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Sunday February 7th, 2010 @ 23:05The Group of Death
Sunday February 7th, 2010 @ 16:29Never mind the infamous Group of Death for Euro 2012, I think England have found themselves in the Group of Definitely Will Qualify.
GROUP G: Montenegro,WALES, Bulgaria, Switzerland, ENGLAND
The Edge of Darkness
Saturday February 6th, 2010 @ 23:08Went to see The Edge of Darkness last night.
Good film and an interesting plot.
Ray Winstone – aka the bloke off the Bet 365 TV ads. Went to see it because he was in it. He’s better in Sexy Beast.
Mel Gibson – not his usual self. Stayed off the booze and didn’t blame the Jews for his character’s daughter’s death.
Done it!
Saturday February 6th, 2010 @ 12:57Managed to trick Blogger into allowing Wordpress to import my blogs 
Just about done
Saturday February 6th, 2010 @ 12:33You will see that the layout of the site has changed yet again. This is not down to me being unhappy with the previous design, nor wanting a change of look. This renovation was forced upon me.
Since 2006, I have been using the Blogger tool to update my website. However, this week I learnt the service provided to FTP customers would stop next month. I am one of these customers. The advantage of using FTP to maintain your site is that you have far greater control on what goes on it.
Blogger clearly do not like this and prefers to dictate what should go on the personal websites of their customers. To be fair, they make no money from users like myself (in fact I probably cost them!), so while disappointed with the decision, I can hardly blame them for it.
Instead of remaining with Blogger and allowing them to take control of my website, I took the initiative to install WordPress. Like Blogger, WordPress is a blogging tool. The difference is you are not dependent upon another website to update your own. WordPress is installed on your site’s servers, therefore allowing scope for greater customisation.
I am still getting to grips with WordPress, so expect a few minor tweaks to the site across the next few weeks; although I am generally happy with the layout now.
All the old blogs in the old layout can be accessed via the link in the sidebar. Unfortunately, I was unable to import them into this new site.
Blame Blogger
Wednesday February 3rd, 2010 @ 22:35Due to Blogger.com being total morons, I have been forced to move to WordPress. My previous blogs can be accessed via the sidebar.
Please be patient while I work on this sites template before normal blogging resumes.
Thank you
A Saturday in St. Albans
Sunday January 31st, 2010 @ 19:14Any football fan that travels to away games will have their favourite trips and those they wish they could avoid. My journey to Thurrock, a fortnight ago, was the latter. This weekend, however, was my best away game of the season – a trip to the beautiful city of St. Albans.
St. Albans play at Clarence Park – a picturesque football ground situated in the centre of the town’s park. The stadium is deep in football history, playing host to various football teams in the past, including Enfield and the Arsenal Reserves. The Arsenal Ladies team still use the ground for some of their European matches. Along with Bath City’s Twerton Park and Hayes Lane, home of Bromley FC, Clarence Park is one of the few remaining ‘traditional’ football grounds in a country of ugly, sterile, ‘flat-packed’ stadia.
Bath had experienced snow on the Friday night. Nothing as severe as the weather from earlier in the month, which saw the country ground to a halt, but enough to see any football game plunged into doubt. As the coach made the long trip along the M25 through the snow-covered countryside, there was concern amongst travelling supporters that our efforts would be pointless and the game would be postponed.
When we arrived at St. Albans, we were greeted to a winter’s scene fitting for a Christmas card. Our worries were relieved though when we entered the ground to see a January sun thawing the ice, with any snow in the stadium’s shade being cleared by some loyal club ground staff and fans. It was clear the game would be played.
Despite the sunshine and the pitch confirmed as playable, it was still a bitterly cold afternoon. Luckily, this did not affect the Bath City supporters, who were in full-voice, even before kick off. The players had obviously been drinking the same water as the fans and were clearly full of enthusiasm, threatening the St. Albans defence within seconds of the game’s start. Despite a heroic performance from the home team’s goalkeeper, the deadlock was broken within five minutes – Chris Holland, grabbing the game’s opening goal.
