Oh dear, that didn't go to plan did it?

Croatia played with passion, with pace and intelligence. They were worthy winners. England didn't play with any of those things and deservedly lost. I won't dwell on it, but Lampard was bloody awful - how he gets a game in an England shirt is beyond me. Club football he is good (ish - he still plays for Chelsea remember!), international level he has not played a good game in ages. Gerrard was ineffective, although I can't help but feel that's because he didn't get the ball enough going forward. I feel sorry for Carson - the pitch and conditions were awful to play in such a big game and I hope he doesn't let it get to him.

You could see the pressure the players were under on their players faces, particularly Gerrard and Lampard, and it showed with the performance on the pitch. The press has changed in recent years on how much influence they have over football, and wider public figures lives, and it's not for the good. It's to sell more papers, and as such McLaren will be sacked today. Who will replace him? Nobody with an ounce of sense, that's for sure. So expect to see Sam Allardyce in place soon.

The positives from an England view was the giraffes finish for the second goal. A perfect cross from brand beckham, and Crouchs first touch was superb, the finish even better. It reminded me of a debate my mates and I have every time we get together - what's the best touch/pass in this move? The long ball from De Boer was inch perfect, the first touch makes the chance, the second makes the space, and the finish is sublime.



Also, one more thing - Scotland finished on 24 points in a much harder group to Englands 23 ;-)

Wembley madness

Why spend £780M on a stadium designed to make sure the pitch is in good condition, and then build a retractable roof on it as well to keep it dry, and then not use it? Wembley is a technical masterpiece for it's design, and as a venue it's superb with little queuing for anything, easy to get in and out of, great view all around the stadium of the pitch. But was it really needed?

Would the Stade De France have done the job? It's certainly big enough, was a lot cheaper to build, and if they were to do it again I'm sure they would lose the running track to get a better atmosphere. Millenium Stadium - looks like a dog, but what an atmosphere. Shame the pitch suffers so badly. However, if you really want to see a brilliant covered stadium, there is only one - and it's German.

The Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen is the home ground of Shalke. It has a retractable pitch, so it can sun itself when not in use, retractable roof, a moveable video cube and one of the stands move. It seats 60,000+, but there would be no reason why you couldn't make it bigger. Why people start again with design when something as brilliant as this exists, I'll never know. And having been to both it and Wembley - I'd rather watch football in Gelsenkirchen. The atmosphere is just unbelievable, the view perfect and did I mention the atmosphere? Noise like you've never heard from a crowd (well, maybe Hampdem on Saturday, but as I wasn't there I can't really comment!)

See for yourself. The pitch is out the front in this one.




The video cube can be moved if needed, or left where it is even with the roof open.



http://www.arena-auf-schalke.de/portrait_arena_en.php

Part of my house has a flat roof on it. This was replaced last year as it was leaking. However, I'm now convinced it leaked less than the new one. Everytime we get prolonged rain, it comes in through the roof in the study. Now, this is where all the computer gear is, so it always makes me nervous!

Luckily, I was at home yesterday to catch the water, and so the roofer comes out today to fix it. Only good thing about it is that I get another night at home.

Just to compound my week, England will qualify by fluke of an Israel result against Russia. So a few thoughts on England if I may...

The campaign has been awful, though you could see it coming as England have underperformed with the best set of players they have had in years. The World Cup was poor, and as Sven has shown he's not a bad coach, where does the fault lie? Well, yes, the coaches need to take some blame, but not all of it and if there is a witch hunt for Mclaren then that's a huge shame. He was never the right man for the job (but with the Scolari situation in Portugal, he wasn't either!) but if England don't qualify for the championships don't sack the coach. It's a reaction to please the fans and the press. And just who would take over? You don't see world class managers running for the job so it'll be Sam Allardyce, who has no big European experience.

So the players - well Rooney hadn't scored for years, Owen was permanently injured, and David James and Paul Robinson are flying (not) but the spine of the team is one any manager would like. Rio, Terry, Lampard, Gerrard, Hargreaves (well, most managers would like him!) plus one of the worlds best (as well as most hated) left backs in Cashley Cole. Huge experience in Gary N at right back, and then up front there are world class players in Rooney and Owen. It's the right players, but they just don't gel and play like a team. And that comes back to the coach.

The Premiership has to be part of this - the top players play two games every week, no wonder they are knackered as they run at least 10km in each game. So ease up the games and players can perform better for the national team.

