Spanish shame Watched the England game last night. Dreadful performance on the pitch but was most angered by what happened off it. I've been to well over a hundred Premiership matches and several matches whilst living in Germany and although I have heard racist comments, I've never witnessed anything on the scale of the numbers of Spanish fans that must have been involved last night to produce chants at that volume. Hopefully UEFA and FIFA will step in and do something rather than just pay lip service to all the complaints that will be heading their way. It doesn't help when the Spanish coach is allowed to get away with racist comments, the like of which saw Big Ron promptly handed a P45 from ITV. I just hope that plenty of IOC officials were watching last night or read the reports as Madrid were trying to use the game as part of their campaign to host the 2012 Olympics. Surely they won't vote to send their athletes to a place where they'll be subjected to abuse purely because of the colour of their skin?

18.11.04 13:30 Permalink / 2 Comments / comment

Band Aid 20 Heard this on Radio 1 earlier. Wasn't too sure early on but by the end I'd decided that it rocks. Will be buying a copy next time I leave the house and suggest you do the same.

16.11.04 11:36 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

Hermit, The Log Apologies for the bad pun but just couldn't resist it. Am now off work for 10 days for revision and exam leave. Had a half day today and then did some studying and went shopping. Possibly the last time I'll leave the house for over a week. As Roy Castle once said, dedication's what you need. And what I'm lacking, along with motivation, concentration and probably several other -tions. This side of my blog seems to be getting neglected since I moved house. Probably due to me losing half an hour of my evening due to the joyous commute between Aldershot and Ash. Having had a quick glimpse at the new timetables they're introducing next month it looks like I'll be losing another 10 minutes due to waiting longer for a train and I'll have to set off 20 minutes earlier to get to work on time. Does allow me time for a little light reading each day. Nabbed a few books off my Dad when the olds came to visit a few weeks ago as I'd finally finished the 2 Michael Moore books and Empire by Niall Ferguson that I'd bought to read on my hols. Off to watch Monkey Dust now. Will no doubt blog again as soon as the revision starts to take its toll or maybe it'll be another month

15.11.04 22:54 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

Playing catch up Had just written a massive essay on the last 5 weeks of my life but then Outlook decided to commandeer the Explorer window to show another web site so it's all gone. Very brief summary Laid floor, moved house. Had housewarming. Only 1 spillage and 1 breakage. House still standing so all in all a good result. Copious amounts of booze left over but more than enough evidence of liver abuse. Dishwasher and washing machine arrived. Leak. Still leak. Finally fixed leak. Cycled to work twice. Barsteward hills on the way there + Very unfit = Not good. Same job for a couple more weeks. Basically swapping roles with another girl at work. Should be watching Goodbye Lenin on DVD tonight. Missus opted for House Doctor instead. No accounting for taste. Should be going to the cinema tomorrow then afternoon of watching football on Sunday. Should be doing some studying really Have Wednesday off to study next week. Will actually have to spend it studying as serious lack of motivation recently with the holiday and moving and generally finding better things to do than read about organistational culture and stuff.

15.10.04 22:51 Permalink / 3 Comments / comment

Back home The holiday was very enjoyable despite the fact that I came back with virtually no colour to show for the glorious weather I'd sat through. Was overly cautious for the first part of the week but then got to the stage where I was pleading with the sun to burn me. Didn't work though but at least there's no peeling going on. Met 2 of the new intake of graduates on Tuesday. Quite scary that I've been doing my job for 11 months now. Have been preparing the front room of the new house ready for laying laminate flooring. Had great fun ripping up all the carpet grips even if I did manage to slice the palm of my hand open on the crowbar. Ordered all the kitchen appliances from Argos online on Wednesday. Got a phone call yesterday to arrange delivery. They said they could do next Wednesday. I said that it had to be a Monday as the missus is off work then. Finally sorted it for a fortnight's time. Said that the morning was probably best so the missus didn't have to wait in all day. Just as I get off the phone the missus gets back from work and tells me she has a dentist appointment that day and also has to go into work briefly to sort some stuff out. Ring Argos again. Explain they had just rung me but I needed to change it slightly. Got told it was booked for delivery next Wednesday. "But I just changed that because Wednesday's no good for us" "Well it's booked for that day now so we can't change it" Tried to be polite but firm "But you colleague just changed it about 10 minutes ago" "Oh, well, I'll have to send a note to the delivery people but it's at their discretion whether they change it. Thank you for ringing Argos Direct. Good bye" Planning to ring again early next week to see what they've done with it. Why bother ringing people to arrange a delivery date if you're just going to deliver it whenever you feel like it anyway? Just had my usual Saturday morning fix of SoccerAM and I'll be off to the house this afternoon to hopefully get most of the flooring done. Football tomorrow and got to go and buy a bike for getting to work once I move. This is likely to be the death of me due to my abstinence from exercise for the last year or so. But it's cheaper than running a car or faffing around getting trains and minibuses. My boss is off on her hols for the next 2 weeks so I'm holding the fort. Hoping for a relatively tranquil fortnight but I've been left with a list of tasks and been told to expect random queries at some point.

