of everyone elses.

So, we're likely to see big changes this summer. Already the Manager's gone - some would say far too late, but I thought it wasn't his fault.

Now they want us to get our season tickets early as the money will help them through the summer. I know season tickets can be pricey, but covering a 30m debt?

Actually they've got us by the short and curlies. Buy now and prices are frozen. Buy in 2 months and they'll be another £100. Bugger.
I've bought mine & my son's. Will we have any players to watch though..........

Still, at least I've the comfort of knowing I'm helping to bail Sam out of his BIG hole.........is that a comfort - isn't he supposed to be helping us.......???????????????

Magnotherapy

On the subject of creaky bones and dodgy treatments, I treated (sic) myself to a magnotherapy bracelet on the premise that I'll give anything a try. The theory is, that the magnetic field oscillates the red blood cells and stops them sticking together, making them more effective - yeah.....

Frankly I'm a cynic. Especially when the person selling it to me (at an extortionate price I might add) said as soon as I put it on "can you feel anything, any sensation?"

"No" I said, "apart from a lighter wallet" and 4 weeks later I still can't. The fact that she repeatedly said ".....and don't forget to drink plenty of water", and has recently rung me to see how I'm getting on and gave the water another push, leads me to wonder if it's the magnets or the water that are supposed to be the help.

In any case, it hasn't helped me yet. "Perservere" she says, "you might only see a diference once you take it off..." - is she on comission? I'm glad I didn't go for the "executive" bracelet!

Personally, I think the best teatment I've had so far is Nurofen fast acting caplets, but I didn't tell her that.

What's you view of "alternative medicine" and stuff like magnotherapy. Does cynicism make it less likely to work?

New disease

Well, my gammy bones (at least in my hands) have finally come out of the closet. Apparently I've got Psoriatic Arthritis (PA). I wasn't even sure I had psoriasis, but there you go. Two fingers on my right hand are like little fat sausages and extremely painful at times, and as you may have read before, my feet are regulalry sore. Doc blood tested me to the hilt, put me on regular anti-inflammatories (I was taking about 8 ibuprofen a day anyway) and referred me to a rheumatologist. They said it's PA and said they'd see me again in 8 weeks. After 8 weeks they said the anti-inflammatories weren't working and I should try a new treatment. Sodium Methotrexate (SM). Hmmmm..... not impressed. SM is basically chemotherapy, and at 45 I don't fancy taking something that might help but runs the risk of making me sick, breathless, have rashes and lose hair (and those are only the headline side effects!!!!) for the rest of my life (coward). Saw my GP again and I've decided to stick with the anti-inflammatories for the moment. If it gets really bad, I'll consider the SM again. I'll let you know how I get on.

New house

The walls were closing in at our old gaff. Or rather the kids made the place look small with their increasing size & paraphenalia. We talked about moving or extending, and in the end we decided the best thing was to uproot and move on. So we did. Luckily, at a time of housing slowdown we found somewhere we liked, vacant and got a cash buyer our end pretty quickly. All over in just over 6 weeks. Now we've got twice as much room (and twice as much cleaning & decorating!).
DIY is not my forte, but so far managed to decorate 3 bedrooms, put together a dining room suite and a bed. Believe me, that's good for me. I should have taken out shares in Focus and B&Q before I started though!

Been away......

So much for blogging.six months since my last post. Still, no-one was reading it anyway.
A lot's happened since then though, and you'll be chuffed to hear that it is my intention to keep you all informed.
Where to start?
New house.
New disease.
Read on..........

Bah Humbug!

Blimey. Only 4 weeks to Christmas. What happened to 2004? Tempus Fugit and all that......anyway......'Tis the season to be jolly. Well it would be nice to be jolly, but frankly why? City are struggling at the bottom of the Championship; work's well - work and ridiculously busy with it; I haven't won the lottery; my bones ache; and much as I'd like to have faith (of any sort), it's getting harder to see past the world's general materialistic view of the festive season - spend money we haven't got on things no-one wants by the New Year, eat (a lot), drink (even more) and be merry (or at least have a stinking hangover on Boxing Day), and then it's all back to normal - well was that it? Bah, Humbug!
Actually it is fun, and I do like it.......

Reading away

Oh, what fun it is to see City win away! But they didn't. Took my son to his first away match as City took on Reading at the Majedski Stadium. City played like they couldn't be bothered and lost 2-1. At least the sun shone, thought the Majedski has to be the coldest staidum I've ever been to.