I hope England qualify, if only to keep the press amused next summer. They don't particularly deserve it, but that's life. I also don't think they would have got out of our group if they had been in it, but at least the dark days of 4th level seeds are gone for us now we are ranked 13 in the world (oh yes, England are only 11th) so we'll be the second pot for World Cup qualifiers. Combined with a squad who are predominantly under 25, things are looking rosy for the Scotland squad. If I was an English fan, I don't think I'd be looking forward quite so much...

The tension builds....

Can Scotland qualify for the Euro's by beating the world champions? It's classic Scotland though. This could all have been sorted out in the last round of games when we failed to beat Georgia on their patch, leaving us the hard one.

Scotland believes though. And with good reason - we've beaten France twice, and the Ukraine, and were unlucky to lose 2-0 in Italy. It's a big difference to the World Cup qualifiers when you couldn't give tickets away. In fact, I went with my Dad and brother to watch a rubbish game in what was Berti's last game in charge. Now, they could have sold Hampdem out twice.

Do I believe we'll win? Well I want to, and I think we'll be well up for it - but isn't it classic Scotland to get this far and fail? For once though, I do believe...

Now, where did I put that Runrig CD?

Nightmare. First Aberdeen get beat by Lokomotiv, and then we get robbed by the Gorgie lot. Not a good week to be an Aberdeen supporter.

To cheer myself up, here's a list of names from the 5-a-side leagues in Glasgow. We used to play in Aberdeen while I was at Uni under the name "Big Aye", which then became the "Mighty Big Aye" on winning the league for the 3rd time ;-). I think I'll work through some of these on my fantasy football team (doing well, after an inspired move saw me transfer Arteta for Cahill, who then scored a great overhead kick against Chelsea!)

Steaua Needarest
Dyslexia Untied
Fatzio
Red Star Bellend
Sporting Lesbian
Grass Smokers Zurich
Hajduk Spliff
LSD Eindhoven
Albion Hungovers
Real Sosobad
Shackthar Senseless
Hardly Athletic
St. Mirnoff
Real Ale Madrid
Fred West Ham
Unreal Madrid
Rapid Viagra
Barearselona
Bayern Bru
Athletico Madras
Deportivo Lack a Talent
Bayer Neverlusen
Borussia Nosobad
Sparka Fag
Graham Rix U16's
Big Bertha Berlin
Inter Masister
Substandard Liege
Torpedo Belgrano
Bayer Leverarchfile
FC Copenbadly
Sporting Abeergut
Dinamo Mince
Red Stripe Belgrade
Fake Madrid
Unathletic Madrid
Outer Milan

Recently, squash has been put on the back burner while badminton comes to the fore. I used to play a lot when I was a kid, every week in fact, and loved it and I've found that years later I still really enjoy it. Last night was the first time I'd played doubles since I was about 12 and what a game it was! Fast, furious, light hearted - everything you want in the game. I suspect I shouldn't have stopped playing when I was young, although the session we went to clashed with hockey training so it fell by the wayside.

Big night tonight, Aberdeen play Lokomotive Moscow in the UEFA cup. Hopefully at least a draw, but we really need a win. Aberdeen's team are put together on a shoestring and Moscow have spent millions of pounds on their team - stranger things have happened...

One interesting thing about the game though - Aberdeen took over 1500 fans to Athens to play Panathinaikos. They took a similar number to the Ukraine when we played Dnipro, and it's looking like 3000 fans to Madrid when we play Athletico. Lokomotiv have asked for 6 tickets for the game in Aberdeen tonight. That means the Loko bench will have more support than fans in the stadium! And with a sell out on the cards, that's 20,000 Aberdeen fans supporting a team playing some of the best football they've played in years.

Come on you reds!!!!

Ah, what bliss the weekend was.

For the first time since September, I woke up in my own bed on Sunday morning. This has been the result of two weddings and a friends party, so it was a huge relief. To celebrate, breakfast was cooked while watching the excellent "Hot Fuzz". If you can imagine any police film from the 90's, this parodies the lot of them. Genius.

Saturday night was spent with friends in Weybridge to celebrate a friends birthday. So drinks were had on the house before reliving our youth by drinking bottles of beer in the street as walked to the curry house. As we walked along the street of very expensive houses (1M+), we pondered what we looked like - 12 of our number are well educated and with good jobs, one of whom is a solicitor, all in our late 20s, early 30s and all drinking in the street. Caused some amusement amongst our group :-)

An excellent curry was had, back to the house and a game of Articulate was played. I'm not very good at games like this, but got lucky with my first set of questions as they were all easy to describe :-) I could hardly pronounce any of the second lot!