11.9.04 13:38 Permalink / 2 Comments / comment

Holiday - Monday Had to check out by 11 but our flight wasn't until 20 past 9 so had plenty of time to kill. Managed to leave our luggage at the hotel and set off to loo around Vittoriosa, one of the old cities east of Valletta. Plenty of confusion over where to get the bus from once we got to Valletta due to the complete lack of logic and decent signs at the chaotic roundabout that serves as the Valletta bus terminus. Finally piled on to a bus and marvelled at the bus drivers ability to get down ridiculously narrow roads with cars parked both sides. One van's wing mirror did get squished but that was down to poor parking rather than poor driving. Again we gambled on which stop to get off at and again it paid off. Walked down to the Inquisitors Palace - most expensive place we visited the whole time at £5 each but worth the entrance fee. A large exhibition of torture instruments and techniques took up most of the time we were there but you could also visit the cells and the other rooms related to the Inquisition. Then walked down to the harbour and visited the Maritime museum which had loads of stuff about the Royal Navy's time in Malta, situated as it is in the old Navy bakery. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost time for our taxi to turn up. Got to the airport about 6 so had to wait for ages before the check-in desk opened. Spent most of the time waiting trying to work out where peope where flying to - fairly easy as there weren't that many options. Incredibly easy to spot the Brits turning up though. One family had shocking pink suitcases. Not sure whether the ease of spotting them on the baggage carousel would outweigh the general shame of walking round with these monstrosities. Finally checked in and tried to find somewhere to eat. Went into a diner and got told it was full despite most of the tables being empty. Their loss. Eventually just went through security and had to settle for crappy overpriced baguettes. Stocked up on sweets to take into work and chocolate for us and waited for the flight home. Got back to Aldershot about half past 2 so was understandably tired when I went into work Tuesday but wasn't going to waste another day's holiday for the sake of a couple of hours extra kip.

11.9.04 13:21 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

Holiday - Sunday Had saved this day for a trip to Gozo, a neighbouring island. Got the bus across the island again and just missed the ferry. Fortunately they left every 45 minutes so didn't have too long to wait for the next one. As soon as we walked off the ferry we got mobbed by taxi drivers offering to take us to the capital Victoria for a fiver. The fact that the bus that was sitting there waiting only costs 25p each didn't seem to dampen their enthusiasm and they just lied about the quality of the bus service instead. "The bus takes an hour". Ok, mate, whatever - the whole island is only 14 km across and Victoria is only about 5 or 6 km from the ferry port. Hardly took a rocket scientist to detect more than the merest whiff of bovine faeces. Finally one of them came up with a new approach. Offered to take us on a tour if the island. Decided to go for it as it would make it a damn sight easier to get to some of the outlying sights. The taxi driver, Gregory, was a wealth of Gozitan information. Did you know that Gozo exports 29,000 litres of milk to Malta every day? Again Gregory was quite happy to wait while we got out and wandered around places. First stop was to visit the Ggantija temples from 3600B.C. Then we headed up to the northern coast to vist the Calypso cave, assumed to be the cave mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. Descended the rather treacherous steps and got shown around the cave by a rather strange man by the name of George who seemed to make an unofficial living by dishing out candles and pointing at bits of the cave with his walking stick while trying to convince you that certain bits of rock look like things. Strange but amusing all the same. From there it was on to Marsalforn Bay for an ice cream before being dropped off in Victoria. Took a walk up to the citadel. Bought a ticket which got us entrance to all the museums in the citadel, Went round the old prisons, the archaeology and folklore museums and walked round the city walls before succumbing to the heat and going back down to the city for a drink before getting the bus back to the harbour. The bus took less than ten minutes so my earlier suspicions were confirmed. Got the ferry back and jumped on the bus back to St Julian's. It was while we were on the bus that we saw one of the best examples of Maltese driving. As the bus approached a roundabout, the car behind decided to try and overtake regardless of the car exiting the roundabout and another car pulling out of a side road. Ended with a big screech of brakes, a nice set of skid marks and all 3 cars bonnet to bonnet but somehow no contact was made. Decided to go for an authentic Maltese meal so we walked round to St Julian's Bay. Managed to get the last free table at a roof terrace restaurant. The missus went for bragioli which is sort of stuffed beef mince. I opted for Coniglio Alla Maltese - which is (animal lovers look away now) rabbit in a red wine sauce. Had a chocolate orange mousse for pud. Pricier than the other meals we'd had but well worth it.

11.9.04 12:41 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

 [next page]