We had a lovely police escort - all the way home - well from Reading to Newport to be precise. Now there were +/- 30 coaches, and City's following doesn't have the best of reputations (unfairly I'd say), but to have an all lights flashing escort ALL the way home, blocking every junction exit seemed a bit OTT and must have cost an arm and a leg. I didn't see any trouble of any description, so not sure what was going on there.

Family Trees and all that....

There's a new program on the telly at the moment, in which apparently famous people trace their ancestors. This is of course genealogy and many ordinary people have been doing this for years. My Dad has dabbled, and I've taken up the reigns but we've managed so far to get back only to about 1800 (and the info at that end of the scale is pretty brief). It's good fun though. Our children are apparently related to General Gordon on my wife's side. here's loads of resources on the 'net to help, including this one - Genes Reunited which is well worth a go - you never know what you might find.....

City musings

We see City win for the first time at home as they beat Rotherham 2-0 (we missed the vistory against Coventry). It was a poor game - the two sides propping up the "Championship" - and it showed! At least City were the better of two poor sides. Gary O'Neil, England U21 captain on loan from Portsmouth is a class above the rest of the City players. Peter "Magic Hat" Thorne got the two goals that lifted us out of the relegation places. Verdict - a must win game that we di, but must do better. C'mon City!

Himalaya

How did I come to end up as a middle manager behind a desk? Not sure - it's a long and convoluted story. What I'd really like to have done in life is be an explorer, and adventurer in the Michael Palin mould. His treks (Pole to Pole, Sahara et al) are fascinating, and take you places that you probably didn't even know existed - (yes, yes I know the Poles exist) - and if you did, probably would never get to see. His latest, Himalaya, had a brilliant opening programme that made me want to up sticks and be there right then (though my gammy bones might complain!) Of course there are a couple of problems. 1) I'm not an ex-Monty Python start in league with the BBC (I don't suppose they think "Here's a great wheeze, I'll bet that Simon Hiscocks is up for this..) and 2) you don't see ads in the paper saying "Explorer wanted". Still, I can always watch the programmes, read the books and pretend I was there. Still like to see more of the world though...

What's the fun in DIY?

I hate DIY. I'd love to love it, it's just that I'm not very good at it. Never a very practical person, I'm just not cut out for gutting a house and rebuilding it - or even painting or hanging wallpaper. I can attempt it of course, but therein lies the problem. The finished product looks like I've "attempted" it. I've got stories of flat pack wardrobes that fall to pieces half way through building, screws through central heating pipes and more. I take the lead from my elder brother Terry, who's a dab hand at anything requiring tools, patience and a degree of skill but who's motto is "Never use a screw where a nail will do"!
Now though, I'm in the middle of redecorating my son's room and laying a new carpet in my daughter's room. Why? "Call a man in to do it" said my good lady. First, can you find one you can trust that's not a cowboy? Possible. Is he free and able to do it? Er, not until next February/March mate, I'm rather busy...." Bugger. And then there's the dining room, kitchen and stairs/hall to do as well.....that's my autumn gone!

City musings

Big game tomorrow. Leeds at home. The last time we played Leeds..ah remember? FA Cup City ran out 2-1 winners with "that" goal by Scott Young. Leeds were top of the Premiership that day and we were in Div. 2. Now we're both in the "Championship" and whilst Leeds aren't the team they used to be, they're above us and we're in desperate need of a win. I'll be there with James........."C'mon City!"

Creaking Bones

Getting old is a perception. It happens to all of us, yet some hack it far better than others. Take me. I'm 45 in a month and there are days when I feel 85 going on 90. It's my bones you see - they're knackered. Im waiting for an arthroscopy on my knee (that's keyhole surgery to the uninitiated) where they'll peek in and tell me the knee's buggered. I know that already because of the pain and swelling, - but they'll tell me just how bad! Then there's my feet. Apparently, though not convincingly related to my knee is virtually constant foot ache/pain. It's bad enough that I have to take regular painkillers and I've tried different types of "miracle cure" insoles (all to no avail). Walking down the stairs in the morning is an art form in itself. Personally I reckon it's arthritis, inherited from my dear old Mum [ see previous post] (are you listening Mum?!). I eventually gave in and went to the quack's today. He showed a certain degree of indifference to my plight and signed me up for enough blood tests that I'm going to have to give an armful on Monday. I'll let you know how I get on......