City continued their pressure on a poor, demoralised St. Albans side, much to the delight of the travelling fans and anguish of home supporters. Still, the early 1-0 score line was unchanged at the half time interval, installing worry in some of the pessimistic Bath City followers, who have all too often seen their team fail to win due to missed chances.
The second half performance was very similar to that of the first 45 minutes. City dominated, while St. Albans all but rolled over and had their bellies tickled. As any football supporter, especially a Bath City one, will tell you, a 1-0 lead is never enough. Therefore, when Kaid Mohammed’s cross was met by in-form Lewis Hogg, there were jubilant celebrations.
We had won 2-0. It could have been 8-0. Still, the long journey back was enjoyable due to the fantastic performance and victory. I also had more reasons to smile as Leeds beat Colchester 2-0, getting back to winning ways once more.
An evening at Longwell Green
Friday January 29th, 2010 @ 23:21Nandos was good. Nothing of interest at the cinema, so it was an early trip home (via Asda to pick up ice cream)
It seems film directors are happy to let James Cameron rake in all the cash for Avatar during 2010 and not bother to make any new movies themselves.
A massive dump
Monday January 25th, 2010 @ 22:48It is always disconcerting when my precious laptop behaves strangely. Considering it is running Windows Vista, it works surprisingly well and without any real problems. However, this evening, while streaming football and surfing the internet, my electronic baby decided to throw a tantrum, display the infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ and start a ‘Physical memory dump’
I am not sure why the laptop decided to act in much a petulant manner. Maybe it was because the football match I was watching involved Leyton Orient winning. The fact they were playing Charlton pleased me (as a Leeds supporter), but maybe my darling computer is a fan of ‘The Addicks’ and was saddened by the game.
Whatever the reason, it seems to be behaving itself now. Memory errors can be such a frustrating problem to diagnose and fix. Sometimes it is easier just to throw your laptop at the wall, cover it in lighter fluid and light a match… That was a warning to my laptop, on which I am typing this blog.
Fifa 10 – bugged!
Sunday January 24th, 2010 @ 23:29As regular readers of my blog will know, I am a big fan of the Fifa video game series – the latest addition being Fifa 10. Until today, I have found the game very enjoyable and played 7 whole seasons with Leeds United, taking them from League One (where they reside in real life) to the top of The Premiership.
Along with picking up such honours as The Premier League, Champions League, FA and League Cup, I also turned Leeds into a ‘5 star’ team – basically, one of the strongest clubs in the virtual world of Fifa 10.
Having achieved so much, I thought it was time to move on and do what Alex Ferguson should have done years ago and ‘quit while you’re ahead’. Lots of new clubs wanted my services, all offering massive transfer kittys to which I can invest on new players. With a heavy heart, I decided to leave the European Champions, Leeds United, and take up the managerial role at Real Madrid.
Before signing on the dotted line (or rather pressing the ‘X’ button on my PS3 controller) ‘Real’ promised £200million to spend on players. Once I agreed terms and the game had loaded, I was shocked to see Real were actually £2.5 BILLION in debt and running at a weekly loss of £700k. If I wanted to manage a club with debts resembling that of a high street bank, I would have joined Manchester United.
Anyone who has played Fifa in Manager Mode will know, part of the game requires you to invest finances in different areas – whether it is on new players or staff upgrades. With not a penny to spend, I was stuck. After a poor start to the season, I gave up; simulating every game until I was eventually sacked by the financially crippled Real Madrid board, who were demanding I won La Liga, The Copa Del Rey and Champions League, with a team of donkeys.
I was furious. A quick search on Google revealed this is a known bug in a game. A KNOWN bug that the Fifa’s manufacturers, EA, have done nothing about.
I have had to quit the whole manager mode. Hours (if not days and weeks) of work had gone into my campaign, only for my efforts to be ended by a lazy programming error caused by some useless game designer.
Not impressed!