So, long time in writing, but I thought I'd pop up a few funnies from the week.

Stadium announcement of the week?

A message for the owner of car registration -----. Your windows are wide open in the car park. It's a Rover, so it won't get stolen, but you had better return to it.

heard at Plymouth Argyle v Coventry

This was heard on Irish TV just before the Rugby World Cup final. Never a truer word said :-)

And here we go, Jonny Wilkinson versus South Africa.

Finally, this really made me laugh. Hampshire police new bus advert. You'd think they would have checked where the exhaust was though...

It seems one MP is standing up against the governments strategy of using MS products

LINK

It has to be said that after a number of years in various projects I would agree that there can be a bias towards it, however it is not exclusive. Some areas are more prone towards it than others, as you would expect to find in any company.

The problem becomes a cost one - when the company (as this could be any company, not just government) signs up to get all MS licenses for free or vastly reduced cost, there is the desire to use it even if it's not the ideal fit. In some cases it will do the job, in others it won't, but will be made to do it and people left to make do. No wonder people dislike IT so much with that attitude about.

There is not one software vendor in the world who makes the best software in every area. So why sign up for an agreement with one where you are predisposed to use them?

Makes no sense to me...

What would the good people of Tewkesbury have done for this earlier this year?

Speed

So, my broadband has been playing up today. It's got slower all day and then my PC blue screened when I tried to reboot it. Nightmare.

So I call the wonders that is our helpdesk. They directed me a broadband speed test website. It crashed and wouldn't load the first time I tried it as the speed was so slow. I left it as I had to collect a package in town, and said I'll do it when I get back. As if by magic, I reload the site and it's back to normal speed. Although, turns out that speed it rubbish...

When we eventually move house, I'll be ditching the work broadband and getting something else in where I control the speed - this is useless.

Knackered

10 finished a few hours ago.

Bit sore now, but at the time I felt I could have gone round again. It's a very pleasant route, but very rough in places and also a bit narrow which means you end up slowing down as some daft woman who thinks she is a sub 45 runner is actually an unfit duffer who's walking it. This is annoying, but a fact of life with these charity runs. The fact that they've entered the run is to be congratulated though and nobody is really that bothered but when your in your stride it's a bit off putting. It's very sad going round reading the notes people have on their backs for the reason they are running. Uncles, Aunts, Mum's, Dad's, or just photos of loved ones. It's an emotional thing but makes you realise the importance of helping out with money to fund the research into cancer. At the end of the day, you don't know who it's going affect, although (in my view) it should be funded by the government but there you go. I lost a very dear friend last year to cancer and couldn't stop thinking of the big guy as I ran round. He found out he had it in December, and was gone by February. Makes you think doesn't it...

Keep on running...

10K starts in two hours. Not at all nervous.

Good win for Lewis this morning in awful weather conditions! I wouldn't fancy driving my road car in that, never mind a 700bhp F1 car - true skill and bravery.

Yesterday saw various tasks completed, none of which are particularly interesting but all necessary. Ended with the rugby, watching a Scotland team inch past Italy - they really are a dirty cheating side who deserve to get beaten every time they play. It's not in keeping with why I love watching rugby, but I guess typical of certain natures - if you can't out-skill the opposition, cheat. And cheats never prosper ;-)

Petrol prices

Vote with this lot to show your displeasure about a proposed £2.35 tax hike on petrol that is due to come in next week - whish would push unleaded up to over £1 a litre.

I did some sums a while ago and now fill up in London as the petrol is cheaper than in Worcester where I spend a lot of time. It's 3p cheaper a litre. I usually fill up with 55litres. So on one tank of fuel that's £1.65 more for the same product. Over the course of a year, that's over £85!!! So, on a similar basis, this would cost me an extra £122.2 a year. On fuel that already has 80p tax on 95p per litre. Stuff that...

http://www.petrolprices.com/blog/we-cant-take-another-p-now-82.html

A collegue highlighted to me the story the other day of Sisyphus. If your not aware of who or what he's done, he was the Greek hing who was punished for tricking and deceiving the gods (amongst others) and was made to push a large boulder up a hill for eternity. However, this was an interesting summary of the story:

It is the total lack of value of what Sisyphus has to work so hard to achieve that makes his punishment so horrific. It is not because his labor is merely arduous and eternal, but because it is arduous and eternally pointless, that he must suffer from doing it. One cannot imagine him happy unless one foolishly imagines him, or imagines him foolish. As a metaphor for part of the human condition and the plight of some people -- even those often considered most successful because we mistakenly think change is progress or that there are no hollow victories -- the myth of Sisyphus is a sad commentary. The work of far too many people has been, and continues to be, pushing a rock up a hill merely to change its location.

Sounds like everybody's job at some time or another doesn't it...

Ah the joys. The team I work with are a bit wiped out this morning. This may be something to do with the leaving do for one of our team last night. He was tipsy before even got to the restaurant, which is probably the fault of our Spur 0, meeting room 1 staff who supplied him with an Apple Schnapps on the house as he was leaving.

Needless to say, a good curry was had a big turn out (there were 1about 16 of us) before retreating to a local bar that is a specialist in whisky where we proceded to try and taste all 100 of them before closing (which was a challenge, as it gave us 15 minutes...)

Prior to this, I'd done a 7.2km run (according to the gmap-pedometer site) in 45 minutes, which included a 5 minute stretch, so the time aspect to this weekends run is looking good. I could have carried on and done a full 10 last night but was running a bit behind time as I was supposed to be in the bar! Such is life.

All in all, I can't wait to get home today and some kip!

Thought I'd share some interesting web sites with you.

This is a good one for walkers and runners - a Google map mashup that let's you click a route onto the map and it calculates how far the distance is. Very useful, especially with a 10K run on the horizon it let's you accurately chart your training miles.
Pedometer

The next one is a bit funny - it's built into Google Earth and is a flight sim.
Flight sim
I was useless and kept crashing...

I'm never having kids - one weekend with the future niece and nephew have told me that! OK, I know I will, but seriously they are hard work! Good fun though, and an excuse to go and see an exhibition on Wallace and Gromit. Well executed and interesting, with lots of models and background. The best bit about it all though is the background adverts and the like.

Rubbish rugby yesterday, to be expected though as we put out a B side, to give them a full week to prepare for Italy. It just shows how Italy have come on, they used to be the whipping boys in the 6 nations and now we take a week to make sure we win (and even then it's not assured!) Roll on Saturday night for the big game! I love these big tournaments, live sport on a Saturday night - you can't beat it.

Football wasn't so great over the weekend. A beating by Rangers was expected, if not one to be enjoyed, Liverpool need to get hold of Rafa and leave Torres on the field and not the bench. What's the point in spending all that money and not playing him? Arsenal - who'd have seen that one coming - they are awesome again! Granted, it was against Derby who are hardly great, but with some easier games in the next few weeks for them they will still be top of the table for a few weeks yet. My revamped fantasy team are coming good, with the highest points tally in our league this week (mainly thanks to Cesc) but with the midfield all contributing well it makes a big difference. Time to swap out Martins though - he's not getting near a game with Newcastle so might swap him out for Adebayor or Anelka, who are both starting and getting goals (you get points for time on the field).

Chelski - oh how I laugh. Avrum Grant will win you nothing. Marco Van Basten is not the man for you - he's his own man and would end up arguing with Roman. So until Roman does his UEFA pro badge, you'll get nobody managers or those with aspirations and no credentials.

Save the cheerleader, sav ethe world!

What can I say - I'm rubbish.

So what news you ask? Well, we might be selling our flat to a Belgium woman, who lives in Sweden, who's buying it for her son, who studies in London. Confused? I am...

Holiday was good, much needed week in the sun. I loved that area of Andalucia, such a nice pace of life. Coming back to London was depressing - too many people, going too fast through life, and with too little respect for each other. Oh, and here's something you may not have read - as of Monday if you get done for speeding and don't say who the driver was, the owner of the car will get double points. Just like that. That's the way to solve speeding people speeding. This country is run by bloody morons who think a yellow box will replace policemen.

This has all contributed to a post holiday "blue phase" - which I think is not helped by a build up of trying to do wedding stuff, move house, work and get organised for best man duties at weddings. Anyway, this in turn was not helped by my manager at work who I had a meeting with yesterday. Needless to say I was "pure raging" yesterday afterwards, so after a good meeting with a wedding florist at night (nothing like driving in London at night - much fewer cars!) I settled back to watch Heroes with a large Scapa. I'll need to write a whisky post sometime...And Heroes! Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!

Anyway, this weekend I'll be entertaining the future niece and nephew (although I've been Uncle all their lives, as the little one was only 4 months when I met her for the first time) at a Wallace and Gromit exhibition. This is either going to go well or badly :-)

Had to put the heating on last night for the first time this year - it's got so cold in London suddenly. So, I'm off to take the missus out for the night to cheer us up :-)